I’m not one for gratitude journals or other exercises in forced thanksgiving, but this week’s shipping list does make me grateful for several things: first, that Fanfare/Ponent Mon continues to release manga by Jiro Taniguchi, thus demonstrating that manga isn’t just about noseless, sword-wielding schoolgirls in short skirts; second, that CMX continues to release quirky, off-beat shojo for readers in their tweens, teens, and beyond; and third, that Tokyopop rescued Ai Morinaga’s Your & My Secret from licensing limbo, giving this black-hearted, gender-bending comedy a new lease on life. Would that they do the same for her criminally under-appreciated Duck Prince, another title left high and dry by a bankrupt publisher!

Topping my list of must-buy manga this week is the second and final volume of Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood (Fanfare/Ponent Mon), a wistful take on a tried-and-true premise: a salaryman is transported back in time to his high school days, and must decide whether to act on his knowledge of the past or let events unfold as they did before. We’ve seen this story many times at the multiplex — Back to the Future, Peggy Sue Got Married — but Taniguchi avoids the easy laughs  and sci-fi trappings that are hallmarks of the genre, favoring a more nuanced, emotional approach that places greater emphasis on family ties than prom dates and football games Christmas Eve dates and kendo matches.

Also high on my list are the latest volumes of two favorite shojo series, The Name of the Flower (CMX) and Your & My Secret (Tokyopop). The two couldn’t be more different: Ken Saito’s coming-of-age story teeters on the brink of Victorian melodrama, as a young woman and her guardian wrestle with their obvious attraction for one another, while Ai Morinaga’s battle-of-the-sexes farce could best be summarized by the word bawdy. Yet both score points for their memorable characters, distinctive artwork, and their truthfulness; Saito’s drama demonstrates just how difficult it is to negotiate the transition from adolescence to adulthood, while Morinaga’s body-switching leads demonstrate just how hard it is to have a personality that falls outside of traditional gender norms.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I also plan to buy the fourth volume of Future Diary (Tokyopop), an unapologetically silly series about cell phones that predict the future. Brigid Alverson summarized its charms best in her review of volume one:

Future Diary takes a couple of manga themes and mashes them up in an interesting way, combining the Japanese love of cell phones, the survival-game trope, and high school angst to create a clever suspense story. It’s like the Twitter version of Battle Royale.

I’m less gung-ho about this week’s debuts — how many different permutations of .hack// can the market support? — though I must say the plot summary for Madness (BLU Manga) piqued my interest:

In 3000 AD, mankind is in chaos after a series of natural disasters. And it’s up to the Catholic priest Izaya and his mass-murderer companion Kyou to save the day.

In two breathless sentences, the summary touches on some of mangadom’s biggest cliches. A world on the brink of social and environmental ruin? Check. A hot, pistol-packing priest? Check. A hot, immoral outlaw who loves shedding blood? Check. All that’s missing are a legendary weapon and a demonic sidekick, though I’m guessing this overripe, over-the-top premise could handily accommodate both. The cover looked pretty snazzy, so maybe I’ll throw this in my shopping basket for a good yuck.

Before I get to the full shipping list, I want to remind folks about a contest at Good Comics for Kids: we’re giving away five full sets of Kim Dong Hwa’s Color of Earth trilogy. All you have to do is tell us the name of your favorite kid-friendly comic of 2009, and you’ll be entered in the drawing. But don’t delay — the contest closes at midnight on December 1st! Click here for contest rules and information.

NEW SERIES/ONE-SHOTS

• .hack//ALCOR (Tokyopop)
• Lizard Prince, Vol. 1 (CMX)
• Madness, Vol. 1 (BLU Manga)
• This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
• Warcraft: Death Knight (Tokyopop)

CONTINUING SERIES

• Berserk, Vol. 32 (Dark Horse)
• Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunnally, Vol. 3 (Bandai)
• A Distant Neighborhood, Vol. 2 (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
• DNAngel, Vol. 13 (Tokyopop)
• Future Diary, Vol. 4 (Tokyopop)
• Junjo Romantica, Vol. 11 (BLU Manga)
• Kat & Mouse, Vol. 4 (Tokyopop)
• Lagoon Engine, Vol. 6 (Tokyopop)
• Lucky Star, Vol. 3 (Bandai)
• Maria Holic, Vol. 2 (Tokyopop)
• Me & My Brothers, Vol. 10 (Tokyopop)
• The Name of the Flower, Vol. 3 (CMX)
• Takeru Opera Susanoh: Sword of the Devil, Vol. 3 (Tokyopop)
• Tea for Two, Vol. 3 (BLU Manga)
• Your & My Secret, Vol. 5 (Tokyopop)