CMX Closing Its Doors July 1st
Posted: May 19, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaney 25 Comments »
I figured I’d use it one more time, what the heck. This time in a much sadder context.
You know, I’ve been a manga fan since 1998. A lot of companies have come and gone. Many carried titles that I enjoyed. It’s always sad when that happens. Terrible for the company, the employees, and the fans.
But I’ve never been as angry about it as I am right now.
I’m not angry with CMX. In my opinion, they did no wrong. I could rant and rave all night about things like CMX being an imprint of no less than DC EFFING COMICS and getting very little promotional support. But basically it comes down to the fact that no other company has gone under with some of the absolute best titles in print like CMX. Also, no company that I can recall shuttered in what appeared to be good health. CMX’s strategy has changed over the years, including the types of titles they publish and the schedules for some of their older and established series, but they still published titles on time every month. Even the duds. They still licensed new series. There… there was just no sign that it was coming.
So, in my anger and frustration, a celebration. Here’s to one of the companies with the finest taste for shoujo in the industry.
I own 166 volumes of CMX series (soon to be more, since I’ll need to find the rest of Dokkoida, Seimaden, The Devil Does Exist, Venus in Love, and Cipher, and then I’ll need to pick up goddamn Emma). Almost all of them are amazing. I’m going to go through and give brief summaries of anything that strikes my fancy as I browse around my shelves here.
Go Go Heaven! – Did you ever read one of those series that you knew full well was awful, but you kind of liked it anyway? Writing about this series was one of the hardest things in the world. This is a humor series, and the early volumes had so many jokes and things going on per page that it was all I could do to follow the story. The characters were obnoxious, the plots nonsensical, and everything tended to repeat itself over and over again. Also, it was not funny. But the story of poor dead Shirayuki and the Prince of Hell who claimed her as his bride, and the way the two grow closer and closer through all the silliness and all the rebirths and evil things that happen… I just had to pick up every new volume. I know there aren’t many who appreciated this one, and I don’t even know that I’m one of them, but I was very faithful. The fact that we don’t get to see the ending… meh. I don’t think it was going anywhere. 8 of 13 total volumes.
My Darling! Miss Bancho – Aww, I only read one volume of this series about the typical doormat heroine entering a high school full of tough guys and becoming their leader, but I thought it was pretty funny. It was even better when I got to the back of the book and learned that almost everything was based off a real school. 1 volume of… 5, I think.
Oyayubihime Infinity – This falls in with the usual high school romance set, except it has the strange twist of finding the one you’re destined to be with by touching birthmarks on the thumbs together to find out if you were compatible in a past life. It has good character development to go along with its weird premise, and the main couple is very likable. 6 volumes, complete.
I Hate You More Than Anyone - This one took me a bit to appreciate, but the relationship see-saws and the drama between the huge cast of characters is so well done, and so well balanced with its sense of humor, that I couldn’t resist it after I’d read a few volumes. I also like the way it gives equal time to the side characters, and that their stories are just as interesting as the ones for the main couple. It’s more-or-less what you’d expect from a very good high school romance, but it’s got some sassy characters, and a heroine looking for a career as a hairstylist to boot. 8 of 13 total volumes.
Lapis Lazuli Crown – CMX published a lot of short shoujo fantasy series that were suitable for a young audience and were also charming enough to keep adults (or at least me) reading. I’m still trying to catch up with a few of them, but this was my favorite so far, a fairly standard story about a girl who’s bad at magic trying to improve herself so that she can be with her crush, the prince, in the palace. Despite its roots in the usual, the characters make this a very entertaining read, and it does a good job not letting the romance override the heroine’s quest to improve her skills. 2 volumes, complete.
Venus Capriccio – A solid shoujo title for the young set, this is a high school romance with the slight twist of the boy chasing after the girl. Light, happy, and romantic, with short stories that all feature happy endings. There’s not much to it, but it’s got great characters, a lot of charm, and any series with a young musical prodigy like Akira is bound to be interesting. 4 of 5 total volumes.
Cipher – 80s shoujo manga at its best, this features a pair of twin male showbusiness stars, Siva and Cipher, sharing one identity and one female friend as they each find their own way in life apart from one another. The touching coming-of-age story manages to cover three very different characters, all of whom are humanized and down-to-Earth, even the celebrities. It deals with topics like drug abuse, dependency, and death, and takes its time to show the affects on the characters and their lives. It’s also one of the most realistic depictions of America I’ve seen in a manga, complete with Thanksgiving. Written in the 80s, the author’s obsessive marginal gushing about Wham!, the Pet Shop Boys, and the Thompson Twins are also quite amusing. 11 volumes, complete.
Kiichi and the Magic Book – Among the best of CMX’s many series for young readers, the story of a little ogre boy that goes with a traveling librarian to escape a town where he’s ostracized for being different. Along the way, the librarian demonstrates the fantastic ability to bring illustrations from books to life. Eventually, we find out the ogre boy’s place in the world and the devastating effect his presence may cause others. It goes from very light to fairly serious, and I love the fantasy elements, the careful pace, and the way in which the world builds. 5 volumes, complete.
Astral Project – This funky story of astral projection, life after death, government conspiracies, and jazz greats slathered with a healthy dose of the philosophy of human nature is one of the most bizarre series I’ve read that still manages to be coherent and interesting. The plot veers off track periodically as new people are introduced that talk the main character’s ear off about things that are most certainly not his dead sister, but the ruminations on human nature never quite verged out of the realms of comprehension or believability for me. I can safely say that this and Parasyte are the only manga I’ve read that get their serious message across in such ridiculous ways. The fact this has great art doesn’t hurt, either. 4 volumes, complete.
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne – I’ve tried the magical girl genre several times. I think I’ve read every series by Arina Tanemura. This is the best of both worlds. It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, but the mix of romance, adventure, and dark plot twists with the promise of a happy end, all packaged in a super-cute superhero outfit hit the spot for me. It doesn’t hurt that Tanemura has some of the most adorable and detailed shoujo art out there either, perfectly suited to the story. For the record, I think this and Neighborhood Story are the only two series I’ve ever really liked from Ribon magazine, too. 7 volumes, complete.
Two Flowers for the Dragon – Son of a bitch! I just realized we’re not getting the final volume of this series. One lousy volume short. Anyway, another excellent shoujo fantasy featuring a princess that turns into a dragon, her two suitors, and an evil force that she and her entourage will need to figure out before all is said and done. More than the sum of its parts, the light mood through the initial volumes and the slow development of the characters and story make for an addictive read. The last volume took a bad turn, and I’m looking forward to the penultimate fight that’s coming up, but I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I won’t get to see the end. 6 of a total 7 volumes.
Presents – Not nearly enough people picked up this short series of short stories centered around the hilarious and sloppy ends that greedy people met when they decide to mess with Kurumi and her presents. Of special note are the stories featuring Santa Claus in volume 2. He shows what rotten lives the featured children will have if he gives them the presents they want, and then to rid the world of these future menaces, he murders them messily with the object of their desire. Funny, sloppy horror. 3 volumes, complete.
Venus in Love – I came to the party late on this series. A romance set at college rather than high school, but without the sophistication and drama that might imply. On the contrary, this is one of the most drama-free series I’ve ever seen, and excels at its good mood. All of the characters are happy, all of the time. Genuinely so. Bad things happen, like getting shot down by romantic interests, or sudden romantic rivals popping in, but the characters love nothing more than drinking life’s lemonade on a hot summer day. I’ve only read four or so volumes, and I’m not entirely convinced the immensely enjoyable stories are going anywhere, but all the same, I’m disappointed we won’t see the conclusion. 8 of 12 total volumes.
Moon Child – More 80s shoujo, but this isn’t a typical high school romance. This has mermaids from space, abusive male ballet dancers, little boys that turn into long-haired blond women, and the looming threat of Chernobyl being set into motion by one of the characters. Also, lots and lots of drama and strange fantastic imagery coupled with its environmentalist message. It kept me guessing with every volume, and had one of the most out there endings I think I’ve ever seen. A good example of some of the weirdest and best CMX had to offer. 13 volumes, complete.
Apothecarius Argentum – One of my absolute favorites, I think this was unappreciated even by CMX standards. It’s the story of a princess and her companion, a basilisk (a man poisonous in every way) who used to be her food taster, but then returns as the Royal Apothecary. The chapters are episodic, and move from the slow romance between the two out to encompass an incredibly engrossing political situation in the surrounding kingdoms. The kingdoms are given just as much detail and development as the growing cast of characters, and everything about it was perfectly suited to my taste, including the never-quite-overt romance. It’s one of the best shoujo fantasy series I’ve read. 8 of 11 total volumes.
Tenjho Tenge – Whatever, haters. I know all about what happened to this series, and it’s your loss if you haven’t read it. Far more than the sum of its breasts and fists, this series manages to take a plot about brawling at a tough school and spin it into an extremely intricate and involved story about the immediate past, the far past, and the future of all its characters. The cast gets a bit too large, and even Oh! great admits that the parts in ancient Japan are a little gratuitous and self-indulgent, but the mix of awesome plot and even better fights makes this one of the best and most entertaining action series I’ve read. Let me not understate this: the plot is very good. I promise. You wouldn’t think so from the first volume or so, but it is. The awesome art doesn’t hurt, either. I liked the art so much I picked up Oh! great’s hentai manga published in English (as opposed to Air Gear, which would have made more sense, but what can I say). This was a launch series, and I’m devastated that we’re losing it. 18 of a possible 21+ volumes.
Swan – One of CMX’s signature series, and a beautiful example of the heydey of 70s shoujo manga. This is the emotionally charged story of Masumi and all the drama that goes along with working your way up through the world of ballet. While I enjoyed all the plentiful, plentiful drama, the real highlight of this series was the art. A large chunk of every volume was dedicated to dance sequences, and sequential art has likely never seen dance scenes like this before or after Swan. They are absolutely beautiful, taking full advantage of the double page spread, different panel layouts, and an astounding range of emotions on the characters themselves as they dance. It is not so much that they are well drawn, but they are that. It’s that they are so beautifully composed that they really do make the characters move. A scene near the end of volume 14 made me nearly tear up for how incredibly it conveyed the dance and all the feeling behind it. Of all the CMX series, I’m the most disappointed that I won’t get to read the end of this one, since I have no idea what happens to Masumi’s career or love life. 15 of a possible 21 volumes.
And that about wraps it up.
… am I forgetting anything?
Yes?
Oh yeah, that’s right, my favorite goddamn series of anything on the planet.
From Eroica With Love - This breaks my heart, more than anything else. The exploits of the decadent international art thief Eroica and the oft-harassed and angry NATO Major Eberbach were impressive to me, most of all, because it crossed 30 years and two different cultures and was still one of the funniest manga I’ve ever read. Humor doesn’t age well, and honestly, jokes in manga usually aren’t funny to me. I’ve written about this dozens of times, so feel free to sort through my gushing elsewhere. But if you take anything away from this site, it’s the fact that you should read this series. Skip the first volume, but read the rest.
The biggest tragedy is that the English adaptation for this series is one of the absolute best. All the character’s various accents came across beautifully, and the rewrite is what gave Klaus and Dorian their snappy banter that no series does quite like Eroica. I’ve tried reading it in Japanese, and while the jokes are still there, it’s just not as funny. Even if another company did pick it up, unless Tony Ogasawara adapts it, I don’t think it’d be quite the same.
Worse still, it originally ended at volume 19, and the next four volumes make up the perfect high note to go out on, the funniest and most triumphant story the series has to offer. One of the best CMX swan songs would be to squeeze those out somehow, but that won’t happen. At least the volume we stopped on contained the end of another long story arc, along with a couple excellent short stories.
I’m not often attracted to series in a fannish way simply because it’s more my style to read things and move on. Eroica is the exception, and I’ve collected over a dozen artbooks, the Japanese volumes in two different formats, the different volumes that comprise the five spinoff/related series in a number of different formats, and every issue of Princess Gold magazine from January 2008 on. It was also this series that finally got me to start studying Japanese more seriously. More than anything else, CMX has given me the gift of Eroica.
I mentioned Eroica whenever it was appropriate, and often even when it wasn’t. I did everything I could possibly think of to try and get others to read it, and I know I did convince at least a few. I just wish… well. I wish I could still read it in English.
15 volumes in English, the series is still running today and is up to volume 36.
Oh Connie, this was a great, if very sad, post. As a fellow CMX fan, I enjoyed reading your short takes on these great series here, as I’ve enjoyed reading your many reviews of titles for the past months/years. Thanks again for your enthusiasm for Eroica—I just ordered some more volumes last night (too late to make a difference, but…), along with a bunch of other CMX stuff, to try and console myself, and I know I’ll want to catch up with the rest of the series when I can.
I can’t say I was shocked about this because nothing they released seemed to be a big seller, but that doesn’t make it suck any less.
The real strange thing is they had a number of series that they just started releasing and/or were going to start releasing that will never see the light of day. It feels like a really hasty decision, as this kind of thing usually seems to be preceded by trickling license acquisitions and smaller amount of titles being released. It also feels like cmx never had the full backing of DC when it came to promotion or distribution, as I constantly heard how hard it was to see their books at brick-and-mortar stores and how little buzz they had.
CMX going down also drives home the point that without a big time jp partner, releasing manga in the US is not worth it. CMX’s big exclusive partner was Flex Comics and I guess that just says it all.
My big worry is availability of CMX titles now. I hope there’s still a decent number of them in a warehouse right now so I can still pick up a number of stuff I want and not have this turn into a case where the company goes kaput and becomes impossible to find their titles except for outrageous prices. There are a at least 5-6 series I really want to get more and be pissed if I can’t give my money to someone in exchange for them.
As for a couple of series not already mentioned
Gon-Great, unlike any other manga. No words, no sound effects, just outstanding art and well drawn action scenes. I originally thought it would have a more cartoony art style, but then I read it and was blown away with how nice it looks.
Emma-Very good and the nice art at the early stages becomes really good as it progresses. Also enjoyable to read because you can tell the creator really likes the subject matter. I can imagine this being hard to track down as I had a hell of a time finding a couple volumes only a couple of months after they originally came out.
Fire Investigator Nanase-Sort of similar to Case Closed, interesting dynamic between protagonist and antagonist. I would really like to see how it finished but looks like I’ll be stuck at the halfway point.
All in all, it makes me feel crappy for being a manga fan and the state of affairs in manga publishing in the US. Prices are too high as is, I have a pretty high number of series across different publishers that will be forever incomplete, there’s only a couple of strong publishers left, etc. It makes me feel like I don’t get back as much as I give in money and the future doesn’t look too hot.
This has been probably the most heart-wrenching commentary I’ve read on the whole situation. When I read the news too, I felt like I was punched in the stomach. CMX’s titles are some of the best things I’ve ever read and they put a lot of love into their releases. Their work was always consistent and GREAT…DC never gave them a chance. NEVER. CMX’s stuff was never in stores!! How could new fans catch on?! UGH.
This has seriously been the worst week for us legitmate manga-fans…It makes me hate manga-cows, scanalators, scanalations, and people who only read those scanalations more than ever. I also despise DC for not helping CMX succeed….They will be missed so much.
-Two Flowers for the Dragon – Son of a bitch! I just realized we’re not getting the final volume of this series. One lousy volume short. -
GAH! I did not realize until this moment that they did Two Flowers.
Fingers crossed that, say, Yen picks it up.
What to say… it’s a sad day, of course… but I must mention one thing that always made me be pissed with CMX and that’s the horrible quiality of their paper and printing. (So I other than that unfortunate thing with Tenjo Tenge, I don’t think they didn’t do anything wrong.) Sure, not everytime but look at books like Emma, Oyayubihime Infinity, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne and so on. BTW, Emma is my favourite CMX manga series and I really think it should be among mentioned series. I ordered rest of the volumes from Rightstuf ASAP (with the rest of Astral Project and Chikyu Misaki) but I really wonder if I will be so lucky to get them all..
36 Volumes??? That’s quite an achievement.
It would be ironic if the cancelation of the CMX line actually INCREASED sales for the first time in years. My thoughts were that apart from the Tenjho Tenge controversy (which I never really cared about in the first place, but which set the tone for the line at a whole – if that was how they were going to treat their cash cow, how would more risique series fare?) – I felt they failed on other fronts as well.
One major issue was that most of the books they had when they were starting out were extremely stiff. Reading comic paperbacks should be easy, not a chore. I had to literally break the spine of some titles just to read them, and they were STILL too hard to open.
Also, every time I saw a subpar title on the comic shelf, my first thought was “It’s probably a CMX Manga”, and I wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Apart from a few worthy titles you’ve listed above, most of them were unfortunatly rather forgetable. If they’d made the effort to show WHY some stories were worth reading, they might’ve stood a chance. But they expected their audience to do all the work for them. Fanship is a two-way street. You need input and output to stay healthy, and the Otaku mentality might’ve been too foreign from the Fanboy mentality for them to comprehend.
The only title I’m reasonably interested in is Moon Child, and bought the first three volumes, but now, I’m wondering if I should take the plunge & purchase the rest of the series while I still can. Trouble is, I’m unsure if I’ll enjoy it as much as other people claim. There’s a page in the 2nd volume that’s EXACTLY like a page in Please Save my Earth that lets me have some conservatism. Of course, the 1st volume of Banana Fish “borrowed” the Warehouse from Akira & became something else entirely, so the rip-off analogy might not work here. Another problem is that what wows you might not be as equally impressive on me. I simply can’t get into Swan despite being a great fan of The Glass Mask.
I just remembered another title you forgot to mention – Chikyu Misaki by Yuji Iwahara. If the name sounds familiar, he(she?)’s the same author of King of Thorn.
http://shaenon.livejournal.com/56731.html
If another company decides to rescue any titles from CMX, that’s the child-friendliest one I can think of capable of gathering a wider audience. Just look at Yotsuba burning up the charts once it got swithced over to Yen Press. Strange that the same author who produced such a heartwarming tale also produced an Action/Horror Movie type Manga in King of Thorn.
Anyways, I took the chance to look up several CMX titles you recommended, starting with the finished series, such as Oyayubihime Infinity, Cipher & Astral Project.
So far, the first chapter of Oyayubihime looked interesting, though I wasn’t sure if I wanted to plop $30 for the first three books alone. I only managed to find the last volume of Astral Project in a shrinkwrapped cover, though the cover looked interesting. But Cipher looked to be the most intruiging of the lot.
I have a cardinal rule when purchasing Manga or any kind of comic. “Do I want to read this more than once?” After I read the first 50 or so pages, I instantly snatched it up. It didn’t hurt that it was in the discount pile with several Mangas (half of which were CMX titles) along with the 4th volume of Moon Child. (They also had another Manga by Reiko Shimizu, but for some reason, I couldn’t find it on either her or the CMX wikipedia)
Having had the chance to read it at a more leisurly pace at home, I was reminded of two more pitfalls against CMX.
1. – They had a tendency to be TOO faithful to the Otaku audience by not translating some titles to make them more interesting. TokyoPop may have caught some heat by translating some titles to make them sound more ‘Americanized’, but at least you understood what it was about. Oyayubihime Infinity may SOUND interesting, but what does it MEAN?? Until you take the time to read it, (and it could take awhile) the Japanese meaning can be totally lost on you.
2. – While reading the first page of Cipher, I was annoyed by how the text was portrayed vertically. It took me a good minute to figure out it was a retelling of the biblical quote of Cain being his Brother’s Keeper, and if any smote him, they would be returned sevenfold. If I wasn’t familiar with Sandman, it could’ve taken me much longer. And the vertical text kept switching around both ways in the book! It would be read from right to left, then left to right. Make up your mind!
BTW, Viz REALLY needs to rerelease PSME as an ombibus collection. Seven fat volumes worth of Reincarnated Psychic Aliens.
I hope I can find the rest of Cipher before it becomes unavailable! BTW, you should really finish the rest of your reviews on that series.
[...] talks about his favorite CMX titles. Kate at The Manga Critic throws out some facts and figures. Connie at Slightly Biased Manga gives CMX a send off by talking about many of their titles. Tiamat’s Manga Reviews looks at [...]
I’m fascinated with Go Go Heaven for the same reasons you are – and yes, I picked up every volume.
Thanks a lot, everyone, for all the feedback. It’s so nice to hear everyone’s thoughts on the publisher, too. I’m still pretty broken up about it, and I do love to hear how much they will be missed.
Holy crap, I just realized DC already took the site down. That’s sad.
I’m always tempted to pick up another CMX series, so I really appreciate all the recommendations, too. I’ve been on the fence about Fire Investigater Nanase since it sounds like something I’d like, I’ve already ordered some Emma, and I was actually waiting for volumes of Gon to come in where I work to give the series a try (which is bad of me, since I work in a used bookstore, but I plenty new stuff). I’m pretty excited about Emma, I know I’ll love it, the only reason I didn’t start it years ago was because I always like trying things off the beaten path first, and I figured Emma would be around forever.
DanielBT: I’d agree with you that CMX had a bad rep when they first started out, but I read it best somewhere else (perhaps on Simon’s blog on Icarus, which seems to be down at the moment) that a lot of the fanboys that were turned off by Tenjho Tenge and who wouldn’t forgive weren’t the types that were going to pick up stuff like Swan or Apothecarius Argentum anyway. I would disagree about the stiff spines being a reason they didn’t sell well, though. I doubt anyone held a grudge about that for six years, since it was changed within the first six months, and definitely hasn’t been a problem since they changed their cover designs in ’05 or ’06.
I would also disagree about the quality of their books. I’ve liked almost every single series I’ve read from them, and just the fact they publish it sometimes makes the difference on an uninteresting-sounding title since I tend to trust their taste. The only exceptions I can think of were Kikaider (more boring than anything else), Seimaden (which took a few volumes to get going), and Variante (which… was just bad). There are a handful that were so-so, but even those were generally charming enough that I was never really bored while reading them.
But I agree with you about the lack of marketing push. I think the CMX team did everything in their power to promote their series (they had an active twitter account, and always answered questions, the forums were also a good place to ask, and recently previews of a ton of volumes showed up on their site), but I think the fact their books were near-impossible to find in bookstores and the lack of marketing support from DC really hurt.
I’m amazed at how much I managed to talk about a Manga company that I was never that interested in in the first place. I gathered up all the commentary I posted around the web & collected them in one convenient place at my blog:
http://sundaycomicsdebt.blogspot.com/2010/05/cmx-commentary.html
One thing I can say for certain – looking for certain Manga volumes of a company you’ve continually ignored is much harder when you’re actually LOOKING for said missing volumes. I can’t remember the last time I was so panicked about searching every comic shop / 2nd hand bookstore in hope of finding an elusive CMX Manga that MIGHT be worth reading if only I’d taken the chance.
I now know how the posters on ScansDaily feel when they see pages of a quality comic series. “STOP DRAINING MY WALLET!!!” I’ve already used up the funds I was saving to pay for my future Wii. Curse you for making me feel so good and bad at the same time!
Maybe by the time I get the whole run of Cipher & Moon Child, the price of the Wii will go down, and It’ll come with a free New Mario Wii game. It’s my life, and I’ll delude myself as much as I want!
Thank you for this great list. I wish DC had done this much to promote their series, ’cause I would’ve supported them much sooner (I just wasn’t familiar with anything they did, outside of Emma).
This is heartbreaking. I did a little listing like you did, Connie, and the amount I own is pretty staggering; I feel your pain. When you invest so much into a company because you know it’s not getting the marketing support it needs or the bookstore presence so vital in convincing legal readers to buy, it hurts even more when it goes under. I posted my own requiem at http://notanotakunao.blogspot.com/2010/05/requiem-for-cmx.html, and it took days to finish it, which is sad on several levels. I really hope I get a better job soon, so I can collect faster before volumes I love start to disappear. What a mess.
The loss of Apothecarius Argentum alone is enough to make me want to cry. I never realized how much I loved CMX until DC anounced that they were cremating the company and scattering the ashes into the sea…memories of “Recipe For Gertrude” (my favorite Nari Kusokawa manga) and “Astral Project”…”Emma”, “Shirley” “The Palette of 12 Secret Colors,” “The Tower of the Future” (written by Please Save My Earth mangaka Saki Hiwatari)…all these beloved manga are just whirling through my head, as well as the regret of not buying what I may never get a chance to buy. It’s all too much for a manga fan. Thanks for the post! The next time I’m in a library or used bookstore I’ll give those titles a second glance…especially Eroica (If it’s as funny as you say it is, it should be right up my alley!)
but maybe…do u think that tokyopop would pick up i hate you more than anyone? seeing as they also publish v.b rose and that’s doing well?? i cant believe it. thats my favorite series. i am also sad about apothecarius argentum , swan and eroica. i doubt those last two have any chance of being picked up by anyone. which is very very sad indeed.
I’d love to see Tokyopop give I Hate You More Than Anyone another chance. Maybe you’re right, it’s possible they’d give at least something else by Banri Hidaka a try since V.B. Rose must really be one of the better series for them. I’d also love to see the prequel volumes to IHYMTA, there’s a couple omnibuses floating around that compile a few short stories and one-shot volumes about the other Akiyoshi siblings. But I’m under the impression that IHYMTA is the best by far at what it does.
I’m crossing my fingers for someone to pick up Apothecarius Argentum. It would be awesome if Viz started picking up a few Akita Shoten series, because in addition to finishing up Apothecarius Argentum (the next volume is the most exciting one in the entire series, no lie, and it’s yet another item on my list of regrets since it would have come out in July), they could also put out Tomomi Yamashita’s new series (about a pirate princess) and the shoujo-y vampire series by the author of After School Nightmare. And Eroica. I’ll just slide that in at the end.
Ugh, that’s right—Go! Comi was our main source for Akita Shoten manga, with CMX filling in some gaps. Man. Yen’s got an upcoming Princess title, though—Dragon Girl, by the same mangaka as Oyayubihime Infinity. I am very excited for that.
It would be absolutely lovely if Tokyopop picked up IHY (and I would be beyond thrilled for the other Akiyoshi stories). I may need to go on a mission to get more people hooked on VB Rose so that Tokyopop will consider it worthwhile.
Ooh, I didn’t realize that Dragon Girl was an Akita Shoten title by Toru Fujieda! Ooh, and it’s an omnibus… Yen Press doesn’t disappoint. Here’s hoping they dip back into the Akita Shoten catalog, because I could read Princess comics all day. And insane Shonen Champion comics, too, for that matter.
If only more people would hear this.
I just recently added another post about the CMX thing.
http://sundaycomicsdebt.blogspot.com/2010/05/cmx-take-2.html
The revamped Garfield comic there pretty much summarizes my feelings so far. Especially since I’ve revised my previous feelings for Swan.
Hi, just wanna ask: so SWAN vol. 16 will NOT be released!?!?!?!!!?!!?!?! and future releases too?? NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
p.s. pls reply me at rei.bellatino@gmail.com
grrr, i’m so sad!!! possibly more mad. i have 4 volumes of venus capriccio. (volume 4 is in the mail) granted, i’ve already read the series, but i’d planned to reread volumes 1-5 once i received all 5 volumes. grrrrrrr.
Ooh, I forgot that Venus Capriccio one was only a volume away from finishing. So sad, because I was a big fan of that one, too. I still need to pick up the second and fourth volume, so I can still enjoy it a little, but it’s another I’ll just be missing the ending of.
Wow, what an amazing series. I can’t believe I will never read another SWAN book. How heart-breaking. I was meaning to read Emma, but I never will, thanks to DC. Thanks a lot. What a great gift, leaving off a whole legacy of manga just like that.
I feel horrible right now, very VERY horrible. Someone has to pick up SWAN now.