Archives for March 2008

Deb Aoki talks to Madeleine Rosca, the creator of Hollow Fields, at About.com.

On the USA Today best-seller list, vol. 28 of Naruto drops from number 17 to 26, and vol. 19 of Fruits Basket debuts at number 112.

Danielle Leigh lists some manga she’d like to see licensed in English in her latest Manga Over Flowers column at Comic Book Resources.

I made these specially for you, with lots of love: John Jakala finds some disturbingly funny maid 4-koma on Kaori Mori’s website.

Ambassador Doraemon reporting for service.

Patrick Macias presents a look at PQ magazine—not PiQ, PQ. Totally different head. Totally.

Digital Manga has announced the titles of five new yaoi novels they will be publishing this fall.

News from Japan: ComiPress has the weekly manga chart and announcements of two new josei magazines and a Type Moon Info/Comics Book that are in the works. ANN has more on the josei magazines, including some art and the news that one will feature a manga by Erica Sakurazawa.

Manly Manga and More lists the German manga releases for April.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore takes a look at vol. 1 of Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector at Comics Worth Reading. Ken Haley checks out vol. 1 of Rose Hip Rose at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog and Ferdinand of Prospero’s manga reads it as well. Connie reviews vols. 12 and 13 of Berserk at Slightly Biased Manga. Danielle Van Gorder reviews vol. 1 of Necratoholic and vol. 1 of World’s End, and Matthew Alexander has a brief review of vol. 7 of Enchanter at Anime on DVD. Manga Life posts a quartet of new reviews: Joy Kim on vols. 2 and 3 of D.Gray-Man, Shannon Fay on vol. 1 of Undertown, and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vols. 2-4 of Othello. Down at the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie has vol. 1 of J-Pop Idol propped up between the salt and pepper shakers. Tangognat is disappointed by vol. 1 of Yozakura Quartet, but Dale North of Japanator liked it a lot. It’s time to seinen up at MangaCast, where manly Ed Chavez posts an audio review of vol. 2 of Dragon Head and vol. 1 of Brave Story. At Warren Peace Sings the Blues, Matthew Brady reads the April issue of Shojo Beat.

At PopCultureShock, Katherine Dacey posts the Weekly Recon, her roundup of new manga and quick reviews. David Welsh has his list up as well. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson notes that Del Rey is releasing vols. 1 and 2 of Fairy Tail simultaneously. And at Icarus Comics, Simon Jones (still NSFW after all these years) takes a peek at the April Previews Adult.

John Jakala notices that manga have taken over the graphic novel section of his local chain bookstores and wonders why general journalists are still writing about Marvel vs. DC.

Matt Blind previews his top 500 manga list at Comicsnob.

Queenie Chan updates her readers on her Odd Thomas manga (it’s complete and in production) and reminds them about the The Dreaming fanfic contest.

At Same Hat! Same Hat!, Ryan notes the passing of Japan scholar Miriam Silverberg.

The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation will hold a symposium on the past, present, and future of the anime and manga industries in the U.S. at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, which takes place in two weeks.

More news from Japan: ANN has the top selling manga of the past week and the details on the new magazine Shonen Rival, which will feature an Initial D side story and lots of manga by creators that will be familiar to American readers.

The Daily Yomiuri reports on the popularity of Japanese pop culture in South Korea.

Reviews: Lianne Sentar defends Death Note and defenestrates Zig*Zag at Sleep Is For the Weak. At Active Anime, Sandra Scholes reviews vol. 16 of Negima and Davey C. Jones looks at vols. 1 and 2 of Fairy Tail. Chris Mautner looks at two manga that are naughty in different ways at Panels and Pixels: vol.1 of Crayon Shinchan and vol. 1 of Manga Sutra. Julie reviews vol. 2 of Alive and vol. 2 of Apothecarius Argentum at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton reads vol. 16 of Kindaichi Case Files, a series that never gets old for him. Erica Friedman reviews Himitsu Shoujo, a collection of yuri shorts, at Okazu. Deb Aoki reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Fairy Tail at About.com.

ICv2 has compiled the top selling graphic novel chart for February, so I’m going to pull out the manga. As always, remember that these numbers are from Diamond and thus reflect mainly sales in comics shops. I’ll put the ranking on the overall GN chart in parentheses so you can see how the manga compare to graphic novels as a whole; the final number in parens is total sales for the month.

1. (12) Path of the Assassin, vol. 9 (3,144)
2. (15) Blade of the Immortal, vol. 18 (3,063)
3. (27) Tsubasa, vol. 16 (2,517)
4. (31) Blood +, vol. 1 (2,333)
5. (35) Gunsmith Cats Burst, vol. 3 (2,196)
6. (48) Ouran High School Host Club, vol. 10 (1,794
7. (51) Chibi Vampire, vol. 7 (1,726)
8. (54) .hack//GU, vol. 1 (1,719)
9. (66) GTO: The Early Years, vol. 6 (1,446)
10. (67) Trinity Blood, vol. 5 (1,439)
11. (71) Ral Grad, vol. 1 (1,412)
12. (72) Absolute Boyfriend, vol. 5 (1,391)
13. (84) Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo, vol. 1 (1,262)
14. (85) D Gray Man, vol. 8 (1,241)
15. (88) Naruto Official Fanbook (1,207)
16. (89) Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, vol. 6 (1,173)
17. (90) Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vol. 6 (1,173)
18. (95) Bleach, vol. 22 (1,091)
19. (98) Air Gear, vol. 7 (1,064)

Anime Boston is this weekend, and the Manga Recon crew are ready with a Manga Map of Boston, directing you to all the cool sites. Also, a reminder to bloggers: E-mail me or drop me a comment if you want to get together at the con. We’re thinking coffee in the food court on Saturday morning, but plans are still fluid. I’ll post more at the end of the week.

Chloe Ferguson discusses josei and seinen manga in her Panelosophy column at ComiPress.

ICv2 has an analysis of February comic and graphic novel sales; sales of pamphlet comics seem to have softened, while the graphic novel list is unusually diverse.

I’ll save you the trouble of reading this story from Crain’s New York Business by excerpting the manga-related content:

James Killen, the manga and graphic novel buyer for Barnes & Noble, reports that the bookstore chain has seen sales grow by double digits in the category annually for the past five years, and he forecasts the same for 2008.

New York’s major trade book publishers continue to launch manga and graphic novel lines, and to expand the ones they have. Random House imprint Del Rey, the nation’s third-largest manga publisher after VIZ Media and TokyoPop, will publish 125 titles this year, up from 12 when it launched four years ago.

The publisher says the titles work because they’ve expanded the comic book audience. “The comics category was all superheroes,” says Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga. “There wasn’t a lot there for girls.”

(Via the Del Rey blog.)

David Welsh has found a manga he’d like to see licensed, please. And John Jakala is thrilled by the latest offering from Emma creator Kaoru Mori.

Is Rozen Maiden coming back? Creators Peach-Pit announced that the manga had come to an end a few months ago, but they reappeared with a one-shot in Young Jump this week, and the magazine promises a major announcement in next week’s issue. Stay tuned!

In other news from Japan, Kodansha is publishing a second volume of the international manga anthology Mandala. Oh, and the latest prize in a McDonald’s competition is the chance to become a character in the manga Dokaben.

At Comics212, Christopher Butcher dissects the first issue of PiQ.

Ryan presents a sneak peek of the new Maruo and Shintaro Kago manga at Same Hat.

Gia notes that the small global yaoi publisher Yaoi House is closing its doors.

ComiPress lists some upcoming manga-related events.

Reviews: Head on over to ANN, where Carlo Santos has posted his latest Right Turn Only!! column, with reviews of vol. 8 of Nana, vol. 1 of Minima, and more. Sporadic Sequential’s John Jakala scores some cheap manga but criticizes it anyway; Chikyu Misaki and ES are among his purchases. At It Can’t All Be About Manga, Cathy explains why she doesn’t like vol. 2 of Fall In Love Like a Comic, and she also presents an interesting cashier’s dilemma. Margaret Veira reviews vol. 16 of Fullmetal Alchemist and Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Selfish Mr. Mermaid at Active Anime. At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro finds vol. 1 of Fever a little unclear, and I’m glad I’m not the only one; unlike him, though, I’m captivated enough by the art to want more. Michelle gives vol. 1 of Kare Kano an A+ at Soliloquy in Blue. Tangognat reads vol. 1 of Tenshi Ja Nai and likes it enough to check out the next volume. Julie reviews vol. 2 of The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan and vol. 2 of Venus in Love at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Tiamat’s Disciple discusses vol. 1 of Legend, focusing on format and marketing as much as content.

Here’s a bit of free manhwa to start your week off right: Dark Horse is putting Shaman Warrior online for free, a chapter at a time.

Johanna Draper Carlson asks what people think of PiQ magazine and gets a robust response.

Lianne Sentar reviews all of Netcomics at Sleep Is For the Weak.

Jake Forbes explains how the serial format gave him the freedom to develop a new character at Gobblin.net.

At Completely Futile, Adam Stephanides writes about The Music of Marie (Marie no Kanaderu Ongaku) and comments on an interesting numbering convention; Xavier Guilbert chimes in with more in comments.

ComiPress has the nominees for the 12th Osamu Tezuka Culture Awards, including Nana and Yotsuba&!

Tokyopop will be publishing the three-volume Speed Grapher manga, plus a novelization of the anime, which was recently released by FUNimation.

Erica Friedman presents the week in yuri at Okazu.

The Ninjaconsultants have a new podcast up.

The U.S. State Department has labeled an untranslated educational manhwa as “anti-Semitic,” because of several scenes in which the author asserts the Jews run the media and, well, everything else. The story comes via Journalista, where Dirk Deppey notes that the manhwa-ga, Rhie Won-bok, apologized last year and the publisher pulled the book from circulation.

Tom Baker of The Star of Malaysia reports on tours of Japan for American manga fans.

Blogger Kagehime points out some manga that deserve a bigger following (although both are in Japanese only).

News from Japan: At MangaCast, Ed lists BL titles due out this month from Japanese publishers. Canned Dogs reports that Azuma Takeshi, who I assume is a doujin artist, has a story in Shounen Sunday. Also, new magazine Ultra Jump Egg has a number of mascots that rotate on their web page, including one by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure mangaka Araki Hirohiko. ANN brings news of a new detective manga, Deka Wanko (Detective Puppy), by Kozueko Morimoto, to run in You magazine, and a shoujo manga, Hatsukoi Shinan (Instructions for First Love), by Yu Yabuuchi, starting up in ChuChu.

Monster mangaka Naoki Urasawa will be teaching manga classes at Nagoya Zokei University of Art & Design.

If you read German, check out this article about German comics artists, which claims that most draw in the manga style. (Via Deutsche Mangaka.) DM also reports (in English) on the latest manga news from Germany.

Manly Manga and More lists the 2007 bestsellers from German publisher Carlsen.

Oddity of the day: A sales incentive worked a little too well on one fan in Japan, who bought 398 copies of Shounen Sunday in order to get the Sakuya card inside.

Job board: DMP is looking for an entry-level sales and marketing administrator.

Attention bloggers: 801 Media is looking for reviewers. (Via ComiPress.)

Reviews: Lori Henderson reviews vol. 1 of Zombie Loan at Manga Xanadu. Holly Ellingwood enjoys vol. 1 of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo and Davey C. Jones checks out vol. 2 of My Dearest Devil Princess at Active Anime. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews vol. 5 of Love*Com at Comics Worth Reading. At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle gives good grades to vol. 2 of Venus in Love and vol. 19 of Fruits Basket. The Manga Junkie returns with a look at yet another book that’s unlikely to be licensed: vol. 1 of 3-gatsu no Lion. Xavier Guilbert writes about George Akiyama’s Ashura in the French-language zine du9. About Heroes posts a flurry of short manga reviews. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez podcasts his thoughts on vol. 1 of Minima! and vol. 1 of Metro Survive and vol. 1 of With the Light… and vol. 1 of Andromeda Stories, while Mangamaniac reviews Duetto, and Eva reads The Great Adventure of the Dirty Pair. Connie reveals her opinions of Sweat and Honey, vol. 18 of Eyeshield 21, vol. 33 of Dragon Ball, and vol. 3 of Tarot Cafe at Slightly Biased Manga. Sakura Kiss takes a walk on the non-yaoi side with a review of vol. 2 of Walkin’ Butterfly at The Yaoi Review. Kethylia is unimpressed by Menkui! At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh compares and contrasts the Tokyopop and ADV versions of vol. 1 of Your and My Secret. Erica Friedman reads a light novel, vol. 1 of Strawberry Panic! and an untranslated manga, vol. 1 of Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami, at Okazu. At the Sunny Side Up Anime Blog, huamulan03 reviews the shoujo manga vol. 1 of Shiawase Kissa3-chome (Happy Cafe). Julie checks out vol. 7 of Beauty Pop and vol. 1 of Selfish Mr. Mermaid at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At About.com, Deb Aoki reviews vol. 1 of Fever, a lovely new manhwa by Hee Jung Park.

Today is Pi Day (3.14), and 1:59 will be Pi Moment. My mathematician sister has helpfully provided a link to a pi sudoku for those who want to observe the day in true geek style.

On to the manga news. Your must-read post for the day is Kate Dacey and Erin F.’s guide to Fumi Yoshinaga, with brief reviews of many of her manga, plus a bonus cartoon story by Erin. This inspires David Welsh to rank Yoshinaga’s manga according to how much he likes it. Your results may vary.

Simon (NSFW) Jones takes a look at Infinity’s digital manga (actually a PDF on a CD) and is not impressed.

John T reports on a talk by Dark Horse editor and uber-otaku Carl Horn in Portland, Oregon. Gia was there too.

Tokyopop plans to publish the novel Goth, by Otsu-ichi, and a one-volume manga adaptation by Kendi Ohishi, creator of the manga version of Welcome to the NHK.

Aspiring yuri manga creators: Tomorrow is the deadline for submitting work for vol. 6 of Yuri Monogatari.

News from Japan: ANN pulls a number of stories into a single post, including the news that Satoshi Urushihara will draw a one-shot manga for the March 27 Comic Valkyrie and Ami Shibata will do an encore one-shot of the recently concluded Papuwa for Monthly Shonen Gangan.

Reviews: Carlo Santos pans vol. 1 of Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn at ANN. James Fleenor shares his impressions of vols. 18-19 of Hunter x Hunter at Anime Sentinel. Michelle is hooked by vol. 3 of Love*Com at Soliloquy in Blue. Connie lets loose a volley of reviews at Slightly Biased Manga, giving her take on vols. 9, 10, and 11 of Berserk, Secret Comics Japan, vol. 32 of Dragon Ball, and vol. 3 of Let Dai. Snow Wildsmith checks out Everlasting Love at Manga Jouhou. Greg McElhatton can’t get enough of vol. 1 of Aqua at Read About Comics. Nick enjoys vol. 1 of Mushishi at Hobotaku. Julie gives thumbs up to vol. 1 of Your & My Secret at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Blog@Newsarama, Chris Mautner reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Fairy Tail and Michael May explains why he didn’t finish vol. 1 of Hell Girl.