Potpourri

Danielle Leigh explains why she likes CMX in her latest Manga Before Flowers column, and I’m with her—I love their classic shoujo titles and the newer stuff as well.

OK, all you who have been complaining about the Tokyopop website, time to do something about it: the beta version of their new site is up. Go, look, make suggestions.

NPR discovers Americans’ love of graphic novels, with plenty of nods to manga.

Back in the day (i.e., last year), YaoiSuki was the best yaoi blog out there. Now it’s gone, but ComiPress talks to bloggers Jen Parker and Jordan Marks about their site and why they called it quits.

Tiamat’s Disciple has some thoughts on light novels, including what we should be calling them.

Reversing the usual order of things, Kodansha will be publishing Dan Pink’s Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need in Japan.

At Okazu, Erica Friedman rounds up the yuri news of the week.

Jason Thompson discusses possible reasons why most global manga is influenced by shoujo rather than shonen manga. Readers respond in the comments section.

John Jakala discovers the original omake, and it’s not what you think.

Youka Nitta is out, but the new Yaoi-Con guest will be Pet on Duty creator Nase Yamato.

Rejected Olympics manga coming soon! No, I don’t know what it is either, but I’ll probably check it out on Monday.

Here’s the PR on an “American-style manga series”—did you ever think you would see that phrase?—which is conceived by an American, written by a Scot, produced in the Philippines and “programmed,” whatever that means, in China. Actually, this looks suspiciously like one of those companies that uses comics as a means to an end, in this case, creating a virtual world. But they’re savvy: They have a DeviantART page and a blog.

The Wareham, MA, Courier looks at a Borders concept store that features manga and other comics—and hired a former comics retailer as well.

UK writer David Rasmussen has put together an e-book of older interviews he did with Tokyopop folks for the Anime Boredom website. It’s 99 cents at Lulu.com. And here’s his interview with Kat and Mouse creator Alex de Campi at Pop Syndicate.

OT, but of interest to many of us: Time Magazine interviews moot, the founder of 4chan.

Reviews: Tom Baker takes a look at Sakura Taisen for the Daily Yomiuri. Nerdtron enjoys 100% Perfect Girl at Nerd Fellowship. Connie reads vol. 13 of Swan at Slightly Biased Manga. Kransom at Welcome Datacomp reviews two of Frederick Schodt’s books, Manga! Manga! and Dreamland Japan. Eric Turner checks out vol. 2 of Black God at Manga Jouhou. Leroy Douresseaux looks at vol. 12 of xxxHOLiC, vol. 2 of Fairy Cube, and vol. 1 of Kasumi for The Comic Book Bin. Malcontentcontent isn’t made any happier by the light novel Missing. Emily checks out two more unlicensed manga, Otomegokoro and Kimi ga Suki, at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Ferdinand enjoys vol. 1 of Kasumi and vol. 1 of Silver Diamond at Prospero’s Manga. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson deems vol. 1 of Two Flowers for the Dragon to be best suited to those with short attention spans. Julie reviews vol. 2 of Dororo and vol. 9 of D.Gray-Man at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo enjoyed Fallen Moon despite the fact that it’s barely BL at Kuriousity. Sesho posts text reviews of vol. 2 of Psycho Busters and vol. 6 of GTO and a podcast review of vol. 1 of Yggdrasil. Tiamat’s Disciple looks at vol. 2 of Rurouni Kenshin, the VizBig edition, and vol. 3 of Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase. Fashionista Piranha discovers The Four Immigrants manga. Simplicity enjoys vol. 1 of Strawberry Panic, the light novel. Bill Sherman reads vol. 5 of The Drifting Classroom at Blogcritics.

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    Obviously, foreign comics do better because they’re easier to cross language lines…being 50% pictures, which can never be lost in translation

  2. The unfortunate part about the new Borders (I visited the new Wareham concept store earlier today) is that the new section design contains the same amount of manga. Possibly less than the older style Borders about 30 minutes away in Kingston. Which means that there is still a lack of CMX titles, older titles, and more niche titles. If the goal was to supply more because of a lack of space, this isn’t solving that issue.

  3. Speaking of website changes, has anyone been to the Anime on DVD site since they were sold to Mania.com? The site is just one big banner advertisement for anything from McDonalds to Toyota to Viagra. Kinda sad and disgusting at the same time. I used to go to that site everyday. Now I just glance at it from time to time because it makes my eyes hurt. I don’t mind banners as long as they have some relation to manga or anime or Japanese pop culture (I don’t include Toyota in that) in some way.

  4. I was doing some quick research and found something out. Many publishers claim that America and the west aren’t ready for light novels, yet Dark Horse have proven that as false. As of volume five the Vampire Hunter D novels have sold over 17million copies world wide, thats better than the average terrestrial novel does. Now look at the gains. The novels sell for $8.95, times that by 17million and what do you get? $152,150,000 is what you get. Granted thats not profit, but anyway you cut it, thats a huge wad of of cash from a market thats supposedly not ready for them!!

  5. And I believe they are up to number 11 now. How? By finding a fan base OUTSIDE of manga and anime fans.

  6. Yeah, still no release date for 11 though, shouldn’t be to long i would of thought given that 10 was released back in april.

    The other thing i think going for it is that it looks and feels more like a normal novel than a light novel. If you look the Tokyopop and SSE range, they’re more mangarish (lol is that even a word hehe) than D novels are.

    D novels are actually being shelved as normal novels aswell, i found a few volumes in my local store yesterday in the horror section :)

    TP had the right idea wth the crest of the stars novels, but they apparently ruined the translation (though i didnt find that), and didnt follow up on it. Shame cause i liked the look adnd feel of those three novels

  7. Looks like it comes out in October. 480 pages! Wow!

    http://www.darkhorse.com/Books/10-856/Vampire-Hunter-D-Volume-11-Pale-Fallen-Angels-parts-1-and-2

    I get nervous when people talk about “ruined translations” without having read the original to know where problems lie. You are right, many reviewers commented on the Crest of the Stars translation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was the translator’s fault (not to get defensive or anything…)

  8. I actually liked the crest of the stars novels, i didn’t find anything really wrong with them. I think alot of people were miffed over the lack of the abh language used. Though i’m glad they decided to keep that to a minimal level. I picked them up knowing the complaints about them, and couldn’t find anything to complain about lol

    I really wish that TP had released the others in the series as well.

    As for D, it is two volumes in one, so i would be around 400 pages. Going to be a night mare waiting for volume 12 though, to see how it ends. Pale Fallen Angels is a four part story, thankfully DH are combining vols 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 into a single book each, so it’s not going to be so bad.

    Still a considerable wait though, october

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  1. […] [Retailing] Ryan Richardson visits a Borders concept store in Wareham, MA where the manga and comics section gets special attention. (Link via Brigid Alverson.) […]