Archives for September 2010

Anti-Berserk law struck down

A federal appeals court has struck down two Oregon statutes that banned furnishing “sexually explicit” materials to minors and “luring” minors with such materials, saying both were too broad and could criminalize giving minors some works that have both adult content and redeeming value—including the manga Berserk. The court also name-checked Judy Blume in the decision, which said that while the laws intended to target hard-core pornography, the wording was simply too broad. The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of publishers and booksellers that included Oregon-based Dark Horse, and it was supported by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Kate Dacey, Brad Rice, and David Welsh look over this week’s new manga, while Melinda Beasi reveals her Pick of the Week at Manga Bookshelf.

Jason Thompson looks back on his epic Year of Manga, in which he posted about a manga every day and gave away his manga online. Apparently, giving away manga is harder than it seems, but he seems to have learned a lot about the quirks of human nature.

Melinda Beasi has a Tumblr, in case you want to see what she’s reading lately—or chime in with what you’re reading.

Atsuhisa Okura (Moe U.S.A.) explains how he draws faces in this video at the Manga University blog.

Helen McCarthy continues her notes on the pioneering Japanese creator Ippei Okamoto.

Udon has previews up of the latest volumes of Ninja Baseball Kyuma and The Big Adventures of Majoko.

News from Japan: Genshiken is coming back, as Genshiken II, to Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine.

Reviews

Danica Davidson on Alice the 101st (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Snow Wildsmith on Alley of First Love (Graphic Novel Reporter)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Black Sun, Silver Moon (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Bokurano: Ours (The Comic Book Bin)
Danica Davidson on vols. 9-12 of Death Note (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Japan Reviewed)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Honey Senior, Darling Junior (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Julie Opipari on vol. 16 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (Mania.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Itazura Na Kiss (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on Kitchen Princess (final thoughts) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Julie Opipari on vol. 17 of Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 27 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles (Kuriousity)

New manga, Chiba video, “Death Note murders” solved

New title watch: ANN confirms that Tokyopop will be publishing the BL title Crimson Snow under their Blu imprint and firms up the release date for the Chibi-Vampire: Bites fan book, and they also found listings for two new Pokemon manga from Viz.

Ed Sizemore and Deb Aoki bring some manga love to this week’s ANNCast podcast.

Melinda Beasi has the latest updates on manhwa and Korean drama in this week’s Manhwa Monday post.

Marc Bernabe’s latest video is of Tetsuya Chiba, the creator of Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow’s Joe), discussing the death of his character Tooru Rikiishi, which hit readers so hard they had a real-life funeral for him, and his own realization of just how seriously readers took their manga.

David Welsh asks the readers what they think of the covers of Marvel’s Runaways and Vertical’s Twin Spica, and the readers respond with some interesting thoughts.

Matt Blind has this week’s manga rankings (online sales) at Rocket Bomber.

Four men have been arrested in Belgium in connection with the so-called “Manga Murder” case. It was almost three years ago that the Belgian police found body parts in a park in the city of Saint-Gilles; nearby, police found two notes that said “WATASHI WA KIRA DESS,” an apparent misspelling of the Japanese phrase “I am Kira,” a reference to the manga Death Note. Despite the exotic sound of the murder, the facts in the case were fairly mundane: It seems to be a roommate situation gone awry.

Here’s a recession special: Lissa Pattillo spots some 99-cent manga (all from Tokyopop) at BookCloseOuts.com.

Reviews: Caddy C. has some brief comments on manga she has been reading lately at A Feminist Otaku. Michelle Smith checks out three recent DMP manga at Soliloquy in Blue. Other reviews of note:

Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of 7 Billion Needles (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Liz Reed on vol. 3 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Life)
Kate Dacey on Crimson Cross and Tale of a White Knight (The Manga Critic)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Deadman Wonderland (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffey on vol. 17 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Fairy Tail (I Reads You)
Dave Ferraro on Gente (Comics-and-More)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (About.com)
Angela Eastman on vol. 1 of House of Five Leaves (Suite101.com)
Lori Henderson on vol. 16 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (Comics Village)
Kinukitty on Scarlet (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Lori Henderson on the October issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
Tangognat on vols. 6 and 7 of We Were There (Tangognat)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesium (Okazu)

New Vertical title, Tezuka on war and peace

The Vertical folks announced a new title yesterday at their Anime Weekend Atlanta panel: Velveteen & Mandara (Becchin to Mandara), by Jiro Matsumoto.

Erica Friedman has all the yuri news that’s fit to print in the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

The Itochu Corporation will release classic manga by Shotaro Ishinomori and Harlequin romance manga on the iPhone, beginning in October. Thirty Ishinomori titles, including Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009, are in the works. The first chapter will be free, and subsequent chapters will be $1 each.

Yuki Tanaka examines War and Peace in the Art of Tezuka Osamu at Japan Focus.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber asks her readers: Why do some people shun shoujo manga?

Reviews

Connie on vol. 9 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 1 of Afterschool Charisma and vol. 44 of One Piece (cbs4.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 3 of Dogs (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ai Kano on vol. 1 of Gente (Animanga Nation)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (The Manga Critic)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 19 of Hoshin Engi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of The House of Five Leaves (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 2 of Icaro (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Itazura Na Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie C. on I Want to Bite (Comics Village)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Neko Ramen (Comics Worth Reading)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Neko Ramen (Japan Reviewed)
Connie on vol. 4 of Pet Shop of Horrors (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Rin-ne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Shannon Fay on Romeo x Juliet (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 2 of Seiho Boys High School (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vols. 5-7 of Silver Diamond (Soliloquy in Blue)
Andre on vol. 8 of St. Dragon Girl (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 2 of Stolen Hearts (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on Tale of a White Night (ANN)
Connie on vol. 3 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Twin Spica (Comics Worth Reading)

Square Enix announces online manga plans

BLACKBUTLER_1

The Japanese publisher Square Enix, whose properties include Black Butler and Fullmetal Alchemist, revealed its plans for online manga publishing at the Tokyo Game Show yesterday. It looks like the website launch will be pushed back to winter and the iPad/iPhone apps will be Japanese only, at least for now.

Sean Gaffney takes an advance look at next week’s new manga.

Marc Bernabe profiles manga creator Kaiji Kawaguchi (Zipang) at Masters of Manga.

What did Jason Thompson find in his crazy attic full of manga this week? Why it’s The Drifting Classroom! Read all about it in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN. (I still think John Jakala gets the last word on this one, though.)

patisseriemon7A josei pastry manga? That’s all David Welsh needs to know to request that Patisserie Mon be licensed.

Reviews: EvilOmar posts some short manga reviews at About Heroes. Other reviews of note:

Zack Davisson on Basic Buddhism Through Comics (Japan Reviewed)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Black Bird (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 32 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (The Comic Book Bin)
Zack Davisson on vol. 7 of Future Diary (Japan Reviewed)
Kate Dacey on vols. 1-5 of Toto: The Wonderful Adventure (The Manga Critic)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of The Tyrant Falls in Love (Boys Next Door)
Cynthia on vol. 5 of Ze (Boys Next Door)

Quick news roundup

Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond

Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond

Gottsu-Iiyan continues his translation of the conversation between Eiichiro Oda and Takehiko Inoue at The Eastern Edge. Here’s a philosophical moment from Inoue:

To draw a scene in which that many people are cut dead… It really made me no longer believe in simple victory or defeat. It’s a battle, so of course there is a winner and loser. However, I ended up doubting the value in victory. If you doubt what you’re doing, you can’t draw the comics, can you? I thought, is winning truly victory? Is it a good thing? It was tough because I was disturbed by that feeling of contradiction. However, I made of point of drawing a scene in which 70 people are cut down precisely to experience that feeling.

Helen McCarthy continues her research on pioneer manga creator Ippei Okamoto with an annotated list of his works (and some sample art) at her blog.

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith talk about some recent manga, working from worst to best, in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

At The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh reaches the letter I in his Seinen Alphabet.

Reviews

Kristin on vol. 9 of Black Lagoon (Comic Attack)
Tangognat on vols. 1, 12, and 13 of Gakuen Alice (Tangognat)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 16 of Hayate the Combat Butler (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 10 of Kitchen Princess (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of K-ON! (Okazu)
Connnie on vol. 1 of Love Control (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Otomen (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 11 of SA (Comics Village)
Leroy Douresseaux on vols. 13-15 of Suzuka (omnibus edition) (I Reads You)
Ken Haley on vol. 3 of Vampire Hunter D (Sequential Ink)
Lori Henderson on vols. 5 and 6 of You’re So Cool (Manga Xanadu)

News for new comics day

Kate Dacey, Brad Rice, and David Welsh choose the most likely titles from this week’s new manga. The Manga Village team looks over the best of last week’s new releases. At Manga Bookshelf, Melinda Beasi’s pick of the week is vol. 2 of Peepo Choo.

Apparently the Japanese publisher Libre is sending cease-and-desist notices to American scanlators. This is interesting as most of the C&Ds up to now have been to people posting scanlations (and simple scans) of licensed manga, but Libre is making people pull down unlicensed titles as well.

Ng Suat Tong discusses Yoshiharu Tsuge’s short story Red Flowers at The Hooded Utilitarian.

Tony Yao analyzes his relationship with the character Vegeta, from Dragon Ball, at Manga Therapy.

News from Japan: Wow! ANN reports that this year’s 42nd issue of Shonen Jump will feature one-shot comics by six “legendary” creators, including Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto) and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball).

Reviews: Ed Sizemore post some short reviews of recent Tokyopop releases at Comics Worth Reading. Kate Dacey also has short takes on new titles at The Manga Critic.

Amy Grockl on vol. 10 of Angel Diary (Comics Village)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Comics Village)
Julie Opipari on Avoiding Mr. Right (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Zack Davisson on vol. 4 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (Japan Reviewed)
Nicole Rudick on A Drunken Dream (Comics Comics)
Animemiz on Gintama (Anime Diet)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of .hack//LINK (Manga Life)
Kristin on Solfége and Don’t Say Anymore Darling (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Twin Spica (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Bill Sherman on vol. 3 of Vampire Hunter D (Blogcritics)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesium (Okazu)