MangaBlog

ICv2 lists the top 25 manga properties of spring 2009.

The New York Times manga best-seller list is up, and alongside the Viz and Del Rey regulars is vol. 3 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, so I guess that franchise is holding up pretty well.

At the Icarus blog, Simon Jones discusses the significance of Diamond’s cancellation of some manga titles.

Digital has posted a complete list of titles in their Juné web-a-thon, which will allow fans to push up the publication dates of certain books by ordering them en masse. (Via Kuriousity.) Lori Henderson explains why pre-ordering any manga is a good idea at Manga Xanadu.

This week’s license request from David Welsh: Children of the Earth.

News from Japan: Nana translator Tomo Kimura reports that the most recent chapter of the series has been postponed because creator Ai Yazawa has fallen ill. She is expected to take several months to recover. ANN notes the end of one series and the start of another in Monthly Bessatsu Hana to Yume, plus another series ending in IKKI. Also, Mizuki Kawashita, creator of Strawberry 100%, has a new series in the works.

Reviews

Holly Ellingwood on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Active Anime)
Connie on vol. 1 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vol. 27 of Bleach (Soliloquy in Blue)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 5 of Captive Hearts (Sequential Tart)
Lori Henderson on vol. 7 of Crimson Hero (Comics Village)
Karen Maeda on vol. 13 of Gin Tama (Sequential Tart)
Lorena on Good-Bye (i heart manga)
Patti Martinson on vol. 10 of High School Debut (Sequential Tart)
Julie on vol. 2 of Honey Hunt (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 2 of Honey Hunt (Sequential Tart)
Marsha Reid on vol. 1 of Ichiroh! (Kuriousity)
Gia on vol. 1 of Maid-Sama (Anime Vice)
Connie on vol. 1 of Maid War Chronicle (Manga Recon)
Holly Ellingwood on vol. 2 of Me and the Devil Blues (Active Anime)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 7 of Mushishi (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Michelle Smith on vol. 11 of Nana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Patti Martinson on vol. 45 of Naruto (Sequential Tart)
Emily on Odeko no Mahou (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 8 of One Thousand and One Nights (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Lorena on chapter 9 of Rin-Ne (i heart manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Suzunari (Okazu)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 5 of We Were There (Sequential Tart)

Shojo Flash takes a look at the latest ICv2 Insider’s Guide and highlights the shoujo manga and anime items.

David Welsh peruses the July Previews at Precocious Curmudgeon.

Erin Finnegan reports that The Shinji Ikari Raising Project, the latest spinoff of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise, will be more romance than robots.

News from Japan: Online doujin and eroge store Dejipare has rethought things a bit and decided not to place restrictions on cosplay or doujin, Canned Dogs reports. Things can’t be too bad in the magazine market, because Kodansha has just announced a monthly spinoff from Weekly Shonen Magazine, to be titled Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. ANN reports that the manga-ka known as kakifly has created a one-shot 16-page manga about K-On! for Hobunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Forward magazine. And ANN has the past week’s manga rankings.

Reviews: Danielle Leigh rounds up a healthy handful of shoujo volumes at Comics Should Be Good. Kate Dacey serves up some short takes as well: vol. 9 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Oishinbo A La Carte. Other reviews of note:

David Ford on vol. 3 of 20th Century Boys (Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?)
Laura on Ceres Celestial Legend (Heart of Manga)
John Thomas on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (Comics Village)
Deb Aoki on Dogs: Prelude (About.com)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Faith McAdams on vol. 9 of High School Debut (Animanga Nation)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of High School Girls (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 22 of Iron Wok Jan (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kimi ni Todoke (Slightly Biased Manga)
Noah Berlatsky on vol. 1 of Lady Snowblood (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Lissa Pattillo on Living for Tomorrow (Kuriousity)
David Brothers on Lone Wolf and Cub: Black Wind (4thletter!)
Connie on vol. 8 of MPD-Psycho (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 11 of Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lorena on vol. 6 of Skip Beat (i heart manga)
Connie on U Don’t Know Me (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 13 of xxxHolic (Slightly Biased Manga)

Those of you who buy your manga in comics shops may have to look elsewhere for most of Yen Press’s July releases, or ask your retailer to order from someone other than Diamond Comics Distributors, because Diamond cancelled a number of the manga and manhwa solicited in the May Previews. Sean Gaffney noted this yesterday on Twitter, so I e-mailed Kurt Hassler, who got back to me right away. Here’s what he said:

So far as the Yen titles on this list are concerned, these are not publisher cancelations. These are Previews cancelations which simply means that Diamond for whatever reason has opted not to make these titles available through their service. The books are all still very much being published, and retailers have the option of ordering them directly through Hachette Book Group or through any number of other wholesalers like Ingram or Baker & Taylor.

When I asked if that was because of Diamond’s new order minimums, Kurt replied that he really didn’t know but that that was “as likely a reason as any.” Affected titles include Croquis Pop, Mr. Flower Groom, and the Kieli novel. Other books cancelled by Previews this month include upcoming volumes of Breath from Yaoi Generation, Ultimate Venus and 07-Ghost from Go!Comi, and Gorgeous Carat Lesperanza from Tokyopop. Looking back at previous cancellation lists, this doesn’t seem to be unusual except for the number of Yen titles falling under the ax this month.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez is pretty pleased that Viz is publishing Children of the Sea.

Deb Aoki presents her summer reading list—12 manga that grownups can enjoy—at About.com.

This is pretty cool: Colleen Doran digs out some old photos of a 1996 trip to Japan with a host of comics luminaries, including Jeff Smith, Frederick Schodt, and Jules Feiffer. Enjoy!

At the Studio QT blog, Susie muses a bit on whether scanlations have affected manga sales. Her conclusion: Hard to say, but it’s not killing print.

Patrick Macias has an advance look at the upcoming Otaku USA magazine.

Lori Henderson thinks through her shopping list at Manga Xanadu.

Christopher Butcher is in Japan, buying cat manga, drinking jellied coffee, and taking pictures of everything he sees. Enjoy!

News from Japan: The online doujin and eroge shop delipare is announcing restrictions on works with certain keywords, such as loli, Canned Dogs reports.

Reviews: Kate Dacey has some short reviews of Black Jack, Firefighter Nanase, and Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit up at The Manga Critic. At Manga Life, Park Cooper and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane post brief writeups of various series they are following.

Connie on vol. 6 of B.O.D.Y. (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on The Cat in the Coffin (The Manga Critic)
Deb Aoki on Clover (About.com)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (Comics Worth Reading)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (Read About Comics)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Detroit Metal City (The Comics Reporter)
Connie on vol. 14 of D.Gray-Man (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vols. 13 and 14 of D.Gray-Man (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Connie on A Drifting Life (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Future Lovers (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 10 of High School Debut (Manga Life)
Ken Haley on The History of the West Wing (Manga Recon)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Imadoki! (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 21 of Iron Wok Jan (Slightly Biased Manga)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of KimiKiss (Prospero’s Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of KimiKiss (Comics Worth Reading)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess (i heart manga)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 1 of The Lapis Lazuli Crown (Manga Life)
Dave Ferraro on Leave it to PET (Comics-and-More)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 2 of Ludwig II (Kuriousity)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Mars (i heart manga)
Sandy Bilus on Mijeong (I Love Rob Liefeld)
Michelle Smith on vol. 10 of Nana (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Parasyte (i heart manga)
David Welsh on vol. 3 of Real (Precocious Curmudgeon)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi (Anime Sentinel)
Emily on Sonnan Janeeyo (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Katherine Farmar on vol. 2 of Sunflower (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 14 of Swan (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Tsubasa: Those With Wings (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Tangognat on Two Flowers for the Dragon (Tangognat)

Kate Dacey and David Welsh check out this week’s new manga at their respective blogs.

The NY Times manga best-seller list is up, and it’s getting more varied now that Naruto Nation is fading into distant memory. Viz is still pretty well represented, with 9 of the 10 titles. The sole outlier is an interesting one: The latest of Tokyopop’s Warriors books.

Matt Thorn updates us on Christopher Handley’s sentencing (scheduled for August 18) and then switches to a happier topic: Pictures of him and a bunch of other manga folks at a party celebrating Moto Hagio’s 40th anniversary as a professional manga-ka.

The Mainichi Daily News has a nice article on the history of gekiga manga, their relationship to manga rental shops, and some new reprints of classic gekiga titles.

If you’re in NYC tomorrow, join Ed Chavez and some like-minded manga readers for another Vertical Vednesday. This week’s topic is Yanki, and Ed and the gang will be getting their Yakuza on at Kinokuniya, 1073 Avenue of the Americas, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. RSVP to ed@vertical-inc.com please.

News from Japan: ANN spots some new manga in the latest round of magazines and notes that Shiawase Kissa 3-chome is winding down.

Reviews: Head on down to Manga Recon for this week’s helping of Manga Minis. Other reviews of note:

Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Black Bird (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Carlo Santos on vol. 1 of Children of the Sea (ANN)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 5 of Goong (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 3 of Il Gatto Sul G (Comics Should Be Good)
Julie on vol. 3 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Laura on Pretty Poison (Heart of Manga)
Erica Friedma on vol. 3 of Sunshine Sketch (Okazu)
Lori Henderson on Utahime the Songstress (Comics Village)
Lexie on issue 1 of Yen + (Poisoned Rationality)
Scott VonSchilling on vol. 6 of Yuri Monogatari (The Anime Almanac)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 6 of Zombie Loan (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)

First of all, big congrats to Friends of MangaBlog Erin and Noah, who celebrated their zero-gravity wedding this past weekend. There’s more info here. All our best wishes to the happy couple!

Christopher Butcher is the guest on this week’s edition of What Are You Reading at Robot 6. I’m reading Faust, vol. 5 of Black Jack, and a couple of webcomics, myself.

Erica Friedman picks up the bits and pieces of this week’s yuri news at Okazu.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Comics Worth Reading)
Julie on vol. 1 of Angelic Runes (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lorena on vol. 2 of Blank Slate (i heart manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Burst Angel (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 2 of Eden (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 4 of Flower of Life (Comics Worth Reading)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Jack Frost (Kuriousity)
Shannon Fay on Live for Love (Kuriousity)
Emily on Me to Te de Kanjitai! (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Lorena on vol. 1 of Monster (i heart manga)
Julie on vol. 3 of Papillon (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lorena on Sexy Voice and Robo (i heart manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of WaqWaq (Slightly Biased Manga)

In a case that turns on the question of whether possession of sexually explicit drawings of minors should be illegal, a U.S. appeals court has declined to hear the appeal of Dwight Whorley, who was convicted of possession of child pornography (including, apparently, hentai manga) and sending written e-mail messages describing sex with children. Ars Technica comments, and Simon Jones notes

the legal team for convicted pedophile Dwight Whorely is far more willing to fight for what’s right than the lawyers for Christopher Handley.

Melinda Beasi has some interesting thoughts on being a female manga fan at her own blog, and she files her Anime Boston con report at Manga Recon.

Just in time for Fathers Day, Lori Henderson takes a look at dads in manga.

David Welsh’s License Request Day feature is a license rescue this week: He would like to see Bambi and Her Pink Gun return, please.

Aurora is making Walkin’ Butterfly available for iPhone/iPod Touch, and if you don’t have one of those, their books are also available via Netcomics. (First link via Simon Jones.)

Reviews

Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of The 9 Lives (Prospero’s Manga)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 6 of Black God (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Michelle Smith on vols. 22 and 23 of Boys Over Flowers (Soliloquy in Blue)
Deb Aoki on vol. 1 of Dinosaur Hour (About.com)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 5 of Goong (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
Connie on vol. 7 of I”s (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Mixed Vegetables (Kuriousity)
Lori Henderson on MW (Comics Village)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 17 of Nana (There it is, Plain as Daylight)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 2 of Phantom Dream (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Josh Tolentino on Sakura Taisen (Japanator)
Julie on vol. 1 of Tower of the Future (Manga Maniac Cafe)
David Welsh on Ultra Maniac (Precocious Curmudgeon)
Connie on vol. 5 of We Were There (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Welcome to Wakaba-Soh (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)