Darkness Falls In MangaLand

By Mat K.

Oh yeah, let the dark, eerie, and gothic fans herald their day for it is here. No I’m not just being dismal, but it is a little funny how one of the dark titles coming in this week is Black Butler Volume 2 by Yana Toboso, which just saw the release of Volume 1 last week. It is almost as if it was rushed just to meet with the other eerie series coming in this week. In this issue Jack the Ripper is on the loose and Queen Victoria demands Ciel Phantomhive and his superhuman(ish) butler the head up the investigation. Of course what will happen when the investigation takes a surprising turn?

Next on the list of dark expectations is the second volume of Pandora Hearts by Jun Mochizuki, and can I just say: Finally! I first caught eye of this in Japanese at a Japanese book store and loved the artwork, and was thrilled when some months later I discovered it would become printed in English, so I could finally find out whats going on. And the first volume came out forever ago. I’ve been dying here waiting, after all, it was a bit of a cliff-hanger. Oz may have survived his stint in the Abyss, but he is no closer to discovering the truth behind the “sin” for which he was condemned. On the advice of a mysterious man who appeared to him when Alice regained the first of her memories, Oz, along with Alice and Pandora’s Raven, embarks on a mission to investigate the site of his disastrous coming-of-age ceremony in search of answers.

Taking a step away from the gothic (and kind of lolita-ish) reigns of the previously mentioned books, we jump into the cyber-punk, mid-apocalyptic dark future that is Tsutomu Nihei’s Biomega, which the second volume of finally shows up. After capturing Eon Green, DRF forces are amassing around Toa Heavy Industry headquarters and have taken Dr. Kurokawa and his daughter into custody. Zoichi must attempt a rescue-Dr. Kurokawa’s laboratory may yield critical information on Eon Green. Zombies, robots, and one-handed bears with guns, what else could you want? Oh yeah, awesome motorcycles. Must read.

One more stint into darkness, how about a nightmare in our own realistic time frame. Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Volume 5 by Motoro Mase comes in, and for those of you who don’t remember, its about the Government deciding one person a day has to die, and giving them “24 hours to live” notices. There are a few other books coming in that you dark hearted ones should look into this week as well, like Jormungand Volume 3, and the premier of Maoh Juvenile Remix by Kotaro Isaka and Megumi Osuga.

Now don’t you perky people fret none, there are plenty of pink and shojo things for you all to read like One Fine Day Volume 2, the new Clamp series Kobato (the first two volumes are coming in at the same time for your pleasure), and a new book called My Girlfriend’s a Geek. So overall it’s a good week for everyone. Till next time people!

Ja Ne!