Kai-Ming Cha surveys the landscape at PWCW and concludes that despite a tough year, the remaining manga publishers are holding on pretty tight. While several publishers say that scanlations (and scan aggregators) do hurt their sales, I was also interested by the comments of Hikaru Sasahara, president of DMP, who thinks that scanlation isn’t the problem, it’s high licensing fees.
At Robot 6, I rounded up some reactions to last week’s announcement that publishers would be working to shut down scan sites, and I note a couple that have simply folded their doors. Deb Aoki takes a look at the scanlation scene as well at About.com. AstroNerdBoy editorializes a bit on the topic, pointing out two lessons from history: Attempting to stop others from disseminating your product seldom works, but seizing on new opportunities often does. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber looks at it from the point of view of someone who makes her living as a freelance editor.
David Welsh has a quick look at this week’s new comics at Precocious Curmudgeon.
Melinda Beasi rounds up the latest manhwa linkage in her weekly Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf.
Kate Dacey lists her 10 favorite CMX series at The Manga Critic, and it’s a good reminder of the diversity and quality of their books.
The Japanese e-book publisher Bitway has invested $750,000 in the anime site Crunchyroll. As Bitway publishes some manga, this raises the possibility of anime-manga synergy, which has been known to boost sales in the past.
News from Japan: Shogakukan has launched a Shonen Sunday app for the iPhone; the app itself is free, and users can buy content through it. Also, Satoshi Arai, recently apointed the State Minister for National Policy, has acknowledged that it was not a good idea for his political organization to charge a couple of volumes of Paradise Kiss and Kami no Shizuku (Drops of the Gods) as official expenses.
Reviews
Zack Davisson on vol. 3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Japan Reviewed)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Bamboo Blade (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Manga Xanadu)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Cat Paradise (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Children of the Sea (The Comic Book Bin)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Culdcept (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Snow Wildsmith on Dry Heat (Fujoshi Librarian)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Gakuen Alice (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Susan S. on vol. 7 of Goong (Manga Jouhou)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 16 of Inubaka (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Kobato (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shannon Fay on Maniac Shorts Shot (Kuriousity)
Sesho on vol. 6 of Negima (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (About.com)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (Manga Life)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 6 of Otomen (ANN)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (Comics-and-More)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Toriko (Tangognat)
Erica Friedma on Yuri Pop (Okazu)
Note that the Bitway investment in Crunchyroll is explicitly for the purpose of establishing manga distribution of some form.
One can, for example, imagine a Manga membership at Crunchyroll similar to their Anime and Asian-Drama memberships, to give ad-free access to all manga uploaded as soon as it is uploaded by the rights owner, and then broader ad-supported viewing on a delayed feed if the rights owner so chose.