Death Note Vol. 8

I remember the halcyon days of manga, with Tokyopop sitting firmly on the throne of manga hegemony. Tokyopop used to spill out literally dozens of titles a month that we could count on being able to sell in the double digits. That day has long passed, and it's lucky if we can sell 2 or 3 of each of the titles Tokyopop keeps churning out of it's publishing houses.

And it's true, manga has declined somewhat in unit sales - with lots of people complaining that there just aren't as many good titles out there as there used to be. Over the last several years other publishers have put out some pretty great stuff, and we've seem dramatic increases in readership in other genres altogether.

But right now there is a stand-out title. One that actually ships today: Death Note is probably the best manga being translated to english these days. Seriously folks, I look forward to this manga more than just about any other title being published right now. If you haven't read Death Note, you should definitely gived it a shot. In terms of entertainment value, I'd say it surpasses even Lone Wolf & Cub. That's saying something.

-Ben