Welcome to Shibuya-cho

Howdy folks. We just got an awesome unexpected toy arrival since last week's issue that I know you're gonna love. You've got Sora, you've got him in Valor form, you've got him in his Final form. Now finally, one year later, you can own Kingdom Hearts 2 Sora in his gloriously cool blue Wisdom form. Now this version only comes with one keyblade (as it is in the game), but at least this keyblade is the lovely "Follow the Wind" blade that Sora gets from the "Pirates of the Carribean" world. And just so you guys aren't kept in too much suspense, we do have Sora in Master form on order to arrive hopefully soon.

Now in the wild world of manga, my two picks of the week (until some other unexpected titles show up again), are Dark Horse's titles MPD Psycho volume 2 and XS Hybrid volume 2. Both have fantastic art, and intriguing and and curious stories.

First up is MPD Psycho by Sho-u Tajima and Eiji Otsuka about a homicide detective who was arrested after killing his girlfriend's killer. After a few years in prison a friend and also detective quits the force to start her own investigation firm and hires him onto her new team. So why does she take in a convicted murderer? He's the best profiler the department ever saw, and now he works for her. That's all well and fun, but who's fault is it when the serial killers start getting serial killed? The killer detective, the woman who got him out of jail, or one of the various personalities stored in the killer detective's brain?

And now XS Hybrid by Song Ji-Hyung is a different kinda story but with the same action pace. A young man tries to protect his girlfriend from a thug, but the thug wails on him in a fairly supernatural manner. Not even the cops who rushed to the scene can stop this guy. Shortly after a quick escape, they encounter the thug again, but are saved by this mysterious blond guy with the same strange strength only more so. And suddenly not only one, but international governments are involved. Still not quite sure what it is, but there's a secret about these "hybrids". That's why I'm aching to read volume 2. Ok, just so you know ahead of time, both these titles are quite violent in their awesome action-ness, so they're pretty much for late teens and up. Enjoy and I'll see you next week.

Ja Ne!
Mat K.