Manga Monthly: Spring Into Fresh Manga

by Carrie Wood

Welcome back to Manga Monthly! Spring has sprung and so has a huge crop of new manga in the April PREVIEWS! This month’s lineup includes some classics and some new series that are sure to pique your interest, so be sure to preorder your favorites at your local comic shop!

Dark Horse gets us started this month with Wish (APR170103) by Clamp! Clamp is a manga collective perhaps best known for series that include Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits, but Wish is an excellent story that began way back in 1998 and has been out of print in the West for quite some time. The story follows Schuichiro, who rescues an angel, Kohaku, from being stuck in a tree. Kohaku offers to grant Shuichiro a wish-but to the angel's surprise, Shuichiro says no thanks - everything in his life is great! But little Kohaku isn't going to give up that easily, and moves in with Shuichiro. Soon they're joined by the demons Koryuu and Kokuyo, and the household becomes an earthly haven for love that's been lost-and a sanctuary for love that can't be run from! Longtime Clamp fans might also know Kohaku from her appearances in Kobato and Drug and Drop, so now’s the chance to learn more about her story!

Kodansha is adding on to one of their biggest series with the first volume of Fairy Tail Rhodonite (APR171835)! Since his sneering face first appeared, the Iron Dragon Slayer Gajeel Redfox has been a fan favorite among Fairy Tail fans. Now he's getting his very own adventure, all in one book! The "lone dragon" Gajeel Redfox has always been easy to spot even among the boisterious wizards of the Fairy Tail guild, but now he's disappeared! At the same time, a jailbreak rocks Fiore. What ties these events together? The answer lies in Gajeel's shady and selfish past!

Land of the Lustrous (APR171840) will also be making its debut courtesy of Kodansha. The story is set in a far future Earth, where humanity's distant descendants live on in a small group of sexless crystalline beings who must fight off an invasion from the Moon. The young gem Phosphorite can't seem to do anything right. "Phos" has nothing but a big mouth and guts. Cinnabar, a classmate, is a loner, shunned by the other gems because of the toxins emitted from their body. But when they get together, they will learn that they both have an essential role to play in the fight against the Moonfolk, who are intent on coming to Earth to abduct the gem folk and destroy their world.

Fans of Vocaloids can get their fix with the first volume of Hatsune Miku: Bad End Night (APR171943) from Seven Seas Entertainment! This is a new manga series featuring the popular Hatsune Miku, following the popular vocaloid here as an up-and-coming actress. Hatsune Miku is a young woman seeking to become an actress. Although she's finally gotten her chance, everything is thrown upside down when she finds herself hurled into the "world of stage" within a strange mansion. There she meets seven mysterious, and potentially dangerous, characters. Although each comes with their own secrets, they almost all have one thing in common — find the stolen script pages, or be trapped in this false world forever!

Tokyopop continues to expand their family-friendly Disney manga lineup with the first volume of Disney Fairies: Vidia and the Fairy Crown (APR172071)! When Queen Clarion's crown goes missing on the night of Pixie Hollow's biggest bash, all fingers point to one thief - the rude and standoffish fairy Vidia! To keep from being banished from Pixie Hollow forever, Vidia goes on an outrageous hunt for the crown that takes her from one end of Never Land to the Other. Can she find the crown in time to save Vidia's reputation?

Viz Media will be making a splash with the first volume of Golden Kamuy (APR172150)! In the early twentieth century, Russo-Japanese War veteran Saichi "Immortal" Sugimoto scratches out a meager existence during the post-war gold rush on the wild frontier of Hokkaido. When he stumbles across a map to a fortune in hidden Ainu gold, he sets off on a treacherous quest to find it. But Sugimoto is not the only interested party, and everyone who knows about the gold will kill to possess it! Faced with the harsh conditions of the northern wilderness, ruthless criminals and rogue Japanese soldiers, Sugimoto will need all his skills and luck-and the help of an Ainu girl named Asirpa-to survive.

Viz also has an excellent book on the way that can help manga fans learn the trade from one of the greatest masters out there – Hirohiko Araki, the mind behind JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure! The Manga in Theory and Practice (APR172155) book discusses Araki’s "golden ratio of beauty" for drawing, the "investigative reports" he draws up for each of the characters he creates, his methodology for storytelling inspired by the great Ernest Hemingway, and many more aspects of manga creation in this how-to guide penned by an industry legend. Even if you don’t plan on making your own manga, this is a must-read for any fan of JoJo.

Your Name is currently in theaters around the world, and is being hailed as one of the greatest anime films of all time – and now fans can get their hands on the Your Name Volume 1 (APR172198) graphic novel adaptation thanks to Yen Press! Mitsuha, a high school girl from a town deep in the mountains, dreams of an unfamiliar life in Tokyo. Taki, a high school boy from Tokyo, dreams that he is a girl living in the mountains. As the two change places in their dreams, their encounter sets a miraculous story into motion.

That wraps it up for this month’s highlights, but be sure to pick up a copy of the April PREVIEWS catalog so you can take a look at the full lineup of excellent manga! Stay tuned for more Manga Monthly next month here on PREVIEWSworld.com!