VIZ sent out a press release on Tuesday listing a number of new manga series due to hit store shelves over the next six months. Personally, only two of the releases caught my attention. One was Bokurano: Ours and the other was Library Wars: Love & War. I’ve seen a lot of the Bokurano anime series and I’m eager to see how the manga compares with the dark, sci-fi drama found in the television series. I don’t know much about the Library Wars manga, but it’s also been turned into an anime series, so hopefully means that it’s Fahrenheit 451-esque premise plays out well enough to be of interest to me.

Oh, I guess I should also mention that VIZ announced a new Yuu Watase manga series as well, titled Arata; The Legend. Considering Fushigi Yugi got milked so hard for so long that by the end there was nothing left inside it except but bitter rancid butter, I’m sure this manga has a long and bright future ahead it >:(

To see the full of list of manga and expected release dates, hit the jump.

Last year, I had the pleasure of watching a few episodes of the “My Bride is a Mermaid” anime series via the magic of fansubs. I loved the anime, but hated the fansubber because their subs were so godawfully illegible that I had trouble reading them even on my big screen tv. Thankfully, Funimation felt my pain and is currently in the process of bringing this series over to the U.S. and is even going so far as to let curious viewers watch the series for free. All the episodes are sub only right now, but if your an avid dub hater like me, then you probably won’t care :P

For those unfamiliar with the series, it is a touching documentary about a poor, hapless human who is rescued by a mermaid and is forced to choose between either marrying her or being murdered by her yakuza family. Okay, it’s not actually so much touching, as it freakin’ hilarious. I really can’t recommend this series enough if your in the mood for something funny and just a tad bit naughty at times =^_^=

More info:
Free Episodes from Funimation
Wiki Article for “My Bride is a Mermaid” (Seto no Hanayome)
Manga scanalations on Mangafox

Today’s Monday Music includes two of my favorite things, footage from the anime series “Black Heaven” and music by Jonathan Coulton. As soon as I stumbled across this AMV, I knew I had to share it with everyone here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

Do you hear that? Yeah, it’s the sound of a million of furries masturbating in front your local movie theater screen as they watch James Cameron’s Avatar movie. Don’t worry though, for every furry that’s turned on by the giant blue cat people in the movie, there’s at least five other folks in that same movie theater eye-humping the special effects on the screen so hard you can practically hear a Velcro-like ripping sound every time they have to blink. I realize it sounds crass to say such things out loud, but I swear I’m only doing it to prepare you both mentally and emotionally for what you’ll encounter you when you enter that soggy dungeon down that street to watch one of the most gorgeous action movies of the past year.

The Legend of Koizumi – Reform without Wasted Draws (Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku), is an awesome anime and manga that pits world leaders against each other in high stakes mahjong battles to settle diplomatic disputes. Originally the brainchild of manga creator, Hideki Ohwada, The Legend of Koizume first appeared in a mahjong themed manga magazine. Since then, it has been growing in popularity ever since due to it’s outrageous humor and scathing political satire. The first volume of the anime OVA is set to officially debut in February. If you can’t wait that long, I suggest checking out manga scanalations of vol. 1 and 2 that are available via a variety online websites.

For more info:
Legend of Koizumi – wikipedia
Manga Fox – Legend of Koizumi manga (translated)

Special thanks to CKOanime for bringing this to my attention =^_^=