Review: Vampire Hunter D – Vol 1

Here is a great review by Theron Martin over at Anime News Network.

SYNOPSIS
In the wake of an apocalyptic war, vampires – eventually popularly called Nobility – rose to supernatural, psychological, and technological dominance over humanity despite their daytime weakness. They rebuilt the world to their liking and, for thousands of years, subjugated what was left of humanity through power and terror. Gradually their dominance waned and a class of Hunters able to fight them and their genetically-engineered denizens arose, but still they remained fearsome presences. In the frontier village of Ransylva, farm girl Doris Lang, the tough and beautiful daughter of a Werewolf Hunter, has found herself the target of the ancient vampire Count Magnus Lee, who seeks to draw her into the Nobility and marry her, much to her dismay and to the consternation of the Count’s daught Larmica. Thus she seeks out the aid of D, a passing Vampire Hunter who also happens to be a dhampir (i.e. a half-vampire). What follows is a multifaceted battle between D and Doris, Magnus Lee, Larmica, village tough Greco (who is obsessed with Doris), and a deadly band of mutant bandits led by the suave but lethal Rei-Ginsei.

REVIEW
In the early 1980s, writer Hideyuki Kikuchi, heavily inspired by the 1958 American movie Horror of Dracula, penned the first of a long line of Vampire Hunter D novels, two of which would eventually be made into anime movies. The first, an iconic 1985 movie
based on the seminal novel, is one of those anime movies that nearly any anime fan whose fandom dates back at least to the ’90s has probably seen at some point, as despite its aged technical merits it still stands as a classic tale of a stoic hybrid hero and his battle against the forces of darkness. (And if you are too new to fandom to have ever seen it, Halloween is an ideal time of year to check it out.) Due to the popularity of that movie and its 2000 follow-up, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Digital Manga has spent the last three years releasing many of the novels in the series. No place is more fitting to start reviews with than with the original, however. Read more

Tokyopop Publishing ‘CSI’ Manga

Tokyopop has announced that it will release CSI: Interns, a full length OEL manga tied to the hit TV property, next September. The new work will not be a straight adaptation. Written by Sekou Hamilton, who has a TV background, with art by Steven Cummings (Pantheon High), CSI: Interns will tell the story of one of a group of teenagers taking part in an internship program at the Las Vegas Criminal Investigations Unit under the eyes of Gil Grissom and Catherine Meadows. When one of the bodies in the morgue turns out to be a classmate, things get too close for comfort.

The CSI manga will be one of a number of such OEL titles that Tokyopop is publishing, including its Blizzard titles, as well as Star Trek, Labyrinth, Ghostbusters, and Battlestar Galactica. As is the case with Star Trek, Ghostbusters, and BSG, there’s also a licensee producing American-style comics based on the property; IDW has the CSI comic license.

Source: icv2.com

Hellsing Manga To End After 11 Year Run

The November issue (released on September 30) of Shonengahosha’s Young King Ours magazine has published the end of Kouta Hirano’s Hellsing vampire action manga after 11 years. Hirano is planning to start his next work in the beginning of next year.

The same Young King Ours issue also announced that Fumino Hayashi, the manga artist of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days and Terra e… ~Aoki K?b? no Kiss~, will launch a new title called Kami no Dice in the December issue (on sale on October 30).

Dark Horse Comics will publish the ninth volume of the manga in North America this month, and ADV Manga finished publishing the six-volume run of Angelic Days last year.

Source: Anime News Network

Manga Review – ‘Wanted’

The Comic Book Bin has a review of the shoujo manga ‘Wanted’ by Viz Media…

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Wanted is a stand alone book collection of the shoujo (girls’ comics) pirate manga by Matsuri Hino (the creator of Vampire Knight). It focuses on Armeria, a young woman who boards a pirate ship disguised as a boy named “Arto.”

When she was a child, Armeria (named after a flower) saw her first love, Luce Lanceman, kidnapped by a group known as the Pirate Skulls. Eight years later, she’s aboard their ship, but Captain Skulls, a violent, arrogant, womanizer, has discovered Arto’s secret. How will Armeria fare in the hands of the skirt chasing pirate captain, and how is he connected to the lost Luce? Read more

Manga, Graphic Novels To Get Hugo Award Category

Manga and other forms of graphic novels will have their own category in the Hugo Awards, the most prestigious honors voted on by science-fiction and fantasy readers, for the first time next year. At the Denvention 3 event in Colorado earlier this month, the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) moved to add a Best Graphic Story category in the Hugo Awards at its annual business meeting. The category cannot be permanently added to the awards until 2010 at the earliest, since the move must be officially ratified at the next year’s convention. Read more

More Info On Tokyopop’s Ghostbusters

Benjamin Ong Pang Kean over at Newsarama has an interview with some of the creative team behind the Ghostbusters Manga from Tokyopop…

So yeah, who ya really gonna call?

Last weekend at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, IDW Publishing unveiled a new Ghostbusters comic book series and we spoke with writer Keith Champagne about it.

This follows TokyoPop’s announcement at Anime Expo early this month that they are producing a manga version of the Ghostbusters. Read more

Librarians Gather At Comic-Con To Stock Up On Manga

Are the shelves at your local library looking more colorful these days? Chalk it up to all the comic books — and the librarians who love them. Read more

Coming Soon: The Girl Who Runs Through Time Vol 1

Illustrated by Gaku Tsugano; Original story by Yasutaka Tsutsui

Based on a popular Japanese story that has been adapted into both manga and film, THE GIRL WHO RUNS THROUGH TIME shows that even though we might think the ability to change the past would be a great gift, it can also have some unexpected consequences. Read more

Steel Fist Riku Vol 1 – Review

Steel Fist Riku takes place in a vague time and place known as the “past.” Riku, our heroine, is the adoptive daughter of Rokuhara, a martial artist who also trained Riku. The world where Riku and Rokuhara live is inhabited by humans and large human-like animals.

Read more

Galactica Manga Coming In 2009 From Tokyopop

Tokyopop announced at Anime Expo that it will publish Battlestar Galactica: Echoes of New Caprica, in March of 2009. The OEL manga volume will be an anthology title with stories from a variety of writers and artists. Storylines will be built in close consultation with writers from the show, according to the announcement at the Tokyopop panel.

Dynamite has had the license for ongoing American-style Battlestar Galactica comic and trade paperback collections since 2005, which continue.

Source: icv2.com

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