Erica Friedman trumpets the good news at Okazu: After a week of Tweets and Facebook comments from readers and would-be readers, the powers that be at JManga have acceded to the will of the public and gone global. No longer will manga fans outside the U.S. and Canada be faced with an unfriendly blue screen; now they, too, can spend $10 per month to read Anesthesiologist Hana and Poor Poor Lips. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individual titles are blocked (boo!) but overall, this is a great step forward for the manga biz, and kudos to the manga folks (and hard-working business manager Robert Newman, who led the charge) for taking it.
Animemiz reports in on MangaNEXT as well as the yuri panel, the Vertical panel, and the GEN Manga panel.
Viz’s SuBLime imprint announced two new titles yesterday, Yaya Sakuragi’s Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love and Makoto Tateno’s How’s Your Ex?
Previews kicks off its Manga Month with an interview with Dark Horse editor extraordinaire Carl Horn.
Naru has an interesting post on what it feels like to lose your interest in manga—along with three possible cures—at What is this “Culture” you speak of? (Yes, that’s the name of the blog.) (Via Justin.)
It’s Toriko vs. the robot in Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary at Manga Bookshelf.
Reviews: Carlo Santos makes some hard choices and tells some harsh truths in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.
Shannon Fay on About Love (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vol. 5 of Bokurano: Ours (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 17 of Higurashi When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Sequential Ink)
Justin on vol. 1 of When I’m With You (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lori Henderson on vols. 12-13 of Zombie Loan (Manga Village)