Manga awards, dropped yaoi, NYAF updates

At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo rounds up some recent manga news, including a former DramaQueen staffer who is now not entirely discouraging reading scanlations and news that Blu has dropped two light novels. And look: A lengthy preview of Winter Demon! (Mature readers only, please—you know who you are!)

Japan’s Foreign Ministry has announced the results of their 2nd International Manga Award, and the winner is Hong Kong artist Lau Wan Kit’s 1992 title Feel 100%. Other awards went to Yin Chuan of China, Svetlana Chezhina of Russia, and Alice Picard of France.

Matt Blind looks at the top-ranked preorders (online sale) at Rocket Bomber, and the list should surprise no one: Naruto, Fruits Basket, Vampire Knight… and it’s interesting to see the second volume of Tokyopop’s Vampire Kisses making the top ten. He also takes a look at how the new releases are doing, and that list is more mixed, with Rosario+Vampire at the top.

Deb Aoki continues her account of her PopJapan tour with a visit to Comitia and a meetup with manga artist Kaimu Tachibana on Day 3 and trips to Shibuya and the Ghibli Museum on Day 4.

Melinda Beasi mulls over her reading life, and how she just couldn’t get interested in comics until she got hold of a copy of Hikaru No Go.

Jason Van Horn files his con report on Otakon at The Hachiko.

Planning ahead: The New York Anime Fest is slated for Sept. 26-28 in the Javits Center, and while it’s a bit hard to think past Labor Day at the moment, you might want to start making plans. The Japanator folks are here to help; they’re holding a contest to give away free tickets. And here’s an extra incentive: yesterday the organizers named Iron Chef star Masaharu Morimoto as their guest of honor. If you’re coming

News from Japan: Canned Dogs reports that Hunter x Hunter is returning to Shonen Jump, although perhaps just for ten weeks. Ed Chavez went to the Shogakukan offices and met the creators of Tetsuko no Tabi, a manga for Japanese railfans.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson enjoys Yume Kira Dream Shoppe at Comics Worth Reading. Michelle Smith reads vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues and Phil Guie checks out vol. 1 of Mamoru the Shadow Protector at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Connie goes for some light reading with vol. 1 of I Hate You More Than Anyone and vol. 15 of Iron Wok Jan at Slightly Biased Manga. Jason Van Horn reviews vol. 29 of Naruto at The Hachiko. This is sort of unusual: Charles Solomon looks at the series Bleach for the Los Angeles Times. Clive Owen enjoys vol. 1 of Black Lagoon at Animanga Nation. At Comics Village, Dan Polley reviews vol. 1 of I, Otaku, and John Thomas checks out vol. 1 of Barefoot Gen. Julie reviews vol. 12 of Claymore at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 4 of +Anima and vol. 4 of Yotsuba&! at Kuriousity. David Welsh enjoys the long-awaited vol. 2 of Your and My Secret at Precocious Curmudgeon. James Fleenor takes a look at vol. 3 of xxxHoLiC at Anime Sentinel.