Phoenix Vol. 6 Out Today!

[strobe_z]

Here's a day I thought would never come... I went out and bought Viz's Phoenix Vol. 6 today. After all the rumours that Viz had dropped publication of the Phoenix series, I was quite sure I'd never get past Vol. 5.

I'm only about 85 pages in and already it's incredible. Tezuka's imagination simply astounds me. It's just great.... simply great. I think I'll sleep with it under my pillow tonight.

The one thing that is confusing me a bit is that according to Viz's published "Phoenix timeline" the next story should've been "Robe Of Feathers". I've heard that it's not a long story, so I'm still hoping that they've just temporarily skipped over it in order to pair it with another shorter story in a future volume... and not just skipped it. I'm not familiar enough with how the phoenix series breaks down to give an educated guess yet. There's 12 stories... but it looks like it's been released in a variety of formats in various langauges - everything from 9 to 16 volumes.

The fact that there's only listings for volumes 7 and 8 gives me pause, but the fact that I'm holding my copy of vol. 6 against all odds tells me not to worry just yet.

[O2Destroyer]

YEAH! I'd been waiting.

[O2Destroyer]

Is this the real cover for volume 6???

[strobe_z]

No... the cover is in the same style as the other ones. There's some minor logo changes as Phoenix is now a "Signature" line and not "Editor's Choice" (whatever the difference is is lost on me though).

There was a picture available at the Viz store, but they're revamping their online store and all the links are down. You can see a small image in the cover gallery at my site here :

http://tezuka-translated.com/manga_phoenix.php

Just scroll down to vol. 6 - oh.. and vol.7-9 are my own 'educated guesses' based on the cover series that they're using.

[O2Destroyer]

Yeah, my copy arrived today, and as you pointed out, it basically looks like the others. Still, the image shown above is still retained, though not allowed on the cover itself.

This is a nice thick one; can't wait to read it. Need to reread V for Vendetta first though (very impressed with the new movie), and after Phoenix v. 6, it is finally time to read buddah vol. 1-8 without interruption.

[O2Destroyer]

Read through it last night. Pretty fantastic, though not quite up there with Future and Karma. Tezuka really comes up with some weird themes in this one, but executes them well. This is the second time that Moopies have come up in the series, I have a feeling it isn't going to be the last since they make such great victims. I'm sure that what happens to Kom at the end will also get revisited in some other story.

[strobe_z]

There was a lot to digest in this one. I found it a little disjointed, almost like it was 3 stories.... Romy and her children's fight to survive... then goofy 'road trip'.... and finally the return to earth.

Took me a while to figure out that Nakamura was the same guy who died in "Yamato". I quite liked it though... some classic Tezuka imagination in this one that's for sure.