Omnibus Editions: A Sign of the Times

In a sign of the times, Del Rey has recently canceled a handful of upcoming manga volumes in favor of Omnibus editions that allow them to incorporate more material together in a lower priced package. Instead of Wallflower 22 and 23, we will now get a Wallflower Omnibus 22-24. Orange Planet 3 has now been replaced with the Orange Planet Omnibus 3-5, and the first volume of Wild@Heart will now be the Wild at Heart Omnibus 1-3.

We've updated the store site to reflect these changes.

The downside of this is that, for finicky collectors that like their manga shelves to be 'just so', the new volumes will be fatter and won't match the old ones they already have. The upside is that instead of paying $10.98 MSRP per volume, we get three volumes for just $21.98 MSRP. Nothing wrong with that!

Update: Seven Seas has announced that it has licensed Yu Aida's Gunslinger Girl action manga and Masayuki Takano's Blood Alone vampire manga. The publisher will release the first six volumes of Gunslinger Girl in two omnibus volumes starting in February of 2011, and then release single volumes starting with volume 7. There are currently 12 volumes in Japan. The first three volumes of Blood Alone will be compiled in one omnibus volume in May of 2011, followed by single volumes for the remaining volumes. There are six volumes in Japan currently. Seven Seas also announced that it will release Strawberry Panic! The Complete Manga Collection, which will contain "both volumes of the manga, plus two all-new previously unreleased chapters," and the first Venus Versus Virus Omnibus book (with three collected volumes) this October. The three-volume Hayate X Blade Omnibus 1 and three-volume Inukami! Omnibus 1 will follow in November.