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moribundt-mores · 8 months

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Fandoms

By no means an exhaustive list (we're getting there) of everything I enjoy. Sometimes it's genuine "write 10k words" levels of brainrot. Sometimes it's just nostalgia (or my particular brand of trash). Either way I'm here to wear my influences on my sleeve and perhaps find other likeminded degenerates. ( ´ ◇ ` )ﾉ♡ Everything is listed in alphabetical order. ✧ Are my current obsessions (so long as I remember to update lmao). Parentheses contain my particular favorites from a set.

Television

ANIME

❀ Ace of Diamond ❀ Akame ga Kill ❀ Arakawa Under the Bridge ❀ Banana Fish ❀ Code Geass ❀ Fukigen na Mononokean ❀ Free! ❀ Gankutsuou ❀ Garzey’s Well ❀ Ghost Stories ❀ Gregory Horror Show ❀ Hetalia ❀ King of Bandits Jing ❀ Kono Danshi series ❀ Kyo Kara Maou! ❀ Legend of the Galactic Heroes ✧ Mawaru Penguindrum ❀ Natsume Yuujinchou ✧ Neon Genesis Evangelion ❀ Princess Nine ❀ Princess Tutu ❀ Samurai Flamenco ❀ Sarazanmai ❀ Shin Sekai Yori ❀ Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu ❀ Speed Racer (Mach Go Go Go!) ❀ Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ❀ Tsuritama ❀ Uchouten Kazoku ❀ Zetsuen no Tempest

OTHER ANIMATED

✿ Archer ✿ Courage the Cowardly Dog ✿ Dead End Paranormal Park ✿ Gravity Falls ✿ Hazbin Hotel ✿ Helluva Boss ✿ Infinity Train (Season 2, 3) ✿ Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir ✿ Moral Orel ✿ Southpark ✿ Superjail ✿ The Little Prince (2010) ✿ The Boondocks ✿ Ugly Americans ✿ Venture Bros

LIVE ACTION

❁ Andor ❁ Arrested Development ❁ Black Mirror ❁ Fleishman is in Trouble ❁ Haunting of Hill House / Bly Manor ❁ In the Flesh ❁ It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ❁ Mindhunter ❁ Our Flag Means Death ❁ Penny Dreadful ❁ Psych ❁ Russian Doll ❁ Severance ❁ The Boys ❁ The Sandman ❁ The Handmaid’s Tale ❁ The Prisoner ❁ The Umbrella Academy ❁ Trial and Error ❁ Twin Peaks ❁ What We Do in the Shadows ❁ Young Royals ❁ 13 Reasons Why

WEB SERIES

❁ Alien Stage ❁ My Student Spirit ❁ Petscop ❁ SCP

Comics

MANGA+

❥ Acid Town by Kyuugou ❥ Aku no Hana by Shuuzou Oshimi ❥ Angel Diary by Lee Yoon-hee and Kara ❥ +Anima by Natsumi Mukai ❥ Are You Alice? by Ikumi Katagiri and Ai Ninomiya ❥ Arte by Kei Ohkubo ❥ CLAMP (Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, and Tsubasa) ❥ Elfen Lied by Lynn Okamoto ❥ Fukigen na Mononokean by Kiri Wazawa ❥ Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa ❥ Full Moon by Arina Tanemura ❥ Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!! by Syundei ❥ Golden Days by Shigeru Takao ❥ Hai to Diamond by Mika Sadahiro ❥ Houseki no Kuni by Haruko Ichikawa ❥ Junji Ito ❥ Kaori Yuki (Angel Sanctuary and Fairy Cube) ❥ Kinoko Inu by Kimama Aoboshi ❥ Let Dai by Won Soo-yeon ❥ Lychee Hikari Club by Usamaru Furuya ❥ Moritat by Li Seon Ui and Seo Gyeong ❥ Natsume Yuujinchou by Yuki Midorikawa ❥ Oooku by Fumi Yoshinaga ❥ Osamu Tezuka (Buddha, Metropolis, Kimba the White Lion) ❥ Oyasumi Punpun by Inio Asano ❥ Pick of the Litter by Yuriko Suda ❥ Sakura Gari by Yuu Watase ❥ Seven Days by Venio Tachibana ❥ The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai ❥ Your and My Secret by Ai Morinaga ❥ .Hack//The Legend of Twilight by Rei Izumi and Tatsuya Hamazaki

OTHER COMICS

✧ Cinderella Boy by Punko ✧ Cursed Princess Club by Lambcat ➳ DC (Batman / Batfam) ➳ Everything is Fine by Mike Birchall ➳ High Class Homos by Momozerii ➳ Interview with a Murderer by KJK ➳ Jackson’s Diary by Paola Batalla ➳ Marvel (Spiderman, Deadpool, X-Men) ➳ The Sandman by Neil Gaiman & many, many more

*I don’t really read superhero comics anymore but if I do pick up an issue it’s gonna be Spidey or Batfam

Film (TBU whenever I go thru my Letterboxd)

ANIMATED

❥ Akira ❥ Arashi no Yoru ni ❥ Studio Ghibli (Earthsea, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky)

LIVE ACTION+

❥

Games

VISUAL NOVELS

✜ Boyfriend to Death series by ElectricPuke, Gatobob, Darqx, & more ✜ Beyond Eden by Studio Pieplus ✜ Ciconia no naka koro ni by 07th Expansion ✜ Echo by Echo Project ✜ ENIGMA: by Uzumeya ✜ Hashihime of the Old Book Town by ADELTA ✜ The Letter by Yangyang Mobile ✧ Umineko no naka koro ni by 07th Expansion ✜ Your Turn to Die by Nankidai ✜ 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim by Vanillaware

RPGM

✜ End Roll by Segawa ✜ Etrayu by Lucy Fox ✜ Freebird Games (To the Moon) ✧ Hello Charlotte by etherane ✜ OMORI by Omocat

GACHA

✜ Argonavis AASide (εpsilonΦ and Fujin RIZING!) ✜ Ensemble Stars (RYUSEITAI and Valkyrie) ✧ Fate Grand Order ✜ Fire Emblem Heroes ✧ Genshin Impact ✜ Granblue Fantasy ✜ I-Chu ✜ SinoAlice ✜ Touken Ranbu ✜ Twisted Wonderland ✜ Valkyrie Connect

SERIES

✜ Ace Attorney by Capcom (Apollo Justice) ✜ Atelier by Gust (Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al Revis) ✜ Fire Emblem by Intelligent Systems (Awakening, Sacred Stones, Thracia 776, Three Houses) ✜ Persona by Atlus ✜ Pokemon by Game Freak (Pokemon Black/White) ✜ Sonic the Hedgehog by Sega ✜ Zero Escape by Chunsoft

OTHER

✧ Baldur's Gate III by Larian Studios ✜ Cultist Simulator by Weather Factory ✜ Dragon Age Origins by Bioware ✜ Ecco the Dolphin by Appaloosa Interactive ✜ Edna and Harvey by Daedalic Entertainment ✜ Heroes Rise by Choice of Games ✜ Hamtaro HamHams Unite by Pax Softnica ✜ Hamtaro HamHam Heartbreak by Pax Softnica ✜ Hollow Knight by Team Cherry ✜ Lunar: Dragon Song by Japan Art Media ✜ Nier: Automata by PlatinumGames ✜ Night in the Woods by Infinite Fall ✜ Sally Face by Portable Moose ✜ South Park the Fractured but Whole by Ubisoft ✜ South Park the Stick of Truth by Ubisoft ✜ Stanley Parable by Galactic Cafe ✜ The Beginner’s Guide by Everything Unlimited, Ltd. ✜ The Last of Us by Naughty Dog ✜ Warrioland 4 by Nintendo ✜ Whispered World by Daedalic Entertainment

Theatre

PLAYS

❥ Angels in America by Tony Kushner ❥ Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard ❥ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard ❥ Shakespeare (Hamlet) ❥ Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare ❥ Sleep No More by Punchdrunk ❥ The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer

MUSICALS+

✧ Bare: A Pop Opera by Damon Intrabartolo & Jon Hartmere ❥ Evillious Chronicles by mothy ❥ Frankenstein: A New Musical by Mark Baron & Jeffrey Jackson ❥ Kagero Project by Jin ❥ Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, Jean-Marc Natel, & Herbert Kretzmer ❥ Marchen by Sound Horizon ❥ Moira by Sound Horizon ❥ Pippin by Stephen Schwartz, Roger O. Hirson, & Bob Fosse ❥ Queen of the Night by Dirt Poor Robins ❥ Roman by Sound Horizon ❥ Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd and Company) ❥ Tommy by The Who

Literature

CANONICAL

❦ A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess ❦ A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee ❦ A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket ❦ Arthurian Legends ❦ Camp Half-Blood Chronicles by Rick Riordan ❦ Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist) ❦ Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima ❦ Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky ❦ Earthsea Cycle by Ursula LeGuin ❦ Frankenstein by Mary Shelley ❦ Franz Kafka ❦ His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman ❦ James Ellroy (The Big Nowhere) ❦ James Joyce (Dubliners) ❦ John Fowles (The Magus) ❦ Jorge Luis Borges ❦ Kokoro by Natsume Souseki ❦ La Comedia by Dante Aligieri ❦ Lloyd Alexander ❦ Lord of the Flies by William Golding ❦ Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe ❦ Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray) ❦ Piranesi by Susanna Clarke ❦ Ryuunosuke Akutagawa (Hellscreen, Cogweels) ❦ Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle ❦ Simon Snow Trilogy by Rainbow Rowell ❦ The Binding by Bridget Collins ❦ The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ❦ The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien ❦ The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen ❦ The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ❦ The Neverending Story by Michael Ende ❦ The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ❦ The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner ❦ Two Brothers by Eugene Schwarz ❦ Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

LIGHT NOVELS

❦ .Hack// series by Tatsuya Hamazaki ❦ Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver by Hikaru Sakurai & Nakahara ❦ Full Metal Panic by Shoji Gatoh & Shikidouji ❦ Legend of the Galactic Heroes by Yoshiki Tanaka, Naoyuki Kato, & Yukihisa Kamoshita ❦ Kyo Kara Maou! by Tomo Takabayashi & Temari Matsumoto ❦ Spice and Wolf by Isuna Hasekura & Juu Ayakura

#mori's fandoms

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unexpectedreylo · 5 years

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What Happened To TROS

There’s a show I watch on occasion called “Autopsy: The Last Hours Of...” featuring a medical examiner going over celebrity autopsy reports and explaining why the celeb died. (It’s on Reelz, in case you’re as morbid as I am.)

Many Reylos have gone over every statement uttered about the film and analyzed every bit of footage to see just what heck was going on with this movie. Based on what’s come out in the press I was about to pitch my own autopsy theories. But every day more comes out about TROS! Chris Terrio digging his hole deeper, Colin Trevorrow’s alleged “script” leaking on Reddit! As of writing, South Korea got the Art of TROS book first so images have been leaking all over the place.

Here are my takeaways at this point:

Problem #1: J.J. Abrams’s brand of filmmaking. Abrams is really good at fast-paced, fun-filled spectacle. He is also good at not explaining things, at interrupting every conversation with action/danger, and at forced, unearned moments that are more about winking at the audience than advancing the story/developing the characters. Case in point: Kirk and Spock acting out the Spock death scene from “Wrath of Khan” in “Into Darkness,” only with Kirk about to croak (he doesn’t). The movie did nothing to set them up as close friends. They were still sniping at each other the whole movie. So it’s unsurprising TROS also had all of those elements.

Problem #2: There was no plan. What’s come out since the film’s release seems to emphasize that they really had no clue how to wrap this thing up because nobody had a clue who these characters were or what their story means beyond Chris Terrio’s curious obsession with Luke and Leia. The audience attributed meaning based on what we got in TFA and TLJ but it seems like hardly anyone behind the scenes had any idea what that meaning was. They threw away George Lucas’s road map and decided to just keep driving until they got somewhere.

Problem #3: There was no time. When I was a kid, I’d see t.v. ads for Paul Masson wine starring the late Orson Welles. The ads’ tag line was always, “We will sell no wine before its time.” Bob Iger’s philosophy is “FTS, give me that movie yesterday!” He announced a new trilogy to start in May 2015 at the end of October 2012. That was less than three years. Recall that it took months to find a director and they ended up junking Michael Arndt’s screenplay, with J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan having to do a quickie re-write in late 2013-early 2014. Abrams was casting the film at the same time. He asked for more time but all Iger would do is move the release date to December 2015 because he’d promised shareholders it would be out that year. I felt that TFA seemed a little rushed and this explains why. J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio were officially running the show as of September 2017. Originally TROS was scheduled for May 2019 but again Abrams asked for more time and the film was bumped back to December 2019. Still, that’s only two years and two months. Twenty six months to figure out how to end a trilogy, end a nine-part series, and work around the unexpected death of one of its stars. Oh and do all of this while you hadn’t given Star Wars a thought in years along with a screenwriter whose knowledge is pretty wonky. Is it any wonder why the script sometimes felt like it was written at the last minute by college students pulling an all-nighter on speed? By comparison, George Lucas started writing the OT in 1973, three years before he shot ANH and four years before release. He started writing the PT in 1994, three years before he shot TPM and five years before it was released. Star Wars wasn’t based on a novel or a comic book. The whole saga had to be cooked up from scratch. It required more time and more thought.

Problem #4: They didn’t get the best closer. After TFA, Abrams didn’t worry about the long game for the trilogy because the original plan was to be one and done. He never had to think about Rey and Co. ever again...until Colin Trevorrow got the hook in June 2017. I don’t know if Kathleen Kennedy had anyone else in mind or not. But I am certain Abrams was either Iger’s or Walt Disney Motion Pictures head Alan Horn’s idea. Why him even if he admitted he’s not a good closer? It’s simple: TFA made $2 billion. With no plan, limited time, and a few years of not thinking Star Wars at all, he had to quickly wrap up a series, something by his own admission he’s not very good at.

Problem #5: Too many disruptions. George Lucas somehow managed to survive changing directors for each of the OT, having to let Gary Kurtz go, and the end of his marriage to Marcia Lucas, who just happened to also be the films’ editor. The ST had to contend with Michael Arndt, Colin Trevorrow, etc. getting fired and someone else having to step in and work from scratch. Rian Johnson seemed to be the only one able to get through production unscathed, only to get his film retconned because of the internet peanut gallery. Carrie Fisher unexpectedly died, forcing everyone to rack their brains on how they were going to finish this without her.

Problem #6: They were totally out of touch with what audiences liked about the ST. Before the arrival of Baby Yoda, Kylo Ren was the most searched Star Wars character. Yes, even more than any of the OT characters. While lots of people love Rey, they loved Kylo just as much if not a tiny bit more. He was the one descended from the legends of our youth: Han Solo and Princess Leia, Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala. It also helped that a highly-talented, charismatic actor played him. I think audiences were rooting for him but didn’t expect him to die. Even people I know who otherwise really liked or loved TROS thought they shouldn’t have killed him off.

Reylo was also the gas in the ST’s tank, not only as a romantic duo but as physical representation of the push and pull of the Force itself. Their interplay makes each character more interesting and make the story overall more interesting (I had little to no investment in the Resistance vs. First Order brouhaha).

A logical person would’ve milked this for all its worth but instead they killed off their most interesting character and half of the most interesting relationship in the trilogy. They left their heroine alone in the desert. Had Ben Solo and Rey killed off the Emperor together and survived, and the movie ended with the two of them walking off into the sunset, TROS would have sailed past $1 billion and counting weeks ago.

#reylo #tros #ben solo #ben solo deserved better #ben solo deserved to live #reylo fandom

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recentanimenews · 3 years

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Manga the Week of 4/14/21

SEAN: There certainly is a lot of manga coming out. Remember years ago when some weeks had three or four titles?

ASH: It’s almost unimaginable any more.

SEAN: Airship has the 11th Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest in print, and the 4th volume of The Invincible Shovel in early digital.

Cross Infinite World has another villainess reincarnation story with Since I Was Abandoned After Reincarnating, I Will Cook with My Fluffy Friends: the Figurehead Queen Is Strongest At Her Own Pace (Tenseisaki de Suterareta no de, Mofumofu-tachi to Oryouri Shimasu: Okazari Ouhi wa My Pace ni Saikyou desu). A woman newly shunned by her fiance, the prince, finds herself now married to a different prince – one who hates women! But… his kingdom is filled with adorable creatures, and she doesn’t have to do anything but her hobby – cooking! No death flags here, just fluff.

ASH: I mean, I do like cooking stories?

SEAN: Denpa’s website lists femme fatale: The Art of Shuzo Oshimi for next week. An artbook dedicated to the creator of Flowers of Evil, Blood on the Tracks and more.

J-Novel Club has a veritable plethora of digital releases. Are You Okay with a Slightly Older Girlfriend? 2, Banner of the Stars 6, Black Summoner 4, Der Werwolf 11, The Ideal Sponger Life 2, Slayers 7, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: the Wayward Journey 11, The Tales of Marielle Clarac 6, and Tearmoon Empire 4.

Kodansha Manga has one print release, which is Witchcraft Works 15. Kodansha Books also has the 3rd volume in the Pretty Boy Detectives Club series. Thus all the Kodansha print releases next week are ex-Vertical.

MICHELLE: I didn’t love the first Pretty Boy Detective Club as a novel, but I’m still looking forward to the forthcoming anime!

SEAN: The digital debut next week is a full-blown josei title. It even runs in Be Love! Nina the Starry Bride (Hoshi Furu Oukoku no Nina) is an orphan girl who ends up being sold as a slave… to the royal family? Turns out she looks a lot like the recently deceased princess. Now she has to live her new princess life… no matter how much she does NOT want to. I’m interested in this, despite the well-worn premise.

ANNA: I am too, but I have a very poor track record with digital titles.

ASH: Likewise.

SEAN: Also out digitally: the final 16th volume of GE: Good Ending, Peach Boy Riverside 6, Shojo FIGHT! 16, Tokyo Revengers 20, and the 27th and final volume of Yozakura Quartet, whose first volume was put out by Del Rey in 2008.

ASH: Oh, wow, Yozakura Quartet is a series I haven’t thought about in a long while.

SEAN: One Peace has the third and final volume of I Hear the Sunspot: Limit.

MICHELLE: Oooh.

ASH: It’s a big one, too! (I got my hands on an early copy.)

SEAN: Seven Seas has some debuts, both based on light novels they’ve also released. Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells (Hazure Waku no [Joutai Ijou Skill] de Saikyou ni Natta Ore ga Subete wo Juurin Suru Made) runs in Overlap’s Comic Gardo, and Muscles Are Better Than Magic (Mahou? Sonna Koto Yori Kinniku da!) runs in Kadokawa’s Comic Walker.

ASH: For some reason I was expecting Failure Frame to be about windows and defenestration.

SEAN: We also get Gal Gohan 7, The Girl from the Other Side 10, Harukana Receive 7, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? 6, Love Me for Who I Am 3, My Next Life As a Villainess! 5 (manga version), and Reincarnated As a Sword 5 (also manga version).

ASH: Always glad to see a new volume of The Girl from the Other Side (although I will admit to being behind in my reading).

SEAN: And there’s three more Alice books – Nightmare, The Lizard Aide, and Toy Box – that get digital releases.

SuBLime has a 5th Candy Colored Paradox and The World’s Greatest First Love 14.

ASH: I’ve largely been enjoying Candy Colored Paradox.

SEAN: Viz debuts a new Shonen Sunday series, a phrase not heard often these days. Call of the Night (Yofukashi no Uta) seems to combine romcom and vampire stories together, and looks fun.

ANNA: Always up for more manga vampires.

SEAN: Viz also has more Shonen Sunday! Case Closed 78, Komi Can’t Communicate 12, Persona 5 6, Pokemon Adventures Collector’s Edition 7, Pokemon Adventures: Black 2 and White 2 3 (that title hurts me to type), Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle 14, and Splatoon: Squid Kids Comedy Show 3.

ASH: Yay, Sleepy Princess!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen Press debuts the manga version of the beloved light novel In Another World with My Smartphone. This early in the series there’s far less genocide to worry about, so I will cautiously recommend it. It runs in Kadokawa Shoten’s Comp Ace.

What manga will you read while waiting for your vaccination appointment?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Star Wars: Could Luke’s Missing Hand Be the Key to a Big Mandalorian Twist?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Luke Skywalker’s unexpected return on The Mandalorian last year reignited fan theories and speculation about the beloved Jedi hero’s involvement in upcoming Star Wars project. Will Mark Hamill’s CGI likeness return for The Mandalorian season 3 with little Grogu in tow? Is he destined to become a character who casts his shadow on all of the upcoming live-action series set after Return of the Jedi? Or was his last-minute rescue in Mando season 2 finale just a cameo designed to shatter the internet?

The completely unsatisfying answer is that we simply don’t know what’s next for Luke. We know where his story is ultimately headed, thanks to The Last Jedi, but we know he got up to many adventures between the Original Trilogy and his return in The Force Awakens. It’s not unreasonable to speculate that some of these untold Luke stories could intersect with The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, Rangers of the New Republic, or the eventual big crossover event that will tie all of these Disney+ shows together.

In fact, a new comic book released by Marvel has added a bit of fuel to the speculation fire, teasing not only Luke’s potential ties to the Palpatine and Supreme Leader Snoke clones in The Rise of Skywalker but also how Disney might re-tell one of the character’s most famous storylines from the now non-canon Legends continuity. It’s important to note here before we go marching into the Force cave on Dagobah that this next bit is pure speculation.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

As first reported by IGN, issue #11 of Marvel’s Darth Vader comic, which is written by Greg Pak and drawn by Raffaele Ienco, features a stunning revelation about the Emperor’s plans for Luke. Darth Vader, on the outs with Palpatine after his failure to turn Luke to the dark side in The Empire Strikes Back, is on a quest to kill his master once and for all. But when he discovers the Sith lord’s true power on Exegol, Vader thinks twice about going toe-to-toe with Palps, who is not only building a massive fleet beneath of Sith temple and already experimenting with cloning but also is in possession of Luke’s severed hand.

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It’s unclear in the scene what Palpatine plans to do with Luke’s hand, which floats in a jar before Vader’s eyes, but we know from The Rise of Skywalker that the Emperor spent years trying to perfect a method of creating Force-sensitive clones that could house his soul were he ever to meet his demise. Could Palpatine have used Luke’s DNA to create Snoke and later his own clones? Does this mean that Rey, the child of one of Palpatine’s imperfect clones, carries Luke’s DNA as well? It’s possible!

But the more interesting implication is that this brief scene could be weaving yet another story thread that ties back to Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Imperial villain who starred in the first Legends trilogy of post-Return of the Jedi novels, and who was also name dropped by Ahsoka in The Mandalorian season 2 episode “The Jedi.” You see, Thrawn’s Legends story, which takes place around the same period in which The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Rangers of the New Republic are set, was the first time Star Wars addressed what happened to Luke’s severed hand.

Until Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, fans could just assume that the appendage and the lightsaber had been lost deep within the gas giant of Bespin. But the final novel of the trilogy, The Last Command, revealed that the Empire had in fact recovered both Luke’s hand and lightsaber, and that mad Dark Jedi clone Joruus C’baoth had used the appendage to create his own Luke clone, whom he trained as his own dark side apprentice. The clone’s name? Luuke Skywalker.

Luuke, C’baoth, and Thrawn are eventually defeated by the real Luke and friends, bringing the action-packed trilogy to a close, but the story (and Thrawn himself) remain beloved parts of Star Wars lore to this day, even if it isn’t technically canon anymore. But while Disney once sought to refresh the Star Wars timeline back when it was first putting the Sequel Trilogy in motion, the studio has recently used shows like The Mandalorian and Rebels to bring back fan-favorite elements from the Legends continuity. Thrawn himself was re-introduced to canon as the main villain hunting down the Rebellion in the years before A New Hope on Rebels, while The Mandalorian brought back Boba Fett, dark troopers, and Tython as well as placed Thrawn back in the time period in which he was first introduced in the early ’90s.

One of Disney’s main goals with its take on Star Wars canon has been to tell one cohesive narrative no matter the medium. Several things teased in the modern Marvel comics and the Del Rey novels have later shown up in the movies and TV series. For example, Cobb Vanth, who was first introduced in a novel from 2015, headlined The Mandalorian season 2 premiere.

The point is that the reveal on Exegol could be subtly teasing the arrival of Luuke somewhere down the line, whether it’s in live-action on Disney+ or some other format. And it does leave one to wonder: what if the Skywalker who took Grogu was actually Luuke? That would certainly be the kind of huge twist that would lead to Mando trying to find his little green son once again.

For now, the dark side clouds everything.

The post Star Wars: Could Luke’s Missing Hand Be the Key to a Big Mandalorian Twist? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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renaroo · 7 years

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Wednesday Roundup 15/6/2017

So this is a day late but in my defense I had a ridiculous amount of comics to get through with no one to blame but myself here. And you know what? I genuinely enjoyed almost everything. But does that mean every comic was good this week? And even so what did I think was the best?

Honestly I don’t know how to write these intros for people who wouldn’t be here to read my opinion anyway so let’s just jump into it.

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC’s Detective Comics, DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester, DC’s Justice League of America, Image’s Motor Crush, DC’s Superwoman, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DC’s Titans, IDW’s Transformers: Salvation, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #21 Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk, Cory Hamscher, Terry Pallot, Michael Garland

Okay I need this issue to reread a million times over because there are just so many things I love all at once. Like, oh my gosh. I was almost in tears multiple times because relationships! Healing! Supporting each other!

Wade and Gabby alone could just about make this issue perfect, but then you have Laura and Daken hugging and worried about each other, and Old Man Logan being likable for the first time in any of my readings of him. There’s so much I enjoy, though I find the cover rather deceiving. This is much more of a Howlett family reunion than anything else, though I did enjoy Riri’s parts in it.

I just eriously adore these characters and it meant a lot to see them all come together like they have here and that cliffhanger HURT so much more for it.

I will nitpick the art a bit because we’ve been doing so good about keeping Laura in the Wolverine costume which is much preferred to her X-23 wardrobes, for sure, but this issue it pretty much looked exactly like one of her old costumes without the midriffs and it was kinda weird. I know she took off a lot of her armor for skin contact but it’s... idk. It was weird.

The main thing I’m happy about though is that as we go on, I realize that literally all of the Marvel books I’ve kept are going out of their way to not involve themselves in Secret Wars and it’s kind of beautiful. Laura and Gabby are stuck on an island that’s quarantined (and I can pretend Wade’s there with them instead of whatever’s going on since I dropped Deadpool for the summer crossovers, thanks Tom Taylor!), Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are literally off world, and the rest are non-616. So yay me!

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #8 Gerry Conway, Ryan Stegman, Jesus Aburtov

For those who don’t know, Mary Jane Watson is genuinely one of my favorite Marvel characters and is easily one of the reasons I ever stuck with the Spider-Man comics for as long as I did was because of my interest in her and wanting to see her and Peter.

I can also thank her for my genuine attraction to redheads probably.

But one of the main reasons that I’ve loved this book so much is because, as written by Gerry Conway, this is the Peter and MJ of my dreams. I love them so much, and the complications that comes from their relationship and from growing older, raising a daughter, and MJ’s desire to continuously be the glue to keep both Peter and Annie together logically causes her to seek out a way to continue being Spinerette without syphoning off Peter’s powers.

It’s almost like growing old, having a stable relationship, trying to keep things fresh while raising a kid, are all dramatic and worthy of good storytelling in their own right or something HMM.

Anyway, yes it’s completely on the nose where this is going and it’s a little curious how MJ’s not immediately aware of the connection between what’s going on with her right now and the horrible, arguably traumatizing experience she and Peter had, but who knows what’s canon anymore lol

Basically, I sideye a bit from a story point of view, but this series continues to make up for it with the real thing that matters to me: these characters and their development.

DC’s Detective Comics (2016-present) #958 James Tynion IV, Aluaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson

Honestly I really love the slower issues where Tynion takes more time to make moments for the relationships between the characters and give us interractions we didn’t know we wanted -- Kate going with Luke and Jean Paul to a basketball game, Cass and Clayface being adorable by reciting a play, Bruce at a poker game with a bunch of assholes in homage to Almost Got ‘im!? It was a lot of fun honestly.

...

Okay I take issue with Cass’ dialogue. I know she was repeating lines from a tape and such but it’s weird to see her make so much progress when just two issues ago she was almost monosyllabic. Like... I want to see Cass gradually learning, I want to feel her frustration with hitting walls, I want to see her struggle and achieve despite the struggle because that gradual progression was honestly something we weren’t delivered in the former canon. We have a great opportunity for it here.

But y’know. I’m particular with Cass and it’s hard to say where her baseline for reading and speech even is in this canon because her dyslexia may be in tact but her circumstances growing up are completely different. So I don’t know.

Now. I’m a sucker for Bruce and Zatanna team-ups because I’m a schmuck but I’m really excited for next issue. Had a lot of fun with this one. This feels like a decent pace for Tynion -- at least in my opinion.

DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016-2017) #10 Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Adam Archer, Massyk, Sandra Hope

This comic is speeding toward an end and I’m not sure if I’m ready!

From the beginning, for me at least, the selling point for Gotham Academy has been just how much these kids felt like real teenagers and real friends with all their various relationships and connections, platonic or romantic or something in between. And it’s powerful to see that coming to play as an advantage to completing Olive’s arc, but also as a disadvantage since the consequences of many of her actions hurt that much more.

I’ll save a lot of my thoughts for a complete wrap up of the series but overall, very happy and very grateful for the continuously good read that is GA

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Volume 1: Road to Rebirth Steve Orlando, Jody Houser, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald, Stephen Byrne, Jamal Campbell, Mirk Andolfo

WE GOTTA GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER. WE’RE ON A MISSION FROM GAD.

In all seriousness, I’m a huge fan of Vixen and Ryan Choi as well as a big fan of Justice League International, as it was in its 80s glory. So my interests with this particular lineup were piqued from the beginning and I made myself wait for the first volume to dive in.

For the most part, this is a team gathering exercise. Characters that have lacked the spotlight in the last few years -- Vixen, Ray, Killer Frost, and the Atom -- were given whole issues to reintroduce them to this continuity. And honestly those issues were great. I really, really love the updated origins for them and feel that they’re a good blend of honoring the past of the characters as well as adapting them for a new world.

Lobo, Batman, and Black Canary took back seat, but considering that there were already tensions showing within the group, I think it’s safe to assume that giving the spotlight to the rest of the team won’t always last this long. Things are nothing if not explosive among these members.

I really did mean it when I said this is a team gathering exercise, because there’s no first case to unite everyone. There’s not any real antagonists or team-ups we see to speakof. It was just getting hte jLA together.

And for me it’s enough to get me intrigued, though I’d completely understand if people told me it was far from enough for them.

Now they just need to add Big Barda, Booster Gold, and Ted Kord and I’ll be satisfied.

Image’s Motor Crush (2016-present) Vol. 1 Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr

I was not the biggest fan of this team’s Batgirl team though I appreciated the aesthetics and what not. There just never seemed to be a storyline that really interested me and I couldn’t be sold on the characterization for Barbara. So I kept hearing about Motor Crush for the last year and was really itnerested in it so I wanted until this volume came out and.

Well, quite simply, I’m in love.

Tell you what, those biker gangs that kept coming up really confusingly out of place in Batgirl make a hell of a lot more sense now that I can see this team’s actual passion project.

So I love Motor Crush a lot, I’m really invested in Domino, the mystery that is her origins and the powers of Crush itself. I love her relationship with her ex, Lola, I love her father -- I love just about everything and the cliffhanger really surprised me.

I will say that while I love having a world that speaks for itself rather than constant narration, it’s a little hard to follow this world entirely, I’d like a bit more explained than what has been, but at the end of the day I’m very excited to see more.

DC’s Superwoman (2016-present) #11 K. Perkins, José Luís, Ray McCarthy, HI-FI

You know, I have made it clear that I’ve been worried about this title for a while now, really just hoping it was going to find its direction and wow us with the great potential that is the Super Family outside of the main Kent triad. And I feel like that’s for good reason -- the end of Jimenez’s run let a lot of people feeling justifiably scorned, there was a mishandling of a lot of heavy and important subjects that were raised, and at least the initial stuff with Perkins taking over kind of left one wondering if they had a fully formed direction to go toward next.

But I am really glad that I stuck it out for this long because the family of John, Lana, Nat, and everyone else is so important and so fundamentally different from the dynamics found elsewhere in the new familial renaissance of the DCU that I needed it. And I hope it continues to emphasize these relationships and how important they are to each other.

I’m still unhappy with how anxiety and mental illness is being handled in the title and find it lacking since it was brought up to begin with and now being ignored. That subject alone is making me rethink my disinterest in Green Lantern books as a whole because I have loved and felt inspired so far by what I’ve seen of Jessica Cruz and their handling of anxiety, and it’s why I picked up Silk at the high recommendations of a close friend.

So I’d like for mental illness to be treated better in this title -- the least it can do after bringing it up and treating it the way it did at the end of Jimenez’s run, but there’s so much value in the non-nuclear family dynamic of the Irons household and of the uniqueness of Lana’s powers and her approach to fighting crime that it’s worth it. For me anyway.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011-present) #70 Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Mateus Santolouco, Ronda Pattison

I knew the end of this storyline was going to be, at the very least, explosive but wow, WOW I had no idea how many twists and turns it was going to take in that time. That was a phenomenal ending to the Mutanimals storyline for the time being, and I just feel so bad for Slash, down to my core. I’m so worried about him, and whenever he will be allowed to recover.

At least I hope he’ll recover.

This series is seventy issues strong and i’m just so blown away by the way they still manage to keep me on the edge of my feet while so many different storylines and character developments are happening at the same time.

I mean, I even feel for Old Hobb here!

I do suppose a complaint I could hold here is that the titular turtles themselves have ultimately not been very front and center throughout this storyline, and that really showed in the conclusion, where for the most part they were lost to the colorfulness of the huge, colorful supporting cast that has been developed over the years.

For me, personally, I think that’s honestly okay. We can’t have the same story over and over again with only the main four characters driving the narrative, and it’s been a long standing tradition in TMNT for a good 30 years now to sort of embody the concept that our main guys don’t really look for situations to get involved with but sort of fall into them naturally.

Not to mention it’s probably a strength that 70 issues in, we haven’t once repeated plots or stories or put any of the characters on a loop of development to end up right back where they started. I don’t think the achievement of that can be understated, especially as we near that landmark #75!

DC’s Titans (2016-present) #12 Dan Abnett, Kenneth Rocafort, Dan Brown

Bleh. BLEH. I was holding out judgment on the twist of Wally and Donna and Roy ending up in some kind of love triangle because I wanted the context but honestly the context is kinda... bleh. It would be awesome if we lived in some world and time where Donna’s origins were not constantly retconned and thus the source of her characterization in every run of every thing she showed up in. Which is by no means a new problem but still.

And my opinion is... Wally and Donna are both going through a hard time and Wally is having to accept that his life is fundamentally different from the previous world he knew, that he can’t just badger people into returning things to the way they were -- especially Linda, who he loves but it’s a very one-sided relationship as a result of the parallel universe paradox and stuff. It makes sense to me that in a ploy to gain some sense of control over that, he and Donna both would try to take fate in an unexpected direction, into their own hands.

But making it a love triangle with Roy just kinda keeps my eyes firmly rolled into the back of my skull.

I overall like Lilith, Dick, Garth, and Karen’s development and characterization in this issue. I think they’re taking Lilith in interesting directions and I’m really curious about what her omen means for the future, since apparently there’s a traitor among them. And they set up plenty of reasons for various members to be that traitor in this issue but I can’t help but assume already that it’s going to end up being a twist. Good twist or not remains to be seen.

IDW’s Transformers: Salvation (2017) John Barber, Livid Ramondelli

I’m going to be completely “original” here and say that I’m not a fan of Ramondelli’s at for the various Transformers comics. i know! I know. Shocking, never said before, completely going against the general fandom consensus. I’m such a brave soul. I know.

Okay, joking aside though... I didn’t think the art was bad in this one-shot. Actually! I’d argue a lot of it was even good. He may not be my favorite artist and I’ll think that his colo gradients are butt ugly most of the time, but there was better handled action sequences than usual, the characters looked like they had weight, and we even got a range of expressiveness in the characters that is... well, frankly, not usual for Ramondelli.

So other than that shocking revelation, I thought Barber performed good once more on tying the TF universe together again, answering some prior plot points and nicely knotting off loose ends. Trypticon being a Titan is not the biggest revelation in the world, but the development of Sandstorm and the Dinobots was great, and I loved just how devious Starscream truly is under Barber’s pen even though I’ve fully been enjoying the characterization for him in Till All Are One.

But the most important thing of all: SPARKLINGS. SPARKLINGS. All I’ve wanted for years is baby transformers so I am HAPPY BEYOND BELIEF. THEY’RE NO LONGER A DYING SPECIES AND THESE PRECIOUS BABIES COULD BE BORN WITHOUT EVER KNOWING THE CIVIL WAR AHHHHHHHH

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #24 Greg Rucka, Bilquis Evely, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

WOW! I mean, just wow! What a resolution to everything. I have so many emotions for Diana, for Barbara Ann, for even Veronica Cale of all people. Etta and Steve were great, the art was amazing.

It’s just such a relief and such... honestly just an amazing feat that Greg Rucka is beginning to wrap up this just phenomenal run of Wonder Woman

I really enjoyed how everything turned out and it was so remarkable to see Diana’s resolution to save Veronica but also to not turn her back on her friends and loved ones as well as the torment it is for Barbara to not be able to get into Themyscira after all her life’s work.

And I liked Diana’s assessment of Veronica at the end, it was true and also blunt to the point of cruelty. But fitting also.

It’s amazing what a turn around I’ve personally felt when it comes to Veronica’s character because in all honesty I was not a fan of her most of the time in the preboot, but Rucka really has fleshed her out and done something unique with her perspective now. There is tragedy but there’s also less deniability for her fault in all of it.

I’m sad to be coming toward Rucka’s end on the run, but I’m also so happy to see the love and passion he’s put into everything culminating to what it is now.

This is a genuinely hard choice but I think if I go by what tugged on my heartstrings the most, what gave me the most joy overall and just feelings unrelenting from start to finish, I would have to say that my pick of the week is All-New Wolverine. I adore this series and I couldn’t be happier with this issue and how they’re keeping my precious Marvel girls faaaaaar away from Secret Empire. A close second would be Wonder Woman but really I would happily recommend my entire pull this week. It was a geat week for comics.

But that’s just my opinion! I’d love to know your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? Think I missed something I should’ve picked up this week? I’d love to hear from you!

#Rena Roundups #SPOILERS #Wednesday Spoilers #All New Wolverine (2015 )#Amazing Spiderman: Renew Your Vows (2016 )#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011 )#Detective Comics (2016 )#Gotham Academy: Second Semester #Justice League of America (2016 )#Superwoman (2016 )#Titans (2016 )#Wonder Woman (2016 )#Motor Crush #Transformers: Salvation

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gokinjeespot · 5 years

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off the rack #1296

Monday, January 13, 2020

I knew my dad had an older brother living in Edmonton but I've never met him. I was introduced to him recently when my cousin sent me a picture of Uncle #2 taken while he visited with him and his other cousins there. I showed my dad the picture of his brother and his face lit up in a big smile. He hasn't seen him in decades. Uncle #2 is 91-years-old now and he and dad are the only surviving children from grandpa's first wife. I was glad that I gave my father that moment of happiness.

Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy #5 - Jody Houser (writer) Adriana Melo (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Gabriela Downie (letters). The trail to the Floronic Man leads the ladies to Manhattan's Central Park where they are met with a surprise. No, it's not Batwoman who guest stars this issue. It's a great cliffhanger to next issue's finale.

The Immortal Hulk #29 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (pencils) Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo & Cam Smith (inks) Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Roxxon sets a trap for the Hulk and it works. This is where monsters dwell. The scene with Betty and Bruce in the cafeteria was great.

The Dollhouse Family #3 - M. R. Carey (writer) Peter Gross (layouts) Vince Locke (finishes) Cris Peter (colours) Todd Klein (letters). We catch up with Alice as an adult while the flashbacks to the past shows us some weird creatures in a cave. The dollhouse makes a couple of appearances in each point in history but we don't learn much more about it. It's still really creepy though. The last page came as a total shock. I like this DC Black Label book.

Excalibur #5 - Tini Howard (writer) Marcus To (art) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This is the payoff issue for the first story arc and I'm out of here now. My biggest complaint about this book is that I find myself wondering what the heck is going on as I'm reading. I feel disconnected with the action because of the different locations and all the mutants involved. There's a major change to a major hero so you may want to stick around to see where that goes.

Young Justice #12 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) John Timms (art) Gabe Eltaeb (colours) Wes Abbott (letters). It was nice to see Warlord even though he was only in 4 pages of this massively dialogued issue. This book had just as many heroes running around and different locations for action as Excalibur #5 and yet not once did I feel confused or disoriented. I loved how all the Wonder Comics heroes were brought together. Especially that Miguel, the Dial H for Hero kid changed into a Miles Morales-like super hero at the end. This 12-issue run was Fun with a capital F.

X-Force #5 - Benjamin Percy (writer) Joshua Cassara (art) Dean White & Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). There's plenty of force this issue as Domino and Forge go to rescue Wolverine and Kid Omega. This new thing where every mutant can be resurrected if they die has me wondering when I'm going to get tired of writers killing characters just for shock value. Plus, the mutants can't lose now. So what if you die on a mission? I'm afraid I'm going to get bored with these characters again until the next big change.

Catwoman #19 - Joelle Jones (writer) Geraldo Borges, Aneke & Inaki Miranda (art) FCO Plascencia, John Kalisz & Laura Allred (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Selina comes to the rescue of family and friends and is partially successful. I like the new costume.

Black Cat #8 - Jed MacKay (writer) Dike Ruan & Annie Wu (art) Brian Reber (colours) Ferran Delgado (letters). What a great issue. The Cat and the Beetle go on a heist and we get some background on Felicia's life. It was fun until the last page when things get serious.

Conan Serpent War #3 - Jim Zub (writer) Luca Pizzari (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) Vanesa R. Del Rey (art James Allison sequence) Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colours James Allison sequence) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). There's a mysterious force manipulating everybody in this story and I'm staying with it until I find out what it is.

Star #1 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Javier Pina with Filipe Andrade (art) Jesus Aburtov (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Kelly's name in the credits made me give this a try. I'm not a fan of super villains being the star (har) of their own books but there are two women also in this comic book that I really like. If they're not enough to keep me reading then the God of Mischief certainly is.

Daphne Byrne #1 - Laura Marks (writer) Kelley Jones (art) Michelle Madsen (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). This is another creepy comic from the same imprint that puts out Basketful of Heads. It's 1886 in New York and Daphne is a very intelligent young lady who doesn't fit in with the others at Miss Farrow's School for Girls. Her mother is a patron of a psychic who claims to have communicated with Daphne's dead father. That may be a hoax but her dreams seem to be all too real. I miss seeing Kelley Jones's art on the racks so I hope to keep reading this book as it comes out.

Ruins of Ravencroft: Carnage #1 - Frank Tieri (writer) Angel Unzueta (modern day art) Guiu Vilanova (flashback art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). I saw the ads for this and didn't think I would be interested but I liked the art when I flipped through it so took it to read. Other than being connected to Carnage from the title I didn't know anything about this comic book, but seeing Misty Knight on the second page meant that I had something familiar to anchor myself. And then Mayor Wilson Fisk shows up. Ravencroft is New York's version of Arkham Asylum and it was a major location during the Absolute Carnage story. It's being torn down to be rebuilt and this issue gives us the history of the evil ground that it's built on. This establishes that the Venom and Carnage symbiotes have been around since forever because the history starts in the early 1400s. I don't know where this series is going but I liked it enough to want to check out the next instalment hitting the racks January 15, Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth.

The Clock #1 - Matt Hawkins (writer) Colleen Doran (art) Bryan Valenza (colours) Troy Peteri (letters). Again, it was the art that prompted me to pick this off the rack. I first appreciated Colleen's art in 1983 when she put out "A Distant Soil". I loved her detailed pen and ink work in black and white. Here she is in colour and it still moves me. Her expressions really convey what the characters are feeling. The story is about a cancer epidemic and the threat to the world's population seems credible. I'm going to follow young scientist Jack to see how he saves the world.

Marvels X #1 - Alex Ross & Jim Krueger (writers) Well-Bee (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I really liked the first Marvels series by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross showing the Marvel U through the eyes of regular people. This latest story features a young super hero fan named David trapped in his house after what seems to be the worldwide Terrigen Mist event when Marvel tried to make the Inhumans a big deal. David's entire family is lost and now he's off to New York City to find his heroes. I liked the kid so I'm going to follow his adventures.

Miles Morales: The End #1 - Saladin Ahmed (writer) Damion Scott (art) Dono Sanchez-Almara (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This $4.99 US one-shot really is the end for Miles. He lives to be a ripe old age and goes down fighting. I would only recommend this for collectors of all things Miles.

Deadpool #2 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Chris Bachalo (pencils) Wayne Faucher, Livesay, Al Vey, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba & Tim Townsend (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). I don't find Wade's new role as King of Staten Island, where monsters dwell, to be very interesting so I'm not going to read anymore of this. Much as I like Chris Bachalo's art, it's not enough to keep me coming back every month.

20XX #2 - Jonathan Luna & Lauren Keely (writers) Jonathan Luna (art & letters). We find out what newly minted Sym Meria's power is and how she's going to cope with it. The developments with the East Side and West Side gangs and Meria's new friend are interesting enough to make me want to read the next issue of this black and white book.

Fallen Angels #5 - Bryan Hill (writer) Szymon Kudranski (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). The team is set. Psylocke leads X-23, young Cable, Husk and Bling to Dubai to fight the super villain Apoth. The foreshadowing on the last page ratchets up the anticipation for the next issue.

The Amazing Spider-Man #37 - Nick Spencer (writer) Ryan Ottley (pencils) Cliff Rathburn (inks) Nathan Fairbairn (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Now that Absolute Carnage is done, it's time for Peter Parker to get back into the swing of things. He's testing a new device called the Clairvoyant that can predict what might happen in the future. I predict it's going to screw up his life big time down the road. The one thing I'm excited about is that a plotline that was put on the back burner is now cooking with gas. Kindred is back and he's hinting at how he's going to confront Spider-Man. As big a Spider-Man fan that I am, I still have no clue who this new super villain is.

Batman #86 - James Tynion IV (writer) Tony S. Daniel (pencils) Danny Miki (inks) Tomeu Morey (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). Let's welcome the new writer. He's got a tough act to follow but he starts his first story off very well. Batman gets wind of something big going down in Gotham City and has to deal with paid assassins gathering for nefarious purposes. There are major changes to get used to, the least of which is that Alfred is gone. Same with James Gordon, and the new Police Commissioner was a surprise. I probably would have continued to read this book because the art is so nice. Selina in the LBD at the fund raiser, MeeOwww.

Savage Avengers #9 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Patch Zircher (art) Java Tartaglia (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Conan holds his own as Doctors Doom and Strange battle Kulan Gath. When Stephen is felled by sorcerous venom Doctor Doom comes to the rescue. The amalgamation of the two Doctors was a fun surprise. If would be cool if the Iron Mage stuck around after this story.

Joker: Killer Smile #2 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Andrea Sorrentino (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Steve Wands (letters). The doctor is out, of his mind that is. The Joker has gotten into Dr. Arnell's head in this psychological thriller. I don't imagine that things are going to end well for the good doctor in next issue's finale. Thanks to Doug for lending me his copy to read after we sold out on the racks.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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10 Best Star Wars Planets in the Galaxy

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Like any good space opera, part of the appeal of Star Wars are the beautiful alien vistas. From the wonder of AT-AT’s marching over a snowfield to a massive city floating among the clouds of a gas giant, Star Wars has long transported fans to strange new worlds.

Over the last few decades, the movies and the Expanded Universe have introduced hundreds of planets, moons, and stars to form one of the most complete and complex tapestries of locations in sci-fi. But which are the essential planets of Star Wars? Which planets truly capture the spirit of the franchise?

Here are our picks of the 10 best planets in the Star Wars galaxy:

10. Kamino

The water world of Kamino exemplifies the maximalist approach of the Prequel aesthetic. Giant manta ray-like animals fly up out of the sea, a passing marvel with no explanation or relation to the plot. The Kaminoans aren’t a natively aquatic species, with their long, thin limbs, but they live on platforms like oil rigs, elegant fortresses against the endless ocean.

As the birthplace of the clones, Kamino’s largely desolate surface stands in stark contrast to the work being done inside its labs: giving life to the Clone Army of the Republic. Kamino wasn’t always an aquatic planet, though. At some point in the planet’s history, ecological disaster caused the water levels to rise, forcing the land-based Kaminoan civilization to adapt to their new conditions.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

9. Bespin

When Lando Calrissian flirts with Princess Leia Organa in The Empire Strikes Back, he does so by comparing her to the planet: “You look absolutely beautiful. You truly belong here with us among the clouds.”

Bespin is a gas giant with no accessible land surface, which means, like Kamino, the dwellings aren’t actually on the ground. Instead, Lando and other enterprising people created floating mining facilities to harvest the planet’s Tibanna gas, a vital fuel source for starships and their hyperdrives.

The planet’s function is eclipsed by its scenery, though. The colorful atmosphere makes Bespin look like a planet always basking in all the colors of a sunset, while Cloud City floats like a jewel in its sky.

8. Cato Neimoidia

While it barely pops up in the movies, Cato Neimoidia is nevertheless one of the most exotic locations in the galaxy, in large part due to the design of its alien architecture. City-sized bridges bristle with upside-down skyscrapers, while the dramatic arcs of towns and cities suggest an industrial jungle at surprising angles.

Why does life on Cato Neimoidia look this way? The answer is simple: this planet is covered in acidic seas, meanings the colonists had to build on rock spires and string bridges between them in order to have enough surface area for their cities.

Seen in Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars, Cato Neimoidia isn’t actually the homewolrd of the Neimoidians who settled it. Instead, it’s a “purse-world” colony built to store some of the species’ immense wealth. While this isn’t confirmed, it’s easy to imagine the name means “new Neimoidia” or something similar.

7. Zonama Sekot

A living, sentient world with its own psychic manifestation of its environment, Zonama Sekot is one of the strangest planets in the galaxy. Originally created as a prime location in the now non-canon New Jedi Order series of novels, the planet scraped its way back into official continuity on a technicality when an article on StarWars.com mentioned Zonama Sekot was a neighbor to Jakku.

This planet was a surprising place to the Jedi who first visited it, as no one had ever seen anything like a planet-wide consciousness or the living starships built there before. The name refers to two different entities: Zonama the planet and Sekot the consciousness. A peaceful being, Sekot can communicate through the Force and is fiercely protective of the creatures and people who live on Zonama. Those people use the magic of this world to create custom starships of animal-like intelligence that develop a bond with their owners. While a large portion of the planet is covered by jungle, it contains varied vistas like canyons and oceans as well.

6. Crait

Some of the most visually stunning images of the Sequel Trilogy come from the scenes set on Crait’s salt flats. A white crust of salt scrapes away to reveal the bloody-looking dirt underneath.

Created for The Last Jedi, Crait was the site of a First Order attack on the remnants of Leia’s Resistance. It’s also notable for the wildlife, gorgeous crystal foxes called “Vulptex” that sound like wind chimes when they move. At its best, Star Wars often finds a way to connect its characters to their environment, such with the Ewoks who use their forest to their advantage against a technologically advanced Imperial force. Since they’re covered in crystals, the Vulptex look like they could naturally blend into their salty environment. And they’re just so cute.

5. Kashyyyk

Speaking of nature, the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk (that’s three ‘y’s) is covered in forest and jungle. Wookiees use their claws to climb the skyscraper-sized trees. Because the forest floor is patrolled by predators (such as giant spiders) and carnivorous plants dangerous enough to take down even a full-grown Wookiee, civilization takes place mostly on platforms among the trees. These treetop cities (a staple of fantasy classics like The Lord of the Rings) are impressive for both their architectural wonder and how well they blend into nature.

Although it was seen in canon for the first time in Revenge of the Sith, Kashyyyk was technically first detailed in live action in the infamous 1978 The Star Wars Holiday Special.

4. Coruscant

The city-planet of Coruscant captures the intrigue and glamour of the galaxy’s capital. Originally created in the books for the original Thrawn trilogy, Coruscant eventually featured heavily in the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars.

Its mile-high cities mark a planet that has been effectively mechanized, no patch of ground remaining except for the top of a single mountain, now displayed like a boulder in a public park. Coruscant is a jungle gym for high-flying action scenes as well as a hub for political assassinations and the headquarters of the Jedi. When Luke talks about “the bright center of the universe,” that’s Coruscant during the era of the Old Republic.

3. Korriban/Moraband

Few places remain as mysterious as Korriban, the ancient homeworld of the Sith species who spent millennia practicing magic before a faction of renegade dark side Force users escaping a war with the Jedi discovered the planet. Korriban’s native species and these Dark Jedi eventually formed the Sith Order, the greatest enemy of the Jedi. Together, they built a great Sith Empire that waged war against the Republic, with Korriban as its center.

The ancient Sith Empire eventually fell, but Korriban remained as a sacred monument to the order of dark side worshippers. The Valley of the Dark Lords, for example, contained the tombs and relics of the greatest Dark Lords of the Sith, and in some cases, even the Force ghosts of those ancient figures.

While the planet is best known as one of the settings of the Knights of the Old Republic games and the Tales of the Jedi comics, Korriban eventually made its way to the current canon on The Clone Wars, renamed as Moraband.

2. Hoth

While Hoth gets some flak for being a prime example of every science fiction planet having one biome and one only, the Hoth battle plays with scale in a great way. The Rebels build their base underground in the snow and ice, so you never forget they’re on an inhospitable planet where they’ve been forced to hide from the Empire. Here too we have animals as an important part of the plot, with the wampa attack taking Luke Skywalker out of commission. And the Empire deploys one of the most vivid examples of their commitment to shock and awe: the AT-AT walkers, which stride across the plains like monster. At first they’re dwarfed by the landscape, but then they loom over the Rebels, giving their world dimension and scope. The snow-covered landscape creates a stark and uninterrupted landscape for the battle to play out on.

1. Tatooine

The Tunisian desert has become iconic to the galaxy far, far away. Although Tatooine in the fiction is supposedly the middle of nowhere, remarkable for being unremarkable, it’s actual the heart of the entire saga: Anakin Skywalker was born there and Luke Skywalker was raised there. Most characters in the movies have gone there at one time or another, leading to The Rise of Skywalker‘s epilogue where Rey visits Luke’s old home.

The desert has a universal appeal: while it stands in for a far away place for many viewers, many others live in or around a landscape that looks like that. The two suns are distinctly alien, but Tatooine’s towns and people are rural Anywhere. This mix of mundane and magical set the tone for Star Wars that propelled it for the next 40 years and beyond.

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Manga the Week of 1/25/17

SEAN: For a Yen week, this is actually pretty reasonable. Mostly as Yen moved a bunch of titles to the week after next, but hey.

Kodansha first, though. They’ve recently announced several new titles as digital releases. Deathtopia debuts next week, from the creator of Cage of Eden. This is a seinen title from Evening Magazine, and we’ll see if it’s as fanservice-laden as its shonen predecessor. It’s a thriller.

Wave, Listen to Me! gets the award for best title of the week. It’s an Afternoon manga from the creator of Blade of the Immortal. Fans of that series will be happy to hear this new one takes place… at a radio station?

ASH: I just found out about this series and I am incredibly curious about it.

MICHELLE: Oooooh! I especially like that the Kodansha site mentions “the beginning of an aggressive ramp-up in new digital manga series!”

KATE: Count me in for Wave, Listen to Me!, too. I’m a little biased — I teach a class on radio and television history — but I’m delighted to see a few grown-up options in the mix.

MELINDA: Oh, interesting.

ANNA: I am officially intrigued.

SEAN: And this isn’t out in volume form yet, but a new series from the creator of A Silent Voice debuts next week with 10 individual chapters, which catches us up with Weekly Shonen Magazine. Called To Your Eternity (Fumetsu no Anata e), it’s more supernaturally tinged than A Silent Voice but apparently just as depressing.

Kodansha also has an 8th print volume of Forget Me Not.

Seven Seas surprisingly only has one title out this week, given how much they’ve been piling on the books lately. It’s the 5th volume of Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary.

Vertical Inc. has the first volume of Nisioisin’s popular Zaregoto series, Decapitation: Kubikiri Cycle, though they emphasize they’ve only licensed this one volume, to tie in with the current Japanese OAV adaptation. It was actually released by Del Rey years ago; this is a re-edited version, and hopefully now that Bakemonogatari is popular it should see more readers.

Vertical Comics also gives us a third Immortal Hounds.

And the rest is Yen Press. First off, a 9th volume of capital letter and punctuation loving Akame Ga KILL!.

The 8th manga volume of A Certain Magical Index wraps up the adaptation of the 6th novel.

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody is the runner-up for best title of the week. As for the content, it’s a story where a guy finds himself transported to another world, gaining impressive powers, and surrounded by beautiful… wait, why are you running away? “Transported to another world” is this year’s vampires! This is the manga, the novel is out one week later.

First Love Monster has a 6th volume.

Fruits’ Basket Collector’s Edition reached Vol. 9, and get ready, because this is the one with THAT spoiler which shattered Furuba fandom forever.

MICHELLE: I continue to boggle that we’re up to this point already. But I also love that we’re still maintaining the secrecy of that spoiler.

SEAN: Horimiya has a 6th volume, and we’ll see if things advance on the romance front.

ASH: I’ve been enjoying Horimiya a great deal.

MICHELLE: Woot!

SEAN: I’ve enjoyed the light novel The Isolator, dark as it’s been, and so am pleased to see the manga adaptation is now coming out over here.

And there’s a 3rd volume of fantasy Liselotte & Witch’s Forest.

MICHELLE: I’ll be picking up this one, too.

SEAN: Murciélago also debuts this month from Yen Press. It’s a Young Gangan title that is apparently SUPER violent, and has humor so black it causes you to redefine “funny”. And it also has a lesbian lead, though this isn’t your cute high school girls sort of lesbian. I’ve heard good things about it (it has the Erica Friedman seal of approval), but with lots of “it’s pretty sick” warnings.

ASH: I’ve heard good things, too, but it definitely won’t be a series for everybody.

MELINDA: I would describe myself as interested, but skeptical.

SEAN: Rokka: Brave of the Six Flowers also has its manga adaptation debut (the novel arrives in April). It’s a fantasy series with strong word of mouth – real fantasy, rather than light novel fantasy. This adaptation ran in Shueisha’s now defunct Super Dash & Go!.

ANNA: Huh, I am always up for more fantasy manga.

SEAN: I was pleasantly surprised at how good I found the first volume of Scum’s Wish, though ‘pleasant’ is perhaps the wrong word for what’s going on with these kids. I look forward to the second volume.

MICHELLE: Same. Dark and complex, but not ecchi like the cover of volume one might suggest.

SEAN: Taboo Tattoo has a 5th volume, and is very Monthly Comic Alive.

Today’s Cerberus sees a 2nd print volume, and is still cute and silly.

You can’t have a long list of manga without at least one survival game title, and there is is: the 2nd volume of Tohyo Game.

Lastly, we wrap up the 6th Umineko arc with the 3rd and final omnibus of Dawn of the Golden Witch. I’m not sure when the 7th arc will begin – Yen hasn’t scheduled it – but this volume at least resolves Erika Furudo’s role in the series… at least for the time being.

A lot of new stuff this week. What appeals to you most?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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A Double Dungeon review

Dungeon Builder: The Demon King’s Labyrinth Is a Modern City!. By Rui Tsukiyo and Hideaki Yoshikawa. Released in Japan as “Maou-sama no Machizukuri! ~Saikyou no Danjon wa Kindai Toshi~” by Overlap, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Gardo. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Elina Ishikawa-Curran. Adapted by Julia Kinsman.

My Room Is a Dungeon Rest Stop. By Tougoku Hudou and Takoya Kiyoshi. Released in Japan as “Boku no Heya ga Dungeon no Kyuukeijo ni Natteshimatta Ken” by Takeshobo, serialization ongoing on the online site Web Comic Gamma. Released in North America by Seven Seas. Translated by Wesley O’Donnell. Adapted by Kim Kindya.

After reading both of these titles I decided to review them together. Yes, they both have ‘dungeon’ in the title, but more than that, they’re both clearly catering to the exact same audience: light novel fans who enjoy fantasy manga, or in this case adaptation of light novels we don’t have licensed over here. They both have suitably generic male leads – one may be a demon lord and the other may be a schlub in a tracksuit, but at the end of the day they’re not why you’re reading this. And there’s also plenty of fanservice. Which is why folks are reading this.

Dungeon Builder might be an isekai – we do see the new Demon Lord has lost his memories but knows what guns are – but the isekai part is mostly irrelevant. Procel is new Demon Lord of Creation, and has to create minions and dungeons that feed on people’s despair and fear. As the flash forward at the start of the book tells you, however, he is too nice a guy, so decides to make his dungeon the happiest place on Earth. It’s not clear yet how he’ll do this – the first volume doesn’t get too far into the story. He’s joined by Marcho, his busty demon lord mentor (that’s her on the cover) and two cute minions, both of whom look underage (something cheerfully pointed out by Marcho, who nicknames him “Lolicel”. This has slightly less service than the other title, and might develop into something interesting, but also seems to run on cliche power – his rival Demon Lord of Wind is a classic tsundere with shaky self-esteem that shows as arrogance. There’s also a dwarf girl who ticks the “rei Ayanami Expy” box.

My Room Is a Dungeon Rest Stop is more of a reverse isekai. Our hero Touru (Why? What that romanization now for that specific name? Don’t get me wrong, I was an ‘ou’ fan for the longest tine, but really?… sorry, back to the review) gets an apartment that’s dirt cheap… because once he moves in, the front door turns out to lead to a dungeon! Luckily, he can go out the window to his modern-day life. Exploring the dungeon, he comes across a passed-out adventurer girl and takes her back to his apartment, where she discovers the wonders of modern lie and explains a bit to him about dungeon life. Like Dungeon Builder, this title has barely gotten started. It’s a lot heavier on the fanservice – there’s a long sequence regarding the girl wetting herself from fear and the consequences of this that I really did not need to read about – and Touru is slightly more generic than the already generic Procel. As with Dungeon Builder, it opens with a brief flashforward showing us other characters who have fallen into our lead’s orbit.

I’d argue that both titles deliver what the intended audience wants, and will irritate anyone who is not in that narrow audience bracket. I’d say Dungeon Builder, based on its first volume, has more promise than Dungeon Rest Stop. I may get a second volume of the former. Still, if you like fantasy dungeon series with cute girls, these two books exist for you.

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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Manga the Week of 8/2/17

SEAN: The Dog Days of August begin with a manga pile worthy of an entire dog show.

Cross Infinite World has been releasing some shoujo light novels digitally, something I had shamefully forgotten till now. They have a release next week of AkaOni: Contract with a Vampire.

ASH: Oh, shoujo! I’d forgotten as well. It’s great to see these being released.

SEAN: Fantagraphics has the 2nd and final Otherworld Barbara omnibus, and I really really want to get it. Sadly, I actually ordered it from Amazon rather than Diamond, and for once Diamond is ahead of the game here.

MICHELLE: Woot. Looking forward to this one.

ANNA: Can’t believe I missed the first one, well now I can get both!!!!

ASH: Likewise, I’m going to have to wait for my copy, but I’m always excited to read Hagio’s work.

SEAN: J-Novel Club will be releasing the 3rd How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom. Take a shot for each mention of Machiavelli.

And we get our monthly Invaders of the Rokujouma?!, the 5th volume in that long series.

Kodansha Digital gives us a new Del Rey rescue with the 20th Alive.

Kodansha has a 22nd volume of Attack on Titan, which finally gives us a beach episode.

ASH: Hahaha! Does it really? I admit, I’ve fallen a bit behind in reading Attack on Titan.

SEAN: GTO: Paradise Lost has a 4th volume digitally.

As does suspense title Kasane.

There’s also 2nd volumes for new series Kounodori: Dr. Stork and Love’s Reach.

One Peace has two debuts hitting comic shops next week (and bookstores a bit later). I Hear the Sunspot (Hidamari ga Kikoeru) is from Printemps Shuppan, running in the mostly BL magazine Canna. This isn’t BL, and appears to be about a student with hearing loss. It seems interesting.

ASH: My copy of I Hear the Sunspot actually arrived early. I’m very curious about the manga and hope to read it soon.

ANNA: Huh, that does sound interesting.

SEAN: They also have a light novel debut, Mikagura School Suite. It seems to be a Battle School title, based on a series of Vocaloid songs.

Seven Seas has a 3rd Magical Girl Site, which despite its title is dark horror.

And there’s a 3rd There’s a Demon Lord on the Floor, which is comedy fanservice just as its title implies.

Udon has a 6th volume of Persona 3.

Vertical has a done-in-one manga debut. She and Her Cat is written by Makoto Shinkai, so expect a bittersweet ending, but it should be very good.

ASH: As many Shinkai manga are, I suppose.

MICHELLE: Of course I am entirely down for this.

ANNA: Done in one manga are certainly nice sometimes!

SEAN: And now it’s time for Viz. The 17th Assassination Classroom has the kids arguing about whether they should assassinate in the classroom, fittingly.

There’s a 4th Behind the Scenes!!, which I continue to be a bit lukewarm on.

And an 8th Black Clover, which will feel even more like Fairy Tail now that Fairy Tail has ended.

Bleach’s 3-in-1 release hits Book 20.

And Food Wars! has a 19th volume – will things continue to be ‘darkest just before the dawn’?

Haikyu!! continues its monthly release with its 14th volume. The Japanese release is around Vol. 27 or so, so we’ve a ways to go before we catch up.

MICHELLE: I’m eager for both Food Wars! and Haikyu!!.

ASH: I’m still loving this series, and loving that it’ll continue to be released monthly for a while yet.

ANNA: I clearly need to go on a big volleyball binge.

SEAN: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has another hardcover of its least impressive arc with a 4th Stardust Crusaders.

ANNA: I love these hardcovers and the insane action of JoJo’s.

SEAN: Rejoice! August means Kaze Hikaru, which may be only one volume a year but it tries harder!

MICHELLE: Yaaaaaaaaay!

ASH: I plan on picking it up!

ANNA: I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

SEAN: Kuroko’s Basketball has its 13th/14th volumes out in this omnibus, which will involve the characters playing basketball.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

ANNA: I thought they were all pastry chefs!

SEAN: Maid-sama! has come to an end with this 9th omnibus. Will Misaka be able to kick ass and take names? And how much blushing will we have? (Answer: so much.)

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to the finale.

SEAN: My Hero Academia is one of Jump’s biggest hits, containing a cast filled with characters everyone loves, and Mineta. The 9th volume ships next week. (Seriously, everyone hates Mineta.)

One Piece’s 83rd volume will continue to develop Sanji’s predicament and upcoming marriage.

Platinum End’s 3rd volume will be there for hardcore fans of this manga team.

So Cute It Hurts!! is almost over, as the 14th volume is the penultimate one.

Toriko is also almost over, though the 39th volume shows we have a few more to go.

Vampire Knight: Memories is the debut from Shojo Beat. It’s nice to see the author return to her most popular world, I guess, though I worry it’s because she wasn’t able to duplicate that success.

Yona of the Dawn’s 7th volume continues our PIRATES! theme, though I do not believe ninjas, zombies or robots feature.

ASH: I think I’m okay with that.

ANNA: I so enjoy Shojo Beat’s fantasy manga.

Yu-Gi-Oh! never quite ends, as this is the 11th 3-in-1 and we’re still not near the end.

Lastly, Yen Press has one straggler, as the third Twinkle Stars omnibus finally shuffles onto the scene, looking furtively at its shoes as it apologizes for being so late.

MICHELLE: <3

ASH: I quite taken with the first two omnibuses, so I’m glad the third is finally here!

ANNA: Maybe I will finally read the first two volumes that are stacked up on my to-read pile!

SEAN: Which of these titles dog your footsteps?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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Manga the Week of 7/19/17

SEAN: Duck folks, here comes another week.

MICHELLE: Quack!

SEAN: We start off with Dark Horse, which has a 2nd volume of Hatsune Miku: Rin-chan Now!

They also have the first in a series of collections of H.P. Lovecraft manga, The Hound and Other Stories. These are by Tanabe Gou, who seems to specialize in Lovecraft horror manga adaptations, and ran in Enterbrain’s Comic Beam (something Dark Horse actually point out, showing how big a name Comic Beam now has among Western manga fans).

ASH: Wow, two Dark Horse titles in one week? I don’t really have a particular interest in Hatsune Miku, but The Hound and Other Stories looks to be very intriguing.

SEAN: J-Novel has 3 titles coming out next week, as they continue to increase their publications. We get the 2nd Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, which is very, very “what teenage boys with a power fantasy want”.

ASH: For those who prefer physical media, it was recently announced that Seven Seas will be working with J-Novel to release Arifureta in print, too.

SEAN: And we have the 4th I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse, which I find slight but amusing.

And the 4th Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension, a title I enjoy far, far more than its fanservicey title deserves. Can’t wait.

Kodansha still has digital Del Rey rescues, with Alive 19 and School Rumble 21 (which may be its 2nd to last, depending on whether Kodansha cares about the one-volume School Rumble Z or not).

There’s a pile of print releases for once, starting with Aho Girl, a broad 4-koma series (which Kodansha itself noted they rarely do) about the titular girl, who is… well, as the title says. It runs in Weekly Shonen Magazine, and is best known as the 4-koma that isn’t Seitokai Yakuindomo.

In/Spectre seems like it may be coming to a climax, though I’m not sure how many volumes the manga will be. This is the 5th.

In digital news, there’s a 3rd Kasane coming out.

Princess Jellyfish has a 5th omnibus, as they try to save the farm by putting on a show in best Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney style.

MICHELLE: Hee. I’m looking forward to this. It’s less depressing than Tokyo Tarareba Girls!

ASH: I’m still thrilled this series was picked up for a print release. (Also, here’s hoping that Kodansha’s recent “digital-first” trend is truly digital-first and that we’ll eventually see titles like Tokyo Tarareba Girls in print, too.)

ANNA: Looking forward to this as well!

SEAN: Kodansha also has the 7th Sweetness and Lightning.

ASH: I’m really enjoying Sweetness and Lightning. It can be bittersweet and absolutely adorable in turns.

SEAN: The other print debut is Waiting for Spring, a “shosei” manga from Dessert about a shy girl who gets some life lessons from a group of handsome men. Despite that description making me wary, it’s apparently pretty cute and fluffy.

MICHELLE: I am cautiously optimistic.

ANNA: Might be worth a shot!

SEAN: The last Kodansha title this week is the 6th Welcome to the Ballroom. Will we finally get a more permanent dance partner for our lead?

One Peace has a 5th Kuma Miko, which some comics shops may have gotten already. It’s highly beariable.

Seven Seas has a 2nd volume of cute yuri title Hana & Hina After School.

ASH: I tend to enjoy Morinaga’s manga, but I still liked Hana & Hina After School more than I was expecting.

SEAN: There’s also a 4th Lord Marksman and Vanadis.

And lastly, a 7th volume of Magika Swordsman and Summoner (has he hit 72 yet?).

Vertical’s big debut is the first volume of Mobile Suit Gundam WING. This is actually the Endless Waltz manga – OK, the longer and better variation of the Endless Waltz manga – and currently runs in Gundam A magazine. Will it have Relena Peacecraft, that’s my question…

Vertical also has the 9th and penultimate volume of Nichijou. You’ll never guess the plot twists!… wait, no, Nichijou. You’ll never guess the random gags!

Viz’s Terra Formars has reached 18 volumes. My word.

MICHELLE: Jeez.

SEAN: Yen On’s titles mostly ship the week after next, but next week does give us the 3rd and 4th Sword Art Online: Progressive volumes digitally.

Yen’s manga titles are (mostly) shipping next week, starting with the 11th Akame Ga KILL!.

A mere 4 years after the last volume, here is the 7th The Betrayal Knows My Name. That should excite folks.

MELINDA: Woo hoo!

SEAN: A Certain Magical Index’s manga reaches double digits, and I think is still adapting the 7th novel.

And Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody has a 4th book.

Yay, a book I’m buying! An 8th Horimiya, a series I always look forward to.

MICHELLE: Me, too.

ASH: It is a great series.

SEAN: More light novel adaptations with the 7th Danmachi manga.

A print debut for a digital-only title from a while back, now getting an anime, Kakeguri – Compulsive Gambler combines the thrills of survival game-style manga with the joys of gambling.

ASH: While it’s not Kaiji, I’m still rather curious about this series.

SEAN: MORE light novel adaptations with the 4th KonoSuba manga.

Liselotte & Witch’s Forest has its 5th volume, which may catch us up with Japan – the author has been busy with her incredibly mediocre sequel to Fruits Basket lately.

MICHELLE: Yeah. Sigh.

SEAN: And an 8th Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, which I think has also caught up with Japan, though that’s for more normal reasons.

MICHELLE: I might have to hoard this one for a rainy day.

ASH: I can’t blame you for that; Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is SO GOOD! It always makes me happy to read it.

SEAN: Watamote, whose title is too exhausting to type out, has its 10th book.

The Royal Tutor is moving fast now that it’s in print – here’s Book 2.

ASH: The first volume was a little goofy, but fun!

SEAN: And we get a 2nd Smokin’ Parade.

And a 13th Spice & Wolf – is the manga wrapping up soon?

There is also a 7th Taboo Tattoo.

Lastly, we have a 13th volume of Triage X, which is lucky for me as I’m not reading it.

SOOOOOOO much. What interests you?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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