Archives for August 2008

The folks at Viz continue to demonstrate that they know what girls like. Four of the five shoujo series detailed below are from manga creators that you have probably already heard of: Arina Tanemura (The Gentlemen’s Alliance+), Hisaya Najako (Hana-Kimi), and Matsuri Hino (Vampire Knight). The other one, Mixed Vegetables, is a cooking manga—nuff said! From the cover at left it looks like there may be a romantic element to it too. Mmmm, food and love! Read on for more details.

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES
CAPTIVATING NEW SHOJO MANGA SERIES
TO DEBUT IN THIRD QAURTER

Five Highly Anticipated New Titles Announced Including
TIME STRANGER KYOKO, SHORT-TEMPERED MELANCHOLIC, SUGAR PRINCESS, MIXED VEGETABLES And WANTED

San Francisco, CA, August 21, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced five new shojo manga (graphic novel for girls) titles set to debut throughout the Third Quarter.

Published under the company’s popular Shojo Beat imprint, the new series include TIME STRANGER KYOKO, SHORT-TEMPERED MELANCHOLIC AND OTHER STORIES, SUGAR PRINCESS: SKATING TO WIN, MIXED VEGETABLES and WANTED.

“The debut of these latest shojo manga series features a variety of romantic stories set against an array of interesting backdrops that range from time travel to ice skating to cooking to pirates!” says Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President, Sales & Product Marketing, VIZ Media. “Fans will be excited to explore these intriguing new stories from renowned manga artists such as Arina Tanemura, who created THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE † and FULL MOON, Hisaya Nakajo, the creator of HANA KIMI, and Matsuri Hino, who created the popular gothic drama VAMPIRE KNIGHT. As the popularity of shojo manga continues, readers won’t want to miss these exciting new series by some of the genre’s most acclaimed and innovative artists and creators.”

TIME STRANGER KYOKO • Rated “T+” for Older Teens •
MSRP: $8.99 US / $10.50 CAN • Available Now!
Kyoko Suomi is the Princess of Earth in the 30th century but she lives among the commoners, unwilling to reveal her true identity and ascend to the throne. Her father the King will only allow Kyoko to live as she pleases if she can revive her twin sister Ui, who has been trapped in time since birth. To do this Kyoko must find 12 holy stones and 12 telepaths to move the clock that has stopped time for her sister. TIME STRANGER KYOKO was created by Arina Tanemura, who began her manga career in 1996 when her short stories debuted in Japan’s Ribon magazine. She first gained fame with the 1997 publication of I•O•N, a high school romance with a supernatural twist that is also published domestically by VIZ Media. Tanemura worked on the popular series KAMIKAZE KAITO JEANNE, about a young girl who is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, followed by TIME STRANGER KYOKO, THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE †, and FULL MOON (all published domestically by VIZ Media). TIME STRANGER KYOKO has also been previewed in SHOJO BEAT magazine.

SHORT-TEMPERED MELANCHOLIC AND OTHER STORIES • Rated “T” for Teens • MSRP: $8.99 US / $10.50 CAN • Available Now!
A new collection of four unique short stories from famed mangaka Arina Tanemura! Kajika Yamano is a female ninja whose job is to protect her family’s legendary weapon. But when a boy she has a crush on tells her she should be more ladylike, she vows to give up all her ninja activities. In “This Love is Nonfiction” Yuri sends her pen pal Ryo a picture of herself – but it’s really of her best friend Karin, who she feels is much prettier. Now Ryo wants to meet, so she has no choice but to send Karin instead! In “Rainy Afternoons Are for Romantic Heroines” Minori falls in love with Takato, a boy who shared his umbrella with her one rainy afternoon. Now she “forgets” her umbrella every time it rains in hopes of catching the boy’s attention. The final story, “The Style of the Second Love” presents a girl named Mana who secretly likes her friend’s boyfriend, but Nakamura, a younger boy, is determined to win Mana’s heart.

SUGAR PRINCESS: SKATING TO WIN • Rated “A” for ALL AGES •
MSRP: $8.99 US / $10.50 CAN • Available Now!
Maya Kurinoki is an 8th grader who has no experience ice-skating but seems to have natural talent. She performs a double axel and impresses a scout named Eishi Todo, who tells her that he can make her a skating “princess.” But Todo also tells Maya that she’ll have to convince the famous skater Shun Kano to coach her and become her skating partner. But unfortunately for Maya, Shun only wants to skate singles. Will she be able to change his mind? SUGAR PRINCESS: SKATING TO WIN was created by Hisaya Nakajo’s who also created the hit manga series HANA KIMI (published domestically by VIZ Media). SUGAR PRINCESS: SKATING TO WIN was recently previewed in the July 2008 issue of Shojo Beat magazine.

MIXED VEGETABLES • Rated “T” for TEENS • MSRP: $8.99 US / $10.50 CAN • Available September 2, 2008
A new culinary manga series by Ayumi Komura, MIXED VEGETABLES introduces readers to Hanayu Ashitaba, daughter of the family that runs the celebrated Patisserie Ashitaba. Despite her famous lineage all she wants to be is a top-notch sushi chef. Meanwhile, Hayato Hyuga is the son of the prestigious Sushi Hyuga, and all he wants to do is be a pastry chef! It’s love and leftovers at the Oikawa High School Cooking Department as these star-crossed gourmets do their best to reach their cuisine dreams! Hanayu knows that it will break her parents’ hearts if she defects from the bakery to become a sushi chef. But if she marries into a sushi family, they’ll have to understand her decision. Now she just has to get Hayato Hyuga interested, and what better way than to wow him with her cooking skills! MIXED VEGTABLES will captivate fans of dramatic cooking shows like Iron Chef and Hell’s Kitchen and follows a notable legacy of culinary manga series such as YAKITATE JAPAN! (also published by VIZ Media). The series features clean and energetic artwork and strongly developed characters as well as a comprehensive glossary of interesting cultural and cooking terms and detailed notes by the author. MIXED VEGETABLES was edited for domestic release by noted food writer Stephanie Lucianovic.

WANTED • Rated “T+” for TEENS • MSRP: $8.99 US / $10.50 CAN • Available September 2, 2008
WANTED is the latest series by Matsuri Hino (creator of VAMPIRE KNIGHT and MERU PURI, both published domestically by VIZ Media). In the Mediterranean at end of the 17th century, former songstress Armeria disguises herself as a boy and boards a ship belonging to the pirate Skulls – the evil man who kidnapped Luce, her first love. Captain Skulls is arrogant, violent, and a skirt chaser! And unfortunately for Armeria, he discovers she’s really a woman. Now she must fend off his advances while trying to find her beloved. WANTED is previewed in the new August issue of SHOJO BEAT magazine. Artist and creator Matsuri Hino first captured attention with her debut manga, WHEN THIS DREAM IS OVER, which was published in Japan in LaLa DX magazine. With the success of that, and her other popular series CAPTIVE HEARTS (to be published by VIZ Media November 2008), and MERU PURI, Hino has established herself as a major creative force in the world of shojo manga. Her gothic series VAMPIRE KNIGHT is also currently serialized in SHOJO BEAT magazine and published by VIZ Media.

Melinda Beasi explains why you should read xxxHoLiC, with words and pretty, pretty pictures.

ICv2 has a three-part interview with Paul Levitz, President and Publisher of DC Comics, much of which need not concern us here. However, he does discuss Flex manga in part three. Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of their manga imprint CMX.

Paul Gravett’s account of the Edinburgh International Book Festival includes ruminations on the various adaptations, manga and otherwise, of Shakespeare.

It’s been a while since we have had one of those stories about a parent going ballistic over a kid finding naughty manga in the library, so here you go. Be sure to watch the video, in which the Fox folks find yet another hidden danger for us to worry about; my favorite part is when the reporter explains earnestly that the book in question, Battle Vixens, “is actually animation.” (I note that another “news” video on the site at the moment is “Flasher Scorched by Bikini Barista.” Keep tracking down those tough stories, Fox guys!)

News from Japan: ANN reports that Futabasha has launched a free webcomic service that runs in its browser, rather than requiring the user to download comics reading software. Also, manga artist Keizo Tsukamoto has been recognized by Guinness for the longest career as an artist at the same magazine; Tsukamoto has been churning out cover art for the Weekly Manga Times since 1970, outlasting six editors-in-chief.

Reviews: Sabrina reviews vol. 1 of Ouran High School Host Club at Comics Village. Connie continues her vacation reading with a look at vol. 7 of Angel Sanctuary at Slightly Biased Manga. Sesho’s latest podcast takes on vol. 1 of Sola. At the Boys Next Door blog: Cynthia posts reviews of vol. 2 of Tea For Two, Sweet Admiration, vol. 10 of Love Mode, and Honeydew Syndrome. Johanna Draper Carlson checks out vols. 6, 7, and 8 of Love*Com and vol. 4 of High School Debut at Comics Worth Reading. Lori Henderson reads vol. 1 of The Mysterians online at the Tokyopop site. Erica Friedman has plenty to say about vols. 4 and 5 of Battle Club, another manga featured in the Fox segment above.

I picked up Real at the comics shop last week, and it looks great—and this is coming from someone so sports-impaired that I was standing on a baseball diamond last week and had to ask someone which was third base. Anyway, Viz is going long on Takehiko Inoue; check out the assortment of manga and art books that are coming our way.

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES THE DEBUT OF NEW WORKS FROM FAMED MANGA ARTIST TAKEHIKO INOUE
INCLUDING SLAM DUNK and REAL MANGA SERIES
and SUMI AND WATER, THE VAGABOND ART BOOKS

Rounding Out the Takehiko Inoue Releases –
The Critically Acclaimed VAGABOND Published Under The VIZBIG Imprint

San Francisco, CA, August 19, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the publication of a diverse new collection of manga (graphic novel) and art books by famed artist/creator Takehiko Inoue.

The new titles include the manga series REAL (rated T+ for Older Teens) and SLAM DUNK (rated T for Teens), which depict the sport of basketball in two vastly different but equally exciting ways, as well as the publication of SUMI and WATER, a pair of lavishly illustrated art books that capture the essence of Inoue’s techniques in black and white and color.

Takehiko Inoue is a skilled artist whose intricately detailed and lifelike visual style has raised the manga genre to a new level. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Tezuka Osamu Culture Award and the Media Arts Festival Award. Inoue’s highly acclaimed series VAGABOND (Rated M for Mature audiences and published domestically by VIZ Media) is a fictional account based on the life of legendary 17th century samurai Miyamoto Musashi. Without question, his most successful work to date is SLAM DUNK, which has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. VIZ Media complements this release of SLAM DUNK with the debut of REAL, a riveting manga series about the sport of wheelchair basketball. Inoue is a self-professed fan of basketball and also worked on the character designs for the PlayStation video game One On One among others. SLAM DUNK has been credited with introducing basketball to millions of Japanese readers. Legions have taken up the sport after becoming captivated by Inoue’s series.

REAL • Rated “T+” for Older Teens • MSRP: $12.99 US / $15.99 CAN •
Available Now!
REAL is a gritty drama that offers a unique twist on the sports manga genre as it focuses on wheelchair basketball. A motorcycle accident, bone cancer, and a speeding truck crashing into a boy on a stolen bicycle all present tragic, life-changing events that turn the worlds of three young men upside down in this gripping new series. These three characters with very different personalities have only one thing in common – their passion for basketball.

SLAM DUNK • Rated “T” for Teens • MSRP: $7.99 US / $9.50 CAN •
Available September 2, 2008
SLAM DUNK is the highly anticipated 31-volume basketball drama that has been a smash hit in Japan. Sakuragi Hanamichi’s got no game with girls – none at all! It doesn’t help that he’s known for throwing down at a moment’s notice. A hopeless bruiser, he’s been rejected by 50 girls in a row! All that changes when he meets the girl of his dreams, Haruko, and she’s actually not afraid of him! When she introduces him to the game of basketball, his life is changed forever. Selected volumes of SLAM DUNK features a profile of a specific NBA player, their stats, and their signature on-court move. The profiles begin with Volume 1, which features the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James and his signature move, the Slam Dunk as a bonus excerpt.

VAGABOND VIZBIG Volume 1 • Rated “M” for Mature Audiences •
MSRP: $19.99 US / $23.50 CAN • Available September 16, 2008
VIZ Media is re-releasing VAGABOND in the VIZBIG format featuring three volumes in one oversized edition with bonus content and new cover art. Bonus features in Volume 1 include character concept sketches, interview with Takehiko Inoue and special author comments not previously included in previously published manga from VIZ Media. Graphic novel aficionados who are just discovering Takehiko Inoue’s work will be able to enjoy his art in the larger trim size (5.75” X 8.25”) while existing fans will appreciate the added bonuses included in this particular volume. The schedule for the single volume editions of VAGABOND will continue with the publication of Volume 28 in October 2008.

SUMI: VAGABOND ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION • MSRP: $34.99 US / $39.99 CAN •
Available September 16, 2008
This gorgeous oversized (8.86″ X 11.42″) art book captures Inoue’s magnificent pen and brush work in black and white. It will include a behind-the-scenes look at VAGABOND with rough sketches and photos of Inoue’s studio.

WATER: VAGABOND ILLUSTRATION COLLECTION • MSRP: $34.99 US / $39.99 CAN • Available September 16, 2008
WATER captures Inoue’s masterful work in color and contains artwork only published in this volume. Oversized (8.86″ X 11.42″) contains dozens of lush watercolor depictions of samurai Miyamoto Musashi in various garments and settings.

“Takehiko Inoue’s skill as both an artist and dramatic storyteller have catapulted him to the uppermost echelon of Japan’s manga artists,” says Alvin Lu, Vice President Publishing, VIZ Media. “His samurai action series, VAGABOND, first introduced his flair for historically-based sagas to domestic readers and his dynamic and realistic style shines in a completely different arena with the debuts of REAL and SLAM DUNK. Readers will delight in Inoue’s comprehensive knowledge of the sport of basketball and tributes to many great NBA players. The further release of THE ART OF VAGABOND: SUMI and WATER showcase Inoue’s pure skill as an artist and will be a must-have for serious fans of this celebrated series.”

Check out this week’s PWCW, where I talk to Kurt Hassler of Yen Press about that company’s recent 4-koma binge, and I also interview Charlie “Spike” Trotman about her webcomic Templar, Arizona. It’s not manga, but very cool anyway. Also very interesting is Laura Hudson’s look at the digital comics landscape. I got an iPod Touch this weekend—they threw it in for free with the MacBook we bought for our daughter—so I’ll finally be checking out that particular corner of the digital world, if I can ever figure out how to make the comics download properly. (On the left is the cover of S.S. Astro, the 4-koma title that reminded me the most of Azumanga Daioh.)

David Welsh looks at this week’s new releases at Precocious Curmudgeon.

The Asian news site My Sinchew interviews Rumiko Takahashi, creator of InuYasha and Ranma 1/2, among others. (Via Journalista.)

Manga scholar and translator Matt Thorn has a shiny new blog, and he uses it to announce that he will translate Est Em’s Red Blinds the Foolish, available soon from Deux. I really enjoyed the art in Est Em’s first book, Seduce Me After the Show, so this should be a treat.

Jake Forbes gives us a sneak peek at the cover of vol. 3 of Return to Labyrinth at Gobbln.net.

Tokyopop has inked a deal with iaTV; iaTV will run their anime and shorts, as well as sell advertising. For those who care about detail, here’s a longer version of the press release.

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind charts new releases, pre-orders, and overall online rankings for the week ending August 17, as well as a look at light novels and box sets.

News from Japan: Shueisha will publish manga adaptations of the Akikan! light novels in Ultra Jump.

Reviews: Carlo Santos starts us off right with a fresh batch of reviews in his latest Right Turn Only!! column. Also at ANN, Casey Brienza is unimpressed by vol. 1 of Soul Rescue. Over at ComicMix, Andrew Wheeler finds three racy manga: Futari H: Manga Sutra, Pretty Poison, and a MangaBlog favorite, vol. 1 of Yakuza in Love. Deb Aoki takes a look at a really different title, vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues, at About.com. Lissa Pattillo reviews Love Lesson, a collection of yaoi shorts, at Kuriousity. Julie reads vol. 2 of Kiss All the Boys at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews vol. 3 of Honey and Clover and vol. 1 of Kasumi at Comics Worth Reading. Connie posts a stack of reviews at Slightly Biased Manga: vols. 36 and 37 of Dragon Ball, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Angel Sanctuary, vol. 14 of Iron Wok Jan, vol. 3 of Fairy Tail, and vol. 5 of MPD-Psycho. Whew! Dan Polley reviews vol. 7 of Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution at Comics Village. LJ’er Oyceter has some thoughts on vols. 3-6 of Gunslinger Girl at Sakura of DOOM. Kethylia takes a peek at the September issue of the Japanse BL magazine Reijin. Emily checks out Masaka to Omou Kedo at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. In the yuri realm, Erica Friedman posts part 2 of her review of vol. 13 of Yuri Hime. Tangognat reads vol. 1 of Bogle.

ICv2 has posted its graphic novel chart for July, reflecting actual sales through Diamond (i.e. mostly in comics shops, which biases the sample quite a bit). Here’s the list of manga, with the rank on the overall GN chart in parentheses after the manga rank, and total sales in parentheses after the title. It’s a short list this month:

1. (3) Naruto, vol. 30 (5,819)
2. (5) Fruits Basket, vol. 20 (5,328)
3. (20) Berserk, vol. 24 (3,675)
4. (37) Path of the Assassin, vol. 12 (2,704)
5. (54) Tsubasa, vol. 18 (2,293)
6. (64) xxxHoLiC, vol. 12 (2,053)
7. (80) Chibi Vampire, vol. 9 (1,813)
8. (93) In Odd We Trust (1,642)
9. (94) InuYasha, vol. 34 (1,632)
10. (97) Star Trek, vol. 3 (1,592)

Over at Japanator, God Len posts this week’s new anime and manga releases.

Deb Aoki has exciting news, but not for me: Japanese Shonen Jump is posting the first chapter of Bakuman, the new manga by Death Note creators Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba, at their Jumpland site. It’s in English, as well as German, Japanese, and French, and it’s free until August 31. The bad news is that in order to read it you have to download their comics browser, which only works on Windows XP or Vista. That means it’s off limits to Mac users like myself, which is annoying.

Deb also posts her take on Digital’s new eManga service. And over at the NSFW but highly entertaining Icarus blog, Simon Jones casts an expert’s eye on the eManga browser.

ANN’s Carlo Santos interviews Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima.

Active Anime talks to the Italian yaoi creators Dany&Dany.

At Shuchaku East, Chloe looks at the age constraints on manga, particularly global manga, which is still mainly aimed at teenagers in the U.S.

Yidi Yu, a.k.a. Kiriska, has been thinking about digital distribution of manga, and his thoughts are worth checking out.

Erica Friedman rounds up the week’s yuri news at Okazu.

ANN reports that the official New York Anime Fest guidebook will include a previously unpublished Vampire Hunter D short story.

News from Japan: ANN reports on several new and relaunched manga serials slated to launch in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits in September, including a manga adaptation of the novel Nobō no Shiro, illustrated by Oishinbo artist Akira Hanasaki, and a new manga by GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa. Lots of details at the link.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore reviews issues 1 and 2 of Yen+ and Johanna Draper Carlson reads vol. 3 of High School Debut, vol. 8 of Beauty Pop, and vol. 10 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs at Comics Worth Reading. Steve Roby reviews vol. 3 of the Star Trek manga at Starfleet Library. At his blog, The Hooded Utilitarian, Noah Berlatsky reprints the review he did of Parasyte for The Comics Journal. Lyn Jenson reviews Queenie Chan’s In Odd We Trust for the Orange Coast Voice. Leroy Douresseaux enjoys Wild Butterfly and vol. 1 of Warcraft: Legends at The Comic Book Bin. Carl Kimlinger checks out Cowa! and Casey Brienza has plenty of good things to say about vols. 1 and 2 of Bride of the Water God at ANN. At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro dives into vol. 1 of One Piece, and so far he seems to be enjoying the ride. Lori Henderson reviews vol. 1 of Zombie Powder and the web version of vol. 2 of Dark Metro at Manga Xanadu. Jason Van Horn takes a look at vol. 1 of Densha Otoko (the CMX version) at The Hachiko. Charles Tan reads vol. 3 of Uzumaki and Lori Henderson gives two thumbs up to vol. 6 of Godchild at Comics Village. Mangamaniac Julie reviews vol. 1 of Steal Moon at the MangaCast and looks at vol. 1 of Kekkaishi, Ruff Love, and vol. 10 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Okazu, Erica Friedman posts part 1 of her review of vol. 13 of Yuri Hime. Lissa Pattillo checks out Love Circumstances and Twilight of the Dark Master, and guest reviewer Kanami Han’ei reads vol. 1 of Sunshine Sketch at Kuriousity. Sesho puts away the microphone and posts text reviews of vol. 2 of Tetragrammaton Labyrinth and vol. 8 of GTO. Jessica Severs reviews vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.