The other media seem to be full of manga today. The New York Times has a feature article on CLAMP (registration may be required). Kethylia is not impressed, but Katherine Dacey-Tsuei adds a bit more. Meanwhile, John Jakala gets curmudgeonly about a Roz Chast cartoon about manga in this week’s New Yorker. (I have to say I agree with him, and I usually like Roz Chast.) And I believe this is a first: The manga version of Nancy Pelosi shows up in today’s Prickly City.
The AoD sleuths have been at it again and have dug up Amazon listings for several new titles that haven’t been announced yet, including one by Osamu Tezuka. Details and cover scans at MangaCast.
Meanwhile, Seven Seas does it the old-fashioned way and sends out a press release about their newest licenses, He Is My Master and Sota-Kun no Akihabara Funtouki (no English title yet). The first is a harem comedy starring a “14-year-old pervert” and a bevy of maids, while the other sounds like another fun-with-otaku title. Ed has covers and commentary at the MangaCast.
Paul Gravett has an article up about manwha artist Hyun Se Lee. (Via Journalista.)
ChunHyang72 rounds up what’s good at TokyoSpace, including this entry on the UK/Ireland Rising Starts of Manga finalists. Which begs the question: Isn’t that the sort of thing that Tokyopop should be promoting, perhaps by including it in the news section of the site? Because if not for this link, I’m not sure how people would find out about it. ChunHyang also has a pointed question for Tokyopop honcho Stu Levy: Where are all the bells and whistles we were promised?
Blog find: ReYa is a Swedish blog by two promising creators who have produced a very nice short manga, Butterfly Crush, that was published in Sweden. They also have links to their other work and some articles, although the articles are in Swedish. It’s a well designed site, so stop by and take a peek.
Creator Dan Hipp posts a preview of his upcoming Tokyopop title, Gyakushu!. (Via Blog@Newsarama.)
David Welsh has more on DC’s Minx imprint, comparing their plans with what’s already out there in manga form and commenting that stamping a name on something does not make it new.
ComiPress reports that a digitized version of Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms Sangokushi will be released for the Nintendo DS in a hybrid form they’re calling a “gamic.” It will include sound effects and mini-games.
Play Magazine has a preview of the DrMaster title Purgatory Kabuki, according to MangaNews.
At MangaCast, Ed Chavez reviews Gakuen Heaven, Challengers, and Our Everlasting. Anime on DVD reviewer Patricia Beard looks at volume 1 of a new series from DMP, Rin! At ANN, Pata reviews Del Rey’s single-volume Train Man while Christopher Seaman at Active Anime has an advance review of volume 2 of the Viz version. Tangognat likes Blood Alone.
Tokyopop just announced that it’s going live with its 1.7 version tomorrow. They promise to unveil a user review system as well as new blogging, polling, and sorting functions. Here’s the link: http://www.tokyopop.com/554.html.
Oh, thank god for the new blogging functions. I HATE the way they auto-cut.
The importation thing looks interesting. If it could auto-import from Joomla, I’d be pretty impressed o.O
xxxHolic is one of the most visually stunning series in the history of manga. I’m glad they mentioned it in the article. In my MangaBlogCast rant I said I’d like to see less stodgy books get on so many top ten lists — I’d say xxxHolic is a mixture of fun and adventure as well as sophistication that they love so much.
Amen to the stodgy manga comment!!! I liked some of the year’s critical darlings: Kirihito, Dragon Head. But I probably enjoyed Kekkaishi, xxxHolic, Monster, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Banya the Explosive Delivery Man as much (if not more) than some of the titles making people’s preliminary best-of lists. These kind of well-crafted, fun-to-read manga deserve a little more love from the critics.
Someone agreed with me? Sniffle…
Anyway yeah, add Nodame Cantibile, ES, Beck and Love Roma to that list.
Actually, now that I think about it — in comments sections on blogs is probably the best places to get recommendations rather than lists. Nothing but pure unadulterated enthusiasm for the series compels us to plug our fav books.