October Newsletter

​Hi Everyone!

This is our monthly newsletter, where I'll talk about some cool stuff coming in this month, some sweet stuff that's happening at the store, and then probably babble for a little bit about something I think is pretty cool! First I'll talk about our Magic: The Gathering events for the month, so if that isn't your thing feel free to let your eyes glaze over until we're out of that section!

October Magic Events
As always, we are hosting $10 dollar drafts on Tuesday the 11th and 18th, and $15 drafts on Friday the 14th, 21st and 28th. This month on Tuesday the 25th we'll be drafting Theros, and that will have a $12 buy-in. Starting with next Wednesday the 12th, every Wednesday we'll be doing a Standard event with a $5 buy in, so that we can offer similar prize support to the Friday drafts. In addition we'll have some special events on Saturdays. On the 22nd we'll be hosting a Game Day Standard Tournament, where in addition to regular prizes you can win special promos, and the first place winner will get a special play mat! Entrance to the event will be $8 For the full scoop on the promos see the Wizards page here.

The following weekend, on Saturday the 29th we'll be hosting a special constructed event. To get into the spooky Halloween spirit, we'll be hosting a tournament where each player will build a 60 card deck consisting only of commons and uncommons from Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon. This is a fun opportunity to test your deckbuilding skills and make something that's fun (and cheap!). Entry to the event will be $5 with special spooky card prizes in addition to the regular support!

This month, the FNM promo is Rise From the Tides, so if you place in the top 5 at any FNM event you'll be able to get one! If there are any additions or changes to the schedule, look out on Facebook!

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October Anime Schedule
Starting this month, every Saturday at 7pm we'll be airing a new series, to showcase some of our classic favorites or new stuff that we think is cool! This month we're watching:
10/8: The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
10/15: Gatchaman Crowds
10/22: Gundam Build Fighters Try
10/29: Hell Girl

We're hoping people will stop in to hang out and watch with us, and in addition encourage anyone who wants to to come in costume on the 29th (we'll be unfortunately closed on the 31st as it's a Monday)

In addition to our viewings, we'll be playing Tanto Cuore with anyone who wants to join in on 10/8 (or any other game people feel like) a Board Game Night starting at 5pm on 10/15 and a Gundam Build day on 10/22 at 6pm, following our Magic tournament. As always, during our gundam build day all gundam kits, paints, hobby tools and accessories will be 10% off!

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New Releases and Coming Soon
September was an exciting month for new releases and reprints. The complete box set of both seasons of Suzumiya Haruhi were re-released on Blu-ray and DVD, and we have both in stock. In addition The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan was also released in a DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack, so if you enjoyed that I recommend coming in to pick it up. The two seasons of the Psycho Pass anime have also been consolidated into just two DVD/Blu-Ray combo packs, rather than the four they used to be in. 

In the Manga department, we just got some fantastic reprint omnibuses of the complete Death Note manga, and also the first volume of Platinum End, the new series from the creators of Death Note. If you enjoyed Death Note or like death games to become god (like Future Diary) then you'll definitely want to check this series out! This month the first volume of the Re:Zero manga came out, and next month the second is coming out! Of note new volumes of Genshiken Niidaime, Akame ga Kill! and Nichijou are also coming out!

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​Highlights and Store Picks
Justin: This month for anime I want to talk about Gatchaman Crowds, a 2015 series that we will actually be watching later this month. Gatchaman Crowds is a Tatsunoko series that is basically a (substantial) reimagining of the original and iconic Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Similar to the original, the show features a team of heroes who use special powered armor suits to fight an evil alien force. The show's premise sounds kind of corny, and honestly it is, and that's one of the things I like about the show best: it is totally unapologetic about what it is. With a very silly (and catchy) team theme song, and a spastic main character, the show isn't cool, but it is very stylish. The art is gorgeous, the armor suits look cool, and you can't help but gradually get drawn in to the show. I was initially ready to write it off, but in the end I wound up really enjoying the show, and I recommend giving it a watch. As mentioned above we'll be watching the first 6 episodes on the 15th, and hope you'll check it out!

For my manga pick of the month I wanted to talk about UQ Holder, Ken Akamatsu's follow up series to the extremely long running Negima! (and just this month the series was officially subtitled as Negima 2) For those who don't know Akamatsu was forced to suddenly end Negima's run to retain creative rights to the series. As a follow up, once his intellectual property was secured, Akamatsu began authoring a follow up series that takes place in the same world, but set far in the future, in 2086. I was a long time fan of Negima, and was really disappointed that it was resolved in a fairly anti-climactic way. UQ Holder simultaneously proceeds with a new story, while reintroducing a number of characters that I (and clearly everyone) really liked. It's a chance you rarely get, to experience a satisfying conclusion to a story you thought was over. UQ Holder currently has 8 volumes out, with the 9th coming in November. I definitely recommend checking it out!

Carolyn: Anyone who's asked me for an anime suggestion in the past 4 months has probably heard me rave about Punchline, but if you haven't here's the deal: I think Punchline is as close to a new FLCL as you're going to get. I originally stumbled on this anime during some late night Crunchyroll browsing, having stopped on it because the premise sounded so dumb it couldn't possibly be good.

To put it bluntly, Punchline is an anime about a grumpy kid who accidentally sees a superheroine/magical girl's panties and gets so excited he turns into a ghost, and then spends the next 6 episodes haunting an apartment complex filled with girls, trying desperately to avoid seeing their panties because if he sees them as a ghost, an asteroid will destroy the earth. Now, before you change the channel immediately because you can't take any more of this ecchi trash, remember that FLCL was about a kid who got hit with a guitar so hard giant fighting robots from the depths of space came out of his forehead. And look where that took us.

Punchline is ultimately one of those series that you're encouraged to go into more or less blind, so I don't want to give too much away, but after the wacky pantie ghost antics of the first 6 episodes, things get surprisingly serious and complicated, and time travel-y. The animation is gorgeously done and the character designs are all very cool and stylish, and there's a lot crammed into these 12 episodes: Time travel, body swapping, magical girl transformations, secret government programs,  and even a mecha battle. At the end of the series I was left feeling overwhelmed and thoroughly impressed, like I needed a moment to untangled what I just witnessed, an experience with anime I had not really had the chance to experience since I first saw FLCL. So if you're looking for a series that is an intense experience, definitely check out Punchline! 

For manga, I would definitely suggest Fragments of Horror, which is a short one shot collection by Junji Ito, the famed horror mangaka behind "Uzumaki" and the short "The Enigma of Amigara Fault". Fragments of horror contains 8 short stories that run the typical Junji Ito gamut from disgusting, to unsettingly creepy, to sad, to just plain weird, perfect Halloween reading! As usual Junji Ito's art is drop dead gorgeous, even when it's all about showing off something completely gross. My personal favorites include the supernaturally touching "Gentle Goodbye" which is a story about a family with the power to bring back their loved ones as ghosts that eventually fade away and the more classic "Dissection Chan" which is all about a particularly creepy girl who just wants to get dissected. As has been the usual with recent Junji Ito releases, Fragments of Horror is presented as an impressive hardcover edition that is slightly larger than your average manga. While the stories inside of Fragments of Horror are all great (and terrifying) reads, my favorite thing about this particular volume of Junji Ito madness is that it looks really cool on your bookshelf, particularly lined up with the rest of the hardcover volumes of Ito stories that have been released as of late.

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