Over at Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week, Kai-Ming Cha has a very interesting conversation with Ioannis Metzas of Vertical about his company’s plans to publish more of Tezuka’s work (including, and this is a scoop, Dororo) and how it has been working out so far. Kai-Ming also talks to Maki Murakami about Gravitation. This issue also includes a preview of Poison Candy, the September best-seller list, and a nice article about young women in comics that mentions several manga artists.
David Welsh has some observations about the PWCW bestsellers.
At MangaCast, Ed finishes out his list of Japanese manga releases with this month’s manga from the big publishers.
At Completely Futile, Adam Stephanides re-translates some passages from the first volume of Fruits Basket. It’s interesting to see the different shades of meaning from two different translations.
How do Japanese manga magazines rank their stories? According to One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, the editors have more to do with it than the readers. (Via ComiPress.)
Transplanted Glaswegian draws manga in Montana!
Reviews: Carlo Santos has another Right Turn Only!! column up at ANN, chock-full of critical comments about everything from Blue to Heaven!! Leroy Douresseaux checks out vol. 3 of Naruto at the Comic Book Bin. Greg Hackmann reads the Full Metal Panic novel Fighting Boy Meets Girl at Anime on DVD. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews Go with Grace at Comics Worth Reading. It seems to be Thumbs Down Day at Prospero’s Manga, where Ferdinand disdains the cheap laughs in vol. 1 of He Is My Master, while Miranda is disappointed by vol. 1 of Gon. Over at the CBGXtra site, Ferdinand (a.k.a. Billy Aguiar) likes Who Fighter with Heart of Darkness a bit better. Things are rosier at Hobotaku, where Nick gives a solid A to vols. 1-9 of Battle Angel Alita. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie checks out vol. 1 of Kanna. Kurishojo reviews vol. 1 of Aoi House In Love at Manganews. At the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog, Hung reviews vol. 3 of To Terra and vol. 1 of Venus Versus Virus.
You and most of the people in the comments from your link have misinterpreted Oda’s statement on popularity and “ranking.”
The Editor in Chief doesn’t decide what is most popular. He decides what order the stories are placed in the magazine. There’s been a long-held belief in Japan (and here, apparently) that the order of the stories in the magazine from week to week is based on the popularity polls from the preceeding week. That if a story appears at the very back of the magazine, it means it was lowest on the popularity poll and is in danger of cancelation. Oda’s saying that belief isn’t true.
He’s is saying that, yes, the most popular stories are placed towards the front, but after that, it’s the editor who decides the order the stories are placed in the magazine, and popularity has very little to do with it.
As one comment mentioned, this really isn’t anything new. The order has to be decided by the editor because advertising space, placement of color pages, page facing, and many other factors go into the layout of a manga magazine.
But the rush to condemn the editors is an amazing thing to watch.
Bill Flanagan
Thanks for the clarification, Bill. I have to admit I hadn’t thought about it that much. Having been an editor myself, I know how complicated it is to put together a magazine, and I wouldn’t think of condemning anyone for doing it that way!
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Sorry, Brigid. I wasn’t referring to you, but the comments section in ComiPress. I keep forgetting to be more detailed in posts and comments. Live and learn…
Bill