Archives for March 2009

Shaenon Garrity writes about the mainstreaming of comics culture at comiXology.

Deb Aoki has some thoughts on the New York Times manga best-seller list at About.com.

David Welsh is making a wish list at Precocious Curmudgeon, and it starts with a Bernadette Peters look-alike.

In case you missed Patrick Macias’ talk on “Otaku Power—Trivia, Desire, and Transformation,” here’s the podcast!

The Japan Times has a nice overview of scanlation, including some of the potential for legal problems. (Via Journalista.)

Manga Mom Lori Henderson writes about drawing and posting your own manga.

Erica Friedman rounds up this week’s yuri news at Okazu. Also, Erica has been annotating the latest Maria-sama ga Miteru novel, and you can find links to her notes here.

Happy times: Yen Press has announced the official release dates for the next three volumes of Yotsuba&!

Evan Minto of Ani-Gamers and Scott VonSchilling of The Anime Almanac visited KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Manga + Video Games, an exhibit at The Japan Society of NYC, and posted a guest review at About.com.

News from Japan: According to creator Ken Akamatsu, the readership of Negima has shifted from boys to younger girls, at least as measured by his fan mail. ANN reports that three more manga magazines will fold. And Ao Mimori, creator of B.O.D.Y., will launch a new shoujo manga series in Bessatsu Margaret magazine.

Reviews: My review of vol. 1 of Fire Investigator Nanase is up at Graphic Novel Reporter. Over at MadInkBeard, Derik Badman analyzes the structure of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix. It’s boys’ love vs. boys’s sports in this week’s edition of Manga Minis at Manga Recon. Johanna Draper Carlson posts some short reviews at Comics Worth Reading. Here are some more recent reviews worthy of note; reviews marked with an asterisk (*) contain spoilers so read at your own risk.

Sandy Bilus on vol. 3 of Black Jack (I Love Rob Liefeld)
Casey Brienza on vol. 12 of D.Gray-Man (ANN)
Casey Brienza on vol. 8 of Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden (ANN)
*Oyceter on vols. 2-6 of Love*Com (Sakura of DOOM)
Michelle Smith on vol. 9 of Love*Com (soliloquy in blue)
*Matthew J. Brady on vol. 13 of Monster (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Casey Brienza on vol. 7 of MPD-Psycho (ANN)
Carlo Santos on vol. 6 of Parasyte (ANN)
Julie on vol. 25 of Red River (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Carlo Santos on vol. 5 of Rosario + Vampire (ANN)
Dan Polley on vol. 1 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Comics Village)
Kris on St. Dragon Girl (Manic About Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Venus Capriccio (Manga Recon)
Kris on Wanted (Manic About Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 4 of With the Light (Kuriousity)
Julie on vol. 1 of ZE (MangaCast)

This week’s New York Times manga best-seller list is up, and Viz owns it: Seven volumes of Naruto and one each of Bleach, The Gentlemen’s Alliance +, and Black Cat. The USA Today Booklist includes four Narutos and a Bleach as well. ANN compares that to last week. Meanwhile, Diamond’s preliminary February numbers are out, and Viz is only a small part of that world, with 0.89% of the market share and just one volume of Naruto on the top ten graphic novels chart.

The MangaCast team takes a look at this week’s new releases.

Isaac Hale asks Manga Recon readers to join in a campaign to save Off*Beat, one of the best of the early crop of Tokyopop global manga.

Susie at Studio QT has word that an actual copy of Oh My Goddess! Colors!! has been spotted in the Dark Horse offices, and the book should ship on May 13. John Jakala is not impressed, concluding that four years is too long to wait.

At Anime Vice, Gia links to the best responses to her Required Reading request and poses some questions for next week.

JoongAng Daily looks at the popularity of manhwa in Africa. (Via Blog@Newsarama.)

News from Japan: The Asia Daily News looks at the phenomenon of manga science study guides, and whether a pretty manga girl does a better job of introducing the periodic table of the elements than mere text. John Thomas is in Japan right now, and he finds some manga.

Reviews: The YKK discussion gets interactive at The Hooded Utilitarian: part 1, part 2, and Bill Randall’s defense of his description of the comic as “reactionary.” EvilOmar posts some mini-reviews of recent titles, including one book that is manga in format only, at About Heroes. Be read for spoilers if you read Michelle Smith’s review of vol. 9 of Nana at soliloquy in blue. The Japanator folks have a video review up of Mr. Flower Bride. And over at Firefox News, Peter Gutierrez takes a look at the first of the Udon kids’ manga, vol. 1 of Ninja Baseball Kyuma!

Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 1-3 of Andromeda Stories (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vols. 21 and 22 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 35 of Boys Over Flowers (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Shaun A. Noordin on vol. 1 of Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (The Star of Malaysia)
Unnamed reviewer on vol. 1 of The Girl Who Runs Through Time (The Star of Malaysia)
Julie on vol. 2 of Her Majesty’s Dog (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of High School Debut (Comics Worth Reading)
Ed Chavez on vol. 2 of Hitohira (MangaCast)
Sadie Mattox on Hot Gimmick (Extremely Graphic)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Kasumi (Comics Worth Reading)
Noah Berlatsky on Let Dai (comiXology)
Connie on Make More Love and Peace (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ed Chavez on vol. 1 of The Manzai Comics (MangaCast)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of Monkey High (soliloquy in blue)
Matthew J. Brady on vol. 12 of Monster (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Greg Hackmann on vol. 1 of Oishinbo (Mania.com)
Connie on vol. 2 of Oishinbo (Slightly Biased Manga)
Edward Zacharias on vol. 20 of One Piece (Animanga Nation)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Otomen (Kuriousity)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Peace Maker Kurogane (Prospero’s Manga)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka (Prospero’s Manga)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 2-4 of Pumpkin Scissors (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Lissa Pattillo on The Reformed (Kuriousity)
Emily on Sayonara Shitsuren Banchou (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Manga Recon)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Sayonara, Zetubou-Sensei (Read About Comics)
Scott VonSchilling on Scott Pilgrim (The Anime Almanac)
Connie on vol. 3 of Slam Dunk (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Tactics (Comics Village)
Patricia Beard on vol. 14 of Tail of the Moon (Mania.com)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Tantric Stripfighter Trina (About.com)
Connie on vols. 3 and 4 of V.B. Rose (Slightly Biased Manga)

Lissa Pattillo finds two new listings on RightStuf; one is a BL title, Gay’s Anatomy, from Kitty Media, and the other is The Lizard Prince from CMX.

At Anime Vice, Gia wonders whether American comics would do well in manga-style anthologies, and her readers express more opinions in the comments section.

The French ambassador to Japan presented Rose of Versailles creator Riyoko Ikeda with the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur yesterday, honoring her contribution to Japan’s cultural awareness of France.

Reviews: Continuing the roundtable on Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou at The Hooded Utilitarian, Tom Crippen has more thoughts following his last posat and Miriam weighs in as well. The first volume of Phoenix Wright Official Casebook was roundly panned all over the internet, so it’s interesting that Japanator’s Dick McVengeance finds the second volume, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: The Miles Edgeworth Case Files, to be much, much better. At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson certifies Peach Fuzz as kid-safe for a worried parent. Other reviews of note:

Tangognat on vol. 1 of 20th Century Boys and vol. 1 of Pluto (Tangognat)
AstroNerdBoy on Ai Yori Aoshi (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 20 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Classical Medley (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 12 of D.Gray-Man (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Charles Tan on vol. 1 of The Drifting Classroom (Comics Village)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 6 of Gakuen Alice (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Deb Aoki on vols. 1 and 2 of Kasumi! (About.com)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Otomen (Comics Worth Reading)
Diana Dang on Otomen (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 4 of Your and My Secret (Kuriousity)

David Welsh picks the best of this week’s new releases at Precocious Curmudgeon. A new volume of Emma makes the week seem brighter already.

Matt Blind posts the top 250 volumes and top 100 series for February at ComiPress.

Yamila Abraham discusses a cover that caused some controversy, and the reasoning behind it, at the Yaoi Press blog.

Translating is always tricky, but translating a book based on a game has challenges of its own, as Alethea and Athena Nibley explain at Manga Life.

Here are two new blogs that are well worth checking out: Reading Manga, short reviews and some perceptive comments about classic manga, and Yen Plus Info, a Yen Plus fansite, run by one Garrett Albright, that is still fairly new but includes brief reviews of new issues and other tidbits of Yen news.

A murderer in Taiwan blames Battle Angel Alita for his evil deeds.

News from Japan: Rumiko Takahashi will team up with Mitsuri Adachi to create a one-shot manga, My Sweet Sunday, for the 50th anniversary issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday. Comic Yell, which launched in 2007 as a shoujo magazine for boys, is folding. Yellow Tanabe, the creator of Kekkaishi, is starting a new manga series in the first issue of Monthly Shonen Sunday.

Reviews: Tom Crippen weighs on in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou in part three of the roundtable at The Hooded Utilitarian. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson checks out an unusual manga, Anywhere But Here, and Ed Sizemore reviews vols. 2 and 3 of Ral Grad. Gia does a video review of vol. 1 of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei at Anime Vice. Other reviews of note:

Katherine Farmar on Crushing Love (Comics Village)
Lissa Pattillo on Dash (Kuriousity)
Barb Lien-Cooper on vol. 2 of Gantz (Manga Life)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of An Ideal World (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Monkey High! (soliloquy in blue)
Park Cooper on vols. 34-40 of Naruto (Manga Life)
Julie on vol. 3 of Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Park Cooper on Oishinbo: A La Carte (Manga Life)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 9 of S.A. (Manga Life)
Emily on Sensei wa Ore no Mono (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 4 of With the Light (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)

Japanator has this week’s new releases.

ANN’s women’s roundtable invites artist Barbara Guttman to join in a discussion of women in comics, covering both Western comics and manga. Interesting stuff.

Lissa Pattillo rounds up the latest new title announcements and finds, including a few Amazon listings from CMX. Ed has covers and commentary on the CMX titles at MangaCast.

Jason Thompson fan alert: Jason will be at Daigacon in Cave City, Kentucky, this weekend.

News from Japan: Ed Chavez posts Taiyosha’s manga rankings for the past week at MangaCast. Officials in Okoyama Prefecture have declared the third issue of Young Animal Arashi this year to be “harmful,” thus guaranteeing robust sales.

Reviews: The Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou roundtable continues at The Hooded Utilitarian, where Noah Berlatsky gives his take on the post-apocalyptic series, which has not been officially published in English. At The Comics Reporter, David Welsh devotes this week’s Flipped! column to an appreciation of Antique Bakery. Other reviews of note:

Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Black Cat (Comics Village)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Captive Hearts (Comics-and-more)
James Fleenor on vols. 1 and 2 of Fate/Stay Night (Anime Sentinel)
Connie on vol. 8 of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden (Slightly Biased Manga)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Ghost Talker’s Daydream (ANN)
Ben Leary on vol. 10 of Her Majesty’s Dog (Mania.com)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Kamichama Karin Chu (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Julie on Love Round (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Snow Wildsmith on Love Round (Fujoshi Librarian)
Kris on Make More Love and Peace (Manic About Manga)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Monkey High! (soliloquy in blue)
Sesho on vol. 30 of Naruto (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Clive Owen on vol. 4 of Rosario + Vampire (Animanga Nation)
Jack Tse on vol. 1 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (MangaCast)
Danielle Von Gorder on vol. 2 of Three In Love (Mania.com)
Ed Chavez on vol. 4 of Tsukihime (MangaCast)

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)