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Ok to spur things up this thread is like a ranting room for your current obsessions like series you are currently obsess with. Or series that you are interested in reading. Share or Rant it here, you'll never know if others have read or plans to read the series as well.

I might as well start ranting....

I am trying to get my hands on this series: Red River, Chobits, Clover, RG Veda, and Mixed Vegetables.

I am also trying to complete this set of series: Basara (which is hard!), Please Save My Earth, Tokyo Babylon, From Far Away, Moon Child, Key to the Kingdom, Apothecarius Argentum, Hunter X Hunter, Tsubasa, XxxHolic, Aneglic Layer, Mermaid saga, and Yu Yu Hakusho. (A lot more just escaped my thoughts).

Currently addicted to Moon Child, Kimi ni Todoke (yes I read the scans and dying for its release.) I also am looking forward into reading Mixed Vegetables and I don't know why.....

I wouldn't go as far as saying addicted but the ones I keep looking forward to are NANA, Hana Yori Dango, Vampire Knight, Hunter x Hunter, Kyou Kara Maou!, and After School Nightmare.

Mixed Vegetables is a good read but I don't find myself waiting impatiently for new volumes to come out. I have enjoyed the first two volumes a lot, though.

From the ones you mentioned, I have completed Basara, Tokyo Babylon, and I still need to read the final volume of The Key to the Kingdom. Basara was great. Tokyo Babylon was only good IMO. As for The Key to the Kingdom, I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to.

Wow thanks for the feedback Hatsumi!

So Mixed Vegetables is good then! You just make my interest go high. I've read the first chapter on scans and it was great... So I want to get the volumes as well.

Yeah Basara was great I have almost all the volumes except 19! Its so hard to find... I better get goin with this, I still have 7 more volumes to go.

I haven't started Tokyo Babylon but looking foward to. Thats so sad to hear, I enjoyed the first volume of Key to the Kingdom so I'm really anticipating ordering the next volumes not to meantion I have the 3rd volume in hand haha.

Well, the fact that I didn't enjoy The Key to the Kingdom doesn't mean that you wouldn't, so don't take my opinion into consideration. After all, we all have different tastes, right?

Yeah, I liked both the main characters of Mixed Vegetables and I found the story enjoyable. Btw, are you more into shoujo than shounen?

Tokyo Babylon was good, as I said but I didn't like the ending. Anyway, you have to read for yourself to see.

Red River reminds me a lot of Basara and it is great too. I have 23 volumes so far and will be getting 24 soon.

Most of the mangas I'm obsessing namely Vinland Saga, Highschool of the Dead, Kimi No Iru Mach and Rappi Rangai alli are taking a long time to publish, translate and or scan so right now I'm reading Mysterious Girlfriend X. It's really strange... cute too

Yeah I hope I would still enjoy Key to the Kingdom. I think I will though since I love the first volume. Indeed we all have different tastes so if something might seem mediocre doesn't mean its going to be mediocre for the others.

Yup I'm more of a shoujo junkie than shounen. The only shounen title I have were Yu Yu Hakusho, and Hunter X Hunter (which I'm enjoying so far). Mixed Vegetables's first chapter was fun, I like the atmosphere of it. The characters personality (motive) wasn't so cliche that somewhat is a nice changed.

Oh I think Tokyo Babylon is kinda like the Prequel of X/1999? So maybe that's why you didn't fully enjoy the ending. Yup I will definitely.

I know I wanted to get Red River since it's like Basara, and Fushigi Yugi. I hope you do get volume 24 soon.

Btw you should check out these titles as well I know you'll like it. Please Save My Earth and Moon Child.

@kunglefang, I enjoyed reading Kimi No Iru Machi but the scans are (umm) slow, so I put the series on hold. Hehe reminds me of Suzuka (which another series you like).

(Paraphrased) I'm currently trying to hunt down (yes literally hunt, I cannot for the life of me find these volumes anywhere!) Basara volumes 19 and 20, (I'm not paying 200 dollars for just one book, @_@) Banana Fish Volume 3 ,(The 2nd printing not the first, which seems to be absent in almost everybook store I've searched in) A A' (Ironicallly I was able to find Hagio's own, much rarer They Were 11 before this one), Area 88 (I missed my chance of getting some of the really old comic version for a dollar each, I'm still kicking myself over this one, XD)

Series that I am following, Skip Beat, Gakuen Alice, The Gentlemen's Allicane (This one is a guilty pleasure of mine), Tsubasa, and many others (these are just the main ones)

And to HatsumiShinogu; If you didn't like Tokyo Babylon, I don't think you would care for X(/1999). X is a more violent, and battle oriented than Tokyo Babylon was, but personally I found the personal interactions in Tokyo Babylon to be it's greatest strength. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't care for the ending, I myself loved it (although I love a good tragety, XD)

Trying to complete: RG Veda (I think that I'm still missing the last volume for this), Red River (missing 18-20, 22 and this series is still currently being published in the U.S.), Basara (gave up on U.S. versions of volumes 19 & 20 - I own the Japanese versions), PSME (luckily I have volumes 7 & 13 - these are the hardest to find), Moon Child (CMX won't release the last volume until Summer)

Want to catch up on: NANA, Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers, Rurouni Kenshin, Fruits Basket, etc.

Tokyo Babylon: I actually really enjoyed this series! Sure, the ending was kinda sad but I liked the somewhat episodic nature of the stories. I haven't read much of X/1999 but both series almost seem totally different (X is a seinen and becomes more increasingly violent while Tokyo Babylon is a little bit more of a light-read).

Key to the Kingdom: I've only read 1 chapter of this so I can't say how "good" it is, but this is one of my lower priority series to check out.

Mixed Vegetables: I'm keeping the single volume that I have of this and will continue reading scans to see if it's worth buying in the long run. It's fun, but I like Kitchen Princess more (and this is one that I'd rather collect).

Always wanted to check out: Vinland Saga, Highschool of the Dead, Kimi No Iru Mach, Suzuka, Banana Fish, A A'

Gentlemen's Alliance: This one is also a guilty pleasure of mines. Don't know if you'll like the ending (read the scans), but I enjoyed this series a lot. There was always a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter!

Gakuen Alice: I don't even feel like collecting this anymore 'cuz it's by Tokyopop >_<

OMG!!!!! Sorry Mistuko. I edited the thing you typed.

Sorry.. I didn't noticed that I was editing it I thought I quoted it..

Sorry!

That's ok! I edited it a little to make a little more sense, but I kept your thoughtful comments intact. I've done the same thing a couple times myself, XD



I haven't read the actual ending to Gentlemen's Alliance yet, but I have heard what happens, lol. The ending doesn't seem that very good, but at the same time I kinda want to read it, XD. I can't say the story is any good, and I think Arina Tanemura's art has gotten worse (too much screentones) but for the life of me, I can't seem to stop reading this series, XD

I do wonder what exactly about Tokyopop you don't care for, that would make you want to stop buying their series. I myself hate their 6 month (not really, but it feels like that sometimes) waits between series, their terrible print quality (not so much their new series, but some of their older titles look like they were copied right out of the japanese books) and their really rude personelle. So it's not that I can't see why someone would hate them, I'm just curious.

Actually Tokyopop has gotten a lot better with printing quality, while Viz is getting sloppy now. :/ ok back on topic!
I've a few series that I actively keep my eyes open for, I've been lucky sometimes, but usually there is always a volume I'm stuck on.

Basara: I finally picked up volumes 23 & 24 :D :D :D :D :D (sorry i'm just really happy about that, Canada doesn't have book stores with big manga selections, so Basara is very difficult to track down, regardless of what volume. I got lucky and I talked to a really nice comic shop owner and he ordered them in for me and it only took two weeks :]), so now I just need 25-27. So happy~ I bought 19 and 20 before the printing issue, hopefully Viz will get their act together.

Boys Over Flowers: I finally got my hands on volume 12, for some reason, I couldn't find it anywhere. The sad part is the quality of the volume is really poor; the front cover is a bit sub par, but the inside seems fine. (Viz get your act together!) Now I need to get 13+ and it's going to take awhile :/

Forbidden Dance: another series I can't seem to find anywhere, I finally got my hands on volume 3, so I just need to get one more volume to finish of this one. I'm currently reading through volume three :)

Magic Knight Rayearth: The translation bothers me, but I still want to get the books. Currently I can't seem to find volume 3 part 1 anywhere :/ I still have four volumes to go with this one.

Pretear: another short series, but I'm missing the last volume, seems to have gotten rarer lately because 1-3 weren't that hard to find, but 4 seems to be alluding me.

Please Save My Earth: can't seem to find volume 6, I'm going to have to ask that nice man again to preorder this one. :)

other manga i'm collecting and I pick up when I have the money and I see them: Fushigi Yugi (looking out for volume 7), Ceres (looking out for volume 5), CCS (looking out for second printings of 1-3, and volume 5), Tsubasa (looking out for volume 6), Alice 19th (looking out for volume 2) and Gakuren Alice (looking out for volume 2).

manga I want to get but I have no money as of now: Maison Ikkoku (the second edition printings, I have the first five volumes of the first edition printing, but I discovered that Viz cut some stories out, so I want the second edition now), Naruto (volume 16), wedding peach (volume 2), beauty pop (volume 2), death note (volume 3), and ultra maniac (volume 1)

Arina Tanemura:
I happen to be a big fan of her for some reason. Sure her artwork is very cutesy and filled with sugary-sweet stories sometimes but I still enjoy her series nonetheless. I do admit that her backgrounds are rather busy (her artwork looks best when it's in color so you can see the details - like in her art books). And her character designs are more or less the same (though a lot of mangaka are guilty for making characters in one series look similar to those in their previous series).

Tokyopop: While Mitsuko actually did bring up some true things about Tokyopop, it's actually not a printing/translation quality issue with me at all. I'm sure everyone is aware that Tokyopop is not doing financially well at all. They've laid off workers like 2 or 3 times already this past year? I know that it doesn't really help Tokyopop anymore if one just suddenly stops buying certain series of theirs but like everyone else, I'm not rich and I can't afford to buy every single series that I'm interested in. I've been disappointed in the following . . .

- Being new to Fruits Basket, I started buying the Ultimate Editions which Tokyopop doesn't seem to want to print anymore of (they stopped at volume 3 or something)
- Was going to check out Nosatsu Junkie (cancelled close to the end of series), Suppli (also supposedly cancelled), Life (cancelled or delayed - dunno what happened), etc.
- With the "quiet" release of Shinobi Life (I enjoyed the scans), I have a feeling they might cancel this series as well (they could have at least advertised it more)

I really like Gakuen Alice, but seeing as this series is currently on volume 17 (and still going) in Japan and Tokyopop is barely on volume 4 here in the U.S. I'm a bit too scared to seriously invest money in this series right now. I'd feel much safer if the series was already completed in Japan and Tokyopop was almost done releasing all of the volumes, but looks like that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

I don't care too much about quality (it's always a plus though), I'd be more happier knowing something I like is licensed and gets released in its entirety. I don't "hate" Tokyopop ("hate" is a bit too strong of a word here) but from now on, any series that Tokyopop publishes, if it doesn't seem like it's going to finish its run soon, they'll be a very low priority for me on my "To Buy" list.

Viz: I still like Viz since a lot of what I buy is from them, but I somehow feel like they've kinda abandoned their older Shojo line titles for their newer Shojo Beat line titles. Almost everything under their older Shojo line is going out-of-print.



Boys Over Flowers: Thanks soaring_wings for pointing out that volume 12 may be difficult to find. I need to get going on collecting this series as well (I only have a few volumes).



Forbidden Dance: I always see the entire set for sale on eBay, but then again don't know if you wanna buy from there . . . A few comic stores should still have it though.

Pretear: Again, another series that I usually see complete for sale on eBay . . .



Alice 19th: I think that this series is slowly going out-of-print as well. It took me months to finally complete the series since bookstores never carried the volumes I was looking for.

Maison Ikkou: Just bought the complete set (volumes 1-15 second printings). This will be my next priority series to finish reading since I just finished The Devil Does Exist and Please Save My Earth.

I don't shop online, but I probably should, I would find quite a few deals that way. For Pretear and Forbidden Dance, since I only need one volume each, I'll just track them down eventually. By the way sakura, how are the shipping costs on ebay? I live in Canada so I always worry about those. But, yes online shopping is becoming more and more attractive to me, so many nice deals out there. Although, sometimes I get lucky and find good deals in physical stores too. (but that mostly happens with video games, not so much with manga :[)

I'm sorry! I just realized I didn't answer your question, XD The reason I want the 2nd printing of Banana Fish is because all of the other volumes I own of Banana Fish (1-2 4-9) are from the same printing. The 1st printing is also a different size (so it would look different on the shelf compared to the rest of the series) and is also flipped (Kinda like the old Fushigi Yugi volumes) But at this point, I think I might just buy the 1st printing as I can find that volume cheap, but not the 2nd printing. (I tried reading volume 4 after skipping 3, but it didn't make sense)

Re:Viz - I still have faith in them as a publisher. They seem the strongest, so far, out of the three main U.S. publishers. I am also aware of some of their staff, which gives me hope that new series that they will liscense will be awsome. (Which has recently shown itself in the liscensing of many Naoki Urasawa titles, Ooku, and Children of the Sea) I'm pretty sure that all the really 'good' titles are now being published under their signature logo. But I do wish they would renew some of their older titles, so they would be easier to track down @_@ . But they do have their bad side too. They're notorious for including the most random edits in a series, but fortunately I haven't incountered many of these, as they mostly happen in Shonen series, and I mostly follow their Shojo Beat and Signature titles. (Of course, it could have happened and I just didn't notice, Like Banana Fish, apparently it's censored, but there's so much f-boming and other crudities in the series that I didn't even notice, XD)

Re: Arina Tanemura - I don't know if I'd called myself a fan of hers or not. When I first read her works (Full Moon) I was estatic and expected great things from her (And I also loved her art, XD) But reading her most recent titles (and her older ones for that matter) kinda dashed my hopes. (Although that's not to say they're horrible, I think they're cute and light, but they don't have the kinda depth that I usually like in my stories) It kinda seemed that Full Moon was a fluke of hers, but I end up reading her titles hoping for another Full Moon. (Her newest series Sakura-Hime kaden, has just a major plot reversal in its 2nd chapter that gives me some home that this will be one of her better series) Unfortunately I haven't really been able to look at her color pages, which I'm sure are gorgeous, as that's the one thing that I think American releases miss out on. (Athough with the economy as it is, I'd rather get more books than a few books with color pages)

Re: Tokyopop - I completely understand where you're coming from when you say you don't want to read any of their series that aren't finished. I don't really know what they're doing liscensing newer titles when some of their old titles get cancelled with only one volume left. (Good Witch of the West, I'm looking at you) I end up buying the volumes anyway though, they seem to be liscensing some titles I'm really interested in lately. (Jyu Oh Sei, Demon Sacred, but we'll see how far the Natsume Itsuki trend lasts, until they realize her series don't sell very well) And I would rather buy as many volumes of a series they offer before they cancel it. (Some of the titles I've been waiting for a while, so anything I'll get I'll be happy) It would be funny yet horribly sad if Tokyopop went down before they finished releasing Fruits Basket. It would almost feel like kharma, with them withholding the volumes for 3-4 years now.

@soaring_wings: I hope you can get your hands to the series you are collecting.. And I yeah it much easier to buy something online so I also hope you can order something from online.. Btw most series that you are trying to get are hard to find so yeah online is the last resort..

@Mitsuko oh so thats why you like to get the 2nd printing of Banana Fish. I hope you all the luck! Its really hard to find something that are OOP! So I feel you pain.. I'm still on the look for Basara 19 and PSME 13...

eBay: Shipping costs vary. I always get the cheapest shipping which is Media Mail. It takes longer, but at least it's cheaper. It can be anywhere from $3 to $6 (from my experience) depending on how heavy the package is.

I live in the U.S. though, so if I ever order anything from someone that's in Canada, shipping IS expensive. It's more like $10, but that's 'cuz they usually ship using a faster method. If you don't wanna pay that much for shipping, you should just try and order from other people that live within Canada. If the package is going to leave a country, yeah you always pay more for shipping.

Hana Yori Dango: Btw, don't know if you have volume 16, but this volume is becoming hard to find as well. I just barely got a good deal for it on Amazon last night since the other places that I usually shop at, all have this volume as "Out of Stock" or "Backordered". Not a good sign, if you ask me. Hope it's not going OOP.

Basara: soaring_wings, you should pick up volumes 25+ of Basara ASAP. I saw some places already listing them as "Backordered". Again, not a good sign. Viz, don't tell me that these volumes are already going OOP (good thing I already own these volumes though).

Banana Fish: Chichiri just sent me the first 2 volumes(2nd printings) in the mail the other day. I hope that this series is good.



Viz: Yeah unlike some people, Viz's edits don't really bother me that much. Unless it's something that significantly alters the way that the story is told, but I haven't noticed anything significant. And I agree, they seem to be the "it" publisher when it comes to licensing popular titles. They always seem to know what's popular in Japan and what would be popular here and license it.

I haven't read Monster yet, but I'm looking forward to the rest of Urasawa's work that has been recently licensed. I'm also looking forward to Children of the Sea. This looks like it would be released under the Signature line.

Good Witch of the West: i'm also interested in checking out this series, but until Tokyopop releases the last volume, I'm not going to be buying this series anytime soon.

Fruits Basket: Tokyopop really is taking their time publishing this. Hopefully they publish it until the very end so that I can collect the rest of this series.



Chichiri, you should have bought volume 13 of PSME sooner. It was still around $20 when I got mine, but now you can't get it cheaper than $45 (yeah people know it's OOP so they jack up the price).

really? I can get 25 at a local comic shop, it's been there for awhile, but I better order 26 & 27 then. Thanks for the warning sakura!

I haven't gotten PSME 13 yet. shoot. and I can't get it anytime soon either because I'm a little low on cash and Basara is top priority :/

I've heard really good things about Good Witch of the West, has it been dropped by Tokyopop Mitsuko? (that's what I understood you to be saying....XD)

Oh not only volume 13 is hard to get also volume 7 of PSME... So goodluck with that. I am also tracking volume 13...

Hmm I don't think volume 7 was dropped by Tokyopop, its just that the last volume just got release last year from being on hiatus (I think). Thats why I think it isn't Tokyopop's priority right now... I would love them to release the last volume sooner since I owned all the volumes.

actually I saw volume 7 at the comic shop XD
but they didn't have 6, which is the one I need.