MangaBlog

David Welsh, Gia Manry, and Brad Rice look over this week’s new releases.

Tim Maughan shows off a cool Thai design magazine with a special feature on Astro Boy.

Delivery Cupid is back on the Kindle, and Simon Jones has an explanation: a company called Animate/MOVIC has licensed several yaoi manga (former Broccoli and BeBeautiful titles) from Libre for the Kindle. Interesting.

Gavin Lees posts a Sakura Con slideshow at The Comics Journal.

Reviews

Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 30 of Bleach (Animanga Nation)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comics Worth Reading)
Greg Hackmann on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Mania.com)
Susan S. on Desire: Dangerous Feelings (Manga Jouhou)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Dorothea (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Tim Maughan on MW (tim maughan books)
Tangognat on vols. 5-7 of My Heavenly Hockey Club (Tangognat)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Red Hot Chili Samurai (Prospero’s Manga)
Vom Marlowe on vol. 2 of Song of the Hanging Sky (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Todd Douglass on vol. 8 of Yotsuba&! (Anime Maki)

I went to Anime Boston this weekend, and I dropped in on the Vertical panel; check out my panel report at Robot 6. Former fellow manga blogger Ed Chavez, who is now Vertical’s marketing director, gave a great, detailed presentation on their planned releases for the next 12 months, including Twin Spica, Chi’s Sweet Home, Peepo Choo, and 7 Billion Needles. Ed also dropped some tantalizing hints about licenses yet to come, and over at ANN, commenters are speculating about one of them, a manga by an artist who has been published by Viz. That doesn’t narrow it down much, does it? ANN also has more complete coverage of the con.

Faith Erin Hicks compares Pluto with the Astro Boy book that inspired it and contemplates the different approaches of Urasawa and Tezuka.

Kate Dacey looks over this week’s new releases at The Manga Critic.

David Welsh and Tangognat check out the manga offerings in the latest issue of Previews.

Casey Brienza points to a fascinating aspect of American manga: From 2002 on, publishers not only standardized the trim size, they used it to identify all sorts of other books as manga.

Amazon is listing vol. 1 of Hetalia – Axis Powers as a September Tokyopop release.

Vol. 1 of Yashkaiden, by Vampire Hunter D creator Hideyuki Kikuchi, is now available online at emanga.com.

Gottsu-Iiyan has found an interesting Japanese magazine to blog about, We Love Kawaguchi Kaji!. He provides a brief summar of the lead story (time-traveling Beatles cover band!) and promises more to come.

News from Japan: Shio Satō, the creator of The Changeling and One Zero, has died at the age of 59. And apparently the police have in Fukuoka prefecture have been going around asking store owners not to sell manga that depicts the Yakuza, a request that didn’t go over well with Manabu Miyazaki, a writer of Yakuza novels who is himself the son of a Yakuza member. According to the article, the Yakuza organization itself isn’t illegal in Japan, but promoting the lifestyle is.

Reviews: The Manga Recon writers check out some recent releases in their latest Manga Minis column.

Julie on vol. 3 of Fire Inspector Nanase (Manga Maniac Cafe)
D.M. Evans on Il Gatto Sul G (Manga Jouhou)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Hero Tales (MangaCast)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on Love Flag ★ Girls!! (Okazu)
Todd Douglass on vol. 4 of Maid Sama! (Anime Maki)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (Tangognat)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Muhyo and Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (Comics-and-More)
Grant Goodman on vol. 2 of Oninagi (Manga Recon)
Emily on Sedono Danshi Hana no Ran (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Richard Bruton on Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Forbidden Planet)
Sean Kleefeld on Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Kleefeld on Comics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 15 of xxxHOLiC (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Your Honest Deceit (Fujoshi Librarian)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of Ze (Kuriousity)

Lori Henderson posts this week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu.

Erica Friedman is just back from Japan but still finds time to post the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Melinda Beasi has a fresh Manhwa Monday roundup with news of recent and upcoming releases at Manga Bookshelf.

Ed Sizemore and Fred Schodt guest on the latest Ani-Gamers Podcast.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber lists upcoming Tokyopop titles that she will have editor credit for—which also gives us a glimpse of what to expect in the coming months.

Garrett Albright rounds up comics by Svetlana Chmakova and Queenie Chan on the web. And here’s a new yaoi webcomic with a nice colorful look to it: Teahouse.

News from Japan: The Osaka government is considering regulating boys-love comics and other materials.

Reviews: EvilOmar posts some brief manga reviews at AboutHeroes. Lori Henderson’s daughter Jenny really doesn’t like Twilight: The Graphic Novel at Manga Xanadu.

Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Arata the Legend (Anime Maki)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 1-4 of Antique Bakery (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 10 of Black Jack (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Bokurano: Ours (Anime Maki)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Butterflies, Flowers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Cactus’s Secret (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Kris on Ciao Ciao Bambino (Manic About Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (I Reads You)
D.M. Evans on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Manga Jouhou)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Hayate x Blade (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of I Hate You More Than Anyone (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Shannon Fay on Keeping Luke’s Secret (Kuriousity)
Greg Burgas on vols. 1 and 2 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Comics Should Be Good)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Rakuen Le Paradis (Okazu)
Nothayama and Lianne Sentar on Ristorante Paradiso (Sleep Is For the Weak)
Connie on vol. 9 of Slam Dunk (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Spice & Wolf (Anime Maki)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 1 of The World I Create (Animanga Nation)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 6 of You’re So Cool! (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Erica Friedman on Yukemuri Sanctuary (Okazu)

Anime Boston is this weekend, and the Ninja Consultants will be there! They are presenting their panel on Unusual Manga Genres today at 4 p.m., and I’m sorry Iwill have to miss it. Vertical’s Ed Chavez will be at the con as well, moderating a Vertical panel at 3 p.m. Saturday and a Manga Blogger’s throwdown, in which I will be participating, at 7. I’ll be wandering around for most of Saturday, so drop me a line at the e-mail at upper right if you want to get together.

It was at Anime Boston a couple of years ago that I first met J. Dee Dupuy, Dan Hess, and Myung Hee Kim. Even then they were conspiring about some mysterious webcomics project, and they would periodically disappear into Dee’s attic for days at a time to work on it. Well, it has finally come to light, and Bento Comics is a very nice site with an original idea: They feature short webcomics, and readers can assemble their own anthologies and print them via Lulu.com. With a lovely, polished site design and creators like Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon, Nightschool), and Queenie Chan (The Dreaming, Odd Thomas) on board, Bento Comics looks like a great site for lunchtime (or anytime) reading. (Full disclosure: Several of the conspirators are friends of mind, and Dan draws the chibis for Good Comics for Kids.)

David Welsh, the Manga Village team, and Gia Manry look at this week’s new manga. Lori Henderson checks out this week’s new all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

An anonymous scanlator tells all at Anime Vice. Interesting perspective!

This week’s license request from David Welsh is the apparently rather obscure Jirilove. There’s more on it here.

This week’s shoujo-sunjeong alphabet presents a bit of a challenge: Books beginning with the letter X.

Congratulations to Rob McMonigal on four years of reviewing all sorts of comics at Panel Patter.

News from Japan: The 4-koma comic Lucky Star will start running as a monthly feature in the local newspaper for Saitama, the prefecture where the comic is set. The Saitama Shimbun is also starting a monthly feature on moe.

Reviews: Snow Wildsmith reviews vol. 1 of The Summit, the first DramaQueen release in several years, at Fujoshi Librarian. Just the fact that they sent her a physical copy of an actual book is significant. Lissa Pattillo does a little April foolin’ with her faux review of Kuriousity. Tangognat reviews a handful of Fumi Yoshinaga manga at The Bureau Chiefs.

Gia Manry on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Vice)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 11 of Angel Diary (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 10 of The Antique Gift Shop (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
David Welsh on Black Blizzard (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Bokurano: Ours (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Butterflies, Flowers (The Comic Book Bin)
Emily on Chitose Etc. (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Eric Robinson on Crimson Shell (Manga Jouhou)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Kabuki (Comics Village)
Justin Colussy-Estes on vol. 5 of Mixed Vegetables (Comics Village)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (i heart manga)
Julie Opipari on vol. 3 of Nightschool (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Otodama: Voice from the Dead (iFMagazine.com)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Pink Innocent (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Andre on vol. 1 of Raiders (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 9 of Record of a Fallen Vampire (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie Opipari on Ristorante Paradiso (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Kris on Seven (Manic About Manga)
Erica Friedman on Taidama! (Okazu)

Canadian Business Online explains how Harlequin marketed their romances in Japan, first as print manga in partnership with Ohzora (the parent company of Aurora) and later directly as cell phone manga. (Via Simon Jones.)

I reported the other day that Delivery Cupid was available on Kindle; the book, published by Libre in Japan, was licensed here by the now-defunct Broccoli Books. Now it’s mysteriously not available, and Yamila Abraham suspects it was a pirated edition.

Lori Henderson marks April Fool’s Day by looking at manga that include pranks or fool the reader.

Ed Sizemore will be hosting the next Manga Moveable Feast at Comics Worth Reading, and the subject is Mushishi.

Reviews: Joy Kim catches us up on what she has been reading lately.

Todd Douglass on vol. 1 of Arata the Legend (Blogcritics)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarland on vol. 1 of Arata the Legend (Manga Life)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1-7 of 20th Century Boys (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 6 of Barefoot Gen (Panel Patter)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Bokurano: Ours (About.com)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Comics Should Be Good)
Connie on vol. 1 of Chronicles of the Grim Peddler (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 2 of Dororo (Panel Patter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Happy Cafe (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sophie Stevens on vol. 9 of Honey and Clover (Animanga Nation)
Connie on vol. 4 of Honey Hunt (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 7 of I Hate You More Than Anyone (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of In the Walnut (Comic Attack)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (i heart manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of Pluto (Comics Worth Reading)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Rampage (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Barb Lien-Cooper on vol. 7 of Real (Manga Life)
Nick Smith on vol. 1 of Red Hot Chili Samurai (ICv2)
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber on vol. 1 of Stolen Hearts (All About Manga)
Susan S. on vols. 4 and 5 of Very! Very! Sweet (Manga Jouhou)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of The World I Create (Graphic Novel Reporter)

Paul Pope posts some classic covers designed by Tadanori Yokoo for Shonen Magazine in the 1970s—plus a later illustration that draws on the same themes. (Via Journalista.)

Kate Dacey doesn’t just look at this week’s new comics, she writes haiku about them.

Melinda Beasi posts another Manhwa Monday roundup at Manga Bookshelf.

Gia Manry spots Delivery Cupid for the Kindle, and it’s not an American edition, exactly—Japanese publisher Libre seems to have published it in English. (The manga was previously published in English by the now-defunct Broccoli Books, so this is presumably that same translation.)

Udon has a preview of vol. 1 of Mega Man ZX.

Garrett Albright is having some serious issues with the people that handle Yen Plus subscriptions.

News from Japan: This is not quite manga, but it’s a warning for those who skirt the law: Some users of a pirated version of the ero visual novel Cross Games unwittingly downloaded a trojan horse that grabs personal information from the user’s computer, takes a screen shot of the game, and posts it all online. (Note: The original story is fine, but links are NSFW.)

Reviews: Kate Dacey reviews the first volumes of three new shoujo series, Cactus’s Secret, My Darling! Miss Bancho, and Stolen Hearts, at The Manga Critic. Carlo Santos takes a good look at some recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column. And Ed Sizemore looks at some of this month’s Tokyopop releases at Comics Worth Reading.

Connie on vol. 4 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 3 of Black Jack (Panel Patter)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Comics-and-More)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Dorohedoro (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1 and 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1 and 2 of Happy Cafe (Comics Worth Reading)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of Hero Tales (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Tangognat on vol. 4 of Knights of the Zodiac (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 2 of Nabari no Ou (Manga Jouhou)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Nightschool (Manga Xanadu)
David Welsh on Ode to Kirihito (Precocious Curmudgeon)
Marsha Reid on vol. 1 of One Fine Day (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 38 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vols. 39 and 40 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danielle Leigh on Ristorante Paradiso (Comics Should Be Good)
Kristin on vols. 1-3 of Sarasah (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on vol. 6 of Sasamekikoto (Okazu)
Diana Dang on vols. 1 and 2 of St. Dragon Girl (Stop, Drop, and Read)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 3 of Sumomomo,Momomo (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Julie Opipart on vol. 1 of Twilight: The Graphic Novel (Manga Maniac Cafe)