Naruto Goes Out with a Bang

Here’s the word on the final episode of Naruto, which is coming very, very soon: It will be two chapters long, with the second chapter in color, and it will be “astonishing.”

New Seven Seas title No Game, No Life tops this week’s New York Times Manga Bestseller list, followed by the latest volumes of Naruto and Food Wars.

The Manga Bookshelf gang take a gander at this week’s new manga arrivals.

How would you like to receive college credit for reading manga? That offer sounded appealing to hundreds of students at Taiwan’s National Cheng Chi University, who vied for one of 120 seats in Professor Cai Zeng Jia’s class “Japan Through Manga.” On the syllabus: Sanctuary, Dragon Zakura, and The Drops of God. 

Variety critic Peter Debruge shares his thoughts on Parasyte: Part 1, which recently debuted at the Tokyo Film Festival.

The Tezuka Museum is sponsoring a retrospective of manga-influenced drawings and paintings by Kiyoshiro Imawano, Japan’s “King of Rock.”

Weekly Shonen Jump editor Jean-Baptiste Akira Hattori’s advice for anyone wanting to break into the manga biz? Read widely, and don’t limit your interests to manga and anime.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri anime and manga news at Okazu.

Melinda Beasi shares three of her favorite sequences from Heart of Thomas, Please Save My Earth, and xxxHolic.

In case you missed it: the ladies of Women Write About Comics list their five favorite feminist horror series. Two manga—Rumiko Takahashi’s Mermaid Saga and Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter—make the cut.

Time is running out for you to purchase a Humble Horror Book Bundle. Among the goodies you’ll receive are volumes 1-3 of Knights of Sidonia. Proceeds go to benefit one of our favorite causes: the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

News from Japan: Artist Lalko Kojima (Hoshikuzu Drop/Stardust Drop) has had to cancel an autograph session scheduled for the Animate Girls Festival due to a threat. Go Nagai’s new series, Devilman Saga, will launch on December 25 in Big Comic, while Ayumi Komura (Mixed Vegetables) will begin a new manga in January 2015 in Margaret. And speaking of foodie manga, Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki’s Food Wars will be making the leap from page to screen in 2015.

Reviews: Shaenon Garrity takes a look at the horror and romance tropes in Midnight Secretary in her House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Joseph Medina on vol. 1 of Ajin (Joseph Medina)
Sean Gaffney on Alice in the Country of Diamonds: Bet on My Heart (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 1 of All You Need Is Kill (Comic Attack)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Barakamon (ICv2)
Sakura Eries on vol. 1 of Barakamon (The Fandom Post)
Megan R. on Crimson Cross (Manga Test Drive)
Ken H. on vols. 1-2 of Doubt! (Sequential Ink)
Jared Nelson on vol. 11 of The Flowers of Evil (Ani-Gamers)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Hayate x Blade 2 (Okazu)
Evan Minto on Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly (Ani-Gamers)
Mad Manga on vol. 1 of Honey Blood (Cartoon Geek Corner)
Angela Sylvia on vol. 15 of Kamisama Kiss (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Kiss of the Rose Princess (Comic Book Bin)
Mad Manga on Legal Drug Omnibus (Cartoon Geek Corner)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 19 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (The Fandom Post)
Sarah on vol. 67 of Naruto and vol. 72 of One Piece (nagareboshi reviews)
Naru on No Longer Heroine (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Matthew Warner on vol. 72 of One Piece (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 17 of Oresama Teacher (Comic Book Bin)
Megan R. on Petshop of Horrors (Manga Test Drive)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 1-2 of Raqiya (Anime News Network)
Tony Yao on Ruroni Kenshin (Manga Therapy)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Seraph of the End (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 7 of Sherlock Bones (Anime News Network)
Ash Brown on Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror (Experiments in Manga)
Laura on vol. 19 of Vampire Knight (Heart of Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 19 of Vampire Knight (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Warner on vol. 6 of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5DS  (The Fandom Post)

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