MangaBlog

God Len posts this week’s new releases at Japanator.

Deb Aoki was at Wondercon this weekend, and she reports that sales were robust but manga and anime were hard to find, although Viz did have an exhibit on the con floor. Jason Thompson was there as well, and he points to a video of the Otaku USA panel. Jack Tse files a brief report at MangaCast. And Ryan of Same Hat! Same Hat! had brunch with Fred Schodt!

Casey Brienza has a post on the objectification and exploitation of women in manga at her Kethylia LJ. She presents some examples, which are definitely food for thought—I’m still mulling over her arguments, myself.

ICv2 has more info on Yaoi Generation’s new series.

Lori Henderson has some thoughts on the pitfalls of being a reviewer at Manga Xanadu.

Patrick Macias has the highlights of the new Otaku USA magazine at his blog.

Congratulations to Ryan and Evan of Same Hat! Same Hat! on four years of blogging about the weirdest manga on the web.

News from Japan: Ed Chavez posts this week’s manga rankings from Taiyosha at MangaCast. ANN reports that Tail of the Moon creator Rinko Ueda is launching a new two-part manga.

Reviews

The Manga Recon reviewers post another batch of Manga Minis, and Carlo Santos treats us to another round of witty praise and takedowns of recent manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Other reviews of note:

Katherine Farmar on vol. 1 of Alley of First Love (Comics Village)
Connie on vol. 15 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of B.Ichi (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Adam Beck on vol. 4 of Cy-Believers (Advanced Media Network)
Casey Brienza on vols. 1-3 of Dororo (Anime News Network)
Lissa Pattillo on Double Trouble (Kuriousity)
Eric Fredriksen on vol. 11 of Eden: It’s an Endless World (Advanced Media Network)
Julie on vol. 16 of Kekkaishi (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Magic Touch (Comics-and-More)
Kris on Maid in Heaven (Manic About Manga)
Adam Beck on vol. 1 of Nephylym (Advanced Media Network)
Carlo Santos on vol. 31 of Oh My Goddess! (Anime News Network)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 1-3 of RahXephon (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Kris on Restart (Manic About Manga)
Serdar Yegulalp on vol. 1 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Advanced Media Network)
Sakura Eries on vol. 11 of School Rumble (Mania.com)
Kris on Seduce Me After the Show (Manic About Manga)
Connie on vol. 17 of Skip Beat (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kris on Take Me to Heaven (Manic About Manga)
Kris on vol. 1 of Tomcats (Manic About Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Tsubomi (Okazu)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Vampire’s Portrait (Anime News Network)
Connie on vol. 2 of Venus in Love (Slightly Biased Manga)

The Del Rey/Marvel manga/superhero crossovers have the Manga Villagers talking among themselves, and they have a fine roundtable up about comics, manga, and whether the twain shall ever meet.

At Okazu, Erica Friedman has some thoughts on fans, fandom, and fan-entitlement.

The latest Anime Today podcast includes an interview with Jonathan Clements, author of Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime and Manga Trade.

Yamila Abraham of Yaoi Press has a brief report on her experiences at Anime Milwaukee.

News from Japan: Canned Dogs reports that the new ending of Shaman King will be available online before the official release of the print version. And a bookstore group is experimenting with offering manga samples via cell phone.

Reviews: The folks at Reverse Thieves pick two manga for March: Maria+Holic and Spiral: Bonds of Reasoning. At Mania.com, Nadia Oxford has brief reviews of several Del Rey titles.

Connie on vol. 14 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 35 of Boys Over Flowers (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 1 of Blue Sheep Reverie (MangaCast)
Cynthia on Don’t Rush Love (Boys Next Door)
Dan Polley on vol. 5 of Fairy Tail (Comics Village)
D.M. Evans on The Girl Who Runs Through Time (Manga Jouhou)
Holly Ellingwood on vol. 10 of Kurohime (Active Anime)
Cynthia on Love Round!! (Boys Next Door)
Holly Ellingwood on The Manga Guide to Databases (Active Anime)
Lissa Pattillo on Meeting You (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on vol. 2 of Moon Boy (soliloquy in blue)
Tiamat’s Disciple on Mr. Flower Bride (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 1-16 of Open Sesame (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Scott Campbell on vol. 4 of Pumpkin Scissors (Active Anime)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vols. 1-12 of Rough (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Azizul Rahman on vol. 1 of Street Fighter Legends: Sakura (The Star of Malaysia)
Connie on vol. 2 of Sugar Princess (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danny Corven on Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, vol. 1: Dragon Hunt (Active Anime)

The Manga Recon folks have an interesting roundtable up on the topic of digital comics. Will iPods, Kindles, and the internet replace dead-tree comics someday? Read on for some interesting insights.

Ed lists the manga from the March Previews (shipping in May and June) at MangaCast, and the team makes their picks from this week’s new releases. David Welsh checks out Previews as well at Precocious Curmudgeon.

Erica Friedman brings us the week in yuri, and she urges readers to consider pre-ordering Yuri Monogatari 6, which is in danger of not making its Diamond minimum. To make it easier, I have put an Amazon widget up on your right so you can order right from here (and support this site at the same time).

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley write about foreshadowing and the perils of changing things in translation at Manga Life.

I was going through my in-box and found an interesting review site, The Book Smugglers, which covers romance and speculative fiction and had a couple of interesting articles, including this interview with Chandra Rooney, the writer of the Tarot Cafe novel. I’m putting some of their reviews in the Reviews section so you can check them out as well.

By chance, I just found another interview with Rooney, by Harry Markov.

It’s not exactly comics, but it’s heading in that direction: At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind takes a look at the evolution of retail bookstores, in preparation for some thoughts on a possible new model for comics stores.

ComiPress has a handy roundup of manga and anime Twitter feeds, but they missed ours! My Twitter handle is BrigidAlverson and you can follow my tweets here.

The Same Hat guys post some more gag cartoons by Shintaro Kago. As always, these are not for the squeamish, the easily offended, or anyone who is at work.

Gia interviews manga and anime journalist Jason Yadao at Anime Vice, and she also recommends some OEL manga in her recent videos.

News from Japan: Square Enix is folding its Gangan Powered and Gangan Wing magazines and replacing them with a new magazine, Gangan Joker.

Reviews: I’m clearing out my in-box this morning, so some of these are older links that I missed in the past. Also, after a bit of a hiatus, the About Heroes bloggers are back with some pithy mini-reviews.

Connie on 3H Before Kiss (Manga Recon)
Nate Stearns on The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need (The Graphic Classroom)
A Library Girl on vol. 3 of After School Nightmare (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Julie on vol. 5 of Aishiteruze Baby (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Deb Aoki on vols. 1 and 2 of Astral Project (About.com)
Connie on vols. 11, 12, and 13 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Thea on vol. 1 of Death Note (The Book Smugglers)
Ana on vol. 1 of Demon Diary (The Book Smugglers)
Connie on vol. 9 of Elemental Gelade (Slightly Biased Manga)
Briana Lawrence on vol. 1 of Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (Mania.com)
Thea on Goth, the novel (The Book Smugglers)
Ed Chavez on vol. 3 of Honey and Clover (MangaCast)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of Jyu-Oh-Sei (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 5 of Love Is Like a Hurricane (Kuriousity)
Kris on Love Lesson (Manic About Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on Love Training (Kuriousity)
Fitz on The Manga Guide to Databases (Blogcritics)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of Moon Boy (soliloquy in blue)
Emily on Mou Speed de Karera Wa (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
John Thomas on vol. 6 of Mushishi (Comics Village)
Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of The Name of the Flower (Manga Recon)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of NG Life (Tangognat)
Ed Chavez on vol. 1 of Oishinbo: A La Carte (MangaCast)
Faith McAdams on vol. 4 of One Pound Gospel (Animanga Nation)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Otomen (Prospero’s Manga)
Julie on vol. 1 of The Prince of Tennis (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 9 of Saiyuki Reload (Kuriousity)
Juile on vol. 17 of Skip Beat! (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Thea and Ana on the novel The Tarot Cafe: The Wild Hunt (The Book Smugglers)
Ana on vols. 1-7 of The Tarot Cafe manhwa (The Book Smugglers)
Snow Wildsmith on Tricky Prince (Fujoshi Librarian)
Ana on vol. 1 of Vampire Knight (The Book Smugglers)

For those who thought the Diamond changes were someone else’s problem, here’s some news: Adam Arnold of Seven Seas tells me that vol. 3 of Hayate X Blade and vol. 5 of Tetragrammaton Labyrinth didn’t make the new order minimums and weren’t listed in the March Previews. That means they will be hard to find in comics stores (although some will get them from other suppliers). However, Adam writes,

The books are still scheduled for release in May and fans will be able to find the books in bookstores and online.

Future volumes of Hayate X Blade and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, as well as Venus Versus Virus and Inukami!, are also likely to be affected and will no longer be available through Diamond.

Shaenon Garrity looks at science fiction and yaoi manga in her latest column at comiXology.

News from Japan: Shogakukan is launching a new magazine, Monthly Shonen Sunday, on Wednesday.

Reviews

Connie on vol. 1 of Astral Project (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 10 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Chris Mautner on Black Jack (Panels and Pixels)
Connie on vol. 4 of B.O.D.Y. (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 8 of Elemental Gelade (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 2 of Higurashi: When They Cry (Comics Should Be Good!)
Eva Volin on vol. 1 of Honey Hunt (ICv2)
Snow Wildsmith on vols. 1 and 2 of Magic Lover’s Tower (Manga Jouhou)
David Goodwin on vol. 2 of Me and the Devil Blues (Eastern Standard)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Peace Maker Kurogane (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 11 of Reborn (Slightly Biased Manga)

In this week’s PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha takes a look at Crunchyroll, which started as a fan-supplied site with lots of pirate content and is evolving into a commercial site with content provided by manga and anime publishers.

“I was Keitaro Urashima”: Scott VonSchilling explains the appeal of the everynerd hero of Love Hina at The Anime Almanac.

A manga fan in the UK pushes his local library to increase their manga holdings from one volume to 1,000.

Digital Manga has launched the website for their new imprint, DokiDoki.

Meanwhile, Yaoi Generation announced two new licenses: Tender Affairs (Yasashii Kankei) and Perfect World, both by Shinri Fuwa. Cover images are up on their manga page, with more info to follow.

Attention bloggers: Everythingyaoi.com has a new affiliate program, similar to Amazon except, they say, it pays more.

News from Japan: Ed Chavez has this week’s manga rankings from Taiyosha at MangaCast. Walkin’ Butterfly creator Chihiro Tamaki will be starting up a new manga in Cutie magazine. Me & My Brothers is coming to an end, and a new edition of Azumanga Daioh is in the works to mark the 10th anniversary of its magazine launch.

Reviews: Over at Graphic Novel Reporter, I reviewed (and field-tested) The Manga Cookbook, and I also have a few non-manga reviews up: Dear Dracula, Amelia Rules!, vol. 1 of Luuna, and Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel. At Good Comics for Kids, Kate Dacey has come up with a trio of good manga for kids. Also, I couldn’t stop laughing at the title of Tantric Stripfighter Trina long enough to review it, so I passed along my copy to Erica Friedman, who expertly skewers it at Okazu. At Comics Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore checks out vol. 3 of Mechademia, the scholarly journal of otaku culture. And the Manga Recon team looks over some prose books for their Otaku Bookshelf.

Michelle Smith on vol. 1 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Should Be Good)
A Library Girl on vol. 2 of After School Nightmare (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Casey Brienza on vol. 1 of Akihabara@DEEP (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Connie on vols. 7, 8, and 9 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 5 of Black God (Kuriousity)
Courtney Kraft on The Cain Saga (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Kris on Clan of the Nakagamis (Manic About Manga)
Adam Beck on vol. 4 of Cy-Believers (Advanced Media Network)
Michelle Smith on Desire (soliloquy in blue)
Timothy Callahan on The Drifting Classroom (Comic Book Resources)
Courtney Kraft on Gorgeous Carat (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Greg Hackmann on Goth, the novel (Mania.com)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Hakodate Youjin Buraijou Himegami (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 2 of Hayate x Blade (Slightly Biased Manga)
David Rasmussen on vol. 10 of Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga Life)
Emily on Hidari Te no Love Letter (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Carlo Santos on vol. 3 of Kamichama Karin Chu (ANN)
Julie on vol. 8 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Katherine Farmar on Last Portrait (Comics Village)
Matthew Brady on vol. 10 of Monster (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
Noah Berlatsky on vols. 13 and 14 of Nana (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Julie on vol. 1 of NG Life (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Oishinbo: A la Carte (Prospero’s Manga)
Amy Culbertson on vol. 1 of Oishinbo: A la Carte (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
James Fleenor on Orange (Anime Sentinel)
Rob Vollmar on vol. 1 of Pluto (Ramble On)
Dan Polley on vol. 20 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Comics Village)
David Rasmussen on vol. 6 of Yumekui Kenbun Nightmare Inspector (Manga Life)

The big news this morning is that Viz Media is “restructuring,” whatever that means. Details are sketchy, but it seems to involve layoffs. Here’s the nut graf:

Viz Media CEO Hidemi Fukuhara has issued the following statement: “Viz Media is in the process of refining its focus and is restructuring to adjust to changing industry and financial market realities. Viz feels confident that with these changes, the company will be more streamlined to face the current economic climate.”

That’s about as vague as you can get, and anything more at the moment is pure speculation. Lori Henderson thinks it through a bit, including some commentary on scanlations, at Manga Xanadu. Meanwhile, over on the supply side, Kodansha also had a bad year. The very first commenter at ANN blames the loss on fansubs and scanlations, apparently missing the part where they were talking about sales in Japan.

If that gloomy news has got you down, David Welsh has the cure: a whole Flipped column devoted to manga that will make you laugh. At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala chimes in with a list of his own favorites.

At Japanator, God Len lists this week’s new releases.

Matt Blind has last week’s online sales info: rankings summary, emerging trends report, new releases and pre-orders, and the top 500.

Kodansha has announced the finalists in its third annual Morning International Manga Competition. The results skew heavily towards Asian creators, with no North Americans or Canadians in the mix for the second year in a row.

Congratulations to Casey Brienza, whose article “Paratexts in Translation: Reinterpreting “Manga” for the United States” was just published in a refereed journal.

News from Japan: ComiPress translates a roundup of gossip about famous manga-ka. Also: Obama sushi. Thank you, Japan!

Reviews: The Manga Recon team posts a gaggle of short reviews in their weekly Manga Minis column. Congratulations to Melinda Beasi, who joins the Comics Should Be Good stable of Excellent Manga Reviewers (Danielle Leigh, Michelle Smith) with her review of vol. 6 of Mushishi. And mad props to CSBG head blogger Brian Cronin for being savvy enough to bring these writers together!

Connie on vol. 10 of +Anima (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on Body Language (Manga Jouhou)
Connie on vol. 12 of D.Gray-Man (Slightly Biased Manga)
Julie on vol. 3 of Gantz (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Hayate x Blade (Okazu)
Kris on Love Code (Manic About Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Maximum Ride (Kuriousity)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Oishinbo (Tangognat)
Charles Tan on vol. 1 of Pluto (Comics Village)
Cynthia on Take Me To Heaven (Boys Next Door)
Cynthia on Where Has Love Gone? (Boys Next Door)