Jason Thompson’s fightin’ words

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Brigid Alverson
Bootleg manga on the iPhone

Bootleg manga on the iPhone

Manga expert Jason Thompson has been looking at manga on digital devices, and he concludes that Apple products are not the way of the future because of the Apple store’s rigid content standards, which means manga must be Bowdlerized to get into iTunes. In fact, he goes so far as to say

Personally, I think this sucks, and frankly — I say this knowing full well the accusations of unprofessionalism and manga-industry-treachery I’ll get for saying it — I’d rather read scanlations than pay for censored manga.

Apparently plenty of other folks feel the same way, as Robot 6’s Kevin Melrose recently reported that OneManga.com made Google’s list of the 1,000 highest-traffic websites. OneManga is both a scanlation site (they post amateur translations of the most popular Shonen Jump titles) and a plain ol’ pirate site, with plenty of scans made directly from English-language manga. Oh, and it has several iPhone and iPad apps that don’t seem to be affected by Apple’s content restrictions at all.

Sean Gaffney has some license requests, drawn from the latest best-sellers, and he also takes a look at a 2001 issue of the shoujo manga magazine Hana to Yume.

Kate Dacey and Brad Rice look over this week’s new releases, and Lori Henderson is looking forward to Tokyopop’s summer schedule.

Melinda Beasi counters some fanboy outrage by posting links to some comics that have gotten favorable reviews from female critics lately—and notes that there is quite a range.

Japan and Stuff Press is publishing a manga biography of Kenji Miyazawa. Click for a preview and lots of interesting info.

ANN reports three new books have popped up on Amazon, all listed as being from Tokyopop: You Higuri’s BL title Gakuen Heaven Endou ver. ~Calling You~, Warcraft: Shaman, and Ai-Land Chronicles Collection, presumably another Princess Ai book.

The bad news: Anime Briefs is no more. The good news: Gia Manry is taking her journalistic talents to Anime News Network, where she will hopefully be posting often and collecting a regular paycheck.

News from Japan: Canned Dogs lists a handful of upcoming Jump one-shots.

Reviews

Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Biomega (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Penny Kenny on vols. 3 and 4 of Black Bird (Manga Life)
Charles Webb on vol. 11 of Black Jack (Manga Life)
Tangognat on vol. 2 of Deadman Wonderland (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 3 of Fushigi Yugi (VizBig edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 13 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime & Manga Blog)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kabuki (Slightly Biased Manga)
Thomas Zoth on vol. 3 of Karakuri Odette (Mania.com)
Erica Friedman on Kusare Joshi In Deep! (Okazu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Library Wars: Love and War (Comics Worth Reading)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Library Wars: Love and War (The Manga Critic)
Emily on Love Love Shock! (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
D.M. Evans on vol. 1 of Nightschool (Manga Jouhou)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Rin-Ne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

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Manga: Not dead yet

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Brigid Alverson

At Reverse Thieves, Hisui and Narutaki take a look at the changes in the manga market and point to some possible factors, including the fact that publishing in general has been hit by the recession. And translator William Flanagan nails it in the comments:

[T]here seems to be no real decline in popularity of manga, just that the fans aren’t paying for it anymore.

Meanwhile, Danielle Leigh is taking matters into her own hands by learning Japanese so she can read her favorite series without worrying they will come to an untimely end.

Kai-Ming Cha paints a brighter picture from the floor of Book Expo America, where a number of publishers reported they are still hanging in, and Dark Horse even saw a 13% increase in sales. Rod Lott talks to Vertical Marketing Director Ed Chavez at BookGasm, and Ed reveals that revenues were up 18% last year, another bit of good news to counter the general gloom.

Kate Dacey wraps up the Manga Moveable Feast links for day six and day seven, and she winds up the week with a reviewers’ roundtable on the featured book, Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra, and a look at two stories by Takemiya’s contemporary, Moto Hagio. Ed Sizemore also hosts a To Terra podcast featuring Kate, David Welsh, Johanna Draper Carlson, and Ed Chavez. Looking forward to next month, Melinda Beasi will host the next MMF, and the featured series will be the manhwa trilogy The Color of Earth.

Lori Henderson has a quick summary of the week’s manga news and a look at anti-war manga at Manga Xanadu. Erica Friedman covers her beat with Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Sean Gaffney finds a lot to look forward to in this week’s new manga list, and the Comics Village team looks at the most recent releases.

Helen McCarthy has some tips for potential buyers of anime and manga art.

Emily has added two new galleries to her site: samples of interior art and a look at covers with a special color haze effect.

Lissa Pattillo reports in from Anime North (day 1, day 2), and Deb Aoki has photos from Fanime.

Tangognat finds a bargain.

Not specific to manga, but useful nonetheless: J.L. Bell has a sneaky solution for piracy.

Ko Ransom provides a primer on the Afternoon Four Seasons Award, given four times a year by Kodansha, at welcome datacomp.

News from Japan: Hunter X Hunter is heading for another hiatus, and Kariko Koyama has started a shoujo manga series, Sheryl ~Kiss in the Galaxy~, based on the movie Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~.

Reviews: The Manga Recon bloggers celebrate the holiday with a fresh set of Manga Minis.

Kelly on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (kelkagandy’s ramblings)
Susan S. on vol. 6 of Crayon Shinchan (Manga Jouhou)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Fairy Navigator Runa (Comics Worth Reading)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 5 of Gestalt (Mania.com)
Ken Haley on .hack//4koma (Manga Recon)
Snow Wildsmith on How To Seduce A Vampire (Fujoshi Librarian)
Alexander Hoffman on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Comics Village)
Lissa Pattillo on vols. 1 and 2 of Kobato (ANN)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Library Wars (Anime Maki)
Snow Wildsmith on Love!! and vols. 1-2 of Ludwig II (Fujoshi Librarian)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Animanga Nation)
Kristin on vols. 1-3 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Comic Attack)
Alexander Hoffman on vol. 2 of Rin-Ne (Comics Village)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Saki (Okazu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Shonen Art Studio (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Starcraft: Ghost Academy (Prospero’s Manga)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Read About Comics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Vampire Knight (The Comic Book Bin)
Julie Opipari on vol. 10 of Vampire Knight (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Susan S. on vol. 6 of Very! Very! Sweet (Manga Jouhou)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 15 of xxxHolic (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime & Manga Blog)

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Review: Toriko, vol. 1

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Brigid Alverson

Toriko1Toriko, vol. 1
By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro
Rated T, for Teen
Viz, $9.99

There is something very primal about Toriko: It’s a story about hunting for food, and although there is a veneer of gourmet sensibility over some of the quests, it always comes down to the massive, overmuscled Toriko having a showdown with some enormous animal over who is going to eat who.

Other food manga, such as Oishinbo and even Kitchen Princess, hinge on the main character’s refined palate and esoteric knowledge. Toriko’s world is much simpler: The best foods are the ones that are hardest to get. Deliciousness, it seems, scales with difficulty, and the prizes in the first two volume present formidable challenges: Garara Gator, a huge, dinosaur-like creature, and Rainbow Fruit, which grows on a tree protected by massive four-armed apes.

Toriko is a basic shonen battle manga, in which the battles take place between Toriko and the creatures he plans to eat, or who are getting in the way of a meal. His companion on his hunts is Komatsu, a chef at a hotel run by the International Gourmet Organization. Komatsu is small and more at home in a kitchen than a jungle, and he spends most of the first adventure cowering in fear, but his reactions are an important part of the story. (Presumably the creator’s choice to name him after a brand of construction equipment was deliberate irony.)

Although he seems to spend a lot of his time eating, Toriko does have a plan, of sorts: He wants to construct an ideal multi-course meal of the best foods on earth. His quest to track down the hard-to-find foods, in order to determine whether they are worthy of this meal, adds a bit of structure to the series. Also, the characters mention that Toriko is one of Four Heavenly Kings, the four top gourmet hunters, although the others aren’t seen in this volume.

Like many shonen heroes, Toriko combines crudeness, strength, and extraordinary knowledge: When a leech attaches itself to Komatsu, for instance, he squeezes the juice from a mangrove leaf onto it; the juice contains salt, which leeches cannot tolerate. Later on, he makes a rather remarkable leap of logic: Just as the Komodo dragon (a real creature) has bacteria in its saliva that weaken its prey, so the Garara Gator (not a real creature) allows leeches to live in its mouth, because the leeches travel and draw blood from potential victims, and the scent of blood leads the gator to its prey. There is an interesting sort of reasoning that runs through the book, and for someone who rips things apart with his bare hands and tears into raw animals with his teeth, Toriko has quite the philosophical streak. He won’t kill the four-armed apes, for instance, because he doesn’t plan to eat them; instead, he stuns them with a double needle.

There is a lot of food in this manga, but most of it is imaginary: Plants that grow leaves of bacon, banana cucumbers, cod with the claws of a crayfish, and the wondrous Rainbow Fruit, which changes its flavor seven different times in the process of being eaten. Toriko has an enormous appetite and seems to be constantly eating, but he doesn’t so much prepare his food as rip it out by the roots and tear it apart. Then he rips a branch from the cigar tree and lights up. Toriko has a penchant for fine old brandies bourbon as well; he can slice the bottom off the bottle with his bare hand and down the contents in a single gulp.

At its heart, Toriko is a battle manga, so all this talk of rare fruits and delicate tastes is accompanied by depictions of the gargantuan Toriko slobbering as he shoves hunks of meat into his massive jaws. The art style is also crude, with strong emphasis on the grotesqueness of the creatures and the action of the fights.

With its Rabelaisian hero and imaginative array of preposterous foods, Toriko is a fun read, and it’s not surprising that it is one of the top five series in the Japanese Shonen Jump. It is clearly pitched at teenage readers, and the nonstop shonen action doesn’t stray far from the confines of the genre, but older readers may enjoy the flashes of wit and the portrayal of the ultimate iron-man gourmet.

This review is based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

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Moto Hagio heading to SDCC

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Brigid Alverson

Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas

Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas

Awesome news: Moto Hagio will be a guest at San Diego Comic-Con in July.

Ed Sizemore kicks off the weekend with a thoughtful essay on the tragic flaw in To Terra: The belief that humans have unlimited control of the world around them. Sam Kusek compares To Terra to The X-Men, and Kate Dacey rounds up the rest of this week’s Manga Moveable Feast links. All this inspires David Welsh’s latest license request, Song of the Wind and the Trees.

Sadie Mattox contemplates the “manga is a fad” meme that has been making the rounds lately.

Global manga creator Misako Takashima, a.k.a. Misako Rocks!, talks to Mainichi about the differences between creating manga in the U.S. and Japan:

“I was surprised to see editors and others discuss whether it is acceptable to print pictures of a girl wearing a tank top before publishing. It was interesting to learn even that could be a problem in this country,” Takashima said.

Melinda Beasi ponders the question of who is buying manga at Examiner.com.

Job board: Tokyopop is looking for an assistant to the CEO. The description is worth a read—whether it would be endlessly exciting or aggravating depends a lot on your point of view.

News from Japan: Ko Ransom posts the biggest manga print runs for the three biggest publishers in Japan. One Piece #57 tops the list.

Reviews

Susan S. on vol. 10 of The Antique Gift Shop (Manga Jouhou)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Deka Kyoshi (Kuriousity)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Ng Suat Tong on Gantz (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 7 of Nana (Panel Patter)
Julie Opipari on vol. 2 of Sarasah (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Kristin on vol. 10 of Vampire Knight (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on vol. 20 of Yuri Himeori (part 2) (Okazu)

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Hassler talks Twilight, Dark Horse brings one back

Posted on May 27, 2010 by Brigid Alverson

At Comic Book Resources, Kiel Phegley talks to Yen Press co-publisher Kurt Hassler about the manga market overall and the success of Twilight: The Graphic Novel. And yes, he does ask about the lettering. More importantly, Kurt points out that despite the gloomy news this week, manga made up 60% of graphic novel sales tracked by Bookscan last year.

Kate Dacey provides us with the day’s links to Manga Moveable Feast posts about To Terra, and she also reviews another series by the same creator, Andromeda Stories. David Welsh’s essay on To Terra goes beyond the book itself to consider questions of genre and audience and to note that although it’s a shonen manga it has a hint of shonen-ai.

Dark Horse is running a series right now at Facebook where editors talk about their favorite manga; the latest selection is Tim Ervin on Ghost Talker’s Daydream, and it includes a bit of news—the series, which was cancelled a year and a half ago, will be returning in September.

Dave Carter looks at DC’s decision to close CMX Manga in the context of the company as a whole and where they expect to make their money—from properties they own and can spin into movies and TV shows, not from properties they license and can only make into comics. The future he predicts for DC is kinda grim.

Meanwhile, Julie Opipari lists the CMX manga worth seeking out before they disappear.

Gottsu-Iiyan looks at the manga slump and traces it back to problems in the anime industry and a lack of good content in Japan.

The Yaoi Review has the latest Yaoi-Con updates.

Reviews: Carlo Santos leads us through the good, the bad, and the mediocre in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Broken Blade (Manga Xanadu)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Deadman Wonderland (Japan Reviewed)
Penny Kenny on vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (Manga Life)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 10 of Gakuen Alice (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Zack Davisson on Haru Hana: The Complete Collection (Manga Life)
Rachel on vol. 1 of Hey Class President! (Manga Jouhou)
Anna on vol. 1 of Library Wars: Love and War (2 screenshot limit)
Connie on vol. 8 of Real (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shannon Fay on vol. 1 of Right Here, Right Now (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (The Comic Book Bin)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses and vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (Good Comics for Kids)
Connie on vol. 7 of Vagabond (VizBig edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Vagabond Illustration Collection: Sumi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 20 of Yuri Hime (Okazu)

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Pictures and conversations

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Brigid Alverson

ToTerra2The Manga Moveable Feast keeps on rollin’ with reviews of Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra; Kate Dacey rounds up all the links at The Manga Critic.

A host of bloggers join Melinda Beasi for the Banana Fish Roundtable, this time concentrating on vols. 3 and 4, at Manga Bookshelf.

Brad Rice and David Welsh look at this week’s new releases; check David’s piece for some links to the latest round of online opinion-mongering as well.

Librarian Robin Brenner says farewell to CMX and advises fellow librarians on what series to pick up before they disappear.

A host of pundits have called for publishers to put out more manga for adults in order to save the flailing manga industry, but Simon Jones begs to differ.

At 2 screenshot limit, Anna posts a pic of her CMX collection and explains why it’s so awesome.

Reviews

Kris on vol. 5 of Breath (Manic About Manga)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Diamond Girl (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Andre on vol. 1 of Dorohedoro (Kuriousity)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (ICv2)
Bill Sherman on Isle of Forbidden Love (Blogcritics)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (Comic Attack)
Briana Lawrence on Kiss Your Hair (Mania.com)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Kurashina Sensei’s Passion (Fujoshi Librarian)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 35 of Oh My Goddess! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Susan S. on vol. 2 of Raiders (Manga Jouhou)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Rasetsu (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Switch (Soliloquy in Blue)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Comics Worth Reading)

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