Manga Review: Library Wars GN 9

Library Wars volume 9
Authors: Kiiro Yumi, Hiro Arikawa
Viz Media/Shojo Beat
192 pages

There's a groper in the library and Library Force members Iku and Shibazaki are sent in as bait! Iku's undercover outfit makes her vulnerable...will she be able to defend herself if the pervert targets her? Later, Library Force members are required to take a test that involves reading stories to a group of rambunctious schoolkids. Coming from a big, unruly family, Iku definitely has the upper hand! (Source: Shojo Beat)

If you're a shojo fan and you're not reading Library Wars, one of the star titles of the Shojo Beat imprint, then you are missing out on one heck of a series. Nine volumes in and it's still the mixture of action and drama that has kept readers glued to the page, as well as the unresolved romantic tension that keeps shippers writing thousand word ship manifestos on Livejournal. In this volume, we see Iku and Dojo's relationship take a dramatic turn, Iku show why she deserves her position at the library, and watch Tezuka slowly come out of his shell thanks to the charm of children.

What Happened To Bilingual Manga?

Don't worry, I'll keep this quick. So if Chihayafuru is getting a bilingual language edition in Japan and Kodansha Comics still seems to be publishing the odd volume of Japanese & English language manga, where are they in America? I can't exactly walk into Barnes & Noble and buy a copy of Chobits that is both in Japanese and English. You can possibly buy them through J-List, but that doesn't mean they're intentionally for a North American audience. The ones I've found on Amazon are out of print - and painfully expensive.

Honestly, I'd love to learn to read Japanese but my local community college isn't offering the course right now. Should I just grab a Japanese language edition of Naruto GN 1, the Viz Media edition of the same volume, and a basic guide to Japanese written letters and figure it out that way? I'm not even sure if that would work; translation is not an exact science. As for the method itself - well, I'm an autodidact but that's a bit nonsensical, even for me.

Please feel free to correct me on this, of course. But where is the bilingual manga in America? And why can't I find any of it?

The Story So Far: Axis Powers Hetalia

Axis Powers Hetalia volumes 1-3

Art/story by Hidekazu Himaruya

Published in English by Tokyopop & Right Stuf

Think of it like WWII, except every country is a pretty boy instead. A hilariously stereotypical pretty boy. America loves burgers, Russia is into the vodka, and China has pandas and a wok. It is centered mostly around Italy, who has both a North and South character. The Hetaria portion of the name is probably mocking Italy, as Hetare means 'Useless'.

(Source: MangaUpdates)

Axis Powers Hetalia is a divisive series and it's pretty much everywhere nowadays. Readers either love it to death or hate it with a burning passion. This series has dominated anime conventions, flooded Tumblr, invaded the cosplay and fanfiction communities, and made Funimation and Tokyopop mucho dinero. There's something about all these young men representing foreign countries that make the fangirls go absolutely crazy.

 It certainly helps that for the most part, all the characters in Hetalia are bishonen (I don't know about Turkey, though, having never seen him without his mask; he seems to be the Kakashi of Hetalia) or bishoujo. And history becomes 100% more interesting when pretty faces are involved.

PR: Viz Sets Release For Rinne no Lagrange on DVD/Blu-Ray

VIZ MEDIA DELIVERS THE NORTH AMERICAN

DVD AND BLU-RAY RELEASE OF

LAGRANGE: THE FLOWER OF RIN-NE SET 1

Kinetic Action/Comedy Sci-Fi Anime Series Created By

Production I.G. And Studio XEBEC Features A Sexy Cast And

A Sleek Robot Arsenal Designed By Nissan Motors

San Francisco, CA, June 4, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in North America, has announced the release of Set 1 of the spirited sci-fi action comedy – LAGRANGE: THE FLOWER OF RIN-NE – on DVD and Blu-ray on June 11^th. The 2-disc set, featuring the first 12 episodes of the series, is rated ‘TV-MA’ for Mature Audiences and will carry a DVD MSRP of $44.82 U.S. / $43.24 CAN; Blu-ray MSRP of $54.97 U.S. / $66.15 CAN.

Bonus features include Production Art, Clean Opening & Ending sequences, as well as 6 extra “Omake” shorts (the "Kamogawa Drama”) about the main characters’ day-to-day life in Kamogawa City. The set features both original Japanese (with English subtitles) and dubbed English dialogue options.

A Brief Update

I apologize for not having updated in a while - and for the fact that I may not update for a little while longer. I live in Saint Louis, which has recently been hit by really terrible storms, so I currently have no power and don't have access to the materials I was planning on posting about this week. In fact, I've spent most of my weekend just trying to find a place to crash and charge all my electronics and what-not until my power finally comes back on at home.

Which is not to say anyone should feel bad, because when it comes to storm damage, I came out better than others! But I'm just letting you know that Nagareboshi Reviews is still around, it's just sleeping a little bit - an unplanned brief hiatus from regular programming. Just don't try to knock it off its perch, you'll see it's nailed to it...