Kate Dacey and David Welsh check out this week’s new manga at their respective blogs.
The NY Times manga best-seller list is up, and it’s getting more varied now that Naruto Nation is fading into distant memory. Viz is still pretty well represented, with 9 of the 10 titles. The sole outlier is an interesting one: The latest of Tokyopop’s Warriors books.
Matt Thorn updates us on Christopher Handley’s sentencing (scheduled for August 18) and then switches to a happier topic: Pictures of him and a bunch of other manga folks at a party celebrating Moto Hagio’s 40th anniversary as a professional manga-ka.
The Mainichi Daily News has a nice article on the history of gekiga manga, their relationship to manga rental shops, and some new reprints of classic gekiga titles.
If you’re in NYC tomorrow, join Ed Chavez and some like-minded manga readers for another Vertical Vednesday. This week’s topic is Yanki, and Ed and the gang will be getting their Yakuza on at Kinokuniya, 1073 Avenue of the Americas, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. RSVP to ed@vertical-inc.com please.
News from Japan: ANN spots some new manga in the latest round of magazines and notes that Shiawase Kissa 3-chome is winding down.
Reviews: Head on down to Manga Recon for this week’s helping of Manga Minis. Other reviews of note:
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Black Bird (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Carlo Santos on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (ANN)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 5 of Goong (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 3 of Il Gatto Sul G (Comics Should Be Good)
Julie on vol. 3 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Laura on Pretty Poison (Heart of Manga)
Erica Friedma on vol. 3 of Sunshine Sketch (Okazu)
Lori Henderson on Utahime the Songstress (Comics Village)
Lexie on issue 1 of Yen + (Poisoned Rationality)
Scott VonSchilling on vol. 6 of Yuri Monogatari (The Anime Almanac)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 6 of Zombie Loan (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
I don’t know if the list is very varied. All Viz except one book. Continues to be mostly Shonen Jump. I would like to see a book like Eden get back in there…IF Dark Horse would ever release the next volume! But the titles on this list that I have read, I like. I guess I should really get around to starting One Piece, Rosario, and Ouran. Warriors art looks so terrible its not even funny. I don’t even know if I would classify it as manga.