DMP Kickstarts Controversy

May 30, 2016 by

On May 27th, DMP Kickstarted an effort to publish Kodomo no Jikan, a manga about a third-grade teacher and his precocious student. If that title rings a bell, that’s because Seven Seas initially planned to release Kodomo no Jikan in 2007, sparking angry responses from readers who felt the series crossed the line between comedy and child exploitation. (You can read more about the original controversy here.) [Kickstarter]

The numbers are in, and One Piece is once again Japan’s best-selling manga series, moving almost 6.5 million copies between November 2015 and May 2016. Other strong performers include Assassination Classroom, Attack on Titan, The Seven Deadly Sins, and My Hero Academia. [Anime News Network]

Is One-Punch Man the new Attack on Titan? A quick glance at the New York Times Manga Bestseller List suggests this superhero spoof may be the New Big Thing: volumes one, two, and six all make the cut. [NY Times]

Fox announced that Rosa Salazar (Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials) will play the title role in its forthcoming Battle Angel Alita adaptation. The film, which will be directed by Robert Rodriguez, is tentatively scheduled for a summer 2018 release; James Cameron will produce. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Back in 2009, Barefoot Gen artist Keiji Nakazawa penned a letter to President Barack Obama in which expressed hope that Obama would “come to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hear the voices of the atomic bomb survivors first-hand, and visit the Peace Memorial Museum here in Hiroshima.” Nakazawa also declared his “unwaivering support” for the president’s anti-nuclear initiatives. Alas, Nakazawa did not live to see his wish fulfilled; he passed away in 2012. [The Mainichi]

Erica Friedman rounds up all the latest yuri news, including word of a new Cardcaptor Sakura anime. [Okazu]

What’s new on shelves this week? The Manga Bookshelf gang sorts the wheat from the chaff. [Manga Bookshelf]

Ash Brown is giving away a copy of Paradise Residence, the latest from Oh! My Goddess creator Kosuke Fujishima. The deadline to enter the drawing is June 1st. [Experiments in Manga]

Why do some OOP manga command hundreds of dollars while others net a measly dollar or two on eBay? Krystallina takes an in-depth look at the second-hand manga market, and offers tips for figuring out which titles are most likely to go out of print. [The OASG]

LM publishes the third installment of her series The Sparkling World of Shojo Manga, in which she traces the development of shojo from the beginning of the twentieth century to today. Her latest post focuses on pioneering mangaka Riyoko Ikeda, best known in the English-speaking world for The Rose of Versailles. [The Lobster Dance]

Reviews: At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle Smith posts a glowing review of Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, while fellow MB blogger Ash Brown weighs in on josei classic Tramps Like Us.

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