Hello and welcome to another edition of Sunday News Bites. This week, we are joined in the newsroom by Romeo X Juliet’s Tybalt, who kindly took a break from riding his HORSE to offer insights on this week’s breaking and not-so-breaking stories.
Do you hack .hack?
.hack fans should be pleased to learn that Tokyopop has picked up three of the four new manga series- GU+ (a companion to the GU games), GnU (a tale of minor characters in The World:r2) and 4Koma. Whilst GU+ was reasonably enjoyable and 4Koma ranged between the dire and the amusing, I haven’t read enough of GnU to form a proper opinion on it, although overall these three series don’t stand out enough for me to want to buy them. I may have once been a .hack fangirl, but with the coming of the second generation material, I’m more wary of buying every piece of merchandise with the .hack name on it.
Tybalt says: I guess GU+ is good-looking enough for me to pay attention to, but the other two series are definitely lacking in the aesthetic department. What happened to that handsome guy Balmung anyway?
Farewell, Rozen Maiden
After going on a long hiatus and the having magazine serialisation cancelled, Rozen Maiden seems set to end with the tankoubon release of volume eight, containing a paltry three chapters. I have to admit the manga was something of a disappointment, but now it isn’t even going to get a proper ending, nor address all the unanswered questions that have been bugging me for a while.
Tybalt says: Rozen Maiden looked good at first but I soon tired of it. Word of an unsatisfactory ending makes me wonder whether I shouldn’t just drop the manga entirely.
ADV’s licensing continues at a rate of 5cm per second
Having already released Makoto Shinkai’s Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days, it should come as no surprise that ADV has added 5cm Per Second to their release line-up. Much as I loved VoaDS, I never got around to watching 5cm Per Second, thanks in part to some lukewarm reviews at the time of release. Has everyone tired of the same old formula from Shinkai, or is it best that he sticks with refining what he’s best at?
Tybalt says: I’ll no doubt watch it eventually, but taking care of my HORSE seems more important right now.
Fist of the North Star Hero Tales anime
Liked FMA? Then maybe you’ll be interested to hear that the mangaka’s latest series, Jyūshin Enbu (Hero Tales) is also to receive the animation treatment. Then again, when you hear it’s about the destined seventh star of the Big Dipper who’s on a quest to find a legendary sword (complete with friend and sister to accompany him), you may just think that it sounds a bit too much like Fist of the North Star: the RPG. FMA may have been good, but such a generic sounding tale really live up to its older sibling? Oh well, I may as well read the first couple of manga chapters in preparation for this.
Tybalt says: Boys and their swords- when will they learn they just can’t live up to my greatness?
