Archives for March 2011

The news from Japan continues to be bleak, but a number of manga creators have posted messages of hope and images of smiling people, and at About.com, Deb Aoki has more of these as well as relief efforts by artists and creators. At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao looks at the best and the worst of the reactions to the disaster. Also, don’t believe everything you see on Twitter; there were a number of unconfirmed reports of creator deaths, but at least one of them has been debunked: Pokemon creator Satoshi Taiji is alive.

If you’re in the LA area, We Heart Japan is holding an art auction at Meltdown Comics on Thursday, with support from a number of anime companies and actors. And at All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber is encouraging anime and manga bloggers to donate to two worthy causes.

There was some other news. At About.com, Deb Aoki unveils the winners of her Manga Readers Choice Awards.

Viz has announced it will release vol. 4 of Bakuman digitally (via its iPad app) a week before the print edition comes out. As a special promotion, they are offering the first volume for free until noon (PST) today. And don’t forget, all first volumes on the app are 99 cents throughout the month of March.

At the Otaku USA site, Jason Thompson Mikikazu Kometsu talks to Akira Himekawa and Qais Sedki, the creators of the first-ever Original Arabic-Language manga.

Lissa Pattillo takes us through her latest purchases, with quick first impressions of the manga, at Kuriousity.

Reviews

Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-3 of Bakuman (Good Comics for Kids)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Fairy Navigator Runa (Good Comics for Kids)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 6 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 6 of InuYasha (VizBig edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 3 of Itazura na Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Diana Dang on vol. 2 of Kamisama Kiss (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Library Wars: Love and War (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on Pokemon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-6 of Rurouni Kenshin (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on White Guardian (Slightly Biased Manga)

The big news from Japan yesterday was of course, the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that struck offshore earlier today (yesterday for them), and the tsunami that followed. I rounded up tweets and blog posts from comics and manga people in Japan and the affected areas at CBR, and I’ll update here and there as more information comes in. ANN has a list of manga creators and other industry types who have checked in to say they are OK and another list of events that have been cancelled because of the earthquake. AstroNerdBoy translated some manga-ka tweets from the Japanese for us. And at All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber rounded up some resources for those who want to help.

In other news…

At Robot 6, Sean T. Collins interviews Yuichi Yokoyama about his upcoming book Garden and posts a nice preview as well.

Sean Gaffney looks at the coming week’s new manga. Looking farther ahead, Kristin devotes her Bento Bako Lite column to manga in the March Previews.

Lissa Pattillo gets some more information on Viz’s upcoming release of Pokemon Black and White. And Lori Henderson wonders whatever happened to Magical Pokemon Journey.

David Welsh’s license request this week is for a classic shoujo manga, Glass Mask. Also, the people have spoken, and David will be buying A Certain Scientific Railgun, despite the use of the annoying word “esper.” (I hate it too.) Also at that link is an interesting discussion, in comments, following Shaenon Garrity’s discussion of crazy creator sidebars.

The Comics Journal website has relaunched, with a much improved design and better curation. They also seem to be giving plenty of space to manga, with Ken Parile’s detailed analysis of Moto Hagio’s short story “Bianca” and Chris Mautner’s review of the first three volumes of Bakuman.

At Otaku Champloo, Khursten posts an appreciation of Fumi Yoshinaga.

Tony Yao muses on Twin Spica at Manga Therapy.

On the occasion of her tenth anniversary, Melinda Beasi looks at manga marriages. Warning: Link contains a major spoiler for Fruits Basket!

Melinda and Michelle Smith look at a big stack of recent manga in their latest Off the Shelf column.

Alex Hoffman asks his readers what manga they would like to see licensed in English at Manga Widget.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley have some more fun with Google Translate.

Atsushi Suzumi (Venus Versus Virus) is coming to Sakura-Con.

Other news from Japan: American yuri manga publisher ALC has donated yuri manga to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. ALC publisher Erica Friedman writes about both the donation and the earthquake at Okazu.

Reviews

Todd Douglass on vol. 8 of Bamboo Blade (Anime Maki)
Kristin on vol. 1 of The Beautiful Skies of Houhou High (Comic Attack)
Anna on vol. 1 of Claymore (iPad version) (Manga Report)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Countdown 7 Days (Sequential Ink)
Michael C. Lorah on vol. 2 of Cross Game (Blog@Newsarama)
David Welsh on vol. 2 of House of Five Leaves (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Julie Opipari on vol. 24 of Kekkaishi (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Replica (Sequential Ink)
Erica Friedman on vol. 8 of Sasamekikoto (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 4 of Sensual Phrase (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Skyblue Shore (I Reads You)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Skyblue Shore (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 1 of Under Grand Hotel (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Wandering Son (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on vol. 1 of Wounded Man (Slightly Biased Manga)

At The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh makes his picks from this week’s new manga releases, and he reaches the letter F in his Josei Alphabet.

Kate Dacey nominates Kazuo Koike’s schlocky Wounded Man to her Manga Hall of Shame.

Attention, Yen Press! Alex Hoffman has a license suggestion for you: Barakamon, a slice-of-life manga in the vein of Yotsuba&! and Bunny Drop.

Reviews: At Manga Report, Anna takes advantage of Viz’s 99-cent sale in their iPad app (all volume 1s are 99 cents) to check out vol. 1 of Captive Hearts.

James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Happy Cafe (Anime Sentinel)
Julie Opipari on vol. 6 of Honey Hunt (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Kamisama Kiss (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sakura Eries on vol. 2 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Mania.com)

Lissa Pattillo takes a look at the most promising of Viz’s newly announced manga.

Melinda Beasi takes a look at what we can expect in March in her latest Manhwa Monday post.

Melinda, Kate Dacey, Michelle Smith, and David Welsh discuss their candidates for Pick of the Week at Manga Bookshelf.

News from Japan: GTO manga-ka Tohru Fujisawa and Nineteen artist Sho Kitagawa are collaborating on a new mystery series, Soul Messenger, which will run in Super Jump. Bunny Drop is coming to an end. The Black Rock-chan 4-koma manga, based on the game franchise Black Rock Shooter, launches this week in 4-Koma Nano Ace magazine. And two K-On! series will run in two different magazines, with the girl band’s high school years chronicled in Manga Time Kirara Carat, beginning with the June issue, and their college career in Manga Time, starting with the May issue. The first run of the manga ended last year.

Reviews: Ash Brown takes a quick look at the past week’s manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Connie on vol. 3 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Dare Ni Mo Ienai (Okazu)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of The Dark Hunters (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (The Comic Book Bin)
Marcus Speer on vol. 11 of Higurashi: When They Cry (Japanator)
Penny Kenny on vol. 2 of Kobato (Manga Life)
Connie on vol. 3 of Kobato (Slightly Biased Manga)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 50 of Naruto (Animanga Nation)
Todd Douglass on vol. 4 of Pandora Hearts (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Toradora! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Toradora! and vol. 1 of Vampire Cheerleaders (The Manga Critic)

Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy says that the Borders bankruptcy is behind the latest round of layoffs:

The facts are simple. Borders—our biggest customer—went bankrupt, owed us a lot money, which they didn’t pay us, and as a result we are in a very challenging situation, and have had to react quickly to the situation. We did need to let a few people go—and it’s horrible for everyone involved to ever have to let people go.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber has some further thoughts on this, wondering who she would support, manga publishers or Borders. At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo takes a broader look at Tokyopop’s problems, including the fact that the gaming company Blizzard has ended its relationship with Tokyopop, which that Tokyopop’s licensed Warcraft manga will be coming to an end as well. And Lori Henderson expresses concern that the leadership just doesn’t care about the books she loves.

Diamond Bookshelf chats with legendary Dark Horse editor Carl Horn.

Erica Friedman brings us the latest round of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

David Welsh takes a look at the March Previews and finds a lot to like there, but he also asks the readers to help him choose between three iffy series.

Melinda Beasi reviews the Viz iPad app at Manga Bookshelf.

Viz has confirmed that Inubaka is on hiatus.

Christopher Butcher is salivating over the newly announced Tank Tankuro manga from PressPop.

Tomo Kimura shows off an alternate cover for the Japanese edition of Black Butler.

Chrono Crusade creator Daisuke Moriyama is coming to Sakura-con.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Age Called Blue (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Arata: The Legend (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 4 of Black Butler (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 14 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 6 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comic Attack)
David Welsh on vols. 1-3 of Dorohedoro (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Angela Eastman on Dragon Girl (Suite 101)
Anna on vol. 2 of Dragon Girl (Manga Report)
A Library Girl on vol. 10 of Emma (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 18 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Nicola on vol. 2 of Genkaku Picasso (Back to Books)
Connie on vol. 22 of Hikaru No Go (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Lives (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 8 of Rasetsu and vol. 6 of Butterflies, Flowers (Manga Report)
Alex Hoffman on vols. 1 and 2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Manga Widget)
Nicola on vol. 4 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Back to Books)
Connie on vol. 3 of Yurara (Slightly Biased Manga)

Today is our birthday: The first MangaBlog post went up six years ago today, and I’m happy to say we have grown and changed a lot since then. Thank you all for reading—it’s the community that really makes this site interesting and helps keep it fresh. So have a cupcake and celebrate!

In the news…

Jason Thompson devotes his House of 1000 Manga column to Sailor Moon this week. Appropriately enough, this was the book that got the whole manga thing started in our house—I found a couple of the books at a garage sale, 5 for a dollar, and picked them up for my kids. It turned out to be an expensive bargain, because they quickly developed a full-blown manga habit.

Sean Gaffney takes us through next week’s new releases at A Case Suitable for Treatment, and Lori Henderson has this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Viz has announced a whole slew of new licenses and releases. David Welsh knows which one he wants.

Melinda Beasi looks at the three faces of Tokyopop.

The 50th volume of Naruto was the top-selling graphic novel in bookstores last month, according to ICv2.

David Welsh’s latest license request is Jin, one of the nominees for the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize.

I think I missed this when it first went up: Michael Arthur presents a gay man’s perspective on BL manga at The Hooded Utilitarian; Melinda Beasi uses that as a starting point for her own essay on “intimacy porn” at Manga Bookshelf.

Also at The Hooded Utilitarian, Erica Friedman looks at some Japanese manga magazines that don’t fit the standard categories.

Kodansha International is shutting down, but that’s not as huge a deal as it seems to we manga folk, because they don’t publish manga (except for books about manga, like Fred Schodt’s Manga! Manga!). Kodansha USA and Kodansha Comics are still around, and it was the parent company that bought a stake in Vertical last week.

Alex Woolfson posts some character designs for yaoi superheroes at Yaoi 911.

News from Japan: Rule 35: If it exists, someone in Japan will make a moe version of it. The latest example: Kawaii Security, a book that discusses computer viruses and security using a combination of manga and illustrated text.

Reviews

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Kurozakuro (The Comic Book Bin)
Ng Suat Tong on Oishinbo (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Oresama Teacher (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Oresama Teacher and vol. 2 of Kamisama Kiss (Comic Attack)
Kate Dacey on Qwan (The Manga Critic)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 11 and 12 of Ranma 1/2 (Panel Patter)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Replica (Sequential Ink)
Erica Friedman on Strawberry Panic Omnibus (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 11 of Trinity Blood (I Reads You)