The big news of the week is something we all knew would happen—Alvin Lu foreshadowed it at NYCC—but now it has come to pass: Shonen Jump Alpha will be eliminating the two-week lag and going to simultaneous release with Japan for all their weekly series, including Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. And there’s a new series, Nisekoi, debuting this week; you can read chapter 1 for free on the Vizmanga.com site or on their apps.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time for some serious shopping; check out my manga lover’s gift guide at MTV Geek and our group gift guide at Good Comics for Kids.
Jason Thompson takes a long, loving look at Moto Hagio’s Heart of Thomas in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.
Also at ANN, Brian Hanson takes on a couple of manga-related questions in his Hey Answerman column: The debate over honorifics and what software real manga creators use (with some help from Deb Aoki).
The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their Picks of the Week, and they check out some digital offerings, including the new JManga7 website, in their latest Going Digital column. And there’s more: They look at this week’s JManga releases, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith converse about some recent releases in Off the Shelf, Travis Anderson has a license request, and Matt Blind calculates the manga best-sellers for the week ending November 25 and looks at some rising stars in his Manga Radar feature. And hey, if you want to join in the action, check out the Manga Bookshelf Forum!
Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team kicks off the week with a quick set of Bookshelf Briefs. Anna checks out some romance manga from JManga at Manga Report.
John Rose on vol. 11 of Black Butler (The Fandom Post)
John Rose on vol. 3 of Blood Blockade Battlefront (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Bunny Drop (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Warner on vol. 5 of Dawn of the Arcana (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 4 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Fandom Post)
John Rose on vol. 2 of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 23 of Excel Saga (The Fandom Post)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of The Flowers of Evil (ANN)
Anna on vols. 1-4 of Give My Regards to Black Jack (Manga Report)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Johanna Draper Carlson on The Heart of Thomas (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on The Innocent (Kuriousity)
Jocelyne Allen on Kuslar, by est em (Brain Vs. Book)
Matthew Warner on vol. 8 of Library Wars (The Fandom Post)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 1 of Paros no Ken (Yuri no Boke)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 8 of Sailor Moon (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
John Rose on vol. 9 of Tenjho Tenge (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Thermae Romae (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Umineko When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
That link you have to the NY Times is to their crossword puzzles. ^_^;;; Otherwise, I’m glad to see simultaneous releases of manga in Japan and the US.