ANN is reporting this morning that 37 Japanese publishers are working together to set up a North American digital distribution portal for manga. What on earth does this mean? It’s not clear, but the players include Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan, the three biggest publishers in Japan, all three of whom publish manga exclusively with a single publisher in the U.S. (Del Rey for Kodansha, Viz for Shueisha and Shogakukan).
Deb Aoki has a preview of Shonen Jump‘s new look, plus a peek at the new series, at About.com.
Sean Gaffney takes an advance survey of next week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment.
Jason Thompson takes a fond look at Cobra, a manga whose hero looks like a 28-year-old man rather than a 14-year-old girl, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.
At Manga Therapy, Tony Yao looks at the question of sexism in Bakuman.
Melinda Beasi thinks about guilty pleasures in her 3 Things Thursday post at Manga Bookshelf.
Reviews
Anna on vol. 2 of Bunny Drop (Manga Report)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso (Comics Village)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Nobara no Mori no Otome-tachi (Okazu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of The Stellar Six of Gingacho (The Manga Critic)
Penny Kenny on vol. 1 of Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution (Manga Life)
