Yes, there were people who didn’t go to SDCC, and they had plenty to say this weekend as well. Here’s a roundup:
Comicsnob’s Matt Blind takes a look at this week’s online sales rankings.
Manga Recon has the list of this week’s new manga, along with a few short reviews.
ComiPress has some interesting stories from Japan: A satirical webcomic about the Taliban (“Tsundeban”) raises eyebrows, and an article speculates on why Shogakukan came down so hard on that Doraemon doujinshi: Could it be jealousy?
Free comix! Over at Yaoi 911, Alex Woolfson is going to send the first story from his original yaoi manga, A Shot in the Dark, to anyone who registers. Don’t want to register? Stay tuned; he’ll post it on the site later.
Here’s a nice profile of a Malaysian student who posts on deviantart and just got a scholarship to art school.
Reviews: At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 2 of Love is a Hurricane and Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 10 of Nodame Cantabile. Matt Blind reads vol. 1 of The Last Uniform at Comicsnob. Over at Manga Life, Michael Aronson reviews vol. 1 of Full Metal Panic, vol. 9 of Monster, and vol. 4 of Absolute Boyfriend—now that’s range! Julie checks out vol. 4 of Night of the Beasts at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At The Star of Malaysia, Kitty Sensei reviews vol. 9 of Ouran High School Host Club. Leroy Douresseaux checks out vol. 6 of Godchild at The Comic Book Bin.
About doraemon entry: It’s possible, since the original mangaka died I doubt his son could have come up with a better ending.
Doraemon is big not in term of sales, but it represent everything good about Childhood to most Japanese and Asians. It’s more than just a manga or anime; everything attaching to doraemon draws an emotional response to the innocence of childhood. They NEED to protect it, since the doujin was so good. Everyone like myself who grew up with Doraemon cried when we read the doujin. HARD. I don’t blame shogakukan for being so harsh but I’m really glad the doujin was created. The power and impact of doraemon is probably lost to most Westerners. There’s really nothing equivalent in the Western world.
Great point. I don’t think even Mickey Mouse carries the same weight. At the same time, Doreamon had gone down some weird paths. Wasn’t there one manga that implied that Nobita-kun was autistic and Doraemon was all in his head? Steamboat Willie don’t play that!
There’s a lot of things in Doraemon which will never show up in a Disney cartoon… For example Nobita’s habit of showing up at Shizuka’s bath unannounced… and all the awefully bullying Jaian did… There’s no way the prudes in the US would have let Doraemon to become a children’s manga . :)