PR: Viz Media Giving Away Prizes At Berserk Film Screening

I'm not even a Berserk fan and that swag bag looks sweet. If you live in San Fran, you definitely need to attend this screening and try to win you some!

VIZ MEDIA INVITES FANS TO CATCH AN EXCLUSIVE BERSERK ANIME DOUBLE FEATURE EVENT AT SAN FRANCISCO’S NEW PEOPLE CINEMA ON MAY 11^th

Screening Event Includes North American Premiere Of BERSERK: THE GOLDEN AGE ARC II – THE BATTLE FOR DOLDREY, And All Ticketholders Receive Exclusive Gift Pack

VIZ Media reminds anime fans of the upcoming special double-feature theatrical presentation of BERSERK: THE GOLDEN AGE ARC I – THE EGG OF THE KING and the exclusive North American premiere of BERSERK: THE GOLDEN AGE ARC II - THE BATTLE FOR DOLDREY taking place on Saturday, May 11^th at the NEW PEOPLE Cinema, located inside the dynamic Japanese pop culture entertainment venue in San Francisco’s Japantown at 1746 Post St. Two double-feature screenings (presented with dubbed English dialogue) are scheduled for 3:00pm and 8:00pm.

VIZ Media also invites Neon Alley members nationwide to catch back-to-back airings of BERSERK: THE GOLDEN AGE ARC I – THE EGG OF THE KING and BERSERK: THE GOLDEN AGE ARC II - THE BATTLE FOR DOLDREY taking place the same day at the same times – Saturday, May 11^th – at 3:00pm and 8:00pm PST. More details and sign-up information are available at: www.neonalley.com.

Manga Review: Manhattan Love Story

Manhattan Love Story
Author: Momoko Tenzen
June/Digital Manga Publishing 
200 pages

Diamond leads a pretty typical life in Manhattan - New York's city of love. He is an attractive florist, and has an equally good-looking lover, Locke, who is the influential head of a large Manhattan corporation. Unfortunately, Locke is constantly consumed by his work, but his love for Diamond remains an undying flame. Can this love stand the test of an over-zealous, workaholic boyfriend? (Source: Goodreads)

I always get nervous when a manga-ka tackles an iconic American city as the basis of their book. Not that I don't trust them to get the vibe and energy of the place but damn do their American names get ridiculous. And let's be real - names like Lock and Diamond are ridiculous. 

But I can forgive Momoko Tenzen for thumbing through a Japanese to English dictionary for main character names because they are just so darn adorable. There is drama, yes, but it is heavily tempered by the power of cute.

News: Naoki Urasawa's Monster To Get TV Adaptation

Via Crunchyroll: "Pacific Rim" Director Developing Adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's "Monster" Manga At HBO. The pilot will be written by Steven Thompson, who has written for Doctor Who ("Curse of the Black Spot"; "Journey To The Center of the TARDIS" and Sherlock ("Blink Banker"; "Reichenback Fall").

From the article:

"This project was originally considered for a movie at New Line, but proved too sprawling to confined to a feature film. Deadline also notes that it took del Toro a long time to woo creator Urasawa into being comfortable with Hollywood again after the original idea was scuttled."

It seems like a good number of manga are getting live action adaptations - XXXHOLiC, Library Wars, and now Monster - but this is the first for HBO. Will Monster find a good home along such programs as Game of Thrones and True Blood? 

Manga Review: Not Love But Delicious Foods

Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy!
Author: Fumi Yoshinaga
Yen Press
160 pages

The protagonist is a BL mangaka whose sole passion is food. Besides sleeping and working, the rest of her time is devoted to food. In each chapter, she or her friends visit a different restaurant. Various dishes are recommended each time, e.g., Hong Kong dim sum, French cuisine. Read this as an authentic guide to several restaurants which really do exist (at least at the time of publication). (Source: Manga-Updates)

Not Love But . . . is about two things: people and food, and how they crossover. It's also apparently a well drawn sales plan by multiple Japanese restaurants to boost sales - or it could be, since Yoshinaga's characters go into constant sumptuous detail about each and every dish to the point that you're left salivating on the page. I mean, she made hot fried gizzards sound absolutely delicious. That is a skill if not a gift all together. 

If ever there was a perfect manga for Japan-orientated foodies, Not Love But. . . is that manga (well, tied with Yakitake Japan, naturally).

PR: Viz's Neon Alley Premieres New Season Of Anime

VIZ MEDIA LAUNCHES AN EXCITING SPRING SEASON OF HOT NEW ANIME PROGRAMMING ON NEON ALLEY

Innovative 24/7 Anime Channel To Premiere ACCEL WORLD, BLEACH, FATE/ZERO and ZETMAN, With New Seasons of Favorite Hits Also Debuting

San Francisco, CA, April 16, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, has unveiled its new spring programming line-up for Neon Alley with 7 exciting premieres for the innovative anime channel available for the Xbox 360^® and Xbox LIVE^® as well as for the PlayStation^®3 (PS3™) gaming system and the PlayStation^®Network.

Set to premiere on Friday, April 19^th will be ACCEL WORLD, FATE/ZERO, and the Season 2 opening episode of LAGRANGE – THE FLOWER OF RIN-NE. Saturday, April 20^th offers the Neon Alley debut of BLEACH Season 1, as well as the exclusive English dub premiere of new NARUTO SHIPPUDEN episodes, the start of Season 2 of NURA: RISE OF THE YOKAI CLAN, and the launch of the intense action series, ZETMAN. Check NeonAlley.com for specific airtimes in your geographical area.

Neon Alley is VIZ Media’s 24-hour, console-based anime channel that features a variety of the world’s best titles (dubbed in English and uncut) and presented in HD (when available) for a low monthly subscription rate of only $6.99. For a limited time only, the service is also offering a one-week free trial available to all fans that sign up at NeonAlley.com.

Manga Review: Color

Color
Authors: Eiki Eiki, Taishi Zaou
Digital Manga Publishing (Doki Doki Imprint)
200 pages

Theirs was a miraculous and fateful first encounter! In a trance, Takashiro Tsuda gazed at the artwork that shared the same title as the work he had created. The title "Color," and the artist: Sakae Fujiwara. This coincidence was the driving force that led the men to inevitably meet, but what bond, if any, will the artists share? (Source: Goodreads)

Ah, Eiki Eiki and Taishi Zaou: two great tastes that go good together. 

English language manga readers know Eiki Eiki as the manga-ka behind Dear Myself and Princess Princess (also an anime) while Taishi Zaou is known as the manga-ka behind Green Light and The Day of Revolution. When they come together in one work, we get Color, a tour de force of romance, humor, and drama packed into one volume. Do me a favor and get it now.

A Quick Apology

Dear readers of Nagareboshi Reviews, I apologize for the lack of posts this past week! I've been so busy with school and work, I have not been able to care for this blog as I should. Happily, I've gotten things under control on all fronts so regular posting shall continue soon!

Enjoy a pretty song on my behalf and look forward to a new manga review on this blog!

Update On "Blue Hearts, Pink Hearts"

In my last post, I discussed the notions of gender in Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight/Ribon no Kishi. A great series of posts that hit upon the same things I did but in greater detail would be Gender-Bending in Princess Knight on the Sequential Tart blog. Below is one of my favorite parts of her first post in the series:

In the same panel, we are privy to Sapphire's thoughts of "I just ... feel weak in his presence ...." While the whole "girls get weak in the knees" philosophy is stereotypically used as a female reaction, men can have it too. Still, I was slightly annoyed to see that here. Thankfully, she immediately responds with "What?! You think I'll lose to you?" and disarms him, winning that round. More than weakness, her attraction to him is distracting her and his comment snaps her out of it. 

Author Sheena McNeil breaks down the manga part by part, panel by panel, and really takes a keen examined eye to Tezuka's most well-known shojo series. Don't read them until you've finished the Princess Knight manga!

Speaking of Vertical Inc. (that's the publisher that put Princess Knight in English!), read Ed Chavez on his company's digital manga strategy over at Good e-Reader. And then consider supporting them by buying a digital manga title for your e-reader/tablet (cough cough Twin Spica cough)!

Blue Hearts, Pink Hearts: Thoughts On Princess Knight

Taking place in a medieval fairy-tale setting, Princess Knight is the story of young Princess Sapphire who must pretend to be a male prince so she can inherit the throne (as women are not eligible to do so). This deception begins as soon as she is born, as her father the King announces his baby is a boy instead of a girl. The reason for this is that the next-in-line to the throne, Duke Duralumin, is an evil man who would repress the people if he were to become king, and because of this the King will go to any length to prevent him from taking over. (Source: Wikipedia)

Spoiler warning: Some spoilers for the Princess Knight manga beyond this point.

This weekend, I spent some time finishing Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight series, published in two gorgeous paperback tankoubons courtesy of Vertical Inc., as well as sending waves of unbridled WANT towards my pre-order for the first Rose of Versailles DVD set. Wait, how are these two related? Because thinking about Rose of Versailles' gender-bender ways spurred even more thoughts on its predecessor, Princess Knight, and the ideas of gender in shojo manga.

Princess Knight aka Ribon no Kishi is commonly held up as one of the earliest shojo titles and one that many later titles draw inspiration from. It's hard not to examine the series without taking into account that its one of the most definitive works in the genre. Without Princess Knight, we wouldn't have Rose of Versailles. We wouldn't have Revolutionary Girl Utena. We wouldn't have Princess Prince (Tomoko Taniguchi) or Hana Kimi or Basara (Yumi Tamura).

Fujoshi O'Clock (4/5/13)

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• The spring 2013 anime chart is now available on AniChart.net - and normally this would not be noted on a Fujoshi post except one of the titles is the shonen-ai series Vassalord.
• Do you love the OEL boys' love manga Off*Beat? Sure you do! Now there is a Kickstarter so that Chromatic Press can print the first two volumes of the series, just in time for the new non-Tokyopop volumes to be released.
• Kazuya Minekura's manga series Saiyuki Ibun and Wild Adapter are going on hiatus in Japan. Wild Adapter is her BL title; it was once a Tokyopop license before the company folded.
• Yaoi 911 has been updated with a lot of new goodies, including a new Artifice wallpaper and the print copy of the Artifice webcomic.
• Over at JapanPowered, Chris Kincaid has posted an article entitled Yaoi: History, Appeal and Misconceptions. It's a little simplistic and I disagree with some of his points regarding misogyny in yaoi but it's a decent read overall. Also: Black Butler is yaoi now?

Reviews:

• Connie at Slightly Biased Manga reviews I LOVE YOU, CHIEF CLERK! by Keiko Kinoshita, a Jmanga title so who knows when it will be available in English again.
• Experiments In Manga reviews THE HEART OF THOMAS by Moto Hagio and finds it a "historically significant and important work".
• The Hooded Utilitarian reviews volume ten of LOVELESS by Yun Kouga, which has recently been licensed rescued by Viz Manga. Earlier volumes, once published by Tokyopop, are being re-released in omnibus format by Viz as well.
• ふう子 at Hazukashii Kedo reviews the extras for KORE ORE by Ogawa Chise; so cute! Some images are NSFW.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

Manga Review: Durarara!! GN 4

Durarara!!: Volume 4
Author: Ryohgo Narita
Yen Press
176 pages

Dollars, rise up!! When Yagiri Pharmaceuticals crosses the line, the true leader of the Dollars steps forward to take command of the vast network of members at his disposal…Though this unobtrusive boy holds a disturbing degree of power in the palm of his hand, Celty is preoccupied by the powers that still control her head…At the end of the day, will her twenty-year search all be for naught? Or has she found something even more precious along the way? (Source: Yen Press)

Spoiler alert: Contains spoilers for the manga and the anime. Read on with caution!

So this is the end of the Durarara!! manga . . . well, until the Saika Arc, at least. Which is good, because I'm starting to prefer the manga over the anime in terms of focus and linear storytelling. Plus, it has much more Celty – and more Celty is always a plus in my book! Speaking of which, Durarara!!'s most recent plot arcs come to manageable and meaningful conclusions in volume four, creating a satisfactory end as well as a hook into the next story arc (the first volume of which is already available in English!).

PR: Viz Media Releases Latest Pokemon Film On DVD

© 2013 Pokémon. © 1998-2012 PIKACHU PROJECT.
TM, ®, and character names are trademarks of Nintendo.

VIZ MEDIA EXCITES FANS WITH THE DEBUT OF POKÉMON THE MOVIE: KYUREM VS. THE SWORD OF JUSTICE ON DVD

Latest Feature Film From The Leading Kids Entertainment Franchise Also Complemented By VIZ Kids Release Of Tie-In Manga Edition

San Francisco, CA, April 2, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, brings an exotic new animated POKÉMON adventure to fans of all ages with the DVD release of POKÉMON THE MOVIE: KYUREM VS. THE SWORD OF JUSTICE. Debuting today, the new film can be enjoyed by the entire family (rated ‘TV-Y7-F7’) and carries an MSRP of $19.97 U.S. / $24.98 CAN. A tie-in manga edition is also available now in stores under the VIZ Kids imprint, rated ‘A’ for All Ages and carrying an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

In the latest exciting POKÉMON feature film adventure, Ash and friends spot an injured Pokémon they don’t recognize during a train trip. They’re planning a rescue when the train is attacked by the Lengendary Kyurem! Ash and the others manage to get the unfamiliar Pokémon to safety, and they learn its story… The Mythical Pokémon Keldeo is on a mission to rescue its friends – Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion, the Swords of Justice – from Kyurem’s icy clutches. But Kyurem has other ideas, and when it transforms into Black Byurem or White Kyurem, for greater power, things look grim! Can Keldeo find the courage to stand up to this menace?

Library Wars Goes Live Action This Spring

I don't know how this has avoided my attention until now, but the light novel series Library Wars/Toshokan Senso has been adapted into a live action film, set to be released April 27th during Golden Week. Library Wars is best known by English-language readers as its shojo manga adaptation, currently being published by Viz's Shojo Beat imprint. I really hope Viz's live action film arm picks up the license for this - I love Library Wars!

You can watch the official trailer for the live action Library Wars film below.