Good Anime Expo Manga Vibes

Over a week ago, I expressed my thoughts regarding manga writer Eiji Otsuka’s presence at this year’s Anime Expo with the specific hope that this was set up by Dark Horse to sell more copies of his manga out here.  It turns out that his presence was set up by the company and there was some great news from their panel this evening.  After a nearly two-year hiatus, “The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service” will be resuming with vol. 14.  There’s no indication when the volume will be out, but I’m betting early next year.  While this is great news, the company will also be re-releasing vols. 1-12 in four three-in-one omnibi editions.  So if you haven’t checked out this great supernatural action/comedy/drama/whatever-Otsuka-feels-like-writing-about-this-month series, then they’ve just made it that much easier for you.  It was also announced that Dark Horse will be publishing a one-volume “Panty & Stocking” manga, which I find very difficult to get excited about, and “The Art of Satoshi Kon.”  I own the Japanese edition of that book, so it looks like I’ll finally find out what all of the words around the pretty pictures mean.

Not to be outdone… Well, actually there’s not much Viz could do right now that would make me happier than finding out we’re getting a new volume of “Kurosagi.”  Yet they did get me to order sixteen volumes of one manga this evening with their announcement.  What manga series you ask?  That’d be “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.”  Viz already announced that they’re bringing out the first part of the series in print and digital later this year, and they let everyone know today that the second will be getting the same treatment next year.  The third part, “Stardust Crusaders,” was recently brought back into print earlier this year on the back of the increasing popularity of the anime being released out here via Crunchyroll, and the new fighting game that was recently released from Capcom.  I missed getting onboard with the original release of the manga, as it came out during a time when I was unemployed, but the original anime OVA series is a personal favorite so it hasn’t been too far from my mind.  Now, with even more of the series set to come out, I figured it was finally time to get caught up.  Expect a podcast on it once I’ve had time to read and digest the sixteen volumes making their way to me now.