MangaBlog

Looks like Tokyopop is back in the game, according to All About Manga; they are planning a summer tour and looking for interns.

Yen Press director Kurt Hassler is the guest on the latest ANNCast podcast.

At 4thletter!, David Brothers has a fairly nuanced response to the defense of piracy posted on Anime Vice yesterday. Alex Hoffman links it back to the Nick Simmons affair at Manga Widget.

Meanwhile, Gia lays bare the horrible truth behind the manga blogger conspiracy at Anime Vice.

At Myth and Manga, part 2 of Beth Wagner’s history of manga and western comics looks at kusazōshi and chapbooks.

Lori Henderson posts this week’s all-ages comics and manga at School Library Journal.

ANN spots two possible new Digital Manga books on Amazon, Fafner and Desire Sensibility.

Lori Henderson is looking forward to the new digital manga magazines coming from Japan.

The United Arab Emirates gets their first home-grown manga.

Hiroki Otsuka, illustrator of The Boys of Summer, will be the artist-in-residence for the Japan Society in New York this spring and summer; he will draw a full-length manga during that time.

Mark your calendar: Casey Brienza will be speaking on Manga in America at Mount Holyoke College on March 23.

No-Sword translates a bit from Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, just for fun.

Reviews

Deb Aoki on vols. 1 and 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (About.com)
Todd on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Maki)
Kate Dacey on The Apartment, How to Seduce a Vampire, and Otodama: Voice from the Dead (The Manga Critic)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland and vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (cbs4.com)
Leroy Douresseaux on How to Capture a Martini (The Comic Book Bin)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculturemanga (PLAYBACK:stl)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Octave (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 34 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Andre on vol. 1 of Pandora Hearts (Kuriousity)
Salimbol on vols. 1-11 of Please Save My Earth (The Chocolate Mud Wyvern Presents)
Connie on vol. 3 of Venus in Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of We Were There (Slightly Biased Manga)
Vom Marlowe on vol. 1 of A Wise Man Sleeps (The Hooded Utilitarian)

Five years ago today, I put up my first post on MangaBlog. I had only a hazy idea of what I was going to write about, and how I was going to do it. Everything I know today, I learned from watching and reading other bloggers and listening to my readers—oh and reading a ton of manga. So thank you everyone, for helping me figure it out, and keeping me writing all this time.

And special thanks to my husband, whose lattes fuel my writing and pretty much everything else in my life, and my two daughters, whose love of manga got me interested in the first place.

OK, on to year six!

Shaenon Garrity gets us off to a good start with her take on Nick Simmons’s “homage” to Bleach, at The Comics Journal. Simon Jones rounds up some more posts on the topic and adds his own commentary at the Icarus blog.

Jeff Trexler comments on the Christopher Handley case at Blog@Newsarama, noting that Handley’s relatively light sentence (relative to the initial recommendation, that is) may reflect a change in priorities at the Justice Department.

I’m a little late to the party with this one, but apparently Tokyopop is speeding up the release of Gakuen Alice, in part because it’s one of the top series on a certain scanlation site. At Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman argues that that’s not going to work.

Meanwhile, at Anime Vice, a guest author offers a defense of scanlations. Many, many comments follow.

Kristin sorts through the latest Previews and pulls out the good stuff at Comic Attack.

Joy Kim writes about scene stealers, second bananas who run away with the show, at her blog.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley discuss the question of keeping Japanese terms, with specific reference to their recent work on Negima.

Kris discusses why she likes Momoko Tenzen’s work, and then reviews Tenzen’s Suggestive Eyes, at Manic About Manga.

Manga Views profiles Dave Ferraro, the blogger behind Comics-and-More.

News from Japan: ANN has more details on the five manga to be based on the “virtual girlfriend” game Loveplus, plus the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Tangognat takes a look at manga for twentysomethings at The Bureau Chiefs. Ed Sizemore posts some short reviews of Del Rey manga at Comics Worth Reading.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of 13th Boy (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on Adolf 2: An Exile in Japan (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (I Reads You)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Sentinel)
Snow Wildsmith on All My Darling Daughters (Fujoshi Librarian)
r2moo2 on Aoi House (Digital Strips)
Eric Robinson on vol. 2 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Jouhou)
Rob on vol. 2 of Basara (Panel Patter)
Connie on vol. 4 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd on vol. 1 of Biomega (Anime Maki)
Nicola on vol. 2 of Children of the Sea (Back to Books)
Erica Friedman on vol. 19 of Comic Yuri Hime (part 2) (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 1 of Dokkoida?! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 16 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Life)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho and vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (The Manga Curmudgeon)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Anime Sentinel)
Connie on vol. 2 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of One Fine Day (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 20 of Skip Beat! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Ultimo (Graphic Novel Reporter)

Kate Dacey, David Welsh, Brad Rice, and Gia Manry look at this week’s new manga.

After showing similarities between the work of Frank Miller and Yukito Kishoro (Battle Angel Alita), Gottsu-Iiyan talks a bit more about the double standard and why it matters.

Kai Ming Cha takes a look at Bandai’s new Code Geass manga at Publishers Weekly Comics Week.

ICv2 has the scoop on Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako, due out in October from Vertical.

Kuriousity has the latest YaoiCon news: A new venue and a newly announced guest of honor, Ayano Yamane, creator of Finder and Crimson Spell.

David Welsh has reached the letter T in the Shoujo-Sunjeong alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon.

News from Japan: Coca-Cola is posting an Air Gear side story at their website, but only teenagers who are registered at the site can read it. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to anyone in Japan to lie about their age on the internet. Meanwhile, Kodansha lost 5.7 billion yen last year, and Brad Rice blames that partially on poor sales in the U.S.

Reviews: Carlo Santos unwraps some new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column.

Rob on vols. 1 and 2 of Black Jack (Panel Patter)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 29 of Bleach (Animanga Nation)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Cactus’s Secret (Comics Worth Reading)
Michelle Smith on vols. 11-13 of Cheeky Angel (Soliloquy in Blue)
Megan M. on vols. 4 and 5 of Higurashi When They Cry (Manga Bookshelf)
Christopher Butcher on Little Butterfly (omnibus edition) (About.com)
Julie on vol. 16 of Love*Com (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Nightschool (Manga Xanadu)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (Prospero’s Manga)
Cynthia on vol. 2 of Selfish Mr. Mermaid (Boys Next Door)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Soul Eater (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 2 of Soul Eater and vol. 8 of Slam Dunk (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (The Comic Book Bin)

… over at TCJ. He answers a lot of questions about what happened, why Handley was wrong to think his comics were legal, the problems with current obscenity law, and why Handley chose to plead guilty. This is a must-read for anyone who has been following the case—it clears up a lot of misconceptions. So go, read.

In the wake of the Affaire Nick Simmons, Gottsu-Iiyan posts some suspiciously similar pages from Frank Miller’s Elektra Lives Again and Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita—but this time, it’s Kishiro who is doing the borrowing.

Meanwhile, Simmons has made a statement, saying that he only intended to pay “homage” to Bleach, not to copy it. This did not go over well with commenters, to say the least. Ditto at Anime Vice. The New York Times picks up the story but fails to credit the message board and fansite that originally broke the story. Not good journalism, NYT!

Tokyopop held one of their periodic webinars yesterday, and the big news to come out of it is that they are licensing Neko Ramen. At Panel Patter, Rob runs through some of the other highlights, including news of future licensing plans, the sorts of books they are looking to publish, etc. Interesting stuff.

Melinda Beasi announces an upcoming Banana Fish Roundtable at Manga Bookshelf and suggests that readers check out the books now so they can follow along at home.

Attention Tezuka fans: Kate Dacy is giving away four copies of MW at The Manga Critic. Click here for instructions on how to enter.

Not entirely manga, but fun to check out: In this week’s Unbound column, I read some webcomics in print, and at Good Comics for Kids, we discuss good reads for a snow day.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team posts their weekly Manga Minis, featuring some Shonen Sunday series and a bit of shoujo.

Leroy Douresseaux on 9th Sleep (The Comic Book Bin)
Julie on vol. 2 of The Big Adventures of Majoko (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Biomega (Comics-and-More)
Erica Friedman on vol. 19 of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 6 of Gestalt (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd on Haru Hana Complete Collection (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of I Hate You More Than Anyone! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Millennium Prime Minister (Bento Bako Weekly)
Kate Dacey on MW (The Manga Critic)
Jennifer Dunbar on vol. 1 of Selfish Mr. Mermaid (A word is a unit of language)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (Tangognat)
Tiamat’s Disciple on Tricky Prince (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Snow Wildsmith on U Don’t Know Me (Fujoshi Librarian)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Yaoi Hentai (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Yellow 2 (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)

New this month

Lori Henderson rounds up the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman posts an updated edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu. Melinda Beasi looks at March releases in the latest edition of Manga Bookshelf.

David Welsh looks at some new and re-offered manga from the March Previews at The Manga Curmudgeon.

The Nick Simmons plagiarism scandal continued to roil the blogosphere last week, after astute readers posted images of Simmons’s new comic Incarnate side by side with pages from Bleach and noted the similarity. Deb Aoki has a comprehensive roundup of blog posts and tweets, incuding reactions from Bleach publisher Viz and creator Tite Kubo, as well as a discussion on Twitter about plagiarism versus piracy. Elsewhere, Melinda Beasi confesses her sordid past as scanlation junkie. At Anime Diet, Moritheil makes the distinction between copying and stealing and argues that Simmons did the former but not the latter. Matt Blind links to some articles about fansubbing at Rocket Bomber, and Scott VonSchilling wraps it up with some misheard “magma” titles at The Anime Almanac.

At Myth and Manga, Beth Wagner launches what looks like an ambitious history of manga and western comics with a look at Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga and the Bayeux Tapestry.

Patti Martinson talks to Amanda Ahlstrom, creator of the webcomic Pilgrim, at Sequential Tart.

Kris writes about one of her favorite artists, Momoko Tenzen, at Manic About Manga.

Sean Gaffey makes the argument for licensing Tokyo Crazy Paradise, by the creator of Skip Beat! Can’t wait for the license? Lori Henderson posts a helpful resource for those who want to learn Japanese.

Alex Woolfson is posting the first 16 pages of his yaoi comic Tough online, and you can download the whole first chapter for free as well.

Erica Friedman is so fed up with Yuri Hime Wildrose that she is giving away all five volumes to the commenter who comes up with the best plot.

Ed Sizemore guests on the Otaku in Review podcast, discussing the Christopher Handley case. And the latest episode of the Manga Jouhou podcast, Jouhou Cast, is up.

Con highlights: Junko Mizuno will be a guest at Wondercon. Also, Manga University is going on tour, with stops at six U.S. events including Sakuracon and C2E2.

News from Japan: Gia brings us news of a massive Tezuka erotica compilation, although it seems to be the naughty bits cherry-picked from his mainstream manga, not a newly discovered private collection. Three manga magazines for mobile phones will be debuting soon, and their publishers plan to extend their reach to North America as well. Also, the nominees for the 14th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize have been announced. Yasuhiro Nightow is working on a new two-part Trigun story, just in time for the opening of the movie Trigun: Badlands Rumble. And Canned Dogs brings us a few news tidbits, including proposed legislation that would ban any fictional character who appears to be under 18 and “has a possibility of causing youths to lust for or possibility of bringing this fantasy to real life.”

Reviews: David Welsh writes brief reviews of his weekend reading at The Manga Curmudgeon. Gia Manry posts both written and video reviews of vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho at Anime Vice.

Zoey on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Manga Jouhou)
Michael May on vol. 4 of Anne Freaks (Robot 6)
Connie on vol. 1 of Arata: The Legend (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Aya Takeo (The Comic Book Bin)
Rob on vol. 4 of Barefoot Gen (Panel Patter)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Manga Recon)
Carl Kimlinger on vol. 22 of Blade of the Immortal (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Julie on vol. 1 of Fairy Idol Kanon (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Leroy Douresseaux on GoGo Monster (The Comic Book Bin)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (Anime Sentinel)
Sesho on vol. 3 of Happy Mania (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Erica Friedman on vol. 11 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Michelle Smith on vols. 42-44 of InuYasha (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on vol. 25 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 10 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 10 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 17 of Love*Com (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean T. Collins on vols. 1-3 of Monster (Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat)
Rod McKie on MW (Rod McKie Illustrations and Cartoons) (Via Journalista.)
Connie on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 25 of Negima (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 33 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 33 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lissa Pattillo on Prisoner of the Tower (Kuriousity)
Mike Rhode on Shutter Island (Washington City Paper)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Vampire’s Portrait (Fujoshi Librarian)
Connie on vol. 8 of Wild Act (Slightly Biased Manga)
Faith McAdams on vol. 2 of What a Wonderful World (Animanga Nation)
Susan S. on vol. 4 of With the Light (Manga Jouhou)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of X-Men: Misfits (Manga Recon)