I feel like I really ought to stop opening my mouth, because 2 weeks ago I was sounding so hopeful for a flush of new releases, and then last week we had only five. This week gets worse, there are only two books coming in, so I might as well cover them both. But first, can somebody please tell me if I jinxed this whole year? Because there have been so many minimalist release weeks, and we’re halfway through February already. Don’t get me wrong, the quality (for the most part) of the books coming seems to be much more discriminatory, and maaaaybe some of the reason is that in the last year or so, so many companies have gone out of business, so there just appear to be less books. I mean, we’ve seen Ice Kunion hit the road, we’ve said good-bye to Go Comi!, we haven’t heard hide nor hair from Net Comics, and CMX was flat out dissolved.
So, leaving all those losers in the dust, at least now we get to read gems like Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, of which the 13th volume comes out. If you thought 12 was the end, if you thought the end of the Friend meant the end of the series, you’re wrong. Urasawa isn’t as two dimensional as that. Now that the Friend is dead the news spreads around the world. The members of the Friends’ executive committee are faced with a dilemma: Is it all over, or will the events predicted in the New Book of Prophecy still be carried out? I feel that description needs to end with a “Dun, dun, DUNNNNN!” Anyway, It’s awesome, which if you’re this far into it, you already know, and if you haven’t started it yet…I hope you didn’t get to spoiled.
The other book coming out this week, (yes the only 
other book), is Bokurano Ours Volume 3 by Mohiro Kitoh. In the second volume, it became abundantly clear to the young pilots that not only did their actions cause collateral damage, but the price of winning was to sacrifice your own life. Now they’re starting to drop like flies, which I suppose is good news for the planet Earth since the kids keep managing to win, sometimes out of sheer force of will. But now the underage pilots of Zearth are starting to crack under the pressure. In the beginning all they wanted to do was play a fun game. Now they’re fighting for their lives and the fate of the planet. Say goodbye to childhood. It’s time to grow up and be a hero.
So, since we’re out of books, lets talk about DVDs. One in particular which has caught my fancy is 11Eyes. In Japan it’s also a video game and a manga, but so far on
ly the anime is here via Sentai Filmworks. Satsuki Kakeru lost his sister by suicide and has been living a dull life ever since then. One day, he is transported into the bizarre world “Red Night” along with his friend Minase Yuka. In order to survive and escape from Red Night, he fights against Dark Spirits (Ralva) and Black Nights. The animation is pretty nice, and also there’s a weird penguin thing. So totally worth seeing.
Hopefully readers, next week has a better turn out. Til then!
Ja Ne!
