A Smattering of Manga Release Dates ...

[chomiji]

Some of these are already out, but I don't have 'em yet:

Hoshin Engi 8, Aug. 5
Mushishi 5, Aug. 26
Samurai Deeper Kyo 30, Sept. 9
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 7, Sept. 10
Hikaru no Go 13, Oct. 7
Hoshin Engi 9, Oct. 7
Wild Adapter 6, Nov. 4
Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden 9 7, Nov. 4 (note corrected vol. no.)
Ouran High School Host Club 11, Nov. 4
Fruits Basket 21, Nov. 11
Bleach 24 25, Dec. 2 (note corrected vol. no.)
Blade of the Immortal 20, Dec. 15

To my dismay, the next xxxHolic (13) isn't due 'til the end of March 2009! And there is no date for Saiyuki Reload 9, and no sign that Shaman Warrior will ever continue ... .

I have some medical appointments tomorrow. Maybe with luck, I'll be able to slip in a visit to a bookstore.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Last I heard new volumes of Shaman Warrior were going to come out next year.

I pre-ordered SDK 30 from RightStuf but there's no sign of it shipping anytime soon. Woe!

[chomiji]

Hmmm ... 's matter of fact, this post says Shaman Warrior will finish in 2009, with vol. 9. Woes! I actually like manga series that go on ... it gives me little things to anticipate all the time.

And for that matter, I can't see how all this messy business with Yaki and the true back-story of her parent(s) is going to resolve in only 3 volumes ... .

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, sorry, I thought you knew the manhwa was 9 volumes long.

I've seen raws of the remaining volumes and I was kinda, "Eh..." about all of it. And the ending, if I'm correct about what I think happened, made me kind of want to scream. So I'm waiting for you and Megan to read it, blog about it, and then I'll think about acquiring it. What I saw pretty much killed all my interest.

[chomiji]

Errr, that doesn't sound very encouraging ... .

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Shaman Warrior was announced to be picking back up again sometime next year. It and Bride of the Water God were on hold while DH was changing editors or translators (I forget which) for their manhwa.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I know Shaman Warrior's delay was a translator issue. Not sure about Bride of the Water God.

[chomiji]

(See my reply to magicnoire ... .)

[chomiji]

I actually had a couple of the volume numbers wrong in that post! Somehow, either the Borders down on L street wasn't having that sale, or I totally missed the signs. I bought for manga, but ... I got the Mushishi, and the Hoshin Engi, and also two more volumes of Afterschool Nightmare, which I just started recently. But I didn't find SDK until today. It's a really good volume, even though it has no Yukimura at all, except in the extras.

[chomiji]

Ooh, thanks for the info! My only problem now is that I don't know whether there's anything I want to/should buy ... I got all the recent volumes for the series I care about, like SDK and Mushishi ... . I'm trying to be good ... for one thing, I haven't blogged anything for ages - not manga, not fiction.

And I have chunks of two series that somehow never "took," and I want to give them a second chance (Monster and Fullmetal Alchemist).

[chomiji]

What, you didn't recognize Hotaru as a chibi? Being able to balance on those things even in a massively planet-busting fight with Kyo is one of Hotaru's special abilities - it goes along with his amazing spaciness.

(Aw, come on, read SDK! That just reminded me of all the awesome Hotaru stuff that's in the latest volume ... .)

(Well, I wouldn't say no to a coupon, if no one else can use it, but I don't know what manga shopping I'll do in the next week or two ... . And of course you may borrow books from me ... Swordspoint and the Hodgell books, too ... .)

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. I can never seem to find out when Saiyuki or WA are being released. TP are so rubbish at posting the dates and Amazon has different release dates for the UK and the US. *whines*

[chomiji]

Well, I confess that these are Amazon U.S. dates, but with Tokyopop, certainly, they have almost always been the same - I think they get the stuff from Tokyopop ahead of time and just start selling on the release date. And they seem to be pretty prompt with the other U.S. manga publishers as well, like Viz.

[devikun.livejournal.com]

Wow. They're almost up to the Japanese releases of WA! That was so fast.

And normally, you understand, this would be cause for serious panic - after all, who knows when Minekura will release the next volume and/or finish the story. I however am Not Panicking. No siree. Because I have bought every single TP volume so far but not actually read any of them. I see it as storing up supplies in the event of a nuclear fallout; I am prepared for the long period of no WA in my little underground bunker of KuboToki bliss... ^_____^

[chomiji]

Wow - such self-control! But that's sad, because I can't talk to you about them!! Have you heard anything else about Minekura and her health, that's making you worry so?

(And how are you doing yourself, BTW?)

[devikun.livejournal.com]

Well, I buy the book WA is serialised in (Chara bimonthly) and I also buy the Japanese volumes when they come out, so I have a fair idea of what's happening barring detailed spoilers. I haven't heard anything more about Ms M's health, no, but she seems to be reasonably active so I assume she's feeling heaps better.

(As for me, I am living on pain killers at the moment, although apparently that's pretty normal for post-op endo cases. And the fun still doesn't stop - I've got these big ass fibroids on my parts that the doc didn't want to try and remove before we attacked them other ways, so I am soon to be temporarily joining the Hot Flush crew, i.e I'm going on hormones to induce menopause for a few months to see if that discourages said fibroids. And here I thought surgery would magically fix everything! ;) Oh well.

And how about you? Are you happy? And what's more, 17,000+ words?! Wow that is awesome! Is this a Saiyuki fic you're WIPing, something in another fandom or an orig? Go you! *waves cheer squad flag enthusiastically* How's it going? I still can't get the hang of the long fic! What's your sekrit?!

(writing longer stuff - and stuff)

[chomiji]

Well ... work doesn't improve. But I'm trying to get a little more sleep, and doing breathing/relaxation exercises more regularly, and both seem to help.

Re the big story: really, there seems to be a couple of different size categories for fic. I'm talking about by structure/type rather than by word count. The smallest are little portraits of a moment - often, nothing really happens, but you usually get a snapshot of one character's thoughts. Then there are individual incidents or scenes. Most of the PWP stuff falls into this category, but so do lots of poignant little interactions and encounters. And then there are stories with a fairly involved plotline: there's a problem or a mystery, usually, and the character or characters have to solve it (even in something like louiselux's stripper!Gojyo story, for example, there's the mystery of what is Hakkai really after? (not to mention are they ever really going to Do It?).

So what happened with this one is, I was wondering about Hakkai, and limiters, and also about animals that are wild-captured and tamed (like hawks, and hunting cheetahs), and reversion to the wild. And I started spinning myself a bedtime story (something to keep me busy while I wait to fall asleep, or on a long car trip as a passenger). I do this a lot, but this one actually developed plot twists. So I added it to my list of Saiyuki story seeds, and smillaraaq "adopted" it (as I was requesting) and said she'd love it for her birthday. That made it easy to decide that I actually wanted to write it down, because she and I have a lot of story preferences in common, so I had some reason to expect that she'd actually enjoy it.

And since then, I've been sending it to her in installments, as I finish chunks of it, and I think that's helping too, because she wants to see more, so it keeps me going!

Still, I didn't expect it to be quite this long! It all goes much faster when I'm imagining it.

Re: (writing longer stuff - and stuff)

[chomiji]

Yes, he's definitely feeling the Call of the Wild there ... .

XD

Re: (writing longer stuff - and stuff)

[chomiji]

And guilt - don't forget guilt! Yeah, that's usually Hakkai's favorite weapon for friends, but this time, it's gonna work against him ... .

(And yes, you're right about the plot! And you've said Hakkai is more like that kind of dog anyway, haven't you?)

25?

[amberley.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the list! Isn't that Bleach 25 on 12/2? 24 is already out. I share your dismay at the slow rate xxxHOLiC is coming out.

xxxHOLiC novel 10/28

[amberley.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it'll help, but while waiting for the next manga there's a novel xxxHOLiC: AnotherHOLiC (http://www.amazon.com/xxxHOLiC-AnotherHOLiC-NISIOISIN/dp/0345505182/) illustrated by CLAMP, due out October 28th.

Re: xxxHOLiC novel 10/28

[chomiji]

Wow, a xxxHolic novel? What an odd concept ... ! Thanks for letting me know.

Re: xxxHOLiC novel 10/28

[chomiji]

... Saiyuki novels???

What, are they like official fanfic or something?

Re: 25?

[chomiji]

Eee, you're right! I screwed up that volume number, and also the one for Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden (and I think having to type that title again was enough of a penance ... ).

Yes, and I had just bought vol. 24, too, with Grimmjow on the cover. Thanks for pointing that out!

The xxxHolic thing makes me very crabby. At first, xxxHolic was just enjoyable, an intellectual pleasure. But the story's really grown on me, and the human elements in the last couple of volumes have really touched me. I want to know what's happening!