MangaBlog

With a new volume of Sailor Moon, the end of Twin Spica, and the debut of Young Miss Holmes, not to mention new volumes of Gunslinger Girl and Ninja Girls, this week’s new manga is all about the girls. Check out my selections at MTV Geek and Lissa Pattillo’s choices in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Don’t know your BL from your shonen-ai? JManga has an ABCs of BL feature that runs through the basics of the genre and suggests ten titles for beginners, each with a special bonus attached.

Vote for your favorite comedy/slice of life manga in the latest round of Deb Aoki’s Reader’s Choice Awards at About.com.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their Pick of the Week, and for once, everyone agrees.

Erica Friedman points out two new essays on yuri manga at the Yuricon page: The Evolution of “Recognition/Assertion of a Lesbian Identity” vs. “Akogare” in Manga, by Katherine Hanson, and The Impact Of Globalization On Yuri And Fan Activism, by Yaritza Hernandez.

News from Japan: Yoshihiro Togashi is putting Hunter x Hunter on hiatus—again. Nico Nico Seiga has launched a new site, Nico Nico Manga, which will host both official and user-uploaded manga.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers kick off another week with the latest round of Bookshelf Briefs. Carlo Santos has more fast-moving commentary in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown looks over a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Dave Ferraro reviews some yaoi on the Nook at Comics-and-More.

Connie on vol. 17 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 2 of A Bride’s Story (Manga Report)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (Blogcritics)
Connie on Cold Trilogy 3: Cold Fever (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 10 of Future Diary (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Golgo 13: The Impossible Hit (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 5 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Margaret O’Connell on Husband, Honeymoon (Sequential Tart)
Kristin on vol. 4 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 8 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kiss Blue (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 14 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Oh My Goddess (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 7 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Report)
Lori Henderson on Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Movie Trilogy (Good Comics for Kids)
Chris Mautner on Princess Knight (The Comics Journal)
Connie on Rainy Day Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Skip Beat (omnibus edition)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 12 of Twin Spica (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

The New York Times manga best-seller list has a good mix of publishers this week; the final volume of xxxHOLiC (published by the otherwise mostly defunct Del Rey) tops the list, with vol. 1 of Soulless, from Yen Press, in second place and vol. 13 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei in third. Batting cleanup is vol. 11 of GTO: The Early Years, a former Tokyopop series that was rescued by Vertical. Overall, Kodansha and Viz each get three slots, Yen Press has two, and Vertical and Del Rey each get one, which makes for an unusually mixed list.

Meanwhile, manga grab 13 of the top 20 spots in February’s Nielsen BookScan list of the best-selling graphic novels in bookstores.

Looking ahead, Johanna Draper Carlson takes a look at the March Previews, which spotlights manga this month.

Erica Friedman has a new edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu, and she also discusses the concept of family in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Graphic Novel Reporter has a preview up of Jiro Taniguchi’s Summit of the Gods.

Apparently, Digital Manga has been allowing members of the Digital Manga Guild to send DMCA (copyright infringement) notices on their behalf, a practice that disturbs Ginger Mayerson. She points out that many scanlators work hard and love what they do, and that they will almost always take down scans of a book as soon as they hear it is licensed, and encourage readers to buy the new edition. (She dismisses the large aggregator sites, although they really are a bigger part of the problem.) Looking at a thread from the DMG discussion group, she is bothered by the aggressiveness of the Guild members, although it seems from the discussion that they are sending takedown messages for licensed properties.

Three Steps Over Japan has another peek inside a seinen manga magazine for us; this week, it’s Super Dash & Go.

News from Japan: A new series is launching in Shonen Sunday: Area D – Inōryōiki, by Kyoki Nanatsuki (Project ARMS) and Kyung-Il Yang (Blade of the Phantom Master). Meanwhile, at Monthly Shonen Sunday (Gessan), Cross Game creator Mitsuru Adachi is winding up his series Q and A and working on a new one, which the promotional images suggest will involve baseball. Shūzō Oshimi, the creator of Flowers of Evil and Drifting Net Cafe, has a new series, Boku wa Mari na Naka (I’m in Mari), which just started running in Futabasha’s Manga Action magazine. And the French site Manga news informs us that Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is coming to an end; the entire series will run to 30 volumes.

Reviews: Adam Stephanides discusses vols. 7 and 8 of Billy Bat, Naoki Urasawa’s current series (not out in English yet) at Completely Futile. Connie writes briefly about some manhwa that have crossed her radar at Slightly Biased Manga. Other reviews of note:

Sweetpea616 on vols. 1-3 of 100% Perfect Girl (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Erementar Gerade (Sequential Ink)
Lesley Aeschilman on vol. 1 of Flame of Recca (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of House of Five Leaves (The Comic Book Bin)
Kinukitty on I Give to You (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Lori Henderson on Kiichi and the Magic Books (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 61 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Oresama Teacher (The Comic Book Bin)

JManga is running a special this weekend: Sign up for a $10 monthly subscription and get two books’ worth of points for free; sign up for a $25 subscription and get five free books. Don’t feel like spending any money? Just for this weekend, unregistered guest users can read the free previews of 199 different manga on the site (as opposed to the usual limit of six).

More JManga news: Erica Friedman just announced another ALC/JManga collaboration, Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, a yuri manga set in the Heian period.

Lissa Pattillo picks the choicest morsels from this week’s new releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

At Comic Attack, Kristin checks out the manga in the latest issue of Previews.

Jason Thompson steps into the wayback machine for a look at Bringing Home the Sushi, an anthology of business manga, with a side trip along the way to discuss Mangaijin, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Seven Seas announced a new license yesterday: Guardians of Luna, a werewolf manga by Nozomu Tamaki, the creator of Dance in the Vampire Bund.

Digital Manga has three new licenses: Honey*Smile, Secret Thorns, and Start with a Happy Ending. Honey Smile and Secret Thorns are yaoi and will be published both digitally and in print; Start with a Happy Ending is a josei manga that will be print only. Also, the first two volumes of Erementar Gerade, their latest license rescue, are now up on eManga.com.

It has been 20 years since the Sailor Moon anime was first shown on Japanese television, and the LA Times Hero Complex blog celebrates with a little retrospective.

Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Lovely Duckie shows off her amazing manga and figurine collection at The Manga Critic.

News from Japan: Haruhi publisher Kadokawa Shoten has signed a deal with Amazon Japan to put all its content on the Kindle, including Kindle apps on all platforms. Black Lagoon creator Rei Hiroe has set a tentative date for his return to the manga, which has been on hiatus, but he’s nervous about going back to it.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss some new titles, messy and otherwise, in their latest On the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf. Other reviews of note:

Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Amnesia Labyrinth and vol. 1 of Dracula Everlasting (Manga Xanadu)
Phillip Anthony on vol. 1 of Codename Sailor V (Manga Bookshelf)
Brigid Alverson on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (MTV Geek)
David Gromer on vol. 1 of Durarara!!! (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Jocelyne Allen on equus (by est em) (Brain Vs. Book)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Is This a Zombie? (The Manga Critic)
David Gromer on vol. 2 of Maximum Ride (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Angela Eastman on vol. 1 of Soulless (manga and novel) (Manga Bookshelf)

I’m looking at this week’s new releases, including a new volume of Fairy Tail and a new shoujo title from Viz, The Earl and the Fairy, at MTV Geek. At A Case Suitable for Treatment, Sean Gaffney peers ahead to next week’s new manga.

Deb Aoki invites you to vote for the best new Action/Drama manga in the latest round of 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards at About.com.

News from Japan: Nico Nico Manga will run the six-part game-based manga Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition online for free. The game becomes available later this month. Two manga adaptations of novels by Yūsuke Kishi are in the works.

Reviews

Connie on Betting My Life With You (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Buddha (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Cousin (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 9 of Dengeki Daisy (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Drifters (Sequential Ink)
Kristin on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Comic Attack)
Connie on Golgo 13: Galinpero (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer (Hoshi no Samidare) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 5 of Kizuna (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Like a Love Comedy (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 13 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Psyren (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Stepping on Roses (The Comic Book Bin)

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers hold their weekly Pick of the Week discussion.

The Manga Moveable Feast has become a tradition in the manga blogging community, and Kate Dacey opens the floor for discussion of which books and creators should be included in upcoming Feasts.

Reviews: Ash Brown reviews a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Matthew Warner on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vols. 4 and 5 of Highschool of the Dead (The Fandom Post)
Anna on vols. 4-6 of House of Five Leaves (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 55 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase (Blogcritics)

MangaBlog had its seventh birthday yesterday, and as we launch our eighth year as (I hope) the morning paper of the manga world, I just want to thank all of you for your support over the years. Writing without readers is like shouting into an empty room, so I really appreciate all of you who have commented, e-mailed me, or just said hi at a convention—and especially all of you who have become friends over the years.

I want to start off the week with a shout-out to James Perry II, the creator of the Tokyopop OEL manga Orange Crows. Like many Tokyopop creators, James found himself with an incomplete series when Tokyopop went through one of its periodic reorganizations; unlike most of his colleagues, though, James managed to come to some sort of agreement and is going to self-publish the rest of the series. Check out his Kickstarter page for a summary of his plans and a link to an online version of the first volume; at this point he has made his goal, but he promises to put any additional funds into the next volume.

Vol. 19 of 20th Century Boys tops the New York Times manga best-seller list, followed by the final volume of xxxHOLiC, vol. 5 of Tenjho Tenge, and vol. 5 of Pokemon Black and White. We are nothing if not eclectic!

Meanwhile, the Sequential Tart staff takes on the question of Is Manga Dying? and comes up with some interesting perspectives on the industry and how it should evolve.

Erica Friedman brings home the yuri with the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Jason Thompson looks at the action-packed manga Golgo 13 in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie writes about the October 1978 issue of Comic Jun, an early precursor to the BL magazine June.

Manga Worth Reading will host the next Manga Moveable Feast, which will focus on the works of Jiro Taniguchi.

LC Moran posts the latest con report on MangaNEXT. Animemiz rounds up her tweets from the Tomo Maeda and Makoto Tateno Q&As.

Three Steps Over Japan peeks inside the covers of Manga Action magazine.

Ash Brown is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of King of Thorn at Experiments in Manga. Hit the link for all the details!

News from Japan: The Tokyo Shimbun takes on the question of whether manga rots your brain, and Crunchyroll translates the results. Meanwhile, the Daily Yomiuri celebrates the memory of Junzo Ishiko, an art critic who took manga seriously when no one else did. AstroNerdBoy has some clarifications on recent news and rumors about the end of Negima. Young Ace magazine will run a manga adaptation of Mamoru Hosoda’s anime Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki). Eiko Kera is bringing her long-running comedy manga ATASHI’nCHI to a close.

Reviews: Drew McCabe reviews Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha digital magazine at Comic Attack.

Lori Henderson on vols. 6-10 of Dazzle (Manga Xanadu)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of Durarara!! (Joy Kim)
Sweetpea616 on vol. 2 of Gate 7 (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Serdar Yegulalp on vol. 11 of GTO: The Early Years (Genji Press)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Hana-Kimi (omnibus)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 61 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Manga Xanadu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Recorder and Randsell (The Manga Critic)
Empress Eve on vol. 1 of Soulless (Geeks of Doom)