MangaBlog

ANN has more info on Manga Factory, the new manga publisher that has apparently arisen from the ashes of Aurora. Manga Factory rep Miki Ogata clarifies that although the new company is staffed by former Aurora employees, it is a completely separate entity. One thing muddying the water is the fact that Manga Factory is selling books published by Aurora, but Ogata says they were purchased from third parties, and the new company does not own Aurora’s inventory or hold the rights to any Aurora licenses. Manga Factory has no plans to announce new licenses this summer, which is understandable as these things can take time.

Melinda Beasi rounds up some recent manhwa reviews in her latest Manhwa Monday post and also asks her readers to vote on the best manhwa of 2010 (so far).

David Welsh looks at this year’s comics awards, including the Harveys (only four manga were nominated, all in the best edition of foreign works category) and the Eisners, which will be announced at SDCC.

Alex Hoffman has a very interesting article on deconstruction in Bokurano Ours up at Manga Widget.

Lori Henderson explains how to find untranslated manga at Manga Xanadu.

Reviews

Kristin on vol. 35 of Case Closed (Comic Attack)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Chi’s Sweet Home (ANN)
Sesho on vol. 2 of Culdcept (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 4 of Fake (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 15 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Susan S. on Loving Gaze (Manga Jouhou)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Manga no Tsukurikata (Okazu)
Michelle Smith on vol. 12 of Nana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Penny Kenny on vol. 3 of Rin-ne (Manga Life)
Connie on vol. 1 of Seiho Boys’ High School (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Stepping on Roses (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Tangognat on vol. 2 of Stolen Hearts (Tangognat)
Grant Goodman on vol. 1 of World of Warcraft: Shadow Wing (Comics Village)

Deb Aoki has more info on the new titles announced by Viz at Anime Expo.

Lori Henderson posts a handy digest of the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman rounds up all things yuri in her Yuri Network News feature at Okazu.

The Manga Village team picks the best of the past week’s new releases.

Kate Dacey closes out Shoujo Manga Week at The Manga Critic with a look at five underrated shoujo manga series.

Johanna Draper Carlson is skeptical about the move to shut down scanlators.

The latest installment of Breaking Down Banana Fish, a roundtable hosted by Melinda Beasi and featuring Michelle Smith, Khursten Santos, Connie C., Eva Volin, and Robin Brenner, is up at Manga Bookshelf.

The Sequential Tart writers, for their part, have a roundtable on Ooku: The Inner Chambers.

Minari no Seishun, a 4-koma manga about a high school girl who is married, is now available, in English for Android phones.

Reviews: EvilOmar pens some brief reviews of recent manga at About Heroes.

Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Seattle PI)
Kristin on vols. 3 and 4 of Antique Bakery (Comic Attack)
Michelle Smith on vols. 15-17 of Black Cat (Soliloquy in Blue)
Erica Friedman on Carbonard Crown (Okazu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Deadman Wonderland (Blog@Newsarama)
Connie on vol. 3 of Fake (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on Fruits Basket Banquet (I Reads You)
Sesho on vol. 8 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 23 of Fullmetal Alchemist and vol. 3 of Rin-ne (cbs4.com)
Noah Berlatsky on Gantz (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Connie on vol. 8 of Gestalt (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tangognat on vols. 1-4 of Goong (Tangognat)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Japan Reviewed)
Connie on vol. 27 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Slightly Biased Manga)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Millennium Prime Minister (Seattle PI)
Connie on Mugen Spiral (omnibus edition) (Comics Village)
Snow Wildsmith on My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Fujoshi Librarian)
Kate Dacey on vols. 1-4 of The Name of the Flower (The Manga Critic)
Connie on vol. 21 of Nana (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 54 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 14 of Ouran High School Host Club (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (Comics Should Be Good)
Caddy C. on solanin (A Feminist Otaku)
Dave Ferraro on Yellow (Comics-and-More)

Deb Aoki has lots more info on Digital Manga’s newly announced books.

It’s only Friday, but Sean Gaffney is already looking forward to next week’s new manga.

Jason Thompson’s latest House of 1000 Manga column is an ode to the awesomeness of Moyoco Anno’s Happy Mania.

At The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh pleads for some kindly publisher to adopt two shoujo manga orphaned by CMX, and he has more thoughts and some runners-up for Kate Dacey’s best new manga poll.

At PWCW, Jonathan Bethune looks at two interesting but as-yet-untranslated manga, Sexy Commando Gaiden and Lock On!

Jason Thompson is looking for diagrams of manga studios, which are often included in as extras in manga, for a mysterious project by a friend.

Blogging about blogging: Manga Recon alumnus Ken Haley has started his own blog, Sequential Ink. Tune in early and often!

News from Japan: Nabari no Ou is winding up its run with volume 14. Also, ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: At Sequential Tart, Margaret O’Connell finds vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses to be more of a comedy and less of a retrograde soap opera than she had feared. J. Caleb Mozzocco checks out the first volume of two Oz-inspired manga, Dorothy of Oz and Toto, at Every Day Is Like Wednesday. The latest reviews at Publishers Weekly include a look at vol. 1 of Afterschool Charisma along with a handful of non-manga graphic novels.

Ed Sizemore on several Avatar: The Last Airbender manga (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on vol. 7 of Black Jack (Comics Village)
Danica Davidson on Darker Than Black (iF Magazine)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Fruits Basket: Ultimate Edition (I Reads You)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Hero Tales (Comics Village)
Kate Dacey on Himeyuka & Rozione’s Story (The Manga Critic)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Karakuri Odette (Manga Life)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Kingdom of the Winds (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Kobato (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Lucky Star (Okazu)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 48 of Naruto (Animanga Nation)
Katherine Farmar on The Object of My Affection (Comics Village)
Shannon Fay on vol. 50 of One Piece (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 16 of Reborn! (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 14-16 of School Rumble (omnibus edition)
Lori Henderson on the August issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
Amy Grockl on vol. 2 of Tena on S-String (Comics Village)

The latest Diamond Previews features an interview with Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi, and since the interview is print-only, the fine folks at Digital Manga have reproduced it in full at their blog.

David Welsh checks out this week’s new offerings at the comics store.

Shoujo manga week continues at The Manga Critic with Kate Dacey’s discussion of her favorite shoujo manga, Kaze Hikaru.

Lissa Pattillo shares some first impressions of the contents of her shopping bag at Kuriousity.

Ray Hu has a video interview with ANN critic Carlo Santos at Anime Diet.

Christopher Butcher will be at San Diego Comic-Con, and he’s taking part in a panel on manga, among other things.

Reviews: Larry Cruz has a long but very entertaining dissertation on the flaws and high points of Wendy Pini’s The Masque of the Red Death at The Webcomic Overlook. Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss several recent releases in their latest Off the Shelf feature, and you can eavesdrop at Manga Bookshelf. Carlo Santos gives short, sometimes brutal takes on more new manga in his Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Kate Dacey on vols. 1 and 2 of Arata: The Legend (Good Comics for Kids)
Michelle Smith on vols. 5 and 6 of Banana Fish (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on vol. 3 of Butterflies, Flowers (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 50 of InuYasha (Comic Attack)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Kobato (Tangognat)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of One Fine Day (Good Comics for Kids)
Todd Douglass on Romeo x Juliet (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Twin Spica (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 15 of xxxHolic (Slightly Biased Manga)

Youka Nitta is back: The yaoi creator, who stepped away from public view in 2008 after accusations that some of her drawings were actually tracings of photographs, has set up a website, All About Youka Nitta, and she recently wound up her 14-volume series Embracing Love. Animate USA, which publishes yaoi manga for the Kindle,announced this week that it would publish two Nitta titles in English, Sound of My Voice – Golden Goose Part 1 and LOL Theater (W Gekijō), and the final volume of Embracing Love in Japanese.

We’re halfway through the year, and Kate Dacey takes the opportunity to take a half-time poll asking what are the best manga of the year so far. Go, vote for your favorite! David Welsh reveals his choices at The Manga Curmudgeon. Also, Kate is giving away some shoujo manga; just tell her your favorite out-of-print or untranslated shoujo manga to enter.

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind presents a comprehensive database of manga in English, for you to do with what you will.

Sunday Comics Debt has an interesting essay on the use of speech balloons and other text in manga, with some comparisons to Western comics.

Kate Dacey checks out this week’s new manga.

At Same Hat!, Ryan looks forward to two new books due out in the fall, Genkaku Picasso and A Single Match.

Happy blogiversary to Lissa Pattillo, who celebrated three years of Kuriousity yesterday.

News from Japan: The Wall Street Journal blog, not a source I link to often, has a thorough article on the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s proposed law to ban depictions of “nonexistent juveniles” in sexual situations, and why it failed to pass. Hideyuki Igarashi, the editor of Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Sirius, was arrested Tuesday on charges of assault and battery after he allegedly attacked a woman in a restaurant.

Reviews

Emily on 16 Life (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Kate Dacey on vols. 1 and 2 of Arata the Legend (Good Comics for Kids)
Charles Webb on vol. 9 of Black God (Manga Life)
Connie on vol. 11 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance+ (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 49 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Welsh on vol. 2 of Twin Spica (The Manga Curmudgeon)

Anime Expo has wrapped up for this year, and I take a look at how the manga presence has evolved over the past five years at Robot 6.

Melinda Beasi looks at July manhwa releases and recent reviews in her latest Manhwa Monday feature at Manga Bookshelf.

Julie Opipari picks the best from the July Previews at Manga Maniac Cafe.

Reviews: Kate Dacey takes a quick look at some new shoujo releases at The Manga Critic. Other reviews of note:

Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Blogcritics)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Comics-and-More)
Connie on vol. 5 of Detroit Metal City (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (Fujoshi Librarian)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 53 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Liz Reed on vol. 2 of Pandora Hearts (Manga Life)
Connie on vol. 5 of Rasetsu (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 3 of Rin-ne (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Eric Friedman on Sleeping Beauty Mita Yume (Okazu)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Stolen Hearts (Kuriousity)