Aurora Manga on Discount Sale; Thoughts on the Company

Aurora logo

Deb Aoki has the news (link no longer available):

If you order now, directly from Aurora, you can get any current title published prior to January 2009 for only $4.00. Newer releases from the last two months … are available for only $8.00. … Send an email to Elisa Tung at e-tung@aurora-publishing.com to place your order. There’s no expiration date on this deal — it’ll be going on as long as supplies last, or until Aurora says otherwise. Aurora accepts PayPal, credit card payments, or money orders.

(I hope they have a secure site for those credit cards and aren’t just asking you to email the numbers.) That’s a great deal if you’re interested in their books, but I can’t really recommend any of them. Here’s what I’ve covered from the mature readers “ladies’ comics” LuvLuv line:

Aurora logo

Right now, no further LuvLuv titles are planned. They also have a yaoi imprint, Deux, which I haven’t read, but here’s what I’ve reviewed from their standard manga line:

That last series had the most promise for me, but what I liked about the first two books changed in book 3, becoming more standard and less interesting. Also, although the Aurora website says book 4 came out two months ago, Amazon has no record of it, so there’s some question as to whether readers will see the series concluded.

Between that uncommunicated change in plans, this deep-discount clearance sale, and the fact that they stopped sending review copies due to cutbacks… well, obviously, there’s some financial concern there.

I had big hopes for them when I first heard about them, especially when it came to comics for women, but instead of thoughtful josei, I got the trashy equivalent of illustrated romance novels, where sex took precedence over story.

Have you read their books? Which did you like? And what do you think is likely to come in their future?



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