The scare quotes are deliberate. VIZ is announcing five new shoujo manga titles, although they aren’t exactly new. Four of the titles, Absolute Boyfriend, Baby & Me, Godchild, and Kaze Hikaru, have been running as serials in Shoujo Beat, and the fifth, Kamikaze Girls, was also in the magazine. They’re also releasing the Kamikaze Girls novel.
Furthermore, this press release seems to be a bit late, as I believe the books are already on bookstore shelves. David Welsh reviewed the Kamikaze Girls manga in this week’s Flipped column and recommends giving it a pass.
You’d think VIZ would put the press release on their website, wouldn’t you? Well, you’d be wrong. The press release went out yesterday, but as of 8 this morning, it wasn’t on their site. Just for laughs, I entered the “new” titles into the site search engine and was told there were no results, although a little digging (I am a reporter, after all) turned them up at the VIZ store.
The lights may be on at the VIZ website, but it looks like nobody is home.
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