MangaBlog

Johanna Draper Carlson goes through her review copies to show us what manga to look forward to in the next few months.

Ash Brown wraps up the Usamaru Furuya-based Manga Moveable Feast at Experiments in Manga.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss our Pick of the Week.

Erica Friedman rounds up all the yuri anime, manga, and doujinshi news at Okazu.

Digital has announced a new yaoi title, I’ve Seen It All, and Lissa Pattillo has the 411 at Kuriousity.

Connie continues her tour of the Eroicaverse with a look at the late-1970s spinoff El Halcon – The Hawk.

Matt Blind has a look at the manga best-sellers from mid-January at Manga Bookshelf, and he takes a look at some manga that are on the ascendant in his Manga Radar column.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson posts some short reviews of shoujo manga at Comics Worth Reading. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers greet the week with a new set of Bookshelf Briefs.

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 9 of Bakuman (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Bakuman (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Bed of My Dear King (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Black Gate (omnibus edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Alexander Hoffman on vols. 1-5 of Blue Exorcist (Manga Village)
Connie on Career Gate (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Case Closed (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on Chibi Vampire (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on Entangled Circumstances (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Fantasy Land (Slightly Biased Manga)
Serdar Yegulalp on vol. 1 of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (Genji Press)
Anna on Hana-Kimi (omnibus edition) (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 8 of InuYasha (VizBig edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 33 of Negima (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 4 of Recipe for Gertrude (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on Shocking Pink! (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Toriko (The Comic Book Bin)
Sweetpea616 on vols. 1-7 of Tramps Like Us (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)

Sean Gaffney looks ahead to next week’s new manga.

Jason Thompson takes a look at the early sports manga Harlem Beat in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith go shoujo—well, mostly—in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

At Blog of the North Star, Milo posts an exuberant appreciation of the pro-drunkenness, anti-vegetarian, anti-Japan’s-allies manga Toriko.

At The Grand Line, Greg translates Takuya Kimura’s interview with One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda; Kimura, who has been voted the Sexiest Man in Japan, is an unabashed One Piece fan.

Kate Dacey continues her Show Us Your Stuff series with a peek at the manga collection of “Calvinist otaku” Aaron.

News from Japan: Ken Akamatsu is winding up his long-running (37 volumes so far) series Negima!, and he is taking a brief hiatus before completing the last three chapters. Tite Kubo’s Bleach is heading into its final story arc. MM! is coming to an end this month. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: The About Heroes team files some brief reviews of recent releases, most (but not all) from Kodansha.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 6 of Cross Game (Kuriousity)
Jason Yadao on vols. 1-3 of Genkaku Picasso (Otaku Ohana)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 1 of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (The Fandom Post)
Kristin on vol. 7 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Comic Attack)
Joseph Luster on vol. 11 of Twin Spica (Otaku USA)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s (The Fandom Post)
TSOTE on Zombie Loan (Three Steps Over Japan)

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber shares her personal top ten manga list at All About Manga.

Kate Dacey will be hosting the next Manga Moveable Feast, which will focus on Osamu Tezuka, at The Manga Critic.

Lori Henderson celebrates the Year of the Dragon with a roundup of manga that feature dragons. And Three Steps Over Japan spots some Dragonball Kai postage stamps!

It’s Luffy vs. Buggy in Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary piece at Manga Bookshelf.

News from Japan: A shoplifter stole all 64 volumes of One Piece from a bookstore in Shizuoka Prefecture, carting away ten volumes at a time in his duffel bag. Store personnel noticed the guy but the store was full of holiday shoppers, so they didn’t twig to the crime until the next day, when they noticed the missing volumes. The Freezing: First Chronicle spinoff manga has come to an end in the most recent issue of Comic Valkyrie.

Reviews: Carlo Santos takes an unvarnished look at a stack of recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

David Brothers on 7 Billion Needles (4thletter!)
Kristin on The Art of the Secret World of Arrietty (Comic Attack)
Lori Henderson on vols. 11-20 of Black Cat (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on Boys Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Cafe Latte Rhaphsody (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Green (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 3 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of No Longer Human (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 5 and 6 of The Story of Saiunkoku (ANN)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (Good Comics for Kids)
Connie on vol. 6 of Wild Adapter (Slightly Biased Manga)

The big news this week is the launch of Shonen Jump Alpha, Viz’s weekly digital edition of Shonen Jump, which will replace their monthly print magazine. Crunchyroll has a wide-ranging interview with Viz VP and general manager Alvin Lu, and John Jakala kicks the tires on the new magazine and finds a few glitches. The biggest problem: Despite Viz’s push to speed up releases of the English-language series, they still lag the Japanese releases by quite a few chapters—and since SJ Alpha runs each chapter two weeks after it runs in Japan, readers are left with a gap in the stories.

The Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast has wound up, and Ash Brown posts roundup posts for day two and day three, as well as a final roundup, at Experiments in Manga. Over at Manga Bookshelf, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith devote their latest Off the Shelf column to Furuya’s No Longer Human, and at Slightly Biased Manga, Connie explains why Palepoli should be translated into English.

The Manga Bookshelf team (myself included) discusses their Pick of the Week. What’s yours? Also at Manga Bookshelf, Matt Blind posts a new set of recent manga bestsellers and a Manga Radar column about up-and-coming future releases.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news at Okazu.

Three Steps Over Japan looks at a seasonal Japanese magazine, Jump Next.

Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo will be a guest at this year’s San Diego Comic Con.

Makoto Tateno (Yellow) and Tomo Maeda (Beyond My Touch) will be guests at MangaNEXT later this month.

If you’re reading this in the Philippines, take a minute to take Khursten Santos’s survey on Philippine anime fandom at Otaku Champloo.

News from Japan: A Japanese manga called It’s Not My Fault I’m Not Popular has apparently become a hit on 4chan (Anonymous is scanting it, although the scanlations seem to be hosted elsewhere), and the latest volume bears a cover line celebrating that: “A smash hit on the overseas version of 2chan!!” Princess Resurrection manga-ka Yasunori Mitsunaga has a new series in the works that will launch in the April issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Sirius magazine. Yūki Kodama’s spinoff of Sakamichi no Apollon will start in the May issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf gang posts a new set of Bookshelf Briefs to greet the new week. Ash Brown post an unusually varied weekly roundup at Experiments in Manga.

Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Ame-iro Kouchakan Kandan (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on The Art of the Secret World of Arrietty (The Manga Critic)
Anna on vols. 9 and 10 of Basara (Manga Report)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kristin on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Durarara!!! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (Experiments in Manga)
Shannon Fay on vol. 5 of Highschool of the Dead (Kuriousity)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 15 of Higurashi: When They Cry (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on Houkago Kanon (Okazu)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Mardock Scramble (Manga Widget)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of No Longer Human (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Sailor Moon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Short Cuts (Experiments in Manga)
Ben Leary on vol. 16 of Slam Dunk (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Tears of a Lamb (Blogcritics)
Ken Haley on vol. 6 of Vampire Hunter D (Sequential Ink)
Kate Dacey on Yakuza Cafe(The Manga Critic)

There’s lots of digital manga news in my latest Digital Comic Resources roundup at CBR, and check out my dual review of vol. 1 of Dawn of the Arcana and vol. 1 of Princess Sakura at MTV Geek.

Two manga took awards at this past weekend’s Angoulême International Comics Festival: Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story won the Prix Regards sur le monde (World Outlook Award), and Yoshihiro Tatsiumi’s A Drifting Life took the Prix Intergénérations (Intergenerational Award).

Jason Thompson takes a look at Rumiko Takahashi’s Ranma 1/2 in his weekly trip through the manga swayback machine, House of 1000 Manga, at ANN.

YA librarian Nicole Dolat writes about manga that teens should not miss just because the books were originally written for adults.

Digital Manga had lots of announcements last week: Two batches of new digital manga (here and here) and a new license, Momoko Tenzen’s Flutter.

News from Japan: The March issue of LaLa features Detarame Mōsōryoku Opera, a one-shot manga by Ouran High School Host Club manga-ka Bisco Hatori. Dai Suzuki will launch Kuzu!!, a spinoff of Hiroshi Takahashi’s gangster manga Crows, in the next issue of Young Champion. And Santa Inoue is wrapping up Tokyo Tribe 3; the last chapter will appear next month. Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s anime Sakasama no Patema (Patema Inverted) will be adapted into a manga, which will run in Monthly Big Champion.

Reviews: Omar Valdivieso, Tommy Pfeiffer, and Melanie Valdivieso post some brief reviews of recent manga at About Heroes.

Justin on vols. 2-4 of 7 Billion Needles (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 16 of Black Jack (PLAYBACK:stl)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (The Comic Book Bin)
Jocelyne Allen on Moyoco Anno’s Chameleon Army (Brain Vs. Book)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of A Devil and her Love Song (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (Manga Xanadu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 5 of House of Five Leaves (ANN)
TSOTE on Kurogane (Three Steps Over Japan)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 3 of Negima (omnibus edition) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vol. 2 of No Longer Human (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Serdar Yegulalp on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Genji Press)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 26 of Skip Beat! (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Tegami Bachi (The Comic Book Bin)
Carlo Santos on vol. 11 of Twin Spica (ANN)

I posted my take on this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Sean Gaffney takes a look at next week’s list.

The Manga Moveable Feast continues at Experiments in Manga with a guest post by Jim Hemmingfield about this month’s creator, Usamaru Furuya, and a Genkaku Picasso giveaway.

Ed Sizemore guests on the latest Eeper’s Choice podcast, which features a discussion of Kingyo Used Books.

Reviews

Shannon Fay on vol. 2 of The Betrayal Knows My Name (Kuriousity)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of The Betrayal Knows My Name (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 11 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Boys With Tomorrow to Conquer (Slightly Biased Manga)
Adam Stephanides on The Children’s Crusade (Completely Futile)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (The Comic Book Bin)
Chris Kirby on vol. 21 of D.Gray-Man (The Fandom Post)
Kristin on vol. 21 of D.Gray-Man and vol. 53 of Naruto (Comic Attack)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Gente (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Tom Gill on The Incident at Nishibeta Village (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Sailor Moon (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1 and 2 of Short Cuts (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 1 of Step (Slightly Biased Manga)
Chris Kirby on vol. 7 of Tegami Bachi (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 5 of Wild Adapter (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on Yurikan Feuille (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 4 of Ze (Slightly Biased Manga)