Pickings were slim last week in terms of new releases, but I made my picks at MTV Geek and Lissa Pattillo gave her take in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.
And speaking of Otaku USA, it is now available digitally via the iTunes Store and the British site PocketMags. The iTunes app is free, and individual issues are available for $5.99 or a six-month subscription for $19.99.
Deb Aoki and Ed Sizemore are the guests on the Super Manga Pals edition of ANN’s ANNCast podcast.
Erica Friedman has a new Yuri Network News post for us at Okazu.
Chris Sims likes Gunsmith Cats, but the series is, as he puts it, “problematic.” He discusses the joys and problems at length at Comics Alliance.
Business Week profiles Mihoko Ishizawa, who created Field of Cole, a collection of short stories about the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Three Steps Over Japan peeks inside the covers of Comp Ace.
Organization Anti-Social Geniuses gets all self-referential with an accounting of anti-social geniuses in anime and manga, and contributor Manjiorin reminisces about getting involved with manga.
Tom Langston posts a con report on Fanime at Nigorimasen!
News from Japan: Good news for Claymore fans: That series will continue, according to the editors of Jump Square magazine, despite the author’s hints that it is coming to an end. The Cultural Affairs Agency is setting up a database of manga and anime as part of its “cool Japan” strategy. The 100th volume of Hajime no Ippo is due out in July. Tokyo’s Youth Healthy Development Council, which is tasked with leafing through sexy manga to determine if they are deleterious to the morals of the local youth, has given the green light to To Love-Ru Darkness despite some full frontal nudity. Kadokawa Shoten is launching a new magazine, Samurai Ace, with samurai stories by a number of creators, including Lone Wolf and Cub manga-ka Kazuo Koike. The yuri series Prism is on hiatus while editors investigate accusations that creator Show Higashiyama copied some images from photos. Yamato Yamamoto is wrapping up Kure-nai but is launching a new dark fantasy series, Owari no Seraph (The Final Seraph) with writer Takaya Kagami (A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives). And ANN has the top-selling series for the first half of the year, by volume and by series.
Reviews: Adam Stephanides posts short reviews of a number of untranslated manga, including Naoki Urasawa’s Billy Bat, at Completely Futile. Jocelyne Allen looks at Bokura no Manga, an anthology inspired by last year’s earthquake and nuclear disaster, at Brain vs. Book.
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of Case Closed (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 5-8 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Manga Xanadu)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of InuYasha (VizBig edition) (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Kamisama Kiss (The Comic Book Bin)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Konjaku Monogatari (Three Steps Over Japan)
Connie on vol. 2 of Love Pistols (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 11-15 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 9 of Toriko (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Toriko (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Twin Spica (Blogcritics)
A Library Girl on Wild Rock (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)