Archives for January 2012

The big news this week is the launch of Shonen Jump Alpha, Viz’s weekly digital edition of Shonen Jump, which will replace their monthly print magazine. Crunchyroll has a wide-ranging interview with Viz VP and general manager Alvin Lu, and John Jakala kicks the tires on the new magazine and finds a few glitches. The biggest problem: Despite Viz’s push to speed up releases of the English-language series, they still lag the Japanese releases by quite a few chapters—and since SJ Alpha runs each chapter two weeks after it runs in Japan, readers are left with a gap in the stories.

The Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast has wound up, and Ash Brown posts roundup posts for day two and day three, as well as a final roundup, at Experiments in Manga. Over at Manga Bookshelf, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith devote their latest Off the Shelf column to Furuya’s No Longer Human, and at Slightly Biased Manga, Connie explains why Palepoli should be translated into English.

The Manga Bookshelf team (myself included) discusses their Pick of the Week. What’s yours? Also at Manga Bookshelf, Matt Blind posts a new set of recent manga bestsellers and a Manga Radar column about up-and-coming future releases.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news at Okazu.

Three Steps Over Japan looks at a seasonal Japanese magazine, Jump Next.

Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo will be a guest at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Makoto Tateno (Yellow) and Tomo Maeda (Beyond My Touch) will be guests at MangaNEXT later this month.

If you’re reading this in the Philippines, take a minute to take Khursten Santos’s survey on Philippine anime fandom at Otaku Champloo.

News from Japan: A Japanese manga called It’s Not My Fault I’m Not Popular has apparently become a hit on 4chan (Anonymous is scanting it, although the scanlations seem to be hosted elsewhere), and the latest volume bears a cover line celebrating that: “A smash hit on the overseas version of 2chan!!” Princess Resurrection manga-ka Yasunori Mitsunaga has a new series in the works that will launch in the April issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Sirius magazine. Yūki Kodama’s spinoff of Sakamichi no Apollon will start in the May issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf gang posts a new set of Bookshelf Briefs to greet the new week. Ash Brown post an unusually varied weekly roundup at Experiments in Manga.

Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on The Art of the Secret World of Arrietty (The Manga Critic)
Anna on vols. 9 and 10 of Basara (Manga Report)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kristin on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Durarara!!! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (Experiments in Manga)
Shannon Fay on vol. 5 of Highschool of the Dead (Kuriousity)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 15 of Higurashi: When They Cry (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on Houkago Kanon (Okazu)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Mardock Scramble (Manga Widget)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of No Longer Human (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Sailor Moon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Short Cuts (Experiments in Manga)
Ben Leary on vol. 16 of Slam Dunk (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Tears of a Lamb (Blogcritics)
Ken Haley on vol. 6 of Vampire Hunter D (Sequential Ink)
Kate Dacey on Yakuza Cafe(The Manga Critic)

There’s lots of digital manga news in my latest Digital Comic Resources roundup at CBR, and check out my dual review of vol. 1 of Dawn of the Arcana and vol. 1 of Princess Sakura at MTV Geek.

Two manga took awards at this past weekend’s Angoulême International Comics Festival: Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story won the Prix Regards sur le monde (World Outlook Award), and Yoshihiro Tatsiumi’s A Drifting Life took the Prix Intergénérations (Intergenerational Award).

Jason Thompson takes a look at Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma 1/2 in his weekly trip through the manga swayback machine, House of 1000 Manga, at ANN.

YA librarian Nicole Dolat writes about manga that teens should not miss just because the books were originally written for adults.

Digital Manga had lots of announcements last week: Two batches of new digital manga (here and here) and a new license, Momoko Tenzen’s Flutter.

News from Japan: The March issue of LaLa features Detarame Mōsōryoku Opera, a one-shot manga by Ouran High School Host Club manga-ka Bisco Hatori. Dai Suzuki will launch Kuzu!!, a spinoff of Hiroshi Takahashi’s gangster manga Crows, in the next issue of Young Champion. And Santa Inoue is wrapping up Tokyo Tribe 3; the last chapter will appear next month. Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s anime Sakasama no Patema (Patema Inverted) will be adapted into a manga, which will run in Monthly Big Champion.

Reviews: Omar Valdivieso, Tommy Pfeiffer, and Melanie Valdivieso post some brief reviews of recent manga at About Heroes.

Justin on vols. 2-4 of 7 Billion Needles (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 16 of Black Jack (PLAYBACK:stl)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (The Comic Book Bin)
Jocelyne Allen on Moyoco Anno’s Chameleon Army (Brain Vs. Book)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of A Devil and her Love Song (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (Manga Xanadu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 5 of House of Five Leaves (ANN)
TSOTE on Kurogane (Three Steps Over Japan)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 3 of Negima (omnibus edition) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vol. 2 of No Longer Human (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Serdar Yegulalp on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Genji Press)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 26 of Skip Beat! (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Tegami Bachi (The Comic Book Bin)
Carlo Santos on vol. 11 of Twin Spica (ANN)

I posted my take on this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Sean Gaffney takes a look at next week’s list.

The Manga Moveable Feast continues at Experiments in Manga with a guest post by Jim Hemmingfield about this month’s creator, Usamaru Furuya, and a Genkaku Picasso giveaway.

Ed Sizemore guests on the latest Eeper’s Choice podcast, which features a discussion of Kingyo Used Books.

Reviews

Shannon Fay on vol. 2 of The Betrayal Knows My Name (Kuriousity)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of The Betrayal Knows My Name (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 11 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer (Slightly Biased Manga)
Adam Stephanides on The Children’s Crusade (Completely Futile)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (The Comic Book Bin)
Chris Kirby on vol. 21 of D.Gray-Man (The Fandom Post)
Kristin on vol. 21 of D.Gray-Man and vol. 53 of Naruto (Comic Attack)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Gente (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Tom Gill on The Incident at Nishibeta Village (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Sailor Moon (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1 and 2 of Short Cuts (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 1 of Step (Slightly Biased Manga)
Chris Kirby on vol. 7 of Tegami Bachi (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 5 of Wild Adapter (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Yurikan Feuille (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 4 of Ze (Slightly Biased Manga)

Dark Horse has been adding manga and manhwa to their digital site pretty aggressively; Deb Aoki notes the newest additions.

YALSA has released its Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, and it includes a number of manga; vol. 1 of Wandering Son and vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story made the top ten.

Ash Brown presents the first roundup for the Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast at Experiments in Manga.

Derek Bown introduces a new column at Manga Bookshelf, Combat Commentary, that will analyze and critique combat scenes in manga. He kicks it off with a corker from Bleach.

Kate Dacey points us toward a preview of Shigeru Mizuki’s NonNonBa.

Matt Alt explains why you need a copy of his new book Yurei Attack! The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide, which is due out in a few months.

Reviews

Justin on vol. 1 of Dawn of the Arcana (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of No Longer Human (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 60 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Anna on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Manga Report)
Ash Brown on Secret Comics Japan: Underground Comics Now (Experiments in Manga)

Here’s your must-read manga post of the day: Editor, creator, and all-around manga pundit Jason Thompson pens a thoughtful essay at io9 titled Why Manga Publishing Is Dying (And How It Could Get Better). Jason’s description of the reasons for the decline of manga publishing is impeccable, but I’m not sure I’m on board with his suggestions for improving the picture. Be sure to read the comments for some more pointed criticism.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers (myself included) discuss their Pick of the Week.

At The Beat, Torsten Adair looks at some of the new manga due out this month.

Attention translator wannabes: The digital manga site JManga is having a translation contest! Do your best translation of a four-koma strip from JManga title Young-kun and send it in, and you could win a copy of the full book plus 1,000 points. You have to have a JManga account to enter, which means you must live in North America.

The competition will be judged by veteran translator William Flanagan, and JManga also has an interview with him in which he talks about the finer points of manga translation.

News from Japan: Crunchyroll has the list of winners of the Shogakukan Manga Awards, with nice cover images and a summary of each one—none are licensed in English yet. Shin Mashiba, creator of Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun, is working on a new series set in Kyoto in the Heian era. Utau! Heian-kyō will debut in the March issue of Square Enix’s Monthly G Fantasy magazine. Boys Be… Next Season will come to an end in the Feb. 20 issue of of Kodansha’s Magazine Special.

Reviews: Short takes on new manga are the order of the day in this week’s Bookshelf Briefs column at Manga Bookshelf. At Experiments in Manga, Ash Brown takes a break from hosting the Usumaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast to present a weeks’ worth of manga reading that, not surprisingly, includes a lot of Furuya’s work.

Erica Friedman on vol. 15 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Hyakusho Kizoku (The Manga Critic)
Victoria Martin on vol. 4 of K-ON! (Kuriousity)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (Sequential Ink)

Here’s an intriguing new development: A partnership between the small yuri manga publisher ALC and the digital manga portal JManga. The two are working together to bring the yuri manga Poor Poor Lips to North American readers—and alas, only North American readers, as JManga is available only in this region. Erica Friedman announced the news at Okazu, and she devotes most of her Yuri Network News post to answering some criticisms and reminding readers that the manga scene is evolving, and this is just one moment in that evolution.

Ash Brown is hosting this month’s Manga Moveable Feast, which focuses on the works of Usumaru Furuya, at Experiments in Manga.

At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie puts the spotlight on the popular shoujo manga creator Arina Tanemura.

Deb Aoki guests on the latest edition of Crunchyroll’s internet-TV show The Live Show, which focuses on Manga Maniacs.

Matt Blind crunches the numbers and comes up with the best-selling manga for the week ending January 1, and he also looks at some up-and-coming titles in his latest Manga Radar post.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at one of the lesser-known seinen magazines, Grand Jump.

Khursten Santos explores the manga scene in the Philippines, and she makes some recommendations as well.

News from Japan: The Japan Times has an interesting piece on two prefectures that are trying to grow a local manga industry: Kochi, the home of AnPanMan creator Takashi Yanase, and Tottori, the home of Shigeru Mizuki (GeGeGe No Kitaro, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths) Meanwhile, lots of new projects are under way: Bunny Drop manga-ka Yumi Unita will publish a series of manga essays focusing on technique in Kodansha’s online magazine Digital Kiss. Miki Yoshikawa (Yankee-kun to Megane-chan) will launch a new series in Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Magazine next month. Cloth Road artist okama is also working on a new series, Tail Star, which will start next month in Shueisha’s Ultra Jump. And yuri manga creator Milk Morinaga has wrapped up Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo (Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink), but she has a new series in the works that will launch in the June issue of Comic High!

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss three yaoi manga from Digital in the latest edition of BL Bookrack at Manga Bookshelf. Michelle also checks out three shoujo series from Kodansha at Soliloquy in Blue. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber discusses some older manga series she just finished reading at All About Manga. Lori Henderson posts some short takes on recent reading at Manga Xanadu.

Justin on vol. 18 of 20th Century Boys (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Chobits (Blogcritics)
Kristin on vols. 5 and 6 of Kamisama Kiss (Comic Attack)
Queenie Chan on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Queenie Chan)
Justin on vol. 2 of No Longer Human (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Rebecca and Jennifer Silverman on One Piece Color Walk Art Book 2 (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 4 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 26 of Skip Beat! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie Opipari on vol. 6 of Stepping on Roses (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Chris Kirby on vol. 6 of Tegami Bachi (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (ANN)