So… Now that the Tenjo Tenge anime has been released (and fansubbed), I’ll chitter on about something else entirely for a while. While in Japan earlier this year, I was suprised to see that One Piece is still on the shelves there. Amazed by its staying power in the fickle Consumer Market of the Rising Sun, I resolved to finally check it out when I got home. And check it out I did… I’ve read 23 volumes of it now, and I’m quite thoroughly hooked. It entails the journey of Luffy D Monkey, a young man determined to become the King of Pirates…. No mere verbal description can do this series justice. Just check out the anime or the manga and see for yourself. If you don’t instantly drop your pants in excitement, give it a couple chapters. It grows on you like a fungus.

Avex Mode, the same folks who brought us the One Piece anime, are gearing up to release an animated version of Tenjo Tenge. As you may recall, Tenjo Tenge is a manga made available in English through the kindly efforts of mangatranslation.com. It entails the struggle between Nagi Souichiro and the Jyukenbo fighting club versus the insidious Enforcement Group. The manga is a high-quality school-ruffian/martial arts drama with some adult themes interspersed. Fugu Tabetai, the fan scanslator of the manga, has done a great job of bringing this title to us, even going so far as to personally host Bittorrents for each of the first ten volumes. Fansubbed versions of the anime may not be available through reputable organizations, as Geneon Animation already has distribution rights to it before it has even aired in Japan.

It looks like the fine folks at Manga Inc have gotten their happy little hands onto Volume 3 of School Rumble. Due to recent diskspace and quota increases at My ISP I have been able to keep my temporary http archive of this title up and running. It now includes up to chapter 33, wherein Tenma’s inner peace is threatened by the appearance of his former classmates.