Good news! Kobato, the latest manga series from powerhouse team CLAMP (xxxHolic, Card Captor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth) is coming to Newtype USA starting in the June 2007 issue. According to their press release, the series will run for a total of twelve months, with an installment in each monthly issue and plenty of colour illustrations. Kobato is still ongoing in the Japanese-language version of the magazine, as of this writing.

Kobato is sweet and perky, but also extremely naïve about the world around her. Her “mission” is to fill a mysterious bottle of hers with the suffering from people’s hearts. Among the hearts she heals, there will be a boy she will work for and bring happiness to, but she is forbidden to fall in love with him.

  (Summary Source: Wikipedia)

It seems it’s already featured several crossovers from CLAMP’s other works, including Chobits and Tsubasa. Check out an issue of Newtype to see what it’s all about!

Okay, I admit it – this manga (and its corresponding anime) are the reason why I’ve been so terribly distracted. They swallowed me whole. I guess I’m not the only one, because it’s consistently been on the top sellers’ lists both in Japan and North America, with the animated version making TV Asahi’s polls on the top shows of all time. Who’d have guessed that a story about a host club of all things (not at all like real host clubs supposedly are, by the way; these are high schoolers) would do so well?

Mangaka Hatori Bisco has penned nine tankubon of these to date, with the English adaptation by Viz one month behind and no end in sight. It runs in LaLa magazine as well as Shoujo Beat on this side of the pond and has been going since 2003. This is not Hatori’s first title, but the humourous style of Ouran is a far cry from her previous works.

Fujioka Haruhi is a scholarship at Ouran Academy, an elite school for the very wealthy. After happening across the eccentric and incredible Host Club, a group of six boys with plenty of money and time to waste, Haruhi breaks a vase and, unable to pay for it, ends up in servitude to the Club, who exist to entertain affluent schoolgirls with too much time on their hands.

The problem – the Host Club, taking in Haruhi’s tomboyish appearance, believe her at first to be male, and after a makeover she finds herself in the dubious position of attracting customers to the club. When they do find out, they’re not sure – are they willing to out her and let her be noticed by the rest of the student population…or keep her for themselves?

This crazy romantic comedy manga will have you laughing out loud, especially with the special omakes included at the end of the volumes, and the hilarious captions scattered throughout. If you read anything this year, let it be this!

Links:

Hakusensha’s Official Site (Japanese)

Shojo Beat Official Site (English)

For Richer Or Poorer (Fansite)

The final volume of the three-tankubon series Princess Ai hit store shelves yesterday, after a 7-month gap since the second book. Fans will be glad to see the long-awaited conclusion of this great little series, which was co-created by American rocker Courtney Love and mangaka Misaho Kujiradou, with character designs by Paradise Kiss’ Yazawa Ai. If you like gothic shoujo (as Tokyopop phrases it!) or even if you’re just looking for something different, Princess Ai delivers without being too drawn-out.

Hm, I should review it sometime, I’d better reread it…

Source: Tokyopop

The following new Tokyopop English manga titles have been confirmed by Anime News Network for July release:

Elemental Gelade (Erementar Gerad)
Kuro no Kishi
Redrum 327
Yorozuya Tokaido Honpo
Zapt!
Le Potrait de Petit Cossette
Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro)
Trash
Peppermint
Otogi Zoshi

Boys Over Flowers (In Japanese known as Hana Yori Dango (花より男子) is a manga series written by Yoko Kamio. It was serialized in the bi-weekly anthology magazine, Margaret, which is aimed at high-school-age girls. The manga series ran continuously from October 1992 to September 2003, and has been collected into 36 volumes. Recently, the series has started to be released in a deluxe edition (larger pages and with all the color artwork from the magazine reproduced).

As of this writing, the story has been adapted in Japan into an anime TV series, a live-action television drama, an animated one-shot OVA, and a live-action movie. It has also served as the basis for a live-action drama TV series from Taiwan called Meteor Garden, which has spawned off an idol-singer group, F4. Also, an all-new Japanese live-action drama series premiered on October 2005 on TBS. The live-action drama was completed in December 2005, spanning 9 full-hour episodes.

Tsukushi Makino (牧野つくし Makino Tsukushi), a working-class girl, attends an elite elevator school called Eitoku Academy, populated by children from rich, high-society families. She is the “weed” of the school surrounded by all the rich kids including the “Flower” Four (F4). The F4 leader and son of the wealthiest, most powerful family in Japan, Tsukasa Domyoji (道明寺　司 Dōmyōji Tsukasa), takes an interest in Tsukushi, because she is the only girl at Eitoku who doesn’t fawn over him. However, his hot-headed nature and bullying ways are originally a major turn-off for Tsukushi, who has her sights set on someone else.

Source:

Wikipedia

Links:

Official Anime Site
Livejournal Community
Hana Yori Dango Portal
hanayoridango.com

Full Moon, complete title Full Moon wo Sagashite (満月をさがして, meaning Searching for the Full Moon), is a shoujo manga and anime series by Arina Tanemura. The kanji in the Japanese title are read “furu mun” (i.e. Full Moon) and not “mangetsu” or “mitsuki”. The full title is always used in Japan whereas in the U.S. the full title is present only on the front cover of the manga.

Originally this manga was serialised in Ribon, a Japanese magazine for girls. As of 2004, it has become a completed series with a total of seven volumes, and an artbook. The manga is published in English by Viz Media with translations by Tomo Kimura. As the manga began to gain popularity, an anime version of the story was simultaneously made and completed before the manga’s ending. Produced by Nihon Ad Systems, the anime is one of the most popular series, enjoying high ratings. It aired on TV Tokyo and has yet to be licensed outside Japan.

Full Moon focuses on a 12-year old girl named Mitsuki Koyama (神山満月 Kōyama Mitsuki). While Mitsuki is a talented singer, and indeed dreams of becoming a pop idol, she is afflicted by throat cancer, which seems curable only through surgery that will destroy her voice. One day she discovers two shinigami, Takuto and Meroko, the “Negi Ramen” or “Onion Noodles”, whom only she can see. These shinigami tell her she has but one year left to live. She doesn’t look old enough to be a singer, so she makes a deal with one of the shinigami, Takuto, to transform her into a 16-year-old body who goes by the stage name of “Full Moon” in order to achieve her dream of becoming a singer. Not only does she become older, but when she is in this form her throat is healthy, and she is able to sing without any difficulty.

To start a career as a singer, 16-year-old Mitsuki auditions in a singing contest. Even though there is much competition, she is able to win over the judges with her enthusiam for singing and her good voice. Two years before the shinigami came to her, she promised Eichi, a boy she met in an orphanage, that they would both achieve their dreams together. Eichi wanted to become an astronomer and she wanted to become a singer. Since she found out she is fated to die, she wants to achieve her dream and meet Eichi. In addition, Eichi has emigrated to America and is uncontactable. Mitsuki hopes that one day her songs will be heard by Eichi who will come back to her so they can be together again.

Links:

Full Moon wo Sagashite – Tsubasa ga habataku kagiri ~
~*~ Full Moon ~*~
Dreaming Of… (Fanlisting)

Source:

Wikipedia

Descendents of Darkness, or Yami no Matsuei, is a manga series created by Matsushita Yoko in 1995. The series was published in the bimonthly publication Hana to Yume through 2003. It is currently on hiatus, and is set to resume publication next year. Much of the manga has also been released in 11 tankobon. In North America, the series is currently being translated by Viz Comics. In 2001, it was adapted into a short anime that was 13 episodes long.

Yami no Matsuei revolves around the Shinigami, or Gods of Death. Shinigami are employees of Meifu, the land of the dead. It is their job to collect the souls of those who should have died but haven’t, or those who have died but still linger in the living world. Shinigami work in pairs, with each pair assigned to a specific section of Japan. The main characters of YnM are Tsuzuki Asato and Kurosaki Hisoka, the Shinigami of the Kyushu region.

YnM is a shoujo manga, aimed primarily at girls. Like many shoujo manga, it has elements of shounen-ai to it. This is mostly seen in the relationships between Tsuzuki, Hisoka, and Muraki, although there are also elements in Tatsumi’s feelings toward Tsuzuki. However, there are no official romances between any of the characters.

Links:

Theria.net
Bleeding Moon
Phantom Moon

Source: Wikipedia

Black Cat is a manga series by Kentaro Yabuki which was serialized in Shonen Jump. The series has concluded in Japan at 20 volumes. It is also licensed by Viz, and it is not released in English publically yet.

The story centers on a man named Train Heartnet who withdrew from an elite group of assassins called the toki no bannin (the Time Guardians) to become a Sweeper (a bounty hunter).

The Time Guardians are controlled by a shadowy parent organisation named Chronos. All of the members of the Time Guardians carry specially-constructed weapons made from a metal named Orihalcon. Train was the thirteenth member, and wields a gun made from Orihalcon. He appears like a cat, and disappears like a cat, and has never failed a job: he is known as “Black Cat”, the thirteenth, an ominous man who delivers bad luck.

A Black Cat anime also began airing in October 2005.

Source: Wikipedia

(I haven’t been able to locate any decent Black Cat websites to link to, so if you know of any, please feel free to email me or comment!)

ANN has reported on the upcoming discontinuation of Young You, a magazine aimed at adult women that has published favorites such as Honey and Clover. ANN has translated the article in full on their site, a snippet of which can be read below:

It has been almost 20 years since “YOUNG YOU” was first published in 1986. As a manga magazine designed for adult women, YOUNG YOU has published close to 350 volumes, including supplemental issues.

Many of the titles that have appeared in YOUNG YOU have been able to earnestly portray fashionable and beautiful stories of women growing up. The magazine has produced many hit series, many of which were made into TV dramas and Anime.

Read the full article!

Rose of Versailles mangaka Ikeda Riyoko recently announced her plans to publish a manga based on the famous novel series Haru no Yuki (by Mishima Yukio). It will begin its print run in Shukan Josei on the 11th of October.

Source: Anime News Network