MangaBlog

Drawn & Quarterly announced yesterday that it has acquired the license to Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro, which they seem to be titling simply Kitaro for their release, and will publish it in 2013. They have also published Mizuki’s Onward Toward Our Noble Deaths and NonNonBa.

Lissa Pattillo rounds up the Digital Manga news from Fanime, including the fact that they have plans for another Kickstarter to fund an Osamu Tezuka work, since the last two did so well.

Lissa also checks out this week’s new manga releases in her On the Shelf column for Otaku USA.

Lori Henderson’s latest license request: Gekkou no Aria (Garnet Cradle), which is based on a reverse harem game for girls.

News from Japan: Shinobi Life creator Shôko Conami has just launched a new series, Shikabane Cherry, in Gekkan Princess magazine.

Reviews

Kristin on chapter 1 of Barrage (Comic Attack)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Blood Blockade Battlefront (Sequential Ink)
David Brothers on Dr. Slump (4thletter!)
Manjiorin on vol. 1 of Maison Ikkoku (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Philip Shropshire on Rohan at the Louvre (Comics Forge)

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week.

Viz will be releasing vol. 13 of Neon Genesis Evangelion in the U.S. on November 2, the same day it comes out in Japan.

Deb Aoki has a heads-up for aspiring creators: The deadline for the 6th International Manga Award competition, sponsored by the Japanese government, is June 15.

News from Japan: DN Angel manga-ka Yukiru Sugisaki and Boys Be… creator Hiroyuki Tamakoshi are both launching new series in Comic Birz in the near future. Hatsune Miku and her Vocaloid pals are making a guest appearance in the Weekly Shonen Jump series Kochikame.

Reviews: Carlo Santos checks out the latest releases in his Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. It’s time for a new set of Bookshelf Briefs at Manga Bookshelf. Ash Brown reviews a week’s worth of manga at Experiments in Manga.

Anna on vols. 4 and 5 of Ai Ore (Manga Report)
Justin on chapter 1 of Barrage (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Blue Friend (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vols. 61 and 62 of One Piece (Comic Attack)

Pickings were slim last week in terms of new releases, but I made my picks at MTV Geek and Lissa Pattillo gave her take in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

And speaking of Otaku USA, it is now available digitally via the iTunes Store and the British site PocketMags. The iTunes app is free, and individual issues are available for $5.99 or a six-month subscription for $19.99.

Deb Aoki and Ed Sizemore are the guests on the Super Manga Pals edition of ANN’s ANNCast podcast.

Erica Friedman has a new Yuri Network News post for us at Okazu.

Chris Sims likes Gunsmith Cats, but the series is, as he puts it, “problematic.” He discusses the joys and problems at length at Comics Alliance.

Business Week profiles Mihoko Ishizawa, who created Field of Cole, a collection of short stories about the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Three Steps Over Japan peeks inside the covers of Comp Ace.

Organization Anti-Social Geniuses gets all self-referential with an accounting of anti-social geniuses in anime and manga, and contributor Manjiorin reminisces about getting involved with manga.

Tom Langston posts a con report on Fanime at Nigorimasen!

News from Japan: Good news for Claymore fans: That series will continue, according to the editors of Jump Square magazine, despite the author’s hints that it is coming to an end. The Cultural Affairs Agency is setting up a database of manga and anime as part of its “cool Japan” strategy. The 100th volume of Hajime no Ippo is due out in July. Tokyo’s Youth Healthy Development Council, which is tasked with leafing through sexy manga to determine if they are deleterious to the morals of the local youth, has given the green light to To Love-Ru Darkness despite some full frontal nudity. Kadokawa Shoten is launching a new magazine, Samurai Ace, with samurai stories by a number of creators, including Lone Wolf and Cub manga-ka Kazuo Koike. The yuri series Prism is on hiatus while editors investigate accusations that creator Show Higashiyama copied some images from photos. Yamato Yamamoto is wrapping up Kure-nai but is launching a new dark fantasy series, Owari no Seraph (The Final Seraph) with writer Takaya Kagami (A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives). And ANN has the top-selling series for the first half of the year, by volume and by series.

Reviews: Adam Stephanides posts short reviews of a number of untranslated manga, including Naoki Urasawa’s Billy Bat, at Completely Futile. Jocelyne Allen looks at Bokura no Manga, an anthology inspired by last year’s earthquake and nuclear disaster, at Brain vs. Book.

Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of Case Closed (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 5-8 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Manga Xanadu)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of InuYasha (VizBig edition) (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Kamisama Kiss (The Comic Book Bin)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Konjaku Monogatari (Three Steps Over Japan)
Connie on vol. 2 of Love Pistols (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 11-15 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 9 of Toriko (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Toriko (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Twin Spica (Blogcritics)
A Library Girl on Wild Rock (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)

The Manga Bookshelf reviewers make their picks from an unusually slim week of new manga releases.

Meanwhile, Sean Gaffney looks forward to a more bountiful selection next week.

Deb Aoki talks to Adam Warren, creator of Empowered, on how anime and manga have shaped his sensibility.

Tom Langston posts the slides from his sports manga panel at Fanime.

At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao notes the birthday of Bleach sociopath Sosuke Aizen.

David Brothers files his con report on Fanime, including the Shonen Jump panel.

Matt Blind posts the big list of manga best-sellers (online sales) from the week ending March 18.

Ash Brown is giving away the first volume of R.O.D.: Read or Die. Hit the link to find out how to enter.

News from Japan: Neko Ramen creator Kenji Sonshi has started a new series, Neko Tantei, about a cat who is a detective. Aloha Higa has put Shirokuma Cafe on hiatus, apparently to protest the way the anime adaptation was handled; it seems to have worked. Toriko Chiya is launching Clover trèfle, a sequel to her Clover office romance manga, in Cocohana. Minoru Furuya, creator of Himuzu and Ping Pong Club, just debuted a new series, Saruchinesu, in Kodansha’s Young. The French site Manga News has a list of the manga that ended in May, including Negima; only series licensed in France are included. ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings. And CLAMP will illustrate the cover of the novelization of the movie Blood-C: The Last Dark. (Click image twice to enlarge.)

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf ace reviewer team greets the week with a new set of Bookshelf Briefs. A Day Without Me reviews 12 Days, a Tokyopop OEL title that isn’t quite what you’d think, at Gar Gar Stegosaurus.

Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Manjiorin on vols. 1 and 2 of Eternal Sabbath (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Free Collars Kingdom (Manga Xanadu)
Rob McMonigal on issue 3 of GEN (Panel Patter)
Zack Davisson on vol. 4 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Japan Reviewed)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of One Piece (Blogcritics)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (The Manga Critic)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on vol. 14 of We Were There (Manga Report)

The newest addition to Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha lineup is Kōhei Horikoshi’s sci-fi manga Sensei no Baruji (Barrage).

This really shouldn’t be news, but somehow it is: ICv2 reports that Bizenghast creator M. Alice LeGrow will be paid for the eighth and final volume of the series, which is being co-published by Tokyopop and RightStuf.

Sean Gaffney looks at the coming week’s new manga releases.

The Digital Manga Guild will expand its reach to light novels and doujinshi, Digital Manga, Inc., representatives announced at Fanime this past weekend.

Deb Aoki continues her series on Making a Living in Manga with a look at publishers vs. self-publishing and webcomics—and whether you should just move to Japan.

And here’s an interview with a working manga artist: Laur Uy posts parts 3 and 4 of her interview with Cassandra Jean, the illustrator of Beautiful Creatures, published by Yen Press.

The Manga Moveable Feast, which focused on Oishinbo and food manga, is over, but you can read all the posts and check the links at host blog Otaku Champloo. A few late entries: Ed Sizemore has some things to say about food manga at Comics Worth Reading, and he and Johanna Draper Carlson discuss the topic with Deb Aoki and Michelle Smith in the latest Manga Out Loud podcast. Meanwhile, Ash Brown muses on Oishinbo and the Romance of Food at Experiments in Manga. And Kate Dacey looks at seven mouth-watering food manga at The Manga Critic.

And Michelle Smith and Anna Neatrour will co-host the next MMF at their blogs, Soliloquy in Blue and Manga Report, respectively. The topic: The works of Takehiko Inoue.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news at Okazu. She also points to the English translation of Kimino Tamenara Shineru, a gag manga set in the Heian era, which is now available on JManga, along with an essay on the Heian Period that she co-wrote with translator Erin Subramanian.

Patrick Markfort takes to video to discuss the work of Naoki Urasawa.

Comics Alliance has an excerpt from the manga section of The Comic Book History of Comics, by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey. Check it out for a snippet of the history of manga told in comic-book form.

Connie continues her commentary on the Eroicaverse with a look at the art book Plus Ultra.

Black Sun manga-ka Uki Ogasawara will be a guest at this year’s Yaoi-Con.

Megan Purdy reports on the scene at TCAF at Manga Bookshelf.

Matt Blind has the manga best-sellers (online sales) for the week ending March 11.

News from Japan: Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at the newish manga magazine Miracle Jump. W-Juliet creator Emura will launch a new shoujo manga, Idea no Hana, in the August issue of Bessatsu Hana to Yume, and D.N. Angel manga-ka Yukiru Sugisaki’s 1001 (Knights) debuts in the next issue of Asuka. Galaxy Angel creator Yūko Ōtsuki (a.k.a. Kanan) has a new series, Shōjo Ren-ai Hen-i (Girl Love Variation), in Shogakukan’s Club Sunday magazine. Manga adaptations of the anime ‘K’, the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor game, and the Mini-Skirt Uchū Kaizoku light novels are in the works. Berserk is back for a three-chapter run in Hakusensha’s Young Animal. The high school version of K-ON will end in the June issue of Manga Time Kirara Carat.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss some recent yaoi titles in their latest BL Bookrack column at Manga Bookshelf. Ash Brown wraps up a week’s worth of manga at Experiments in Manga.

Matthew Warner on vol. 6 of Arisa (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 14 of Black Bird (The Comic Book Bin)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Bloody Monday (podcast review) (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
TSOTE on vol. 3 of Case Records of Professor Munakata (Three Steps Over Japan)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 3 of Dawn of the Arcana (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Dawn of the Arcana (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on vol. 3 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Manga Report)
Carlo Santos on Dororo (omnibus editions) (ANN)
Connie on vol. 1 of Doukyusei (Slightly Biased Manga)
Manjiyorin on vol. 1 of Drifters (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 2 of Fist of the North Star (Slightly Biased Manga)
Alexander Bustos on issue 11 of GEN magazine (Comic attack)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 18 of Higurashi: When They Cry (ANN)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Hoshin Engi (Blogcritics)
Connie on vol. 9 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 9 of Kamisama Kiss (Comic Attack)
Sweetpea616 on Kitchen Princess (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
John Rose on vol. 5 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya-Chan (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 7 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (Manga Xanadu)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Oishinbo A La Carte (Manga Xanadu)
Ash Brown on Oishinbo A La Carte: Ramen and Gyoza (Experiments in Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 62 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Chris Beveridge on chapter 1 of Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration (The Fandom Post)
Drew McCabe on chapter 1 of Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration (Comic Attack)
Carlo Santos on vol. 5 of Saturn Apartments (ANN)
Kristin on vol. 7 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 6 of Tyrant Falls in Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on Young Miss Holmes Casebook 1-2 (Good Comics for Kids)

I’m still in transit, blogging from the Metropolitan Lounge in Union Station, Chicago, waiting to take the Lake Shore Limited to Boston. Traveling by train gave me some time to write up my review of vols. 1-6 of The Story of Saiunkoku at MTV Geek. In other news:

Khursten Santos rounds up the second day’s worth of links for the Manga Moveable Feast, which celebrates Oishinbo and food manga this month.

Digital announced a new BL license via its Twitter yesterday: Junko’s Konbini-Kun, which will be retitled Mr. Mini-Mart for the English-speaking audience.

Daniel BT takes a look at Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s gambling manga.

At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo opens up her swag bag and chats about her recent acquisitions.

Reviews: Carlo Santos gives his take on a batch of new releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Ken Haley on The Bible: A Japanese Manga Rendition (Sequential Ink)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Blogcritics)
Sweetpea616 on Lady Snowblood (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Oishinbo a la Carte (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on vol. 8 of Rakuen Le Paradis (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 6 of Twin Spica (Blogcritics)