By Mat K.
So, today’s title is pretty self explanatory, oh yeah, manga is first on the block, followed by Magic: The Gathering, which I know isn’t exactly anime related like you guys are used to reading in my columns, but hey, this is the Manga and Gaming department up here on the second floor of Forbidden Planet NYC, I have a little bit of a duty to go on about whatever I deem necessary. Besides, to be perfectly frank, there are only a hand full of manga titles coming in this week, and I doubt I could fill this entire article with the stuff that is arriving. So, big names first. Much to my surprise and amazement, Akira Volume 3 by Kodansha Books is showing up this week. Yeah, despite the 8 month wait between the first and second volumes, the third comes very briefly after number 2. I guess they are trying to catch up. Sweet.
Speaking of reprints, two of the other titles in our little handful of books this week are the VizBig editions of Dragon Ball Z Volume 8, and Vagabond Volume 8. I have to say as I’m writing this, if each of these things is 3 books in one, I’m not entirely sure how the Dragon Ball Z one is going to work out. Technically the 8th volume would bring you up to book 24, but there are only 26 in total, so either 8 will the final book and be super thick, or they’ll put out 9 and it will be a bit slimmer than its predecessors. But I digress.
Two more items of note this week, Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 23 comes in, and much like their Darker Than Black Omnibus, Yen Press is doing it again by releasing the Romeo X Juliet Omnibus (and I have to put “volume 1” with a question mark, I can’t tell if this will be a multi-parter until later). What’s funny is that William Shakespeare is still listed as the writer, so I guess this really is just a manga version of the classic love tale, though of course it takes place in Neo Verona, but let’s face it, 14 year old heroes who seem to behave way older than they actually are, are no strangers to the average anime storyline.
Anyway, now that that’s all out of the way, some of you upstairs shoppers and gaming geeks may have noticed the release of Magic: The Gathering’s Core Set 2011 last week. And yeah, it’s a little sexy. For really the first time ever in a Core Set, the Intro Packs (also known as decks), are full-on dual colors. Also, it seems that wizard realized that having all the older Intro Packs with only 40 card decks and 1 booster is not really enough to get you started playing, at least not and have a chance. So the new M11 Intro Packs now have 60 card decks along with the booster. So enjoy. More good news: we have plenty of everything. I got a little fed up with Wizards Of The Coast’s ridiculous allocations of their product, so we went ambitious for the sake of not disappointing all you gamers out there and got tons of Fat Packs, Intro Packs, and whole Booster Boxes when you need them. Until next time folks!
Ja Ne!
