MangaBlog

Jason Thompson looks at Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha in this week’s House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

On the ANNCast, Ed Chavez of Vertical (publishers of Buddha!) discusses his company’s new licenses, Princess Knight and Drops of God. Manga bloggers Ed Sizemore and Deb Aoki drop in as well. Lissa Pattillo has more on the new licenses at Kuriousity.

Sean Gaffney looks ahead to next week’s new manga. It looks like there are lots of new volumes of long-running series in the works (Blade of the Immortal, Black Jack), plus a few newcomers (Amnesia Labyrinth)

David Welsh’s latest license request is Umimachi Diary, a josei manga by the creator of Banana Fish.

Melinda Beasi looks at some comfort manga at Manga Bookshelf: Manga that feature “warmth, food, and easy people.”

Tony Yao posts his entry for the the Manga Moveable Feast with a look at Karakuri Odette and our attitudes toward robots at Manga Therapy

At All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber asks her readers: How do you pick your favorite manga?

News from Japan: Tanbishugi has a list of the March manga releases, broken down by publisher.

Reviews

Carlo Santos on vol. 13 of 20th Century Boys (ANN)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura (omnibus edition) (Sequential Ink)
Connie on vol. 4 of Crown of Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Sarasah (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on vols. 1 and 2 of Shoulder-a-Coffin, Kuro (The Manga Critic)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of The Story of Lee (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of The Story of Saiunkoku (The Comic Book Bin)

Big news today: Vertical announced two new manga licenses, Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight and the wine-tasting manga Drops of God (Kami no Shizuku). Princess Knight was one of the early shoujo manga and features a swashbuckling princess disguised as a boy; Kate Dacey has some good background at The Manga Critic. Drops of God is about the son of a wine critic who finds out after his father dies that he has an adopted brother—and that the inheritance will go to the one who can identify 13 rare wines. Here’s a news story about it from a couple of years ago that gives the gist.

News from Japan: Comic Rush magazine is ditching the dead trees and going to a digital format for iOS and Android devices. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith look at some yaoi for the new year at Manga Bookshelf.

Kyla Hunt on vol. 2 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Graphic Novel Reporter)
AstroNerdBoy on Clover (omnibus edition) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Crimson Hero (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Kyla Hunt on vol. 1 of Dengeki Daisy (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Nicola on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (Back to Books)
Kristin on vol. 5 of Jormungand (Comic Attack)
Anna on vol. 2 of Kamisama Kiss (Manga Report)
Danica Davidson on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Princess (Graphic Novel Reporter)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Lori Henderson on the January issue of Yen Plus (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on You and Me, Etc. (The Comic Book Bin)

Brad Rice checks the list of this week’s new releases at Japanator, and David Welsh is pleased to see the second volume of Summit of the Gods on the list. At Manga Bookshelf, Kate, David, Melinda, and Michele list their picks of the week.

You can’t have a battle without a rival: At Sequential Tart, Margaret O’Connell discuses the way opponents define each other in shonen manga. It’s almost like a romance, except with hatin’ instead of lovin’, which is why these pairs are often so slashable.

At Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Calvin Reid takes a look at the joint venture between manga publisher Seven Seas and the science fiction publisher Tor. Seven Seas, which looked like it was going quiet for a while, has a robust lineup of 24 manga titles planned for 2011, and Tor is launching its own line of original graphic novels.

David Welsh reaches the letter Z in his seinen alphabet.

At Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman takes an advance look at Bloody Monday, one of the series in Kodansha’s summer lineup.

I noted a few weeks ago that Xiao Bai had won the 4th Annual International Manga Award for her story Si loin et si proche…, but I didn’t notice that the full list of winners had been released. It’s an interestingly international group, with several winners from Belgium and Thailand and one from the U.S.: Abby Denson, who won a Bronze Award for Dolltopia.

At Manga Life, translators Alethea and Athena Nibley use one of their old first attempts at translatoin to explain why a dictionary alone isn’t enough.

The Ateneo de Manila University is opening its Food Manga Library to the public, Khursten Santos reports.

News from Japan: Booth rentals for the Tokyo Anime Fair are way down this year, as exhibitors boycott the fair to protest the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s increased restrictions on what it views as “harmful” manga. A new manga telling the life story (so far) of actress Sasaki Nozomi, which appeared in the fashion magazine non-no as well as the shoujo anthology Margaret, is being published in book form. And the B Gata H Kei manga is coming to an end after 300 chapters.

Reviews

Sean T. Collins on vol. 1 of AX (Attentiondeficitdisorderly)
Kai Charles on vol. 2 of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga (Fiction State of Mind)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Khursten Santos on Red Blinds the Foolish (Otaku Champloo)
Carl Kimlinger on vol. 11 of Vampire Knight (ANN)
Anna on vol. 11 of V.B. Rose (Manga Report)

The Manga Villagers peruse the best of the past week’s new manga.

David Welsh takes a look at the winners of this year’s Shogakukan Manga Awards; only Ooku: The Inner Chamber has been licensed in the U.S., but several of the creators may be familiar to English-language readers. At Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman looks at another award-winning manga, Un Chocolatier de l’Amour Perdu, which won the Manga Taishou award recently.

Erica Friedman keeps us up to date with the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

With a slow week coming up, Melinda Beasi devotes her Manhwa Monday post to a look at the books she’s most looking forward to.

Vom Marlowe looks at the inking style of Loveless at The Hooded Utilitarian.

At Otaku, No Video, Brent Newhall has a very interesting post about the effect that the format of manga has on its style. And he points us to the source of that discussion, asiascape vistas, which he describes as “a collective blog made by otaku in academia.”

If you don’t read Japanese but you do read French, and you’re a Shintaro Kago fan, Ryan at Same Hat has some good news for you.

Paul Gravett’s book Manga: The First Sixty Years has been banned again—this time in Malta. The book was pulled from the San Bernardino County Public Library system in 2006 after a politician saw the opportunity to burnish his credentials a bit by making a big deal of some of the illustrations.

Animemiz compares the anime and manga of Kimi ni Todoke at Anime Diet.

Alex Hoffman asks: Why do you like Fumi Yoshinaga?

Reviews: Ash Brown looks back at a week’s worth of reading at Experiments in Manga.

David Welsh on vol. 1 of Arisa (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 2 of Cat Paradise (Panel Patter)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of La Corda d’Oro (Manga Xanadu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 2 of Dragon Girl and Mistress Fortune (The Manga Critic)
Emily Kazanecki on vol. 4 of Itazura Na Kiss (Manga Life)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Itsuwaribito (Comics-and-More)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Itsuwaribito (Comics Village)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Comics Worth Reading)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 1 of Karakuri Odette (Panel Patter)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Lives (Anime Maki)
Anna on Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy (Manga Report)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Comic Attack)
Rob McMonigal on vols. 2 and 3 of One Piece (Panel Patter)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (Okazu)
Lori Henderson on the February issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Summoner Girl (Anime Sentinel)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Tena on S-String (Manga Xanadu)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Tsubomi (Okazu)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 5 of Twin Spica (Read About Comics)
Julie Opipari on vol. 11 of Vampire Knight (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Brett Newhall on vols. 1 and 2 of Whistle! (Otaku, No Video)

The Manga Moveable Feast celebration of Karakuri Odette continues with a Manga Out Loud podcast devoted to the topic and Johanna Draper Carlson’s review of vols. 4 and 5. And at Experiments in Manga, Ash Brown has an interesting essay applying the three laws of robotics to Odette and her android companions.

Lissa Patillo has cover images and some thoughts on the new manga announced last week by Digital Manga.

News from Japan: Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku: The Inner Chamber is among the winners of the 56th Shogakukan Manga Awards, which were announced last week.

Reviews

Connie on vol. 11 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on Great Place High School (I Reads You)
Michelle Smith on vols. 3-5 of Immortal Rain (Soliloquy in Blue)
Victoria Martin on vol. 6 of Kimi ni Todoke (Manga Life)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of LIVES (The Manga Critic)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Maid Sama! (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Leroy Douresseaux on Mistress Fortune (The Comic Book Bin)
Kathryn Hemmann on Peepo Choo (Contemporary Japanese Literature) (via The Manga Critic)
Julie Opipari on vols. 1 and 2 of Saturn Apartments (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 1 of Sensual Phrase (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 20 of Sgt. Frog (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 1 of Yurara (Slightly Biased Manga)

Improbable anatomy alert!

Sean Gaffney takes a look at next week’s new manga, and it looks like there’s a better selection this week than last, with new volumes of Black Butler, Gakuen Alice, and Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo; a new shonen manga, Lives, from Tokyopop; the brand-new Highschool of the Dead, which is pretty much what it sounds like, from Yen; a couple of new yaoi one-shots from Digital and Blu; and the final volume of Mad Love Chase.

Jason Thompson looks at Swan, the surprisingly shonen manga about ballet, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

The latest dish in the Manga Moveable Feast is Ash Brown’s review of vol. 1 of Karakuri Odette at Experiments in Manga, and Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith come to the table with their Off the Shelf dialogue on the entire series at Manga Bookshelf.

Manga Critic Kate Dacey (who once gave Banya The Explosive Deliveryman an A!) muses on the role of hyperbole and ennui in manga reviews. As always, her readers weigh in with some interesting comments.

Speaking of manga critics, this week, The Hooded Utilitarian unveiled their Best Online Comics Criticism 2010 results. In the interest of full disclosure, I was invited to be a member of the roundtable but dropped out because of work and personal issues. When done right—and this was done right—it’s a big commitment, especially for the organizers, and Ng Suat Tong deserves a lot of credit for making this a year-long effort. Anyway, I can’t argue at all with the results, and for added value, the members are all posting their personal lists along with their comments. Pray for a snow day, because this is a lot of reading: Derik Badman, Melinda Beasi, Johanna Draper Carlson, Shaenon K. Garrity, Tim Hodler, Chris Mautner and Bill Randall.

Melinda Beasi explores the joys of shipping at Manga Bookshelf with a trio of made-up romances from her favorite manga.

ANN rounds up some recent announcements of new manga licenses, ten from Digital and one from Yen Press.

License request: David Welsh would like to see Akuma to Dolce, by Julietta Suzuki (Karakuri Odette):

It’s apparently about a girl with an aptitude for both magic and cooking. She inadvertently summons a powerful demon who, conveniently enough, will do just about anything for a sweet treat. From there, I would imagine that standard but charming, slightly idiosyncratic shôjo antics ensue. And this is sometimes all I require from a series.

Christopher Butcher samples the delights of Shinjuku at Comics212.

Reviews

Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Comics Village)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Peepo Choo (ANN)
Kristin on Romeo x Juliet (Comic Attack)
David Welsh on vols. 9 and 10 of Sand Chronicles (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 32 of Shaman King (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of What’s Michael (A Case Suitable for Treatment)