Archives for October 2011

Healing Music, the second manga from the Digital Manga Guild, has been released on Digital’s eManga website.

Also, JManga has beefed up its site with three new series: vols. 1 and 2 of Hitohira, which was originally released in the U.S. by Aurora, vol. 1 of Sherlock Holmes, and vol. 1 of Nogi, an action series. All three are included in JManga’s October sale, meaning they are priced at 499 points (about $4.99) per volume.

Sean Gaffney looks forward to next week’s new manga.

News from Japan: The Kakugo no Susume (Apocalypse Zero) manga is getting a spinoff, Kaika no Susume. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews

Kristin on vols. 3 and 4 of Bokurano: Ours (Comic Attack)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Codename: Sailor V (ANN)
Ayra on vol. 5 of Ichiroh! (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Library Wars: Love and War (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 6 of Negima!? Neo (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Seiho Boys’ High School (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 13 of Vampire Knight (ANN)
Greg McElhatton on A Zoo in Winter (Read About Comics)

Online manga site JManga.com is running a sale for the month of October with some big discounts: Books that go for 899 points are marked down to 499, those expensive 1998-point books are now going for 799. (Figure a penny a point, if you’re new to the system.) You still have to subscribe and buy your points in bundles, but they will go a lot farther this month. Also, if you were an early adopter and already bought your comics, they are kicking back half the points you spent, which is a particularly nice touch.

Derek Bown, who writes reviews at Burning Lizard Studios, shows off his manga collection to The Manga Critic.

Reviews

Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Cage of Eden (ICv2)
Erica Friedman on Daisuki: Hikaru & Sakura (Okazu)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-3 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Soliloquy in Blue)
Karen Green on Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (comiXology)
John Rose on vol. 3 of Tenjho Tenge (The Fandom Post)
Ed Sizemore on A Zoo in Winter (Comics Worth Reading)

Weekly Shonen Jump has posted the first chapter of Kurogane, by newcomer Haruto Ikezawa, online, for free, in English, on their English-language site. Unfortunately, you have to download their special manga reader, which is Windows-only, so this Mac user won’t be reading it. (Via ANN.)

Speaking of horrible DRM (i.e. proprietary manga readers that you need admin privileges to install), check out this comment at Manga Bookshelf from someone who figured out that Square Enix’s online manga site, with its many layers of DRM and user inconvenience, actually does a worse job of protecting their manga from piracy than the much more user-friendly Viz Manga and JComi sites. But Square Enix got the last laugh when their Click-and-Buy system caused his bank to freeze his debit card.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of this Viz-heavy week, and at his blog, David Welsh looks over the week’s new releases.

Thalia Sutton explains the significance of Sailor Moon at Suvudu.

Charles Solomon discusses why Takehiko Inoue is so awesome at the LA Times. (Via The Beat.)

Lori Henderson issues the call for entries in the October Manga Moveable Feast, which will focus on horror manga.

News from Japan: Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at the seinen magazine Monthly Afternoon, whose lineup has included Blame, Gunsmith Cats, Genshiken, and the much-coveted Vinland Saga. Translator Tomo Kimura went to Julietta Suzuki’s autograph session in Ogikubo, and she took pictures of some of the art on display.

Reviews: Ash Brown looks back on another week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers get straight to the point with this week’s Bookshelf Briefs. Matthew J. Brady reviews three new manga from Kodansha at Warren Peace Sings the Blues.

Connie on vol. 35 of Bleach (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Bunny Drop (Comic Attack)
Anna on vol. 10 of Detroit Metal City (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 3 of Gen (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sweetpea on Just a Girl (Organization Anti Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 4 of Kingyo Used Books (Slightly Biased Manga)
Alexander Hoffman on La Quinta Camera (Manga Village)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 31 of Negima! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Diana Dang on vol. 16 of Ouran High School Host Club (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Connie on vols. 6 and 7 of Please Save My Earth (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 7 of Seiho Boys’ High School (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on Shocking Pink (adult manga) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on Vampire Princess (Okazu)
Dave Ferraro on Velveteen and Mandala (Comics-and-More)
David Welsh on A Zoo in Winter (The Manga Curmudgeon)

The Vertical folks announced a new license at their Anime Weekend Atlanta panel this past Friday: Flowers of Evil, a story of romance, blackmail, and Baudelaire set in a high school. It currently runs in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine, and if you want to get a jump on it, Kodansha has published the first chapter for free (in Japanese).

At MTV Geek, I devoted my weekly news roundup to the online chatter about Sailor Moon, I did an in-depth review of GEN, the online manga magazine, and I posted a preview of I Love Kawaii, an artbook that features super-cute art by 32 artists from all over the world.

Erica Friedman posts the latest Yuri News Network roundup at Okazu.

The Manga Village team looks over the latest manga releases and picks their favorites. At Good Comics for Kids, Lori Henderson checks out the past week’s all ages comics and manga.

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss pretty, pretty shoujo manga art in their latest Let’s Get Visual column at Soliloquy in Blue.

David Welsh asks his readers: What manga just didn’t do it for you? Some of the answers may surprise you… And David’s latest license request is the josei series Papa Told Me, yet another entry in the single-dad-raising-a-daughter genre.

Lissa Pattillo shows off her latest purchases in her Swag Bag feature at Kuriousity.

Congratulations to Kate Dacey, The Manga Critic, who celebrated her fifth anniversary as a manga reviewer recently; she’s marking the occasion by redesigning her blog.

Reviews: Omar posts a handful of brief manga reviews at About Heroes.

Emily on Iine (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Jocelyne Allen on vol. 1 of IS (Brain vs. Book)
Steve Bennett on vol. 1 of Mardock Scramble (ICv2)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Mardock Scramble (Experiments in Manga)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Muuryou no Hako (Three Steps Over Japan)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 4 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Kuriousity)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 7 of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on Peach (artbook) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Sailor Moon (Read About Comics)
Sakura Eries on vol. 3 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Fandom Post)
Chris Kirby on vol. 2 of Sasameke (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on the September issue of Yen Plus (Manga Xanadu)