On The Shelf – June 13, 2012
GTO, Kitchen Princess, and more!

Kodansha Comics is giving readers a second shot at another series this week as they serve up their first omnibus volume of Kitchen Princess. Drawn by Natsumi Ando—who recent shoujo readers may recognize from her series, Arisa—Kitchen Princess is about a young girl who has a personality as sweet as her cooking. On a quest to find a young man who helped when she was young, Najika enters a prestigious private school with only a silver spoon as a clue. With love triangles, bake-offs, bullies, and magic, Kitchen Princess has a bit of everything for a heaping dose of shoujo fun. I'm looking forward to revisiting it now that it's out in these handy collected editions at 400 pages each.

KODANSHA COMICS

• Kitchen Princess Omnibus (Vol.01), ($14.99/US, $16.99/CAN)

Also revisiting a series is Seven Seas, with the first of several Alice in the Country of Hearts stories they've licensed. Readers may remember the series as being published by Tokyopop before the company shut down. Instead of just picking up where TP left off, Seven Seas has licensed one-shots that are spin-offs of the same original game.

Alice in the Country of Hearts: Clover Twins is by the same author but drawn by a different artist. It presents a fresh but familiar take on the characters. This book follows-up events from the original storyline, yet where once the shape-shifting Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum were trying to kill Alice, now they're competing for her affection. When you've got two known killers in love with you, it's safe to assume things are going to get messy...

SEVEN SEAS

• Alice in the Country of Hearts: Clover Twins, ($13.99/US, $15.99/CAN)

This week also sees the first titles from Viz Media's boys' love publishing arm, SuBLime. They've been releasing digital copies of their titles for a few months but these are their first titles to hit the bookshelves in print. SuBLime comes out of the gate strong with stories by two genre fan-favorites—Norikazu Akira's Honey Darling and Naono Bohra's Three Wolves Mountain.

Honey Darling is about a young man named Chihiro who isn't sure what to do with his life. He spends his days filling the void by hopping from girl to girl. Things change when he takes in a pet kitten and suddenly starts finding satisfaction in responsibility. When the cat becomes sick, he runs her to a veterinary clinic to save her, and meets an attractive vet. One decision leads to another and suddenly the two are living together, with Chihiro starting to learn as much about his new vet companion as he does about life itself.

Taking in strays elsewhere is Kaya Susugi, the loner lead of Three Wolves Mountain. He runs a small cafe during the day and protects an eerie cemetery at night deep in the mountains. When two werewolves arrive in his area, he finds himself the object of affection for the younger of the two, a clumsy but loving werewolf named Jiro.

SUBLIME

• Honey Darling, ($12.99/US, $14.99/CAN)
• Three Wolves Mountain, ($12.99/US, $14.99/CAN)

Bringing up the rear to cap off the week's stack nicely is the third volume of Vertical Inc's GTO: 14 Days in Shonan. In the previous volume Onizuka successfully rescued a girl who has been doing her best to make his life hell since the first book. With one of many problems fixed, his attention shifts to two old acquaintances. While one needs his help, the other is vice principal Uchiyamada, who is back on Onizuka's trail and determined to get justice for the trouble the delinquent teacher has caused.

VERTICAL INC

• GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (Vol.03), ($10.95/US, $11.95/CAN)

That does it for this week's On The Shelf – what on the list are you most eager to buy? Any must-have recommendations? Share your thoughts in our handy comment area for all our readers to see!

* All dates are based on distributor listings and may not necessarily reflect exact release dates. Some books may ship prior to or after the date listed above varying by location and availability.