Archives for September 2010

Sorry for the lack of blog yesterday—I worked a good portion of the weekend, then started out Monday morning with a session in the dentist’s chair, so I lost my usual blogging times. The great thing about starting your day with 20 minutes of drill time is that your day is guaranteed to get better from there.

Anyway, we have lots of great content today to make up for yesterday’s dearth, so let’s get to it!

Interviews! Get comfortable before you settle in with Deb Aoki’s Moto Hagio post at About.com; she transcribes Hagio’s panel and her contributions to another, then interviews the veteran shoujo manga creator herself. ICv2 talks to Tokyopop’s Cindy Suzuki, the product manager of the Hetalia franchise, about the Hetalia: Axis Powers manga, which has launched electronically on Zinio and will hit bookstores on September 21.

Roundups! Lori Henderson presents the week’s manga news in a single handy package at Manga Xanadu. Melinda Beasi has another roundup of reviews of Korean comics in her latest Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf. And Erica Friedman checks in with the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Controversy! I linked to my Robot 6 piece about gender vs. genre on Friday, but I’ll link again because a lively argument has broken out in the comments section. For the record, I really like shoujo manga but I recognize shoujo romance (I should have clarified that) as a genre, and I merely made the point that for those *outside* the fandom, any genre is boring and easily dismissed, whether it’s sparkly girly manga, studly superheroes, or bodice-ripping romance novels. Melinda Beasi has more on shoujo manga at Manga Bookshelf. Daniel BT goes off on an interesting tangent at Sunday Comics Debt, comparing the covers of American and Japanese romance comics.

Creators! Masters of Manga has a video of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, one of the creators of the Mobile Suit Gundam anime and the Gundam manga, drawing the villain Char Aznable. Matthias Wivel discusses the manga-ka Yoshiharu Tsuge, whose work is not well known in English, at The Hooded Utilitarian.

Numbers! Matt Blind has the top 500 manga (online sales) for the past week at Rocket Bomber.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber asks her readers to help hunt down manga that include prostitution or “compensated dating” at All About Manga.

Melinda Beasi pauses to consider why she continues to like shoujo manga even though she’s all grown up now.

News from Japan: Shiho Inada is bringing Ghost Hunt to a close after 12 volumes. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez takes a look at the doujin scene and notes that more and more doujinshi are being labeled 18+ (which sometimes means more explicitness between the covers) and that doujin events are starting to be restricted to adults only as well.

Reviews: Carlo Santos gives his quick take on some new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Erica Friedman doesn’t just review Ebisu-san to Hotei-san at Okazu, she’s also giving away a couple of copies.

Connie on vol. 8 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 1 of Afterschool Charisma (Animanga Nation)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Andromeda Stories (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Biomega (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 1 of Black Lagoon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Butterflies, Flowers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 34 of Case Closed (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Kleefeld on Destiny’s Hand (omnibus edition) (Kleefeld on Comics)
Connie on vol. 6 of Detroit Metal City (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Detroit Metal City (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Fidanzato no Tameiki (Okazu)
Kris on Finder, vol. 2: Cage in the Finder (Manic About Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Fushigi Yugi (VizBIG edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Gente (Tangognat)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of .hack//CELL (Prospero’s Manga)
Connie on vol. 18 of Hoshin Engi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 18 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Xanadu)
Charles Webb on vol. 4 of Maximum Ride (Manga Life)
Julie Opipari on Midnight Bloom (Mania.com)
Greg Hackmann on vols. 8-10 of Mushishi (Mania.com)
Connie on vol. 6 of Rasetsu (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Saki (Okazu)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Seiho Boys High School (Kuriousity)
Kelakagandy on vol. 8 of St. ♥ Dragon Girl (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Stepping on Roses (Comics Worth Reading)
David Welsh on There’s Something About Sunyool (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Toriko (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Twin Spica (ANN)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of The Tyrant Falls in Love (ANN)
Billy Aguiar on World of Warcraft: Mage (Prospero’s Manga)

Good morning! Today’s discussion will be about shoujo manga. You should start with two posts, Melinda Beasi’s commentary on Twilight and the plight of the female fan and Christopher Mautner’s review of Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, and then go on to the further commentary by David Welsh on the question of whether shoujo manga (and works by women, for women in general) doesn’t get the respect it should, and Melinda Beasi’s tangent, in which she points out that Fruits Basket and Boys Over Flowers actually have very little in common. UPDATE: I added some thoughts of my own at Robot 6.

Sean Gaffney takes a quick look at next week’s new manga, and Lori Henderson mines this week’s list for all-ages comics and manga.

Ed Sizemore and Erica Friedman talk moe on the latest Manga Out Loud podcast.

Daniel BT spots some bloopers in Dark Horse’s samurai manga at Sunday Comics Debt.

Manga University digs out a 2004 interview with the late anime director (and manga-ka) Satoshi Kon.

Reviews

Kate Dacey on Black Blizzard (The Manga Critic)
Jones on Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha (Let’s you and him fight)
Danica Davidson on vols. 5-8 of Death Note (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Snow Wildsmith on How to Seduce a Vampire (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Snow Wildsmith on Isle of Forbidden Love (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 3 of Laon (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Library Wars: Love and War (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Emily on Nobara no Hanayome (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Danica Davidson on vol. 2 of One Fine Day (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 3 of One Fine Day (The Comic Book Bin)
Kristin on vol. 16 of Reborn! (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Rin-ne (I Reads You)
Lori Henderson on Swallowing the Earth (Comics Village)

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez posts the latest manga rankings from the BookScan charts, which track sales in bookstores. The numbers after the titles are the difference in sales from the one above. One thing this chart bears out is the theory that there are one or two top-selling manga and then a big drop to the rest of the list. Also, Erica Friedman takes a look at Ultra Jump, the Japanese home of Tenjho Tenge, Battle Angel Alita, and Hayate x Blade.

Kate Dacey highlights two ghost stories, The Dreaming and Rin-ne, in her latest Good Manga for Kids column at Good Comics for Kids.

Robin Brenner has six tips for getting your local library to carry more manga at About.com.

Jason Thompson writes about Rumiko Takahashi’s classic Maison Ikkoku in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley show some original dialogue together with literal translations and notes on the actual meanings to show a bit of the translator’s thought process.

Jonathan Bethune highlights two sports manga he’d like to see translated, Captain Tsubasa (soccer) and Kuroko no Basuke (basketball), at Publishers Weekly Comics Week.

David Welsh reaches the letter H in his review of the seinen alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Alex Woolfson notes the demise of the scanlation site Baralover, which features bara manga (gay male romances written for a male audience).

Convention season is coming up, and Deb Aoki has the skinny on NYAF/NYCC and MangaNEXT at About.com.

Shop talk: Emma Vieceli talks about how she uses Manga Studio at the Smith Micro Blog.

News from Japan: ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings. Shuho Sato discusses his decision to publish his work online as well as provide a platform for others in a short video at Masters of Manga.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss a handful of recent releases in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf. Tangognat has quick takes on some new releases at her eponymous blog.

Shannon Fay on vol. 1 of Brilliant Blue (Kuriousity)
Shaenon Garrity on vol. 1 of Eureka Seven Collection (About.com)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Jack Frost (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 15 of Oh My Goddess (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Rakuen le Paradis (Okazu)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Toriko (ANN)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Wolf God (Sequential Ink)

At Manga Bookshelf, Melinda Beasi’s Pick of the Week is Arata: The Legend. David Welsh chooses three favorite titles from this week’s new releases at The Manga Curmudgeon, while Kate Dacey singles out three titles for younger readers at The Manga Critic and Japanator’s Brad Rice looks at the whole list.

Gottsu-Iiyan has translated some blog posts by Takehiko Inoue, the creator of Vagabond, Slam Dunk, and Real, in which the creator explains his recent slowdown on Vagabond: He was concerned about his health, so he took some time off.

The iReader Review blog takes a look at Mangle, a dedicated manga reader for the Kindle.

Udon has announced Darkstalkers/Red Earth: Maleficarum, an action manga that combines features of two games, and they have a nice preview at that link.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Comics Worth Reading)
Grant Goodman on vol. 6 of Cirque du Freak (Comics Village)
Erica Friedman on vol. 12 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Portrait of M&N (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ai Kano on vol. 13 of Strawberry 100% (Animanga Nation)
Julie Opipari on When the Heavens Smile (Mania.com)

Deb Aoki polls her readers to compile a list of 50 manga every library should own, and real-life librarian Robin Brenner explains why the selections are shelf-worthy.

John Thomas went to the Dark Horse panel at Kumoricon and got a scoop: Both Eden: It’s an Endless World and MPD-Psycho are coming off hiatus.

Gottsu-Iiyan presents part four of his translation of a conversation between Takehiko Inoue and Eiichiro Oda at The Eastern Edge.

Both One Piece and Naruto were inspired by Dragon Ball, Lori Henderson points out, and she examines why One Piece is burning up the charts in Japan while Naruto isn’t.

The Comics Village team looks at the best options from the past week’s new releases.

Sean Gaffney counts down his top ten favorite moments in Negima.

Johanna Draper Carlson looks at the most promising manga due out in November.

Caddy C. posts another interesting essay at A Feminist Otaku, this one about class issues in Skip Beat!

Young Jump magazine is running a two-part history of the Ig Nobel prizes. Check out these sample pages (warning: cleavage!) which are in Japanese but kind of fun nonetheless (theres an explanation in the text). (Via Neatorama.)

Reviews

Kate Dacey on The Art of Osamu Tezuka and Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (The Manga Critic)
Michelle Smith on vols. 7 and 8 of Banana Fish (Soliloquy in Blue)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (Prospero’s Manga)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Dengeki Daisy (Comics-and-More)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Happy Boys (Blogcritics)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Ichigenme… The First Class Is Civil Law (Comics Village)
Cynthia on vol. 12 of Junjo Romantica (Boys Next Door)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 9 of Kitchen Princess (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Cynthia on vol. 4 of ZE (Boys Next Door)

The Manga Moveable Feast continued over the long weekend with Ed Sizemore’s look at Yotsuba&! and Aria at Manga Worth Reading. Jason Yadao examines the question of what, exactly, constitutes kids’ manga at Otaku Ohana. David Welsh writes about Yotsuba!& and Ultra Maniac, a manga he thinks Yotsuba would enjoy. Matt Blind comments on Yotsuba!& and other comics that aren’t only for kids, such as Calvin and Hobbes. And at host site Good Comics for Kids, the bloggers discuss Graphic Novel Reporter’s core list of manga for kids.

Lori Henderson looks back at the past week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu. Melinda Beasi looks forward to September’s manhwa releases in her latest Manhwa Monday post at Manhwa Bookshelf. And at Okazu, Erica Friedman updates us with another edition of Yuri Network News.

Helen McCarthy has an interesting article about early manga-ka Ippei Okamoto. At Masters of Manga, Marc Bernabe has a just-the-facts-ma’am profile of manga-ka Hideki Ohwada, the creator of The Legend of Koizumi.

Manga editor Daniella Orihuela-Gruber takes a busman’s holiday and reads some older manga, wincing as she notices the errors. (As an editor myself, I sympathize.) Also, best definition of censorship ever:

(and by censorship, I mean someone has a pair of pants on that they didn’t have before)

Hey, it happened to Michelangelo!

ANN launches a weeklong tribute to the late anime director Satoshi Kon with a look at his work as a manga creator.

Here’s some free online manga, and it’s legal: The Japanese web provider NEC Biglobe has launched Manga Boshi, a free online manga magazine featuring new works by young creators in Japanese and English—with French and Italian versions to follow soon.

Donten Prism Solar Car

News from Japan: Some new projects are in the works: Yasuo Ohtagaki (Moonlight Mile) and Yuusuke Murata (Eyeshield 21) are collaborating on a new series, Donten Prism Solar Car, for Jump Square. Hit the link for more Jump Square series news. Banri Hidaka (V.B. Rose) is also launching a new series, Tenshi 1/2 Hōteishiki (Angel 1/2 Equation), in Hana to Yume. Again, check the link for more sudsy shoujo news. And Alice in the Country of Hearts and pPoi! are both coming to an end. At Okazu, Erica Friedman looks at some yuri-ish stories in the shoujo/josei magazine The Margaret.

Reviews: At A Feminist Otaku, Caddy C. explains why she was disappointed by Blood +:

Blood+ has some interesting elements, and I wanted to like the idea of a schoolgirl fighting vampires with a sword. That sounds awesome, right? How could you go wrong? Unfortunately, Blood+ has potential, but just squanders it by introducing needless fanservice, themes that go nowhere, and having its heroine be so helpless and dependent on others that she ceases to be badass in any way.

Other reviews of note:

Andrew on vol. 2 of Dorohedoro (Kuriousity)
Daniel BT on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (Sunday Comics Debt)
Kristin on La Esperanca (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Happy Cafe (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Hyde & Closer (Anime Sentinel)
Christopher Butcher on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (About.com)
Sesho on vol. 12 of The Prince of Tennis (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Zack Davisson on vol. 4 of Ooku: The Inner Chamber (Japan Reviewed)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (The Comic Book Bin)
Michelle Smith on When the Heavens Smile (Soliloquy in Blue)