Seven Seas inexplicably chose the Friday before Labor Day to announce three new licenses: I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner, the title of which pretty much gives away the plot; Battle Rabbits, by 07-Ghost creators Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara; and the high school romantic comedy Masamune-kun’s Revenge.
More big manga news: Kodansha Comics manga is now available on comiXology, and so is Shonen Jump. This makes comiXology a handy one-stop shop for manga, as Dark Horse, Viz, Seven Seas, DMP, Gen Manga, Udon, and even Tokyopop are all on there. Only Vertical and Yen Press are missing.
And speaking of Shonen Jump, Viz has just announced that the first chapter of Mononofu, by Kurogane creator Haruto Ikezawa, will run in the next issue.
Viz has been bringing back a lot of manga originally licensed by Tokyopop in its Viz Select digital line; the new series debuting in September include CLAMP School Detectives, Rizelmine, Guardian Hearts, Chocolate Cosmos, and Saber Marionette J.
It’s Hayate the Combat Butler vs. Richard II as the Manga Bookshelf team discuss their Pick of the Week.
Helen McCarthy hooks us up with a 1994 documentary on manga, first broadcast by the BBC as an intro to their broadcast of Akira. The half-hour film includes appearances by Katsuhiro Otomo and Hayao Miyazaki.
At Heart of Manga, Laura looks at this month’s new shoujo and josei manga releases.
And Erica Friedman posts the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.
Reviews: The Anti-Social Geniuses review the first chapter of 43 Viz Select manga, most if not all of which were originally published by Tokyopop. Ash Brown updates us with My Week in Manga at Experiments in Manga.
Sean Gaffney on vol. 16 of Attack on Titan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan Junior High (Manga Xanadu)
Chris Beveridge on chapter 641 of Bleach (The Fandom Post)
Jocelyne Allen on Cocoon (Brain Vs. Book)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 16 of Dorohedoro (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Genshiken: Second Season (Comics Worth Reading)
Helen on Inari Konkon (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (I Reads You)
Anna N on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (Manga Report)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Komomo Confiserie (ANN)
AstroNerdBoy on K-ON! High School (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Nick Creamer on vol. 1 of My Hero Academia (ANN)
Sakura Eries on vol. 9 of My Little Monster (The Fandom Post)
Ken H on vol. 5 of Noragami (Sequential Ink)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of One-Punch Man (I Reads You)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Terra Formars (The Comic Book Bin)
Sarah on Yotsuba&! (nagareboshi reviews)
Really disappointed with the offering of Shounen Jump by Comixology. I was actually looking forward to seeing it finally out of the confines of Viz, but upon buying an issue I found that the pages were enlarged and simply blurry compared to the originals. Downscaling definitely did not produce the same images. Already Viz offers much smaller pages than most of their competitors, even for distributors on their behalf (why this is, who knows). I have yet to see how Amazon compares, but my hopes are not high.