MangaBlog

The commentary keeps on coming on the end of Tokyopop. Veteran translator and manga scholar Matt Thorn has an interesting post on how Tokyopop drove down wages for translators, which resulted in a drop in quality as well. (Although fans who were reading scanlations might not notice the difference.) Kate Dacey adds her own thoughts, and Tokyopop freelance editor Daniella Orihuela-Gruber weighs in with her point of view in the comments section. Charles Tan has a nice article up at Bibliophile Stalker that delves into the early experiments with format that resulted in the current package. Longtime reader J. Caleb Mozzocco weighs in with his thoughts and a look at his Tokyopop collection. Sho Murase reflects on her (sadly) unfinished series, Me2. Erica Friedman (Okazu) and Lissa Pattillo (Kuriousity) discuss the end of Tokyopop and the future of the manga industry on the ANNCast podcast. And the denizens of Manga Village have a farewell roundtable.

Is the Manga Revolution over? ICv2 reports that Naruto was the top seller in bookstores last month.

Kate Dacey has the April list of good manga for kids, and Lori Henderson has this week’s all-ages comics and manga, at Good Comics for Kids.

Jason Thompson looks at another weird, interesting old manga, Baron Gong Battle, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Erica Friedman points to the signs of a worldwide Sailor Moon revival.

David Welsh’s latest license request is Aoi Hana.

Manga Therapy’s Tony Yao discusses one of his favorite manga characters, Saito Hajime of Rurouni Kenshin.

News from Japan: Hideki Ohwada has a new comedy manga series in the works titled Tonari no Zarathustra-san (My Neighbor Zarathustra). Apparently it’s about Nietzsche. Natsume Ono is working on a new historical series set in the Edo period, and Future Diary manga-ka Sakae Esuno will launch a new series this summer. The latest issue of Kodansha’s Magazine Special features a Fairy Tail/Rave crossover. An upcoming chapter of Skip Beat! will feature an idea from one lucky reader. Saturn Apartments is coming to an end. And Masahiro Itosugi has announced that volumes 1 and 3 of Aki Sora will not be reprinted; apparently the manga’s incest storyline is the problem.

Reviews: Todd Douglass posts some short reviews of recent manhwa at Anime Maki. Kristin reviews some Harlequin manga at Comic Attack.

Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Blue Exorcist (The Manga Critic)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Bunny Drop (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Butterfly (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Todd Douglass on vol. 2 of Death Note: Black Edition (Anime Maki)
Collin David on Doing Time (Graphic Novel Reporter)
TSOTE on vol. 3 of Geobreeders (Three Steps Over Japan)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Karakuri Odette (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of March Story (The Comic Book Bin)
Kinukitty on No Touching at All (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Red Angel (Graphic Novel Reporter)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 5 of Rin-ne (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Seiho Boys High School (Comic Attack)

David Welsh looks at this week’s new manga at The Manga Curmudgeon, and he reaches the letter L in his josei alphabet. The Manga Village crowd points to the best of the April 13 new releases. And Sean Gaffney takes the longer view and looks at next week’s new manga. Lissa Pattillo shows off the results of her latest shopping trip at Kuriousity.

The reactions to Tokyopop’s closure continue. At Robot 6, I point out that manga changed the comics world forever—even for people who don’t read it. At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind blames Stu Levy for bringing down Tokyopop and wonders why he didn’t just sell it instead of shutting it down. Rob McMonigal remembers Tokyopop’s early days at Panel Patter. At Manga Report, Anna is marking the occasion by giving away a few of Tokyopop’s last volumes.

Digital has confirmed that it will not be publishing Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, a manga it announced in 2008; the license has reverted to the Japanese publisher, Gakken.

At The Panelists, which critiques comics panel by panel and page by page, Derik Badman analyzes a two-page spread from Kazuichi Hanawa’s Doing Time.

Anna finds references to the Jewish song Dona Dona in manga and anime.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith bring on the boys’ love in their latest BL Bookrack column at Manga Bookshelf.

Connie on vol. 4 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 9-11 of Bleach (Panel Patter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Cross Game (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 8 of Detroit Metal City (Slightly Biased Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 1 of Eensy Weensy Monster (Sequential Tart)
Anna on vols. 7 and 8 of Gatcha Gacha (Manga Report)
Michael Buntag on vol. 7 of Honey and Clover (NonSensical Words)
Kristy Valenti on The Lychee Light Club (The Comics Journal)
Jennifer LeBlanc on vol. 2 of Maiden Rose (The Yaoi Review)
Lori Henderson on episodes 1 and 2 of Mizuki (Manga Village)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Panel Patter)
Lori Henderson on vols. 2 and 3 of One Fine Day (Manga Village)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 16 and 17 of Ranma 1/2 (Panel Patter)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Replica (Manga Village)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Shin Koi Hime Musou~ Otome Tairan (Okazu)
Shannon Fay on vol. 23 of Skip Beat! (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 4 of Spiral! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Toradora! (Slightly Biased Manga)

The announcement on Friday that Tokyopop is closing its U.S. publishing division was huge news for U.S. manga readers, as Tokyopop was one of the pioneers in this market. Bloggers, former employees, and creators had a mix of reactions, and Deb Aoki has a good roundup of comments at About.com. Kate Dacey goes a step further with a retrospective look at the company’s history and her own reactions roundup. Some other voices:

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, who has been doing freelance editing for Tokyopop for a while now, brings the view from inside the office to the discussion. This obviously has a direct impact on her, as Tokyopop was a big part of her income stream, but she also has some insight into the inner doings at the office. Here she is on Stu Levy, who, she says, wasn’t really there much:

Some people kind of demonize him online for ignoring and mucking up the manga publishing side of things, but I felt like he was a non-entity holding a carrot on a stick over the heads of everyone in publishing and really making them work for it. Everyone was trying hard to please him, probably when pleasing the fans should have been number one.

That being said, I wish that Stu had brought in someone else to be totally in charge of publishing. Someone with the talent and passion to publish good books that were commercially successful (or at least, moderately successful) or run Tokyopop more like a smaller manga publisher rather than the powerhouse it used to be.

Jason Thompson reminisces about the heady early days of Tokyopop’s OEL (global) manga initiative, and he points out that many talented creators got their start, or at least a boost, from that line.

Johanna Draper Carlson has a link-filled survey of Tokyopop’s history that’s a good start for those who want to know more, and she also looks at the manga business as it stands now, and she and Ed Sizemore discuss the end of Tokyopop in their Manga Out Loud podcast.

Sean Gaffney looks at the last round of Tokyopop titles and the series that will remain unfinished, and he offers some thoughts on why this happened and what the future may bring. In a followup, he adds that it looks like the May 31 books won’t be shipping.

Steve Bennett writes about Tokyopop from the comics retailer’s perspective, a point of view that is seldom heard when it comes to manga. He talks about how radical Tokyopop seemed at the time, and how retailers at first embraced the new medium and then became overwhelmed by it.

David Welsh, always upbeat, remembers his favorite Tokyopop manga and asks readers to chime in with their own happy memories.

AstroNerdBoy remembers when publishers tried to publish manga in American formats, and how Tokyopop changed all that.

Kelkagandy doesn’t feel there’s much to miss any more. Lissa Pattillo, on the other hand, is going to miss them a lot, and Anna lists the series she will miss at Manga Report.

Dave Ferraro lists his five favorite Tokyopop series at Comics-and-More. Kate Dacey goes him five better and lists her ten top Tokyopop titles at The Manga Critic. And Connie shares her favorites at Slightly Biased Manga.

At The Yaoi Review, the big news is the loss of Tokyopop’s Blu Manga line.

Jason Yadao reminisces about his Tokyopop years at Otaku Ohana.

Lots going on in the manga-world today! I’m collecting Tokyopop shutdown reactions in a separate post, which I will probably put up later today; feel free to send me links in comments.

Lori Henderson has the latest all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

It’s Pick of the Week time again at Manga Bookshelf, where Melinda Beasi, Kate Dacey, Michelle Smith, and David Welsh discuss their favorites from this week’s list.

Erica Friedman updates us on all the latest yuri news at Okazu.

Deb Aoki talks to the Kodansha folks about their upcoming new edition of Sailor Moon.

At The Hooded Utilitarian, Adam Stephanides takes strong exception to Drawn + Quarterly’s practice of flipping manga.

Something that got lost in all the Tokyopop talk is the fact that Viz is quietly dropping Gin Tama. Khursten Santos thinks it’s remarkable that it was ever licensed at all.

Seven Seas is adding the manhwa My Boyfriend Is a Vampire to their fall list, according to Lissa Pattillo.

Marie Mutsuki Mockett explains why Boys Over Flowers is a must-read book at NPR.

2chan.us translates a fascinating conversation between Ken Akamatsu and Kentaro Takekuma about Akamatsu’s digital manga portal, J-Comi, and the future of manga in Japan.

In the wake of Tokyopop’s demise, Matt Blind sketches out his own vision for an American manga publisher.

Mommy does the shopping, Daddy does … something else: Caddy points out the traditional gender roles in Chi’s Sweet Home at A Feminist Otaku.

If you’re going to be in the New York area on May 10, drop by Kinokuniya Bookstore: Natsume Ono, creator of Ristorante Paradiso, House of Five Leaves, and not simple, will be there.

News from Japan: Fruits Basket manga-ka Natsuki Takaya is working on a new series, Liselotte and Witch’s Forest (Liselotte to Majo no Mori), to launch in May in Hana to Yume. And Cross Game manga-ka Mitsuru Adachi is also launching a new series, another baseball story titled Asaoka Kōkō Yakyū-Bu Nisshi – Over Fence (Asaoka High School Baseball Team Journal – Over Fence)

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf gang rounds up the latest releases in their Bookshelf Briefs column. Omar posts some short reviews of recent releases at About Heroes. Ash Brown recaps a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Anna looks at some Blu manga at Manga Report.

Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Blue Exorcist (About.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Blue Exorcist (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on Claiming His Pregnant Wife (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped (ANN)
Julie Opipari on vol. 9 of Dance in the Vampire Bund (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Ash Brown on vol. 9 of Death Note (Experiments in Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 4 of Dengeki Daisy (ANN)
Connie on vol. 1 of ES: Eternal Sabbath (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 15 of Gakuen Alice (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-3 of Genkaku Picasso (Good Comics for Kids)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of House of Five Leaves (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Kingyo Used Books (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Kingyo Used Books (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie Opipari on The Millionaire’s Revenge (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on A Most Suitable Wife (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Welsh on Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Comics Worth Reading)
Khursten Santos on Solanin (Otaku Champloo)
Connie on vol. 2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on vol. 3 of The Story of Saiunkoku (The Manga Critic)
Ai Kano on vol. 4 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Animanga Nation)
Erica Friedman on vol. 10 of Tsubomi (Okazu)

Can this be? Tokyopop announced today that it was shutting down its publishing division. I did a post with the details for Robot 6, and I’ll post more here as the details become clearer.

For this week’s PWCW, I talked to Digital CEO Hikaru Sasahara about how his plans for the Digital Manga Guild are shaping up.

David Welsh picks the best of this week’s new manga at The Manga Curmudgeon. David also reaches the letter K in his josei alphabet. Always a week ahead of the rest of us, Sean Gaffney takes a look at next week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss some recent releases in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Dark Horse laid off seven employees yesterday, including the editors of Gantz and What’s Michael?

At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao looks at two heroes with a dark side, Light Yagami and Lelouch Lamperouge.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber reflects on the difficulty of being both an editor and a blogger at All About Manga.

News from Japan: Let the purification begin! Ken Akamatsu’s site J-Comi has posted its first “purified” online manga, a file that was obtained illicitly through a file-sharing network but posted at J-Comi with the author’s consent—and paid advertising, the proceeds of which go to the creator. Meanwhile, manga-ka Masahiro Totsuka (Bamboo Blade) and Yuu Minamoto (Samurai Heaven: Asu no Yoichi) have announced they are collaborating on a new series, Haru Polish, to launch in the June issue of Monthly Shonen Champion.

Reviews: Carlo Santos takes a short, sharp look at a bundle of recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Kate Dacey posts short takes on recent releases at The Manga Critic. Kristin reviews some Harlequin manga at Comic Attack.

Rob McMonigal on vol. 4 of 20th Century Boys (Panel Patter)
Todd Douglass on vol. 3 of Bokurano Ours (Anime Maki)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 38 of Case Closed (The Comic Book Bin)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 1 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Panel Patter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Clean Freak: Fully Equipped (ANN)
David Welsh on vol. 3 of Cross Game (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Clive Owen on vol. 8 of Detroit Metal City (Animanga Nation)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of Excel Saga (The Comic Book Bin)
Todd Douglass on vol. 2 of K-ON! (Anime Maki)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of K-ON! (Okazu)
Todd Douglass on vol. 6 of Nabari no Ou (Anime Maki)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 9 of Nana (Panel Patter)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 13-15 of Ranma 1/2 (Panel Patter)
Todd Douglass on vol. 15 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Anime Maki)
Lori Henderson on vols. 4 and 5 of Tena on S-String (Manga Xanadu)