Archives for September 2011

Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy roiled the waters at Facebook over the weekend when he asked readers if they would support a third volume of Hetalia that would be sold through “limited” retail channels. The post got almost 1,000 “likes,” but the reaction in the comments was decidedly mixed, with many readers saying they would prefer Levy allow the license to pass to another publisher and asking for new volumes of other series, including a few that were just one volume away from completion when Tokyopop stopped operations earlier this year. In a second post, Levy clarified that “limited” refers to the retail channels and said that vol. 4 would be published as well. Tony Yao and Johanna Draper Carlson post their responses at their blogs.

The Manga Bookshelf team is bullish on Sailor Moon as they discuss their Pick of the Week.

The denizens of Manga Village look at the past week’s new releases.

At MTV Geek, I take a look at the latest updates and new additions to JManga.com.

Erica Friedman publishes a manga reader’s manifesto on digital publishing: She wants simultaneous print and digital releases, platform-independent digital manga, and an end to regional restrictions. Hear, hear!

David Welsh asks his readers to name the most versatile manga creators.

Former Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle explains how the 9/11 attacks led (indirectly) to his career in manga.

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind posts his calculations for manga sales rankings (online sales, including pre-orders) for the weeks ending Sept. 4 and Sept. 11.

Connie has a license request at Slightly Biased Manga: Zetsuai 1989/Bronze: Zetsuai Since 1989.

Kristin files a con report from Anime Fest in Dallas.

There is now an English version of the ComiPo! manga creation software, although it’s for PC only—no Macs.

Congratulations to Khursten Santos, who has been blogging at Otaku Champloo for five years now! Khursten takes the opportunity to talk about the evolution of the manga scene in the Philippines.

News from Japan: A manga adaptation of the Final Fantasy Type-0 role-playing game is in the works. Three Steps Over Japan has some pictures of the magazine section of a local bookstore, featuring lots of manga magazines.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers look over some new releases in their latest set of Bookshelf Briefs.

Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Animal Land (ANN)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-6 of Arata: The Legend (Soliloquy in Blue)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 8-10 of Black Bird (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Butterflies, Flowers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
John Rose on vol. 1 of Cage of Eden (The Fandom Post)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 14 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Leroy Douresseaux on Finder, vol. 3: One Wing in the View Finder (The Comic Book Bin)
Julie Opipari on Gandhi: A Manga Biography (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Kurozakuro (The Comic Book Bin)
Alex Hoffman on La Quinta Camera (Manga Widget)
Chris Kirby on La Quinta Camera (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 6 of Ultimo (The Fandom Post)
Anna on vol. 1 of Wandering Son (Manga Report)

Lori Henderson has the lineup of this week’s new all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Kristin takes a look at the most promising manga in the September Previews.

Jason Thompson writes about the racing manga Initial D in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

David Welsh’s latest license request is Fashion Fade, a shoujo manga about fashion design that dates back to the late 1970s.

News from Japan: Chibisan Date, by Hetalia creator Hidekaz Himaruya will be a monthly feature in Gentosha’s Comic Spica. Both Chocolate Girl (by Butterflies, Flowers creator Yuki Yoshihara) and Sora no Manimani are coming to an end.

Reviews

Chris Kirby on vol. 3 of Bunny Drop (The Fandom Post)
Victoria Martin on vol. 5 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Kuriousity)
Angela Eastman on vol. 5 of Kurozakuro (The Fandom Post)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Taimashin (Three Steps Over Japan)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Tenjho Tenge (Anime Sentinel)
Matthew Warner on Velveteen & Mandala (The Fandom Post)

I check out this week’s new manga at MTV Geek, and Lissa Patillo looks gives her take her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Sean Gaffney looks forward to next week’s new releases, which include several final volumes.

Tony Yao discusses the popularity of Blue Exorcist, which, as noted below, was the top selling manga in Japan last week.

David Brothers explains the power of Dragon Ball at Comics Alliance.

David Welsh looks at his favorite manga that start with the letter B.

Matt Blind catches us up with his manga rankings for the week ending August 28.

(NSFW and also disturbing) Ng Suat Tong looks at some seriously nasty and violent manga by Kazuo Umezu at The Hooded Utilitarian.

News from Japan: October 20 is the launch date for Kodansha’s newest magazine, Monthly Shonen +—everything you need to know is in the title. Jiro Taniguchi is working on a new manga set during the Meiji era. A group of seven publishers and 122 manga-ka have sent letters to a number of Japanese stores that scan manga for customers for a fee. Because this is done for customers’ personal use, it’s not clear that it is illegal, but the creators and publishers want it to stop. Former prime minister Tarō Asō cops to reading Rozen Maiden in the Tokyo airport but insists he doesn’t read it regularly—he only picked it up in the airport because he heard girls read it, which is an odder explanation than just admitting he’s a roaring otaku. Usumaru Furuya is bringing the series Innosan Shōnen Jūji-gun (Innocent Children’s Crusade) to an end. The latest volume of the Blue Exorcist novel and manga topped their respective Oricon charts, and ANN has the rest of the Japanese comics rankings as well.

Reviews: Michelle Smith and Melinda Beasi discuss some new releases in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Carlo Santos on vol. 16 of 20th Century Boys (ANN)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Antique Bakery (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Connie on vol. 10 of Bamboo Blade (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vols. 9 and 10 of Black Bird (Manga Report)
Matthew Warner on vol. 36 of Bleach (The Fandom Post)
Danica Davidson on vols. 1 and 2 of Choco Mimi (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Drifters (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on Faeries’ Landing (Slightly Biased Manga)
Queenie Chan on Hikaru no Go (Queenie Chan)
Connie on Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vols. 8-10 of Monster (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 52 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 30 of Negima! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Matthew Warner on vol. 58 of One Piece (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 16 of Ouran High School Host Club (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 6 of Rin-ne (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kinukitty on Tonight’s Take-Out Night (The Hooded Utilitarian)

Tune in to the latest Manga Out Loud podcast for a marathon talkfest on the topic of digital manga, hosted by Ed Sizemore and Johanna Draper Carlson and featuring Rob McMonigal, Alex Hoffman, Lissa Pattillo, and yours truly! Then bookmark the link, because Ed has compiled an incredibly comprehensive set of links to digital manga, both online and on mobile devices.

Lori Henderson takes a look at the past week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids. At Manga Village, the crew looks over all of the past week’s new manga.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of the week, and they are choosing from a Viz-heavy list. And David Welsh looks at all of this week’s new manga.

David Welsh finds only one yaoi manga in the latest Previews.

Dark Horse Tweeted this weekend that they will be publishing a FLCL omnibus. ANN has a bit of background; the manga was published in two volumes by Tokyopop many moons ago, but Dark Horse’s will be done in one.

Matt Blind posts his manga rankings, based on online sales, for the week ending August 21. Sailor Moon tops the list, so I assume pre-orders are included.

GWOtaku reviews the JManga website at ToonZone.

Tomo Kimura shows off the front and back cover of a Saturn Apartments doujinshi by Hisae Iwaoka herself.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at Big Comic Spirits, home of Kurosagi and Oishinbo.

News from Japan: Recently we noted that Peach-Pit, the creators of Rozen Maiden and Shugo Charat!, contributed a previously unadvertised manga to Nakayoshi magazine; now comes word that that manga, Kugiko-san, is going to be an ongoing series. In other launch news, Yasu, the illustrator of the Toradora light novels, is starting a gag manga, Hokkenshitsu, set in a school nurse’s office, and Ryu Akizuki (Asura Cryin’) has a new manga, Mihahori Place, set to begin its run in Young Ace. The soccer manga Inazuma Eleven is coming to an end. Tamami Momose is drawing a 4-panel gag comic that’s a spinoff of the seinen manga Nana to Kaoru. There’s a new book out about the reclusive manga-ka Sanpei Shirato, creator of The Legend of Kamui. And what happens to manga after it’s read? Here’s an odd little video showing discarded manga by the side of the road.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers have a new column, Going Digital, in which they review not only the manga but also the reading experience, and they look at books on several platforms. Well worth checking out. They also have another set of Bookshelf Briefs ready to give you the bird’s eye lowdown on a big batch of recent releases. Ash Brown looks back at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Angelic Runes (Sequential Ink)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 10 of Black Bird (Sequential Tart)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 36 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Cardcaptor Sakura (omnibus edition) (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 10 of Detroit Metal City (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 4 of Dorohedoro (Comic Attack)
Rebecca Silverman on Higurashi When They Cry: Demon Exposing Arc (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 14 of Higurashi When They Cry: Eye Opening Arc (ANN)
Kristin on I Give To You (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 7 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Comic Attack)
Julie Opipari on vol. 7 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Manga Maniac Cafe)
J.J.S. Boyce on The Manga Guide to the Universe (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 3-7 of Raiders (Manga Village)
Connie on vol. 4 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ed Sizemore on Tank Tankuro (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Ultimo (The Comic Book Bin)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Vampire Cheerleaders/Paranormal Mystery Squad (Manga Xanadu)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Warriors: Tigerstar and Sasha (Good Comics for Kids)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 17 of xxxHolic (Sequential Tart)
Connie on vol. 2 of Yellow (omnibus edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)

Good news for Shutterbox fans: Creators Rikki and Tavisha Simons are selling volume 5 of Shutterbox (which was originally published by Tokyopop and never finished) digitally for just $2.99 a volume. And they haven’t given up on getting it into print, either.

IKKI Comics has released all of Taiyo Matsumoto’s No. 5 as a four-volume e-book through the iTunes Store. At About.com, Christopher Butcher interviews Matsumoto and Deb Aoki shows off a preview gallery of art from the books. Someone priced it right: The eight-volume series is being released as four double volumes, with the first one priced at 99 cents (at least for now) and the other three at $4.99 each.

Roland Kelts takes a look at recent cases of government officials confiscating manga as porn.

It’s not available in English, but Erica Friedman makes Thermae Romae, a manga about ancient Roman dudes who travel to modern Japan via a secret underground tunnel in their public bath, sound mighty tempting. In other comics-you-can’t-read-yet news, David Welsh, intrigued by a recent mention on NPR, takes a look at the works of Yumiko Ôshima.

A blogger takes apart the Digital Manga Guild contract and finds it exploitative in many ways. While the basic analysis is reasonable (DMG members’ hourly wage is probably going to be pretty low), the article goes a bit too far in condemning specific clauses of the contract. I’m not a lawyer, but I have worked with freelancers as an editor (and I’m now a freelancer myself), and I can see that some of the clauses are there to allow Digital the freedom to function as a business. They have to be able to reject substandard work or change the prices of the books (in order to have sales and such), and the termination clause looks pretty reasonable—if you bow out, you still get royalties for four years. Also—and this comes in for some discussion in comments—the blogger seems to underestimate how well these books sell. It’s hard to say, because no one is very forthcoming with the numbers, but I believe yaoi manga in digital form is a better bet than this writer thinks.

News from Japan: Kodansha will publish a monthly manga magazine in China as part of a joint venture, beginning next year.

Reviews

Connie on vol. 1 of Bad Teacher’s Equation (omnibus edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lexie on vol. 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura (omnibus edition) (Poisoned Rationality)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 2 of Cardcaptor Sakura (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 4 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 4 of House of Five Leaves (The Fandom Post)
John Rose on vol. 5 of Ichiroh! (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 4 of Karakuri Odette (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of Kimi ni Todoke (Slightly Biased Manga)
Angela Eastman on vol. 3 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 11 of Otomen (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Toriko (The Comic Book Bin)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Totsu Gami (Three Steps Over Japan)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Wandering Son (Read About Comics)
Connie on vol. 12 of Zombie Loan (Slightly Biased Manga)

At The Comics Journal, Ryan Holmberg pens a fascinating piece on the effect of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami on the manga industry. In addition to explaining how Japanese comics distribution works—and why the disaster hit it so hard—Holmberg also takes a close look at Suzuki Miso’s “The Day Japan and I Shook,” a journalistic manga about the industry and the aftermath of the disaster.

I checked out this week’s new releases at MTV Geek, and Lissa Pattillo does the same in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Always a step ahead, Sean Gaffney looks at next week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber counts up her manga and asks readers: How many volumes do you own? I’m probably in the same neighborhood as her, although a good part of my collection now is non-manga graphic novels.

Erica Friedman notes some new yuri titles at JManga.com. Also, if you read Italian, here’s an article about the upcoming Italian edition of Rica ‘tte Kanji!?

David Welsh notes that NPR devoted a Writer’s Almanac episode to Year 24 manga-ka Yumiko Ôshima.

News from Japan: Tohru Fujisawa’s GTO: Shonan 14 Days, the sequel to Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO), is coming to an end.

Reviews: Carlo Santos hands out a fistful of Cs in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Michelle Smith and Melinda Beasi discuss three new manga from Kodansha in their Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf. Other reviews of note:

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Black Bird (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on vol. 2 of Cardcaptor Sakura (omnibus edition)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Highschool of the Dead (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Ai Kano on vol. 6 of Oishinbo a la Carte: The Joy of Rice (Animanga Nation)