Manga Ramble

I had today off so went looking around to see if there was anything out I needed to pick up. The only book I picked up was Sgt. Frog #8, which is my favorite comedic title right now.

I was surprised to note two things though. One is about a series I used to follow called BOYS OVER FLOWERS, which I enjoyed when I read it but only to a certain point. Then a friend told me how many more volumes there was in the series (over 20) and it changed the way I looked at the series.

With series like Sgt. Frog or Hot Gimmick I don't care how long the series are, because I enjoy them so much that I want more. With BOF I enjoyed the books I read, but the themes were something that had only a particular length of interest for me. While I might have enough interest to read that story in 10 or 11 volumes, when I started considering 20 to 25 volumes worth of it the appeal lessoned.

The other item I noticed was how the book store chains in my area are apparently doing a manga title turnover. Series I have been following, or planned to pick up more volumes are disappearing in favor of new series.

While I'm all in favor of opening up shelves to new projects, I'm personally find it all very annoying. Since series I want to read more of, like Kindiachi Case Files, Tuxedo Gin and just recently Maison Ikkoku all gone. Meaning that I'll have to hunt them up in other areas or online.

Still it is a wonderful time to be a fan, with so much out there that I want to read. That I have forced myself to be a little more selective since the number of series I'm following is incredibly large.