Viz Media announced a slate of new kids’ manga yesterday, and interestingly, several of the titles are not Japanese but global, including a series of graphic novels based on the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. For slightly older readers, Viz also confirmed two books that have already popped up in the Amazon listings, a D.Gray-Man art book and a Naruto character guide.
Yen Press also announced a new addition, The Innocent which will run in Yen Plus magazine starting this month.
ANN’s Zac Bertschy has an interview with Kazue Kato, the creator of Blue Exorcist; Viz released the first volume last week.
Melinda Beasi, Kate Dacey, Michelle Smith, and David Welsh debate their latest pick of the week at Manga Bookshelf. David has also picked a potentially dubious manga and a boys-love title from Previews with the help of his readers.
At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao reports that Gin Tama seems to be coming to an end in the U.S. and reflects on what that says about American tastes.
Erica Friedman brings us the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.
Lori Henderson is hoping Viz will break out of the “walled garden” of iOS devices and expand their digital program to Android or the Web.
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber considers some reasons why Vertical is so successful at All About Manga.
At A Feminist Otaku, Caddy C looks at the lack of women behind the camera (as opposed to in front of it) in Skip Beat!
Three Steps Over Japan is re-posting some content that I’m seeing for the first time, so I thought I would link to it here. It’s all about material that is available in Japanese: Some commentary on Garo, Weekly Shonen Sunday, and Combat magazines, a review of vol. 10 of Moyashimon, and a look at Moyashimon picture books (ehon).
News from Japan: Attention penitent pirates: Ken Akamatsu is inviting people who downloaded manga and feel guilty about it to “purify” their files by giving them to him to post, with all ad revenue going to the creators—all with their consent, of course. School Rumble manga-ka Jin Kobayashi has a new series, Ichiro Heian! (Have a Safe Trip!) starting in the next issue of Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, and Yumi Unita is planning a spinoff from Bunny Drop. The Yaoi Review posts the cover of est em’s upcoming Equus, due out in August. And at Comics Alliance, Chris Sims takes a look at the new Pokemon series in which a human character actually becomes a Pokemon.
Reviews: Melinda Beasi, Kate Dacey, Michelle Smith, and David Welsh post this week’s Bookshelf Briefs at Manga Bookshelf, and Melinda also reviews something a little different, Ill-Fated Relationship, a digital manhwa. Michelle also chimes in with some short takes on recent Shonen Jump releases at Soliloquy in Blue. Ash Brown takes us through another week’s worth of manga at Experiments in Manga. Anna checks out three Harlequin manga that all have a theme of revenge, and she reads three Viz manga for short money on their iPad app, at Manga Report.
Ed Sizemore on vols. 12 and 13 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Blue Exorcist (Comics-and-More)
Oyceter on vols. 1 and 2 of Bunny Drop (Sakura of DOOM)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Butterfly (The Manga Critic)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Eensy Weensy Monster (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 6 of Fushigi Yugi (VizBig edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of GUNJO (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Happy Cafe (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 17 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 1 of House of Five Leaves (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie Opipari on vol. 28 of Kekkaishi (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 26 of Knights of the Zodiac (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Welsh on Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 2 of March Story (Read About Comics)
Oyceter on vols. 1-4 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Sakura of DOOM)
Anna on vols. 1 and 2 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Report)
Anna on vol. 1 of Sakura Hime (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 10 of Sand Chronicles (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Sakura Hime and vol. 5 of Stepping on Roses (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Seiho Boys High School (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Skyblue Shore (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Toradora! (ANN)
Connie on vol. 5 of Yurara! (Slightly Biased Manga)
I guess no luck on getting that content stealing site shut down, eh? Google seems to be giving it some weight, unfortunately.
Are they still stealing my stuff? Google just responded to my first DMCA notice by taking some of their pages out of the rankings. Maybe I should do another one.
Yes, they are.
http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2011/04/goodbye-tokyopop.html
Check the “Links to this post” at the bottom of the page. You are there as they are and I just looked and they posted something of yours yesterday. *_*