MangaBlog

Lori Henderson rounds up an unusually active week in manga at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman has the latest new releases and other yuri news at Okazu.

At Blog@Newsarama, Julie Opipari discusses the manga she’s most looking forward to from the latest Previews.

Jason Yadao writes a brief history of Go! Comi, which seems to be slowly fading to black.

Erica Friedman interviews yuri manga artist Fujieda MIyabi, creator of Iono-sama Fanatics and Ame-iro Kouchkan Kandan.

Kai-Ming Cha ponders why Japanese publishers are so resistant to digital media and e-books, and she sees the answer in cultural factors such as the attention paid to craft and process, as well as the decoupling of hardware and software.

Metropolis magazine talks to Helen McCarthy about her book, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga.

The New York Times looks at the popularity of manga among the extremely diverse groups of teens using the Queens libraries; this article is better than your standard run of manga-in-the-library articles, and librarian Christian Zabriskie does a great job of articulating why it is important to have manga available for his multicultural clientele.

A couple of personal notes: Congratulations to Manga Recon blogger Sam Kusek, who is graduating from Emerson College today. Well done! And happy birthday to Mail Order Ninja creator Josh Elder, who shares a birthday with me (although we are a few years apart).

News from Japan: Christopher Butcher points out what a great deal manga is if you buy it in Japan: Monthly Shonen Gangan, over 1100 pages of manga (including chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist and Stan Lee’s Heroman), plus two free gifts, for about five bucks. ANN has word of Sengoku Angelique Project, a games/history mashup that will combine characters from the game franchise Angelique with characters from the sengoku period of Japanese history, all drawn by Marie Hadori.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson reviews some recent Shojo Beat releases at Comics Worth Reading, and the Manga Recon team checks in as well with their latest On the Shojo Beat column.

Andre on vol. 1 of The Battle of Genryu (Kuriousity)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of Breath (Boys Next Door)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 1 of Diamond Girl (Animanga Nation)
Chris Wilson on vol. 1 of Dinosaur King (The Graphic Classroom)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Happy Boys (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 1 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Slightly Biased Manga)
Cynthia on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (Boys Next Door)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Maiden Rose (Comic Attack)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Anime Sentinel)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (Anime Maki)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Neko Ramen (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 48 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Shannon Fay on vol. 6 of Otomen (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 3 of Princess Knight (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Ratman (I Reads You)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 8 of Real (Read About Comics)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Red Hot Chili Samurai (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 3 of Rin-ne (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (The Manga Critic)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Comics Worth Reading)
Cynthia on vol. 4 of Tea for Two (Boys Next Door)
A Library Girl on vol. 2 of Tramps Like Us (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 4 of Yotsuba&! (Panel Patter)

Jason Thompson’s second House of 1000 Manga column looks at Pilgrim Jäger, a historical (well, sort of) about a pair of traveling exorcists in Europe in a time of religious upheaval.

Roland Kelts thinks that “cool Japan” may be a little too cool—he sees a disconnect between the people who make manga and anime and the people who consume it:

Look up these companies online and visit their Web sites, and you won’t be surprised: If you find any information in English, it will likely be provided by the enterprising folks at the Anime News Network, an English-language news portal site, some posters on Wikipedia or ardent fans in their blogs. Quite a few industry producers and publishers still maintain Japanese-only Web presences, but that hardly matters. In either language, most of the industry’s online offerings are amateurish, hard to navigate, and worst of all, dull—just the opposite of their vaunted products.

Taking this a step further, manga lacks one of the greatest marketing tools in comics, the interaction between creators and fans. It’s not just the language difference or the distance; manga artists come to conventions and sit for interviews, and they put personal notes in their books, but everything they say is bland, rehearsed, and utterly trivial. There is no humor, just nervous giggles, and there are no meaningful conversations. The result is that while fans interact with the characters on the printed page, they have no dealings at all with the publishers or creators, and all of manga and anime seem to come from some bland corporate parent in the sky.

David Welsh looks at a misguided attempt to take down manga pirate sites by complaining to the advertisers that they contain child pornography.

More on Viz from Heidi MacDonald, who rounds up some reactions and updates at The Beat, and ICv2, which learns that senior vp of sales and marketing Gonzalo Ferreyra is among those let go, along with senior director of public relations Evelyn Dubocq. And this:

Despite the major downsizing, Viz plans to maintain its planned release schedules for both manga and anime, according to Senior Vice President Alvin Lu, and will also be exhibiting in its usual spot at San Diego Comic-Con.

Simon Jones adds his two cents, noting that Viz has shrunk by half in 2008.

Sean Gaffney takes a look at this week’s new manga, and Melinda Beasi looks at new arrivals at Boston’s Comicopia at Examiner.com. At Good Comics for Kids, Lori Henderson rounds up this week’s all-ages comics and manga.

Happy birthday to Matt Thorn and Moto Hagio, who by strange coincidence were born on the same day 16 years apart.

Reviews: Deb Aoki has an early review up of AX, the alternative manga anthology due out soon from Top Shelf, at About.com.

Danica Davidson on vols. 1 and 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Tangognat on vol. 3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Tangognat)
Grant Goodman on Azumanga Daioh Omnibus (Manga Recon)
Julie Opipari on vol. 1 of Biomega (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Russell on vol. 1 of Cat Paradise (Manga Jouhou)
Danica Davidson on vols. 1-4 of Click (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Charles Webb on vol. 6 of Croquis Pop (Manga Life)
James Fleenor on vol. 2 of Deadman Wonderland (Anime Sentinel)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 2 of Faust (PLAYBACK:stl)
Danica Davidson on Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Karakuri Odette (Comics Worth Reading)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (Soliloquy in Blue)
Katherine Farmar on vols. 1 and 2 of Kurashina-Sensei’s Passion (Comics Village)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Kurashina-Sensei’s Passion (Mania.com)
Rachel on Living for Tomorrow (Manga Jouhou)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Manga Xanadu)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 1 of My Girlfriend’s a Geek (Comics Worth Reading)
Alexander Hoffman on vol. 1 of One Piece (omnibus edition) (Comics Village)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 47 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (Manga Life)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 3 of Tsubasa: Those With Wings (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Tom Baker on Twin Spica (The Daily Yomiuri)
Amy Grockl on vol. 2 of Welcome to Wakaba-Soh (Comics Village)
James Fleenor on World of Warcraft: Mage (Anime Sentinel)
Peter Gutierrez on vol. 2 of Yokaiden (Graphic Novel Reporter)

Melinda Beasi, Johanna Draper Carlson, Kai-Ming Cha, Simon Jones, Julie Opipari, Lissa Pattillo, and Brad Rice react to the news that Viz laid off up to 60 staffers this week. Viz has also put up a short post on its own blog, telling fans what they want to hear: The restructuring was mainly internal and won’t affect existing series:

We have no plans at this time for drastic measures such as product cancellations or business line closures. Your favorite series are not going away.

Lori Henderson celebrates National Pet Month with a look at manga about pets and their owners at Manga Xanadu.

David Welsh looks at Japanese magazines as well as licensed manga in the latest installment of The Seinen Alphabet, which is devoted to the letter C.

MTV’s Splash Page has a preview of Del Rey’s The Last Airbender: Prequel: Zuko’s Story, written by Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus and illustrated by Nina Matsumoto (of Yokaiden fame).

News from Japan: The Asahi Shimbun has more info on this year’s winners of the 14th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. Yoshiyuki “Buronson” Okamura, creator of Fist of the North Star, has started a new series, Full Swing, in Shonen Sunday magazine. Oricon reports that 2.282 million copiies of vol. 57 of One Piece have been sold, making it the best-selling manga in their two-year history of recording manga sales. ANN also has the latest comics rankings from Oricon.

Reviews: Kate Dacey posts short takes on Crown of Love, Itazura na Kiss, and Natsume’s Book of Friends at The Manga Critic.

Erica Friedman on vol. 5 of Aria (Okazu)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 7 of Barefoot Gen (Panel Patter)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Beast Master (Soliloquy in Blue)
Michelle Smith on Black Blizzard (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on Cute Devil (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Flower in a Storm (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Tangognat on vol. 4 of Honey Hunt (Tangognat)
Cathy on vols. 1 and 2 of Kobato (it can’t all be about manga…)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Anime Maki)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 5 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Melinda Beasi on Part One of Ode to Kirihito (Manga Bookshelf)
Clive Owen on vol. 9 of Rosario + Vampire (Animanga Nation)
Jason S. Yadao on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Otaku Ohana)

Here’s the big news of the day: Viz announced that it had laid off some employees yesterday, and Publisher’s Weekly puts the number at as many as 60, or about 40% of the company. They closed their small New York office altogether, and the other cuts were reportedly spread out across the company. Gia Manry looks a little more closely and basically says “don’t panic.” Viz is a big company, and nobody thinks they will be closing their doors and quietly fading away, as Go! Comi apparently has done.

This comes as a particular shock because Viz not only owns the most popular properties in manga—Naruto, Vampire Knight, Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, Bleach—but they also publish the most acclaimed—Ooku, Oishinbo, Children of the Sea, everything by Naoki Urasawa. However, as publishing veterans know, acclaim does not necessarily equal sales.

Every year, retailer Brian Hibbs does an exhaustive analysis of bookstore sales of graphic novels, using Bookscan’s cumulative sales information for the last week of the year. Bookscan doesn’t cover every bookstore, and sometimes things get misclassified, but overall it seems to be a pretty good snapshot. But here’s the thing: Not one of the Viz Signature books shows up in the list of the top 750 sellers of 2009. Not one. You know what sells really well? Naruto and Vampire Knight, of course, and Death Note still shows up near the top despite the fact that the series ended a couple of years ago. What is sort of surprising if you only read blogs is that the Pokemon and Legend of Zelda manga also do very well, better than most of Viz’s other books. But Pluto, Ooku, Oishinbo, even Nana (not a Signature title but one that is hugely popular in the blogospheres) are all absent from the list. The picture may be different in comics stores, but that’s a niche market, especially for manga. If these books aren’t selling well in retail bookstores, then Viz has a problem.

This is actually a fairly common situation in publishing—everyone knows that your blockbuster best-sellers, the ones sold in airports and Wal-Mart, support your more literary, less bankable titles—and I doubt that Viz will stop publishing these series they are so obviously invested in. I’m just sayin’.

In brighter news, Yaoi Press tweets that Media Blasters has rehired one of the employees it laid off in March.

Dark Horse editor Carl Horn discusses “love and wonder” in manga, looking at Oh My Goddess, Cardcaptor Sakura, and an assortment of other series; it’s an interesting discussion of an important thematic shift in American manga. (Via Kate Dacey.)

ANN gets a tip about some kids’ puzzle manga showing up on Amazon as being published by Viz. Told ya so!

Brad Rice looks at this week’s new releases at Japanator.

At it can’t all be about manga, Cathy is having a really, really hard time reading GoGo Monster, because the layout is so confusing.

News from Japan: The 34th annual Kodansha Manga Awards have been announced; none of the four winners is currently being published in the U.S.

Reviews: Carlo Santos gives his take on a slew of recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Tucker Stone on Blue Spring (Trouble with Comics)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Crown of Love (Comic Attack)
Emily on Fine! (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Shannon Fay on How to Control a Sidecar (Kuriousity)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (Anime Sentinel)
Sterg Botzakis on vol. 1 of Lone Wolf and Cub (Graphic Novel Resources)
Shawn O’Rourke on vol. 6 of Lone Wolf and Cub (PopMatters)
Christopher Nadoski on Mugen Spiral (complete series) (Mania.com)
Connie on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (Manga Recon)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 20 of Nana (Manga Life)
AstroNerdBoy on Oh My Goddess! Colors (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
David Brothers on vol. 16 of One Piece (4thletter!)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 46 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Portrait of M&N (Blogcritics)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of Ratman and vol. 1 of Red Hot Chili Samurai (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Michael Buntag on Ristorante Paradiso (NonSensical Words)

Is Go! Comi dead? Their website has expired, and former editor Audry Taylor is selling off her manga collection at a charity auction. Gia did a bit of digging; I sent out an e-mail myself but I’m not sure if it’s even a working address any more. I guess we’ll all have to wait, but it doesn’t look good.

A seven-member committee in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has voted unanimously not to remove Death Note from the Volcano Vista High School library, but the associate superintendent gets to decide whether the series stays or goes. Peggie Salazar, the parent of a VV student, expressed concern about the theme of the series, saying, “The book talks about killing the bad guys, even though the death note is toward bad people, it is still killing and who the bad guy is could be different in everyone’s eyes. You never know what were the thoughts of the killer for the Columbine killings.”

Jason Thompson pops up for the third time in a week, this time with a column at ComiXology about Hiroyuki Takei, the creator of Shaman King and Ultimo.

Kate Dacey and David Welsh pick the best manga from this week’s new releases.

Couldn’t make it to TCAF? Fortunately, Deb Aoki was there, and she transcribed the entire panel on indie manga.

It’s the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test all over again, only with manga instead of drugs: Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy is taking a busload of otaku on tour this summer to promote Tokyopop, although the whole thing seems rather vague; when reporter Kai-Ming Cha asked how the tour would boost sales, Levy responded:

It may not directly affect merchandise sales but we hope for an overall halo effect as fans reconnect with the brand and learn about the way we’re evolving with them and for them.

At The Eastern Edge, Gottsu-Iiyan bids farewell to Inubaka and geeks out over the cover of the latest volume of Vagabond.

Just as a experiment, Evan Krell brought a copy of Yotsuba&! to his mother’s fourth-grade class. The kids loved it, so he did a little survey of their reactions.

Melinda Beasi rounds up some recent reviews in her latest Manhwa Monday post at Manga Bookshelf.

David Welsh posts his readers’ licensing wish lists, sent in as entries for his Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators giveaway.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team posts another set of Manga Minis to start off the week.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Biomega (The Comic Book Bin)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 6 of Emma (Panel Patter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 4 of Future Diary (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on Happy Boys (Comic Attack)
Julie Opipari on vol. 4 of Honey Hunt (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Ichiroh! (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kingyo Used Books (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ed Sizemore on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Comics Worth Reading)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Sarasah (Kuriousity)
Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of Saturn Apartments (Japan Reviewed)
Carlo Santos on vol. 9 of Slam Dunk (ANN)
Susan S. on vol. 2 of Train Train (Manga Jouhou)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Comics-and-More)

Jason Thompson discusses five perverted manga—and why they are so perverted—in his latest column at io9.

Kate Dacey shows us how it’s done—or rather, how it’s not done—with her list of the seven deadly sins of reviewing.

David Welsh discusses Luffy’s short attention span and the sometimes unexpected pacing of One Piece at The Manga Curmudgeon.

Lori Henderson wraps up the week’s manga news in one handy digest at Manga Xanadu. Erica Friedman does the same for yuri at Okazu.

Johanna Draper Carlson picks the most likely manga from the May Previews at Comics Worth Reading.

Kai-Ming Cha visits Hiroki Otsuka, whose duties as artist-in-residence at the Japan Society include drawing a manga in a glass-walled office.

Mike Belgrove talks to Jim Zubkavich, an editor at Udon and the writer of Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki, about his latest work.

Helen McCarthy looks at a manga creator who is almost unknown to English-speaking audiences: Juzo Yamasaki, who writes fishing and sports manga.

To celebrate Mothers Day, Jason Yadao looks at notable mothers in manga.

Sean Gaffney talks shipping—the fanfic type, not the moving-things-around type.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber experiences one of the thrills of being an editor—seeing her name in print.

Attention artists: New York Anime Fest is months away, but the organizers are getting everyone in the mood by sponsoring a mascot design contest. The winner gets 10 free passes to NYAF, 50 volumes of Del Rey manga, and the glory of seeing their design splashed all over the Javits Center. Runners up do pretty well too, so check it out.

John Thomas and friends discuss three manga that have reached their tenth volume in the latest Sci-Guys podcast.

News from Japan: No news, actually, but this is sort of interesting: Zack Davisson summarizes a Shigeru Mizuki manga, I am a Yokai Professor, at Japan Reviewed. (Via Kate Dacey.)

Reviews: Kate Dacey has short takes on three new manga from Yen Press at The Manga Critic. Laura has some very fast first impressions of new manga at Heart of Manga.

Michelle Smith on vols. 12-14 of Black Cat (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kelly on vol. 1 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 1 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (Animanga Nation)
Lissa Pattillo on Cute Devil (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of Fire Investigator Nanase (Soliloquy in Blue)
Delos on vol. 1 of Grey Perfect Collection (ArtPatient)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Kabuki (The Comic Book Bin)
Julie Opipari on vol. 21 of Kekkaishi (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (The Comic Book Bin)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Oh! My Brother (Kuriousity)
Anna on vol. 2 of Oh! My Brother (Tangognat)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 45 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 4 of Phantom Dream (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of Ratman (Blogcritics)
Julie Opipari on vol. 8 of Sand Chronicles (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Sensual Phrase (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Lori Henderson on the June issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Xanadu)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (About.com)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Manga Recon)
Carl Kimlinger on vol. 9 of Vampire Knight (ANN)
Bill Sherman on vol. 2 of Venus Capriccio (Blogcritics)