After being a fan of Ozaki-sensei's Meteor Methuselah/Immortal Rain for five years, long periods of anticipation for new releases in the States is nothing new. I remember back 2005, between volumes 3-6, TokyoPop would just keep rolling out the volumes; the manga would come one 2-3 months after another. But once they reached the 6th, thus started the periods of excruciating waiting. (Argh.) Volume 7 came after nearly a year and a half. Before then, my impatience was killing me that I eventually buckled down and went to Japantown to buy the 7th volume, still in raw form, in order to get a sneak peek of what's to come. Of course, when the English-translated version came out, I bought that too. Thankfully, the next volume (no. 8) came out less than a year earlier. Barely.So now, since TOKYOPOP's first release of Immortal Rain, vol. 1 (June 2004), they have released 8 volumes in the span of five years. (However, if you count the original volumes' release in Japan, they've released 9 volumes within the span of ten years.) So far, since the last Immortal Rain release in September 2007, it's already been 2 years (the longest wait to date), and a whole lot of us fans in America are getting pretty antsy . . . and really, really annoyed. Eheheh. Those fans who can read in Japanese are absolutely lucky, because they can keep up with the latest storyline - of which came out last year on October.
Well, I'm definitely not gonna do what I did three years ago by spoiling myself, so I'll stick it out. But I'm actually doing pretty well, since it has been 2 years after all. [sigh] Like other fans frequently posting questions about the next release online, my friends have been bugging me from time to time about volume 9. And I tell them the same thing every time: Not yet, it just came out in Japan, TOKYOPOP is still doing their thing. Ridiculous.
The only thing I can do right now is re-read the whole series in my spare time, slave through college work, and pray that TOKYOPOP unveils an official release date for volume 9.
I wish good luck to other fans. Volume 9 may be around the corner!
Now on to my Sociology homework . . . [wince]
+ On the wish list: Ozaki Kaori's new Meteor Methuselah 2009 fanbook
+ Browsing through this site: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/innocent/bad/homepage/home.html
+ Currently reading: Sociology: 12th Edition, by John J. Macionis
+ Listening to: 2NE1
