Archives for July 2008

First, a little self-promotion: Tim O’Shea interviewed me for his blog, Talking with Tim, about the site I edit, Good Comics For Kids. Drop by and check it out!

OK, on to the manga news…

The MangaCast team checks out this week’s new releases. Ed’s advice: Get Real.

Adam Stephanides recently complained about Drawn & Quarterly’s practice of flipping individual panels of manga so the pages read left-to-right. At Comics212 Christopher Butcher defends D&Q, pointing out that they have the creator look over all the flipped pages and that leaving the manga unflipped would drastically reduce the audience.

Katherine Farmar would like to see more translated manga from The Magnificent 49ers, please. (Via Journalista.)

John Jakala writes about his love of extras, including omake, for the latest I ♥ Comics entry at Blog@Newsarama.

At the Yaoi Press blog (note new address), Yamila Abraham feels that Youka Nitta was dealt with too harshly over the tracing thing.

At Manga Life, translators Alethea and Athena Nibley talk about learning Japanese and the staff has sort of a free-form chat about the latest press releases in Manga Bulletin.

People are starting to gear up for SDCC. John Thomas posts a list of Dark Horse events, including apearances by Yoshitaka Amano (Vampire Hunter D) and Yasuhiro Nightow (Trigun) at Mecha Mecha Media. Broccoli Books is going to be there as well, sharing a booth with Aurora. And Sho Murase will be sharing a booth, not on Artists Alley.

New website alert: Nerd Fellowship is a news site with frequent updates on manga, comics, anime, games, and various pop-culture items that are a bit outside the mainstream. It’s well written and, unlike many similar sites, won’t hurt your eyeballs. Go, look.

News from Japan: School Rumble will end next week, and Kodansha will bundle an anime DVD with vol. 26 of Tsubasa.

Reviews: Casey Brienza writes an intelligent review of the Witchblade Takeru manga, something I didn’t think was possible, at ANN. EvilOmar posts some brief manga reviews at About Heroes. Sophie Stevens writes about vol. 6 of Pretty Face at Animanga Nation. Sesho posts an audio review of vol. 5 of Gunslinger Girl and a written review of vol. 6. Cynthia reviews The President’s Time at Boys Next Door. Lissa Pattillo reads vol. 3 of Alive at Kuriousity. Seduce Me After the Show fails to work its magic on Julie at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Manga Life, Park Cooper concludes his Spotlight on FullMetal Alchemist, Barb Lien-Cooper reviews vol. 2 of Metro Survive, and Joy Kim checks out vol. 9 of Ouran High School Host Club.

Christopher Butcher breaks through the gloom and doom in the latest segment of his survey of the manga industry at Comics212, suggesting that there is indeed a market, however modest, for mature-themed manga, and that at least some of today’s teenagers may indeed keep on reading manga as their tastes mature. He also points out that some series that we regard as “mature” manga, such as The Drifting Classroom, were actually written for kids. Good stuff. (Image is of vol. 1 of Tezuka’s Buddha, one of the better-selling mature manga.)

Chloe ponders the meaning of the word “adult,” and why it is applied to some manga, at Shuchaku-East.

And if you haven’t read the comments on yesterday’s post, check in for a lively discussion of adult manga and whether Gantz is awesome or should be burned at the stake. Best line goes to John Thomas:

If “sex, violence and boobs” a sinner makes, then I forgive me Father, as I have sinned.

ANN reports that Youka Nitta, who admitted to tracing photographs last week, has quit drawing manga and pulled down her website. And her publisher, Libre, has deleted links to her work from its website.

David Welsh looks at this week’s new manga.

Ed Chavez’s latest Side Dish podcast is a con report from Anime Expo on the josei/TL/BL publisher Aurora. Ed also takes a look at new titles from 801, June, and Digital’s new imprint, DokiDoki.

Brandon Graham has posted chapter 2 of vol. 2 of King City on his LJ.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson endorses renaming light novels as “J-Pulp” but is a bit frustrated with people who foretell the future of manga at an anime convention and with Tokyopop, for announcing new licenses before announcing which of their existing licenses they will keep.

John Jakala looks up Shonen Jump in Wikipedia and finds himself being quoted. Congratulations, John—you’re internet-famous!

Reviews: Casey Brienza reviews the stand-alone short-story collection Pleasure Dome at ANN. Michelle Smith, of Soliloquy in Blue, starts her reviewing gig at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog with a look at vol. 1 of Time Stranger Kyoko. New reviews are up at Comics Village: Charles Tan on vol. 7 of Hayate the Combat Butler, Dan Polley on vol. 3 of Pumpkin Scissors, John Thomas on vol. 1 of Kujibiki Unbalance, Sabrina on Short-Tempered Melancholic, and Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Vampire Hunter D. Invaeon summarizes vols. 1-13 of Eden: It’s an Endless World at Manly Manga and More. Johanna Draper Carlson recommends Antique Bakery at Comics Worth Reading. Julie reviews vol. 1 of Tears of a Lamb and vol. 3 of Walkin’ Butterfly at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 9 of Cantarella at Kuriousity. Connie reads vol. 8 of Oh My Goddess at Slightly Biased Manga. Erica Friedman’s take on vol. 1 of Suzunari: It’s not bad translation, it’s just bad. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Vassalord at Prospero’s Manga.

In his latest Flipped column, David Welsh talks about manga for grown-ups: what is it, how can it be distinguished from manga that is “adult” purely because of graphic sex and violence, and whether anybody reads it. For example, he details the numerous violent scenes in vol. 1 of Gantz, then comments:

What’s surprising to me about Gantz is how little impact any of the above has. I can’t really describe it as cynical or exploitative, because the mayhem just sort of is. It seems more dedicated to what gross-bloody-cool thing it can render next, and if there’s a thematic master plan, it doesn’t emerge in the first volume.

On the other hand, Eden: It’s an Endless World manages to embody both types of adult-ness, graphic content and sophisticated storytelling. It’s an interesting literary and semantic problem. Also, someone needs to come up with a better term than “manga for grown-ups” for books that demand an older audience because of mature storytelling rather than simple explicitness. Suggestions, anyone? (Image is of vol. 1 of Eden, which I just ordered from my local Borders.)

Benjamin Ong Pang Kean looks at the possible effect of the Kodansha move on Viz in his latest article for Newsarama.

There are two sets of new arrivals at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog; in the newest Weekly Recon, Kate Dacey introduces three new bloggers and lists this week’s new manga.

It’s official: Iris Print is closing its doors and liquidating its stock, selling its books off on the web at a 50% discount.

Looks like Youka Nitta won’t be going to Yaoi-Con after all.

ICv2 has more info on the two Natsuki Takaya (Fruits Basket) manga picked up by Tokyopop, including cover images of the Japanese editions.

Matt Blind lists the top 50 manga series at Rocket Bomber.

Heidi MacDonald reflects on the Takashi Murakami show of manga-influenced art.

News from Japan: ANN reports that Kazurou Inoue, creator of Midori Days, will launch a new manga called Undead in the magazine Big Comic Spirits.

Reviews: Well, Dave Ferraro liked vol. 1 of Gantz, and he explains why at Comics-and-More. And here are some more titles for grown-ups: Lissa Pattillo reads vol. 4 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service at Kuri-ousity. Tiamat’s Disciple looks at vol. 3 of Vampire Hunter D: Demon Deathchase. On the other end of the spectrum, Greg McElhatton reviews the all-ages title Cowa! at Read About Comics. Eric Turner checks out vol. 1 of Sundome at Manga Jouhou. Edward Zacharias reviews vol. 30 of Naruto, Kiki Van De Camp reads vol. 2 of Sand Chronicles, and Ai Kano looks at vol. 1 of One Pound Gospel at Animanga Nation.

It was just a week or so ago that John Jakala and Simon Jones (NSFW) were tossing around ideas for Viz to promote its sports manga at actual sports events. Now Viz announces that Portland Trail Blazers basketball player Greg Oden will promote Takehiko Inoue’s basketball manga Slam Dunk; in return, Viz will donate manga to Oden’s kids’ charity, Oregon Mentors. Oh, and Oden will be at SDCC. Details below.

VIZ MEDIA TEAMS WITH NBA PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS STAR GREG ODEN TO INTRODUCE NEW MANGA SERIES – SLAM DUNK

Star Athlete At 2008 Comic-Con International
To Promote Riveting Basketball Manga Series
And Help Children Develop A Lifelong Love Of Reading

San Francisco, CA, July 14, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has teamed up with Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden to promote literacy. Oden will be featured in the campaign using SLAM DUNK, the exciting new basketball-themed manga (graphic novel) series to help promote the love of reading.

VIZ Media will donate copies of several of their popular manga titles including the highly anticipated SLAM DUNK manga series (rated T for Teens) to Greg Oden’s charity, Oregon Mentors. Oregon Mentors works to expand positive life opportunities for all young Oregonians by connecting them with caring mentors http://oregonmentors.org.

Oden, the 250-pound, 7-foot tall, national phenomenon who was picked No. 1 overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the recent 2007 NBA draft, will also make a special in-person appearance in the VIZ Media Booth #4113 at the 2008 Comic-Con International, in San Diego, the nation’s largest comics convention, to celebrate the launch of the new manga series and raise awareness about this literacy campaign. Oden will appear in the VIZ Media booth on Sunday July 27 from 12:00-1:00pm to meet fans and sign autographs.

VIZ Media will also welcome two of the Los Angeles Laker Girls to San Diego Comic-Con for a special appearance in the booth in support of the release of SLAM DUNK, on Friday, July 25, from 12:00pm to 2:00 pm.

“I am very excited to team with VIZ Media to bring the basketball series SLAM DUNK to Oregon Mentors,” said Oden. “I know the positive impact that mentoring has on young people. I believe in its ability to help kids develop a love for reading. I am excited to be a part of this special campaign!”

Basketball. The court, the ball, the hoop. The hopes, the dreams, the sweat. It takes dedication and discipline to be the best, and Takehiko Inoue’s manga series introduces readers to the Shohoku High team that wants to be just that – the best. They have one last year to make their captain’s dream of reaching the finals come true – will they do it? Inoue’s legendary basketball manga is finally here. Inoue’s SLAM DUNK is one of Japan’s most successful manga series, selling more than 100 million copies to-date. It has catapulted the artist into the top ranks of Japanese manga artists and debuts across North America August 11. Each volume of SLAM DUNK will feature a profile of a NBA player, their stats and their signature on-court move, beginning with Volume 1 which features the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and his signature move, the Slam Dunk as a bonus excerpt. Advance copies of SLAM DUNK will be available at the retail area of the VIZ Media booth at this years Comic-Con International.

“We are very excited to promote the use of the sport of basketball as a theme to help promote literacy and welcome Portland Trail Blazer Greg Oden who shares the goal to increase literacy,” says Liza Coppola, Sr. Vice President, Corporate Relations & Partnerships, VIZ Media. “This is a perfect fit for both the NBA and SLAM DUNK. SLAM DUNK is a basketball manga series that captures the essence and excitement of basketball and appeal to anyone who loves the game, Greg Oden embodies the spirit of SLAM DUNK – he has the passion, drive and is looked upon as a role model for many potential readers of the series. He is a natural bridge between kids who love the game of basketball and the one book that brings the true feel and spirit of the game to life between its pages.”

Takehiko Inoue is the creator of two other titles lauded by critics and fans alike. VAGABOND, which is currently published in North America by VIZ Media (rated M for Mature), is a fictional account of the life of legendary 17th century swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. REAL, which debuts July 15 (rated T+ for Older Teens), is a riveting manga series about wheelchair basketball. Inoue has drawn international acclaim for his realistic and dramatic visual style and he’s the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Culture Award and the Media Arts Festival Award. A devoted fan of basketball, Inoue also did the character designs for the Playstation video game One On One and founded a scholarship to foster Japanese basketball talent.

In a lengthy but very readable post at Okazu, Erica Friedman explains how manga are sold and why the system is often frustrating to readers and retailers alike.

ICv2 talks to Viz VP Marc Weidenbaum and senior editor Eric Searle about Viz’s plans to publish original comics. It sounds like they are open to a variety of concepts and formats at the moment.

Ed Chavez, who has a unique vantage point as someone who both works in the industry and writes about it, weighs in with his thoughts on the manga market at MangaCast. And he interviews Glenn Kardy of Manga University for his latest Side Dish podcast.

Deb Aoki interviews Surt Lim and Hirofumi Sugimoto, the creators of Del Rey’s new global shoujo manga Kasumi, at About.com.

Lori Henderson laments the passing of Kindaichi Case Files at Manga Xanadu.

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind looks at the top 500 manga (online sales) for the past week and then crunches the numbers a bit. Also, he has started posting reports on the various manga publishers and their sales figures; so far, ADV, Aurora, and CMX are up.

To flip or not to flip? Drawn & Quarterly chose the middle ground with Red Colored Elegy, as they did with their Yoshihiro Tatsumi titles (The Push Man) and Adam Stephanides doesn’t like it.

Herve St-Louis asks “Are Yaoi Manga the Future of Gay Comics?” at The Comic Book Bin. He doesn’t really answer the question, and his admission that he hasn’t actually read any yaoi undercuts his arguments a bit, but there’s some material for conversation there.

For those who like to think ahead, DrMaster will be releasing vol. 6 of Lunar Legend Tsukihime in February 2009. Mark your calendars!

Reviews: Jog applies his considerable talents to analyzing vols. 1 and 2 of Cat-Eyed Boy. At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle reviews vol. 2 of Honey and Clover, I.O.N., and Seduce Me After the Show. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 3 of Zombie Loan, vol. 1 of Kieli, vol. 1 of Very! Very! Sweet, vol. 8 of Love Mode, vol. 7 of After School Nightmare, and vol. 12 of XXXHolic at Kuriousity. The Henderson family is busy at Manga Xanadu, with mom Lori posting a review of vol. 16 of Kindaichi Case Files and daughters Jenny and Krissy giving their takes on Pokemon: Rise of Darkrai. On a completely different note, Julie checks out Caged Slave at the MangaCast. Ken Haley reviews vol. 1 of The Last Call at Manga Recon. James Fleenor gives his impressions of vols. 28 and 29 of Naruto at Anime Sentinel.

Here’s why we love manga so much: Creator Madeleine Rosca spotted a famliar face in the latest chapter of Air Gear: Barack Obama. In Air Gear! An alert commenter translates the text in the balloon as “Why is it that on this night when I’m meeting such a lovely person, I have failed to bring my tuxedo?” and the sidebar text as “The candidate for the next president of the United States!” Well, we all know he’s a charmer. But will he have to battle McCain in an extreme skating fight to win the presidency? (Via Sesho.)

ICv2 has the latest on Tokyopop, in case you were wondering what direction the company is going in: They have an item on the Ghostbusters manga, including a penciled page, and the news that they have licensed Disney’s Camp Rock for their Cine-Manga line.

It’s not unusual for artists to use photos for reference, but Yaoi manga-ka Youka Nitta admits that she crossed the line when she traced advertising photos for her work, using not only the poses but backgrounds and other details. There’s actually an interesting discussion of the boundary issues involved in the comments to the linked post, and here is an unofficial website with side-by-side comparisons—it’s in Japanese, but click on the numbers to see the photos. One of the most interesting things, to me, was to see how Nitta varied from the source material: changing male-female couples to male-male, stretching out the limbs, and changing the gaze so the characters are looking at the viewer. Nitta has apologized for the infringement, and she is not listed as a contributor to the October issue of Be-Boy Gold, the Japanese magazine that publishes her work. However, a commenter on the yaoicon_chat LJ community says she is still scheduled to appear at Yaoicon.

Erica Friedman rounds up the yuri news of the week at Okazu.

This is interesting: ICv2 says the publishing rights for ElfQuest are in play, as Wendy and Richard Pini’s agreement with DC came to an end last year. I’m wondering how this will affect their digital comics project.

Anime Expo followups: At the MangaCast, Ed rounds up covers for the new titles announced at Anime Expo by DMP and Viz. And at Genuine Article, Kai-Ming Cha noticed that the guys seemed to be more interested in Aurora’s LuvLuv line of “ladies’ comics” than the ladies were. At About.com, Deb Aoki picks the top ten manga from the new announcement and posts a photo gallery as well.

Japanator looks at a possible resurgence of shonen sports manga.

Congratulations to Sleep Is For the Weak, the website for thoughtful manga readers, on their sixth anniversary (coming up on July 22)! For an example of why I like them so much, check out Lianne Sentar’s review of Kamichama Karin Chu.

New website alert: Nerd Fellowship is a geek-friendly website that delivers news on a variety of topics—manga, anime, games, movies, etc.—with a nice clean design that makes the content easy to find. Why is that last thing so rare? Anyway, the writing is good as well, so check it out.

ANN reports that it’s now possible to get Japanese manga on your iPhone or DS.

News from Japan: The series Dr. Koto’s Clinic will move to Big Comic Original when its current host magazine, Weekly Young Sunday, ceases publication later this month. Both magazines are published by Shogakukan.

Reviews: People seem to either love the light novel Maid Machinegun or really hate it; put Eva from MangaCast in the latter category. Salimbol has a concise review of vols. 2-3 of My Heavenly Hockey Club at The Chocolate Mud Wyvern Presents. At Anime on DVD, Patricia Beard reviews Pathos, Matthew Alexander looks at vol. 8 of Enchanter, Danielle Van Gorder checks out Tough Love Baby, and Briana Lawrence reads vol. 2 of Don’t Blame Me. Connie reads vol. 11 of Iron Wok Jan, vol. 3 of Variante, vol. 7 of Enchanter, and vol. 12 of Saint Seiya at Slightly Biased Manga. Sesho has posted text reviews of vol. 1 of Sunshine Sketch, vols. 1-2 of Samurai Commando Mission 1549, and vol. 2 of Harukaze Bitter Bop, and podcast reviews of vol. 1 of Koi Cupid, vol. 1 of Gantz, and vol. 1 of Arm of Kannon. Emily checks out Toko no Houmonsha at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Tokko: Devil’s Awaken and vol. 1 of Kujibiki Unbalance at Prospero’s Manga. Julie gets her hands on vol. 13 of Skip Beat! at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Fresh reviews up at Manga Life: Park Cooper on vols. 3-4 of Fullmetal Alchemist, Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 1 of Sugar Princess, David Rasmussen on Tenchi Muyo: Sasami Stories, and Park Cooper on vol. 1 of Samurai Executioner.