Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa (amazon)

Be With You is a one volume manga based on a novel that has also been adapted into a movie and TV show. At the start of the rainy season widower Takkun and his young son Yuji are muddling along a year after Mio’s death. She left behind a picture book about a planet where people who’ve passed away live as long as someone on Earth remembers them. Mio promised to come back to see her son and husband during rainy season. Takkun struggles with his job at the library and his relationship with Mio’s mother.
As soon as it starts raining Yuji runs to the woods to see his mom. Takkun follows him and they find Mio, but she’s completely lost her memory. They take her home and start living life as a family again. Yuji doesn’t understand why his mother doesn’t remember some of the things she did for him before her death. Despite her memory loss, Mio throws herself into the role of Yuji’s mother, although she isn’t quite sure what to make of her husband. Takkun begins to tell Mio stories about how they met and started dating. They begin to function as a family again, but Takkun knows that Mio will vanish forever when the rainy season ends.
The art is attractive, but not particularly distinctive. Some single volume manga have stories that are cut short, but Be With You seems complete in one volume perhaps because it was adapted from a novel. There are a few details that might have been expanded on, like the role of Mio’s mother and Takkun’s difficulty in coping with life. Be With You is a little different than the typical Shojo Beat title since it focuses on family life, it really is an old fashioned tear jerker. So if you’re in the mood for a little bit of sadness mixed with romance, check it out.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

I.O.N by Arina Tanemura (amazon)

I’ve read the first volume of Tanemura’s Gentlemen’s Alliance, and I’ve been slowly working my way through her magical girl/phantom thief series Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne. I noticed that Viz has licensed a ton of her titles for upcoming release; I.O.N. is coming out in April.
Ion Tsuburagi is a happy go lucky girl who chants the letters of her name whenever she’s in trouble or needs something good to happen. She has a tendency to leap out of windows in order to escape the relentless romantic attentions of Kouki, the fan-waving student council president. One day Ion’s interrupted in mid-jump by Mikado, the resident school genius and founder of the Psychic Powers Research Society. Ion is impressed with Mikado’s dedication to research, because she always thought she’d fall in love with a boy who is dedicated to pursuing his dreams. When Ion investigates the shed where Mikado does his research, she finds a mysterious substance and causes a reaction; now whenever she chants her name she manifests psychic powers.
I have to admit, I was a little surprised when Ion started levitating and using telekinesis because I expect that type of thing from superhero comics, not shojo manga. Ion’s psychic powers cause Mikado to be very interested in her as his new favorite test subject. Mikado is much more serious than Ion, she often manages to cheer him up with her carefree attitude towards life. Ion’s disappointed that Mikado doesn’t seem to relate to her as a girl, but she’s determined to wait until his feelings change. The situation is complicated even further when Mikado’s spoon-bending ex-girlfriend Ai shows up. Will Ion and Mikado get together? Will she manage to control her new powers? And most importantly, will Kouki stop waving his fan around?
Tanemura’s art is fluid and expressive, with the huge eyes and flower-bedecked panels that you’d expect in a magical girl manga. Although I usually enjoy reading long-running series, sometimes it’s nice to pick up a manga that’s complete in a single volume like I.O.N. I’d imagine it would also be handy for librarians needing to add new titles to their collection but not wanting to set aside the shelf space for a longer running series.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

I thought I’d take some time to sit down and make a list of which manga series I’m actively following:

Viz

Nana - Consistently awesome.
Boys Over Flowers - One of the nice things about following a long-running series is being able to see the art evolve. The later volumes of this series are so much better than the first few volumes.
Hana Kimi - My favorite girl disguising herself as a boy with wacky hijinks + romance ensuing series.
Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden - I’m a sucker for Yuu Watase, and in many ways I’m enjoying this prequel series to Fushigi Yugi more than the original. It is a more mature work, with better characterization and a more complicated plot.
Skip Beat - I can see why the main character might be annoying to some people, but I like Kyoko’s relentless desire for revenge combined with her gradual awareness of her love for acting.
Fullmetal Alchemist -Sometimes I tend to let my volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist pile up, and then I’ll read them in one big chunk and wonder why I’m waiting to read each volume. One of the most intelligent action series out.

Tokyopop

Queen’s Knight - I like fantasy series, this one is pretty decent. From the author of INVU.
Suppli - I’m so happy there’s a new josei series to read.
Fruits Basket - Naturally.

GoComi

Cantarella - Borgia + Manga is a potent combination.
Her Majesty’s Dog - Consistently good series about a girl and her spirit animal companion.

Del Rey
xxxHolic - Gorgeous CLAMP art.
ES (Eternal Sabbath) - Great blend of suspense and sci-fi.

ADV

Yotsuba&!

CMX

Canon - Vampires!
Penguin Revolution - This series about a girl manager and her aspiring actor client/roommate is a little more consistent than the author’s other work Land of the Blindfolded.
Emma - Maids and thwarted love.
Venus In Love - I really liked the first volume of this series set in college.

Any other new manga coming out that I should be trying? Or are there any older titles I need to check out?

Monkey High by by Shouko Akira (amazon)

Due to her father’s political corruption scandal Haruna has to transfer from her exclusive high school to an ordinary one. She’s decided that high school is like a monkey mountain, full of people squabbling senselessly and trying to climb to the top. Haruna is aloof, not wanting to reach out and make any new friends. The kids at Haruna’s new school are fun-loving and rowdy, accidentally breaking down the door of the principal’s office due to their enthusiastic eavesdropping when she’s conferring with him. They run away, leaving Masaru (aka Macharu) a boy who reminds Haruna of a baby monkey. Where Haruna is reserved, Macharu is open and enthusiastic. Atsu is the most popular guy in school, and his womanizing tendencies lead him to single out Haruna when she wants to avoid being noticed.
Haruna and Macharu keep being paired together - she’s forced to sew his dwarf costume for the class production of Snow White, he lends her his umbrella, and he helps her hide from her ex-boyfriend. Macharu’s emotional honesty begins to break through Haruna’s defenses and she finds herself thinking about dating a guy she never would have gone out with in her former life. The other students at the school function as a Greek chorus, commenting on Haruna’s strange taste in men, betting about the budding romance, and trying to set up Haruna and Macharu on the school trip.
Monkey High’s focus on the emotional moments and developing relationship between Haruna and Macharu reminded me a little bit of the early volumes of Kare Kano. The pairing of the cool girl and goofy guy is a refreshing change from many of the stock characters and situations usually found in shojo manga. The art is very cute, with plenty of significant glances and blushes shared between the protagonists as their relationship progresses.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Fall In Love Like a Comic by Chitose Yagami (amazon)

Rena Sakura is a high school student and a mangaka. She’s getting pressure from her editor to include more realistic scenes in her racy manga, but the problem is that she has no life experience to draw from. She’s never had a boyfriend. When Rena accidentally drops some pages from her work in progress, Tomoya Okita picks them up. He’s the most popular boy in school. He comments after reading her manga that it looks like she hasn’t been in a relationship before. Rena asks Tomoya to be her boyfriend for research purposes. She’s shocked when he agrees.
Yagami’s art has the cuteness factor dialed up to the max. Characters frequently slip into chibi mode, and Rena literally melts into a shapeless amoeba whenever she’s overcome with emotion from Tomoya’s attentions. Of course as their relationship progresses, real feelings start to develop and Rena can’t keep telling herself that she’s only hanging out with Tomoya to become a better manga artist. Tomoya is totally perfect but his personality is a little blank, leaving the reader to wonder why he’s attracted to Rena in the first place. This is addressed a little bit in a bonus story in the back of the book focusing on him, but hopefully later volumes will explore both characters a little more evenly. In general, Fall In Love Like a Comic is light frothy fun, and the details included about Rena’s job like meetings with editors and Japanese terms for manga elements will likely appeal to readers who want to create their own manga.

High School Debut by by Kazune Kawahara (amazon)

While Fall in Love Like a Comic features a heroine who needs a boyfriend to make her manga better, High School Debut has a heroine who needs a coach in order to get a boyfriend in the first place. Haruna threw herself into softball in middle school, spending all of her time practicing and ending up on a championship team. She has decided that her goal for high school will be to find a boyfriend. Haruna studies magazines and fashion trying to figure out what will make her attractive to guys, but she has no internal filter to tell her what actually looks good on her so when she goes out hoping to meet a boy she just looks like a desperate mess of fashion trends. Mami, one of Haruna’s former softball teammates points out that since coaching was so useful in sports, maybe Haruna needs a love coach.
Yoh is one of the coolest guys in school, and Haruna asks him to be her coach because she thinks he’s the ultimate authority on what guys look for in a girl. Yoh refuses, saying that he thinks babying a girl who wants a new life in high school would be annoying. He stalks away saying that he hates girls. Haruna is amazed at his insight into her motivations and vows to make him her coach despite his refusals. Yoh’s sister Asa finds Haruna amusing, and tries to help out by lending her some clothes. As Yoh sees more of Haruna, he gradually comes around to the idea of being her coach and agrees to help her if she promises not to fall in love with him - he doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of inconvenient emotions.
Yoh and Haruna’s relationship is hilarious. Haruna’s single-minded determination to find a boyfriend has led her to keep magazine clippings, scrapbooks, and notebooks of tips. Yoh tells her to throw her notes away because her main problem is that she’s trying too hard. Haruna will sit next to Yoh, trying to think of something to say to him and he’ll say exactly what she’s thinking because her thoughts are so transparent. Yoh takes the task of finding suitable clothes for Haruna as a personal challenge, and he doesn’t give up until he finds a skirt that manages to make her look cute despite her sports-conditioned calves.
While the storyline of a guy making over a girl has been used over and over again, High School Debut manages to rise above the cliche due to the strength of its characters. The sullen cool guy is also a shojo standard, but Yoh’s facial expressions and the exasperated lines around his eyes when he’s reacting to Haruna make him intriguing. The art in High School Debut is a cut above run of the mill shojo titles, as it avoids the same faces with different hairstyles art style that many artists seem to get bogged down in. Each character has a distinctive look and facial expressions that suit their personalities. I’ll be checking out future volumes to see the outcome of Haruna’s determined quest to find a boyfriend.

Review copies were provided by the publisher.

Viz is going to produce library editions for first volumes of some popular series. This might be useful, since graphic novel collections in libraries tend to be very high circulating items with a lot of wear and tear:

LIBRARY EDITIONS • MSRP: $15.99 • Available January 2008
In January, the company will also publish new hardcover Library Editions
of the first volumes of several popular manga series including BLEACH,
DEATH NOTE, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, INUYASHA, NARUTO and RANMA ½. The
content of these editions will match their original manga counterparts
but now packaged with a rugged hardcover to make the volumes viable for
years of library use.

Full press release is up at Pop Culture Shock

Yurara by Chika Shiomi (amazon.com)

Now that I’ve read the first volume of Yurara, I’ve read all three series by Chika Shiomi, who has achieved a publishing trifecta of having three series being released in English by three different publishers. Yurara is starting her first day of high school, but as she is approaching the school gates she sees a mournful spirit. She can see and feel the emotions of ghosts, and when she’s forced to pass by the crying ghost she bursts into tears in sympathy. This isn’t the best way to start off a new year, and it is made worse when she gets to her desk and sees an angry female ghost hovering over her assigned seat. Yurara’s seatmates are two of the most handsome boys in school. Mei can fight ghosts with fire, and Yako creates water barriers that ghosts can’t penetrate. Mei is extremely flirtatious while Yako is more aloof and sarcastic when he isn’t trying to creep people out by telling creepy ghost stories. As the boys start to realize that Yurara can see ghosts too, the three students together start investigating some of the paranormal incidents at their school.
Yurara discovers that not only can she see and communicate with ghosts, she’s protected by a guardian spirit who can send the ghosts to heaven. She has an interesting kind of not-quite spirit possession - when the guardian spirit acts, Yurara’s appearance changes, but she’s still herself, just a more self-assured, aggressive version of herself. Mei is instantly attracted to the more mature version of Yurara that he sees when her guardian spirit takes over. As the guardian spirit continues to act, Yurara becomes more self-confident in daily life.
Yurara was published later than Night of the Beasts and Canon, and in some ways it seems a more commercial than Shiomi’s earlier works. Yurara, Mei, and Yako seem a little more like typical shoujo character types, but I’m still interested in seeing what happens to them as they fight off ghosts at their high school.

Tail of the Moon by Rinko Ueda, #1-4 (amazon.com)

Usually I tend to know what manga I’m interested in following before the first volume is published, so I tend to be resigned to reading a series very slowly as new volumes are translated. So it is a nice change to be able to go on a reading binge with a series that already has several volumes published.

Tail of the Moon isn’t deep or innovative, and its characters personify every type of shojo cliche. But it has expressive art, a story with plenty of humor, and is an excellent choice if you are looking for good quality fluff to read. Usagi is 15 years old, and one of the only girls in her village to not qualify as a ninja. She’s a total klutz, and everyone around her ducks when she has a weapon in her hands. She wants to work on a ninja assignment outside her village, so her Grandfather gives her the job of marrying Hattori Hanzo and bearing his child. Usagi says that she’s too young to get married, and her grandfather counters her argument by listing off all the 12-14 year old girls in the village who have already had babies. He also mentions that Hanzo is one of the most accomplished and handsome ninja in Iga province.
Usagi decides to take on this assignment after all, and leaves, accompanied by her little companion Mamezo. When she arrives she finds out that while Hanzo is totally uninterested in marrying her. There’s also the problem of her lack of ninja qualifications. Usagi vows not to leave and starts taking all the ninja skills classes that she skipped in the past.
Of course, Usagi’s expressive nature and boundless enthusiasm begins to get through to the more stoic and serious Hanzo. Usagi has a few talents to back her up; since she was sick so often as a child she’s made an extensive study of herbalism and she’s virtually immune to most poisons. There are plenty of obstacles in the way such as other prospective ninja brides, Usagi’s ex-fiance and childhood friend Goemon, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tail of the Moon has all the wacky hijinks of a romantic comedy combined with the occasional bit of ninja action, and even though the conclusion of Usagi getting together with Hanzo seems inevitable, it is fun to read about their adventures.