oh frabjous day! calloo! callay!

[cerusee]

Announced at ComicCon--VIZ will be publishing both Urasawa's 20th Century Boys (welcome news, but not a surprise; fans have known they were planning to do this years ago, but published Monster first at Urasawa's request) and--hooray!--Pluto, Urasawa's suspenseful retelling of the Pluto arc from Tezuka's Astro Boy (I have hoped they would do this ever since I got a peek at some scans of Pluto a year or two back. As an act of faith, I have not gone looking for scanlations for either series. Spoil me and I'll kick your head in. Urasawa is a master of suspense! I like suspense. Don't un-suspend me).

I swear, I am so happy, I could vomit up flowers and butterflies.

Although it seems unlikely that anyone is going to license and publish older Urasawa works like Happy, Yawara, and Master Keaton, every step I can take towards my dream of completing an Urasawa dead-tree English language library is a good step.

Comments

[fani.livejournal.com]

YAY !!!!! I can star collecting the mangas in languages I do actually understand!

[snarp]

It turns out Astro Boy's made of chocolate! And he kills Gesicht with powers he got from a turtle! I know, it's totally weird!

(I'm kinda surprised about this - I'd read Urasawa had made some stipulation that licensors had to release his stuff in a certain weird, very strict order. He didn't want two series coming out simultaneously or something, because he didn't want the older art to look bad by comparison.)

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

I could swear someone told me that the publications of 20th Century Boys and Pluto overlapped in Japan, so maybe it doesn't matter? Or maybe he stopped caring. Or maybe VIZ broke an agreement which will end in fiery hate mails reproduced on Fandom Wank. As long as I get them both on my bookshelf, I don't care. :D

It's not the battiest complaint, I suppose, no weirder than not wanting your artwork flipped because you think it looks bad that way. His old artwork is good, but it's not as good as his current work, and if you put up Yawara next to Pluto, it'd look pretty crappy. I had a moment of wtf when I went from reading Cantarella to Seimaden--Cantarella's art is stunningly beautiful, and absolutely leaves Seimaden in the dust, but they're both Higuri's work, just created ten years apart.

[m00nface.livejournal.com]

OMG I can FINALLY recommend 20th Century Boys without having to add the standard disclaimer, "By the way, it won't be available for XYZ million years..." 'Tis a grand day indeed!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

The upside of it having been several years since I read the first few volumes of 20th Century Boys is that I've forgotten the plot almost entirely, so I won't be impatiently waiting for volumes I haven't read!