Archives for December 2010

Kate Dacey posts her picks for the best manga of 2010 at The Manga Critic.

David Welsh looks at this week’s new manga at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Melinda Beasi looks at the month to come in her latest Manhwa Monday post, and she also recommends her pick of the week.

Esosa Osamwonyi looks back at a decade of shounen manga and anime at iSugoi.

Linda Thai continues her interview with Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy at Something Deeper.

David Welsh winds up the December Manga Movable Feast at Precocious Curmudgeon. The next Manga Movable Feast will be hosted by Manga Report in January, and the main dish will be Karakuri Odette.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber is looking for guest bloggers to help out at All About Manga while she is out of town.

News from Japan: ANN reports that Vagabond is still on hiatus; creator Takehiko Inoue initially took time off because of his health, which seems to be fine, but he just isn’t that into it any more. Tokuma Shoten will publish two manga by the late anime director Satoshi Kon.

Reviews: Carlo Santos critiques Ayako, K-ON!, and everything in between in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown looks over a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. And Soul Eater Not!, a new Soul Eater series, will start running in Shonen Gangan magazine in January.

Kristin on Ayako (Comic Attack)
Karen Maeda on vols. 1-3 of Black Gate (omnibus edition) (Sequential Tart)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 11 of Black God (Kuriousity)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Comic Lily Plus (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 13 of Gakuen Alice (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie Opipari on vols. 4/5 of Goong (omnibus edition) (Manga Manaic Cafe)
Erica Friedman on Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-choume (Okazu)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Jack Frost (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Andre on vol. 16 of Inubaka – Crazy for Dogs (Kuriousity)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Kurozakuro (Anime Maki)
Zack Davisson on vol. 4 of Ooku: The Inner Chamber (Manga Life)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6/7 of Psycho Busters (omnibus edition) (I Reads You)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Sasameke (ICv2)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Mania.com)
Grant Goodman on vol. 4 of Soul Eater (Comics Village)
Theron Martin on vol. 3 of Spice & Wolf (ANN)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Comics-and-More)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 16 of xxxHolic (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime & Manga Blog)

Lori Henderson posts the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman has all the latest yuri news at Okazu.

Sean Gaffney takes an advance look at this week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment, and Lori Henderson lists the past week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Meanwhile, Lissa Pattillo spots signs of life at DramaQueen, as they begin taking pre-orders for Missing Road.

Jennifer LeBlanc continues her interview with Hinako Takanaga at The Yaoi Review.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber rounds up the Manga Gift Guides published by various bloggers this week.

It’s time for the last course in this week’s Manga Moveable Feast, and host David Welsh rounds up all the links from days six and seven at The Manga Curmudgeon. David also files a license request for an earlier book by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, Wanted!

Ed Sizemore and Melinda Beasi discuss Sundome in the latest Manga Out Loud This inspired Khursten of Otaku Champloo to read the book herself and add her own commentary.

Here’s a blog that I just found, although it has been around for a while: Something Deeper: Anime, Manga and Comics, written by a librarian. Check out the six-part interview with Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy, starting here.

Need a stocking stuffer? Kate Dacey is giving away a copy of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Not Love but Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! at The Manga Critic, and Anna is giving away the first volume of The Story of Saiunkoku at Manga Report.

News from Japan: The big news this week is that the publishers Kodansha and Shueisha have signed on with Ken Akamatsu’s online manga site J-Comi. The second beta will go live sometime this month with several older titles provided by the publishers, and the final version of the site will launch in January. In other news, Media Factory will launch a new manga magazine, Comic Gene, in April 2011.

Reviews: Melanie posts some short manga reviews at About Heroes.

Rob McMonigal on vol. 1 of 20th Century Boys (Panel Patter)
Connie on vol. 4 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Slightly Biased Manga)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of Arisa (Joy Kim)
Sean Kleefeld on vol. 2 of Bakuman (Kleefeld on Comics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 33 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Cirque du Freak (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Gatcha Gacha (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on Hana no Asuka-gumi (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of I Am Here (The Comic Book Bin)
Bill Sherman on vol. 2 of Itazura na Kiss (Blogcritics)
Connie on vol. 1 of Itsuwaribito (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 10 of Legend (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on Strawberry Panic (omnibus edition) (ANN)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Summit of the Gods (Read About Comics)
Kristin on vol. 3 of Ultimo (Comic Attack)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Wolf God (Mania.com)

I’m back! Many thanks to Melinda Beasi and Kate Dacey for being such good stewards of the blog during my hiatus—I began to feel quite redundant! They seem to have covered the manga scene pretty comprehensively, so here’s what has popped up since then:

Jason Thompson looks at the vintage dog-battle manga Ginga Legend Weed in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Kristin takes a manga-centric look at the December Previews at Comic Attack.

The Manga Moveable Feast rolls onward as Ed Sizemore writes about what makes One Piece so appealing at Comics Worth Reading and Kate Dacey lists three reasons to read One Piece at The Manga Critic. Alex Hoffman discusses what he has learned from the series at Manga Widget, David Welsh compares the Straw Hats to the Avengers, and Anna looks at some other stretchy comics characters at Manga Report. David Brothers takes a look at the Baroque Works arc at 4thletter, and David rounds up the latest posts at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Melinda Beasi names her three favorite manga heroines of the past year—and none are from shoujo manga. She also has a brief discusson of the fanservice in Sundome.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, who is a freelance manga editor, makes a mistake and learns the world won’t come to an end, although it was a lot of work fixing it.

News from Japan: Shueisha is replacing its seinen magazine Monthly Young Jump with a bimonthly magazine titled Miracle Jump.

Reviews: Erica Friedman’s review of Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories begins by putting the stories in context, an important first step for anyone who wants to critique Hagio’s work.

Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 1 of Arisa (Playback:stl)
Alex Hoffman on Ayako (Manga Widget)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 33 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 36 of Case Closed (The Comic Book Bin)
Ken Haley on vol. 4 of Itazura na Kiss (Sequential Ink)
Erica Friedman on vol. 5 of Jormungand (Okazu)
Angela Eastman on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Suite101.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 49 of Naruto (Animanga Nation)
Katherine Farmar on No Touching At All (Comics Village)
Justin Colussy-Estes on vol. 2 of Toriko (Comics Village)

Kate “Manga Critic” Dacey here with a fresh crop of links. Brigid should be back tomorrow with a new post, so stay tuned. In the meantime, please give my fellow relief pitcher Melinda “Manga Bookshelf” Beasi a round of applause for her thorough round-ups — she made it look easy!

‘Tis the season for best-of lists! Casey Brienza compiles her list of the year’s top manga for Graphic Novel Reporter, while David Welsh, Brigid Alverson, and I offer our nominations at Flashlight Worthy Books.

The Reverse Thieves examine page design in Kyoko Arioshi’s ballet classic Swan.

David Welsh demonstrates his considerable poetry chops with a rhyming ode to One Piece and shares links to the latest Manga Movable Feast contributions.

Brian Ruh uses My Girlfriend’s a Geek as a jumping-off point for discussing the portrayal of female otaku in Japanese pop culture.

For her latest Bento Bako Lite column, Kristin flips through the December Previews and finds a mother lode of good manga scheduled for a Spring 2011 release.

Reviews: In their latest Off the Shelf column, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith say good-bye to Del Rey with reviews of Ghost Hunt and Papillon, and hello to Fumi Yoshinaga’s latest title, Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy!

Juli Opipari on Crimson Hero, Vol. 13 (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Chris Kirby on D. Gray-Man, Vol. 19 (Mania.com)
Lissa Patillo on Genkaku Picasso, Vol. 1 (Anime News Network)
Nick Smith on K-On!, Vol. 1 (ICv2)
Matthew Warner on K-On!, Vol. 1 (Mania.com)
Lori Henderson on One Piece, Vols. 43-45 (Manga Village)

Melinda Beasi here, filling in for Brigid this week, along with Manga Critic Kate Dacey.

Yesterday’s most overtly provocative voice comes from Noah Berlatsky at The Hooded Utilitarian, who wraps up his discussion of Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Criticizing the Critics. He describes the piece on The Comics Journal front page as “discussing critical reaction to the work, and what it reveals about the limits of the manga blogosphere.”

In the article, he calls out manga bloggers in general (and by name) to criticize their approach to Hagio’s work, characterizing it as “almost completely useless.” Though much of the comment thread so far comes from the usual HU crowd, it’s worth scrolling down for a reaction from Kate Dacey, who has effectively verbalized what many of us are feeling this morning.

On the topic of new releases, Danielle Leigh expresses excitement over the release of Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako, while David Welsh and Kate Dacey share their thoughts on what’s shipping this week.

Speaking of Tezuka, Scott McCloud waxes nostalgic in his blog about his early love for the father of manga (link via Journalista).

David Welsh reports in on day three of the One Piece Manga Moveable Feast, coupled with a timely announcement from ANN, reporting that the series has taken the top five spots in Japan’s 2010 comics rankings.

The Beat shares more details on Dark Horse Comics’ new digital program, announced earlier this fall at New York Comic Con.

At Manga Life, the Nibley sisters take a moment to give thanks in their latest Words of Truth and Wisdom.

News from Japan: ANN reports on Japan’s top selling manga for the year, both by series and by volume (1 | 2).

Reviews: At The Manga Report, Anna takes a quick look at three Viz Signature series, 20th Century Boys, Children of the Sea, and Detroit Metal City. Deb Aoki offers up ten mini reviews at About.com, including an early look at Fumi Yoshinaga’s Not Love But Delicious Foods.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Demon Sacred (ANN)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (Good Comics for Kids)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Ichiroh (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Skyblue Shore (A Case Suitable for Treatment)