New licenses from Viz, Vertical, and Seven Seas

There has been a flurry of activity on the licensing front: Viz announced five new Shojo Beat and Shonen Sunday licenses: Happy Marriage?!, Midnight Secretary, Voice Over!: Seiyuu Academy, Sweet Rein, and Magi. I dug up a bit more info on the last three at MTV Geek. Vertical announced Satoshi Kon’s Tropic of the Sea and Takahiro Seguchi’s Sickness Unto Death. And Seven Seas has three new licenses, all supernatural stories involving girls who aren’t human: A Centaur’s Life, Love in Hell, and Monster Musume. Sean Gaffney, who knows the Japanese side of things a lot better than I do, has more on the Viz and Seven Seas announcements at his blog.

Lissa Pattillo looks over the past week’s new manga in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA, and Sean Gaffney, Melinda Beasi, and Michelle Smith discuss this week’s new manga at Manga Bookshelf.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week.

Erica Friedman has a fresh episode of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

This month’s Manga Moveable Feast is hosted by Organization ASG, and Justin gets things rolling with an introductory post on this month’s creator, Naoki Urasawa and a discussion among the bloggers about how they first got into Urasawa.

Brian Hibbs looks at the BookScan numbers for 2012 and sees a grim picture for manga, as sales continue to decline.

Jason Thompson pays his respects to the uber-80s manga Cipher in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

News from Japan: Kaoru Mori brings back Shirley for a two-part story in Enterbrain’s Harta (formerly Fellows!) magazine.

Reviews: Ash Brown looks back on the past week in manga at Experiments in Manga.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Awkward Silence (I Reads You)
Connie on vol. 14 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ash Brown on vol. 18 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Collectors (Okazu)
Jocelyne Allen on Dame BL (Brain Vs. Book)
Connie on vol. 8 of Dorohedoro (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 23 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Sweetpea on Her Majesty’s Dog, Slam Dunk, and Papillon (Organization ASG)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 12 of Kamisama Kiss (The Comic Book Bin)
Angela Eastman on vol. 12 of Kamisama Kiss (The Fandom Post)
Sakura Eries on vol. 2 of Message to Adolf (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 60 of Naruto (I Reads You)
Angela Eastman on vol. 12 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Fandom Post)
Connie on Ohikkoshi, 5 Centimeters Per Second, and A Drunken Dream (Comics Should Be Good)
Connie on vol. 18 of Ouran High School Host Club (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-8 of Pluto (Manga Xanadu)
Chris Kirby on vol. 2 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (The Fandom Post)
Derek Bown on last week’s issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Bookshelf)
Connie on vol. 1 of Strobe Edge (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lexie on vol. 1 of Tokyo Babylon (omnibus edition) (Poisoned Rationality)
Justin on vol. 11 of Yotsuba&! (Organization ASG)