One Piece 3-in-one collections?

We all know Viz is speeding up the release of One Piece in 2010 in a big way, but I just came across another One Piece release they're doing. On the Simon & Schuster website, where Viz's upcoming licenses and releases are often listed even before they're announced, there are listings for several One Piece volumes entitled "One Piece: East Blue 1-2-3", "4-5-6", "7-8-9", and "10-11-12", at a price of $14.99 (3 for the price of 2), which covers the East Blue saga (hence the title). I'm not sure if they'll be VizBig releases, but I doubt it, considering the price. It's probably meant more for new readers to play catch-up, and omnibuses are great for a series as long as this one.

From what I've read of NYAF reports, they didn't mention anything there, but the Simon & Schuster listings are usually true.

Bleach vol.27

I've been looking forward to this volume for quite a while, as it marks the beginning of a new arc in Bleach.
The first few chapters pick up where the last one left off with the gang fighting some Vizards, and most notably, Urahara jumping in...oh and Orihime running into Ulquiorra. But Urahara fights! He's one of the coolest characters in the series, so any time he gets to fight is a treat. His fight is kind of silly, involving some of his gadgets and whatnot. And speaking of the coolest Bleach characters, Shinji also steps in for a bit!

As for the main part of this volume, like last time, Orhime is once again the true star of the volume. Ulquiorra has come to take her to Hueco Mundo, and threatens to kill her friends if she resists, but he allows her to see one person to say goodbye to (in an invisible form). She chooses to go see Ichigo, of course. After finding out that she is missing, Ichigo and Renji's group want to go rescue her, but the leaders of the Soul Society decide she is a traitor and not worth the trouble of rescuing when they have bigger things to worry about. Obviously, this won't stop Ichigo.

There were several scenes that I really loved in this volume, the biggest one being Orihime's goodbye to Ichigo. Her speech is touching and fittingly (for her character) somewhat childlike. The other great scene is Tatsuki confronting Ichigo about Orihime's disappearance, in addition to the secret's he's been hiding. Tatsuki is a character I really like and who hasn't had much screen time, so I was happy to see her get down right pissed off about being left in the dark, especially when it involves Orihime.

Things were pretty tense this volume, and the stage is set for another epic arc. Yes, this looks to be yet another mission to save a damsel in distress, but this time it feels like there's more at stake, partly because Orihime seems like a much more innocent and vulnerable character than Rukia (and also much more of a mystery because of her powers), and partly because she's being sent to evil central. Either way, I'm sure there will be some great battles along the way.
Once again, I wish Viz would speed up its release a bit.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle coming to an end

Tsubasa: Reservior Chronicle's final chapter is set to run in the September 30th issue of Shonen Magazine. The series will end up having 29 volumes, I believe. Don't know what's going on in the storyline at all, but here's hoping CLAMP finishes it in a satisfying manner. I guess xxxholic's end can't be too far off either. But then again, I've never read it, so I don't know how strongly it's main story is connected to Tsubasa's. I want to start reading it soon (CLAMP's little crossover ploy works). Maybe they'll finish X now?

It seems like Del Rey might be fast-tracking Tsubasa's release a tiny bit, as they're releasing the next two volumes, 23 and 24(and an artbook), simultaneously in October.

(info from Ritual Scan Forge)

License Wishlist Wednesday! Future Retro Hero Story

Today I'll be talking about late-80's sci fi manga!! Future Retro Hero Story, by Takehiko Ito (Outlaw Star...more on that later), started in 1988 and ran in Ultra Jump.

Space adventurer Roger Fortune was in the midst of a space battle to save a space princess when his enemies banished him to a far off world (our Earth). Fast forward several years later to modern day Japan(...well, 80's Japan), to his grandson, Juji Godoh, who is, what else, a high school transfer student. On an ordinary day, Fortune's enemies come to earth, and Juji ends up inheriting Fortune's ship and having to pick up where his grandfather (now just a brain/robot thing) left off.

When this manga first came out, the titled referred to it being an homage/spoof of old school science fiction from the 50's and so on. Now, the "Retro" part of the title actually refers to the style of the manga itself, which is now 21 years old and unmistakably drawn two decades ago. There are also multiple references to sci-fi stories such as Lensman.

One thing I really like about this series is how tongue-in-cheek it is. Though it's not a full on comedy, it doesn't take itself seriously at all. Take a look at these pages. The dialogue of the kids on the bus made me chuckle quite a bit. And check out our hero's supreme modesty, along with the innocent prayers of a Catholic school girl!

Also full of hilarity is his teacher, who is drawn in completely exaggerated poses in just about every action he does.

There's a certain universal charm to the typical 80's manga art style, and that's definitely present here. I'd really like to see more 80's manga released here (and several more of these will probably be about older manga), and this is one that's really high on my list. By the way, the images here are from scanlations, but the group behind it dismantled, and only did a few chapters of this series.

That's about it. Here's some nice action shots. There are some dynamic drawings here (like Juji summoning his ship), and the characters are all pretty cool looking. The whole thing is really energetic and cartoony.


Oh yea, I said I'd mention Outlaw Star. Outlaw Star is actually a spin off this series (the manga also ran in Ultra Jump), and by extension, so is Angel Links. I don't know how strongly they're connected beyond taking place in the same universe, but there is a definite similarity between the two. Both main characters are redheads, and have similar guns, and both series have a mix of science fiction and magic.

Who: Viz. Maybe CMX.
Likelihood: I say Viz because it's Shueisha and Ultra Jump, and I say maybe CMX, because they just seem like a wild card to me. They've released some older shojo, so why not some older seinen/shonen? But either way, the chances are probably pretty low. Manga this old doesn't get licensed, and when it does, it's because it already has some sort of following or big name attached to it (Takahashi, for instance). So I'd say the chances are lower than 10%...like 5%!!
It should also be noted that at one point in time Viz did have the license for Outlaw Star. I might be crazy, but I distinctly remember the announcement, and possibly even seeing it listed on their site at one point several years ago. Nothing ever came of it, but if they ever do decide to release Outlaw Star, then I could see a release of Future Retro Hero Story possibly going along with it. I'm still hopeful for both of them.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle vol.21

The flashback continues! This time showing us how Fai came to be in Seresu, and what made him leave (basically, Ashura is a coldblooded fiend...or is he? [He is.]) Kurogane tries to snap Fai out of his pity party by drawing his sword against him (!!!), and once snapped out, Fai dukes it out with Ashura as more of his past is revealed and Sakura's body is in danger.

I finished this volume feeling confused. Part of it was visual, part of it was story. While it really was a treat to see Kurogane and Fai actually fight each other, that, along with Fai fighting Ashura, were kind of hard to make complete sense of in one reading. I've never had a problem with CLAMP's actions scenes before, but this time there just seemed to be way too many magic swoops and swirls (even more than usual). This hurt things a lot, especially near the end of the volume, where a bunch of black swirls spread out everywhere. I eventually realized this was supposed to be some sort of sphere closing in around them, but it was very hard to notice that until the end of that particular sequence. Don't get me wrong, there are still some nice visual moments throughout the volume (this is CLAMP), but there were just as many moments where the effects were overdone, and ended up hurting the clarity of some scenes. There was also this bit (when Kurogane first draws his sword), where Kurogane slashes and all of sudden the area he slices cracks like a glass wall, and a bunch of shards fall, each with an image from Fai's past. The effect was nifty, but I couldn't help wondering...where did that wall come from???? Was it some sort of projector screen where they were viewing Fai's past? If so, there was no evidence of that at all in this or the previous volume, until Kurogane broke it.

There were also some story elements that just seemed iffy. It seems like Fai's memories were tampered with, but because no one ever says this outright(well...Fei Wang says something to that effect near the end), it makes things kind of confusing. The biggest point of confusion involved the curses, though. Fai's first curse was that he'd kill someone with more magic power than him, and that one's already been activated and done with. At the end of the previous volume, Fei Wang says something along the lines of "Your second curse, you need not remember it. From here on you will be trumping moves of my plan," which makes it sound like the "trumping" is the second curse, meaning Fai would be his puppet. But then the second curse activates near the end of this book and it's something completely different, which threw me for a loop. It took a trip to Wikipedia (at the risk of spoilers!) to sort things out. The problem was the bit in the previous volume. It seems that in between the "second curse" phrase and the "trumping" phrase, there was some block of memory that was censored. The problem was, there was nothing that visually or textually implied that, making it seem like the second phrase followed right after the other. Maybe that was their intent, though. Coincidentally, that trip to Wikipedia also cleared up another point brought up in this volume regarding Fai's back tattoo. I shouldn't have to resort to Wiki to understand things. Also, I, and possibly CLAMP, completely forgot that Fai became a vampire not too long ago, so when I remembered that fact, I was kind of surprise that it didn't come up even once in the most Fai-centric story so far.

Essentially, while I'm almost sure there are no gaping plotholes, because of CLAMP's writing style, it feels like there are. I guess by now I should just accept this as CLAMP's style. Show us random things (like Kurogane's completely nonsensical action at the end), and only explain it after we've racked our brains trying to understand it.

All in all, it was a flawed, but not terrible volume. Confusions aside, the storyline was resolved and we got some closure regarding Fai's past, and it was great to finally see Fai going all out.

Now, Yuko, come and explain everything next volume, thanks.