MangaBlog

Two birthdays are coming up, as a matter of fact: Japanese Shonen Jump is turning 40 and American Shonen Jump, published by Viz, will be five years old in August. Viz is planning all sorts of special events to celebrate—sweepstakes (first prize: a trip to the Jump Festa convention in Japan), a poster, a 300-page special edition of the best of Shonen Jump, and collectors editions of many of the manga series it spawned.

This Viz folks take the opportunity to remind us that SJ is “North America’s most successful comics anthology,” but I think the true genius of the Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat lines is that they replicate the Japanese trick of selling readers the same stories twice. Now they can sell them yet again! Read on for more details, and start saving your pennies.

VIZ MEDIA CELEBRATES TWO HISTORIC
SHONEN JUMP ANNIVERSARIES WITH EXCITING NEW COLLECTOR’S EDITONS

40th Anniversary Of Japan’s Weekly Shonen Jump And
5th Anniversary Of SHONEN JUMP Magazine Commemorated With Special Collector’s Edition Of Top Manga Anthology’s Articles And New Hardcover Presentations Of Several Most-Loved
Manga Series

San Francisco, CA, July 10, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced several exciting new releases to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Weekly Shonen Jump, one of the longest-running and widely read manga (graphic novel) magazines in Japan, and the 5th anniversary of VIZ Media’s domestic counterpart, SHONEN JUMP magazine, which continues to be North America’s most successful comics anthology.

The August issue of SHONEN JUMP magazine will kick off the celebration of these anniversaries by announcing the SHONEN JUMP Experience sweepstakes and offering a limited-edition poster featuring spaces to collect six character sticker designs from NARUTO, BLEACH, SLAM DUNK and DEATH NOTE. These character stickers can be found in select new Shonen Jump manga and DVDs released between August and October 2008. Over one million units of product will contain the stickers, as well as entry forms for the SHONEN JUMP Experience Sweepstakes. The Grand Prize is a six-day trip for two to attend Jump Festa in Japan, one of that country’s largest and most respected animation and comics conventions. For complete sweepstakes rules and information, please visit shonenjump.com/wsj40.

VIZ Media’s SHONEN JUMP imprint will further publish an array of new Collector’s Editions beginning this summer that feature jacketed, hardcover, larger-sized presentations of much-loved manga series such as NARUTO, BLEACH, DEATH NOTE and DRAGONBALL Z as well as a special SHONEN JUMP FIFTH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION that compiles some of the best manga series, articles and interviews from the magazine’s past 5 years.

“These two anniversaries are important benchmarks in the history of manga in both Japan and North America,” says Marc Weidenbaum, Editor-in-Chief, SHONEN JUMP magazine. “Weekly Shonen Jump has played a vital role in Japan’s manga culture for over four decades and gave birth to some of the genre’s most beloved titles. In North America, SHONEN JUMP magazine has played an important role in spreading manga fandom across the country, and it will continue to be a leading vehicle to present new series to the ever-expanding domestic audience. We look forward to fans enjoying the upcoming August issue that celebrates these anniversaries and also exploring the array of new Collector’s Editions that present some of manga’s and SHONEN JUMP magazine’s best work in an exciting new way!”

SHONEN JUMP FIFTH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION • Rated “T” for Teens • MSRP: $24.99 • Available August 5, 2008
SHONEN JUMP America’s most successful comics and celebrates its 5th anniversary with this special edition. Each month, SHONEN JUMP publishes more than 300 pages of the world’s most popular manga—Japanese comics that range from the ninja action of NARUTO to the soul-reaping epic that is BLEACH to the ocean-faring adventures of ONE PIECE. Gathered in this collectible edition is all the manga from the very first issue of SHONEN JUMP, published in December 2002—plus the first chapter of NARUTO, now one of the most successful manga series, which originally appeared in the second issue of the magazine. Also included are feature stories from the first five years of SHONEN JUMP, including Japanese lessons, manga sudoku and rare interviews with great manga creators such as Masashi Kishimoto (NARUTO), Akira Toriyama (DRAGON BALL Z), Tite Kubo (BLEACH) and Eiichiro Oda (ONE PIECE)—over a dozen in all. This hardcover edition also comes with a full-color dust jacket with new cover art, a manga-history timeline, a valuable YU-GI-OH! trading card, and essays by SHONEN JUMP’s American and Japanese editors.

COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS • Rated “T” for Teens • MSRP: $19.99 each
VIZ Media SHONEN JUMP Collector’s Editions celebrate some of manga’s most notable series in gorgeous hardcover with full-color dust jackets, heavier paper stock and larger-sized presentations (5 ¾ x 8 ¼ inches), that include several new color pages not featured in the original volumes. These editions are an attractive way to collect, preserve and display these unique and original titles in a way befitting the serious fan.

SHONEN JUMP COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS INCLUDE:
BLEACH Volume 1, Available: August 5, 2008
NARUTO Volume 1, Available: September 2, 2008
YU-GI-OH! Volume 1, Available September 2, 2008
DEATH NOTE Volume 1, Available: September 2, 2008
DRAGON BALL Volume 1, Available: October 7, 2008
DRAGON BALL Z Volume 1, Available: October 7, 2008

Launched by VIZ Media’s parent company Shueisha, Inc. in 1968, Weekly Shonen Jump is one of the longest running manga magazines in Japan and boasts more than 3 million readers. Many of the most popular and successful manga series such as NARUTO, BLEACH, and YU-GI-OH! premiered in the magazine’s pages and the publication continues to be a leading platform for new artists. Weekly Shonen Jump, in association with Shueisha, is also the sponsor of the prestigious Tezuka Award, named for manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka, and an annual manga competition where work from emerging artists is judged by a panel of top manga creators. Winners often go on to become successful creators whose work is published by the magazine.

At The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon meditates on Kai-Ming Cha’s recent post about the limitations of the manga market. Precocious Curmudgeon’s David Welsh, meanwhile, takes the long view. And Kai-Ming herself follows up with more thoughts on the topic. And John Jakala has some cheery thoughts to get us through the hard times. (Image is of the latest volume of Suppli, one of those “grown-up manga” that more grown-ups need to read.)

Deb Aoki catches the high points of the publishers roundtable at Anime Expo. It’s an interesting glimpse at some unvarnished discussion of sales trends, marketing, and the future of global manga.

CLAMP is drawing a one-shot manga for the Japanese magazine Monthly Kindai Mahjong Original. It’s going to be based on a gambling manga called Washizu ~Enma no Touhai~ and will presumably be about mah jong. Gia has more. (Image from ANN.)

The MangaCast crack team of manga readers lists their picks from this week’s new releases. Also, Ed posts some information on Tokyopop’s newly announced titles, the Japanese manga rankings (from Taiyosha) and, just for fun, some summer manga magazine covers.

Lori Henderson gives her take on this week’s new manga at Manga Village.

Vol. 30 of Naruto makes it to number 45 on the USA Today best-seller list, up from 134 last week, and vol. 20 of Fruits Basket is sitting pretty at number 63.

Newsarama’s Benjamin Ong Pang Kean talks to Chuck Austen about the tortured life and ultimate demise of Boys of Summer. It’s a good cautionary tale for creators and publishers, well worth a read.

Erica Friedman checks in with Seven Seas and verifies that their Strawberry line of yuri manga is still going, despite speculation to the contrary. And vol. 2 of the Strawberry Panic light novel is out. Here’s Erica’s endorsement:

let me warn you in advance that the translation is EXCELLENT. It’s just that the original text is really quite laughably bad. LOL.

(Image is of the first volume, which is beautiful if a bit… well, Erica’s right, but it’s interesting.)

I don’t think I linked to this article on the many manga Bibles, so thanks to Jason Thompson for pointing it out.

Svetlana Chmakova takes a break from penciling Nightschool to draw a bit of FreakAngels fanart.

Reviews: Start off your day with Carlo Santos’ thoughtful take on vol. 2 of Cat-Eyed Boy. I am reading vol. 1 right now, and I agree with some of his criticisms, although I am enjoying it anyway. At Okazu, Erica Friedman was ready to hate Hanayashiki no Junin-tachi but ended up… not hating it; interestingly, it’s drawn by the artists of Blood+. Eric Turner checks out vol. 1 of Vampire Hunter D at Manga Jouhou. Danielle Van Gorder gives her take on vol. 1 of Steal Moon, vol. 5 of Black Sun, Silver Moon, vol. 1 of Fairy Cube, and vol. 23 of Bleach at Anime on DVD. New reviews are up at Manga Village: Sabrina on COWA!, Dan Polley on vol. 4 of Mushishi, Charles Tan on vol. 4 of Eyeshield 21, John Thomas on vol. 1 of GANTZ, and Lori Henderson on vol. 9 of Kaze Hikaru. Julie reads vol. 1 of Chibi-Vampire, the novel, at Manga Maniac Cafe.

My friend Dee Dupuy is an artist of many talents. In addition to her own comics, she did the toning for Svetlana Chmakova’s Dramacon and is currently toning Svet’s new book, Nightschool, which will debut in Yen Press’s Yen Plus magazine at the end of the month.

Dee talks a lot about toning, but never having done it myself, I was pretty fuzzy as to what it actually involved. So as part of my ongoing education, I asked her to write an intro to toning for manga readers. As a special bonus, Svet is letting us post some pages from Nightschool here for the first time. Enjoy!

And be sure to check out Dee’s site to see more of her comics work!

Kai-Ming Cha, my editor at PWCW and someone who knows a lot about manga, says the kids are reading manga as a genre, not a medium. In other words, it’s all about the shonen and the shoujo.

The audience now likes a certain story and a certain art styel. Thye’re not interested in reading outside of that. When Viz was showing their Inoue stuff, there wasn’t a peep in the audience. Sumi and Water, his art books, are coming out in Sept. as are a few other manga, including REAL and SD, but no cheers or murmurs of excitement- or even of recognition.
The Arina Tanemura and Dragon Ball art books, however, were met with a wave of “ooohhh”

A special edition of Shonen Jump was met with cheers.

What about seinen and josei? She sees those genres as appealing to people who like comics in general, not those who define themselves as manga readers. It’s an interesting point, and I think the Dark Horse folks know it pretty well; it does suggest what direction the marketing should go in. And my own experience bears that out: My two daughters, who were passionate readers of shoujo and shonen manga just a few years ago, have largely outgrown it. My younger daughter, who will be 14 this month, only reads Yotsuba&! and Yakitate!! Japan, while my older one, at 15, reads mostly prose novels. Neither has any interest in Suppli. (Via The Beat, where the comments on this post are worth checking out.)

Japanator wins the race to post this week’s new releases.

The Anime Expo followups are rolling in. ICv2 takes a look at the four new titles from Viz. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez follows up on CMX, Bandai, and Go! Comi. Gia posts an index to her AX reportage.

John Jakala and Simon Jones came up with an interesting idea for marketing sports manga: Sell it at the events. Check out the comments at the Icarus blog (NSFW) to see the great minds at work.

At Comics 212, Christopher Butcher digs up and edits a vintage interview with manga-ka Taiyo Matsumoto, creator of Tekkonkinkreet. He throws in a bibliography and a gallery of cover images as well. Also, he spots an entry in Time Magazine’s “Famous Authors’ Guilty Pleasures” series in which Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz confesses to his love of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster. So maybe all is not lost!

These are tough times for ADV Manga, but the fact is that readers wouldn’t beat up on them so much if they didn’t put out such good books. In his latest Flipped column, David Welsh looks at some of their standout titles.

Dark Horse has redesigned their website. The old one was actually pretty easy to use, but I generally ignored everything but the drop-down menus anyway. This one is nicely organized and puts comics front and center, including a link to their webcomics on the home page. (Hat tip: John Thomas.)

Manly Manga and More has the July releases for Germany.

Reviews: Carlo Santos comes back from Anime Expo with a stack of manga and a heap of opinions, all distilled into his Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Also at ANN, Theron Martin reviews vol. 12 of Claymore and Casey Brienza reads vols. 1 and 2 of Fall In Love Like a Comic. Erica Friedman reads the yuri light novel Vanilla at Okazu. Salimbol posts an ambitious review of vols. 16-25 of Basara at The Chocolate Mud Wyvern Presents. Connie checks out vol. 1 of Suihelibe and vol. 2 of Fairy Tail at Slightly Biased Manga. Oyceter reads three Kaori Yuki titles, Blood Hound, Boys Next Door, and Kaine. Sesho reviews vol. 4 of Gunslinger Girl and vol. 5 of Sorcerer Hunters. Clive Owen takes a look at vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire at Animanga Nation. Lissa Pattillo reveiws vol. 2 of Mail at Kuriousity. Michelle enjoys vol. 20 of Fruits Basket and vol. 13 of Skip Beat! at Soliloquy in Blue. Dave Ferraro devotes Manga Monday to vols. 1 and 2 of Cat-Eyed Boy at Comics-and-More.

Vertical has posted a sample chapter of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack on their site. You may remember that Viz published two volumes of stories back in the day; Vertical is doing it the Vertical way, which means hefty, 300-page volumes, high production standards, and the stories arranged in the order Tezuka specified for the Japanese deluxe edition. So check out the sneak peek and see if it’s just what the doctor ordered.

ICv2 posts the BookScan top 20 graphic novels, and it appears that news of the manga bubble bursting may be somewhat premature.

1. Naruto, vol. 29
2. Naruto, vol. 30
3. Bleach, vol. 23
4. Negima!, vol. 18
5. In Odd We Trust
6. Kingdom Hearts II, vol. 2
7. Naruto, vol. 28
8. Rosario+Vampire, vol. 1
9. The Gentlemen’s Alliance+, vol. 6
10. Watchmen
11. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
12. Death Note, vol. 1
13. Wanted
14. One Piece, vol. 18
15. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vol. 2
16. Batman: The Killing Joke
17. Vampire Knight, vol. 4
18. Death Note, vol. 2
19. Wild Ones, vol. 3
20. Naruto, vol. 1

Remember, Bookscan tracks sales in bookstores, mostly chains. As always, it’s a very Naruto world, and I actually think this list is evidence that Viz’s magazines are working for them, as a number of these titles are featured in Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat. Also, we see the evergreen nature of manga with volume 1’s of two mature series, Death Note and Naruto, making the cut. The fact that manga dominate isn’t suprising, given that this list is drawn from bookstores; have you ever seen Marvel and DC trades in a bookstore? If you can find them at all, they look terrible when they are shelved spine-out, because the spines are mostly black and all look alike. Very unattractive. Barnes & Noble has started a DC section where the trades face out, and that’s much better. That may explain why the Batman title made the list, but that’s really just a guess. Feel free to add your own opinions in comments.