David Welsh makes his picks from this week’s new releases at The Manga Curmudgeon, and he joins fellow bloggers Melinda Beasi and Kate Dacey in a conversation about their pick of the week at Manga Bookshelf.
David also reaches the letter I in his Josei Alphabet.
Andrew Lam of New American Media meditates on how the stories in anime and manga help people cope with disasters like the earthquake and tsunami.
Erica Friedman takes a look at the Japanese josei manga magazine Kiss at MangaCast.
Alex Hoffman reminisces about his experiences with Sailor Moon at Manga Widget.
News from Japan: Manga-ka Tomomasa Takuna is preparing to sue a blogger who claimed that he plagiarized parts of his Code Geass: Shikkoku no Renya manga from another work, Yagyū Reppūken Renya. Kekkaishi is coming to an end in the April 6 issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday, and Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas is also winding up. Finder series creator Ayano Yamane has blogged that the March 11 earthquake has caused shortages of paper and ink, because a number of paper mills were destroyed; this is delaying the release of a number of books. And ANN rounds up the latest messages of encouragement from manga creators to earthquake victims.
Reviews: David, Kate, and Melinda launch a new column of short reviews, Bookshelf Briefs, at Manga Bookshelf. Carlo Santos takes us through a stack of recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown sums up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Other reviews of note:
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Ai Ore (The Manga Critic)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of The Beautiful Skies of Houhou High (Manga Village)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 20 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 11 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime & Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 1 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 17 of Hayate the Combat Butler (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 23 of Hikaru no Go (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Ibara no Namida (Okazu)
Ken Haley on vol. 5 of Itazura Na Kiss (Sequential Ink)
David Welsh on vol. 3 of Kingyo Used Books (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Jeff Chuang on vol. 2 of K-ON! (Japanator)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Manga Widget)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on Sabagebu (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (Manga Village)
Connie on vol. 13 of Slam Dunk (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 15 of Slam Dunk and vol. 4 of Toriko (Comic Attack)
Diana Dang on vol. 2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Stop, Drop, and Read!)