MangaBlog

Kate Dacey posts this week’s new manga along with her recommendations at The Manga Critic.

David Welsh lists five comics that should be adapted into Broadway musicals.

Tokyopop staffers discussed 17 upcoming titles at their recent webinar and Deb Aoki has the 411 on all of them. Deb also previews the opening of the New People Center in San Francisco’s Japantown.

Michelle Smith finally admits that she just doesn’t get Ken Akamatsu.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team puts their heads together and comes up with another set of Manga Minis. At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo continues her look at the manga samplers she picked up at SDCC.

Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Alice on Deadlines (Okazu)
Dan Polley on vol. 1 of Amefurashi the Rain Goddess (Comics Village)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 8 of The Antique Gift Shop (Kuriousity)
Kristin Fletcher-Spear on vol. 1 of Bloody Kiss (ICv2)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Brilliant Blue (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Kate Dacey on Case Closed, Slam Dunk, and Waq Waq (The Manga Critic)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (Comics-and-More)
Connie on vol. 19 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Scott VonSchilling on Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu (The Anime Almanac)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Love Hina (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Ed Sizemore on vols. 2 and 3 of Minima! (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie on vol. 12 of Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on vol. 18 of Nana (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Goodwin on vol. 8 of Parasyte (Eastern Standard)
Sam Kusek on vol. 1 of Yokai Doctor (Manga Recon)

The MangaCast crew are doing a bit of catching up, making their picks of the best manga from the week of July 29. Better late than never! They also think ahead, though, with a list of the manga in the August Previews.

The latest New York Times manga bestseller list is up, and now that the Naruto blitz is over, it’s quite varied. Deb Aoki has some observations at About.com.

Lori Henderson brings us up to date on this week’s manga news, including an overview of the Tokyopop webinar and a defense of Otaku USA.

At Okazu, Erica Friedman interviews Nakamura Ching, the creator of the manga Gunjo, which runs in Morning 2. No, it’s not out in English yet, but the interview is a fascinating glimpse into the life of a professional manga artist. Also up at Okazu: The latest edition of Yuri Network News.

Evan Miller interviews Fools Gold creator Amy Reeder Hadley at ANN.

At Anime Nation, John answers the burning question “Why do Americans love Dragon Ball but not other 80’s Shonen Jump manga?”

This is pretty cool: The staff at the girl-friendly Boston comics store Comicopia has started a Twilight blog, with news about all things that fall into the intersection of “Twilight” and “comics” on the universal Venn diagram. (Found via Blog@Newsarama.)

Kate Dacey announces the winners of her Black Jack contest at The Manga Critic, and you should stop by and read the witty praises of the great surgeon’s work.

Help Michelle Smith decide which series to review next!

Reviews: I put in my two cents on X-Men: Misfits in this week’s What Are You Reading segment at Robot 6. Kate Dacey liveblogs her way through the Shonen Sunday website at The Manga Critic. Dogs: Prelude and Daemonium are on the agenda in the latest Anime Pulse podcast.

Michelle Smith on vols. 3-6 of 10, 20, and 30 (Soliloquy in Blue)
Connie on vol. 4 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lexie on vol. 4 of 20th Century Boys (Poisoned Rationality)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of The Adventures of Young Det (Soliloquy in Blue)
Megan M. on vol. 1 of Ballad of a Shinigami (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Connie on vol. 6 of Black Jack (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on Color (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Emma (Kuriousity)
Julie on vol. 1 of Flower of Life (MangaCast)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 19 of Fullmetal Alchemist (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Faith McAdams on vol. 10 of High School Debut (Animanga Nation)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Hitohira (Okazu)
Tangognat on vol. 2 of Honey Hunt (Tangognat)
asamisgirl on Idol Pleasures (The Yaoi Review)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of Kimi Ni Todoke (Blog@Newsarama)
John Thomas on vol. 2 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Village)
asamisgirl on Love Machine (The Yaoi Review)
Shojo Flash on vol. 1 of The Name of the Flower (Shojo Flash)
Sesho on vol. 39 of Naruto (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 9 of Nightmare Inspector (Kuriousity)
Alex Woolfson on Once Upon a Glashma and Chocolate Surprise (Yaoi 911)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Soliloquy in Blue)
K.S. on vols. 1 and 2 of Otomen (The Star of Malaysia)
Melinda Beasi on vols. 1-5 of Paradise Kiss (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 5 of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo (Kuriousity)
Sesho on vol. 2 of The Prince of Tennis (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 1-7 of Project ARMS (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 7 of Skip Beat (i heart manga)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (The Manga Critic)
Patricia Beard on vol. 1 of Train Train (Mania.com)
Cynthia on Unsophisticated and Rude (Boys Next Door)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 7 of Vampire Knight and vol. 1 of Bloody Kiss (Comics Worth Reading)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Venus Capriccio (i heart manga)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of Venus Capriccio (MangaCast)
Connie on vol. 19 of The Wallflower (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of We Were There (Slightly Biased Manga)
asamisgirl on Yokai Hunger (The Yaoi Review)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Yurara (i heart manga)

Over at Publishers Weekly Comics Week, I talk to Kurt Hassler about Cirque du Freak, the American edition of the Japanese manga adaptation of an Irish novel.

The latest news around here is that I’m one of the judges for the Lulu Awards. We judges will come up with the nominations, and then the general public can vote on the awards themselves. As someone who is used to critiquing these things from the peanut gallery, I’m both honored and intimidated, and I welcome your suggestions for nominations.

The denizens of Comics Village pick the best of this week’s new releases, and Lori Henderson has the kid-friendly new comics and manga list at Good Comics for Kids. And David Welsh cheerfully points to some great books that are coming out this fall.

Viz is in the news lately: ICv2 interviews vp of sales and marketing Gonzalo Ferreyra about the accelerated release schedules for Naruto and One Piece, and Jeff Yang of the San Francisco Chronicle talks to Viz chairman Seiji Horibuchi on the eve of the opening of Viz’s Japanese culture/retail center in San Francisco.

David Welsh Twitter-sourced this week’s new license request, and he came up with Paros no Ken plus a long list of other suggestions.

Digital Manga has acquired Makoto Taten’s Yokan, which was originally licensed by DramaQueen and slated to be published under the title Omen. DMP is listing it with the title Premonition. This was first spotted by Lissa Pattillo at Kuriousity, who also spotted more new and reformatted titles at Amazon.

Also, I wasn’t able to make it to Tokyopop’s webinar, but Lissa summarizes it for us, including the news that DN Angel is back on the schedule, a list of upcoming releases, and some good chat about what’s going on behind the scenes.

Reviews: Sequential Tart’s Wolfen Moondaughter has a new series, Hunting for Yaoi, in which she reviews yaoi and BL manga that aren’t necessarily labeled as such. Interesting concept. Joe Iglesias has some thoughts on why Eyeshield 21 works better than Bleach at The Eastern Standard. Other reviews of note:

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 4 of 20th Century Boys (Kuriousity)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of The Battle of Genryu: Origin (Blogcritics)
Shojo Flash on vol. 1 of Black Bird (Shojo Flash)
Patti Martinson on vol. 11 of Crimson Hero (Sequential Tart)
Julie on vol. 1 of The Dark Hunters (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Dogs: Bullets & Carnage (Comics Should Be Good)
asamisgirl on vol. 2 of Future Lovers (The Yaoi Review)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Gimmick! (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on chapters 10-13 of Gunjo (Okazu)
Sandra Scholes on vol. 1 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Active Anime)
Gerrit Coetzee on The Manga Guide to Electricity (Hack a Day)
Johanna Draper Carlson on The Manga Guide to Physics (Comics Worth Reading)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of Mars (i heart manga)
Ed Sizemore on vols. 1 and 2 of Me and the Devil Blues (Comics Worth Reading)
James Fleenor on Oishinbo A La Carte: Fish, Sashimi & Sushi (Anime Sentinel)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 2 of Stray Little Devil (Sequential Tart)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 5 of We Were There (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Holly Ellingwood on vol. 1 of X-Men Misfits (Active Anime)
Kinukitty on vols. 1-3 of Yakuza in Love (The Hooded Utilitarian)

Deb Aoki interviews IKKI editor Hideki Egami at About.com. IKKI is the Japanese manga magazine that is providing fodder for Viz’s Sigikki website. Deb also reports that Tokyopop is upgrading its paper and offering webcasts featuring their editors—the first is today!

Manga artist Yoichi Yokoyama (Travel, New Engineering) will be one of the guests at the opening of the new cultural center in Japantown in San Francisco.

Tokyopop will be publishing Remember, a graphic novel by Chinese artist Benjamin, the creator of Orange.

News from Japan: ANN has the Japanese comics rankings from Oricon and Tohan. Mizuho Kusanagi, creator of Mugen Spiral and NG Life, has started a new manga series.

Reviews: Kate Dacey shows the rest of us how it’s done with her exquisite review of vol. 1 of Children of the Sea at The Manga Critic. Carlo Santos takes you through the good, the bad, and the mediocre in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Melinda Beasi, Danielle Leigh, and Michelle Smith discuss vols. 3 and 4 of Nana in the latest installment of The NANA Project at Comics Should Be Good. Wally Xie critiques Viz’s Sigikki offerings at The Eastern Standard.

Jason Yadao on vol. 1 of Amefurashi (Otaku Ohana)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 8 of The Antique Gift Shop (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Carl Kimlinger on vol. 14 of Baby and Me (ANN)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of Black Jack (Comics Worth Reading)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 2 of Bride of the Water God (i heart manga)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Broken Blade (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 6 of Claymore (Mania.com)
Michelle Smith on vols. 6-8 of Click (Soliloquy in Blue)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (Manga Recon)
Carlo Santos on vol. 19 of Fullmetal Alchemist (ANN)
asamisgirl on vol. 1 of Future Lovers (The Yaoi Review)
Connie on vol. 9 of I”s (Slightly Biased Manga)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 2 of I Shall Never Return (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 24 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 9 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Emily on LDK (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Tangognat on vol. 2 of Maid Sama (Tangognat)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Momogumi Plus Senki (Prospero’s Manga)
Nancy Gail on Oishinbo A La Carte: Fish, Sushi and Sashimi (Blogcritics)
Edward Zacharias on vol. 21 of One Piece (Animanga Nation)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 8 of One Thousand and One Nights (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 1 of Ooku (Slightly Biased Manga)
Andre on vol. 1 of Sumomomo Momomo (Kuriousity)
Casey Brienza on vol. 7 of Vampire Knight (ANN)
Otaku Surf on the August issue of Yen Plus (Otaku Surf)

Not manga, but perhaps important someday: I wrote about comiXology’s Comics iPhone application in my latest Unbound column at Robot 6. It has some interesting twists and while the manga content is minimal at the moment, that could always change.

Turn the sound off on your browser before you go to read “Manga and Minimalism: The Shared Visions of Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Raymond Carver,” by Oliver Ho, at Pop Matters. It looks like an interesting article, but the intrusive movie ad at the top of the page cuts into the enjoyment a bit.

At About.com, Deb Aoki has a thorough writeup of the Yen Press panel at Comic-Con, which included the announcement of Kobato, a new manga from CLAMP, and an interesting Q&A with Kurt Hassler.

Shojo Flash lists this week’s new shoujo manga releases. David Welsh’s selections from the new releases include vol. 6 of Black Jack.

Tangognat lists her picks from the August Previews.

Veteran manga editor Jake Forbes has a new blog, and he muses a bit on his early work with the benefit of hindsight.

Johanna Draper Carlson asks her readers for their favorite Sigikki Manga series at Comics Worth Reading.

News from Japan: ANN reports on the launch of for Bessatsu Shonen magazine, which promises fat issues filled with manga by well-known (in Japan, anyway) creators. Zatch Bell manga-ka Makoto Raiku will publish five manga in less than a month in various venues. Shonen Jump is posting the first (and some later) chapters of 22 manga (in Japanese) online for free.

Reviews: David Welsh reviews the initial offerings on Viz’s Sigikki site at The Comics Reporter. Wally Xie has a short look at Katsuhiro Otomo’s Tokyo Metro Explorers at The Eastern Standard.

Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 9 of Angel Diary (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Ballad of Shinigami (MangaCast)
Julie on vol. 1 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Bill Sherman on vol. 1 of The Battle of Genryu (Blogcritics)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 6 of B.O.D.Y. (Manga Life)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 11 of Crimson Hero (Comics Worth Reading)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Dororo (Kuriousity)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 7 of Emma (i heart manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Game x Rush (Manga Recon)
Dan Polley on Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (Comics Village)
Shevaun Morrison on vol. 2 of Higurashi When They Cry (Kuriousity)
Sesho on vol. 1 of KimiKiss (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Kimi ni Todoke and vol. 1 of Rasetsu (Comics-and-More)
Shannon Fay on Love/Knot (Kuriousity)
Melinda Beasi on vols. 1 and 2 of March on Earth (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Connie on vol. 4 of Mixed Vegetables (Slightly Biased Manga)
Barb Lien-Cooper on Monster (Manga Life)
Lori Henderson on vol. 32 of Naruto (Manga Xanadu)
Sesho on vol. 38 of Naruto (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Orange Crows (Anime Sentinel)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 12 of Ouran High School Host Club (Manga Life)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of Parasyte (Comics Worth Reading)
Connie on vol. 8 of Parasyte (Slightly Biased Manga)
Phil Guie on vols. 5 and 6 of Puri Puri (Manga Recon)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Sarasah (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Snow Wildsmith on Sighing Kiss (Fujoshi Librarian)
Julie on vol. 6 of Venus in Love (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 4 of Very Very Sweet (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Connie on vols. 2 and 3 of Wild Act (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Yuri Hime S (Okazu)
asamisgirl on vol. 1 of Ze (The Yaoi Review)

Short post this morning, as I’m wrapping up another article, but I’ll be back later with more.

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

I can’t believe I Tweeted this article the other day and then forgot to link to it: The New York Times discovers the mobile manga boom in Japan. There are some interesting aspects to this, such as the phenomenon of women buying racy manga (misidentified as shojo in the article) that they would be embarrassed to be seen reading in book form, the big publishers’ resistance to changing their business model, and the fact that male readers—”the mainstay manga readership,” according to the Times—still prefer paper.

Japanator’s Brad Rice reports back from the latest Vertical Vednesday, which was devoted to the topic of light novels.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team presents another set of Manga Minis for your delectation.

asamisgirl on vol. 1 of Breath (The Yaoi Review)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 2 of Gestalt (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Shojo Flash on vol. 1 of I Hate You More Than Anyone (Shojo Flash)
Oyceter on vols. 2-7 of Kitchen Princess (Sakura of DOOM)
Lorena Nava Ruggero on vol. 1 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (i heart manga)
Sesho on vol. 1 of The Prince of Tennis (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Oyceter on vol. 2 of Sugar Princess (Sakura of DOOM)