Time to flip through some magazines.
At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro picks up the latest Shojo Beat and has nothin’ but love for Nana and Absolute Boyfriend, although he’s a bit disappointed by Aishiteruze Baby. Why not just buy the books?
I like the previews, I like being caught up with the story and I like the little tid bits of Japanese culture speckled throughout the magazine.
The same is true in my house, as my girls have developed a sudden and urgent need for lime-green cell phones, bubble tea, and expensive shoes.
Meanwhile, David Welsh at Precocious Curmudgeon treats Manga Month at Previews with the appropriate degree of sarcasm but manages to find a few comics he’d like (most of which, ironically, are not manga). Scroll down a bit to read his review of Tokyopop’s Manga magazine as well. This issue brings a preview of the next Fruits Basket, which alone is worth the trouble of signing up, as well as advance glimpses of Dragon Head and Sorcerers & Secretaries. Manga is printed on glossy paper, which seems like a waste as the comics themselves are in black and white. They put a lot of color in the margins to make up for it, but I actually like Shojo Beat better. I’d rather have a lot of stories on cheap paper than a few chapters on glossy paper with colored doohickies on the sides. Manga is an advertising flyer, Shojo Beat is a magazine.
It says something about the manga blogosphere that no one seems to have picked up on the March Shonen Jump, which features a two-page spread on “The Women of Shonen Jump” and a preview of a new manga, Claymore, that has a main character—excuse me, “kick-butt hero”—who just happens to be a girl. And the Japanese lessons feature a discussion of the Japanese for “tomboy.” Could this be an acknowledgment that girls read shonen too? My girls were unimpressed, although they were happy to get a chapter of One Piece, which is a favorite of theirs.
