Embracing Love
Youka Nitta is back: The yaoi creator, who stepped away from public view in 2008 after accusations that some of her drawings were actually tracings of photographs, has set up a website, All About Youka Nitta, and she recently wound up her 14-volume series Embracing Love. Animate USA, which publishes yaoi manga for the Kindle,announced this week that it would publish two Nitta titles in English, Sound of My Voice – Golden Goose Part 1 and LOL Theater (W Gekijō), and the final volume of Embracing Love in Japanese.
We’re halfway through the year, and Kate Dacey takes the opportunity to take a half-time poll asking what are the best manga of the year so far. Go, vote for your favorite! David Welsh reveals his choices at The Manga Curmudgeon. Also, Kate is giving away some shoujo manga; just tell her your favorite out-of-print or untranslated shoujo manga to enter.
At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind presents a comprehensive database of manga in English, for you to do with what you will.
Sunday Comics Debt has an interesting essay on the use of speech balloons and other text in manga, with some comparisons to Western comics.
Kate Dacey checks out this week’s new manga.
At Same Hat!, Ryan looks forward to two new books due out in the fall, Genkaku Picasso and A Single Match.
Happy blogiversary to Lissa Pattillo, who celebrated three years of Kuriousity yesterday.
News from Japan: The Wall Street Journal blog, not a source I link to often, has a thorough article on the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s proposed law to ban depictions of “nonexistent juveniles” in sexual situations, and why it failed to pass. Hideyuki Igarashi, the editor of Kodansha’s Monthly Shonen Sirius, was arrested Tuesday on charges of assault and battery after he allegedly attacked a woman in a restaurant.
Reviews
Emily on 16 Life (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Kate Dacey on vols. 1 and 2 of Arata the Legend (Good Comics for Kids)
Charles Webb on vol. 9 of Black God (Manga Life)
Connie on vol. 11 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance+ (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 49 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Welsh on vol. 2 of Twin Spica (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Good for Nitta, but what about her future in English manga? I wanna see the last nine volumes of Embracing Love, too. What about Sound of My Voice, too? The last we’ve seen was Otodama.
Any comment about the state of affairs of Del Rey manga? I e-mailed you about it.
Yes, it doesn’t sound as if there are any particular plans yet to publish “Sound of My Voice” in print, despite the announcement that Animate has picked it up for digital release via iPhone or whatever.