Archives for February 2008

The folks at Morning 2 have done their initial screening for the 2nd International Manga Competition, and 31 creators and teams have made the cut. They are from all over, too; the only Americans U.S. creators in the group are Jared Hodges and Lindsay Cibos, the creators of Peach Fuzz.

UPDATE: Urgh, feel free to yell at me if I do this again—I swear I checked the list for this, but I somehow missed several other Americans: Kosma Gatner of Canada, Bernando Fernandez (Bef) of Mexico, and Enrique David Guzman Pinto of Chile, all from the same hemisphere as me.

It’s Wednesday already! David Welsh reveals his picks from this week’s new manga.

Canned Dogs has some shots of the Japanese manga Ikoku meiro no croisee, by Takeda Hinata, and it’s worth a click for the lovely art. The comments led me to this French blog, Carceri, which looks like it has some nice art and intelligent commentary on manga and anime; for those who read French, there’s a recent post about Hinata to complement the link above.

Danielle Leigh posts her second column at Comics Should Be Good, this one about manga for adults (as opposed to, you know, “adult manga”). It’s a nice introduction to the Japanese system as well, for those who are new to the field.

Part 2 of Jason Thompson’s column on the cell phone manga Guilstein is up at comiXology; part 1 is here in case you missed it.

At Comics Village, John Thomas weighs in on the question of “what is manga?”

In his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN, Carlo Santos jumps right on to the new Naruto story arc and checks out Bleach, Uzumaki, and a couple of new titles as well.

New blog alert: Manga, not anime! which is just what it claims to be. The reviews are tart and spoilery and written by someone who obviously knows the field pretty well, and there are some interesting posts on ongoing series in Japan. Check out this post on Shiki, a new serial in Jump SQ‚—it’s a good jumping-in point.

Siku’s version of The Manga Bible gets a blurb from the Archbishop of Canterbury.

For you far-north otaku, Senshi-Con happens this weekend in Anchorage, Alaska. And true to their credo that “Wherever two or three are gathered together, there’s someone from Tokyopop there too,” the House of DJ Milky is sending Dark Moon Diary artist Brett Uher and writer Che Gilson.

Reviews: There’s a fresh bouquet of manga reviews up at Comics Village: Charles Tan on vol. 1 of Uzumaki, Dan Polley on vol. 8 of Tail of the Moon, Lissa Pattillo on You & Harujion, Sabrina on vol. 1 of Initial D, and Lori Henderson on vol. 6 of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden. At Anime Sentinel, James Fleenor posts his impressions of vols. 10 and 11 of Claymore. Ferdinand of Prospero’s Manga is impressed by a porn title, vol. 1 of Blue Eyes, but perhaps not for the reasons you’d think. Matthew J. Brady starts out rather dubious of vol. 1 of Suppli, but by the end he is convinced, at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. Julie has vol. 28 of Boys Over Flowers and vol. 12 of Kekkaishi on the menu at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Firefox News, Peter Gutierrez checks out some horror and horror-ish titles from Del Rey: Vols. 1 and 2 of Alive, vols. 1 and 2 of Parasyte, and vol. 1 of Le Chevalier d’Eon.

Things have gotten kind of quiet since the Naruto blitz ended. After twelve volumes in four months, it seems like the excitement had died down a bit. But now we get to the point of it all: The new story arc, with an older and presumably wiser Naruto begins this week, with a new volume shipping once every two months. One nice aspect to this is that, as Viz SVP Lisa Coppola points out, volume 28 is a nice entry point to the series for those who haven’t yet read it and are wondering what all the hubbub is about.

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES
THE LONG AWAITED NEW NARUTO!

Highly Anticipated New Manga Story Arc Launches Featuring A Teenage Naruto And Offers New Volumes Every Two Months

San Francisco, CA, February 20, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the launch of the long-awaited new NARUTO manga story arc beginning with Volume 28, which is the first to feature Naruto as a teenager. The volume is expected to hit stores nationwide on March 4 with an estimated retail price of $7.95 and will include an exclusive full-color poster insert in the first print run. New editions of the hit series will now debut every two months.

NARUTO, rated T for Teens, has captivated millions with its story of a young ninja in training. The new volume picks up two years after Naruto left to train with Jiraiya. Now a teenager, he reunites with his old friends to find out everyone is stronger than before — and maybe even stronger than he is! Gaara has even become the Kazekage, the leader of the Village Hidden in the Sand. But even with all that power, Gaara is kidnapped! Who is behind this shocking abduction and what do they want? Can Naruto save Gaara without becoming a victim himself?

First introduced in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in Japan in 1999, NARUTO quickly became that country’s most popular ninja manga (graphic novel) targeting tweens and teens and has sold more than 80 million copies to-date. Today, Naruto is considered one of the most popular animated series in Japan’s history and has achieved immense success not only as a manga and TV series, but also in the realm of licensed categories such as toys, trading card games and video games. NARUTO currently enjoys widespread domestic success where it debuted as the best selling manga title in North America. NARUTO has sold over three million copies to date and regularly appears on USA Today’s Bestseller list and Bookscan’s Graphic Novel Top 50. Volume 7 also won the prestigious 2006 Quill Award in the Graphic Novel Category. VIZ Media also distributes the NARUTO animated series on DVD (which has sold over 350,000 copies domestically.) For more information go to www.NARUTO.com

“Japan’s favorite ninja has become the world’s favorite ninja and we are very excited to announce the debut of the new teenage Naruto!,” says Liza Coppola, Sr. Vice President, Marketing, VIZ Media. “The release of Volume 28 is the culmination of our Naruto Nation campaign that began in 2007 and brought an unprecedented increase in the publication of new NARUTO volumes – 3 per month. With lots of new characters and stories, readers who grew up with our young ninja in training will delight in the new changes. For those who have yet to see what the buzz is about, this volume is a wonderful entry point into an action packed series that has captivated millions of readers!”

ICv2 has posted Diamond’s sales figures for January, and it looks like it was a good month for graphic novels, with sales up 18 percent. (As always, remember that these are sales in the direct market, i.e. local comics shops). They also list the top 100 graphic novels, and since we only care about manga around here, here are the top selling manga (the rank on the overall GN chart is in parentheses, sales for this month are after the title).

1. (12) Berserk, vol. 21 (4,026)
2. (27) Negima, vol. 16 (3,042)
3. (48) Trigun Maximum, vol. 12 (2,550)
4. (51) Oh My Goddess, vol. 28 (2,274)
5. (57) InuYasha, vol. 32 (2,006)
6. (80) Samurai Deeper Kyo, vol. 26 (1,573)
7. (85) My Hime, vol. 5 (1,446)
8. (91) Nana, vol. 8 (1,357)
9. (94) Shaman King, vol. 18 (1,320)
10. (95) Death Jr., vol. 1 (1,312)
11. (99) He Is My Master, vol. 3 (1,282)

This is a much shorter list than usual—while manga don’t necessarily make it into the top ten, the bottom half of the list is generally pretty manga-rich. Perhaps we’re seeing the after-effects of the Naruto wave—no one has any allowance left. With the exception of InuYasha and Nana, the titles on this list seem to skew older and more male than usual, even for the DM. Or maybe people are just buying their manga elsewhere.

Woot! MangaBlog made the Active Anime Top 25 list of anime and manga websites, along with a host of other sites that we link to regularly, including ComiPress, Anime on DVD, and ANN. Special props to Erica Friedman, who has two sites on the list, her excellent blog Okazu and the yuri site Yuricon.

The Otaku, another top 25 member, posts this week’s new manga list.

Chris Mautner interviews one of our favorite reviewers, PopCultureShock’s senior manga editor Katherine Dacey, for Blog@Newsarama. Johanna Draper Carlson chimes in with her thoughts on discussing art in reviews.

Lori Henderson thinks Viz chose exactly the wrong moment to change Nana‘s rating to Mature and pull it from Shojo Beat (spoilers for vol. 8 at the link).

Ed Chavez picks up on some new Viz titles spotted by an alert AoD’er.

Chloe Ferguson looks at some older titles in her second Panelosophy column for ComiPress.

Japanese serialization news: Beauty Pop creator Kiyoko Arai is starting a new shoujo manga; the creators of Onmyou Taisenki have a new title as well.

Jason Thompson will be at Wondercon this weekend, doing two manga panels. EigoManga will be there too.

Reviews: Occasional Superheroine Valerie D’Orazio checks out Christian manga Goofyfoot Gurl and finds the art refreshingly different. Lissa Pattillo reviews Nabi the Prototype at Manga Jouhou. Eva reads the light novel Dark Wars: The Tale of Meiji Dracula at MangaCast. After a brief hiatus, Emily posts five reviews of Japanese titles at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page: Angel Time, Mayonaka Express, Mayonaka no Ariadne, Momoiro Heaven!, and Yumenara Samenaide. Erica Friedman looks a very different Japanese title, vol. 1 of Magie Paire, at Okazu. Julie reads vol. 6 of Chibi Vampire and vol. 6 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Tiamat’s Disciple takes a long look at vols. 1-3 of Oh My Goddess and vols. 1-3 of Le Chevalier d’Eon. Nick answers Leah’s questions about vols. 1-12 of Death Note at Hobotaku. Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Blood+ and vol. 5 of Kitchen Princess and Sandra Scholes checks out vol. 2 of Two Will Come at Active Anime. Michelle enjoys vols. 13 and 14 of Tsubasa at Soliloquy in Blue. Ben Leary reads a light novel, vol. 1 of Good Witch of the West, at Anime on DVD. Dave Ferraro turns over Manga Monday to the Azumanga Daioh omnibus at Comics-and-More. Johanna Draper Carlson updates her reviews at Comics Worth Reading with her take on vol. 14 of Tramps Like Us and vol. 11 of Hikaru no Go, and she posts brief reviews of vol. 4 of INVU, vol. 1 of Metamo Kiss, and vol. 1 of Return to Labyrinth. Showing that you can compare almost anything, Matt Blind posts a dual review of Manga Sutra and the Disney manga Kilala Princess. Leroy Douresseaux checks out vol. 12 of Kekkaishi at The Comic Book Bin. Jog takes a look at the end of a series, vol. 13 of Golgo 13.

Good news at the MangaCast: Fan support has ensured that Dark Horse will publish at least three more volumes of Eden: It’s an Endless World. Also: Ed Chavez posts the rest of the Japanese new release list and some new title announcements from 801. Over at Sleep Is For the Weak, Lianne Sentar warns that one of those new titles, Black Sun, is not for the faint of heart.

Also not for the faint of heart: David Welsh lists manga that walk on the dark side at Precocious Curmudgeon.

Jason Thompson writes about cell phone manga in general, and Guilstein in particular, in his latest comiXology column.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest news in the world of yuri at Okazu, including the fact that creators are now being considered for vol. 6 of Yuri Monogatari.

The Times (UK) is the latest newspaper to discover The Manga Bible.

Same Hat scans the Shintaro Kago interview and comics that recently appeared in Vice, saving us the trouble of getting the actual magazine, which looks pretty nasty.

For those who follow the market, Brian Hibbs has posted his annual analysis of the Bookscan graphic novel numbers at Newsarama. You should read the whole thing, as there are lots of caveats, including the fact that it only represents one slice of a huge and varied market. David Welsh has some comments, and Johanna Draper Carlson looks at the question of Minx, with an interesting speculation about why that line exists at all, at Comics Worth Reading. Meanwhile, Paul Collins has evidence that things aren’t going too swimmingly for Japanese bookstores at Weekend Stubble.

ComiPress translates an article about the first Manga Grand Prize, which will be announced in March.

This isn’t accessible to me because I’m a Mac user, but I’ll pass along the news: The visual novel True Remembrance is available in English. It’s free and non-ero. (Via Heisei Democracy.) Also from HD: The English version of Akiba Blog is now live, as is Akibanana. Click at your own risk; images may be NSFW.

Roland Kelts writes about a manga street performer in Japan. (Via Kotaku.)

Open Education has an introduction to manga in the classroom, including some recommendations by PopCultureShock’s Katherine Dacey.

Editorial Director Gary Steinman has left PiQ magazine, the Newtype USA replacement, shortly before its March launch. And Gia notes that their website is up.

Coming up in March: SPLAT, a graphic novel symposium at the New York Center of Independent Publishing. Looks awesome!

Youka Nitta will be a guest at this year’s YaoiCon. (Via Yaoi Suki.) Gia points out that this could be interesting, as Nitta’s work is licensed by Libre.

The Star of Malaysia covers a recent appearance by Paul Duffield, one of the creators of Self Made Hero’s Shakespeare manga.

At Manga Recon, Katherine Dacey takes an early look at the Aranzi Aronzo craft book Cute Stuff

Reviews: Guest reviewer Chloe Ferguson checks out the Demon Ororon omnibus at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Huamulan03 reviews an obscure shoujo manga, Ghost Only, at Japanator. Erica Friedman reads vol. 2 of Tetragrammaton Labyrinth (guaranteed yuri-free!) and Parian no Sono (yuri but in a weird way). Julie reviews vol. 1 of I Wish… and vol. 11 of Claymore at the Manga Maniac Cafe and vol. 2 of Vanilla at MangaCast. At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh feels vol. 3 of King of Thorn can’t match up to Dragon Head. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 1 of Mail at Kuri-ousity. Kethylia turns thumbs down on Poison Cherry Drive but enjoys Portus and the light novel Calling You. Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Minima! at Prospero’s Manga, and he links to an older review of vols. 1 and 2 of Boogiepop Doesn’t Laugh at CBGXtra. Michelle reviews vol. 1 of Venus in Love and vol. 22 of Hana-Kimi at Soliloquy in Blue. There’s a trio of new reviews up at Manga Jouhou: SnowCleo on My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor and Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Love is Like a Hurricane and vol. 5 of Princess Princess. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie comments on vol. 1 of Manga Sutra, vol. 7 of Loveless, vol. 10 of Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 28 of Oh My Goddess, vol. 13 of Boys Be…, vol. 3 of Berserk, vol. 2 of Tarot Cafe, and vol. 3 of Mai the Psychic Girl. The young folks take over at Manga Xanadu, where Krissy comments on Let’s Find Pokemon! and Jenny reviews vol. 2 of Dragon Drive. Kevin Tan reviews vol. 1 of The Guin Saga: The Seven Magi for The Star of Malaysia. Julie Gray checks out vol. 1 of Psycho Busters at The Comic Book Bin. Tom Baker takes a look at all 9 volumes (so far) of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for the Daily Yomiuri. Deb Aoki settles down with vols. 1 and 2 of High School Debut at About.com. Andrew Wheeler reviews a stack of volume 2s at ComicMix.