MeruPuri is a short, sweet, funny romantic comedy that ran in LaLa magazine from 2002 through 2004, and has recently released its final volume in North America. It was written by Hino Matsuri, also known for her popular Vampire Knight series, which is currently running in LaLa as well.

The story is the fairy-tale romance of Hoshina Airi, a high-school girl with great expectations for the romance she hopes to someday have, based on the events of her favourite TV drama. Airi doesn’t know, however, that she is descended of a traitorous royal bloodline from the alternate-universe kingdom of Astale. When the prince of that world comes tumbling through Airi’s heirloom mirror seeking sanctuary, Airi doesn’t know just what she’s gotten herself into.

Worse, little Prince Aram has been beset with a curse - when in dark places, he ages into a teenager and loses his magic powers, and he requires a kiss from a maiden of his choosing to return to normal. Airi is unwilling to comply at first, but she finds herself being more and more drawn to the mysterious prince…

MeruPuri features some beautiful colour artwork as well as omake material from the artist, and is a bit predictable at times, but is overall a sweet story that features a few new concepts. Look for it the next time you need a quick shoujo boost!

Links:

Shojo Beat Official Website

Mirrorglass (Fanlisting)

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!

Ohisashiburi! Looks like I’ll be back to posting starting this month, and since the comments on the D.N. Angel blog entry have just been piling up and volume 11 is newly released in English, that seemed like the most logical thing to update first.

Tokyopop put out the final volume of the series on August 23, 2006, a full eight months after the release of volume 10. Even if you’d given up hope, you should be able to find it by now! Unfortunately, that is the final book in the series - for now - and the anime (which has been licensed by ADV and is available in a subtitled box set) is long since finished. The series does end with a bit of a cliffhanger, unfortunately - mangaka Sugisaki Yukiru is currently working on a series for Shounen Ace called EDEN, and the last time D.N. Angel ran in ASUKA magazine was August 2005. It’s not known when or if the storyline will continue, but if I obtain any new information on it I’ll be sure to post here. It doesn’t look like the novels or the animation-manga will be translated into English either at this point.

In any case, someone asked for a link to buy the English volume 11 online; perhaps you found the book by now, but if not you can pick it up on Amazon. Someone else inquired about buying the sountrack; for that I’d recommend trying CDJapan or Amazon Japan (search “D.N. Angel” in English). Both offer international shipping and English navigation to some extent. A link back to the D.N. Angel sheet music article is here for those who haven’t seen it. And I can’t give you guys any info on where to download the manga, which is what some people are commenting and asking for - wouldn’t you rather buy it and have a copy you can take anywhere? Support the industry, especially if you all love D.N. Angel as much as you say you do!

Feel free to ask any other questions you have, and if they’re within my power to answer, I’ll make a post or update with the info!

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

The English translations of Negima!(volume #7) and Fullmetal Alchemist (volume #3) appeared in USA Today’s top 150 bestselling books chart, based on sales through Oct 02. Not too shabby!

Source: Manga News

Viz has announced their newly-acquired English license to the Konjiki no Gash Bell (Zatch Bell in North America) manga, with plans to distribute the anime in DVD form as well. This manga is pretty big in Japan right now - the 22nd tankubon, published by Shogakukan, was seventh on the Top Ten list last week. Check out the press release and read more about Konjiki no Gash Bell here!

Another little bit of manga history for you all.

Doraemon, one of the longest-running manga stories (if not the longest) ever debuted in 1970 and 1,344 separate stories were released by author Fujimoto Hiroshi before the comic series came to an end.

As the story goes, robot cat Doraemon arrives from the distant future and appears to Nobi Nobita, a hapless, lazy, weak-willed boy, in order to prevent a future in which his descendants are near-destitute because of his lack of success in life. Nobita, a bit of a crybaby, depends on Doraemon and his never-ending supply of futuristic devices in order to avoid bully trouble, gain morals and do well in school.

In addition to the manga, a feature animated film is produced nearly every year, and continually enjoys success, although Fujimoto-san passed away nearly a decade ago. Though the manga is really intended for children, it is still an interesting read, and greatly important in the history of manga, due to its ongoing popularity with new generations.

Not your typical thief manga, to be sure!

On Niwa Daisuke’s fourteenth birthday, getting rejected by the girl he loves seems like the worst of his problems. Until something strange happens to him…he discovers that he is the heir to a thieves’ legacy, and now that he has come of age, he must take up the life of crime that his grandfather before him led! A cunning personality named Dark lives within Daisuke, and whenever he thinks too much about the girl he likes, he turns into Dark. Of course, there’s more to the intrigue when it’s revealed who Dark likes…and the presence of a classmates’ long-standing family fued with the Niwas comes to light.

This series by Sugisaki Yukiru is being published in English by Tokyopop, and the tenth and finally eleventh volumes will be released in the next few months. It’s a great mix of genres that you shouldn’t miss!

Links:
Yami o Sukasu
OFFRAMP
Blind

For all of you gamers out there, upcoming quite soon is the much-looked-forward-to Jump! Super Stars for Nintendo DS. It’ll be featuring characters from many of the manga in Shounen Jump, so head over to The Magic Box for more info!

The Magic Box - Jump! Super Stars

When presented with the choice of covering Sailormoon (known as, surprise, Sailor Moon in North America) in either the anime or manga section, despite the genuinely interesting deviances made the the anime, the manga is truly something spectacular, and if you passed it by thinking it was the same as the anime, you should think again. Aside from the breathtaking artwork, Takeuchi Naoko’s Moon Princess story is a true classic and well worth keeping.

Sailormoon got its start in Nakayoshi magazine after their sister publication, Run-Run, featured a short manga about a sailor-suited fighter, called Codename wa Sailor V. Fans will of course recognize Sailor V as the masked heroine in the early episodes of the anime and some of the manga, later revealed to be a true ally to Sailormoon. When Ms. Takeuchi was approched to turn Sailor V into an anime series, it ended up evolving into Sailormoon, while the new manga began its Nakayoshi run. It serialized from 1992-1997.

The story (my, it has been quite a while since I’ve read it) is that of Tsukino Usagi, an ordinary-seeming schoolgirl who has great power hidden within her. Having been searched for since a reincarnation from her past life, Usagi encounters a mysterious black cat who presents her with the opportunity (or shall we say…insists that she take the opportunity) to rid the world of the demons that pursue her and those she loves. She is joined later by the Sailor Senshi - one for each planet - a heroic masked man with secrets of his own, and many others. There are five basic story arcs, each one encompassing several tankubons of the manga.

Until very recently the series was licensed by Tokyopop, but it is now out of print and the license has been confirmed as expired. If you can get your hands on material copies of this series, it’s well worth having - and if not, refer to some of the links below to peruse scanlations of it and Sailor V.

Links:
The Manga of Takeuchi Naoko
manga style! pretty soldiers in sailor suits
Wishing Moon