Weekend roundup

Vertical has made everybody’s day by announcing that they are licensing yet another Osamu Tezuka classic, Apollo’s Song. If you liked Ode to Kirihito, you’ll love this one as they are publishing it as a single 500-page volume in a similar format.

ICv2 has more on the three new Broccoli titles.

At Deutsche Mangaka, Elae lists the global manga titles recently licensed in Germany and draws our attention to an interesting new line: Chibi manga, inexpensive, pocket-sized global titles.

Blu News: Yaoi Suki (no permalink) caught this on the Blu forums: Love Pistols and Love Mode have been delayed, but they’re moving a couple of other titles up to compensate.

Newsarama has an interview with Pop Mhan, creator of the Tokyopop manga Blank. And, via the Newsarama blog, the Nichi Bei Times talks to creator Yoshitaka Amano.

At TokyoSpace, ChunHyang72 has another great roundup of manga-related posts and news.

This is the sort of thing that appeals to geeks like me: Comipress translates an article on the physics of anime and manga.

The Rush blog offers a glimpse of work in progress.

A new outfit called Purrsia Press announces an anthology of U.K. manga. (Via MangaNews.)

Every now and then someone on the other side raises the question of whether manga is a gateway to Western comics. It’s that time again over at the Comics Journal messageboard. Simon Jones isn’t sure the question is worth asking but adds a few thoughts of his own. Floating Sakura has some thoughts on OEL manga and national styles. John Jakala explains, with visual aids, why he likes manga better than superhero comics: Because manga is fun!

Make mine Viz: Here’s the latest gift guide, this one from Jason Yadao of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Seven Seas has a guide to Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl. And Pata reviews it at ANN.

And speaking of girls meeting girls, Erica has new reviews of two Japanese yuri manga, Himitsu no Kaidan and Rakka Ryuusi

Interesting thread at the AoD forum on how Del Rey decides which manga to license.

Simon Jones comments (NSFW) on the proposed revision of Tokyopop’s ratings system, and he makes a good point:

One thing censors have proven time and time again is that context is not important to them… a scholarly work using a small image with nudity as an example makes no difference to them as, say, one of our books. So I’m all for more reasonable, honest labelling, applied consistently. If a book has violence, say it has violence. If it has T & A, say it has T & A… age appropriateness may be subjective, but these things, not so much.

Of course, one person’s warning is another person’s selling point.

The shopping news: Pata has links to a couple of posts about Borders, one detailing an otaku’s embarrassment when buying Strawberry Marshmallow, the other about the time limit some stores are imposing in the manga section (which, interestingly, none of the commenters objected to). But the Star of Malaysia finds the opposite: a manga club in a Borders. And here’s an interesting nugget:

“The Borders store at Berjaya Times Square [in Kuala Lumpur] is the No. 1 in manga and graphic novels sales among Borders stores worldwide,” said Chen.

His explanation is that they are in Asia, which makes sense. UPDATE: Mely has her taste questioned by a bookstore cashier, which prompts some thoughts on the state of the comics industry.

Blogger David Welsh joins the rest of the cool kids by moving Precocious Curmudgeon to WordPress, so update your bookmarks and blogrolls.

Reviews: Holly Ellingwood of Active Anime reviews two volume 21s (!), Basara and Boys Over Flowers. Johanna reads Love Roma. At Manga Maniac Cafe, prolific reviewer Julie delivers her take on Disgaea, volume 2 of Beauty Pop, volume 5 of Claymore, and volume 1 of Nodame Cantabile. The Star of Malaysia takes a look at Re: Play and The Empty Empire. MangaCast takes on seinen manwha with a podcast review of Let’s Be Perverts, Banya, and YoDong’s Vampire.