MangaBlog

Tokyopop revives weekly serialization: They are releasing the second volume of Hetalia in weekly issues via the comiXology app.

Kristin takes a manga-centric look at the November Previews at Comic Attack.

Sean Gaffney has been looking over the Japanese best-seller lists, and he has ten more license requests for American publishers.

David Welsh has reached the letter O in his Seinen Alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon.

News from Japan: Matt Alt points to a nonfiction manga that’s “climbing the bestseller lists” right now: The Manga Guide to Psychosomatic Illnesses. Good times.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss new volumes of ongoing series in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf. John Thomas includes some short reviews of recent releases in his latest Yuuyake Shimbum column.

Connie on vol. 2 of Evil’s Return (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 7 of Goong (Slightly Biased Manga)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Hetalia: Axis Powers (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Zack Davisson on vol. 21 of Hikaru No Go (Japan Reviewed)
Connie on vol. 6 of Kimi ni Todoke (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Knights (Sequential Ink)
Jaime Samms on Loud Snow (Kuriousity)
Justin Colussy-Estes on vol. 9 of One Thousand and One Nights (Comics Village)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Princess Princess (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Todd Douglass on vol. 3 of Spice & Wolf (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 22-24 of The Wallflower (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on the October issue of Yen Plus (Manga Xanadu)

Caleb Goellner of Comics Alliance takes the Viz iPad app for a test drive and likes what he sees:

Its interface is comparable to comiXology’s prominent reader and creating an account to buy content is a simple, streamlined process. Much like our earlier experience with the Scott Pilgrim iPad app, Viz’s digest-sized pages translate nicely to the iPad’s larger screen, a presentation style that should prove ideal for fans who already enjoy reading digital comics content on the device.

For now it doesn’t appear that content purchased in Viz’s iPad can be used or stored across multiple devices the way it can on other existing digital comic book platforms, but there’s always potential for Viz to address that functionality down the road provided users demand it.

At About.com, Deb Aoki has some ideas for things Viz might use the app for in the future. Kate Dacey posts her reaction The Manga Critic, and briefly compares the Viz and Yen Press apps.

David Welsh and Brad Rice look at this week’s new releases.

At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao takes a look at why incest is such a popular theme in anime and manga. Tony also points us to an interesting scholarly paper, The Diffusion of Foreign Cultural Products: The Case Analysis of Japanese Comics (Manga) Market in the US, which I’m looking forward to reading this weekend. Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley clear up some misconceptions about moe at Manga Life.

News from Japan: CLAMP already announced a Gate 7 one-shot in the December Jump Square, and now they say it will be a series starting with the March issue. BL publisher Libre is has just released Seitō Kijinka Seitō-tan (Seitō-tan, Political Parties Personified) which is exactly what it sounds like; ANN has the full explanation. Also, Shogakukan Creative is about to publish the notebooks of Osamu Tezuka, an item that should be on lots of otaku wish-lists this holiday season.

Reviews

Animemiz on 20th Century Boys (Anime Diet)
Sean Kleefeld on The 14th Dalai Lama: A Manga Biography (Kleefeld on Comics)
Chris Zimmerman on vols. 1 and 2 of Biomega and vol. 1 of March Story (CBS4.com)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Black Butler (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 19 of D.Gray-Man (The Comic Book Bin)
Animemiz on High School Debut (Anime Diet)
Anna on vols. 2 and 3 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on Kaichou to Fukukaichou (Okazu)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of K-On!! (Anime Maki)
Greg McElhatton on Korea as Viewed by 12 Creators (Read About Comics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Stellar Six of Gingacho (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Summoner Girl (Anime Maki)

Here’s the big news of the day: Viz is launching its own iPad app. PWCW has all the details, and Anna (a.k.a. Tangognat) is first out of the gate with some reactions at Manga Report.

Melinda Beasi’s Pick of the Week is The Story of Sainkoku. Hit the link to find out why. Also, Melinda brings us a look at November’s manhwa releases in her weekly Manhwa Monday column. And she asks her readers: What do you think of the Digital Manga Guild?

Reviews: Ash Brown has a quick rundown of the week’s reading at Experiments in Manga.

Leroy Douresseaux on vols. 15-17 of Air Gear (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on vols. 1 and 2 of Bakuman (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 7 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Demon Sacred (Slightly Biased Manga)
Billy Aguiar on Ghost in the Shell (Prospero’s Manga)
Sean Gaffney on How to Draw Shoujo Manga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Kingyo Used Books (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of K-On! (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 28 of Negima (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on the November issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
Steve Bennett on vol. 1 of Summoner Girl (ICv2)
Shannon Fay on Uzumaki (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 10 of V.B. Rose (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Viz has a major announcement in the December Shonen Jump: They are planning an online manga site for subscribers to the magazine. Andre Paploo lays out all the details and speculates a bit at Kuriousity. Could this be the game-changing announcement they were Tweeting about last week?

Digital Manga announced three new titles at their Yaoi-Con panel: Men of Tattoos (Shinsei no Otoko), Rabbit Man, Tiger Man (Usagi Otoko Tora Otoko), and Butterfly of the Distant Day (Tooi Hi no Cho). Deb Aoki has the covers and more details at About.com, and she also has a report on the con itself.

Speaking of Digital, they also announced their Digital Manga Guild this weekend. That’s an idea they have talked about before—basically, fans will volunteer to do translations and edit manga with no payment up front but a cut of the profits when the book sells. Coincidentally, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, who is a freelance editor at Tokyopop, just posted about the financial side of being a manga editor—it’s not easy, even when you do get paid up front.

Lori Henderson rounds up the rest of the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu.

Sean Gaffney takes a look at this week’s new manga, and the Comics Village team picks the best of the most recent batch.

Caddy C. writes about female friendship in Skip Beat at A Feminist Otaku.

Melinda Beasi has a new feature, Failure Friday, in which she looks at flawed manga; she starts off with the rather strange romance manga Heaven’s Will.

Lori Henderson looks at manga that feature yokai as a protagonist and not just a punching bag.

Scary stuff: At Robot 6, Chris Mautner lists six horror manga he would like to see translated. Panel Patter, Rob McMonigal lists his favorite horror manga, and at All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber writes about the one manga that really creeps her out. At Kuriousity, Shannon Fay continues her Halloween manga series with a look at Haunted House and Cat-Eyed Boy.

Ayano Yamane, creator of the Finder series, has her own website up in English, and she is releasing her manga to the Kindle via the publisher Animate. (Via Deb Aoki, who has all the details.)

Well, there’s a manga bible, so why not? An Indian writer and a Japanese artist have teamed up to make a manga version of the Mahabharata.

News from Japan: The long-running Garasu no Kamen (Glass Mask) reached its 35th birthday last month; Tomoko Nishida of The Daily Yomiuri provides a bit of background. And ANN reports that the artist Kabocha is working on a manga based on the anime Aim for the Top! Gunbuster.

Reviews: Omar posts some brief reviews of recent manga at About Heroes, and Ash Brown looks at some manga from the library at Experiments in Manga.

Connie on A Bloody Kiss Tonight (Comics Village)
Emily on Boy & Cool (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 3 and 4 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comics Worth Reading)
Connie on vol. 2 of Cat-Eyed Boy (Slightly Biased Manga)
Angela Eastman on Che Guevara: A Manga Biography (Suite101.com)
Angela Eastman on vol. 1 of Cross Game (Suite101.com)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 6 of Detroit Metal City (Animanga Nation)
Oliver Ho on vols. 1-3 of Dororo (PopMatters)
Michelle Smith on The Dreaming Collection (Soliloquy in Blue)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 21 of Hikaru no Go (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 21 of Hikaru No Go (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Kazuo Umezu Prints 21 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 11 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Mad Love Chase (Slightly Biased Manga)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of March Story (Blogcritics)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Millennium Snow (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kristin on Bleach Official Bootleg: Color Bleach (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 9 of Pet Shop of Horrors (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on vols. 1-3 of Presents (The Manga Critic)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Saving Life (Anime Maki)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Stepping on Roses (Manga Maniac Cafe)

Arisa, vol. 1
By Natsumi Ando
Rated T, for Teens, ages 13+
Del Rey/Kodansha, $10.99

Fourteen-year-old Tsubasa tells people exactly what she thinks, which has earned her the nickname “demon princess” in her high school. Guys find her straightforward manner appealing, but Tsubasa longs to be more girly and have more girlfriends—like her twin sister Arisa.

Arisa and Tsubasa have been apart for three years, since their parents’ divorce, but they have kept in touch. As the book opens, they get together for the first time and decide to switch places for a day. Thanks to their correspondence and some quick prep, Tsubasa pulls it off, spending the day enjoying the affection of Arisa’s girlfriends and her hunky but sweet boyfriend, none of whom suspect anything is up. It’s a perfect existence, which makes it all the more shocking when Arisa jumps out the window upon Tsubasa’s return.

The proximate cause of the jump was a note, which Tsubasa assumed was a love note but actually said “Arisa Sonoda is a traitor.” Fortunately, Arisa doesn’t die, but she does go into a coma, and Tsubasa decides to assume her identity in order to see what caused her to try to take her life—and perhaps bring her back, just in case the coma is purely emotional in nature.

The game is on! With the setup firmly in place, Tsubasa starts investigating, starting with the assumption that Arisa was bullied. Arisa’s school is almost Stepford-like; everyone is cheerful and affectionate and delighted to have their old friend back, and Tsubasa can’t figure out what’s going on—until it’s time for the school’s weekly ritual, and the story shifts into a much creepier mode, going over to the darker side of human nature.

Arisa isn’t as bloody as Battle Royale or The Drifting Classroom, but what’s going on isn’t that different: The kids are being manipulated by unseen forces, and the result is that they are turning on each other one by one. Tsubasa sees this firsthand after one of her classmates expresses momentary doubt—and the others immediately begin bullying her. The violence is psychological, not physical, but it is real nonetheless.

Natsumi Ando is the creator of Kitchen Princess, a book that embraced every cliché of the shoujo romance genre but still managed to weave interesting stories about three-dimensional characters. This book is even better. The mystery at the heart of it is not all that original, but it is an excellent metaphor for high school life. And Tsubasa is convincing as a conflicted but determined teenager. She shines through as a real person, insecure and quirky but good-hearted under it all. Her classmate, Manabe, is the wild card that keeps the story interesting, as Tsubasa tries to figure out which side he is on—sometimes he seems to support the other students, other times he rebels.

Visually, this book is a shoujo as they come. The characters are highly stylized, with eyes like saucers, and the panels float on a river of screentones. While readers unfamiliar with manga may find that off-putting, it’s not a bad thing, as shoujo manga does creepy stories very well. One of the most effective techniques for creating uneasiness is to stay close to reality but change a few details; when Tsubasa’s classmates drop their everyday cheer and shift into darker mode, their eyes are hidden and the shadows deepen.

As in Kitchen Princess, Ando gets briskly to work on telling her story. While the first volume in a series is often all setup, Ando moves the plot along and reveals a few secrets while dangling others to keep readers interested. Overall, it’s a well done mystery, a sophisticated story wrapped in sweet, sweet shoujo art.

(This review is based on a review copy supplied by the publisher.)

Digital Manga has just announced four new licenses on their web page: Border, vols. 1-3, by Kazuma Kodaka; Bad Teacher’s Equation, vols. 1-5 by Kazuma Kodaka; Blue Sheep Reverie, vol. 4 by Makoto Tateno; and the novel Demon City Shinjuku: The Complete Edition, by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

Meanwhile, Udon has unveiled their latest manga series, the two-volume Street Fighter Gaiden.

Lori Henderson posts this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Japan, Inc. takes center stage in Jason Thompson’s latest House of 1,000 Manga column at ANN.

Jones, one of my favorite infrequently-updating bloggers, does a guest turn at The Hooded Utilitarian talking about “visual aliens,” characters who are drawn in a noticeably different style than the rest of the cast. He starts with Moyasimon and extends it to Western comics, but I could have come up with a lot more examples from manga, where I often find it rather distracting.

Trick or treat: Melinda Beasi has a seasonally-themed Three Things Thursday column at Manga Bookshelf: Ghost hunters. Shannon Fay’s latest Halloween manga pick is Madeline Rosca’s delightful Hollow Fields. And to really get you in the Halloween mood, check out Pink Tentacle’s gallery of Tatsuya Morino’s drawings of classic monsters from Gothic literature. (Last link via Comics Alliance.)

Happy blogiversary to Rob McMonigal, who has been writing about graphic novels for two years now over at Panel Patter.

News from Japan: Shin-Men, a new anime and manga series based on Crayon Shin-Chan will start running on TV and in Monthly Manga Town magazine, the home of the original. The series features five little men based on a mixed bag of elements (fire, water, wind greenery, and iron) who will fight against evil pigs. Also, Say Hello to Black Jack creator Shuho Sato has found an overseas site to translate his manga for free; Sato announced earlier this week that he was looking for unpaid translators.

Reviews: Kate Dacey looks at two new kid-friendly releases from Viz, Panda Man to the Rescue and Taro and the Magic Pencil, at Good Comics for Kids. Deb Aoki takes the express line with seven short reviews of recent manga at About.com.

Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of 20th Century Boys (Japan Reviewed)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 3 and 4 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comics Worth Reading)
Kelakagandy on vols. 1 and 2 of Demon Sacred (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Dorohedoro (Japan Reviewed)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Ghost Talker’s Daydream (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Penny Kenny on vol. 52 of InuYasha (Manga Life)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 3 of Kobato (Read About Comics)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of The Stellar Six of Gingacho and vol. 1 of Summoner Girl (Blog@Newsarama)
Anna on vol. 1 of Wicked Lovely: Desert Tales (Manga Report)