Lissa Pattillo
November 23, 2011 
Happy Thanksgiving to all the American readers out there! May your bellies be full of delicious food on Thursday and your bodies fueled to survive what I’ve heard is the madness of Black Friday. Whether you’re battling to get that perfect sale, surviving the retail world on the other side of the counter or just camping out at home to avoid the rush, a good volume of manga will help get you through.
Out in the open market this week are two mature rated titles from Digital Manga. A Fallen Saint’s Kiss is from their raunchy boys’ love imprint, 801Media. It’s a student-teacher love story where a confident senior named Tokiwa pursues his shy teacher with the promise of love, attention and adult-only toys.
Shocking Pink is their first title released under the newly formed Project-H imprint. It’s their line of hentai titles with two more one-shots already on the way. Starting out with an extra weird one, Shocking Pink is about a young man approached by a woman who claims she’s the reincarnation of an emperor. Claiming he has the same name as her previous chancellor, she’s dead-set on him becoming her strategist again so the two of them can… well, ‘strategize’, I’m sure. Remember, adults only!
DIGITAL MANGA
A Fallen Saint’s Kiss, ($17.95/US, $19.99/CAN)
Shocking Pink!, ($17.95/US, $19.99/CAN)
Kodansha Comics’ is releasing volume two of both Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V. While Sailor Moon will continue on, this second book marks the end of Sailor V’s solo story. The company printed 100,000 copies of the first volume of Sailor Moon and it’s been sitting happily atop bestseller lists for some time. Will the continuing story of a cute and clumsy teenage girl and her friends gaining magical powers to defeat evil, find the crystal and save the Princess be enough to take volume two back to the top of the charts?
KODANSHA COMICS
Codename: Sailor V (Vol.02), ($10.99/US, $11/99/CAN)
Ninja Girls (Vol.08), ($10.99/US, $11/99/CAN)
Sailor Moon (Vol.02), ($10.99/US, $11/99/CAN)
The lone book from Viz Media this week is Saturn Apartments—an adorably drawn character drama set in the far future where humans live in a satellite colony circling the Earth. The story follows a young man named Mitsu who is doing the work of his belated Father: washing the colony windows. When you work up above the stratosphere, it’s dangerous work indeed. In this volume, one of Mitsu’s friends and fellow workers collapses on the job and Mitsu needs to risk his own life to try and save him. But even if he can, what caused his friend’s collapse in the first place? Can he really be saved?
VIZ MEDIA
Saturn Apartments (Vol.04), ($12.99/US, $14.99/CAN)
Yen Press brings out the big guns this week with their release of a hardcover edition of Highschool of the Dead. Weighing in at four pounds, this colossal collection of manga is being re-released with the first four volumes in a single book and in full color, complete with a larger trim size and a bunch of extras. With the blood bright red and the breasts as buoyant as ever, you can double-dip or have your first experience with this story about a group of high school students battling their way through a zombie apocalypse.
Fans of the Haruhi franchise will be pleased to see two new books out for their dose of SOS Brigade antics. In Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Vol.10), Kyon is playing the role of cupid when an old classmate contacts him asking for help. After seeing Kyon walking with Nagato, his classmate was completely smitten. Getting an apathetic alien to respond to the affections, though? That’s going to be tricky. Haruhi regains the spotlight in Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan (Vol. 04), where Koizumi is trying to prepare everyone for the mayhem that’s bound to ensue on April Fool’s Day when Haruhi’s involved. Unlike the original manga, Haruhi-Chan is a collection of four-panel comics and short stories offering up even more hijinks.
YEN PRESS
Highschool Of The Dead Color Omnibus,
($49.99/US, $55.00/CAN)
Innocent, ($11.99/US, $12.99/CAN)
Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya (Vol.10),
($11.99/US, $12.99/CAN)
Melancholy Of Suzumiya Haruhi-Chan (Vol.04), ($11.99/US, $12.99/CAN)
Nabari No Ou (Vol.08), ($11.99/US, $12.99/CAN)
Omamori Himari (Vol.05), $11.99/US, $12.99/CAN)
Sumomomo Momomo (Vol.10),
($11.99/US, $12.99/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 be ship prior to or after the date listed above varying by location and availability.
