License Wishlist Wednesday! Kidou Ryodan Hachifukijin!

When I first started LWW, I said there would be some manga I wouldn't know much about beyond their looks, and dang it, I'm a man of my word. This week it's Kidou Ryodan Hachifukujin, or Mechanized Infantries 8 Fukujin, or MI-8 Fukujin (French version), a seinen manga from Comic Beam by Satoshi Fukushima.

Notice I mentioned the French version? That's because I had to look up that version to find some sort of plot summary that could be easily translated. Even then, the summary was pretty vague. The world is at war, and the story follows 8 young soldiers involved in the fight with an emphasis on character drama as well. From what I can tell, the tone of the series is more on the serious side. Oh, and the war is fought with these:

Last week I talked about Rideback, which involved some unusual mecha, and this is yet another such series. The robots really caught my eye, and are my main draw to this series. The idea of a war being fought in amphibious, kinda goofy mechas with bellies is amusing to me.
The rest of the art seems promising as well. I haven't seen much of what's inside, but the covers are rather nice, and I like the looks of the characters, especially the slightly nerdy main character. You can also check out more of his (or maybe her) art at his website.

If anyone knows anything about this series, let me know!!!!

Who: CMX, maybe?
Likelihood: I say CMX because they've release Comic Beam stuff before, like Emma and Astral Project. They tend to prefer shorter series, and this is 9 volumes, so that's shortish. Otherwise, there isn't all that much Beam manga available here. Maybe a 45% chance?

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle vol.20

The blurb on the back should say "Fai, you got some 'splainin to do!"

After Fai attacking Sakura and her body and soul being separated and taken to different worlds, the gang has to figure out what the heck is going on and what to do next. As usual, there is the end-of-arc-Yuko-infodump (and as usual, said infodump makes me feel like I should be reading xxxholic). It turns out Fai's actions weren't really done of his own will, but he has known this moment would come. And he has quite a few other secrets he's been keeping and lies he's been telling.
The second half of the book takes place in Fai's old homeworld, where he encounters an old face and we get a lengthy flashback to his childhood and find out even MORE juicy Fai secrets. The volume ends with a surprise which, though it isn't fully explained, will probably make you want to go back and reread some of the earlier volumes.

This volume actually moves a bit slow. Most of the first half is Yuko explaining some of what's been going on, and the group deciding what to do next. It just takes a bit too long for them to actually get going. Those scenes could have moved much quicker. The second half, which is mostly the flashback, is really well done, though. It plays out like a (dark) fantasy story that could stand on its own. Sometimes flashback can be too long, but in this case, Fai has been such a question mark for the past 19 volumes that CLAMP can take as long as they like to fill in the blanks. Despite being the most happy-go-lucky character in the group, Fai probably has the saddest past out of all of them. It shows how much of a front he's had up this whole time.

As of this volume, almost every single character has some sort of double (Syaoran and his "image", Sakura's separated body and soul, Fai and his twin, the two Mokonas, and all the doubles of other characters throughout the different worlds), except for Kurogane (that we know of). I wonder if there's something to that.

Anyways, overall, it was a decent volume. The beginning was a bit slow, but the flashback and all the information being revealed make up for it, and as always, CLAMP's artwork is great.

Dogs: Prelude vol. 0

Shirow Miwa's Dogs is a prologue to the series Dogs: Bullets & Carnage, introducing the four main characters: Mihai, "the weepy old killer" back in town to settle a grudge, Badou, a photographer on the run after obtaining a dangerous scoop, Naoto, a swordswoman seeking to avenge her parents's murder, and Heine, a seemingly immortal gunmen helping a mysterious girl with wings.

Each character's story is mostly independent from the others, with the exception of Badou playing a part in Heine's story and appearing in the background in Mihai's story. The quality of the stories improves with each one. Mihai's is the only one that is a bit on the boring side. His tale focuses on his reunion with his ex-protege who killed his lover. We get the details of their past and their confrontation. It's an okay story, though not particularly exciting.
Badou is sort of the the comic relief of the four, making his story the lightest and silliest, though with a nice bit of action.
The last two characters have the most interesting stories, and not coincidentally, their stories are both two-parters. They're also the only two characters whose stories point to a larger story beyond this volume. Naoto's is another "dark past" story, though it ends with a bit of a twist regarding the target of her vengeance. Heine's story is definitely the coolest and the most action packed, and it also has sci-fi elements which none of the others have.

Miwa's character designs are pretty sharp, my personal favorite being Badou for his hair and the eyepatch, as well as the mysterious Giovanni that appears at the end (stylish, enigmatic guys with bowl haircuts are SO in right now). The action (and there's plenty of it), is all really well done, and each chapter has it's share of striking images. The one fault that kind of bugs me is how there is a bit too much blank space. There a few spots throughout the books were there are huge blank areas. A small blank space is okay to indicate a change of scenery or passage of time, but there are some in here that are a bit too big. Do it 2 or 3 times, and it would add up to an entire page's worth of space unused. Within the panels themselves, there is sometimes not enough details, or any at all, in the backgrounds. There's a very thin line between using open space in a panel to highlight what's there and that open space just seeming like a void, and Miwa walks that line very dangerously. But it's a small nitpick, and it actually suits the overall style of the series. There was a recent anime adaptation of the stories in this book...and it honestly doesn't feel right in color.

This book is slightly oversized, which seems to have become Viz's standard for seinen. Extras include a doublesided poster, the front being the four characters nude from the waist up (which I don't imagine would be particularly titilating to anyone, as they all look rather gaunt), while the back has a nice image of Naoto in an action-y pose. There's also a short funny comic at the end.

With Trigun over, it's nice to have another gunslinging action series to read. While the story isn't particularly special (yet), it's done very stylishly, and for now that's enough. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes and how these 4 characters end up together.

Shonen Sunday and Ikki Comix are up and running!

So much manga goodness, I barely know where to start.
Ikki- Dorohedoro, Bokurano: Ours, Saturn Apartments (this looks amazing), I'll Give It My All...Tomorrow, and Children of the Sea are up with more series coming next week.

Shonen Sunday-Arata the Legend, Maoh: Juvenile Remix, Hyde and Closer (this has a mobster Teddy Bear!), Kekkaishi (I'm guessing this one is just a preview), and Rin-ne are up.

I don't really like reading stuff on the computer, and I'll most likely wait for the print versions for the ones I'm really interested in, but it's awesome to have the option.

License Wishlist Wednesday! Rideback

In honor of the full launch of Ikki Comix, this week is about an Ikki title that ended not too long ago: Rideback by Kasahara Tetsuro

This series takes place in 2020, where college student Rin Ogata comes into possession of a motorcycle-like mecha called a Rideback. Rin, a former ballerina, finds some common ground between dancing and riding the Rideback, and thus is something of a natural. I honestly don't know too much about this series, but I do know that there is some sort of political unrest that plays a large role in the story. So if your thing just so happens to be unusual mechas and political stories, then this for you!

The character designs have a simple, almost cutesy look(I don't wanna say moe, but...), and the art is otherwise nicely detailed and Kasahara provides some really great action shots.

The idea behind the robots is pretty cool and unique for this type of series . I'd really like one of my own.

Check out the mangaka's website here.
There was an anime not too long ago. I never watched it, but I heard it deviated from the manga quite a bit.

Who: Viz
Likelihood: This series isn't old at all, in fact it ended this year. With Viz pushing Ikki and seinen in general, this seems a likely choice for licensing. I'll go ahead and say there's a 90% chance. Maybe Viz will even announce it at Comic-Con this week.

License Wishlist Wednesday! Cloth Road

This week, it's Cloth Road, written by Kurata Hideyuki and drawn by Okama, published in Ultra Jump.

What's it about? Let's let the Engrish do the talking: Minimization of the computer proceeds more and a base becomes thinner than paper with a cable like a thread. Computers becomes "the clothes" spun in the terminal of the thread, and it became the existence which was necessary for the human life.

Get it? To put it in regular terms, Cloth Road takes place in a future where clothes are computers, basically like nano-technology. Fashion designers and computer programmers are now one and the same. Such clothes aren't shown off on a runway, though, they're exhibited in a game known as War-King, where "models" fight each other with the abilities from their outfits. Fergus is an apprentice tailor trying to improve his skill, and through a twist of fate he gets reunited with Jennifer, the sister he never knew he had. With Fergus as designer and Jennifer as his model, they'll enter War King and fashionable combat shall ensue!

Let's talk art. Okama's drawings are amazing. You may have seen his work for some anime, like the Gunbuster 2 ending, or the Glass Fleet cover art. He's also done some work for the Robot anthology, and a handful of doujin-type works. His style is immediately recognizable, and all the outfit designs are nicely detailed, which is important given the story's subject. The way the combat plays out is kind of fascinating with the clothes morphing and shifting from blades to fists to just about anything. The outfits themselves range from straight-up oddities to regular clothes like kimonos and business suits. As you can see in the pictures below, he gives the action scenes quite a bit of flair.

The writer seems to like using unlikely everyday objects as weapons (he also wrote Read or Die). I've only read the first few chapters, so I'm not 100% sure where the series goes, but it seems pretty clear that it will be a tournament based series. Usually, I don't quite like it when a series is entirely tournament based, but in this case the concept and the world are quirky enough and the art gorgeous enough to carry it.

Edit: Forgot to mention, check these links from Shueisha's site for previews of volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Who: Viz
Likelihood: Not so sure about this one. Viz has released some Ultra Jump stuff before, they recently started Dogs and announced Biomega at AX, but there are other Ultra Jump series that have been around much longer that they haven't licensed. If they start to bring over more Ultra Jump series, which could be the case, than this has a decent chance of making it. I'll say 75%.

Karakuri Doji Ultimo ch.2

Ummm:

....Yea. Anyway, this chapter starts off where the last one left off, with the modern-day Yamato coming across Ultimo in an antique shop. We also find out this is taking place after the one-shot, when Ultimo got knocked out and landed on a mountain. As soon as Yamato goes near him, Ultimo awakens and starts talking about reincarnation and time travel...and then a few pages later a bus is cut in half. Okay, maybe it didn't happen that fast, but that's what it felt like. Ultimo spouts off all this information and Yamato, much like the reader, is left dumbfounded. Yamato and his friend leave, and get on the aforementioned bus. Vice appears, cuts the bus in half, then he and Ultimo face off yet again.

There's talk of masters and such; apparently the Karakuridoji need someone to be their master and Vice seems to have found one. All the stuff Ultimo was talking about seems like it could really be interesting. Time travel and reincarnation could make for some good stuff, but not when you talk about it for a few seconds without explaining much. I'm sure they'll eventually slow down and elaborate on these things, but for now, they aren't. Ultimo and Vice fighting each other still looks cool, but we've seen enough of that in the first chapter and the one-shot, so by now they should give it a bit of a rest for some story. Peeking ahead, it looks like other Karakuridoji will appear, which is a great thing. You can't have the same two characters fighting each other over and over again. Like last time, there's still potential for a cool series, but it's not quite there yet. But anything with buses getting cut in half can't be bad, right?

Manga Starts on Sunday!

This news is old by a few days, but I wanted to mention it. In case you haven't heard, Viz is starting up an imprint for Shonen Sunday (much like Shonen Jump, Shojo Beat, and Signature). Shonen Sunday tends to have some hidden gems (like Kekkaishi), but it rarely has megahits on the level of Shonen Jump (at least in the US), aside from maybe Inuyasha. There are a few series currently running in Shonen Sunday that seem interesting, but I'm secretly hoping for some classic titles like Patlabor and Urusei Yatsura (which Viz previously released for a very short time well before the manga boom), as well as stuff like Touch or Ushio & Tora.
Viz has already released several Sunday manga, like Inuyasha, Case Closed (Detective Conan), Kekkaishi, Hayate the Combat Butler, and MAR. It won't be a magazine, just a name, but bringing them all under the same imprint will create an assocation between the titles that probably wasn't their before, and will hopefully improve their sales. I guess pretty soon the likes of Inuyasha, Kekkaishi, and the rest will bear an SS logo on the spine (driving collectors of those series crazy with a logo change midway into the series). Viz has really been doing some great stuff lately. First One Piece being sped up by a lot, then Ikki Comix, now this? Keep the surprises coming! They were kind of lackluster at AX, so they should've made this announcement then...unless this is some sort of pre-Comic Con announcement which they'll elaborate more on there. There's nothing official yet, but the website they've put up has images from Maoh! Juvenile Remix, Hyde & Closer, and Arata Kangatari, so I think it'd be safe to assume those will be headed our way soon. Good job, Viz!

License Wishlist Wednesday! Billy Bat!

On this week's Wishlist: Naoki Urasawa's Billy Bat


If you read manga at all, you've no doubt heard of Naoki Urasawa, Japan's current king of suspense. Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto have been released in the US, all to critical acclaim, so Billy Bat being at least halfway decent is pretty much a given at this point. Urasawa can't seem to do one series at once. He started Happy! while he was still working on Master Keaton, started Monster while he was still working on Happy!, started 20th Centurys Boys while he was still working on Monster, started Pluto while he was still working on 20th Century Boys, and he started Billy Bat while he was still working on Pluto!

If 20th Century Boys was his nostalgia trip to the 60s and 70s, and Pluto was his look to the future, then Billy Bat is his history lesson on Japan (early post WWII, to be exact). Urasawa kind of tricked readers when the series first started. Before the first chapter, the promos for it would only say it's about a long lost hero from the golden age of comics known as Billy Bat. And in the first chapter, that's exactly what we got, but it was not typical Urasawa. An anthropomorphic detective Bat helping out a pink poodle? Huh? Most of the first chapter is a story involving these two cartoony characters, until the last few pages, the art all of a sudden looks rough and unfinished, then the final page pulls back to reveal a man drawing this comic at his desk. Good one, Urasawa! The next chapter gets the real story going, with the artist behind Billy Bat, Kevin Yamagata, a Japanese American living in the US who once translated for the Allies, being the main character. While working on one of his comics, two police officers enter his apartment in order to get a better view of another building where they believe a Russian spy might be hiding out. On their way out, one of the officers notices Kevin's drawing and say's that he's seen this character before, but not in any of his comics. He saw the exact same character in a Japanese comic. The mysteries start here, when Kevin says that's impossible as Billy Bat is his own creation.

From there, Kevin heads to Japan to find out what's what, and possibly to find out if he also saw this character and unknowingly copied him. The truth might be slightly bigger than that, as the Billy Bat symbol appears over and over again and is possibly at the center of a cult of worshipers (sounds a bit like the eye symbol in 20th CB). He'll also have to deal with hallucinations of Billy Bat, himself! Kevin will most likely get wrapped up in a juicy mystery the likes of which only Naoki Urasawa can deliver, all mixed in with some Japanese history and unsolved mysteries. I haven't read past the second chapter, first, because the scanlations for it are a little scattered, second, I know this will be good and I also know it will most likely be licensed, so I rather wait for that. 20th Century Boys and Pluto are keeping me more than satisfied until then.

Who: This is a tricky one. All of Urasawa's work that has been released here so far, has been released by Viz. But this one could be DelRey. You see, all of his other works were done with Shogakukan (who Viz is in cahoots with), but for Billy Bat, Urasawa is working with Kodansha (in their Morning anthology, I believe). Del Rey usually handles Kodansha titles, so Del Rey could very well get it if Viz somehow can't.
Likelihood: 100%. Absolutely. All of his previous series have received a lot of critical praise, so neither Viz nor Del Rey would skip this one for anything.

License Wishlist Wednesday!!!!! The manga of Kazue Kato

I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I'm pretty excited about it, actually. Today is License Wishlist Wednesday! This will be a regular feature here, where I'll talk about a series I want licensed in the US- on Wednesdays. I might not do it every Wednesday (I'll try), but it'll probably be on Wednesdays only. I'll see how it goes. Sometimes I'll know some info about the manga and have quite a bit to say (like today), and sometimes I won't know much about them at all beyond the fact that they look cool, and thus won't have much to say. Also, save for a small bit, I can't actually read Japanese, so most of my impressions will be based on visuals, scanlations, an anime if there is one, or what I've read about the series. I'll mainly stick to doing one series per installment, but for today, since this is the first time, and since the mangaka only has two series (one of which is short, while the other is fairly new), I'll do a two for one special!
So here we go:

Today's LWW subject is: The works of mangaka, Kazue Kato!
That's her!
One day (maybe in 2005 or 2006) I stumbled upon the website for Kodansha's Shonen Sirius manga anthology. Browsing through the website, most of the series, with a few exceptions, seemed kind of "meh," at least based on art. But one series REALLY caught my eye. Hard.
It was Space Traveller Robo & Usakichi

It's about a robot named Robin, and a rabbit named Usakichi. As the title suggests, they travel space. Robin is living by himself on a tiny planet when one day Usakichi lands nearby after escaping from jail. I've never read the series, but I can only assume Sci-fi hijinks ensue. As I mentioned before, this series instantly caught my eye, and the picture above should tell you why.

Look at it!! How could you not want to read that????


The series only lasted five volumes. I'm not sure if it was canceled or if the story completed at five volumes, but either way I'd love to own it. After the series finished, there was a follow up one-shot entitled Stargazer Robo & Usakichi.
Enough of color illustrations. How about a look at the inside?

A nice busy city and Robin in some weird transformation. The art looks lively and detailed without being cluttered. As far as I know, this was her first work. The style here is pretty impressive for someone's first series. Many mangaka's first manga usually suffer a bit in the art department and might appear a bit on the amateur side, though eventually improving. If her art was this good at the start of her career, I'd love to see how much it improves in several more years.

Who: Probably Del Rey.
Likelihood: Every time Del Rey announces new licenses, my fingers are firmly crossed for this to be among them. They've licensed several Shonen Sirius titles before, and (if it was indeed canceled) they're no strangers to 5 volume series that were canceled (Toto!). Sirius isn't particularly popular in Japan, and I'm not sure how well their series have done here, but Del Rey still picks them up occasionally. I'll say a 25% chance? (Del Rey, this is your cue to prove me wrong at this weekend's Anime Expo). If Ao no Exorcist, which I'll get to in a moment, becomes a hit, I could also see Del Rey bringing Robo and Usakichi to capitalize on the success of Ao no Exorcist.

Okay, moving forward. After Robo was done, Kazue Kato kind of disappeared for a bit. Then last year she had two one-shots for Jump SQ. This, of course, made me ecstatic. A well received one-shot in a Jump magazine could easily lead to a series, and Jump has a much higher profile than Sirius.

HoshiOta, about a high school student's encounter with some aliens, appeared in Jump SQ II (a seasonal issue of mostly one-shots, like Akamaru Jump), and that was followed by Miyama Uguisu Yashika Jiken (The Miyama Uguisu Mansion Incident), about an exorcist getting rid of a demon in a mansion, which appeared in the actual Jump SQ. The second one holds a special place in my otaku heart for being the first manga I ever attempted to read in Japanese (and vaguely understood!!!).

The second one-shot has now been turned into a series in Jump SQ called Ao no Exorcist (or Blue Exorcist). The protagonist from HoshiOta also seems to have made it into this series, being repurposed as the main character's brother.

The main character, Rin, is an exorcist whose dad just happens to be...Satan, which means Rin himself is a demon. His power is only released when he draws his sword (which has a blue flame, hence the title), and he uses that to fight demons, with the goal of eventually killing Satan. There's a bit more to it than that, like he and his brother being raised by a priest, who dies after being possessed by Satan, and the mysterious, flamboyant Mephisto Pheles who invites Rin to be an exorcist after that happens.

A story about exorcists, or about a demon fighting his own kind isn't really anything new, but where the plot actually goes matters more than the basic concept. From the bit I've seen, it doesn't seem quite as imaginative as Robo & Usakichi does, but this is just starting out, so we'll see. Although, what I have seen I really like.

Who: Viz. Who else? It's Jump.
Likelihood: 100%. It's a Jump series with action, swords, monsters, and nice art. It's a no-brainer. The question is when. This is a monthly series, meaning the volumes take a bit longer to come out, so it'll be a while before we see this here, unless Viz were to put it in Shonen Jump like Ultimo (which seems doubtful). The series will probably stick around; Jump SQ is far more forgiving than Weekly Jump when it comes to series cancellations.

So that's all she wrote. Or all she's written and drawn so far. Kazue Kato is one talented lady, so I hope I've sparked your interest in her, if only a tiny bit. If you wanna see some more of her artwork, be sure to check out her blog: http://katoukikaku.jugem.jp/ She occasionally posts some drawing and sketches, and re-posts some art from her older (and now defunct) website.


I apologize if this post is a little too image heavy. I got a bit carried away, but I'm a big fan of her work, and I just wanted to spread the love. I found the images around the web, many from Kazue Kato's old and new websites, as well as the old Sirius website, and some I found elsewhere. The scanned pages from Robo and Usakichi were from some random forum I stumbled upon, so "thank you" to whoever scanned that, as well as the other scanned images.