MangaBlog

Good news for those who miss the Overlooked Manga Festival: Shaenon Garrity brought it back for the Fourth of July with a look at American presidents in manga—and there are more than you might think. (Yes, that is the manga Bill Clinton on the left, swiped from Shaenon’s post.)

Free advice for publishers: Christopher Butcher posts a two-part essay (part one, part two) on the state of the manga industry. As always, when Chris has something to say, it’s well worth a read. And Katherine Farmar has more dos and don’ts at Purity Brown.

Erica Friedman rounds up the yuri news of the week at Okazu. Her take on the Kodansha move is of interest to all manga readers, as she analyzes the manga market here and in Japan and explains why selling manga here may not be as easy as it looks. Also: Seven Seas, which announced their yuri series with great fanfare, has now put several of those series on hold.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala dusts off his crystal ball and makes some predictions about Kodansha, then outlines their five-point plan for world domination.

At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo winds up her series on manga publishers with a look at DramaQueen, Go! Comi, Kitty Media, Del Rey, and Aurora.

ComiPress translates an article about the Takehiko Inoue exhibit in Japan.

Mark Crilley shatters the stereotypes in this video, in which he draws 100 different sets of manga eyes.

Japan Expo is on in Paris, and the natives are befuddled. Or at least the reporter is.

Reviews: David Welsh enjoys vol. 1 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro at Precocious Curmudgeon. On a completely different note, Greg McElhatton takes a look at vols. 26-27 of Vagabond at Read About Comics. Tangognat checks out two eerily similar Tokyopop series, Love Attack and Short Sunzen. Clive Owen enjoys In Odd We Trust and Faith McAdams mostly enjoys vol. 4 of High School Debut at Animanga Nation. Pauline Wong reviews vol. 1 of B.O.D.Y. for The Star of Malaysia. At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 2 of Nightmare Inspector, vol. 2 of Dark Prince, and vol. 23 of Bleach and guest reviewer Kagami Han’ei reads vol. 4 of Cynical Orange. Tiamat’s Disciple posts “thoughts and impressions” vol. 6 of Angel Diary and vols. 1-8 of DearS. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews two Aurora titles, Love For Dessert and vol. 3 of Flock of Angels at Comics Worth Reading. Chiisuki reads vols. 1 and 2 of Strawberry Panic at eMagi. Erin Jones reviews the Psycho Busters novel and Matthew Alexander makes time for vol. 6 of Junk at Anime on DVD. Nick Smith reviews In Odd We Trust at ICv2. Ferdinand reviews Yonen Buzz: Plastic Chew at Prospero’s Manga.

Lots of folks were at Anime Expo this weekend; we weren’t, but here’s a roundup of the news. If you’re looking for more, ComiPress is keeping a big list of all the Anime Expo posts on the internet, as well as a list of new titles, and Lissa Pattillo lists the new licenses as well at Kuriousity. Gia lists the winners of the SPJA awards; the winners in the Best Manga category were Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle for Action, Negima! for Comedy, and Eureka Seven for Drama. Panel reports from individual publishers after the cut.

ADV: ADV co-founders Jon Ledford and Matt Greenfield acknowledged that the deal with Japanese investor Sojitz has fallen through, but the company has found a new partner. The big but rather vague news is that ADV has a new partner, as the deal with Japanese investor Sojitz has fallen through. More details will be forthcoming at Otakon. While Ledford and Greenfield said they are actively negotiating for new anime licenses, their body language suggested that the manga line is not so robust; the official line is that they would like to finish up their existing licenses but won’t be licensing any new titles in the next 12 months. ANN has video of the panel, which is awesome.

Aurora Publishing: The founding of Aurora, which is the American arm of the Japanese publisher Ohzora, was announced at last year’s Anime Expo, so this is their first birthday. New titles include Red Blinds the Foolish, by est em, creator of Seduce Me After the Show, and Hitohira. (ANN, Deb Aoki, Ed Chavez, Gia, Manga Maniac Cafe)

Broccoli: No new announcements (yet!), just a review of current and upcoming titles. (Anime on DVD, Manga Maniac Cafe)

CMX: The CMX folks mostly talked about previously announced licenses but there was one new title, Ken Saito’s Name of the Flower. Also, they have started a newsletter, CMXtra. (ANN, AoD, Deb Aoki, Gia, Manga Maniac Cafe)

Dark Horse: They had just one new license to announce, Ikari Shinji Raising Project, an Evangelion spinoff. They passed around the Japanese editions of that and Clover, and someone didn’t return the Clover volume. Not cool! The CLAMP Mangettes are due out in summer 2009. And the Kodansha launch will affect Dark Horse, meaning they will lose some titles, but they wouldn’t give details. And there are no new light novels in the works. (ANN, AoD, Deb Aoki, Ed Chavez, Gia,Japanator)

Digital: New titles include UtaHime, Overclock: Once in a Blue Moon, Ghost Hunt Scramble, Tale of a White Knight, 1 Sakura Hill, Lyrical Nanoha Strikers, RH+, Time For Magic, Princess Princess, Happy Boys, by Makoto Tateno, Millenium Prime Minister, by Eiki Eiki, Wolf God, Otodama, a non-BL title by Youka Nitta, and Crimson Cross. (ANN, AoD, Deb Aoki, Gia)

Go! Comi: It’s something old and something new for Go! Comi, which announced new titles by creators of their existing books: Shibariya Komachi, by Mick Takeuchi (Her Majesty’s Dog), and Angel’s Coffin and Crown, by You Higuri (Cantarella). They also announced a BL one-shot, Days of Cool Idols. The something new is their online manga gaming site, o-play. This has been up on their site as a teaser for quite a while now, and Gia has more details as well as a photo. (ANN, AoD, Deb Aoki, Manga Maniac Cafe)

June/801 Media: Cold Sleep has two more volumes to go, but it’s a Biblos title and therefore may be tied up for a while. Lots of new licenses here: Desire – Dangerous Feelings, Moonlit Promises, Double Trouble, Where Has Love Gone, Then Comes Love, Pure Heart, The Way To Heaven, Clan of the Nakagamis 2, Object of my Affections, Love/Knot, Longest Time, Live for Love, Eat or Be Eaten, Spiral of Sand, Honey/Chocolate, Manhattan Love Story, Planet of Earthquake, The Lonely Egoist, Heaven’s Smile, Suggestive Eye, Love Syndrome, Love Potion, Hey Sensei, and Cut. (ANN, Gia)

LuvLuv: This is Aurora Publishing’s josei imprint, which is designed to provide 18+ manga that’s not yaoi or hentai. No yuri, though. New licenses are Pretty Poison, Make Love and Peace, Sounds of Love, and Object of Desire. So far all their titles have been one-shots, but Make Love and Peace is their first multi-volume series. (ANN, Ed Chavez)

Tokyopop: New licenses include two by Natsuki Takaya (Fruits Basket): Phantom Dream and Tsubasa: Those With Wings as well as Peacemaker Kurogane, (formerly released by ADV), Momo Tama, NG Life, Togainu no Chi, Sugaro Chayamachi, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and Nitro + CHIRAL, which is a manga adaptation of a BL game. (See plot summaries at About.com.) The light novel line is still alive, but individual titles are being evaluated; The Twelve Kingdoms is likely to continue, and new prose works include a .hack//G.U. novel and the short story collection Castle of Dreams. Licensed products include a Battlestar Galactica manga, a Ghostbusters manga, and some Disney Channel tie-ins. The Oddball Con Moment goes to the guy who asked Tokyopop to stop publishing BL manga. (ANN, AoD, Gia, nebs66)

Viz: The panelists mentioned Oishinobo, which I believe was announced at NYCC. It’s a cooking manga that is up to vol. 102 in Japan, but Viz will release only selected portions. New titles include Heaven’s Will, Magic Touch (which is about massage), Otomen, Honey Hunt (by the creator of Hot Gimmick,) and Gestalt (by Yun Kouga, creator of Loveless.) Also, watch for a Hot Gimmick omnibus, three volumes in one. (ANN, AoD, Deb Aoki, Gia, Japanator, Manga Maniac Cafe)

NOTE: I had some WordPress issues this morning—it seemed to be randomly scrambling portions of my post—so if you see text that doesn’t make sense or a URL that doesn’t work, please let me know.

Reactions to Kodansha’s move to set up a U.S. subsidiary continue to roll in. David Welsh wins for the day with his concise article summing up the importance of the move and the possible consequences for readers at The Comics Reporter. At his blog, Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas provides us with an English version of the Nikkei article that broke the news that Kodansha, the largest publisher in Japan, is opening a U.S. subsidiary. Simon Jones, always one of the most perceptive observers of the American manga market, takes a look (NSFW) at the reasons for and possible results of Kodansha’s decision, and he provides an interesting capsule survey of the American manga scene at the same time. And he points out what the rest of us tend to forget, that Kodansha has been doing the publishing thing quite well in the U.S. market for quite some time, so maybe, just maybe, they know what they are doing. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson wonders whether this move will cause prices to drop across the board. And here’s an interesting twist: Annalee Newitz of io9 thinks the move means Kodansha will publish non-Japanese manga. (Hat tip: John Thomas.)

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson puts in her two cents on Kodansha and also notes that Tokyopop will be participating in panels and contests at Anime Expo, although they won’t have a booth there.

The MangaCast staff list this week’s new manga and what their picks will be.

The Manga_Talk LJ community is dormant most of the time, but whenever someone posts a question it gets interesting. The most recent one is about rape in shoujo manga, and both the post and the comments are worth a look.

Congratulations to Ryan and Evan of Same Hat! Same Hat!, who just got their advance copies of Tokyo Zombie, which they translated and edited.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley write about “workreation,” which is a good word to describe getting paid to read manga, at Manga Life.

News from Japan: ANN has word of a new manga by Dragonaut—The Resonance artist Satoshi Kinoshita and another Slayers manga.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore reviews two new Del Rey titles at Comics Worth Reading: Haridama: Magic Cram School and vol. 1 of Toto! The Wonderful Adventure. Also found at CWR: Lunch in a Box reviews a super-cute title, The Manga Cookbook. New reviews at Manga Life: Robert Murray on vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire, Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 5 of S.A. and vols. 2-4 of High School Debut, and Park Cooper on vol. 1 of Real. Sakura Eries reviews vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly and Erin Jones checks out vol. 2 of Good Witch of the West at Anime on DVD. Lissa Pattillo reads A Foreign Love Affair at Kuri-ousity. At Okazu, Erica Friedman doesn’t find much to like about Goshujin ni Amai Ringo no Okashi. Sesho gives vol. 2 of 10, 20, and 30 a B+. Chloe Ferguson reads vol. 1 of I-Doll at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 2 of Shinsoku Kiss, vol. 10 of Dragon Head, and vol. 7 of Kikaider Code 02.

There were a few things going on yesterday besides the big news about Kodansha.

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha takes a look at the seinen title Gantz, due out soon from Dark Horse.

David Welsh takes a look at the new manga reaching comics stores today.

Jeff Yang has a thoughtful look at death and manga at the San Francisco Chronicle.

At MangaCast, Jack Tse has an audio tribute to My Heavenly Hockey Club.

The Otaku USA crew have relaunched their website, and the Manga section looks like it has some fascinating content.

Since Tokyopop appears to have dropped the ball on the The Dreaming fanfic contest, Queenie Chan posts the winners and offers to send prizes. She also notes that her new book, In Odd We Trust, has already gone back to print. And if you’re planning on being in Brisbane, Australia, this weekend, you can even meet her at GenCon.

In other Tokyopop news, Leigh Dragoon reports that the manga adaptations of The Faerie Path will be going forward as planned, at least for now.

Manga via Nintendo? Lori Henderson considers the possibilities.

News from Japan: Gia reports that Strawberry 100% Mizuki Kawashita is working on a new manga based on the 1703 play Sonezaki Shinjuu (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki).

Reviews: Add Greg McElhatton to the growing list of folks who were disappointed by Kazuo Koike’s Color of Rage; you can read all about it at Read About Comics. Julie has a mixed reaction to vol. 1 of Ultimate Venus at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Ferdinand finds a harem comedy he doesn’t like, vol. 1 of Guardian Hearts, at Prospero’s Manga. Tangognat finds vol. 1 of Nephilim pretty but incoherent. New reviews up at Manga Village: John Thomas on vol. 2 of Dororo, Lori Henderson on vol. 9 of High School Girls, Sabrina on vol. 2 of B.O.D.Y., and Charles Tan on vol. 12 of Claymore. Julie Rosato looks at the King of Fighters Artbook and Danielle Van Gorder reads vol. 4 of Like a Hurricane at Anime on DVD. Michelle enjoys vol. 2 of Dororo at Soliloquy in Blue. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 2 of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo at Kuriousity. Tiamat’s Disciple reviews vol. 4 of Cynical Orange and vol. 4 of Hissing. Sesho pans In Odd We Trust in his latest podcast. Oyceter is reading more manhua; this time, it’s vols. 1-2 of Xiao Jun—Shadow of Visions.

The big news of the day, in case you spent yesterday in a cave with no internet, is that Kodansha, the biggest publisher in Japan, is setting up a U.S. subsidiary specifically to sell manga. Check out the comments on yesterday’s post for a lively discussion of what this might mean.

For U.S. fans, speculation revolved around the fate of several companies that license Kodansha titles, particularly Del Rey, a fan favorite that has built its reputation with several very popular Kodansha series. Dark Horse also has a number of Kodansha titles.

Del Rey editor Dallas Middaugh quickly hit the blogosphere to let fans know that his company will continue to publish current titles and license new ones, at least for the immediate future.

Gia Manry actually talked to someone at Kodansha, senior foreign rights manager Tomoko Suga, and this is what she got:

Unfortunately she couldn’t give me very many details on the company’s plans in terms of titles, genre, or dates– basically they’ve set up the company name and that’s about it so far. She DID tell me that there are going to be no immediate or direct changes to Kodansha’s deal with Del Rey Manga. This is slightly different from simply saying that Kodansha wasn’t pulling any licenses, as it means that presumably Del Rey Manga will be able to continue to license Kodansha titles (as most people have been speculating).

On the other hand, Gia wonders if Kodansha will hold back on the juicier titles in the more distant future.

As for Dark Horse, Christopher Butcher notes on Comics 212 that they no longer hold the license for Akira. And Tokyopop will no longer be publishing Beck, although a commenter says that may simply be because of poor sales. Chris also has some insight into Del Rey’s fate:

Also, just a quick guess here, but I would find it surprising if Kodansha pulled any licenses back from Del Rey, as they’ll likely be relying on Del Rey parent company Random House for distribution in America (under the auspices of the Kodansha/Random House “deal”), and that would likely sour the working relationship. Which isn’t to say that it won’t happen of course, but is far less likely and has not, to the best of my knowledge, happened yet.

Translator John Thomas speculates a bit at Mecha Mecha Media, and notes that Dark Horse has announced the next volume of Eden, although there’s no news on Blade of the Immortal.

At the Icarus Blog (possibly NSFW), Simon Jones pays homage to Cthulhu, the anonymous commenter who first alerted us all to the possibility of this happening, and scans the Japanese media:

Ahem… the English version of Nikkei apparently requires a subscription that I’m too cheap to fork over, but a quick search on the Japanese website turns up this brief article which mentions the words ”KodanshaUSA,” “New York,” “September,” and “$2,000,000.00 capital“ in the same paragraph. Tremble in fear, mortals!

Tiamat’s Disciple has some thoughts as well. Matt Blind, who doubted the story when Cthulhu initially leaked it, admits that he was wrong.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala just wants to know where to send his wish list. (If you want to make your own suggestions, go here for a look at the possibilities.)

That’s what ICv2 is reporting:

Japan’s highly respected Nikkei financial news service is reporting that Kodansha has set up a U.S. subsidiary “to publish and sell translations of its Japanese manga” in the U.S. starting in September. The reason for the move according to Nikkei, is “to boost its earnings in America, where its income has been limited to royalties received from U.S. firms.

This could obviously be a blow to Del Rey, which gets many if not most of their titles from Kodansha. More on this as it develops.

UPDATE: Heidi points out:

Kodansha setting up shop in the US does not invalidate the news that they are not immediately pulling licenses from US publishers, such as Del Rey, who have an existing relationship with the Japanese publishing giant. Kodansha has a huge number of properties to pick from, so there’s lot of stuff to go round, at least at first.

UPDATE 2: Christopher Butcher has more, but it’s on double secret background. And Gia links to the original article.

LATE UPDATE: At the Del Rey blog, Dallas Middaugh reassures us that Kodansha hasn’t pulled any licenses and it will be business as usual at Del Rey. (Thanks, Doinkies!)