Digital’s Latest Tezuka Kickstarter Exceeds Its Goal

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Brigid Alverson

Digital Manga’s Kickstarter campaign to publish Osamu Tezuka’s Ludwig has surpassed its goal by $1,000. This was Digital’s comeback round after the failure of its ambitious Tezuka’s World Kickstarter, which would have raised over $500,000 to publish 31 volumes of Tezuka’s work.

The first volume of Attack on Titan tops this week’s New York Times best-seller list. Vol. 68 of Naruto is the number two seller, and the first volume of Assassination Classroom takes the number three slot.

World Trigger, which is carried in both the Japanese and North American versions of Shonen Jump, will skip an issue because of manga-ka Daisuke Ashihara’s health problems.

Erica Friedman posts her final edition of Yuri News Network for 2014.

The Manga bookshelf team discusses this week’s new manga, including digital releases.

Meanwhile, at Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson looks back at the past week’s new releases.

Ash Brown looks back at the most notable manga of the year at Experiments in Manga.

News from Japan: CLAMP will draw new covers for Cardcaptor Sakura, to celebrate Nakayoshi magazine’s 60th anniversary. Your Lie in April, which Kodansha Comics will start publishing in North America in the spring, is coming to an end. GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa has a new series in the works, Soul Reviver South. MPD-Psycho will end with volume 22, not volume 21, as was originally announced.

Reviews

Anna N on vol. 1 of Assassination Classroom (Manga Report)
Sarah on vol. 14 of Attack on Titan (nagareboshi reviews)
Erica Friedman on the November issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 25 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Erica Friedman on Hakkou Snowflake (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of He’s My Only Vampire (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1 and 2, and Tale 0, of Honey Blood (Comics Worth Reading)
Khursten Santos on In Clothes Called Fat (Otaku Champloo)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Little Battlers Experience (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Master Keaton (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 4 of Millennium Snow (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on MURCIÉLAGO (Okazu)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Nisekoi: False Love (Manga Xanadu)
Anna N on vol. 1 of Yukarism (Manga Report)

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Vinland Saga “temporarily suspended”

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Brigid Alverson

Vinland_Saga_volume_01_cover

Bad news for Vinland Saga fans: The sixth volume has been removed from sales listings, and Kodansha Comics says the series has been “temporarily suspended.” In case you aren’t already reading the series, Johanna Draper Carlson explains why this is bad.

Good news for Shonen Jump readers: This week’s issue will include the one-shot story RKD-EK9 by Medaka Box writer NisiOisin and Death Note artist Takeshi Obata.

The Manga Bookshelf team look back at the most important manga of 2014.

Also at Manga Bookshelf, Erica Friedman has a nice introduction to the Japanese magazine Dengeki Daioh.

Twenty-five years after his death, Osamu Tezuka lives on in Japan, celebrated by murals, subway chimes, inventors, and the merchants in his old neighborhood, who trade Astro Money for civic-minded acts and serve up his favorite dish.

Erica Friedman posts a fresh edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Happy blogiversary to Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, which turned four years old last week; if you haven’t checked it out from the links here, go take a look now!

News from Japan: Naoki Urasawa is taking a break from Billy Bat; the series, which has already had several interruptions, will go on hiatus until April. Library Wars: Love & War may just have ended in Japan, but artist Kiiro Yumi already has a new series, Toshokan Sensō: Love & War Bessatsu-hen, in the works. Plans are in the work for a Kabuki play based on Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team posts another round of quick reviews in their latest Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown looks back at The Week in Manga at Experiments in Manga.

Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Afterschool Nightmare (Experiments in Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Food Wars (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna N. on vols. 1 and 2 of Honey Blood (Manga Report)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Mail (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Manga Dogs (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Noragami (Manga Xanadu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 4 of Say I Love You (Comics Worth Reading)
Erica Freidman on Stretch (Okazu)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Sweet Rein (Good Comics for Kids)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Tsuki to Sekai to Etoile (Okazu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 8 of Umineko: When They Cry (ANN)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Comics Worth Reading)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Yukarism (ANN)

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Review: Assassination Classroom, Vol. 1

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Katherine Dacey

1421576074Assassination Classroom, Vol. 1
By Yusei Matsui
Rated T+, for Older Teens
VIZ Media, $9.99

Americans steadfastly believe that all students need to succeed are a few good teachers—think of how many movies you’ve seen about an unorthodox educator who helps a group of misfits, losers, or underachievers realize their full potential against all odds. Perhaps that’s why American publishers hesitated before licensing Assassination Classroom, a comedy that outwardly conforms to the tenets of the genre while poking fun at its hoariest cliches.

Assassination Classroom‘s star teacher is Koro-sensei, a super-powered alien who can wipe out an army with a swish of a tentacle. His students are class 3-E, the troublemakers and flunkies of Kunugigaoka Junior High School. Instead of studying calculus or Shakespeare, however, Koro-sensei’s charges are learning how to kill him and save Earth in the process—in other words, it’s To Sir With Lethal Force.

If the script isn’t quite as edgy as my summary suggests, Assassination Classroom scores points for the sheer ridiculousness of the premise. Koro-sensei’s relentless enthusiasm and high standards match those of other fictional educators—Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds, Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society—but are applied to such activities as shooting and stabbing. He gives the same kind of inspirational speeches that you’d find in those movies, too, reminding his charges that he specifically requested the job because he knows the students’ true potential.

In one scene, for example, timid student Okuda presents Koro-sensei with three deadly potions, imploring him to sample them. “I’m not good at surprise attacks!” she tells him. “But I love chemistry! And I really put my heart and soul into this!” Koro-sensei cheerfully obliges, offering to help Okuda “research a poison that can kill me.” When Okuda proves more skillful at mixing chemicals than persuading her target to drink them, Koro-sensei reminds her that “in order to kill someone, you need to understand how they feel,” skills that she can cultivate through—what else?—reading and writing.

The exchange between Okuda and Koro-sensei is complemented by some of the best visual gags in volume one. One of the poisons, for example, neutralizes Koro-sensei’s Cheshire grin into a flat line, prompting a student to exclaim, “You look like an emoticon!” Although Koro-sensei’s face is the essence of simplicity—a circle with pin-dot eyes and a toothy smile—this subtle tweak of his appearance yields a big pay-off laugh-wise.

At the same time, however, the poison episode illustrates Assassination Classroom‘s biggest flaw: Yusei Matsui wants to have his cake and eat it, too, soft-pedaling the humor with an uplifting, awwww-worthy moment in almost every chapter. Students unironically vow to do their best after Koro-sensei points out the flaws in their technique, saves them from harm, or gives them a pep talk. None of the students harbor a grudge against him—at least not for very long—or question the value of Koro-sensei’s lessons. (Makes you wonder: is Koro-sensei guilty of grade inflation?)

Still, I enjoyed volume one enough to continue with the series, even if Matsui’s efforts to express the Shonen Jump dictum of “friendship, effort, victory” sometimes blunt the edge of his satire.

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Takeshi Obata Returns to Shonen Jump

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Brigid Alverson

Shonen Jump adds a new series to its lineup, and the artist is Takeshi Obata! The series is Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment and the writer is Nobuaki Enoki. It’s about a school that has its own court; if that sounds familiar, it’s because the manga ran for a while as a smartphone-only series and just relaunched on December 1.

Kodansha has expanded into China with a local magazine, Jinmanhua, and homegrown manga by Chinese artists; the creative duo who go by Navar have seen their manhua Carrier: Xiedaizhe, go the other way—it is now running in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in Japan and has been published as collected editions there as well.

Got some last-minute shopping to do? Erica Friedman posts the Okazu Gift Guide, and she also has a fresh serving of Yuri Network News for us.

Laura reveals her favorite shoujo series at Heart of Manga, and she also looks at the series currently running in the magazine Be Love.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team takes a quick look at recent releases in their newest Bookshelf Briefs post.

Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Ajin (ANN)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Attack on Titan: No Regrets (Experiments in Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 6 of Attack on Titan (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 11-13 of Attack on Titan (Manga Xanadu)
Alice Vernon on Bloody Cross (Girls Like Comics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 24 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Kristin on The Garden of Words (Comic Attack)
Sarah on vol. 16 of Kamisama Kiss (nagareboshi reviews0
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 25 of Naruto (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 10 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Comics Worth Reading)
A Library Girl on vols. 1-3 of Pandora Hearts (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on Philosophia (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on the December 15 issue of Shonen Jump (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Soul Eater Not! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Terra Formars (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 2 of UQ Holder (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)

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Quick Friday Manga Links

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Katherine Dacey

Once again, the fifth volume of Monster Musume tops the New York Times’ Manga Bestseller list, followed by the latest installments of Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, and xxxHolic Rei, CLAMP’s sort-of sequel to xxxHolic.

Will the Kickstarter campaign for Ludwig B. reach its goal of $21,000? Johanna Draper Carlson investigates.

The Manga Bookshelf gang discuss next week’s big releases, from Master Keaton to Mobile Suit Gundham.

Look out, Wallace and Grommit—Moyocco Anno has launched an Indie GoGo campaign to adapt her manga Diary of O’Chibi into a stop-motion film.

Kodansha recently posted a brief video “trailer” for Noriko Ootani’s josei series Sukkute Goran, and it’s lovely.

Reviews: Ash Brown discusses Frederick Schodt’s landmark 1983 book Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. Over at Anime News Network, Shaenon Garrity devotes the latest House of 1000 Manga column to Taiyo Matsumoto’s GoGo Monster.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 20 of Arata: The Legend (The Comic Book Bin)
Jordan Richards on vol. 1 of Assassination Classroom (Adventures in Poor Taste)
Rachel Tougas on vol. 1 of Assassination Classroom (Rachel Loves Comics)
Noel Thorne on vol. 1 of Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga (Comic Ally)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 1-2 of False Memories (Anime News Network)
Marissa Lieberman on vol. 1 of Food Wars! (No Flying No Tights)
Eric Gaudette on Hellsing (Emertainment Monthly)
Megan R. on In Clothes Called Fat (The Manga Test Drive)
Nick Smith on vol.1 of Kiss of the Rose Princess (ICv2)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of My Love Story!! (Manga Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlos on vol. 2 of Spell of Desire (Manga Worth Reading)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 3 of Sweet Rein (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 19 of Vampire Knight (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy (The Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Witchcraft Works (Anime News Network)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 5 of Wolfsmund (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Yukarism (Manga Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Yukarism (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

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Kodansha Comics Licenses ‘Your Lie in April’

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Brigid Alverson

yourlieinapril1
Kodansha Comics announced a new license out of the blue on Wednesday: Naoshi Arakawa’s music-romance story Your Lie in April. Here’s the blurb:

Kosei Arima was a piano prodigy until his cruel taskmaster of a mother died suddenly, changing his life forever. Driven by his pain to abandon piano, Kosei now lives in a monotonous, colorless world. Having resigned himself to a bland life, he is surprised when he meets Kaori Miyazono, a violinist with an unorthodox style. Can she teach Kosei not just how to play, but how to start living again?

The anime is already running on Crunchyroll, Aniplex Channel, and Hulu, and apparently it’s quite popular; Kodansha may be banking on the same anime/manga synergy that made Attack on Titan such a hit. There’s more at the anime website, including trailers for an upcoming movie.

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