Planetes by Makoto Yukimura

Tokyo Pop Description by: Translation - Yuki Nakamura & Rewrite - Anna Wenger
Haunted by a space flight accident that claimed the life of his beloved wife, Yuri finds himself six years later as part of a team of debris cleaners on a vessel called the Toy Box charged with clearing space junk from space flight paths. The team consists of Hachimaki, a hot shot debris-man with a sailor's affinity for the orbital ocean; Fee, a chain-smoking tomboy beauty with an abrasive edge; and Pops, a veteran orbital mechanic whose avuncular presence soothes the stress of the job. Planetes follows the lives of Yuri and his fellow debris-men as they work and ruminate at the edge of the great empyrean sea. \

Planetes is one of my top 5 manga.
Its short (5 volumes) and sweet.
Its what I've learned is HARD sci-fi.
That means its a more realistic style of science fiction and I think it does a pretty good job of showing how life would be in the near future.
There is one scene with a tall girl who was born on the moon that has a lil science behind it that is pretty interesting and makes a lil sense as well.

All 5 volumes are available for purchase as well as on Stop Tazmo.

REMEMBER...
If you like a manga you read in scanlation do as much as you can to support the USA release.
Sometimes all I can do is buy the first volume.
Even a lil can make a difference.

BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei

Tokyo Pop description by: Brandon Montclare
Killy is a man of few words. He wanders, seemingly endlessly, through a lonely, gargantuan labyrinth of concrete and steel, fighting off cyborgs and other futuristic nightmares, searching only for something called Net Terminal Genes. And he has a very powerful gun, which he uses without hesitation whenever anything resembling danger rears its ugly head. Who is this quiet, violent, determined man and what are these Genes he seeks? The small communities he finds tucked into the crevices of this towering, dystopic ruin hardly give him leads on his treasure, driving him to find larger enclaves of civilization where people can reveal more about the world he lives in and the quarry he seeks. This is an artists' book, depicting a wasteland of tortured rock and steel ... rendered in ruinous beauty. Do not miss BLAME!

This manga is done by my absolute fave artist.
Tsutomu Nihei.
His artwork is not your average big eyes, spiky hair and big boobs that you might find in other manga.
His is a former architect so his backgrounds are just amazing.
He has done a few other books that havent been licensed for release in the USA yet.
My fave of his books is Biomega (I will post about that at another time).
He has also done NOISE!, Abara & Digimortal.

Volumes 1-5 of BLAME! are available at all major bookstores or online.
Volume 6 will be released in early November 2006

You can find scanlations (scanned & translated pages) of all of those unlicensed books at http://www.omanga.net

DJ Ink - August 2006

http://www.osmosisbeats.com/audio/dnb/DjInk_August06StudioMix%20.mp3

1: Gremlinz / Aspect - Kilo [Renegade Hardware]
2: Unknown Dub
3: Alpha Omega - Orange Moon [Dub]
4: Friske & Perpetuum - Villians [Renegade Hardware]
5: Hive / Keaton - Retreat [Extinction Agenda]
6: Manifest - So Sick [Renegade Hardware]
7: Countrestrike & Magna Karta - Interface [unsigned]
8: Noisia & Teebee - Time Stops [Subtitles]
9: Unknown Dub
10: Phobia - Rules OF The Game [Renegade Hardware]
11: Digital - Gateman

Air Gear by Oh! Great

I've gotten into reading a lot of manga lately.
ATM Air Gear is one of my faves.
Its got some great artwork and a pretty good storyline as well.

Here's the description from the back of the book.

WANNA FLY?
Itsuki Minami needs no introduction–everybody’s heard of the “Babyface” of the Eastside. He’s the toughest kid at Higashi Junior High School, easy on the eyes but dangerously tough when he needs to be. Plus, Itsuki lives with the mysterious and sexy Noyamano sisters. Life is never dull, but it becomes dangerous when Itsuki leads his school to victory over some vindictive Westside punks with gangster connections. Now he stands to lose his school, his friends, and everything he cares about. But in his darkest hour, the Noyamano girls come to Itsuki’s aid. They can teach him a powerful skill that will save their school from the gangsters’ siege–and introduce Itsuki to a thrilling and terrifying new world.

Volume one was just released in late July 2006.
You can buy it at most book stores.
Here's a few links:
http://www.amazon.com/Air-Gear-1-OhGreat/dp/0345492781/sr=8-1/qid=1156961850/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-4702076-3067158?ie=UTF8
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780345492784&itm=1

Volume 2 comes out 10-31-06 and subsequent volumes get released every 3 months.

If you wanna take a peek at the book before you buy it goto http://www.stoptazmo.com .
They have scanlations of the book in that large mass of links on the top of their site.
BUT, if you like it I would definitely suggest you buy the books as they get released in the USA.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE INDUSTRY OR WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET BOOKS OF THIS QUALITY SO EASILY.

Let me look into your soul

I got an endoscopy today.
It was just take make sure that the persistant heartburn that I have isnt anything worse.
Things turned out well.
The doc said he might need to give me some meds to digest my food faster.
He said he saw food in my stomach even though I hadnt eaten since before 9pm last night.

When old is new again

Hey Everybody.
Wassup.
This is the first time I've ever really done much of a journal so bear with me.
Any comments and/or encouragement you'd like to give would be greatly appreciated.