MangaBlog

I’m back home again, ready to adjust to the new normal. Again, thank you for all your kind comments and condolence messages. Last week was bleak at times, and it was really comforting to hear from so many friends.

Needless to say, I returned to over 500 RSS feed notifications and about as many e-mail alerts, so I’ll be going back and looking things over, picking the cream of the older posts as well as what’s new.

ICv2 makes it easy by posting a very significant story this week: A four-part interview with Gonzalo Ferreyra, Viz’s VP of sales and marketing. Here’s part one; follow the links for the rest.

Also, Comix Talk posts an interview I did with Tokyopop’s Jeremy Ross a few weeks ago about their Manga Pilots program. It’s really more about the new interface and the direction they’re going in than the contracts thing, which has been extensively covered elsewhere (and which I doubt is going to change anyway).

Matt Thorn tracks the popularity of the term “shoujo” to describe girls’ magazines, as well as the changes in content over the years, at his blog. He also provides a peek at some early Japanese animation.

Speaking of shoujo, Danielle Leigh discusses Itazura na Kiss, both the manga and the anime based on it, and explains how the manga introduced some of our standard shoujo cliches.

Japanator posts this week’s new releases.

ANN’s Smart Women on Anime roundtable (I think that’s what they meant to call it, but there was a typo somewhere) takes on alpha and beta males in manga and anime.

Manga online: Concordia University professor Matthew Penney has translated and posted the short story War and Japan by GeGeGe no Kitaro creator Mizuki Shigeru. (Via ANN.)

This is a big weekend, with both Yaoi-Con and NYAF going on at the same time. At About.com, Deb Aoki lists the manga-related events at NYAF and the Yaoi-Con highlights to help you choose.

Gia has coverage of the Dark Horse panel at AWA.

Kai-Ming Cha has a piece on Afro Samurai, the manga, at PWCW.

Zig*Zag and Beauty Honey are coming to an end in Japan.

Reviews: There’s lots more to come, but here’s a start. Christopher Butcher has started posting reviews on Tuesdays, and so far he has posted thoughtful discussions of Disappearance Diary and vol. 1 of Black Jack. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson recommends vol. 10 of Nana but is less impressed by vol. 9 of Beauty Pop and the online version of Princess Ai: Encounters. Deb Aoki checks out vol. 1 of Blank Slate, vol. 1 of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Future Lovers, vol. 1 of Sola, and vols. 1 and 2 of Black Lagoon at About.com. Dave Ferraro reads vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues at Comics-and-More.

Hi everyone. I’m sorry I haven’t been around the internets the past few days. My father died on Tuesday. I’m in the busywork stage of bereavement—planning, traveling, paperwork—but I hope to be back into a regular blogging routine by the beginning of next week at the latest.

Longtime readers may know that Dad was a big comics fan and used to read comics to me when I was growing up. Here’s a post and a followup that I wrote about him a few years ago. I want to write more about him in the future, but I need time to wrap my brain around all that has happened.

In the meantime, talk among yourselves, and I’ll be back soon with news and some fresh reviews.

UPDATE: I’m not the only one having a bad week: David Welsh’s mother passed away this week as well. David has some words of wisdom for all families, so drop by and offer your condolences. And to all of you who have left notes here: Thank you. It really does help.

Just a few short things today, but let’s start with a big one: Tokyopop has signed on with the video-sharing site Crunchyroll to promote their properties, using their embeddable manga player. First up: A sneak peek at Princess Ai: Encounters. Tokyopop is offering free downloads on its own site as well; you have to sign up to be notified. Here’s their forum thread to watch for commentary. Stay tuned!

Matt Thorn shows off some another lovely vintage manga, The Adventures of Little Shô, at his blog.

Lianne Sentar posts some thoughts on moe at Sleep Is For the Weak.

Melinda Beasi continues the discussion of morality in anime and manga at her blog, there it is, plain as daylight.

The first volume of The Faerie Path manga is due out in January, according to ICv2.

At Manly Manga and More, Jonathan lists the all-shoujo German Tokyopop top 20 and editorializes a bit about content.

If you enjoy Protoculture Addicts, here’s a cheaper way to read it: E-books are available at a reduced price.

Reviews: Lianne Sentar posts a witty review of Wanted at Sleep Is For the Weak. Snow Wildsmith reviews Weekend Lovers and D.M. Evans checks out vol. 3 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning at Manga Jouhou. Ferdinand enjoys vol. 1 of Sugar Princess: Skating to Win at Prospero’s Manga. Sesho has a podcast up about vol. 1 of xxxHoLiC.

You know that any mainstream-news story that leads with the Hello Kitty vibrator is going to be bad news, and this MSNBC column by Brian Alexander does not disappoint. Did I miss the moment when maid cafes became mainstream in the U.S.? Maybe Boston is just behind the times. I don’t have all day to take apart the fallacies in this article, but let me point out one obvious howler:

Within the adult realm of otaku culture, cuteness is fetishized (hence the Hello Kitty sex toys) and gender is often bent or dissolves altogether. Women are penetrated by octopi and young women in short school-girl skirts save the world. Men, on the other hand, are often passive worshipers of small figurines depicting sexy characters.

OK, unless he is seriously misinformed, the writer makes a major shift in that last sentence: The first part, about the women, refers to characters in anime and manga; the second part describes the men who read it. Apples and oranges. Also, I haven’t run across any passive figurine-worshipers in my travels, although maybe it’s just one of those things that everyone does and nobody admits to. (Moe headphones image taken from JBox, the more wholesome part of JList.)

Real manga-ka Takehiko Inoue interviews Shingo Fujii, captain of the Japanese wheelchair basketball team, for the Yomiuri Shimbun on the eve of the 2008 Paralympic Games.

David Doub interviews global manga creator Queenie Chan at Manga Punk.

Like many of us, Ed Sizemore is heading to NYAF, but he can’t be there on Friday or Sunday, so he has generously offered to share his VIP tickets to the MC Chris concert and autograph sessions with other fest-goers. If you would like tickets to an event, e-mail me at the address on the upper right and I’ll forward your request to Ed. It’s first-come, first-serve, so don’t delay.

Alex Woolfson has an interesting post on finding bara (gay comics) in English at Yaoi 911, with lots of links to other sites and resources. The post itself is SFW, but the links are not.

John Thomas wraps up his roundup of worthwhile summer releases at Mecha Mecha Media.

Yoshitoshi ABe will be speaking at the Schoolgirls and Mobile Suits conference at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design on Sept. 26-28.

EigoManga has revamped its website. The new site runs on Flash, which looks slick but eliminates the possibility of permalinks to individual pages. Also, the menus are hard to find—look for the teeny-tiny green type on the left-hand side to get started. (Via ComiPress.)

News from Japan: Minetaro Mochizuki, creator of Dragon Head, will be launching a new manga in Kodansha’s Morning magazine soon.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore reviews vol. 1 of Faust and Johanna Draper Carlson recommends vol. 5 of High School Debut at Comics Worth Reading. Dick Hyacinth has some nice things to say about Cowa! Tiamat’s Disciple checks out vol. 1 of Slayers Premium. Julie enjoys vol. 3 of Sand Chronicles at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Even Erica Friedman’s father, who prefers crappy manga, can’t take vol. 1 of Shin Megami Tensei Kahn; read about it at Okazu. John Thomas reviews vol. 6 of MPD-Psycho at Comics Village. Melinda Beasi takes a look at vols. 1-3 of Nana at there it is, plain as daylight.

How much does John Jakala love Japanese Spider-Man? He counts the ways in his latest Sporadic Sequential post, and he finds much to love. (Japanese Spidey image lifted straight from John’s blog but probably (c) someone else.)

Scott VonSchilling reposts an earlier article about moe at Anime Almanac, and he has an interesting interpretation that makes it seem a bit less creepy:

So then why the sudden attraction to Moé? Is it a sign of pedophilia?

Hell no, I say it’s the longing for fatherhood. That the last statistic in that article proves it. “Unmarried males in their 30s account for the majority of the moe market.” When you’re a Japanese salary man working for over decade in an exhausting job, what do you have to show for it? What’s the purpose in your life? Well, if you’re not married and don’t have a family… I don’t really think you have much going for you. So yeah, they’re seeing that window of fatherhood slowly closing on them, and it makes them long for it more.

PWCW is hosting a 12-page preview of Astro Boy, which Dark Horse is publishing in a new, larger, two-volumes-in-one format starting this month.

Ed Chavez lists the manga in the September Previews (shipping in November and December) at MangaCast.

The Manga Recon team discusses the pros and cons of Tokyopop’s revamped website.

Digital Manga opened its Yaoi Club online store this week, and Lissa Pattillo takes it for a test drive at Kuriousity.

Heading for NYAF? Maybe you can draw your way in for free. Suvudu is having an interesting contest: submit a manga-style self-portrait and a photo of yourself for comparison purposes. Each of the four grand prize winners gets two passes to NYAF plus three volumes of Del Rey manga.

News from Japan: Treehugger reports on the environmentally conscious International Manga Summit in Kyoto.

Oh, and before we get to the reviews, here’s a website that those who still fear the LHC may want to add to their RSS feeds. (Via comments at The Beat. Be sure to view the source code.)

Reviews: Alex Hoffman takes a look at vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire and vol. 1 of Song of the Hanging Sky at Manga Widget. Erin F. examines her love-hate relationship with vols. 2-6 of S.A. at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Leroy Douresseaux enjoys vol. 16 of Dr. Slump at The Comic Book Bin. Connie reads vol. 17 of One Piece and vol. 14 of Skip Beat at Slightly Biased Manga. Tangognat enjoys vols. 1 and 2 of Forest of Gray City. Julie reviews vol. 2 of Dance in the Vampire Bund at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Noah Berlatsky discusses one single scene from vol. 5 of Nana at The Hooded Utilitarian. Tucker Stone deals with his Nana and Parasyte jones at comiXology. Matthew Brady reads the October issue of Shojo Beat at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. (Last three links via Journalista.) Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Clear Skies! at Active Anime. Dan Polley reads vol. 2 of I, Otaku at Comics Village.

OT, but important: The LHC was turned on while we were sleeping, and the world didn’t come to an end. Apparently Nostradamus and all those YouTube people were wrong. Mr. MangaBlog is one of the physicists on the CMS collaboration, so we have been enjoying watching LHC become a media phenomenon. If you haven’t seen it yet, the LHC Rap will make you an expert on this topic in short order.

ANN’s unfortunately named women’s roundtable on anime takes on moe this week, and as always, it’s a fascinating and intelligent discussion.

Want to win your very own copy of Tokyo Zombie? Go to Same Hat! Same Hat! and check out their contest!

Reviews: David Welsh reviews vol. 1 of Red Colored Elegy at The Comics Reporter. Cathy takes a look at vol. 7 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, complete with some peeks at the art, at It can’t all be about manga. Lori Henderson reads the August and September issues of Shojo Beat at Manga Xanadu. Charles Tan reviews vol. 1 of Cat-Eyed Boy at Comics Village. Lissa Pattillo looks at the scanlated series Yume Musubi, Koi Musubi at Manga Jouhou and vol. 8 of After School Nightmare at Kuriousity. At ANN, Carl Kimlinger reads vol. 2 of Fairy Tail and Casey Brienza reviews vols. 1-2 of Thunderbolt Boys: Excite and 12 Days. Sakurapassion checks out Two of Hearts at The Yaoi Review. Michelle reviews vol. 9 of Kare Kano at Soliloquy in Blue. New at Manga Life: David Rasmussen on vol. 1 of Vampire Knight, vol. 1 of Seven of Seven, and vol. 1 of the Death Note Collectors Edition, and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlaine on vol. 6 of S.A. and vol. 7 of The Gentlemen’s Alliance +. Julie looks at vol. 23 of Red River at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Emily picks up Kon na Panic at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Ferdinand is not impressed with vol. 1 of Time Stranger Kyoko at Prospero’s Manga. Erica Friedman has some fun with vol. 3 of Magie Paire at Okazu. Jog reviews vol. 1 of Afro Samurai and vol. 1 of Slam Dunk. Katie McNeill reviews Goth at Blogcritics. Reviewer Il Palazzo picks vol. 1 of Vampire Knight as a first shoujo manga (after reading lots of shonen) at Pink Kryptonite. Tiamat’s Disciple checks out Slayers: Medieval Mayhem.