MangaBlog

Lots of manga made the list of the nominations for best comics of the year at next month’s Angoulême International Comics Festival, and lots of them are familiar names—but a few aren’t. In addition to Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life, Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story, and Kanata Konami’s Chi’s Sweet Home, there are a number of tempting titles that haven’t been translated into English yet: Saint Young Men, Osamu Tezuka’s Boku no Manga Jinsei (My Manga Life), and Issei Eifuku and Taiyo Matsumoto’s Takemitsuzamurai. Check the full list (in French), but be warned that the titles and covers will be different from what you are used to!

Lissa Pattillo has lots to say about this week’s new releases in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Sean Gaffney is already looking at next week’s new manga.

Reviews Sara K. introduces us to a manhwa title that hasn’t been licensed for U.S. readers yet, Mary Stayed Out All Night. Other reviews of note:

Sakura Eries on vol. 7 of Dengeki Daisy (The Fandom Post)
Connie on vol. 5 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 53 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on vol. 6 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Report)

I looked over this week’s new manga at MTV Geek, and I also reviewed vols. 1-4 of Saturn Apartments and rounded up some recent news from Viz.

Kristin checks out the manga in the December Previews at Comic Attack.

Three Steps Over Japan checks out the gag manga magazine Manga Time Special.

Reviews: Carlo Santos looks over the latest releases in his new Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Johanna Draper Carlson posts short reviews of some recent SigIKKI releases at Comics Worth Reading.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 37 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of Chobits (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Gen magazine (Manga Village)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Hot Gimmick (Blogcritics)
Erica Friedman on Kaname no Etoile (Okazu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Comics Worth Reading)
Sweetpea616 on Swan (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 27 of The Wallflower (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Deb Aoki turns in her list of the best new manga of 2011.

A lot of series seem to be winding up, either now or in the near future, and the Manga Bookshelf bloggers include several final or penultimate volumes in their latest Pick of the Week discussion.

News from Japan: GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa has a new series in the works, to run in Kodansha’s Young Magazine, and he is also contributing to several other projects. Two Comic Gangan series, Fudanshi Full! and Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto, both ended in last Friday’s issue, and Comic Ace had three series come to a close.

Reviews: Ash Brown chronicles another week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf team gets the week started with a new round of Bookshelf Briefs.

Kristin on vol. 4 of Afterschool Charisma and vol. 36 of Bleach (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Ai Ore! (Comic Attack)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 8 of Bakuman (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 16 of Black Jack (The Fandom Post)
Anne on vol. 2 of Codename Sailor V (Manga Report)
Lori Henderson on Dark Water (Manga Xanadu)
Chris Kirby on vol. 10 of Detroit Metal City (The Fandom Post)
Matthew J. Brady on vol. 1 of The Drops of God (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 2 of Itsuwaribito (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 32 of Negima (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Angela Eastman on vol. 5 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Fandom Post)
Kristin on This Night’s Everything and An Even More Beautiful Lie (Comic Attack)
Matthew Warner on vol. 13 of Vampire Knight (The Fandom Post)

Deb Aoki looks ahead to new manga premiering in 2012.

Jason Thompson takes a look at the 1980s classic 3×3 Eyes in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Erica Friedman has a delightful column about foodie manga at The Hooded Utilitarian, and she has the latest installment of Yuri Network News up at Okazu.

In their latest Let’s Get Visual column, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss manga that give them the creeps.

The Manga Village team takes a look at the past week’s new manga releases, and Lori Henderson picks the best of last week’s all ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Sean Gaffney takes a look at the manga most (and least) likely to be licensed from Weekly Shōnen Magazine and Shōnen Jump.

Connie’s latest license request at Slightly Biased Manga is another Moyoco Anno series, In the Clothes Named Fat (or something like that).

News from Japan: Ultraman artist Mamoru Uchiyama has died at the age of 62. The manga-ka quartet CLAMP will be slowing down its output after one member was diagnosed with a lumbar compression fracture, the result of spending too much time sitting in a chair. Part two of Sakura Taisen: Kanadegumi (Sakura Wars: Performing Division) has just appeared in Hana to Yume, and the editors have announced it will be an ongoing series. Shogakukan has folded two manga magazines aimed at elementary school readers, Shōgaku Sannensei and Shōgaku Yonensei.

Reviews: At Brain Vs. Book, Jocelyne Allen reviews the new est em manga, Happy End Apartment, which is not out in English yet—she picked it up in Japan.

Kimi-Chan on vol. 2 of Absolute Boyfriend (The Kimi-Chan Experience)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 3 of Arisa (ANN)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of Bakuman (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Bakuman (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 14 of Fairy Tail (ANN)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Fu~Fu (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (The Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 15 of Higurashi: When They Cry (ANN)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 6 of Karakuri Odette (Panel Patter)
AstroNerdBoy on The Manga Guide to Biochemistry (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 5 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 32 of Negima (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 1 of No Longer Human (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Portrait of M & N (I Reads You)
Carlo Santos on vol. 6 of Rosario + Vampire Season II (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 6 of Stepping on Roses (ANN)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Tokyo Mew Mew (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 2 of Until the Full Moon (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shannon Fay on vol. 1 of Wandering Son (Kuriousity)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 10 of Yotsuba&! (Comics Worth Reading)

So, the Eisner Awards folks have done me the huge honor of asking me to be a judge for this year’s Eisner Awards. Like the heroine of pretty much every shoujo manga, I am nervous but shaking my fist with determination and promising to do my best. I have already accumulated a pretty big stack of manga and other graphic novels, much of which I have actually read, but please regard this post as an open thread to offer your suggestions for things I should be sure not to overlook. And thank you for reading and offering your feedback and suggestions over the past six and a half years—without you, there would be no MangaBlog, and I’d just be a crazy lady raving in the streets about screentones and decompressed storytelling.

Lissa Pattillo guides us through this week’s new manga releases in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA, while Sean Gaffney looks ahead to next week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber rounds up a week’s worth of manga gift guides at All About Manga.

Alan Boyle takes a look at the manga guides to various science topics put out by No Starch Press.

News from Japan: Tomo Kimura gives us a peek at an alternate cover for Pandora Hearts that is bundled in the latest GFantasy magazine. New horror manga on the way: Chocolat no Mahō ~Doraje Koibitotachi no Kiseki~ (The Magic of Chocolate ~Dragée Lovers’ Miracle~), a followup to The Magic of Chocolate, will launch (with a Valentine’s Day theme) in the February issue of Ciao. Fukashigi Triangle, a “high school romance tragicomedy,” according to ANN, will launch in the next issue of Comic Birz. The new magazine Shūkan Manga Sekai no Ijin (Weekly Manga: World’s Great Figures) will feature manga tales about famous people from Mozart to Michael Jackson. One Piece just keeps breaking records; here’s the latest: over 38 million volumes sold in 2011. And ANN has the top-selling manga in Japan by series and by volume.

Reviews

Carl Kimlinger on vol. 35 of Berserk (ANN)
Lori Henderson on vol. 13 of Black Jack (Manga Village)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Codename Sailor V (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Anna on vol. 1 of Dawn of the Arcana (Manga Report)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 6 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 5 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (The Fandom Post)
Victoria Martin on vol. 3 of Gunslinger Girl (omnibus edition) (Kuriousity)
Angela Eastman on vol. 8 of Kimi ni Todoke (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 59 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Warner on vol. 4 of Saturn Apartments (The Fandom Post)
Terry Hong on Stargazing Dog (BookDragon)
Matthew Warner on vol. 10 of Twin Spica (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Yuri Danshi (Okazu)