A quick look through this week’s ComicList:
There’s a crazy amount of really excellent shôjo coming out this week, but more on that later. The comic I’m anticipating most eagerly would have to be the seventh volume of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte from Del Rey. This is the penultimate installment of this science-fiction classic about a boy and the shape-shifting parasite that’s taken over his hand. The book has just gotten more engrossing as it’s progressed. There’s plenty of crazy metamorphosing action, solid and surprising character development, dollops of bizarre humor, and an increasingly suspenseful plot.
The list qualifies a bunch of Viz’s offerings with “release not confirmed by Diamond,” which generally means that you’re more likely to find them this week in a bookstore than a comic shop, I think. It’s probably just as well, as there’s quite a volume of crack, and it couldn’t hurt to divide your purchases up over a couple of weeks.
I’ve fallen a bit behind on Hideaki Sorachi’s very funny Gin Tama, but I’ve enjoyed every volume I’ve read. The series is up to its twelfth volume. I’m more up to date with Yumi Yotta and Takeshi Obata’s marvelous Hikaru no Go, which reaches volume fifteen this week.
Now, to the crushing deluge of truly awesome shôjo:
Many people whose opinions I respect are also excited about the following: Kaze Hikaru volume 13, Love Com volume 12, Skip Beat volume 18, and We Were There volume 4. Of them, We Were There sounds most like it’s up my alley. I read a few chapters of Kaze Hikaru in Shojo Beat and found it baffling, but the depth of affection people have for the series may force me to take a longer look at it at some point.
