Five years and counting

Five years ago today, I put up my first post on MangaBlog. I had only a hazy idea of what I was going to write about, and how I was going to do it. Everything I know today, I learned from watching and reading other bloggers and listening to my readers—oh and reading a ton of manga. So thank you everyone, for helping me figure it out, and keeping me writing all this time.

And special thanks to my husband, whose lattes fuel my writing and pretty much everything else in my life, and my two daughters, whose love of manga got me interested in the first place.

OK, on to year six!

Shaenon Garrity gets us off to a good start with her take on Nick Simmons’s “homage” to Bleach, at The Comics Journal. Simon Jones rounds up some more posts on the topic and adds his own commentary at the Icarus blog.

Jeff Trexler comments on the Christopher Handley case at Blog@Newsarama, noting that Handley’s relatively light sentence (relative to the initial recommendation, that is) may reflect a change in priorities at the Justice Department.

I’m a little late to the party with this one, but apparently Tokyopop is speeding up the release of Gakuen Alice, in part because it’s one of the top series on a certain scanlation site. At Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman argues that that’s not going to work.

Meanwhile, at Anime Vice, a guest author offers a defense of scanlations. Many, many comments follow.

Kristin sorts through the latest Previews and pulls out the good stuff at Comic Attack.

Joy Kim writes about scene stealers, second bananas who run away with the show, at her blog.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley discuss the question of keeping Japanese terms, with specific reference to their recent work on Negima.

Kris discusses why she likes Momoko Tenzen’s work, and then reviews Tenzen’s Suggestive Eyes, at Manic About Manga.

Manga Views profiles Dave Ferraro, the blogger behind Comics-and-More.

News from Japan: ANN has more details on the five manga to be based on the “virtual girlfriend” game Loveplus, plus the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Tangognat takes a look at manga for twentysomethings at The Bureau Chiefs. Ed Sizemore posts some short reviews of Del Rey manga at Comics Worth Reading.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of 13th Boy (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on Adolf 2: An Exile in Japan (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (I Reads You)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Sentinel)
Snow Wildsmith on All My Darling Daughters (Fujoshi Librarian)
r2moo2 on Aoi House (Digital Strips)
Eric Robinson on vol. 2 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Jouhou)
Rob on vol. 2 of Basara (Panel Patter)
Connie on vol. 4 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd on vol. 1 of Biomega (Anime Maki)
Nicola on vol. 2 of Children of the Sea (Back to Books)
Erica Friedman on vol. 19 of Comic Yuri Hime (part 2) (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 1 of Dokkoida?! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 16 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Life)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho and vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (The Manga Curmudgeon)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Anime Sentinel)
Connie on vol. 2 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of One Fine Day (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 20 of Skip Beat! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Ultimo (Graphic Novel Reporter)

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Comments

  1. “Kristin sorts through the latest Previews and pulls out the good stuff at Comic Attack” links to a James Kochalka interview at Question Riot.

  2. Fixed! Thanks, Dan! I hope this brought you a few new readers, though.

  3. Congrats on five great years of mangablog! You’ve been so thorough and reliable over the years, that there’s really no need to RSS any other manga-specific blogs, as you always call out the cream of the crop.

  4. Thankyou for your continued coverage and compilation of manga news and reviews!
    Congratulations on completing your fifth year ^^

  5. Congrats on the fifth year! Looking forward to many more!

    ~Sam

  6. Happy 5th year for MangaBlog! :D

  7. Wow, that is a very long time.

    Although this is my first time on the blog, congrats on such a momentous and awesome milestone XD

  8. 5 years is really something – congrats! :D MangaBlog is my morning newspaper – I’m super grateful for the work you do collecting together so much fantastic reading material each day.

  9. Five years, neat! This is a daily go-to place that helps me stay on top of everything manga, thanks for putting this resource together!

  10. Wow! Congratulations!

  11. It really bothers me that seemingly intelligent people spend as much time as they do attempting to justify stealing manga.

  12. You do a tremendous job of promoting other people’s work, and there are many of us — me included — who are grateful for your consistency and generosity. I wouldn’t have much of an audience if you hadn’t discovered my first blog and highlighted it here. So thank you!

  13. Noah Berlatsky says

    Congratulations Brigid! And, as others have said, thank you for all your work.

  14. Congratulations on a great five years!

  15. Congrats as well, Brigid. When you started, Animefringe was just starting off it’s final year.

  16. Thank you for all the good wishes! You guys are the ones that make it fun!

  17. I somehow completely missed this post, and I’m sorry for that, but I wanted to pop in with belated congratulations on your fifth anniversary, as well! Yours is always the first place I go for any news, and there’s so much I wouldn’t have seen if you hadn’t linked it.

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  1. […] Blogosphere | Happy fifth anniversary to MangaBlog, the indispensable blog operated by Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson. [MangaBlog] […]