This is pretty much like my previous post, except it deals with manga instead of games. It won’t quite be structured the same as the first and will probably contain more manga than the last post contained of games. Manga seems to be increasing in popularity in the States, therefore increasing the demand and production of localized manga. There are a couple of manga that I’ve had my mind on since late 2006.

1) Galaxy Angel II

There wasn’t any doubt that I’d end up getting this eventually. I’m a pretty big fan of the GA graphic novels. Broccoli Books puts out pretty good quality books, too. Their paper quality seems better than Tokyopop. I’m hoping that the new cast of characters doesn’t suck. I’ll surely miss my Mint… I mean, the entire old cast. Hopefully, she/they will make several cameos in the first volume.

2) Nymphet (Kodomo no Jikan)

And you thought the back cover of Ichigo Mashimaro was bad. Now here’s something that you definately don’t want to check out in stores. The title doesn’t actually help things, either. I really don’t understand why Seven Seas decided to change the title to Nymphet. Perhaps, marketing towards a certain crowd, not that I should be talking given the title of this blog. The only thing that I know about this is the general synopsis: elementary school aged girl tries to seduce her teacher. The art seems okay-ish. It seems interesting enough to warrant a future purchase.

3) Shugo Chara

I’ve been looking at this one ever since pKjd posted this in his マンガ Praise. It’s a new manga by PEACH-PIT that I still know nothing about, but the art looks pretty cute. I believe Del Rey has the rights to this one, which means that we can expect a nice, quality release, although my first Del Rey manga, Negima! Vol.1/em>, fell apart as I was reading it.

4) Shakugan no Shana manga/novel

I know wanting both the manga and the light novel for this series may seem a bit weird, but it’s really not. Think about it, plenty of people who watched The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi went on to read the novel series (in Japan, at least, the sales of the novels increased while the anime was running.) I’m sure the same thing happened with other novel series made anime (i.e. Slayers and the Sekai Trilogy). After the first volume of each, I’ll probably decide to either continue reading the manga or light novels. I’ve already read the first volume of the manga series (scanlated, of course) at it seemed pretty good. I like the artist.

5) Venus Versus Virus

The only thing I know about this one is that the anime version of it is starting sometime this winter. From the Seven Seas website:

Sumire Takahana is a seemingly normal school girl cursed with the ability to see malevolent ghosts known as “Viruses.” Her life hits a crossroads after a run-in with a “gothic lolita” clad monster killer for hire, Lucia Nahashia. Not content to stay on the sidelines while these “Viruses” prey on the weak, Sumire decides to join forces with the mysterious eyepatch-wearing Lucia to hunt down these “Viruses” before they can hurt anyone else.