It’s good news, bad news for The Yaoi Review: The bad news is that blogger Jennifer LeBlanc is shutting the site down; it was an invaluable source of yaoi news, well-written, accurate, and investigative as well as affectionate toward its subject, and it will be missed. The good news is that LeBlanc is leaving to become the yaoi manga editor at Viz, and she will not only be back online (with a different mission) soon, but she will be helping shape the industry she loves. Congratulations, Jennifer!
Making up a new-release list may seem to be easy, but this was a weird week, with publishers’ websites totally out of sync with Diamond Previews and ComicList. After double-checking with Kodansha, I based my new-releases post at MTV Geek on the six new manga series that are debuting this week, plus one from Digital. Lissa Pattillo consulted different oracles and has a somewhat different rundown in her Off the Shelf column at Otaku USA.
JManga has put up a list of new titles, both catalog listings and manga that are available digitally. Also, they have set up Facebook and Twitter accounts, so social networking is in the house. Someone at the Facebook page actually asked “When will you be updating the insane pricing and subscription model? :P” to which the JManga folks answered “Rest assured, we’re working on it. Some things take a little longer to work on than others, so we ask for your patience in this regard. Thanks!” From their responses to other comments, it looks like they are considering a couple of different models. Also high marks to them for responding to comments quickly and in a friendly, conversational tone, without sounding like a corporate bot.
The Ninjaconsultants post two more podcasts: Ed Chavez’s Seinen Up!! panel at Genericon and the Yoshiyuko Tomine Q&A from last year’s New York Anime Festival.
Manga Therapy takes a look at role reversal in Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chambers.
Matt Blind compares his list of the top-selling manga titles, based on online sales, to that generated by ICv2 based on all channels.
Tech Talk: Lori Henderson commented recently that readers who use the Vizmanga.com website on their PC or Android device are being treated like second-class citizens compared to those who have the iOS app, because the latter can download manga onto their device and the former can’t. Alex Hoffman responds at Manga Widget, pointing out that much of the difference lies in the fact that Apple devices are harder for pirates to steal images from.
News from Japan: Tomo Kimura gives us a look at the alternate cover for vol. 12 of Black Butler. Game company Capcom is launching a new magazine, CapBom!, that will be devoted to game news and manga. In other game/manga news, Yuki Kure will start a new La Corda D’Oro manga (based on the La Corda D’Oro 3 game). Gundam Ace magazine has announced a new Gundam manga series by Tsutomu Nihei, creator of Blame and Biomega. =
Reviews: At About.com, Deb Aoki reviews five manga on JManga.com.
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 16 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Deadman Wonderland (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Anna on vol. 6 of Dengeki Daisy (Manga Report)
John Rose on Chapter 1 of Gate 7 (The Fandom Post)
Ken Haley on vol. 6 of Itazura Na Kiss (Sequential Ink)
Daniel BT on Legend of Koizumi (Sunday Comics Debt)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Manga Xanadu)
Carl Kimlinger on vol. 12 of Vampire Knight (ANN)
I absolutely love that JManga is talking to its users and taking their criticisms into consideration. Were that more online services would follow suit! I do hope JManga takes the pricing issues into serious consideration, as that is the major obstacle that is keeping me from actually spending money on manga (along with the reader’s ineffectual zoom which doesn’t help when I can’t read the dialogue text).
Well, its really a pleasure to hear from the users, since they are the ones taking the time to visit the site and leave thoughtful feedback on things that could be improved.
On that note, let’s address the issues brought up:
– At this time, pricing and subscription models are certainly being discussed with the 39 publishers that make up the JManga project, and hopefully we will have an update on that front soon.
– On Zooming: Yes, the inability to scroll while zoomed is a noted technical problem, and we’re working on a fix for that, hopefully by the next update.
Anyway, we welcome comments and sugestions from the users, since without the fans and the community as a whole, we wouldn’t have a reason to exist in the first place. ^^
Isn’t it kind of odd to make official corporate statements with an unverifiable identity? I mean, this way, anyone could post anything with the name “JManga.”
I could live perfectly happy with JManga’s pricing structure. I’ve spent sixty dollars to buy a 32-page doujinshi. But the inability to download files, and own them DRM-free, is a complete non-starter for me. Like, forget about their player, I want to use my player…whatever PDF or JPG viewing software I feel like.
Well, there’s the little matter of the email address linked to the comments as well, and I am certainly using a JManga.com account!
We are working on ways to allow users to view manga on other platforms, such as smartphones or tablets (including the iPad, with an app in development), but for the moment, we do not have plans to offer DRM-free downloads.