Media Blasters is back in the yaoi manga game with the announcement that they will publish You Higashino’s Gay’s Anatomy: Episode Zero, which had been solicited and then cancelled last June. The company’s anime division is still going strong but they laid off part of their print division earlier this year.
Zack Davisson talks to Dark Horse director of Asian licensing Michael Gombos and online marketing manager Matt Parkinson at Manga Life.
Sean Gaffney looks ahead to this week’s new manga.
The Banana Fish roundtable continues at Manga Bookshelf with Melinda Beasi, Robin Brenner, Connie C., Khursten Santos, and Michelle Smith taking a look at volumes 9 and 10.
Ash Brown takes a look at manga podcasts at Experiments in Manga, and in the latest Manga Out Loud podcast, Ed Sizemore, Johanna Draper Carlson, and their guests discuss Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories.
Jason Thompson devotes his latest House of 1000 Manga column to Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac, which he describes as “possibly the ultimate ’80s Shonen Jump fighting manga.”
One Great Turtle has a close encounter with the teenage point of view: Reading print manga is for squares, man. (Via Ogiue Maniax.)
Melinda Beasi looks at three workplace manga at Manga Bookshelf.
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber provides one-stop shopping with a roundup of manga gift guides at All About Comics. She also asks her readers: What are your favorite shoujo manga cliches?
Seven manga, including Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, were nominated for awards at the Angoulême International Comics Festival; Deb Aoki provides a brief look at each one.
News from Japan: The last volume of Tenjho Tenge was published this month, and Shueisha marked the occasion with a one-shot story in Ultra Jump. Also, Dragonball is coming back but not in its original form: Shueisha has announced a new children’s magazine, Saikyō Jump (Super Strong Jump), that will include spinoffs of Shonen Jump manga, including Naruto and One Piece. The Dragonball spinoff, Dragonball SD, will be a color strip drawn by Naho Ooishi. And the latest educational manga is coming out courtesy of the World Intellectual Property Organization, which is looking for artists to draw an anti-piracy manga to be translated into six languages and published online.
Reviews: Deb Aoki shares a quick look at what she has been reading lately with her 10 mini-manga reviews at About.com. Johanna Draper Carlson lines up some short reviews of Shojo Beat titles at Comics Worth Reading.
Deb Aoki on Ayako (About.com)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Bakuman (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Fairy Navigator Runa (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Zack Davisson on vol. 5 of Jormungand (Japan Reviewed)
Andre on vol. 1 of Kurozakuro (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Ninja Girls (I Reads You)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Seiho Boys’ High School (Kuriousity)
Kate Dacey on Short Cuts and vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (The Manga Critic)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku (About.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
I also talked about some of the limitations of the Saint Seiya Manga here:
http://sundaycomicsdebt.blogspot.com/2010/10/bloody-knights.html
Keep in mind that my review only covered the first six books. I don’t know how the creative blood loss was used later in the series.