MangaBlog

NYCC is just around the corner, and the first schedule of panels went up yesterday. I’ll be there, both reporting for PWCW and taking part in the “Newsflash: Teen Girls Read Manga!” panel at 10:15 a.m. on Friday, together with my fellow manga mavens and Good Comics for Kids contributors Robin Brenner and Kate Dacey. I will be in NY from Thursday through Sunday, so drop me an e-mail or a comment if you would like to meet up.

The Manga Recon team has a roundtable discussion on which manga they would like to see licensed next.

ICv2 posts Bookscan’s top graphic novels for December, and the list features three volumes of Naruto as well as vol. 1 of Death Note, a manga that continues to be popular even though the series ended a while ago.

Tangognat goes over her order from the January Previews.

Deb Aoki continues her year-end polls at About.com with an opportunity to vote for the best josei manga of 2008.

New blog alert! This one looks really promising: Japanese Book Reviews, by Augie Rakow, covers contemporary, untranslated manga and other literature. The titles range from the well known (Moyashimon) to niche manga that won’t be licensed here anytime soon (Afro Tanaka goes to Tokyo and Shinjuku Swan). It’s a fresh, interesting blog that’s well worth a look. Plus: Lawyer comics! Including an ecchi lawyer comic! Now there’s a niche that hasn’t been carved out yet over here.

Anime Vice reports that plans are being laid for Bishie Con, the newest yaoi con.

Reviews: At Comixology, Tucker Stone reads the three Project X manga from DMP and isn’t too impressed, despite his initial interest. Faith McAdams reveiws vol. 8 of Kurohime at Animanga Nation. Adam Stephanides takes a first look at vol. 1 of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi Chan (the gag manga based on the original Haruhi series) at Completely Futile. Connie enjoys vol. 1 of Otomen at Slightly Biased Manga. Guest reviewer Marsha Reid checks out vol. 5 of Hissing at Kuriousity. Julie reads vol. 4 of Sand Chronicles at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Casey Brienza reviews the light novel Secret Moon at Kethylia. Emily takes a look at Tomodachi no Housoku at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page.

Christopher Butcher has more to say about the future of manga, as he responds to each of the points raised by Deb Aoki in her look ahead.

Meanwhile, back at About.com, Deb has another poll up, this one allowing readers to vote for the best seinen manga of 2008.

The MangaCast team goes over this week’s new releases, and David Welsh finds a few likely titles this week at Precocious Curmudgeon.

ComiPress explains how you can get a copy of the article “Men Under Pressure: Representations of the ‘Salaryman’ and his Organization in Japanese Manga” if that piques your curiousity.

The Japanese equivalent of Rule 34 seems to be “If it exists, there’s moe of it.” Case in point: Moe Watchmen. (Scroll down a bit for pix.) (Via Journalista.)

News from Japan: ANN has this week’s comic rankings.

Reviews: I should have caught this earlier, but Michelle Smith reviewed vol. 18 of Monster in Manga Recon’s latest batch of Manga Minis, wrapping up the string of reviews of previous volumes she had posted on her other blog, Soliloquy in Blue. I’m thinking of opening up a group discussion of the ending of Monster, as I’m still twisting it around in my head, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone. Also at Manga Recon, Ken Haley enjoys vol. 20 of Blade of the Immortal. Matthew J. Brady didn’t care much for Red-Colored Elegy at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. Casey Brienza reads the light novel Immoral Darkness at her LJ. Lissa Pattillo takes a look at Sea View at Kuriousity. Julie reads Take Me to Heaven and vol. 2 of Jyu-Oh-Sei at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Diana Dang is not impressed by vol. 1 of Masque of the Red Death. New at Comics Village: Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Hollow Fields and Charles Tan on vol. 2 of Gantz. AstroNerdBoy reviews vol. 5 of Gakuen Alice. Aspi reviews The Manga Guide to Statistics at Blogcritics. Fresh reviews at Active Anime include Rachel Bentham on The Dawn of Love, Holly Ellingwood on vol. 3 of Time Stranger Kyoko and vol. 2 of We Were There, and Margaret Viera on vol. 18 of Black Cat.

Bamboo, Casey, and Sarah talk to manga maven Jason Thompson about censorship in the latest women’s anime roundtable.

At PWCW, various critics vote on the best graphic novels of 2008, and quite a few manga make the cut. As we noted earlier, Kai-Ming Cha also picks the best manga of the year, and the featured preview is from Yen Press’s upcoming manga version of James Patterson’s Maximum Ride.

Hazel takes a look at new releases for this month, with links and commentary.

There’s more of Naoki Urasawa’s Billy Bat manga at The Eastern Edge, but be warned, there are spoilers!

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind presents his usual suite of online sales rankings for the past week: Top 500, new releases and pre-orders, emerging trends report, and a rankings summary.

Barb Lien-Cooper muses about which manga would make good movies at Manga Life.

Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson recommends vol. 1 of Black Jack at Comics Worth Reading. Park Cooper reviews vol. 24 of Hunter x Hunter at Manga Life. Tiamat’s Disciple checks out vol. 5 of Moon Boy and vol. 4 of Zombie-Loan. Lissa Pattillo reads vol. 10 of +Anima at Kuriousity. Casey Brienza has a short take on vol. 1 of School Rumble at her Kethylia LJ. Melinda Beasi enjoys the full run of vols. 1-6 of One Thousand and One Nights at Manga Recon. Ed Chavez devotes his latest podcast to vol. 1 of Mamoru the Shadow Protector at MangaCast. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reads vols. 5 and 6 of Do Whatever You Want, vol. 4 of Human Club, and vol. 14 of The Law of Ueki. Kris gives thumbs up to vol. 2 of Kyo Kara MAOH! at Manic About Manga. Alex Hoffman presents an expanded version of his review of vol. 1 of My-Hime at Manga Widget. Oyceter is reading the Chinese translation of vols. 1-3 of Hoshi wa Utau, by Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya, at Sakura of DOOM. Tangognat checks out vol. 1 of Kekkaishi. Emily finds a title with a different twist, Pump-Up!, at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page.

In a brief press release, new publisher Yaoi Generation announces that their books will be distributed by Diamond, which is the distributor that pretty much has a monopoly on the comics-shop market. This means that YG titles will be available in comics stores, which actually move a lot of yaoi manga.

YAOI GENERATION COLLABORATES WITH DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS
Fremont, CA – (January 6, 2009) YAOI GENERATION announces its collaboration with Diamond Comic Distributors Inc., the world’s largest distributor of English-language comics and related merchandise. The company’s first publication, breath volume 1 by Chifumi Ochi, will be made available on Diamond’s February 2009 Previews. Fans who would like to order breath or any of Yaoi Generation’s future publications can now request their favorite retailer to order from Diamond Comics Distributors. Until then, breath volume 1 is available at Yaoi Generation’s WebStore at www.yaoigen.com and at Amazon.com.

Summaries, cast of characters, author bio, previews, and more are also available on Yaoi
Generation’s website.

ICv2 talks to Dr. Joachim Kaps, the head of Tokyopop Germany, about the loss of their Kodansha licenses. Kaps says he has no idea why Kodansha decided not to renew the licenses, but he points out that two other German publishers, Egmont and Heyne, have cancelled a number of Kodansha series because of low sales. (Heyne is Del Rey’s sister company.) But Tokyopop had planned to continue with their Kodansha series, he said. At the Icarus Comics blog, Simon Jones hears from the head of Carlsen, another German manga publisher, that their Kodansha series are not affected. Alex Hoffman speculates about what this might mean to the U.S. manga industry at Manga Widget.

At The Comics Reporter, David Welsh writes about ten books he’s looking forward to in 2009. This is an impressive list and should give hope to anyone worried about the manga industry in the U.S., especially those who are looking for more mature titles. At the other end of the spectrum, Ryan at Same Hat! Same Hat! has some previews of what to expect from horror manga-ka Shintaro Kago this year. As always, don’t click on this one if you’re squeamish (but do if you’re not, because some of the cartoons are pretty funny).

Kai-Ming Cha sums up the year in manga—her analysis may surprise you—and lists her top ten manga of 2008. Dave Ferraro posts his own top ten list at Comics-and-More. And at About.com, Deb Aoki is letting the fans decide: Voting is now open for the best new shoujo and shonen manga of the year.

The Yaoi Review takes a brief look at some January yaoi releases.

At Japanator, God Len posts this week’s new releases. Also, the Japanator folks publish their licensing wish list for the year to come.

Canned Dogs shares some art from Mudazumo naki kaikaku (The Legend of Koizumi), a manga in which world leaders battle for supremacy in an epic game of mahjong. Yes, that’s George Bush in the picture.

Matt Blind has some top 20 and top 30 charts for the week ending Jan. 4 at Rocket Bomber.

CLAMP fans are giving back: Lissa Pattillo reports on a CLAMP appreciation fanbook and gives a link for those who would like to participate.
News from Japan: Canned Dogs has the 2008 circulation figures for Japanese manga, anime, and gaming magazines. ANN reports that Houbunsha is launching a quarterly yuri anthology.

Reviews: Carlo Santos kicks the new year with his latest Right Turn Only!! column and tosses out a challenge to readers: Send him a review of “the manga series you wish you hadn’t gotten into but it’s too late now.” Tiamat’s Disciple takes a look at vol. 7 of Chocolat and vol. 6 of The Antique Gift Shop. Lissa Pattillo puts in her two cents on vol. 6 of The Antique Gift Shop as well. Julie checks out vol. 1 of Vagabond,o the VIZBIG edition, at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Erica Friedman reviews vol. 2 of Your and My Secret at Okazu. Billy Aguiar gives the thumbs-up to Gaba Kawa at Prospero’s Manga. Emily’s latest finds are Yacchimaina!! and Wagamama na Junai at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Casey Brienza has a brief review of vol. 1 of Hayate x Blade at her LJ. James Fleenor enjoys vol. 1 of Momo Tama despite the pink cover. Travers C. takes a look at vol. 4 of Sundome and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time at TaCk’s Pop Culture. Sesho devotes his latest podcast to Edu-Manga: Ludwig van Beethoven and posts a print review of vol. 2 of Sand Chronicles. Oyceter reads the Chinese translation of Fumi Yoshinaga’s All My Darling Daughters at Sakura of DOOM. Snow Wildsmith reads Lovers Pledge at Fujoshi Librarian. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie moves quickly through vols. 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Do Whatever You Want. Diana Dang reviews vol. 1 of 07-Ghost and vol. 1 of Cross x Break at Stop, Drop, and Read!

Vacation’s over! Christopher Butcher gets you right back to work with a meaty analysis of the manga market and some predictions for the future at Comics212. In case that’s not enough for you, Erica Friedman includes some advice for anime and manga companies for the coming year in her weekly yuri roundup at Okazu.

Micole looks at all the manga and other graphic novels she read in 2008 and picks the cream of the crop. Kethylia presents her list as well.

At the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Jason Yadao looks back at the year in manga.

The Manga Recon team presents their picks of the week.

Lindsay Muscato interviews Mail Order Ninja creator Josh Elder. (Via Journalista.)

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind summarizes the online sales rankings from last week and presents his emerging trends report and new releases and pre-orders.

Over at Heisei Democracy (warning: NSFW!), Seiya lists ten Japanese things that don’t translate too well, including doujinshi and Kodomo no Jikan.

News from Japan: Ed Chavez gives us the weekly manga rankings from Taiyosha and rounds up other Japanese news in his MangaScope column. ANN has the list of the top-selling manga series and light novels of 2008 and an inside peek at manga circles.

Reviews: Danielle Leigh is keeping a reading diary over at Comics Should Be Good, with short impressions of whatever she’s reading at the moment. She covers three titles in her first entry, takes a longer look at vols. 1-4 of Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector in the second, and goes back to short takes in the third. Danielle has eclectic tastes so her posts are always worth a look! Michelle Smith has spent her vacation wisely, reading vols. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 of Monster. I can’t wait to see her take on vol. 18, now that I have wrapped up my review for Comics Foundry. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 17 of Black Cat and A Capable Man, and guest reviewer Marsha Reid checks out vol. 5 of Cynical Orange at Kuriousity. Julie gives her take on Shards of Affection at MangaCast and vol. 12 of Moon Child and vol. 7 of High School Debut at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Erica Friedman casts a slightly jaded eye on vol. 1 of Futari ha PreCure Splash Star at Okazu. At Manga Recon, Sam Kusek takes a look at a classic manga, Rumic Theater: One or Double, by Rumiko Takahashi. Cat-loving Lori Henderson isn’t gaga over vol. 10 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs, but she doesn’t hate it either. Connie reads vol. 13 of Trigun Maximum, vol. 3 of Real, vol. 25 of Bleach, and vol. 2 of June at Slightly Biased Manga. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews You Make My Head Spin, Heaven’s Will, vol. 2 of Captive Hearts, vol. 16 of Skip Beat! and vol. 9 of Kurohime, and Scott Campbell checks out vol. 3 of Mechademia, the academic journal covering anime and manga. Tangognat reviews vol. 1 of Cross x Break. At ANN, Casey Brienza finds plenty of cliches in vol. 1 of Higurashi: When They Cry but concludes that it’s better than she expected. Alan David Doane reads Solanin at the ADD Blog (via Journalista).