March 2013 Manga/Light Novel Releases

Hey there nettaversers! I'm going to do my utmost best to do this every month from now on. Doing manga and novel release series take a lot of work and research but I believe I have found a way to make this easier by working on this entries the month before after this March entry. The next one will actually be posted next week sometime and when I see new releases for the upcoming month I can just update the entry. Hopefully this will work much better than what I was doing before by posting during the last week of the month sometimes ending up being too late as some volumes do release earlier then the street dates. Also, I'm not going to post about every publisher as there are smaller ones... I'll do my best to get all the major ones (I will also not be posting ones that only publish one type of series. For example June who publishes yaoi comics and DokiDoki that publishes the same).

March 2013

  [Website][March Permalink]

 Type: Light Novel

 Format: Digital

 Story by: Yukito Ayatsuji 

 Release Date: March 2013

 Price: $6.99 (Barnes&Noble nook)

 Pages: 240

 

 Type: Manga

 Format: Paperback

 Art by: Yuuki Kodama

 Release Date: March 2013

 Price: $18.99US/$20.99CAN

 Pages: 352

 Rating: Older Teen

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Story by: Sherrilyn Kenyon

Art by: JiYoung Ahn

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $12.99US/$13.99CAN

Pages: 256

Rating: Older Teen

  Type: Manga

  Format: Paperback

  Story by: Ryohgo Narita

  Art by: Akiyo Satorigi

  Release Date: March 2013

  Price: $11.99US/$12.99CAN

  Pages:176

  Rating: Older Teen

  Type: Manga

  Format: Paperback

  Story by: Ryukishi07

  Art by: Hinase Momoyama

  Release Date: March 2013

  Price: $18.99US/$20.99CAN
  Rating: Older Teen

 Type: Manga

 Format: Paperback

 Art by: JinHo Ko

 Release Date: March 2013

 Price: $11.99US/$12.99CAN

 Rating: Older Teen

 

 Type: Manga

 Format: Paperback

 Art by: Atsushi Ohkubo

 Release Date: March 2013

 Price: $11.99US/$12.99CAN

 Rating: Older Teen

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Story by: James Patterson w/Jill Dembowsk

Art by: Svetlana Chmakova 

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $12.99US/$13.99CAN

Pages: 240

Rating: Teen

[Website][March Permalink]

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Yuki Amemiya

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $19.99

Pages: 200

Rating: Teen

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Yuu Watase

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen

 

 Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Story by: Tsugumi Ohba
Art By:  Takeshi Obata

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Kouhei Horikoshi

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $9.99 ($4.99 digital)

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen

  

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by:  Mayu Shinjo

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen+

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by:  Hiromu Arakawa

Release Date: March 12 2013

Price: $14.99

Pages: 576

Rating: Teen
 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Yuu Watase

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen+

 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Naoki Urasawa

Release Date: March 19 2013

Price: $12.99

Pages: 200

Rating: Teen+

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

Release Date: March 12 2013

Price: $19.99

Pages: 576

Rating: Teen+

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Eiichiro Oda

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 216

Rating: Teen
 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Izumi Tsubaki

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages:  200

Rating: Teen

 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Toshiaki Iwashiro

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages:  200

Rating: Teen

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Rumiko Takahashi

Release Date: March 12 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen+

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Akihisa Ikeda

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 208

Rating: Teen+
 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by:Yoshiki Nakamura

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 576

Rating: Teen+

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Io Sakisaka

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 192

Rating: Teen
 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by: Takehiko Inoue

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.95

Pages: 200

Rating: mature

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Art by:Matsuri Hino

Release Date: March 5 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 200

Rating: Teen+

          [website]

 

 

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Story by: QuinRose
Art by: Mamenosuke Fujimaru

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 200

Rating: Teen+

  

Type: Manga

Format: Paperback

Story by: Hajime Asano
Art by: neet

Release Date: March 2013

Price: $9.99

Pages: 200

Rating: Teen+

[other manga releases are listed here]

US cover for Sankarea Vol.1= "Guro"

I remember getting into manga during my 7th grade year of middle school. That was roughly 10 years ago (wow! I've been a full blown otaku for a decade now) when most manga released officially in English could be put into either the "shojo" or "shonen" category. Any sub-genres were rare or hard to find in bookstores (there were a few such as SaiKano). Now a days, stuff like Flowers of Evil, Oreimo and now Sankarea are very common and almost shadow the innocent manga that filled American shelves a few years ago. This is mainly thanks to the company Vertical who has been releasing a lot of the more mature, border-lining guro series- but now it seems Kodansha (who's best known for releasing Tsubasa and XXXholic) has jumped onto the guro train with the zombie love story Sankarea!

The English release of volume one is still a few months away (June 2013) but the cover has been released to some shock. This version is much more guro than the original Japanese cover. I haven't read any of this manga yet, so I can't make a judgement call on if the American cover is more accurate to the manga than the Japanese one... but based on what the series is about maybe the new cover will help is sell since America seems to LOVE ZOMBIES?

Anyways, the first volume will be avialable in June for $10.99.

[Source: Kodansha; Sankaku Complex]

[AOW] Love Live! School Idol Project (2/24-3/2/2013)

Image copyright Sunrise

I have no real reason to feature this anime for AOW other than I've watched a few episodes and it screams "Idol M@ster x K-on!" to me which seems to be a mix that a lot of otaku like. 

Type: Manga adaptation/ Original

Genre(s): Comedy, Music

# of Episodes: 13

Synopsis:

 Their goal is simple: Become an overnight sensation and use their nationwide media exposure to promote their school and bring in a wave of new students to the ailing area. A simple but solid plan, they figure. Naturally, they're nervous and wonder if this plan can really succeed, but for better or worse their new journey has begun...

[PSVita] Final Fantasy X HD (announcement video)

From what I can tell, nothing is really "HD" about the game footage shown in the announcement video (and others on YouTube seem to agree with me)... Sony is starting to disappoint me a little. First they announce this HD remake then one day later they reveal the PS4... I still am upset about that because I know I'm not the only one who just got a PS3 last year. *sigh* Anyways, for anyone who hasn't played FFX, this may be a good chance to play it with possibly some nicer looking graphics on the PSVita (the trailer has PS3 in the title but according to SankakuComplex it's only for Vita).

[PSVita] What the Vita!?- Japanese Price Drop and New Color

There's been a flurry of PlayStation 4 news lately that the Vita seems to be going under a lot of people's radar. I owned a black Vita before but due to financial troubles had to sell it, regardless of that I loved the system and it was almost like having to sell a piece of myself. I hope to one day get a new one but I'm kind of holding out for either the color red (well one that I can purchase state side. There is a bundle in Japan that has a red Vita) or a price drop I can get behind- or when I have some expendable income to buy one. 

The Price Drop in Japan:

February 18th brought some interesting news for those who have been thinking about buying a Vita but don't want to pay $200+ to buy one new- well those in Japan. Both the 4G and Wi-Fi models have received a pretty nice price drop to ¥19,980 (about $212)... yet there is no sign of a drop in price outside of Japan. According to Japanator this is due to the Japanese yen dropping in value. Maybe one day (probably not till late 2014 or maybe if were lucky during the Christmas prep season this year) American's will see a price drop in the near future as well.

New "Ice White" Color:

While North American's are able to get a white Vita bundled with Assasin's Creed III, we have yet to get the bundle that comes with Soul Sacrifice (I really want that Red Vita) so getting the new Ice White Vita probably will not happen any time soon either. Ah oh well, at least Japan will be able to keep their handheld system cleaner!

[GIS] Where to buy?

[What is a "Gundam"?][The Different Grades of Gundam][Basic Tools]

I just realized while I did link to some places to buy Gundam in previous entry, I didn't specifically tell you what online sites are great for buying Gundam when you do not have a local place to buy kits. I myself have not bought a kit since my local shop temporarily closed (they're opening back up in March so I'm sure I'll be getting my Gundam buying fix soon after). You can also get kits on sites like Ebay, Amazon and any other bidding site but I'm going to show you official sites.

[go to site][Gundam]

Price Range:

¥100-7800+

$1-85+

HobbyLinkJapan is really good if you want to be able to preorder kits and buy directly from Japan without having to go through a 3rd party service. The prices are very good and the kits are packaged very well when being shipped- basically they come in tact and if you have a problem you can contact customer service. HLJ is very good about fixing problems such as a kit getting squished. I put this site first because they are good for more than just Gundam kits- you can get shirts, supplies and other things that aren't Gundam related.

 

 [go to site]

Price Range:

$30-$80+

You can get more than just Gundam kits here. There are even ones of the ship from One Piece. I myself have never used this site so I don't know if they ship their products well but I have had people recommend I order from here... so maybe one day I will!

 [go to site]

 Price Range:

$1-80+

The website promises a "110%" savings on price. That doesn't mean you get things for free though (as cool as that would be), but it just means they are set on giving you a good price which it seems they do. I have a friend who has build over 100 Gundam kits and he's bought a pretty good amount from here.

 [go to site]

HobbyWave is one of the more well known sites (after HLJ) to buy Gundam, but the advantage is this site is mainly Gundam with a few other series and divideds the products by grade and scale which is pretty convenient when you aren't ready for the high grades. I've gone to websites and seen really nice looking kits only to find out they were perfect grades or master grades when I had just started building Gundam and would get sad knowing my skill level was no where near where it needed to be for PG/MG. It's nice not getting my hopes up.

 [go to site][Gundam]

Price Range:

$2-85+

J-list is not the best for actual kits (I did a search today and did not find any but sometimes they do have kits listed) but for the magazine's that either focus exclusively on Gundam or feature Gundam. You can also get things like this figure:

 

Spring 2013 Anime

Usually I'd try and make a much nicer post but there is a really good chart so instead of making a full post I'm just going to post links to the websites of the anime series' premiering Spring 2013 (if there are any... seems a lot of these don't have official sites for the anime versions).

Watch:
My Sister Can't be This Cute 2 (Otaku) [ANN]
Maji Tantei Nougami Nuero 2 (Detective) [ANN]
Blue Friend (Tragic/ Dark Past/ Angst) [Baka-Updates Manga]
Baby Princess 3D (Slice of Life) [Wiki]
Usotsuki Mi-kun to Kowareta Ma-chan: Totteoki no Uso (Tragic/Mental Illness) [Baka-Updates Manga]

Maybe: 
Riko to Haru to Onsen to Iruka (Slice of Life) [Baka-Updates Manga]
Kettama! - Shuukyuu Raiotto Girls  (Sports) [Baka-Updates Manga]
Bokura wa Piacere (Slice of Life?) [VNDB]
Aorio (Slice of Life/ Romance) [VNDB]
Cure Girl (Slice of Life/ Romance) [VNDB]
Ryuusei no Rockman STORM (Tech)

Need to watch Previous Season(s) first:
Kuroko no Basuke- Winter Cup (Sports)[Wikia]
Area no Kishi- Forward Championship (Sports) [MAL]
Seikirei- Final Engagement (Battle Royale) [Wiki]
Kaichou wa Maid-sama 2 (Slice of Life?) [Wiki]

Skip:
Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke O (Yuri) [VNDB]
Nobara no Mori no Otometachi  (Yuri/ Shoujo-Ai) [Baka-Updates Manga]
Girl Friends (Yuri) [Wiki]
Imouto no Katachi (Sister Love) [VNDB]