MangaBlog

The crack MangaCast team examines this week’s manga offerings and takes their picks. Also, Ed Chavez posts more of his Big List of Japanese releases.

Lori Henderson looks at the many reasons for Tokyopop’s troubles at Manga Village.

At the Del Rey blog, Dallas Middaugh outlines his plans for tonight’s panel at AnimeNEXT, which include a discussion of Del Rey’s global manga plans but no new licenses. This sounds like a good bet for those who are thinking of sending in a submission.

Nicolas Verstappen interviews Vanyda, creator of The Building Opposite, at du9. (Interview is in French.)

Reviews: Ed Sizemore looks at vol. 18 of Negima! at Comics Worth Reading. Danielle Leigh reviews vol. 1 of Kamisama Kazoku, a new title from Go!Comi, at Comics Should Be Good. Part III of the lengthy review of Kara no Kyoukai is up at ComiPress. Greg Hackmann reviews vol. 1 of Flock of Angels, Julie Rosato reads vol. 7 of Kamui, and Matthew Alexander checks out vol. 8 of Kagetora at Anime on DVD. At the MangaCast, Ed Chavez has an audio review of vol. 1 of Honey & Clover and vol. 2 of Gunsmith Cats BURST. Connie reads vol. 10 of Sgt. Frog at Slightly Biased Manga. Oyceter reads the Chinese translation of Kaori Yuki’s Parfum Extrait 0 at Sakura of DOOM. Deb Aoki samples Love for Dessert at About.com. Lissa Pattillo reads vol. 3 of Black God at Kuri-ousity. Julie reviews vol. 1 of Makoto Tateno’s Red Angel at the Manga Maniac Cafe. David Welsh has a few notes about vol. 2 of Sand Chronicles at Precocious Curmudgeon. Ferdinand takes a look at vol. 1 of Gimmick! at Prospero’s Manga. Emily picks up another unlicensed manga, Usotsuki na Gemini, at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Alex Woolfson reviews Constellations In My Palm at Yaoi 911.

I mentioned this in a post the other day, and now here’s the official press release. Remember that Viz is jointly owned by the Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, as well as Shogakukan Productions (ShoPro), which is Shogakukan’s licensing arm. Over in Japan, Shueisha has invested in ShoPro, which is being renamed Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. They seem to be doing this with an eye on foreign operations, and the press release says it will speed up licensing and help them develop properties for foreign markets.

VIZ MEDIA PARENT COMPANY SHUEISHA INVESTS IN JAPANESE PUBLISHER SHOGAKUKAN’S LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING SUBSIDIARY TO FORM NEW PARTNERSHIP –
SHOGAKUKAN-SHUEISHA PRODUCTIONS CO., LTD.

New Entity Will Help Streamline Operations And Increase Flexibility To License Titles For Global Manga And Anime Markets

San Francisco, CA, June 19, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that one of its parent companies, Japanese publisher Shueisha, Inc., has made an investment in Shogakukan Production Company Ltd., the licensing and merchandising subsidiary of Japanese publisher Shogakukan, Inc., another of VIZ Media’s parent companies. ShoPro will be renamed Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.

Representatives from both Shueisha and Shogakukan stated in a recent press conference in Japan that the strategic move was made to give more flexibility in developing titles for the overseas marketplace, including the burgeoning graphic novel/manga market in North America and Europe, and to streamline internal operations. Masao Yagi has been named President of the new Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co., Ltd.

Since it was established in 1967, ShoPro has handled a variety of popular properties related to Shogakukan manga and animated properties, such as POKéMON, DORAEMON, INUYASHA, HAMTARO, DETECTIVE CONAN, and MEGAMAN, as well as other third-party licenses for the Japanese market. As a result of Shueisha’s investment, Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions will now handle properties related to manga from both Shogakukan and Shueisha.

“The formation of Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions by two of our key parent companies will undoubtedly speed the licensing process of future properties for domestic release,” says Hidemi Fukuhara, CEO, VIZ Media. “Our close relationship with both Shueisha and Shogakukan has played a key role in the success of VIZ Media and allows us to continually offer some of the best and most unique manga titles from Japan. We look forward to working with Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions to prepare new properties for release in North America as well as for other emerging markets in Europe and Oceania.”

VIZ Media was established in 1986 with seed money from Shogakukan under the name VIZ Communications. Shueisha became an investor in VIZ in 2002, and was a key collaborator on the development of SHONEN JUMP magazine, which is the leading monthly manga anthology in North America. When VIZ and Shogakukan’s ShoPro Entertainment merged in 2005, the new company was named VIZ Media.

Blu fans take heart: A Tokyopop editor reveals that neither Love Mode nor Gakuen Heaven has been cancelled outright, although solicitations for both were listed as “cancelled” (which may mean postponed) in the July Previews. Vol. 10 of Love Mode is due out in August. “If it sells as well as volume 9 or better, it will be very difficult for us to not do volume 11,” said the Blu editor who goes by the nom de forum Shonen-Ai-Samurai. (Blu Forums are here, but you have to be 18 and register to read them.) I haven’t been to the Blu website for a while, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well constructed it was compared to the main Tokyopop site. I found the book I was looking for right away, and the catalog description linked to the Amazon page in case I might want to, you know, buy it or something.

Lissa Pattillo summarizes and analyzes Tokyopop’s recent moves at ComiPress.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh lists his picks from this week’s new comics.

The 2008 Harvey nominations are up, and the immediate question among manga fans is: “What were they smoking?” For the best American edition of foreign material category, the judges looked over a year that saw the publication of Tekkonkinkreet, Mushishi, Osamu Tezuka’s MW, To Terra, Tokyo Is My Garden, and significant chunks of Emma, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and After School Nightmare, not to mention NBM’s beautiful edition of Run, Bong-gu Run, and opted for the manga version Romeo and Juliet, which is pretty good but not exactly original, and the hideously drawn Witchblade, which is based on an American comic. You get the feeling that the judges felt grudgingly obligated to pick some of that manga stuff so they just threw a dart at a stack of old Previews. David Welsh is aghast at the Witchblade nomination at Precocious Curmudgeon. (Illustration: The anatomically improbable cover of vol. 1 of Witchblade.)

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley discuss the fine points of English adaptations at Manga Life.

JP Meyer links to a download of that manga about the USS Washington, which was produced by the U.S. Navy and originally published in Japanese.

Attention Bizenghast fans: There’s a preview of volume 5 up at MySpace.

News from Japan: Yu Yagami, creator of Hikkatsu!, Dokkoida?!, and Those Who Hunt Elves, is starting a new manga serial, Dageki Joi Saori, about a doctor who wields a mean bat, in Comic Charge magazine.

Reviews: Khursten discusses vols. 1 and 2 of Hoero Pen, the story of a mad mangaka, at the MangaCast. Casey Brienza reviews vol. 1 of Minima! and vol. 1 of Fairy Cube at ANN. The denizens Comics Village have a new set of reviews up: Charles Tan on vol. 8 of Reborn!, Dan Polley on vol. 2 of Yozakura Quartet, Lori Henderson on vol. 6 of Love*Com, John Thomas on vol. 5 of MPD-Psycho, and Sabrina on vol. 1 of Your and My Secret. Scott VonSchilling of Anime Almanac enjoys the light novel Maid Machinegun. Lori Henderson gives five stars to vol. 2 of Pick of the Litter at Manga Xanadu. Tiamat’s Disciple posts thoughts and impressions on vols. 1-3 of Dragon Drive. ComiPress translates part 2 of a Japanese writer’s lengthy critique of Kara no Kyoukai. At Manga Life, Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane reviews vols. 1-3 of A.I. Revolution, James Hanrahan looks at vol. 2 of Yozakura Quartet, and Park Cooper checks out vol. 5 of Puri Puri and vol. 5 of Strawberry 100%. Over at Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 6 of Kitchen Princess and Gentle Cage, Scott Campbell reads vol. 6 of Welcome to the NHK, and Rachel Bentham takes a look at Blue Sky. Julie likes vol. 7 of Chibi Vampire at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Sesho has an audio review up of vol. 1 of Psycho-Busters at Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews. John Jakala has a brief but enthusiastic recommendation of Cat-Eyed Boy at Sporadic Sequential. Dennis O’Neil recommends Barefoot Gen at ComicMix (via Journalista).

Simon Jones compares the July Previews, which lists comics that can be ordered for September, with the order forms sent to retailers and notices a slew of cancelled Tokyopop titles, including vol. 5 of Atelier Marie And Elie Zarlburg Alchemist, Gakuen Heaven Nakajima, vol. 4 of Kat and Mouse, and vol. 4 of Suppli (a MangaBlog favorite). This doesn’t mean these titles are cancelled outright—they may simply be postponed—but it does raise some possibilities. The full list is at the informative but NSFW Icarus blog.

Christopher Butcher notes that Dark Horse has cancelled its planned Akira reprint and wonders if that bolsters the rumor that Kodansha is going to set up shop in the U.S.

At Sleep Is For the Week, Lianne Sentar, a longtime Tokyopop freelancer, puts in a few good words for Stu and his crew.

Ed Chavez has an interview with Japanese literary agent Yukari Shiina at Publishers Weekly Comics Week. Her company, World Manga, is reversing the usual flow of things by bringing global manga creators to Japanese audiences.

And at the MangaCast, Ed has audio of the Broccoli Books panel from Fanime. I always enjoy hearing what the Broccoli folks have to say, so I’m looking forward to putting this on my iPod.

John Jakala relays a plea from Firefighter Daigo of Fire Company M.

Micole includes some opinions on manga in a post of random thoughts.

Reviews: Phil Guie reviews vol. 1 of Aria at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Deb Aoki takes a look at the one-shot Seduce Me After the Show. Lissa Pattillo looks at vol. 17 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles at Kuri-ousity. Micole has a few words about vol. 8 of Saiyuki Reload at coffeeandink. Oyceter writes about the manhua (Chinese comic) Angel Hair. Omari’s Sister has some issues with 100% Perfect Girl, and the Yukan Blog looks at manga to mend a broken heart (both via When Fangirls Attack). Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire at Prospero’s Manga. At Active Anime, Sandra Scholes reviews vol. 1 of The Gothic and Lolita Bible, Margaret Viera checks out vol. 18 of One Piece, Scott Campbell weighs in on vol. 3 of Alive, and Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 4 of Le Chevalier d’Eon. Tiamat’s Disciple posts about vol. 2 of Aria. Julie looks at an offbeat title, vol. 1 of Dance in the Vampire Bund, at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Erica Friedman checks out vol. 1 of Stray Little Devil at Okazu. Emily looks at the untranslated title Lemon Planet at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. At Anime on DVD, Matthew Alexander reviews the adult title vol. 1 of Blue Eyes and Gary Thompson reads vol. 6 of After School Nightmare. Andrew checks out vol. 7 of GTO: The Early Years at andrew reads comics.

At the Iris Print blog, publisher Kellie Lynch has a two–part explanation of what has been going on, starting off by confirming what we all suspected, that Iris Print is shutting down. Tina Anderson is not impressed. Also weighing in on Iris are Kiriko Moth, the cover artist for the never-published BL Twist magazine, and writer RW Day, who has finally been paid (via PayPal). One important note: Contrary to statements made yesterday, Iris Print will not be in the dealers’ room at Yaoi Jamboree. Lynch has no plans to attend but seems to be unsure whether she officially cancelled or not. (Illustration is one of the ill-fated Iris titles, Paintings of You, by Mia Paluzzi and Chris Delk.)

David Welsh has a handy guide to recent events in manga publishing in his latest Flipped column at The Comics Reporter. He has quick, readable, and witty summaries of what happened at Tokyopop, how the rumored Kodansha move could affect Del Rey, and why we should care.

In his Lying in the Gutters column, Rich Johnston has a green light next to this:

TokyoPop, criticised for intangible contracts, and currently undergoing a financial crisis, is going through the process of giving full copyright back to creators wishing to pull their projects, with hardly any fuss. I can’t think of a big company doing this in recent years – especially not so many at once.

I understand that Image Comics has become suddenly favoured with a number of high quality, fully developed OEL content. All their Christmases have come at once.

The Japanese publishers Shueisha and Shogakukan have tightened up their partnership: Shueisha is buying a part share in ShoPro, Shogakukan’s licensing subsidiary. (Viz Media is jointly owned by those three companies). ANN explains, and JCN Network has a few more details:

Shogakukan, which publishes the weekly comic magazine Shonen Sunday, and Shueisha, known for Shonen Jump, also plan to distribute programs online.

Meanwhile, the manga machine keeps chugging along. Japanator lists this week’s new releases, and Kate Dacey rounds up the best of the week in her Weekly Recon at PopCultureShock. David Welsh takes a look at August releases from the June Previews.

And speaking of Yaoi Jamboree, which takes place this weekend, Deb Aoki lists the highlights at About.com.

News from Japan: A Japanese database covering 60 years of manga magazines was launched yesterday. At MangaCast, Ed continues his list of Japanese releases with part 3 of the mid-majors.

Reviews: John Jakala goes all meta on us and reviews the reviews of some of his favorite books at Sporadic Sequential. Alex Woolfson has a thoughtful critique of the lovely Seduce Me After the Show at Yaoi 911. Andrew Wheeler critiques Dean Koontz and Queenie Chan’s In Odd We Trust at ComicMix. Julie reads vol. 8 of Beauty Pop at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 4 of Heavenly Executioner Chiwoo at Kuri-ousity. Dave Ferraro enjoys vols. 1-3 of High School Debut at Comics-and-More, although the story is starting to flag by the end of vol. 3. Greg Hackmann reviews the first Blood+ novel, First Kiss, and Matthew Alexander checks out vol. 4 of My Heavenly Hockey Club at Anime on DVD. Michelle gives thumbs up to vol. 7 of Maison Ikkoku at Soliloquy in Blue. Snow Wildsmith reviews vols. 1-2 of Shinsoku Kiss at Manga Jouhou. Connie picks up vol. 2 of Variante and vol. 4 of Bastard at Slightly Biased Manga. Deb Aoki takes a look at vol. 1 of Gimmick! at About.com. At Active Anime, Sandra Scholes reads vol. 1 of Alice 19th (UK edition), Scott Campbell reads vol. 19 of Project Arms and vol. 4 of Mushishi, and Margaret Viera reviews vol. 13 of Nodame Cantabile.

The Boys Next Door blog reports on trouble in the global BL front. For those who haven’t been following along at home, the small yaoi publisher Iris Print ran into serious financial difficulties earlier this year. For a while now, several creators have been complaining that owner Kellie Lynch was not only not paying them the royalties she owed them, she wasn’t sending them royalty statements or communicating in any way. Eventually she did send creator RW Day a check, which bounced. Now Day and Tina Anderson are calling for a boycott of Iris books. Tina:

So… I’m asking everyone – please do not support Iris Print by purchasing Only Words. Caroline Monaco and I aren’t making any money off this book, nor have we been contacted about the state of the books current sales figures.

And creator CB Potts questions the ethics of Yaoi Jamboree, which lists Iris Print as one of the dealers in the dealers’ room:

Also, WTF, Yaoi Jamboree? What are the con organizers thinking, allowing Kellie Lynch to sell Tina’s books (not to mention RW Day’s works!) as if she was a legitimate, viable publisher? In my opinion, by allowing this to happen, they are complicit in the defrauding of all of Iris’ authors.

Gia has a caveat:

There’s been no word from Lynch yet, and for all I know she could be planning to give all the proceeds from any sales directly to the authors. But if something like that was the case, it sure would be nice of her to, y’know, tell someone about it. Just sayin’.