Archives for September 2008

You know that any mainstream-news story that leads with the Hello Kitty vibrator is going to be bad news, and this MSNBC column by Brian Alexander does not disappoint. Did I miss the moment when maid cafes became mainstream in the U.S.? Maybe Boston is just behind the times. I don’t have all day to take apart the fallacies in this article, but let me point out one obvious howler:

Within the adult realm of otaku culture, cuteness is fetishized (hence the Hello Kitty sex toys) and gender is often bent or dissolves altogether. Women are penetrated by octopi and young women in short school-girl skirts save the world. Men, on the other hand, are often passive worshipers of small figurines depicting sexy characters.

OK, unless he is seriously misinformed, the writer makes a major shift in that last sentence: The first part, about the women, refers to characters in anime and manga; the second part describes the men who read it. Apples and oranges. Also, I haven’t run across any passive figurine-worshipers in my travels, although maybe it’s just one of those things that everyone does and nobody admits to. (Moe headphones image taken from JBox, the more wholesome part of JList.)

Real manga-ka Takehiko Inoue interviews Shingo Fujii, captain of the Japanese wheelchair basketball team, for the Yomiuri Shimbun on the eve of the 2008 Paralympic Games.

David Doub interviews global manga creator Queenie Chan at Manga Punk.

Like many of us, Ed Sizemore is heading to NYAF, but he can’t be there on Friday or Sunday, so he has generously offered to share his VIP tickets to the MC Chris concert and autograph sessions with other fest-goers. If you would like tickets to an event, e-mail me at the address on the upper right and I’ll forward your request to Ed. It’s first-come, first-serve, so don’t delay.

Alex Woolfson has an interesting post on finding bara (gay comics) in English at Yaoi 911, with lots of links to other sites and resources. The post itself is SFW, but the links are not.

John Thomas wraps up his roundup of worthwhile summer releases at Mecha Mecha Media.

Yoshitoshi ABe will be speaking at the Schoolgirls and Mobile Suits conference at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design on Sept. 26-28.

EigoManga has revamped its website. The new site runs on Flash, which looks slick but eliminates the possibility of permalinks to individual pages. Also, the menus are hard to find—look for the teeny-tiny green type on the left-hand side to get started. (Via ComiPress.)

News from Japan: Minetaro Mochizuki, creator of Dragon Head, will be launching a new manga in Kodansha’s Morning magazine soon.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore reviews vol. 1 of Faust and Johanna Draper Carlson recommends vol. 5 of High School Debut at Comics Worth Reading. Dick Hyacinth has some nice things to say about Cowa! Tiamat’s Disciple checks out vol. 1 of Slayers Premium. Julie enjoys vol. 3 of Sand Chronicles at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Even Erica Friedman’s father, who prefers crappy manga, can’t take vol. 1 of Shin Megami Tensei Kahn; read about it at Okazu. John Thomas reviews vol. 6 of MPD-Psycho at Comics Village. Melinda Beasi takes a look at vols. 1-3 of Nana at there it is, plain as daylight.

How much does John Jakala love Japanese Spider-Man? He counts the ways in his latest Sporadic Sequential post, and he finds much to love. (Japanese Spidey image lifted straight from John’s blog but probably (c) someone else.)

Scott VonSchilling reposts an earlier article about moe at Anime Almanac, and he has an interesting interpretation that makes it seem a bit less creepy:

So then why the sudden attraction to Moé? Is it a sign of pedophilia?

Hell no, I say it’s the longing for fatherhood. That the last statistic in that article proves it. “Unmarried males in their 30s account for the majority of the moe market.” When you’re a Japanese salary man working for over decade in an exhausting job, what do you have to show for it? What’s the purpose in your life? Well, if you’re not married and don’t have a family… I don’t really think you have much going for you. So yeah, they’re seeing that window of fatherhood slowly closing on them, and it makes them long for it more.

PWCW is hosting a 12-page preview of Astro Boy, which Dark Horse is publishing in a new, larger, two-volumes-in-one format starting this month.

Ed Chavez lists the manga in the September Previews (shipping in November and December) at MangaCast.

The Manga Recon team discusses the pros and cons of Tokyopop’s revamped website.

Digital Manga opened its Yaoi Club online store this week, and Lissa Pattillo takes it for a test drive at Kuriousity.

Heading for NYAF? Maybe you can draw your way in for free. Suvudu is having an interesting contest: submit a manga-style self-portrait and a photo of yourself for comparison purposes. Each of the four grand prize winners gets two passes to NYAF plus three volumes of Del Rey manga.

News from Japan: Treehugger reports on the environmentally conscious International Manga Summit in Kyoto.

Oh, and before we get to the reviews, here’s a website that those who still fear the LHC may want to add to their RSS feeds. (Via comments at The Beat. Be sure to view the source code.)

Reviews: Alex Hoffman takes a look at vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire and vol. 1 of Song of the Hanging Sky at Manga Widget. Erin F. examines her love-hate relationship with vols. 2-6 of S.A. at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Leroy Douresseaux enjoys vol. 16 of Dr. Slump at The Comic Book Bin. Connie reads vol. 17 of One Piece and vol. 14 of Skip Beat at Slightly Biased Manga. Tangognat enjoys vols. 1 and 2 of Forest of Gray City. Julie reviews vol. 2 of Dance in the Vampire Bund at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Noah Berlatsky discusses one single scene from vol. 5 of Nana at The Hooded Utilitarian. Tucker Stone deals with his Nana and Parasyte jones at comiXology. Matthew Brady reads the October issue of Shojo Beat at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. (Last three links via Journalista.) Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Clear Skies! at Active Anime. Dan Polley reads vol. 2 of I, Otaku at Comics Village.

OT, but important: The LHC was turned on while we were sleeping, and the world didn’t come to an end. Apparently Nostradamus and all those YouTube people were wrong. Mr. MangaBlog is one of the physicists on the CMS collaboration, so we have been enjoying watching LHC become a media phenomenon. If you haven’t seen it yet, the LHC Rap will make you an expert on this topic in short order.

ANN’s unfortunately named women’s roundtable on anime takes on moe this week, and as always, it’s a fascinating and intelligent discussion.

Want to win your very own copy of Tokyo Zombie? Go to Same Hat! Same Hat! and check out their contest!

Reviews: David Welsh reviews vol. 1 of Red Colored Elegy at The Comics Reporter. Cathy takes a look at vol. 7 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, complete with some peeks at the art, at It can’t all be about manga. Lori Henderson reads the August and September issues of Shojo Beat at Manga Xanadu. Charles Tan reviews vol. 1 of Cat-Eyed Boy at Comics Village. Lissa Pattillo looks at the scanlated series Yume Musubi, Koi Musubi at Manga Jouhou and vol. 8 of After School Nightmare at Kuriousity. At ANN, Carl Kimlinger reads vol. 2 of Fairy Tail and Casey Brienza reviews vols. 1-2 of Thunderbolt Boys: Excite and 12 Days. Sakurapassion checks out Two of Hearts at The Yaoi Review. Michelle reviews vol. 9 of Kare Kano at Soliloquy in Blue. New at Manga Life: David Rasmussen on vol. 1 of Vampire Knight, vol. 1 of Seven of Seven, and vol. 1 of the Death Note Collectors Edition, and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlaine on vol. 6 of S.A. and vol. 7 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance +. Julie looks at vol. 23 of Red River at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Emily picks up Kon na Panic at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Ferdinand is not impressed with vol. 1 of Time Stranger Kyoko at Prospero’s Manga. Erica Friedman has some fun with vol. 3 of Magie Paire at Okazu. Jog reviews vol. 1 of Afro Samurai and vol. 1 of Slam Dunk. Katie McNeill reviews Goth at Blogcritics. Reviewer Il Palazzo picks vol. 1 of Vampire Knight as a first shoujo manga (after reading lots of shonen) at Pink Kryptonite. Tiamat’s Disciple checks out Slayers: Medieval Mayhem.

Following in the footsteps of Shaenon Garrity, Matt Thorn unearths another manga treasure from the past, Kisha Ryokô (A Train Journey), by Noboru Ôshiro, published in 1941. Ôshiro’s clear-lined art reminds me a bit of Tintin, and it makes me wonder whether there would be a market for this sort of work in translation. I love the style of that era. Thorn scanned in about half of the book and added some notes, and he adds a bit of context, noting that it was published at a time when most media were churning out “pro-war, ultra-nationalistic propaganda”—yet there is none of that in this book. Anyway, go, enjoy the visuals, even if you can’t read the words.

The Yaoi Review takes a quick look at some September releases.

Katherine Farmar looks at some of her favorite manga authors’ notes at Whereof One Can Speak.

Yamila Abraham had a great time at OtakuMex, and she makes an interesting observation: “It’s now a fact that most female and gay anime fans are also fans of yaoi.” And yet, she says, con organizers are often hostile to yaoi.

News from Japan: ANN reports that Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo creator Yoshio Sawai will start a new manga series, Chagecha, in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Reviews: Andrew Wheeler reviews another mixed trio of manga at ComicMix: vol. 3 of Dororo, vol. 1 of Afro Samurai, and vol. 1 of E’s. Oyceter’s reviews are always worth reading, for those who don’t mind spoilers; new at Sakura of DOOM are vols. 1-3 of Sand Chronicles, vols. 2 and 4 of One Thousand and One Nights, and Nabi: The Prototype. Michelle Smith is not too impressed with the antics in vol. 1 of S.S. Astro at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Connie gives her take on vol. 13 of Skip Beat, vol. 29 of Oh My Goddess, vol. 2 of Fairy Cube, and vol. 5 of Oyayubihime Infinity at Slightly Biased Manga. Lissa Pattillo checks out the short-story collection Sugarmilk at Manga Jouhou and Fumi Yoshinaga’s Garden Dreams at Kuri-ousity. Julie finds vol. 1 of Afro Samurai difficult to read at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Erica Friedman reviews chapters 8 and 9 of Gunjou at Okazu. Dave Ferraro finds Red-Colored Elegy worth reading if somwhat dark at Comics-and-More. Michelle Smith reviews vols. 6, 7, and 8 of Kare Kano at Soliloquy in Blue. Holly Ellingwood checks out Today’s Ulterior Motives and Scott Campbell reads vol. 5 of MPD-Psycho and vol. 3 of Switch at Active Anime. Sesho has a podcast review up of vol. 1 of Zombie Powder. Jason Van Horn reviews vol. 30 of Naruto at The Hachiko. Sabrina checks out vol. 1 of Knights of the Zodiac at Comics Village.

The ICv2 folks have posted their list of the top 50 manga properties, and not surprisingly, Naruto tops the list, followed by Fruits Basket, Death Note, Bleach—the usual suspects. Queenie Chan’s In Odd We Trust shows up at a very respectable number 11, and Gantz shows up in last place. The list is based on the monthly Diamond sales numbers and BookScan top 20 lists, plus “interviews with retailers and distributors,” which adds a certain squish factor. They also do a bit of analysis of the anime and manga markets; here’s what they have to say about manga:

Meanwhile in the manga space, sales appear to have been stable to up a little in the first half of 2008, although significant cuts in the number of new releases in the second half of the year may change that picture. New series are doing well, with six new series in ICv2’s Top 50 Manga Properties for the early summer period, based on sales through all channels.

While we’re on the topic, Matt Blind posts the top 100 manga volumes and top 25 series in online sales for August at ComiPress. And Jonathan posts Tokyopop’s German top 20 at Manly Manga and More.

From the buyer’s perspective, Lori Henderson just put in her August order (for October releases) and her wallet didn’t take too much of a beating this time.

Erica Friedman has the latest news from the world of yuri, including a link to Seven Seas’ reassurance that the Strawberry line is still going, although it looks like they are reassessing the light novel part of it, and several titles are on hold for various reasons.

Melinda Beasi explains why you should give Banana Fish a try, and she has a few samples so you can see for yourself.

Japanator’s Dick McVengeance finds five manga series whose WTF?? factor will likely keep them from ever being licensed. And Canned Dogs looks at another unlicensed manga, Koe de oshigoto! Enjoy!

On a more sublime note, Bill Randall writes about the work of artist Imiri Sakabashira.

Deb Aoki wraps up her manga-influenced tour of Japan with a three-part account of her trip to Hiroshima, in which she visited the Peace Museum, the island of Miyajima, and an okonomiyaki restaurant run by a rabid manga fan.

John Thomas has more pictures of Kumoricon, and Gia explains why Portland (Oregon) is like one big eternal anime con.

News from Japan: The Japan Times reports from the Ninth International Manga Summit; expect an influx of food-safety manga soon, if their commentary is to be believed.

Reviews: Lissa Pattillo points to a huge influx of reviews at the Manga Jouhou forums, and at her own site, Kuriousity, she looks at vol. 1 of Pathos and vol. 9 of Air Gear. At PopCultureShock the Manga Recon crew posts some manga minis, Sam Kusek checks out vols. 1 and 2 of One Pound Gospel, and Ken Haley takes a look at vols. 1-4 of Variante. Deb Aoki reviews Tokyo Zombie at About.com. Lori Henderson’s daughter Krissy gives vol. 1 of Mail Order Ninja four stars in a very concise review. New at Comics Worth Reading: Johanna Draper Carlson on In Odd We Trust and vol. 3 of Monkey High! and Ed Sizemore on vols. 1 and 2 of Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time. Cynthia posts reviews of Love + Alpha and vol. 14 of Let Dai at the Boys Next Door blog. Mangamaniac Julie reviews Love + Alpha at the MangaCast and Bratz: Super-Bratz and vol. 14 of Skip Beat! at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 4 of Wild Ones, vol. 8 of Togari, and vol. 1 of Faust at Active Anime.

Go check it out: The Tokyopop website has been redesigned with much, much better navigation. I just got off the phone with Tokyopop’s director of new product development Jeremy Ross, who directed my attention to the manga widget at the top of the page; you can expand it to full screen or embed it on your own page if you want to discuss a particular title. The navigation is different than before, but it’s pretty intuitive: There are drop-down menus with meaningful labels, and they managed to keep a lot of the social networking stuff while allowing the rest of us to just look up a catalog page. Take a look and feel free to post reactions here.