Yen Press has the license for the manga based on the Disney film Big Hero 6. The manga has just launched in Kodansha’s Magazine Special, and not only is it the first manga to precede a Disney film, it’s also the only comic adaptation of the film currently in the works. I talked to Kurt Hassler of Yen Press about their plans for the book—and why Yen got the license and not Kodansha Comics.

Crunchyroll has added two new manga series to its digital service, The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer and Kippo to Catalog.

This past week was Banned Books Week, and Lori Henderson takes the opportunity to look at some manga that have been challenged in school and public libraries in recent years. Sarah does the same at Nagareboshi Reviews.

Erica Friedman has the latest yuri update in her Yuri News Network post at Okazu.

Justin Stroman interviews a manga fan who lives in the United Arab Emirates; Dubai has both a Kinokuniya and a Borders, despite the fact that the chain has shut down in the U.S. (But it sounds like a zombie Borders—they have Del Rey titles but nothing recent).

News from Japan: Claymore will come to an end in the November issue of Jump Square.

Reviews

John Rose on vol. 1 of Bloody Brat (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Farewell Yamato (Three Steps Over Japan)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
John Rose on The Misfortune of Kyon and Koizumi (The Fandom Post)
Sakura Eries on vol. 3 of My Little Monster (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
G.B. Smith on vol. 1 of The Seven Deadly Sins (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Terra Formars (The Fandom Post)

Best and Worst Manga panelists: Deb Aoki, yours truly, David Brothers, and Christopher Butcher

I’m back from San Diego, which was great, as always. I covered a ton of panels for CBR, where I am a contributing writer, and I got to be one of the folks who went up on stage when that site won the Eisner Award for best comics journalism, which was pretty damn awesome. Aside from that, though, one of the best moments was being part of the Best and Worst Manga panel, arranged and moderated by the amazing Deb Aoki. It was held in one of the bigger panel rooms, which I would estimate seats about 300 people, and it was standing room only. This was in contrast to the other comics panels I covered, which were mostly in smaller rooms that were only half full. What’s more, the audience was really engaged, reacting with enthusiasm to all our choices. Clearly, the manga scene is alive and well, at least in San Diego.

Here’s Deb’s writeup of the panel. tl;dr: Read Vinland Saga. Seriously.

Deb also rounded up the manga news from the con. Some highlights:

• Udon licensed Kill la Kill
• Kodansha announced two new licenses, including Let’s Dance a Waltz, by Kitchen Princess manga-ka Natsumi Ando
• Drawn and Quarterly announced Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler and a collection of short stories by Tadao Tsuge that originally ran in GARO magazine.
• Artist Katsuya Terada (The Monkey King) was signing at the Dark Horse and Last Gasp panels, promoting two of his books.
• Viz, Vertical, Yen Press, and Seven Seas didn’t have panels but they all were doing a brisk business at their booths.

Sean Gaffney has his usual astute commentary on the announcements at his blog. Meanwhile, deb, Deb, who was my roommate at the con, has more on the Udon announcements and a video of Terada drawing the Monkey King at her site, Manga Comics Manga.

Lori Henderson rounds up the con news in her latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Vertical sold completely out of their newest Moyoco Anno title, In Clothes Called Fat, at the show. I read it before I left and again when I got back, and then I reviewed it for Robot 6.

The ICv2 folks sat down with Viz execs Leyla Aker and Kevin Hamric for a meaty interview (part 1, part 2) about the state of the manga market, print versus digital sales, their rescues of some Tokyopop licenses (including Deadman Wonderland), and whether they will release a Doraemon manga anytime soon (it’s already being published digitally in English by Shogakukan).

Meanwhile, while we were in San Diego, the Japanese government started a new anti-piracy campaign that has two prongs: They are sending takedown notices to pirate sites and directing readers to legitimate online manga sites.

Hiroshi Oti, the creator of Ganbare Goemon, has died at the age of 54.

Reviews

L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Black Rose Alice (ICv2)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Blood Lad (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Food Wars (ICv2)
Ash Brown on In Clothes Called Fat (Experiments in Manga)
Lori Henderson on Insufficient Direction (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Inu x Boku SS (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on Les Miserables (Manga Classics) (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Monster (perfect edition) (Comic Attack)
Rob McMonigal on La Quinta Camera (Panel Patter)
Drew McCabe on The Shadowman (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Spell of Desire (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Terra Formars (Comic Attack)

It’s been a busy few weeks, so let’s start with new license announcements. Sean Gaffney has a thorough writeup of the Anime Expo news, which includes the big news that Viz will be releasing (or re-releasing, in the case of the third arc) JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Here’s a quick rundown of the rest:

Viz
Baraou no Souretsu (Requiem for the Rose King), by Aya Kanno (Otomen)
Faster than a Kiss, by Meca Tanaka (Omukai Desu, Pearl Pink)
Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji (The Demon Prince of Momochi House), by Aya Shouoto (Kiss of the Rose Princess)
… plus a digital one-off chapter of Vampire Knight and new omnibuses of Yu-Gi-Oh and Gyo

Vertical
Yume no Kaseki (A Fossil of a Dream), a short story collection by Paprika director Satoshi Kon

Dark Horse
Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
… plus omnibus editions of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Oh My Goddess and a Satoshi Kon artbook

Kodansha
Maria the Witch (Junketsu no Maria), by the creator of Moyashimon
A Silent Voice, which is already running digitally on Crunchyroll

In other news, SuBLime has licensed Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi (English title: The World’s Greatest First Love:The Case of Ritsu Onodera), which is a Junjo Romantica spinoff; the anime has been running on Crunchyroll.

Returning to the present day, the Manga Bookshelf team looks at this week’s new releases.

In a panel at the Tokyo International Book Fair, translators Yoda Hiroko and Matt Alt discuss translating Doraemon for the American audience.

Wired has a short interview with Kazuto Tatsuta, who wrote about his experiences as a cleanup worker at the Fukushima nuclear plant in 1F: The Labor Diary Of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant.

This came out a couple of weeks ago, but it’s an interesting post: Justin asks some manga insiders why they think fans are still reading manga illegally and aren’t embarrassed to admit it.

News from Japan: Good news for fans of Arata: The Legend, which has been on hiatus: Manga-ka Yuu Watase plans to return to work on it in time for fall serialization.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team turns in this week’s set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown looks back at a week’s worth of manga reading and reading about manga at Experiments in Manga.

Sarah on vol. 11 of Blue Exorcist (nagareboshi reviews)
David Brothers on Dorohedoro (4thletter!)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 1 of Gakuen Polizi (Yuri no Boke)
Kristin on vols. 4-6 of Midnight Secretary (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 3 of Millennium Snow (Comic Attack)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of My Love Story!! (Good Comics for Kids)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of My Love Story!! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 6 of Midnight Secretary (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Monster (Perfect Edition) (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of Nisekoi (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of No. 6 (Good Comics for Kids)
Alice Vernon on vol. 1 of Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance (Girls Like Comics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Terra Formars (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of UQ Holder! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of World War Blue (Manga Xanadu)

DC Comics will release Jiro Kuwata’s 1960s Batman manga, Batmanga, as a digital-first comic starting this Saturday, and later it will be released as three print volumes. The manga will be released unflipped and the digital price will be 99 cents a chapter, available on the DC Comics app, Readdcentertainment.com, Comixology, iBooks, Google Play, the Kindle Store, and the Nook Store.

Another new license announcement: Viz confirmed it has the license to the two-volume Little Battlers eXperience (Danbōru Senki) manga by Hideaki Fujii.

And the BL imprint SuBLime announced it will release The World’s Greatest First Love: The Case of Ritsu Onodera (Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi ~Onodera Ritsu no Baai~), by Shungiku Nakamura, in February.

Manga creator Moyoco Anno talks about her life and her work, including Happy Mania, Sakuran, Sugar Sugar Rune, and Insufficient Direction, in an interview at Publishers Weekly.

The Manga Bookshelf team looks at this week’s new releases and discusses their Pick of the Week.

Shonen Jump is publishing a two-chapter Nisekoi/My Love Story crossover.

Laura looks at some new shoujo manga coming out in July at Heart of Manga.

At Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin talks about scanlation and its place in the modern manga scene, triggered by a Tumblr post by a scanlator who is blocking Japanese IPs so the creators won’t find out their work is being put online without their consent.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team keeps it short and sweet in their latest set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown looks back on a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Btooom! (Comics Worth Reading)
Sakura Eries on vol. 15 of Goong (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 1 of Highschool DxD (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on vol. 7 of No. 6 (Experiments in Manga)
Ash Brown on The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame and Endless Game (Experiments in Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 6-12 of Sumomomo Momomo (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal (The Comic Book Bin)

Viz signs on with comiXology, making that digital-comics platform the closest thing there is to one-stop shopping for digital manga.

Yen Press announced four new licenses on Friday the 13th: Akame Ga Kill!, Kagerou Daze, Secret, and Sword Art Online: Progressive. Lissa Pattillo has the details.

Lori Henderson discusses Seven Seas’ new license announcements in the latest edition of her Manga Dome Podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald’s report on Book Expo America includes a chat with Viz senior director of sales and marketing Kevin Hamric, who says the company has had another strong year:

The manga and anime distributor will publish about 300 titles in 2014 in addition to about 30 titles (including non-manga originals and licenses) coming from Perfect Square, Viz’s children’s imprint. The house is also launching 14 new manga series this year (up from its usual 5 or 6). Viz began selling its English language print manga in India this year (distribution is by S&S U.K.) and the fans “are eating them up,” Hamric said. Viz launched the program with 25 series from Shueisha and expect to increase that number after the program is reviewed in June.

Plus they have the Sailor Moon anime, and they are dubbing July Pop Culture Month.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date in her latest Yuri Network News post at Okazu.

Shaenon Garrity writes about the wine-tasting manga Drops of God in this week’s House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Over at Mangabrog (hey!), there’s a translation of a conversation between Taiyo Matsumoto, Inio Asano, and Keigo Shinzo.

Zainab Akhtar takes a look at Dark Horse’s plans to publish two Satoshi Kon manga, Opus and Seraphim.

News from Japan: The Diet is about to pass a new child pornography law that bans possession of photos and videos but exempts anime and manga. Sankarea will end with the next volume, on November 7.

Reviews

Ken H on vol. 12 of Attack on Titan (Comics Should Be Good)
Ken H on vol. 29 of Blade of the Immortal (Comics Should Be Good)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 15 of Case Closed (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Ken H on vols. 1-3 of Countdown Seven Days (Comics Should Be Good)
Erica Friedman on Dark Cherry to Shoujo A (Okazu)
Ken H on vols. 4 and 5 of The Flowers of Evil (Comics Should Be Good)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 23 of Higurashi: When They Cry (The Fandom Post)
Sarah on vols. 1 and 2 of Millennium Snow (nagareboshi ★ reviews)
Kevin Church on Nijigahara Holograph (Comics Alliance)
Angela Sylvia on vol. 19 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Fandom Post)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 2 of Ranma 1/2 (omnibus edition) (The Fandom Post)
Ken H on vol. 1 of Say I Love You (Comics Should Be Good)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign (Manga Report)

Amazon appears to be targeting Yen Press in its current war with parent company Hachette. Amazon and Hachette have been wrangling over contract terms, and Amazon has eliminated discounts on their books, lengthened the turnaround time for orders of older books, and omitted pre-order buttons for some upcoming titles.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their Picks of the Week.

Justin Stroman has really been killing it at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses lately with a whole series of interviews with manga insiders. Here are two more, and they’re both fascinating reading: Former Tokyopop senior editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl talks about her years at Tokyopop and discusses how scanlation and piracy have affected the industry at different times, and artist
Jamie Lynn Lano, who worked as assistant to The Prince of Tennis manga-ka Takeshi Konomi and has written a book about it, The Princess of Tennis, talks about her experiences.

Atsushi Ohara at the Asahi Shimbun reports on the deliberations for the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prizes, which were announced in April.

David Brothers looks at the depiction of sudden death in Knights of Sidonia.

Erica Friedman updates us on the world of yuri in the latest Yuri Network News episode at Okazu.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team files this week’s Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown summarizes a week of manga at Experiments in Manga.

Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (Manga Xanadu)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Inu x Boku: SS (Manga Xanadu)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 5 of Midnight Secretary (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of One Piece (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on Rainy Song (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Say I Love You (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of Sweet Rein (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Takasugi-San’s Obento (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
David Brothers on Wolfsmund (4thletter!)