Spotlight on 17 Tpop Titles

I missed out on TOKYOPOP's recent webinar (hopefully I'll make it to part 2!), during which Tpop mentioned a whole slew of titles, according to Deb Aoki (from whom all the info and photos come).

At the time of the webinar I wasn't actually sure that these were new announcements, and honestly, I'm still not sure on most of them, though the line gets muddled when so many titles start appearing on Amazon early. So let's just go through 'em all, shall we?

- Bloody Kiss, in which broke high school girl inherits a mansion and two vampires. But don't go all “ew, Twilight!” on this one, as it's more slapstick comedy than Vampire Knight. The first chapter is here.
- Domo: The Manga, TOKYOPOP's own homemade manga revolving around the adventures of the NHK's former mascot.
- Game X Rush by Mugen Spiral creator Mizuho Kusanagi. A pretty boy and an assassin work together solving cases in a bodyguard agency. Online preview is already up.
- Zone-00 by Trinity Blood's Kiyo Qjo, a supernatural action tale about a guy who's a paranormal otaku who joins a “game” chasing demons around Tokyo. Also has a preview up.
- Maria+Holic, by Minari Endou, should need no introduction: the wacky comedy comes from the creator of Dazzle and features a boy-phobic young woman hoping to strike it lucky with the ladies at an all-girls school, only to fall into the clutches of a sadistic male cross-dresser.
- Mikansei No. 1, from the artist of the Code Geass manga Majiko!. A girl from the 23rd century is a history buff, favoring the 21st century era...only to fall back into tie to said era.
- Portrait of M&N, by Gakuen Alice's Higuchi Tachibana. An “odd” shoujo about an extreme masochist and an extreme narcissist (M&N, like S&M, get it?).
- Momogumi Plus Senki, a tale of a reincarnated Momotaro (peach boy), who must break his curse before he turns 18. Here's the online preview.
- Alice in the Country of Hearts, which is essentially Alice in Wonderland but with hot guys and a snarkier Alice. That sounds pretty up my aisle...
- Mad Love Chase, a non-yaoi by yaoi mangaka Kazusa Takashima (Wild Rock, Man's Best Friend), follows a demon prince who tries to get out of an arranged marriage...by attending human high school.
- Karakuri Odette, by Julietta Suzuki, is also about an atypical high school student: a robot who wants to learn about being human.
- Happy Cafe, by Kou Matsuzuki, about a girl working at a cafe with a bunch of hot but not terribly gentlemanly coworkers.
- Haru Hana is also about a cafe, but this one has a unique employee: like MariaHolic's lead, Haru breaks out in a rash whenever she's touched by a (cute) boy.
- Kokaku Detective Story, sort of like Monk except instead of an obsessive-compulsive detective, we've got a sloppy chili-pepper-eating samurai as our detective.

And of course, we can't forget the yaoi...
- Cause of My Teacher by Temari Matsumoto (artist of Kyo Kara Maoh), an anthology that features, among other things, two tales of high school boys in love with their teachers.
- Liberty! Liberty! by the ever-popular Hinako Takenaga (Little Butterfly, The Tyrant Falls in Love), revolves around something of a May-November romance created when the younger breaks the older's valuable camera.
- Madness by Kairi Shimotsuki, one of a few yaoi artists whose style I really dig. It's a two-volume fantasy-adventure yaoi featuring a criminal imprisoned in a church who escapes and takes a young priest with him. More action than (ahem) “action.”

Tpop also addressed a few upcoming release dates: V.B. Rose #6 on October 1st, ARIA volume 5 and Trinity Blood novel 3 on November 3rd, Princess Ai: Prism of the Midnight Dawn volume 2 on December 1st, Fruits Basket Ultimate Edition volume 4  and Tactics volume 8 on January 5th, and Chibi Vampire Novel 6 on April 6th.
 
Whew. That's a lot to read...what are you considering picking up? I personally want Maria+Holic (natch), and Zone-00 looks like it could be pretty cool. I'll also probably grab Portrait of M&N, Alice in the Country of Hearts, and Madness.