Monday link roundup

This Reuters article explains that while about 10% of the student body in Kyoto Seika University’s manga program is foreign (mostly South Korean), there’s more to manga than the mechanics. Here’s department head Keiichi Makino:

“Manga is all about the audience, so no matter how good the manga is, it won’t sell if it doesn’t touch the Japanese people’s hearts,” he told reporters.

Makino talks about the spread of manga to China and ends on a philosophical, and very idealized, note:

“Japanese manga will reach its most sophisticated form when ordinary people, even those who are not manga artists, are able to draw manga about their daily lives and thoughts with ease.”

(Via Journalista.)

Is the new magazine Otaku USA designed to fool you into thinking you’re buying Newtype, only for three bucks less? Ninja Consultant Erin F critiques the design of the magazine (and the content as well) at PopCultureShock. And if you can’t get enough Ninja Consultant, and you’re in or near New York tonight, go see Erin and Noah talk about the best Japanese anime you’ve never heard of at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art at 6:30 p.m.

AICN’s Scott Green takes a long look at ADV manga (“denial-of-manga-attack”—heh!) and reviews two of their most popular titles, Yotsuba&! and Gunslinger Girl. (Via Simon Jones.)

Ryan and Evan from Same Hat present a copiously illustrated roundup of events at BEA.

Manga maven Jason Thompson pays homage to Hiroyuki Takei’s short series Juki Ningen Jumbor.

David Welsh trolls through Previews looking for potential good reads, and finds a few.

Johanna orders manga from Deep Discount and is disappointed.

Japan Probe has a video of the top 50 manga series in Japan, set to music. (Via Simon Jones.)

The 4-koma manga-ka Taizo Yokoyama has died.

The Japanese publisher MediaWorks will be producing manga versions of several light novels.

It’s not manga, but I’m taking a sisterly interest in the Minx line, so I’m pleased that The Plain Janes is one of the graphic novels on NPR’s summer reading list, along with the manga-influenced Scott Pilgrim. (Via Sequentially Speaking.)

Reviews: The French blog du9 translates Xavier Guilbert’s review of Kazuo Umezu’s Hebi-Onna. Robots Never Sleep checks out an untranslated Japanese work, and this one looks pretty strange: Donki Korin. It’s not manga but of interest to many manga readers: John T reviews Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster’s Daughter at Mecha Mecha Media. Warren Peace enjoys vol. 1 of To Terra. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 20 of Angel Sanctuary and Scott Campbell checks out vol. 1 of Grand Theft Galaxy. Kethylia is writing reviews again, and she checked in this weekend with her view of vol. 1 of Tuxedo Gin. Tangognat checks out Chika Shiomi’s Yurara.