Monday morning roundup

The Star of Malaysia has a great interview with anime and manga expert Helen McCarthy, along with a sidebar on the British otaku scene.

GhibliWorld has an interview with Viz editor Nick Mamatas about the upcoming Engish edition of Shuppatsu Ten, a collection of essays and other texts by director Hayao Miyazaki. (Hat tip: Charles Tan.)

At The Eastern Edge, Gottsu-Iiyan frets a bit about the slow sales of Pluto and 20th Century Boys and urges readers to give Vagabond and Real a try, if they haven’t already. Matt Blind responds with a look at online sales of the Urasawa books as well as a theory about how two modestly-selling, if worthy, manga ended up on the New York Times manga best-seller list. Also up at Rocket Bomber: The summary of online rankings, emerging trends report, and new releases and pre-orders report for the week ending March 1.

And at Manga Widget, Alex Hoffmann notes the higher price of Pluto and 20th Century Boys and wonders if casual manga readers will turn to a cheaper fix (Naruto!) instead.

Erica Friedman brings us this week’s yuri news, including the happy tidings that she has shipped vol. 6 of Yuri Monogatari off to the printer.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez posts the Japanese covers and other info on new titles from Yaoi Generation, Go! Comi, and Aurora.

Tangognat mulls over her March manga orders.

Attention bloggers: Gia has a writing assignment for you! I’ll be interested to see the results as well.

Melinda Beasi discusses using your real name versus a pseudonym online, in the wake of some recent ugliness in the SF community. Commenters chime in with some different points of view.

Online pre-registration for Anime Expo 2009 is open.

News from Japan: Takehiko Inoue, creator of Vagabond, Real, and Slam Dunk, won an Art Encouragement Prize from the Japanese government. Shogakukan will publish the complete works of Doraemon co-creator Fujiko F. Fujio in double-thick volumes, starting this summer. Kumichi Yoshizuki, creator of Someday’s Dreamers, is launching a new manga in Oh Super Jump, and Kurozuka creator Takashi Noguchi has a new series starting in the same magazine. Yet another iteration of Jinki: Extend will launch in the June issue of Dragon Age magazine, and seven new series will debut in the May issue as well. Over at MangaCast, Ed Chavez posts the Japanese manga magazine rankings and the doujin rankings as well.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team checks out a handful of new titles in their latest Manga Minis column. At The Hooded Utilitarian, Bill Randall takes a leisurely look at a leisurely manga, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, which unfortunately has not been published over here. Christopher Butcher takes a brief look at Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life at Comics212. Other reviews worth noting:

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 4 of Aria (Comics Worth Reading)
Connie on vols. 18 and 19 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 1 of Clear Skies (MangaCast)
Ken Haley on vols. 3 and 4 of Freak: Legend of the Nonblonds (Manga Recon)
Michelle Smith on The Gentleman and the Lady (soliloquy in blue)
Diana Dang on vols. 1 and 2 of .hack//xxxx (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
James Fleenor on vol. 2 of Hayate x Blade (Anime Sentinel)
Connie on How to Make her Delicious (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 1 of Honey Hunt (Slightly Biased Manga)
James Fleenor on vol. 23 of Hunter x Hunter (Anime Sentinel)
D.M. Evans on vol. 1 of Kamichama Karin Chu (Manga Jouhou)
Connie on vol. 11 of Lovely Complex (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vols. 4, 5, and 6 of Moon Boy (soliloquy in blue)
Lisa Pattillo on Mr. Flower Bride (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 7 of My Heavenly Hockey Club (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Orange Crows (Manga Xanadu)
Azizul Rahman on vol. 1 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Official Casebook (The Star of Malaysia)
Nick Budd on vol. 1 of Pluto (Comic Pants)
Julie on vol. 2 of The Prince of Tennis (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Dan Polley on vol. 5 of Princess Resurrection (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 16 of Saint Seiya (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on Selfish Mr. Mermaid (Kuriousity)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Strawberry Shake Sweet (Okazu)
Ed Chavez on vol. 4 of Welcome to the NHK (MangaCast)
Ed Chavez on vol. 1 of We Were There (MangaCast)

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Comments

  1. I hope I see some response to it too…though I hope anyone who takes it off-site to their own blogs at least gives me a heads up so I can read ’em! I can’t follow EVERYone, after all @_@