{"id":900,"date":"2012-01-21T08:22:29","date_gmt":"2012-01-21T00:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/?p=900"},"modified":"2012-01-21T09:09:30","modified_gmt":"2012-01-21T01:09:30","slug":"on-the-shelf-a-fresh-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2012\/01\/21\/on-the-shelf-a-fresh-start\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Shelf: A Fresh Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has somewhat eluded me before but I feel that with the influx of manga in the Philippine market, I think it’s best to start thinking on what is being sold on Philippine bookshelves and what we can buy. Filipinos used to have this excuse that particular manga is unavailable in the market hence they’d rather read scanlations. While I think a part of it is true (how there’s little manga available), I think that there’s a wealth of amazing manga that are either rotting in bookstores because people didn’t know that they were there.<\/p>\n

My answer to this problem is this bi-weekly report to help people know what they can actually start reading from the shelves of local bookstores.<\/p>\n

But first!<\/p>\n

Where can I buy manga in the Philippines?<\/h2>\n

Right now, there are 4 places you can buy a decent amount of manga: Fully Booked<\/a>, Comic Odyssey<\/a>, Planet X<\/a>, and\u00c2\u00a0Booksale<\/a>. By decent amount I meant that they have a rotating stock of manga (there are old and new titles), they have a good book shelf’s worth of manga, and their titles can range from children’s to shoujo to shounen and to seinen. I’ll investigate these comic bookstores closer sometime soon. But for now, we’ll keep those stores in mind.<\/p>\n

As I said before, manga here is still fairly small compared to the Kinokuniya shelves in Singapore. That said, it’s still a fairly good shelf as you get a mix of old and new titles. Some titles are so old that they’re already being sold in e-bay for good hefty price (Swallowing The Earth, anyone?)<\/p>\n

Throughout this series, I’ll be exploring these bookstores and check which manga you can buy for a reasonable price. My suggestions here are personally what I think some Filipino fans are currently enjoying or might enjoy. Hopefully, it might encourage local fans to purchase manga off the shelf.<\/p>\n

January 2011: A Fresh Start in Fully Booked, Katipunan Q.C.<\/h2>\n

Please don’t blame me as I might be frequenting this store a lot because this is the bookstore closest to my home and I do often check this store’s shelf. Fully Booked Katipunan is a fairly exciting shop with a good mix of old, new, popular, and critically acclaimed titles. I did get my copy of No Longer Human with great ease in this bookstore so I have faith that they will be keeping their stocks well. Among the shops the sell comics, this is probably the largest bookstore for manga and comics.<\/p>\n

I checked this store’s manga shelf this weekend and in the spirit of starting new, I looked at titles that were sold starting from no. 1. It’s quite an interesting lot.<\/p>\n

After School Charisma 1 (Viz Signature Edition: PHP699, Chuang Yi Edition: PHP315)<\/strong>
\nThis is a fairly fun but dark title from Viz that situates a bunch of historical clones who are struggling with their historical characters and roles. You will meet a high school Hitler, Freud, Joan of Arc, and others and while it can be light-hearted (Freud is lolarious!) the question of their own personal choice and their historical destiny raises the complexity of this story. There are more Chuang Yi editions in FB Katipunan, and you might be able to get at least until vol. 5.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kurosagi Corpse Deliver Service vol. 1 (Dark Horse: PHP599)<\/strong>
\nWritten by Eiji Otsuka, this ragtag crew of morticians are out to deliver some peace to some corpses. This can be a morbid read but it’s still a fun title that might be enjoyable to those who love the gory stuff. 6 volumes are available in FB Katipunan, so you won’t be left hanging for some while.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

La Quinta Camera (Viz Signature Edition: PHP699)<\/strong>
\nOne of the early works of Natsume Ono, this manga might be something that you will definitely want to have if you love Natsume Ono. It’s a single volume and if you love her style and art, then this is something you must read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Black Butler vol. 1 (Yen Press Edition: PHP499, Chuang Yi: PHP315)<\/strong>
\nI think this is for them fujoshi and for those girls who love the idea of having an evil butler around. This seems to be the featured manga in the FB Katipunan bookshelf and it’s definitely something worth looking at. They have until vol. 6 of the Yen Press edition. Is there any difference between Chuang Yi and Yen Press? I’ll… get to that later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has somewhat eluded me before but I feel that with the influx of manga in the Philippine market, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,366],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-on-the-shelf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p26e5y-ew","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":791,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2011\/09\/09\/five-years-after-a-champloo-of-manga-in-the-philippines\/","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":0},"title":"Five years after: A champloo of manga in the Philippines","author":"khursten","date":"September 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just can't believe that even five years later, I missed my own blog anniversary. AGAIN. OTL. WHY DOES LIFE HAVE TO MAKE ME SO BUSY!?! >A<)9\u00c2\u00a0 It's been five years since I started this blog and while I had started this with the intention to just link to my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/shelf.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/shelf.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/shelf.jpg?fit=600%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":251,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2010\/02\/18\/the-tezuka-vertical-covers\/","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":1},"title":"The Tezuka Vertical Covers","author":"khursten","date":"February 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I have something to confess. I rarely buy English mangas. Don't be hatin'. I have my reasons. I rarely buy English mangas because they're expensive in the Philippines. What would cost $8 in the U.S. might cost $15 in our bookstores. If I order Japanese mangas, it would cost me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/buddha04-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1020,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2012\/04\/18\/will-you-read-manga-in-filipino\/","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":2},"title":"Will you read manga in Filipino?","author":"khursten","date":"April 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long dream of mine to see manga widely distributed in the Philippines. In fact, if people asked what I would do if I won the lottery, I will say that I will establish a manga publishing firm in the Philippines. Not that I have issues in seeing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Hana-Yori-Dango-v01-c04-125-copy.jpg?fit=687%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Hana-Yori-Dango-v01-c04-125-copy.jpg?fit=687%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Hana-Yori-Dango-v01-c04-125-copy.jpg?fit=687%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2007\/08\/05\/barefoot-gen-drama-special-on-the-telly\/","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":3},"title":"Barefoot Gen drama special on the telly","author":"khursten","date":"August 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh dear. 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I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fujoshi Life"","block_context":{"text":"Fujoshi Life","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/wp-content\/images\/news\/manga1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1399,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2013\/03\/29\/history-mmf-manga-and-memories\/","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":4},"title":"History MMF: Manga and Memories","author":"khursten","date":"March 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Whenever I submit proposals to my old university, professors will always ask me \"Why historical manga?\" The whole world believes that comics are just comics. They are a shallow form of entertainment that exists to amuse us and that in itself is not bad but what I look at is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Features"","block_context":{"text":"Features","link":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/category\/features\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8111\/8599605310_c391f5e742_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1124,"url":"https:\/\/www.punkednoodle.com\/champloo\/2012\/05\/20\/mmf-oishinbo-food-manga-an-appetizer\/","url_meta":{"origin":900,"position":5},"title":"MMF: Oishinbo & Food Manga, an appetizer","author":"khursten","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Japanese food is a mystery for many. We are perplexed by the vulgarity of eating raw fish but at the same time we wonder how croquettes (korokke) and curries (kare-) are part of their cuisine. 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