 Hey everybody, welcome back to the channel. Today, we're gonna close out the year with the final video for Banga Geekdom And it is my final haul of 2023, let's do it The first one that I'm gonna talk about is dark gathering volume one I picked this up from instar trades and I am super excited about owning this series I've watched the anime Reviewed it on the channel a little bit sort of my impressions on it and I knew I wanted to own the manga I love that it's a mash-up of shonen manga with a lot of horror elements Yayoi, she is one of my favorite characters I just love her determination in the phase of all these Horrific spirits and how she's able to persevere and fight these things mostly because she wants to avenge her Parents that tragically died and her mother was sort of spirited away by this evil entity that is amassing Souls and all that stuff. It looks like a dark embryo if you will so Yayoi is Going around Japan gathering spirits collecting evil spirits and sort of taming them think like Pokemon But darker and she's going to fight this evil entity that is also building an army of its own So it's gonna be really interesting the supporting cast is great with her cousin and Kato who starts out as the protagonist, but let's be honest It's all about Yayoi in this but yeah, nonetheless dark gathering really cool stuff really spooky like the anime did it Well, but this manga has some amazing detail on the spirits and just a facial expressions and the gore of it Oh, really impressive highly recommend this if you want some spooks in your life From the Viz signature line here is came the mirror and other stories from Fumiko Takahashi And this is pretty interesting. I completely forgot this book existed I was looking at another youtuber and they were hauling all different sorts of books and wanted to build a takahashi collection And then I saw came the mirror. I'm like, whoa, wait a minute. I don't know about this. Yes. I did I just forgot but I got it and that's super cool. This is a short story collection I believe the total would be six short stories and I love that it includes colored pages for the introductions Like here you can see some with came the mirror and I hope this sold enough to convince viz To maybe put out some of the other frumic theater stuff in new editions I would very much like to see that happen I recently talked about it on a reading vlog, but I finally decided to buy Zom 100 I really enjoyed the show the anime adaptation and I watched the live action movie wasn't bad either So I wanted to own the original. I know I don't know why it took me so long I think I mentioned previously that I just got distracted by other things And this was one of the sacrifices at the time. So I didn't pick it up. So as of making this video here I can tell you that I I picked up volume seven eight nine I think I'm up to the current one, which would be volume 12 The only thing I'm missing would be volumes two to six would be the ones I would need to get But yeah, I really enjoy the art for these zombies and the story is pretty fun The characters I think are the major appeal here because I want to see them be happy and succeed and fulfill their bucket list I think that's what I mostly like about this comedic action take on the zombie apocalypse Oshinoko volume four this volume puts the spotlight on kana She happens to be my favorite character from oshinoko and I am looking forward to rereading this I watched the anime it was fantastic And I really enjoyed the soap opera aspect of this story the art here is really cool And I just wish it had the coloring from the anime because that was so striking But yeah, I'm excited to check out oshinoko here We got volume two of toge oni primal gods in ancient times volume one I liked but I did feel it was just a little too Hectic at times So hopefully with volume two the pacing evens out a little bit I just felt like volume one was such a rush of concepts and things happening that I didn't quite get a full grasp of What this story is going for but from what I'm seeing here flipping through the pages. It looks pretty awesome So yeah, I'm looking forward to giving out my thoughts on volume two eventually Next from one of my favorite writers atoshi mizukami. We got senkoko yoko volume four I actually need to go back and read volume three So I can be ready here for volume four, but I like that it's coming out in full force from tokyo pop I love this series. It's a lot of fun pretty action packed and in this volume things look really chaotic Like holy smokes. Look at that art I finally caught up with the releases of inspector here. We have volume 17 and 18 I didn't know that these two covers aligned to make one full image That is pretty awesome and volume 18 by the way is pretty thick. That was unexpected. That's awesome Volume 19 comes out next year. So I'm looking forward to that and catching up with the series But yeah, definitely enjoy inspector now. Don't quote me on this I have no idea what's happening in these volumes because I'm a little behind on my reading But I'll catch up and I'll make a proper review on why I like inspector so much So look forward to that. But yeah, love the art and story. Can't wait to talk about this on the channel Finally it feels like forever since I started collecting battle angel alita. Here we have volume 19 of last order This is the final one. I can't flip through this book too much because it it's the final volume I don't want to spoil the story I guess I can now finally finish reading this and making a sequel video to the one I made previously on the first series of battle angel alita and Hopefully I do enjoy it. We'll see. It's a little bit disappointing that I couldn't find volume 17 I think it was that is out of print and hard to find but this will do I'll just read it online and and eventually if I do find it. I'll grab it Then I can finally start getting mars chronicle as well From codonsha. We have wave listen to me volume 10 looking fantastic as always I love me some hitawaki saimura artwork. Now. I have to admit it's been a while since I've read Wave listen to me. So I don't know what exactly is happening in this volume But let's just take a quick look here at the art looking positively awesome. Can't wait This is one of my favorite drama series that I have on my collection Miss Kobayashi's dragon maid in color. We got the double chromatic edition or just volume two I'll be honest. I prefer the anime I'm not a huge fan of the manga of miss kobayashi's dragon maid But like I mentioned with the first volume I think this is a cool gimmick to have an all in color manga You don't see that often and I think the coloring here is a lot of fun It brings these characters to life aside from, you know, the regular drawings from kyo kyo sinja But yeah, I wanted to own a piece of the manga and this is sort of a best of if you were wondering Just a handful of chapters from the manga illustrated in full color here We got a josei release here gold kingdom and water kingdom from now iwamoto I've been super excited highly anticipating this release for a while ever since seven seas entertainment made the announcement And I covered it on omni bros This is a manga about two warring kingdoms that send Their most beautiful girl from the gold kingdom and the smartest man from the water kingdom to bind the two nations together However, both of them send animals instead They don't want to take part in this deal and it could spell disaster for the future of these two countries That aren't war with each other at odds But what will happen when the two characters actually meet will their union actually stop the war will just have to find out I'm looking forward to reading this the art looks fantastic And this was a thicker book than I was anticipating I thought it was going to be a small story maybe like four or five chapters But this is quite lengthy and I am really excited about that another of my anticipated releases for the fall of 2023 was orb on the movements of the earth This is a two-in-one omnibus here with a story in art by uwoto And this tells the story of rafal a brilliant young man that defies theology and the norms of the time and Establishes that the earth does indeed orbit the sun which was controversial at the time because the norm was the other way around And rafal falls into the hands of the inquisition So the second part of the story takes place many years later as we follow Two members of the watch guild that find the secrets of the universe left behind by rafal And now must decide what to do with this information So yeah, this is sort of like historical fiction. I love the art here. It's going for realism, but also Very cartoonish character designs at times with all the the rounded faces. This is a very gruesome manga, by the way There are some insane panels here But definitely excited to check this out and give you my thoughts on it as soon as I can From Toriumon Takeira, we have the story collection here one more step come stand by my side The plot for these stories. I have to be honest. I don't remember all of them But some of them sounded really interesting But it was mostly the art that made me want to pick this up the drawings here look phenomenal I cannot recommend it enough based on the art alone. Some of this will be like heavy reads So might not be for everybody, but damn this is a fine-looking release So thank you so much to Yen Press for putting this out. I am so happy to own this in my collection From the legendary Osamu Tezuka, we have 100 tales finally This was delayed a bunch of times and then it actually came out and I forgot to pick it up until now I have to complain though. I don't get what the deal was with the blaze and this Spine like it's cool. You can put the text however you want It's your book and it's your release and all that stuff But for it to be upside down compared to every other spine drives me insane I'm gonna have to display this book upside down 100 tales is an adaptation of the Faust legend as a samurai period piece that sounds great From Dark Horse comics, we have Innocent from Shinichi Sakamoto Which made quite the debut for North American readers with the viz release of hashtag DRCL or Dracula midnight children and this I think is even better. This is a fictionalized story of a real person Charles Henry Sanson who was one of the royal executioners of Paris and his claim to fame was the thousands of people that he killed So this fictionalized version follows his story and how he wants to Stop the killing but he knows that he can't change things overnight So he vows to be sort of the last executioner in France. That sounds phenomenal and the art is breathtaking. This is so fantastic I wish this was a deluxe hardcover because it merits the oversized pages But regardless, I'm excited either way to own such an Exquisitely drawn series Seriously, this is easily one of the highlights of the year in my honest opinion. Great release here The last book that we're going to talk about is the berserk deluxe edition hardcover volume 14 Finally in my hands such a bittersweet moment to have volume 14 Knowing that this is the final material that the late cantata miyuta created So this collects volume 40 41 and to the surprise of many myself included the guidebook for some reason I never saw this being collected in an oversized format, but it makes sense This is a nice way to put a marker on the legacy of cantata miyuta of this fantastic release that is berserk And it's only inevitable that we will get volume 15 down the road But for now, let's just savor the fact that this man was able to build this amazing series for 30 plus years and to have the privilege of owning this stuff in such a beautiful collected edition is Fascinating kudos to the folks at dark horse for the commitment of overseeing this release and it's finally out It took us a while. I think it was what four or five years something like that But we have all of berserk in the luxe hardcover format that is so cool Obviously this being just two volumes the hardcover is a little bit thinner I had the smaller tankobon editions but ended up giving them away to a good friend as a gift so that they could read berserk for the first time And I gladly kept here my deluxe editions as the definitive way to experience the magnum opus that is berserk I do have one anime release And it is an isekai that i've always wanted to own and finally had the opportunity to grab It was on sale at least half off. I think at the bezos website and it is the vision of escaflowne Now I have to admit I remember seeing some of this when it was airing stateside But I don't remember the full story. It's been a while So I was really happy to pick this up I've loved the visuals for escaflowne for ages and I really wanted to experience the story So this year when I made it a goal to sort of build an essentials library when it comes to my anime shelf This had to be on there So there you go folks, that is the final manga haul for 2023 as of recording this video. I do have more books coming. So expect another haul pretty soon Thank you everybody for tuning in. God bless. Stay safe out there. Thank you for a phenomenal 2023 The channel grew beyond my wildest expectations and I'm looking forward to doubling or tripling that in 2024 with your help, of course. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you I truly appreciate your support all the views all the likes all the people subscribing all the wonderful Comments and feedback on all the videos that I've made. There's much to learn and fix and retude and refine Look forward to an even better manga geekdom in 2024. So for one final time this year Thank you so much for tuning in. I have got to go. I will catch all of you on our next video