MangaBlog

Deb Aoki gives JManga its first report card—and she’s a tough (but fair) grader.

Lissa Pattillo goes over this week’s new manga in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA, and David Welsh shares his picks at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Ed Sizemore talks translation with William Flanagan (Sailor Moon) and Mari Morimoto (Naruto) in the latest Manga Out Loud podcast.

Don’t forget, the Manga Moveable Feast continues this week with a multi-blogger appreciation of Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina. Jason Green plays host at PLAYBACK:stl, and you can find his ever-growing list of all the participants’ posts on the archive page. Sean Gaffney posts his thoughts on vol. 1 of the Love Hina omnibus at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

Daniel BT offers a blistering critique of Kazuo Umezu’s Fourteen, which he calls “one of the stupidest comic I’ve ever read.”

News from Japan: Dragon Quest artist Kamui Fujiwara and Ghost in the Shell writer Kazunori Ito are working on Giniro no Usagi, a digital manga to be released next year. Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at another manga magazine, Dengeki Daioh.

Reviews

Sean Kleefeld on vol. 1 of A Bride’s Story (Kleefeld on Comics)
Connie on vol. 6 of Hyde & Closer (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on KuroYome (Okazu)
Nick Chidgey on vol. 1 of Laddertop (Spandexless)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vols. 1-2 of My Boyfriend Is a Vampire (omnibus edition)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Negima! (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 7 of Raiders (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Kris on Tired of Waiting for Love (Manic About Manga)
Kristin on vol. 6 of Ultimo (Comic Attack)

I rounded up the past week’s manga news at MTV Geek, and Erica Friedman has the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Dutchie of the localization team BoysLoveBangBang provides an insider’s look at the Digital Manga Guild.

The Manga Village team looks at the past week’s new releases.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their latest Pick of the Week.

Kate Dacey looks at a curious artifact from the early days of manga: The Legend of Mother Sarah, which was released as both a floppy comic and a collected edition and fared a lot better in the latter format.

Matt Blind charts the manga best-sellers (online sales), and once again, Sailor Moon dominates the field.

Check out these videos of Kaoru Mori (Emma, A Bride’s Story) and Aki Irie (Blue school, Ran to Haiiro no Sekai) sketching characters from their manga.

David Welsh’s latest license request is Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara. With Halloween just around the corner, Connie has a horror manga in mind for her latest license request: Kazuo Umezu’s Fourteen.

David Welsh asks the readers: What are your favorite tear-jerkers?

News from Japan: Manga-ka Teruaki Mizuno will draw a manga series based on a Square Enix robot game for Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine. The musician DAIGO will team up with his sister, who goes by Eiki Eiki (Train*Train), to create a manga titled Scissors Sisters, which will feature five magical girls who run a hair salon and use the tools of their trade to fight for world peace, when they aren’t trimming bangs and giving perms. Ghost in the Shell creator Mamoru Oshii is working on a manga/anime hybrid, a digital comic that will start as an iOS app and move on to other platforms. Sounds a lot like a motion comic to me!

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team checks out the latest digital manga in their monthly Going Digital column. Johanna Draper Carlson posts some short reviews of recent Viz releases at Comics Worth Reading. Ash Brown takes us through a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. And there’s a new set of Bookshelf Briefs up at Manga Bookshelf.

Rebecca Silverman on vol. 2 of Ai Ore! (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on The Art of Vampire Knight (I Reads You)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 36 of Bleach (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Cage of Eden (ANN)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Gon (ICv2)
Connie on vol. 2 of Gorgeous Carat (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Highschool of the Dead (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on Just Around the Corner (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 5 of Kamisama Kiss (ANN)
Jennifer Ouellette on The Manga Guide to the Universe (Discovery News)
Sweetpea on Ode to Kirihito (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Connie on vols. 8 and 9 of Please Save My Earth (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sam Kusek on vol. 1 of Sailor Moon (Spandexless)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 3 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (ANN)
Connie on vol. 24 of Skip Beat! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Spellbound (Slightly Biased Manga)
Greg McElhatton on Stargazing Dog (Read About Comics)
David Welsh on Stargazing Dog (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 4 of The Story of Saiunkoku (ANN)

The Manga Moveable Feast kicks off this week with Love Hina as the main course. Jason Green, who is hosting this month’s Feast at PLAYBACK:stl, starts us off with an introduction to Love Hina, and the archive page that collects links to all the participating articles is here.

I took a look at this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Jason Thompson features the 4-koma schoolgirl manga Azumanga Daioh in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Melinda Beasi writes about what the Canadian customs case means to her at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund blog.

David Welsh reaches the letter F in his alphabet of manga favorites.

Alex Hoffman checks out Toribako House, an as-yet-unlicensed manga by Bunny Drop creator Yumi Unita.

NYCC/NYAF is coming up next week. I’ll be there, covering it for MTV Geek. Ed Sizemore posts his list of the panels he wants to see at Comics Worth Reading, and Linda Thai interviews Yen Press publishing director Kurt Hassler about his plans for the show.

News from Japan: Vampire Princess is winding up; the 22nd chapter will be the last.

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

Lori Henderson on vols. 3 and 4 of 7 Billion Needles (Manga Village)
Kimi-chan on The Color of the Clear Blue Sky (The Kimi-chan Experience)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Edo Nekoe Jubei Otogizoshi (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate Dacey on Gandhi: A Manga Biography (The Manga Critic)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 18 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kimi-chan on Healing Music (The Kimi-chan Experience)
Anna on vol. 6 of Library Wars (Manga Report)
Kimi-chan on Mr. Tiger and Mr. Wolf (The Kimi-chan Experience)
Queenie Chan on Mushishi (Queenie Chan)
John Rose on vol. 52 of Naruto (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 18 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Julie Opipari on Stargazing Dog (Manga Maniac Cafe)
TSOTE on vol. 4 of Taimashin (Three Steps Over Japan)
Kristin on Temperature Rising and vol. 1 of Seven Days (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 13 of Vampire Knight (The Comic Book Bin)

Healing Music, the second manga from the Digital Manga Guild, has been released on Digital’s eManga website.

Also, JManga has beefed up its site with three new series: vols. 1 and 2 of Hitohira, which was originally released in the U.S. by Aurora, vol. 1 of Sherlock Holmes, and vol. 1 of Nogi, an action series. All three are included in JManga’s October sale, meaning they are priced at 499 points (about $4.99) per volume.

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

News from Japan: The Kakugo no Susume (Apocalypse Zero) manga is getting a spinoff, Kaika no Susume. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews

Kristin on vols. 3 and 4 of Bokurano: Ours (Comic Attack)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Codename: Sailor V (ANN)
Ayra on vol. 5 of Ichiroh! (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Library Wars: Love and War (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 6 of Negima!? Neo (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Seiho Boys’ High School (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 13 of Vampire Knight (ANN)
Greg McElhatton on A Zoo in Winter (Read About Comics)

Online manga site JManga.com is running a sale for the month of October with some big discounts: Books that go for 899 points are marked down to 499, those expensive 1998-point books are now going for 799. (Figure a penny a point, if you’re new to the system.) You still have to subscribe and buy your points in bundles, but they will go a lot farther this month. Also, if you were an early adopter and already bought your comics, they are kicking back half the points you spent, which is a particularly nice touch.

Derek Bown, who writes reviews at Burning Lizard Studios, shows off his manga collection to The Manga Critic.

Reviews

Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Cage of Eden (ICv2)
Erica Friedman on Daisuki: Hikaru & Sakura (Okazu)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-3 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Soliloquy in Blue)
Karen Green on Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (comiXology)
John Rose on vol. 3 of Tenjho Tenge (The Fandom Post)
Ed Sizemore on A Zoo in Winter (Comics Worth Reading)

Weekly Shonen Jump has posted the first chapter of Kurogane, by newcomer Haruto Ikezawa, online, for free, in English, on their English-language site. Unfortunately, you have to download their special manga reader, which is Windows-only, so this Mac user won’t be reading it. (Via ANN.)

Speaking of horrible DRM (i.e. proprietary manga readers that you need admin privileges to install), check out this comment at Manga Bookshelf from someone who figured out that Square Enix’s online manga site, with its many layers of DRM and user inconvenience, actually does a worse job of protecting their manga from piracy than the much more user-friendly Viz Manga and JComi sites. But Square Enix got the last laugh when their Click-and-Buy system caused his bank to freeze his debit card.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of this Viz-heavy week, and at his blog, David Welsh looks over the week’s new releases.

Thalia Sutton explains the significance of Sailor Moon at Suvudu.

Charles Solomon discusses why Takehiko Inoue is so awesome at the LA Times. (Via The Beat.)

Lori Henderson issues the call for entries in the October Manga Moveable Feast, which will focus on horror manga.

News from Japan: Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at the seinen magazine Monthly Afternoon, whose lineup has included Blame, Gunsmith Cats, Genshiken, and the much-coveted Vinland Saga. Translator Tomo Kimura went to Julietta Suzuki’s autograph session in Ogikubo, and she took pictures of some of the art on display.

Reviews: Ash Brown looks back on another week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers get straight to the point with this week’s Bookshelf Briefs. Matthew J. Brady reviews three new manga from Kodansha at Warren Peace Sings the Blues.

Connie on vol. 35 of Bleach (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Bunny Drop (Comic Attack)
Anna on vol. 10 of Detroit Metal City (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 3 of Gen (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sweetpea on Just a Girl (Organization Anti Social Geniuses)
Connie on vol. 4 of Kingyo Used Books (Slightly Biased Manga)
Alexander Hoffman on La Quinta Camera (Manga Village)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 31 of Negima! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Diana Dang on vol. 16 of Ouran High School Host Club (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Connie on vols. 6 and 7 of Please Save My Earth (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 7 of Seiho Boys’ High School (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on Shocking Pink (adult manga) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on Vampire Princess (Okazu)
Dave Ferraro on Velveteen and Mandala (Comics-and-More)
David Welsh on A Zoo in Winter (The Manga Curmudgeon)