MangaBlog

David Welsh checks the latest Previews and finds two new arty manga to get excited about. And he wants you to help him choose between two manga, a yaoi manga or one about life in a maid cafe.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date on the world of yuri with the latest edition of Yuri Network News. Erica also has an interesting post on why light novels are such a tough sell outside Japan.

Niko Silvester profiles manga creator Moto Hagio at Mania.com, and Rob McMonigal continues his appreciation of Rumiko Takahashi with essays on Takahashi’s attitude toward men and a look at her silly side.

Lori Henderson continues her celebration of the Year of the Rabbit with a look at manga that feature rabbit girls.

Same Hat reproduces a vintage 1988 essay by “script polisher” James Hudnall on the process of translating and adapting manga.

Seven Seas has a preview up of Toradora!, the first volume of which debuts in March.

Here’s another reason to go to the Toronto Comic Arts Festival: Alt-manga creator Usamaru Furuya (Lychee Light Club, No Longer Human) will be there.

News from Japan: Barefoot Gen manga-ka Keiji Nakazawa is on the mend after a lengthy hospitalization for lung cancer. Khursten notes that Shueisha has launched a boys love manga magazine, BL-ink.

Reviews: Wolfen Moondaughter takes a look at a stack of recent yaoi (and yaoi-ish) manga at Sequential Tart. Todd Douglas pens some brief manhwa reviews at Anime Maki.

Rob McMonigal on vol. 3 of 20th Century Boys (Panel Patter)
Crystal White on vol. 11 of Black God (Japanator)
Rob McMonigal on A Drunken Dream and Other Stories (Panel Patter)
Kris Kosaka on Hagakure: Code of the Samurai (Japan Times Online)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 4 of Jormungand (Panel Patter)
Animemiz on Natsume’s Book of Friends (Anime Diet)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 4 of Nightschool (Panel Patter)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 4 and 5 of One Piece (Panel Patter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 9 of Otomen (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristina Pino on vol. 4 of Pandora Hearts (Japanator)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 8 of Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo (ANN)
Alex Hoffman on vols. 1 and 2 of Saturn Apartments (Manga Widget)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Seiho Boys High School! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 2 of Spiral (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on The Story of Lee (Comics Worth Reading)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 1 of Time and Again (Panel Patter)

Sean Gaffney looks ahead to next week’s new manga. Fortunately for his wallet, it’s a slow week.

Jason Thompson is traveling this week, so he uses his cell phone to read old and obscure manga for his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

At Manga Bookshelf, Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss manga that put boobs front and center, sometimes at the expense of characterization or story.

Tony Yao looks at Kagura, the ass-kicking heroine of Gintama, at Manga Therapy.

David Welsh would like to see some manga by Akiko Higashimura licensed in English, please. Meanwhile, Alex Hoffman discusses the manga he would like Vertical to license next, and he invites readers to contribute their suggestions.

News from Japan: It’s yet another record-breaking print run for One Piece, as 3.8 million copies of volume 61 roll off the presses.

Reviews

Connie on vol. 1 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 7 of Black Bird (ANN)
Vom Marlowe on Endless Comfort (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Diana Dang on vols. 1 and 2 of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden (Stop, Drop, and Read)
Clive Owen on vol. 1 of Hyde & Closer (Animanga Nation)
Kanta Ishida on I Am a Hero (Daily Yomiuri)
Todd Douglass on vol. 4 of Ichiroh! (Anime Maki)
Kristin on Jazz (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Kimi ni Todoke (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Kurozakuro (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Anna on Made in Heaven: Kazamichi and Made in Heaven: Juri (Manga Report)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (Blogcritics)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Toriko (The Manga Critic)
Connie on vol. 6 of Your and My Secret (Slightly Biased Manga)

DMP is offering Reversible for free on their eManga site for the entire month of February.

Melinda Beasi presents three reasons to read Peepo Choo at Manga Bookshelf.

Lori Henderson celebrates the Year of the Rabbit with a post on manga featuring rabbits and other cuddly creatures.

News from Japan: The sport of gateball, the Japanese version of croquet, was falling so far out of fashion that even old men weren’t playing it any more—until a cartoon high school girl took it up! Asahi Shimbun credits the manga Gate Girl for revitalizing interest in what sounds like a fairly sedate sport, thanks to the addition of miniskirts and lots of drama. Meanwhile, Kodansha has announced a digital version of Morning 2 for the iPad, iPhone, and Android devices.

Reviews

Connie on vol. 13 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Gente and vol. 5 of Ooku: The Inner Chamber (Comic Attack)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Nicola on vol. 3 of Library Wars: Love and War (Back to Books)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kizuna (Slightly Biased Manga)

The Angoulême comics festival is just wrapping up in France, and manga seems to have played a prominent part. Riyoko Ikeda, creator of The Rose of Versailles, was a guest of honor, and she sang at the palace of Versailles. An entire section of the festival was dedicated to underground manga by female creators, and there is an entire website, Mangouleme (in French) devoted to the manga happenings at Angoulême.

Melinda Beasi is joining the Digital Manga Guild and plans to write about her experiences there.

Alex Hoffman (possibly NSFW) looks at Manga Taisho Award winners he’d like to see in English.

David Welsh kicks off his josei alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon with the letter A.

Lissa Pattillo is asking her readers to suggest chibis (-tans) to represent the different manga publishers.

News from Japan: The publisher Kodansha has asked the Chinese portal Baidu to remove manga from their site that have been posted without permission, and Shueisha has told Apple it wants puzzles based on One Piece illustrations and music, also unauthorized, to be removed from the iTunes store. And the manga creator Kazoku Takahashi (Minami no Kazoku) has died.

Reviews: Carlo Santos takes a look at another batch of new releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Connie C. on vol. 2 of Ai no Kusabi (Comics Village)
Mark Thomas on vol. 1 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (Mania.com)
Anna on vol. 3 of Demon Sacred (Manga Report)
Todd Douglass on vol. 11 of Higurashi When They Cry (Anime Maki)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 50 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Oyceter on vols. 3 and 4 of Nightschool (Sakura of DOOM)
James Fleenor on vol. 2 of Ratman (Anime Sentinel)
Emily on Sensei ni Ageru (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)

David Welsh takes a look at this week’s new manga at The Manga Curmudgeon. And David joins Melinda Beasi, Kate Dacey, and Michelle Smith for a discussion of this week’s pick of the week.

Ed Sizemore invites Melinda Beasi, Erica Friedman, and David Welsh to discuss Peepo Choo with him on the latest Manga Out Loud podcast.

Melinda Beasi expresses a bit of impatience for more web manhwa in this week’s Manhwa Monday post.

Khursten Santos puts the spotlight on Naoki Urasawa, creator of Pluto, Monster, and 20th Century Boys, at Otaku Champloo.

One more reason to go to TCAF: Natsume Ono will be there.

Reviews: The Good Comics for Kids bloggers share what they have been reading this week in the latest episode of The Reading Pile, and Ash Brown gives us a quick rundown of a week’s worth of manga at Experiments in Manga. Other reviews of note:

Kristin on vol. 13 of 20th Century Boys (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 7 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 12 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 5 of Butterflies, Flowers and vol. 4 of Seiho Boys’ High School (Manga Report)
Liz Reed on vol. 1 of Cat Street (Manga Life)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Eensy Weensy Monster (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Grand Guignol Orchestra (The Comic Book Bin)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Highschool of the Dead (Comics-and-More)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Highschool of the Dead (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Kurozakuro (Comics Village)
Nicola on vol. 3 of MAOH: Juvenile Remix (Back to Books)
Connie on vol. 3 of Pokemon Adventures (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Portrait of M & N (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 1 of Ratman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Sensual Phrase (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd Douglass on vol. 5 of (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of The Stellar Six of Gingacho (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Wolf God and vol. 1 of Fafner: Dead Aggressor (Manga Xanadu)

Lori Henderson posts the list of last week’s all-ages comics and manga, and picks her favorites, at Good Comics for Kids. Lissa Pattillo shares her comics-shop finds at Kuriousity, and at Comics Village, the whole team selects their favorites from the past week’s new manga.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date on the world of yuri in the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Michelle Smith and Melinda Beasi dissect Hakusensha’s How to Draw Shoujo Manga (published here by Tokyopop) in their latest Let’s Get Visual feature at Soliloquy in Blue.

Margaret O’Connell continues her look at love and hate in shonen manga at Sequential Tart.

Alex Hoffman takes a second look at Kodansha’s summer lineup and finds it a bit too much on the safe side.

Last week, Vertical’s Ed Chavez announced two new licenses: Princess Knight and Drops of God (Kami no Shizuku). Bloggers were pleased; here are reactions from Deb Aoki, Alex Hoffman, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, Lissa Pattillo, Khursten Santos, and David Welsh.

Melinda Beasi devotes her Failure Friday post to some common flaws in BL manga—and some manga that overcome them.

Digital Manga has added yet another BL series to their lineup: Katekyo! (Private Teacher!)

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber asks her readers: Which manga would you most like to see licensed?

Naoki Urasawa won the Prix Intergénérations (Intergenerational Award) at the Angoulême International Comics Festival this past weekend for his series Pluto.

News from Japan: ANN chronicles several manga launches and conclusions, including the fact that Kei Toume’s Genei Hakurankai has drawn to a close. Kadokawa Shoten has a new 4-koma magazine in the works.

Reviews: I just discovered Katherine Hanson’s yuri blog, Yuri no Boke, and I enjoyed her writeup of Husky and Medley, a yuri manga that supposedly started on a 2chan thread.

AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura (omnibus edition) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime & Manga Blog)
Animemiz on La Corda d’Oro (Anime Diet)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 20 of D.Gray-Man (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Dorohedoro (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 14 of Gakuen Alice (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime & Manga Blog)
Erica Friedman on vol. 13 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Jason Green on vol. 1 of I Am Here (PLAYBACK:stl)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erin Jameson on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (PLAYBACK:stl)
David Welsh on Kinderbook (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Connie on vol. 2 of Kingyo Used Books (Slightly Biased Manga)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 3 of Library Wars: Love and War (Animanga Nation)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Manga Xanadu)
Todd Douglass on vol. 3 of Ratman (Anime Maki)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (Comics Worth Reading)
Caddy C. on vol. 22 of Skip Beat! (A Feminist Otaku)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1 and 2 of The Stellar Six of Gingacho (Comics Worth Reading)
Todd Douglass on vol. 7 of Sumomo Momomo (Anime Maki)
Nicola on Taro and the Magic Pencil (Back to Books)