Translating Takemiya

The Weekly Recon is back: Katherine Dacey checks out this week’s new titles and throws in a couple of brief reviews at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog.

Also at PCS, although completely hidden from view  prominently displayed on their front page, is the ComicRankings list of the best manga of 2007, as judged by online reviewers.

If you think you know better than the online reviewers, head over to About.com, where today is the last day to vote in their best of 2007 polls.

Up till now, Manganovel hasn’t made too many waves, but their Manglish contest looks interesting. The challenge is to translate the first episode of The Pharaoh’s Tomb, by Keiko Takemiya, creator of To Terra and The Andromeda Stories, and the contest is sponsored by Mainichi Daily News (who had their own Manglish page for a while), Mantan Web, and Square Enix. The only catch is that their software is PC-only, which excludes a lot of potential customers. For good measure, Manga Jouhou translates an interview with Takemiya. (Via ComiPress.)

David Welsh checks out two possible contenders for best manga of 2008, Sand Chronicles and Honey and Clover, in this week’s Flipped column.

Gia Manry continues her series on underappreciated manga at Fanboy.com with two titles that might surprise you: Kodomo no Jikan (a.k.a. Nymphet) and Ouran High School Host Club.

Your think post of the day: At Japan Focus, Rumi Sakamoto discusses pop nationalism in Kobayashi Yoshinori’s Sensoron. (Via Journalista.)

Also via Dirk: Signs of burnout in scanlation group Kotonoha.

At Shuchaku-East, Chloe checks out her first omnibus and finds it unwieldy, but a bargain.

John Jakala calls out Newsweek for alluding to “regular manga” and shoujo manga:

So nicely done, Newsweek! In an article purportedly about how comics are increasingly aimed at women, you still managed to reinforce the idea that, at their core, comics are really for men!

Iris Print updates: Kellie Lynch uses bar graphs to show how the preorders are going for Queer Magic and Home on the Range. Also, check the comments on her original post about Iris’s woes for some interesting comments and suggestions that illuminate the peculiar difficulties of selling BL. Tina Anderson, whose work has been published by Iris, defends their line.

The American Library Association has awarded the novel Brave Story its 2008 Mildred L. Batchelder Award for best U.S. translation of a foreign-language book. Brave Story was written by Miyuke Miyabe, translated by Alexander Smith, and published in the U.S. by Viz.

There’s more Manga Zombie at ComiPress; this time the manga-ka in question is Bonten Taro.

Same Hat goes global and posts Renegade Rhombus, a surrealistic horror-ish comic by Shunga, a.k.a. Aaron K. (Comic is NSFW.)

Svetlana Chmakova’s website has a lovely new redesign, courtesy of our mutual friend J. Dee Dupuy. (Spotted first by Kurishojo, but Dee gave me a sneak preview just last Friday.)

Artdaily.org writes up an exhibit in Berlin of work by manga-ka Yoshitaka Amano.

Canned Dogs posts about a maid cafe in Akihabara where all the maids are men.

Reviews: At Hobotaku, Nick picked up vol. 1 of Pumpkin Scissors because of the title, and he’s willing to stick with it for another volume at least. Julie checks out another Del Rey title, vol. 1 of Shiki Tsukai, at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Crap in a pretty package? Briana Lawrence gives A King’s Lesson a B for the pretty boys on its cover but an F for the story at Anime on DVD. Also, Matthew Alexander has a mook review of Megami Deluxe that starts out “Cheesecake meets anime”—surely that’s not a first encounter??!? Tiamat’s Disciple discusses the awesomeness that is Magical x Miracle. Miranda has a quick update on vols. 5-7 of ES: Eternal Sabbath at Prospero’s Manga. At Manga Jouhou, Eric Turner pans Pop Japan Travel: Essential Otaku Guide. About Heroes delivers some brief manga reviews.