MangaBlog

Nana is back, according to translator Tomo Kimura, who writes in her blog that mangaka Ai Yazawa stated on her mobile site that she is fully recovered from the illness that caused her to take a hiatus from the comic.

At Otaku Champloo, a manga about bacteria makes Khursten reflect on the wide range of material that manga uses.

Reviews: At Manganews, Snow is creeped out a bit by a teen pseudo-incest comedy, vol. 1 of Cherry Juice. Erin F. reviews Spring Fever and I Shall Never Return, two titles from new yaoi publisher Deux, at Manga Recon. Michelle reviews vol. 18 of Bleach at Soliloquy in Blue.

The Tokyopop folks seem to be pretty psyched about Gakuen Alice, which is due out in December. If you go to this page, you can download a widget that will display a page a day between now and December 21 (and conveniently counts down the seconds until the release).

The latest Ninjaconsultant podcast is not to be missed: an interview with Jason Thompson, author (in case you have been living in a cave for the past six months) of Manga: The Complete Guide.

TheoFantastique interviews anime and manga expert Andrea Levi about the werewolf tradition and, actually, lots of other things.

Manga magazines haven’t been doing too well in Japan lately, but the Daily Yomiuri picks up on a couple of new launches. Jump SQ is billed as the replacement for Monthly Shonen Jump, although it is pitched toward an broader audience, both younger readers and those in the 15-25 range. Editor-in-chief Masahiko Ibaraki says, “[To launch the magazine,] we’ve done all things we could do, with any eye toward making the stories [to be carried in the magazine] into anime shows.” Meanwhile, Kerokero A is poised to compete with the popular Corocoro, which carries Pokemon and Doraemon and appeals to the grade-school crowd. Kerokero A EIC Hideaki Kobayashi says, “Unlike Corocoro, our magazine will be characterized by robots or heroic characters. In collaboration with Bandai, we want to develop new [salable] characters like Pokemon.” So it looks like both magazines will be about more than just the manga, which may be what it takes to survive these days.

Roland Kelts writes about old-fogey otaku grumbling that the tourists have ruined the neighborhood—and points out how inevitable that is.

Manga Zombie continues on ComiPress with an article about manga-ka George Akiyama. Also up on ComiPress: Japanese serialization updates, including the end of Penguin Revolution.

At Comic Book Resources, Dave Richards interviews Poison Candy writer David Hine.

How we read: LJ’er Cerusee links to an article about eye movements of comics readers and jumps off into a discussion of manga versus American comics and sundry other topics. It’s a good read, and check out the comments, too.

Both the Central Park Media and the BeBeautiful websites are down at the moment, but Yaoi Suki does a little detective work and finds at least one employee still there.

Samurai basketball—no, samurai wheelchair basketball. Could that work? ANN is reporting that Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inoue has a preview website up for a new project to be announced on November 29, a project that apparently combines elements of his samurai manga Vagabond and his wheelchair basketball manga Real. The site is all in Japanese but you can click around a bit and find video trailers for two of his books, and ANN has direct links to a video of the manga-ka at work. Inoue’s professional site has an English section, but it hasn’t been updated in about a month.

Reviews: At MangaCast, Ed podcasts his thoughts on Walkin’ Butterfly and 10, 20, 30. It must be Dan Polley week at Manga Life, because all the new reviews are by him: vol. 1 of Psycho Busters, vol. 5 of Omukae Desu, vol. 6 of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, vol. 10 of xxxHoLic, vol. 2 of Trigun, and vol. 11 of Nodame Cantabile. Dave Ferraro is seriously unimpressed by Portus at Comics-and-More. Charles Tan reviews vol. 16 of Eyeshield 21 at Bibliophile Stalker. Tiamat’s Disciple posts an overview of Bride of the Water God and a review of vol. 1 of Fruits Basket. In her Comics Unlimited column, Johanna Draper Carlson reviews a quartet of graphic novels, including the Azumanga Daioh omnibus. At Anime on DVD, Sakura Eries reviews vol. 1 of With the Light. Julie reviews vol. 1 of Venus in Love, vol. 3 of Canon, vol. 27 of Boys Over Flowers, and Pet On Duty at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Noted North American Manga Expert Kethylia reviews vol. 1 of Mugen Spiral and vol. 2 of Le Chevalier d’Eon as well as the novel Chain Mail. At Otaku Champloo, Khursten takes a long look at One Piece. Miranda checks out vol. 1 of Gyo at Prospero’s Manga, and co-blogger Billy (Ferdinand) Aguiar reviews vol. 1 of Street Fighter II at CBGXtra. At About Heroes, EvilOmar celebrates Manga Monday with a flurry of reviews. Connie reviews MW, vols. 5, 6, and 7 of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, vol. 2 of Parasyte, vol. 5 of Enchanter, and vol. 8 of Dragon Head at Slightly Biased Manga. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell checks out vol. 3 of My Heavenly Hockey Club, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 7 of ES: Eternal Sabbath, vol. 1 of Vanilla, and vol. 1 of Camera Camera Camera, Davey C. Jones critiques vol. 9 of Genshiken, and Rachel Bentham looks at vol. 7 of Sugar Sugar Rune. Katie McNeill reviews vol. 1 of Suppli and vols. 3 and 4 of The Tarot Cafe at Blogcritics. Mary Lee includes Sonia Leong’s manga adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in A Year of Reading. At The Star of Malaysia, Tokiko Oba reviews Tekkonkinkreet and Pauline Wong looks at vol. 1 of Zombie-Loan. Claire Martin of The Denver Post enjoys With the Light, and sees her disorientation when trying to read it as a reflection of the subject matter. At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle gives her take on vols. 14, 15, 16, and 17 of Bleach. John T reviews Apollo’s Song at Mecha Mecha Media. Jog posts a lengthy essay on Black Jack at The Savage Critics. Hung checks out MW on the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog.

A couple of announcements to start the week: I’m going to NYAF! It sounds like there’s going to be a pretty good manga scene there, and I’m always happy to have an excuse to visit my former hometown. If you’re going and you’d like to meet up, drop me an e-mail at the address on the right.

Also, I will be moderating a panel discussion on manga at MoCCA on Monday, December 3. It’s not up on their calendar yet but should be shortly, so if you’re going to be in or near New York next Monday, drop in and join us. I expect it will be lively.

Same Hat posts a video clip of a BBC interview with horror manga-ka Junji Ito.

UPDATE: OK, I had more in this post but WordPress seems to have gobbled it up. I’m at work but will re-post later.

We’re part of the buy-nothing-on-Black-Friday brigade: I expect to spend today reading manga, babysitting my nieces and nephew, and grazing on the leftovers. Here’s what I could glean from the internets:

It’s Ladies Day at MangaCast, where the girls take over the commentary on this week’s new manga.

It’s time to vote… for the best manga in this year’s Rising Stars of Manga UK and Ireland. View the manga and make your selection for the People’s Choice award.

Deb Aoki of About.com: Manga was one of the lucky folks who saw Takehiko Inoue at Kinokuniya this week, and she has pictures!

Robots Never Sleep is back, after a period of somnolence, with some brief comments on recently acquired Japanese manga.

ANN interviews Slam Dunk creator Takehiko Inoue. Also: Inevitably, an American kid tries the Death Note thing and gets in trouble.

Anime Today interviews the organizers of the New York Anime Festival for their podcast.

German blogger Invaeon has updates on German releases from Carlsen and Tokyopop, plus some new titles due out in the spring. And Deutsche Mangaka has word of a new title by Alexandra Volker.

Also, check out the revamped Papo de Budega, a Brazil-based blog that covers manga and anime and posts in English and Portuguese.

Adults-only note: Simon Jones pulls out the manga from the December Adult Previews.

Reviews: At Anime on DVD, Danielle Van Gorder checks out a new Yen Press offering, vol. 1 of Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, and Matthew Alexander takes a look at vol. 1 of The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori Clan. Over at Manga Life, Lori Henderson reveals the truth about vol. 4 of Grenadier: It’s all about the fan service. Lori also reviews vol. 4 of Kamen Tentai and vol. 13 of Shaman King, and Robert Murray checks out vol. 11 of Black Cat. Nick takes a quick look at vol. 1 of Shugo Chara! and vol. 1 of XS Hybrid at Hobotaku. Greg McElhatton reviews vols. 1 and 2 of MPD-Psycho at Read About Comics. Jordan Marks checks out Worlds End at Yaoi Suki. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 16 of One Piece and vol. 27 of Oh My Goddess. John T looks at vol. 1 of Gyo at Mecha Mecha Media. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of S.A. and vol. 1 of Love Attack, and Miranda takes a look at the omnibus edition of Saihoshi the Guardian. Julie reviews vol. 1 of Star Project Chiro, vol. 26 of Boys Over Flowers, vol. 2 of Chunchu the Genocide Fiend, and vol. 5 of O-Parts Hunter. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 5 of Princess Princess and vol. 4 of Yurara.

One of the things I do in real life is administer our city’s charitable fund for families in need. This has been an unusually busy holiday season for us, and I know we’re not unique. So I’d like to like to ask all of my readers to please make a contribution to a local charity this year. It doesn’t need to be a lot; our emergency fund seldom gets a check for over $50, but the money really adds up, and every penny goes to helping people—there is no overhead. Or pick up some peanut butter, cereal, or soup on sale and donate it to your local food bank. If can’t find anywhere local, send a donation to Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic, which has a food pantry for malnourished children.

And I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

OK, on to the news. In this week’s Publishers Weekly Comics Week, I talk to Tokyopop’s Lillian Diaz-Przybyl about Aqua/Aria, Peace Maker/Peacemaker Kurogane, and Tactics, as well as Tokyopop’s attempt to use the creator as a selling point. And there’s a nine-page preview of Aventura to enjoy, as well as lots of interesting non-manga news.

ComiPress is reporting that four manga made the USA Today best-seller list this week, and as I don’t have time to check for myself, I’ll take their word for it. Vol. 18 of Fruits Basket places highest at number 67, and then there are the mandatory three volumes of Naruto: vol. 24 at number 77, vol. 22 at number 103, and vol. 23 at number 107.

Slam Dunk manga-ka Takehiko Inoue was in New York Monday night at the recently revamped Kinokuniya bookstore, where he talked to the press and painted an awesome-looking mural on the wall. Heidi MacDonald and Christopher Butcher were both there and have reports—and pictures! And John Jakala picks up on the news of a Vagabond omnibus.

John also checks out some photos of a Bleach artbook.

David Welsh devotes this week’s Flipped column to Pumpkin Scissors and Venus in Love.

At MangaCast, Pea continues her essay on manga publishing in Indonesia.

While Amazon’s e-book reader Kindle stole the spotlight in the US this week, over in Hong Kong an outfit called Voice Bank was displaying their manga software for the iPhone and iPod. Also at ANN: Rose of Versailles beauty products and Yakitate!! Japan bread!

Reviews: At Anime on DVD, Greg Hackmann takes an early look at vol. 1 of Hell Girl and the staff pitches in with some Small Bodied Manga Reviews. Michelle checks out vol. 13 of Bleach at Soliloquy in Blue. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie looks at vol. 4 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vol. 1 of Bride of the Water God, Blue Spring, vol. 2 of Le Chevalier d’Eon, vol. 15 of Eyeshield 21, vol. 3 of 3 x 3 Eyes, and My Only King. About Heroes posts a potpourri of brief manga reviews. Dave Ferraro checks out Wild Rock at Comics-and-More.

It’s not just Yen that’s picking up on interesting titles: Viz announced this week that they will be publishing REAL, by Slam Dunk manga-ka Takehiko Inoue. Somehow a shonen manga about wheelchair basketball seems very logical. Details after the jump.

VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES DEBUT OF UNIQUE BASKETBALL DRAMA REAL AT RARE IN-STORE APPEARANCE OF FAMED CREATOR TAKEHIKO INOUE

Best Selling Manga About Wheelchair Basketball To Be Released Domestically In 2008

NEW YORK, NY, November 20, 2007 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, announced the upcoming 2008 release of Takehiko Inoue’s basketball manga comic, REAL, last night at a special in-store event attended by the acclaimed artist/creator to inaugurate the new Kinokuniya Bookstore in Bryant Park, New York City. Inoue is also the creator of the mega-hit masterpieces SLAM DUNK and VAGABOND. Event attendees got a sneak peek at original wall art in the Kinokuniya store illustrated by the artist featuring some of his best-known characters.

The REAL series is scheduled to debut July 2008 and is the third manga series created by Takehiko Inoue set to be released by VIZ Media. The company plans to debut his long-awaited SLAM DUNK basketball series, Rated T for Teens, in September 2008 and VIZ Media will also publish a pair of beautifully illustrated art books; SUMI and WATER.
VIZ Media currently publishes Inoue’s acclaimed samurai series VAGABOND, rated M for Mature.

REAL, Rated T+ for older teens, offers a unique twist on the sports manga genre as it focuses on wheelchair basketball. A motorcycle accident, bone cancer, and a speeding truck crashing into a boy on a stolen bicycle all present tragic, life-changing events that turn the worlds of three young men upside down in Inoue’s gripping series. Three very different personalities have only one thing in common – their passion for basketball.

Also set for release next year are a pair of lavishly illustrated art books that capture the essence of Inoue’s techniques in black and white and color. SUMI will present Inoue’s magnificent pen and brush work in black and white. It will also include a behind-the-scenes look at VAGABOND with rough sketches and photos of Inoue’s studio. WATER will feature Inoue’s masterful work with color and will contain artwork only published within this volume.

“It was a true pleasure to help welcome Takehiko Inoue for this special and rare appearance and also announce the upcoming release of REAL,” says Liza Coppola, Sr. Vice President, Marketing, VIZ Media. “Inoue has reached the pinnacle of commercial and artistic greatness and his name is often mentioned in the same breath as luminaries like Osamu Tezuka. In REAL, Inoue delivers a stunning portrayal of people struggling with serious life issues. These aspects are masterfully depicted with beautifully detailed line art and we look forward to readers cheering for these characters as they battle to overcome physical limitations and find redemption both on and off the basketball court. This isn’t one to miss!”