MangaBlog

Dark Horse has been adding manga and manhwa to their digital site pretty aggressively; Deb Aoki notes the newest additions.

YALSA has released its Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, and it includes a number of manga; vol. 1 of Wandering Son and vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story made the top ten.

Ash Brown presents the first roundup for the Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast at Experiments in Manga.

Derek Bown introduces a new column at Manga Bookshelf, Combat Commentary, that will analyze and critique combat scenes in manga. He kicks it off with a corker from Bleach.

Kate Dacey points us toward a preview of Shigeru Mizuki’s NonNonBa.

Matt Alt explains why you need a copy of his new book Yurei Attack! The Japanese Ghost Survival Guide, which is due out in a few months.

Reviews

Justin on vol. 1 of Dawn of the Arcana (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of No Longer Human (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 60 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Anna on vol. 6 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Manga Report)
Ash Brown on Secret Comics Japan: Underground Comics Now (Experiments in Manga)

Here’s your must-read manga post of the day: Editor, creator, and all-around manga pundit Jason Thompson pens a thoughtful essay at io9 titled Why Manga Publishing Is Dying (And How It Could Get Better). Jason’s description of the reasons for the decline of manga publishing is impeccable, but I’m not sure I’m on board with his suggestions for improving the picture. Be sure to read the comments for some more pointed criticism.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers (myself included) discuss their Pick of the Week.

At The Beat, Torsten Adair looks at some of the new manga due out this month.

Attention translator wannabes: The digital manga site JManga is having a translation contest! Do your best translation of a four-koma strip from JManga title Young-kun and send it in, and you could win a copy of the full book plus 1,000 points. You have to have a JManga account to enter, which means you must live in North America.

The competition will be judged by veteran translator William Flanagan, and JManga also has an interview with him in which he talks about the finer points of manga translation.

News from Japan: Crunchyroll has the list of winners of the Shogakukan Manga Awards, with nice cover images and a summary of each one—none are licensed in English yet. Shin Mashiba, creator of Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun, is working on a new series set in Kyoto in the Heian era. Utau! Heian-kyō will debut in the March issue of Square Enix’s Monthly G Fantasy magazine. Boys Be… Next Season will come to an end in the Feb. 20 issue of of Kodansha’s Magazine Special.

Reviews: Short takes on new manga are the order of the day in this week’s Bookshelf Briefs column at Manga Bookshelf. At Experiments in Manga, Ash Brown takes a break from hosting the Usumaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast to present a weeks’ worth of manga reading that, not surprisingly, includes a lot of Furuya’s work.

Erica Friedman on vol. 15 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Hyakusho Kizoku (The Manga Critic)
Victoria Martin on vol. 4 of K-ON! (Kuriousity)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (Sequential Ink)

Here’s an intriguing new development: A partnership between the small yuri manga publisher ALC and the digital manga portal JManga. The two are working together to bring the yuri manga Poor Poor Lips to North American readers—and alas, only North American readers, as JManga is available only in this region. Erica Friedman announced the news at Okazu, and she devotes most of her Yuri Network News post to answering some criticisms and reminding readers that the manga scene is evolving, and this is just one moment in that evolution.

Ash Brown is hosting this month’s Manga Moveable Feast, which focuses on the works of Usumaru Furuya, at Experiments in Manga.

At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie puts the spotlight on the popular shoujo manga creator Arina Tanemura.

Deb Aoki guests on the latest edition of Crunchyroll’s internet-TV show The Live Show, which focuses on Manga Maniacs.

Matt Blind crunches the numbers and comes up with the best-selling manga for the week ending January 1, and he also looks at some up-and-coming titles in his latest Manga Radar post.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at one of the lesser-known seinen magazines, Grand Jump.

Khursten Santos explores the manga scene in the Philippines, and she makes some recommendations as well.

News from Japan: The Japan Times has an interesting piece on two prefectures that are trying to grow a local manga industry: Kochi, the home of AnPanMan creator Takashi Yanase, and Tottori, the home of Shigeru Mizuki (GeGeGe No Kitaro, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths) Meanwhile, lots of new projects are under way: Bunny Drop manga-ka Yumi Unita will publish a series of manga essays focusing on technique in Kodansha’s online magazine Digital Kiss. Miki Yoshikawa (Yankee-kun to Megane-chan) will launch a new series in Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Magazine next month. Cloth Road artist okama is also working on a new series, Tail Star, which will start next month in Shueisha’s Ultra Jump. And yuri manga creator Milk Morinaga has wrapped up Kuchibiru Tameiki Sakurairo (Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink), but she has a new series in the works that will launch in the June issue of Comic High!

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss three yaoi manga from Digital in the latest edition of BL Bookrack at Manga Bookshelf. Michelle also checks out three shoujo series from Kodansha at Soliloquy in Blue. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber discusses some older manga series she just finished reading at All About Manga. Lori Henderson posts some short takes on recent reading at Manga Xanadu.

Justin on vol. 18 of 20th Century Boys (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Chobits (Blogcritics)
Kristin on vols. 5 and 6 of Kamisama Kiss (Comic Attack)
Queenie Chan on Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Queenie Chan)
Justin on vol. 2 of No Longer Human (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Rebecca and Jennifer Silverman on One Piece Color Walk Art Book 2 (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 4 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 26 of Skip Beat! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie Opipari on vol. 6 of Stepping on Roses (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Chris Kirby on vol. 6 of Tegami Bachi (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (ANN)

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

Good news for yuri lovers: JManga and ALC Publishing have formed a partnership to publish the yuri manga Poor Poor Lips on the JManga site.

Comics Alliance has an exclusive 20-page preview of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, due out soon from Vertical.

At Graphic Novel Reporter, John Hogan talks to producer Avi Arad about his new manga, The Innocent (published by Yen Press)

Deb Aoki has thrown open the floor to nominations for her 2012 About.com Manga Readers’ Choice Awards.

Jason Thompson takes a look at the autobiographical manga Doing Time in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

At The Manga Critic, Kate Dacey takes a peek at DJ Benny B’s manga library and also looks at some new manhwa available via Dark Horse Digital.

Manga Bookshelf has a new columnist: Philip of Eeper’s Choice, who will cross the gender divide to write a column titled Shoujo I’m Scared Of. And he jumps right in with a look at Sailor Moon in the very first column.

Erica Friedman takes a peek inside the pink-and-bubbly covers of the shoujo magazine Ribon.

Three Steps Over Japan, meanwhile, takes the boys’ side with a look at Weekly Shonen Jump.

Reviews: The review team catches up with some ongoing series at About Heroes.

Chris Kirby on vol. 1 of The Betrayal Knows My Name (The Fandom Post)
Danica Davidson on vol. 2 of The Betrayal Knows My Name (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Kristin on Crimson Cross (Comic Attack)
TSOTE on Gamble Fish (Three Steps Over Japan)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 10 of Genshiken (Japanese edition) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Anna on vol. 7 of Kamisama Kiss (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 2 of Mister Mistress (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vol. 4 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sweetpea616 on Revolutionary Girl Utena (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 5 of Sakura Hime (Slightly Biased Manga)
Chris Kirby on Tesoro (The Fandom Post)
Connie on Tonight’s Take-Out Night (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kayden L on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 4 of Wild Adapter (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 17 of xxxHoLiC (Slightly Biased Manga)

I’m back from my adventure-filled trip to Ireland (if you define “adventure” as drinking a lot of tea and getting lost on the one-way streets). If you’re curious, I posted a more-or-less real-time account at Twitter and I’ll be writing more at my personal blog, once I recover from jet lag.

Thanks to Kate Dacey for doing such a great job keeping the blog going while I was away!

Over at MTV Geek, I took a look at ten manga to look forward to in 2012, and I took a look at this week’s new manga.

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

Sean Gaffney looks at next week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

Viz has licensed the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexa!

Speaking of Viz, if you haven’t downloaded their app onto your iThing yet, now is the time to do it: New users who download the Viz iOS app and create a new account between now and January 30 can get a free volume of any of their digital manga.

DMP’s Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara was big news while I was away, and Ed Sizemore, Johanna Draper Carlson, Alex Hoffman, Lissa Pattillo, and DMP’s Ben Applegate discuss the pros and cons in a special Manga Out Loud podcast.

JManga has added vol. 1 of Hyakusho Kizoku, an autobiographical manga by Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa, to its lineup. FMA fans be warned: It’s a gag manga with a definitely different tone!

Eiji Ohtsuka, the writer of MPD-Psycho and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, will give the keynote address at an event titled “Experiencing the Media Mix: Anime, Manga, Video Games,” part of Concordia University’s President’s Conference Series, on Feb. 4. His talk will be titled “The Unholy Alliance of Disney and Eisenstein: The Wartime Origins of Manga, Animation and Otaku Culture.”

News from Japan: Jormungand creator Keitarō Takahashi has a new series in the works, and it will launch in the May issue of Monthly Sunday GX.

Reviews

Chris Kirby on vol. 17 of 20th Century Boys (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Afterschool Charisma (The Comic Book Bin)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 5 of Afterschool Charisma (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Bakegyamon (Blogcritics)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 14 of Black God (The Fandom Post)
Chris Kirby on vol. 5 of Cross Game (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 5 of Dogs (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ken Haley on vol. 4 of Dorohedoro (Sequential Ink)
Justin on vols. 1 and 2 of The Drops of God (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 1 of Gate 7 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Justin on GoGo Monster (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 7 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 5 of Kobato (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Matthew Warner on vols. 3 and 4 of K-ON! (The Fandom Post)
Connie on The Reason Why He Loves Him So Much (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 6 of Tears of a Lamb (Blogcritics)
Connie on vol. 3 of Wild Adapter (Slightly Biased Manga)

The nominees for this year’s Manga Taisho Award were just unveiled. Of the fifteen titles on the list, two — Flowers of Evil and Drifters — have been licensed in English. The nominees also include Hiromu Arakawa’s latest series Silver Spoon, Kengo Hanazawa’s previously nominated I Am a Hero, and Katsumasa Enokiya’s Hibi Rock.

Mark your calendars: the next Manga Movable Feast begins on January 22nd, and focuses on Usamaru Furuya. Ash Brown will host.

Deb Aoki updates her list of 15 Ways to Enjoy Manga (Without Going Broke).

The internet is still abuzz over DMP’s recent Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $8,700 towards the licensing and publication of Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara. Alex Hoffman and Lissa Patillo offer their thoughts, pro- and contra-, about DMP’s use of Kickstarter. Over at Manga Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson adds her two cents to the conversation.

And speaking of Tezuka, what classic manga would you like to see licensed next? Inquiring manga critics want to know!

Reviews: Ash Brown posts an assortment of brief manga, movie, and book reviews at Experiments in Manga. Here at Manga Bookshelf, the Battle Robot assembles to review a variety of titles, including the latest volumes of 13th Boy, Bamboo Blade, Dawn of the Arcana, and Toriko.

Kristin Bomba on vol. 3 of Ai Ore! Love Me (Comic Attack)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 2-3 of Animal Land (Anime News Network)
Connie on The Art of Hideshi Hino (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin Bomba on vols. 7-9 of Bakuman (Comic Attack!)
Jenny on vols. 2-6 of Dengeki Daisy (No Flying No Tights)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 7 of Dengeki Daisy (Anime News Network)
Katherine Dacey on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Manga Critic)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Girly (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Love Hina Omnibus (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Xanadu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 6 of Oresama Teacher (Anime News Network)
Nic on vols. 1-2 of Pokemon: Black and White (No Flying No Tights)