MangaBlog

Is Apple holding LGBTQ comics to a different standard than others? Melinda Beasi looks at the question from several angles, noting that most publishers of comics with gay content don’t even bother with Apple because they don’t think their comics will pass the content restrictions. And those fears may be justified, because Digital Manga has just been told to remove some of its yaoi manga from the iTunes store. Melinda does some side-by-side comparisons with other comics and finds that Apple is letting plenty of steamy stuff through when it’s het sex. (Obviously, this post is NSFW.)

Recovering xxxHOLiC reader Lissa Pattillo looks over this week’s new releases in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

MangaNEXT posts are still trickling in: Justin files his con report at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses and Linda (animemiz) posts a transcript of the State of the Industry panel and a Q&A with Felipe Smith.

Digital designer Karen shows off her manga collection at The Manga Critic.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith chat about some new manga in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 38 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 19 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Otodama: Voice of the Dead (Comic Attack)
Kinukitty on This Night’s Everything (The Hooded Utilitarian)

We have won the war, but not the battle: While it’s true the JManga site was made available worldwide this week, it turns out that individual series are still grayed out because the publishers have not chosen to make them globally available. Erica Friedman has the scoop, along with how you can protest this, and there’s some handy advice in the comments section as well.

At Publishers Weekly, Danica Davidson looks at Yen Press’s move into global releases with Soul Eater NOT!, which they publish in their digital Yen Plus magazine the same day it comes out in print in Japan.

I posted my picks from this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Sean Gaffney goes over next week’s list at A Case Suitable for Treatment. Lissa Pattillo travels even further into the future with a look at the best manga in the February Previews.

Seven Seas announced two new manga licenses yesterday, both tied to anime: Haganai: I Have No Friends and Mayo Chiki!

Yuusuke Marata, the creator of Eyeshield 21, has posted some interesting short manga on Twitter that use paper folding and other techniques to create a three-dimensional appearance.

News from Japan: Lots of returns and revivals this week: Naoki Urasawa is working on Master Keaton Remaster, a sequel to his Master Keaton mystery series, with a different writer. Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond returns to Kodansha’s Weekly Morning on March 15. The anime Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai is being adapted into a manga for Jump Square. The mystery series Kindaichi Case Files returns to Weekly Shōnen Magazine after a 12-year absence. Usamaru Furuya’s Bokura no Hikari Club (Our Light Club), the prequel to his Lychee Light Club, will end with the next chapter. Santa Inoue is wrapping up Dan Da Barbarian in the April issue of Comic Birz. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Omar posts some short reviews of recent releases at About Heroes.

Connie on vol. 5 of Blue Exorcist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Classmate (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Cold Trilogy 2: Cold Light (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jason Yadao on Osamu Tezuka’s Crime and Punishment (Otaku Ohana)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 6 of Cross Game (Read About Comics)
Connie on vol. 1 of Embracing Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 17 of Fairy Tail (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll (Sequential Tart)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Gate 7 (Japan Reviewed)
Karen Maeda on vol. 3 of Gon (Sequential Tart)
Connie on vol. 3 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of GTO: The Early Years (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 7 of Kamisama Kiss (Sequential Tart)
Connie on vol. 1 of Lizard Prince (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 12 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 8 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Ohana Holoholo (Okazu)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Pandora Hearts (The Fandom Post)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 8 of Rin-ne (Sequential Tart)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Sequential Ink)
Patti Martinson on vol. 2 of Shugo Chara-Chan! (Sequential Tart)
John Rose on vol. 5 of Tenjho Tenge (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Tokyo Mew Mew (omnibus edition) (The Fandom Post)

Erica Friedman trumpets the good news at Okazu: After a week of Tweets and Facebook comments from readers and would-be readers, the powers that be at JManga have acceded to the will of the public and gone global. No longer will manga fans outside the U.S. and Canada be faced with an unfriendly blue screen; now they, too, can spend $10 per month to read Anesthesiologist Hana and Poor Poor Lips. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individual titles are blocked (boo!) but overall, this is a great step forward for the manga biz, and kudos to the manga folks (and hard-working business manager Robert Newman, who led the charge) for taking it.

Animemiz reports in on MangaNEXT as well as the yuri panel, the Vertical panel, and the GEN Manga panel.

Viz’s SuBLime imprint announced two new titles yesterday, Yaya Sakuragi’s Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love and Makoto Tateno’s How’s Your Ex?

Previews kicks off its Manga Month with an interview with Dark Horse editor extraordinaire Carl Horn.

Naru has an interesting post on what it feels like to lose your interest in manga—along with three possible cures—at What is this “Culture” you speak of? (Yes, that’s the name of the blog.) (Via Justin.)

It’s Toriko vs. the robot in Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary at Manga Bookshelf.

Reviews: Carlo Santos makes some hard choices and tells some harsh truths in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Shannon Fay on About Love (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vol. 5 of Bokurano: Ours (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 17 of Higurashi When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Sequential Ink)
Justin on vol. 1 of When I’m With You (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lori Henderson on vols. 12-13 of Zombie Loan (Manga Village)

I’m still processing everything that happened at MangaNEXT. Check out my con report at PWCW and my interview with Tomo Maeda, the creator of Black Sun, Silver Moon and Beyond My Touch, at MTV Geek, and don’t miss Erica Friedman’s very thorough con report at Okazu—she was on the industry panel, which I missed, but reading her account makes me feel like I was there.

Kate Dacey wraps up the Manga Moveable Feast with part 2 of her essay on Tezuka, Sex, and Gender and a final day’s worth of links. Khursten Santos takes a look at three of Tezuka’s female characters at Otaku Champloo.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses our Picks of the Week.

Corinna Lawson of Wired’s GeekDad blog takes the Viz iPad app for a spin and likes it better than paper.

The Calcutta Telegraph profiles manga artist Yukichi Yamamatsu, whose Stupid Man Goes to India chronicles his stay in that county.

News from Japan: Kare Kano creator Masami Tsuda will launch a new fantasy series, Hinoko, in the May issue of Hakusensha’s LaLa magazine. That’s the issue to get, apparently, as it will also feature a one-shot by Bisco Hatori (of Ouran High School Host Club fame). The Dengeki Online website is running Oshiete! Mordin-sensei! (Teach me! Professor Mordin!), a webcomic that explains the setting of the Mass Effect 3 game and introduces some of the characters. And Puyo, the artist behind The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan, is working on an Itsuki Koizumi spinoff to run in Altima Ace.

Reviews: For those in a hurry, the Manga Bookshelf team has a brand-new set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown lays out a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Honey Hunt (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Rin-ne (The Comic Book Bin)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Soulless (Comics-and-More)

I’m back from an incredible weekend at MangaNEXT; watch for news, interviews, and all sorts of interesting features in the next couple of days. I posted the big license news at Robot 6 already: Vertical announced two new licenses, The Limit, by Life creator Keiko Suenobu, and Heroman, which is based on a plot by Stan Lee.

Also: I reviewed Viz manga on the Nook at MTV Geek.

Lissa Pattillo takes a look at the past week’s new manga in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Kate Dacey rounds up the Day 5 links for the Tezuka-flavored Manga Moveable Feast at The Manga Critic, and she also posts a transcript of a fascinating discussion about sex and gender in Tezuka’s manga. Connie posts her own Tezuka Index at Slightly Biased Manga. Vertical marketing director Ed Chavez joins Ed Sizemore and Johanna Draper Carlson for a discussion of “Tezuka for adults” on the latest Manga Out Loud podcast. At All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber talks about her dream of someday publishing Tezuka’s Rainbow Parakeet, and at PLAYBACK:stl, Jason Green channels his Tezuka-lovin’ 18-year-old self.

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss Princess Knight in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Cast your vote for the best new manga, shoujo manga, and shonen manga in Deb Aoki’s Readers Choice Awards at About.com.

Daniel BT looks at Encounter, a series that was advertised in the pages of Raijin magazine but never ran there.

Digital Manga rounds up the past week’s new digital releases.

Translator Tomo Kimura has some notes on vol. 7 of Kamisama Kiss.

News from Japan: The French site Manganews reports that Kaiji Kawaguchi and journalist Osamu Eya will collaborate on Ore Shika Inai – Kuroi Nami wo Norikoete, about last year’s earthquake in Japan. It will run in Big Comic. Mashashi Tanaka will start drawing Gon again after ten years away from it. Three Steps Over Japan looks at a fairly new magazine AltimaA. And this could be big news: The president of Kodansha announced that the company would begin some same-day print/digital releases, although it is not clear from any of the news reports I saw that he was talking specifically about manga. Perhaps someone who can read Japanese could add some clarity to this?

Reviews

Lori Henderson on Apollo’s Song (Manga Xanadu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 38 of Bleach (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 4 of Blue Exorcist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 5 of Bokurano: Ours (Slightly Biased Manga)
Justin on The Book of Human Insects (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 11 of Cipher (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Close the Last Door (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Cold Trilogy 01: Cold Sleep (Slightly Biased Manga)
Carlo Santos on vol. 6 of Cross Game (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-5 of Dazzle (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 8 of Dengeki Daisy (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Dororo (Experiments in Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 17 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 2 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 8 of Jormungand and vol. 19 of 20th Century Boys (Comic Attack)
Voitachewski on Junji Ito’s La Maison de Poupées (in French) (du9)
Connie on vol. 11 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sweetpea616 on MW (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 7 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 33 of Negima! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vol. 3 of No Longer Human (Comic Attack)
Joy Kim on vols. 56-60 of One Piece (Joy Kim)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Only Serious About You (Otaku USA)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Manga Xanadu)
Anna on vol. 2 of Princess Knight
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Psyren (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on vol. 6 of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (Okazu)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 12 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Sugar Sugar Rune (Blogcritics)
Matthew Warner on vol. 11 of Twin Spica (The Fandom Post)
Connie on Want to Depend on You (Slightly Biased Manga)

I’m heading out to New Jersey today for MangaNEXT—if you’re going to be there, be sure to say hi! In the meantime, check out my review of Viz manga on the Nook at MTV Geek. And I hope you saw my interview with Robert Newman of JManga right here at MangaBlog.

Jason Thompson writes about foodie manga, including Jiro Taniguchi’s Kodoku no Gourmet, Fumi Yoshinaga’s Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy!, and the train station bento-box manga Ekiben Hitoritabi, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

The Tezuka-based Manga Moveable Feast continues with host Kate Dacey rounding up the Day Three and Day Four links, as well as a review of Tezuka’s Lost World, at The Manga Critic. Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss Princess Knight in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Sean Gaffney takes a look at next week’s new manga releases.

Congratulations to Tony Yao on two years of blogging at Manga Therapy.

News from Japan: Details are emerging of the “darker” R.O.D. Rehabilitation, a R.O.D. side story that will start running in Shueisha’s Super Dash & Go! magazine this weekend. Manga Therapy features a manga that is hot in Japan right now, Crimsons, which is about… salmon.

Reviews: Omar reviews a handful of recent releases at About Heroes.

Ash Brown on The Art of Osamu Tezuka: The God of Manga (Experiments in Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 16 and 17 of Black Jack (Manga Village)
Connie on vol. 1 of Buddha (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Close the Last Door (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 15 of La Corda D’Oro (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Faraway Places (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 10 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Gromer on vol. 1 of Ninja Girls (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Anna on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (Manga Report)
David Gromer on vol. 3 of Sailor Moon (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Connie on Stargazing Dog (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Tegami Bachi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on Uglies: Shay’s Story (I Reads You)