(L) Tsukiyomi/Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ Manga?

[Guido]

Originally Posted by ser4

so haw far is the manga is it about to end ? is it finished and does somebody translate it? well i'm about to start reading but those are good things to know before i start

The manga so far has 14 volumes and likely has given the first signs about reaching the final arc to the storyline.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by ser4

so haw far is the manga is it about to end ? is it finished and does somebody translate it? well i'm about to start reading but those are good things to know before i start

The original japanese editions of the manga are up to 14 volumes. The licensed English translation (courtesy of tokyopop.com) has pumping along with 9 volumes released so far.

It does appear that with volume 14, we're reaching some sort of climax - though i suspect at some point our team of "heroes" will have to take on the "king of the vampires" and we'll find out how the relationships and people's lives will sort out.

I suspect even if Hazuki and Kouhei are able to have a "happy ending" - there's still that little immortality/mortality issue down the road....

[ser4]

well in manga at least as far as i've seen they don't really bother to wary about the mortality immortality issue. they just Finish the story, get a happy ending and don't bother with the issue

[Seiryuu]

One thing I've noticed is that, judging from what I can read in the raws...

Spoiler:

the anime wasn't as far off as we thought in some matters, namely the return of certain characters who were once thought dead...

I have a question, part of which is well known and part of which is not.

Spoiler:

Anyone who's read much of this series knows that some parallels were drawn between vampires and Biblical stories. That much I can accept, since honestly many that wanted to discredit Christianity in its early days twisted some things around to make Christians look like cannibals. So making use of that is a little questionable, but acceptable. However, I've recently read Vol. 14 and I don't know enough kanji to be able to judge. Some of what's shown in there(in history-type flashback) seems very suggestive. If this sets up an unrelated being that either tries to mimic or mock Jesus as the central figure, then that's OK. But as I said, I can't read Japanese well enough to tell whether it's that, or whether the author is actually trying to set up Jesus as a vampire. If anyone can read this, please tell me. If it does suggest a direct connection, I'll still stick with it until I know whether that's the true backstory or just something the vampires say to sound big. After all, I rather doubt that the author would be willing to go that far, no matter what audience he aims for.

I must say I'm surprised that this series is still being published in the US as a "16+" item. The earlier stuff was well within that range, but now we've got some rather graphic images coming up, mostly in Kouhei's mind, including one where Kouhei's hand is obviously somewhere it shouldn't be in a manga set for anything less than 18.

[Tiamat's Disciple]

They take into account the frequency aswell as the content. For manga where the content is consistently mature they'll give it an 18 or M rating. Where it's only minor they'll carry on with the 16 rating it was already given.

Yubisaki Milk Tea is a prime example of this.

[NEONJE]

I thought Volume 14 was the final in japan. It was published in Nov of 2007 and I don't think a single chapter has come out since then. I looked at the raw of 14 and it doesn't look like the end to me. It looked like there was no kind of ending at all. The fighting and craziness went to the very last page. Matter of fact, I bet whats her name wasn't even on 10 whole pages in v14 and she certainly wasn't in the last 25 pages at all. I was super disappointed. This series had so much potential. It could of been the sweetest and most interesting of all anything from japan but the writers vision of the story is certainly different from what I would of liked to have seen.

Jeffrey

[Guido]

Originally Posted by NEONJE

I thought Volume 14 was the final in japan. It was published in Nov of 2007 and I don't think a single chapter has come out since then. I looked at the raw of 14 and it doesn't look like the end to me. It looked like there was no kind of ending at all. The fighting and craziness went to the very last page. Matter of fact, I bet whats her name wasn't even on 10 whole pages in v14 and she certainly wasn't in the last 25 pages at all. I was super disappointed. This series had so much potential. It could of been the sweetest and most interesting of all anything from japan but the writers vision of the story is certainly different from what I would of liked to have seen.

Jeffrey

No. There's volume 15, and the manga has still not given signs of concluding soon, however, the story indeed has reached the final story arc.

The manga has already reached the 100th chapter.

Spoiler:

In the recent chapters, Hazuki and Kouhei finally reunite.

[Vexx]

Well... English readers of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase appear to be in trouble.... volume 13 of the Tokyopop editions has been listed as "canceled" (or deferred for the time being).

Tokyopop is starting to drop/delay a number of quality manga that have small readerships -- ARIA vol 5 also was listed as "canceled" --- see

http://comicsworthreading.com/2009/0...ncluding-aria/

(lead courtesy of fict_ticious).

Can't say I'm not getting ADV-manga collapse deja vu here.....

[Man0warr]

Diamond is just a second hand distribution company, they may indeed be shipping less of vol 13 and thus Diamond isn't getting any (plus Diamond raised their rates or something, pissed a bunch of comicbook/manga companies off), but I doubt they would cancel Tsukuyomi, that and Karin/Fruits Basket sell pretty well.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...benchmark-jump

[Vexx]

Hmmm, my understanding was that Tokyopop itself was deferring release of those items because of Diamond's new "higher bar" before they'll accept an item for distribution. If the publisher can't get a distributor, many of them will simply stop production (distribution being a bit of a racket/closedshop). I suppose they could continue to offer them directly online but there may be some agreement obstructing ala carte choices (e.g. "you ship all youse titles thru us, see?").

I'll be delighted if I'm wrong... but I could definitely see a corporate decision to drop smaller titles that don't make the distributor's minimum order requirement. This has just reminded me of how ass-backwards the control over book distribution is - ran into it when I was researching the idea of running a bookstore decades ago.

[Vexx]

Update: what I *believe* to be the last book in the series (japanese edition volume 16) is coming out 4/29/09. Its cover is what leads me to believe it is the closing part of the series.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%9C%88%E8...0888249&sr=8-1

On the Tokyopop side... :P but Barnes&Noble has a pre-order set up for June 1, 2009 of an unlabeled release of TMP (last release was vol. 11 in Aug2008). So it may be that they were able to work around the distribution issue for small volume items.

http://books.barnesandnoble.com/sear...ukiyomi&DREF=1

(anyone looking for the anime series, I recommend the Viridian collection at rightstuf:
http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/cat...em/82012/4/0/0

as it has the parody epilog episode). The original Funimation collection though is at bargain bin $23 there so that may be a consideration.

[Guido]

Vexx, what I want to know is if the manga has already ended?

[Vexx]

The last volume (#16) was released in Japan on 3/24/2009. Yes, it is a complete series now.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%9C%88%E8...1580575&sr=8-1
Hmmm, I need to order that last volume....

[KimmyChan]

I need to start on buying & reading this manga very soon, now I know it has 16 vols in total

[Man0warr]

Vol 13 got postponed I guess, preorder from Amazon still hasn't shipped. I hope we will be able to see the end of this manga :<

[Vexx]

Hmmmm, amazon.com and bn.com give vastly different results in regard to what volumes of Moon Phase are available and due out... meh.

The spring release was delayed when TP's distributor (Diamond Distributors) changed the minimum quantities requirement and TP had a mass of employee layoffs. I assumed the new date for shipment was June based on the bn.com site pre-order data. Now I'm not sure.

These articles are of interest:
http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1438...miMoonPhase/12
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...s-out-of-stock
http://www.mangablog.net/?p=3354

Unfortunately, whatever the pre-orders at bn.com or amazon.com say --- Tokyopop (after their Christmas layoffs and Diamond's change of policy) is being rather stonewall silent with their customer relations on future releases of Moon Phase or the other series, like ARIA.

I find it idiotic and remarkable that manga companies are so terrible at customer relations ... i.e. keeping their customers posted. ADV sent me directly from a fond customer to one of their nastiest critics during their spiral into oblivion. et tu, TP?

Started poking TP on their site, we'll see if they respond, delete my queries, or just ignore me completely.

[Vexx]

Two days later.... so far, not a peep to my questions on the status at Tokyopop of Moon Phase (or ARIA). (sigh)

[scrumly1]

Well in the interest of presenting at least some news, Amazon has yet to cancel my pre-order for 13 but that could mean nothing. But right now it's listed be delivered on Sept 3, which means the release date is the 1st. When publishers or retailers list things with release dates of the 1st of the 31st it usually means it's a "soft" street date(it can stocked as soon as it arrives but will arrive anytime that month). So I'm keeping my fingers crossed cause I want to see the ending darnit.

[Vexx]

Guess I'll reset my order and see what transpires.... :P

At the moment, TP has moved to my 'can't be trusted to finish' list next to the now dead ADV.

[Man0warr]

Amazon finally canceled my preorder for Volume 13 :>