Sorry about the internet silence—everything’s fine, I just had two really busy days, most of them spent in my car. So I’m back with a bonus Saturday post.
When Viz announced plans to release three volumes of Naruto a month for the last four months of 2007, a lot of people wondered if that would hurt sales of individual volumes. ICv2 looks at the BookScan numbers for September and concludes that sales are doing just fine:
Though it is difficult to compare sales totals exactly it appears that Volume 18 in the series has sold almost exactly the number of copies that Volume 15 (which was released by itself in July), while Volumes 16 and 17 have sold approximately 84% and 88% of Volume 15‘s total respectively.
Also, vol. 1 is on the Bookscan top ten, suggesting that the push is bringing in new readers. David Welsh helpfully lists the top books in order, something that ICv2 is averse to doing, and notes the appearance of vol. 1 of Death Note, presumably in anticipation of the anime debuting on Adult Swim in October.
In this week’s Overlooked Manga Festival, Shaenon Garrity sings the praises of What’s Michael.
At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala looks at Paul Pope’s experiences in Japan and wonders if foreign artists have a hard time in the manga industry because the audience is so conservative. Ed Chavez chimes in in comments with another view.
Jakala also asks: Where’s the comics version of MP3s? David Welsh looks at some potential problems, and his commenters chime in with their views.
Japanamerica author Roland Kelts discusses images of powerful women in anime and manga.
Patrick Macias traces Akibahara’s arc from obscure to cool to corporate-dominated tourist destination. There’s more at his blog.
The Mail & Guardian takes a close-up look at a homeless man living in a manga cafe.
Reviews: Kethylia pans vol. 2 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda likes vol. 1 of Nabi, The Prototype, and Ferdinand gives a middling rating to vol. 1 of The Last Uniform. Ferdinand’s alter ego, Billy Aguiar, checks out vol. 1 of Samurai Commando: Mission 1549 at the Comic Buyer’s Guide site. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out vol. 2 of Moon and Sandals, Tekkonkinkreet, and vol. 9 of Sorcerer Hunters. Melanie posts some concise reviews of different titles at About Heroes. At Anime on DVD, Ben Leary checks out vol. 1 of St. Lunatic High School and Ed Chavez looks at the adult title Masquerade.