MangaBlog

Here’s the best read of the day: Matt Thorn drops in at Sporadic Sequential to explain what Japanese manga readers “know” without realizing it. John Jakala then elaborates a bit, with examples, and Matt comments on that as well.

Whatever happened to ADV Manga? In this week’s PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha interviews Chris Oarr and learns that the company is scheduling two volumes a month for now, although they may ramp it up to three or four in the future. It’s also pretty clear that anime is driving the bus at ADV, as most of their manga from now on will be associated with their anime.

David Welsh has plenty of choices from this week’s new manga list, and the MangaCast crew discusses their picks as well.

Ed Chavez starts his Big List of new Japanese manga with special lists of boys love and ero titles.

Erin F. reports on Anime Weekend Atlanta at Manga Recon.

Comicsnob analyzes last week’s online sales.

Publisher IDW enters the manga scene with Kazuo Umezu’s Reptilia as its first title.

Nominations are open for the Cybils, the online YA lit awards. (Via Tangognat, who will be judging the graphic novel category again this year.)

Case Closed creator Gosho Aoyama has the ending of his long-running (59 volumes and counting) manga ready to go, but he won’t be pulling it out of the drawer for a while.

If this blogger is typical, marketers may be missing an awfully big boat by not marketing manga by genre.

Canned Dogs has some scans from Akiba Romance, a Japanese manga about fujoshi.

Reviews: At Comics Worth Reading, Rob Vollmar recommends Phoenix Vol. 3: Yamato. Cliched characters don’t keep Nick from enjoying vol. 1 of The Gentleman’s Alliance+ at Hobotaku. At Manga Life, Steven Mortiboy reviews The Clarence Principle and Matthew J. Brady checks out Manga Messiah. Matt has more comments at his own blog. Julie finds vol. 1 of Hikkatsu amusing at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Ferdinand reviews vol. 1 of Venus in Love at Prospero’s Manga, and as Billy Aguiar, he reviews vol. 2 of Star Trek: The Manga for CBG. Kethylia wonders why she’s even reading vol. 3 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~, although she finds it marginally better than vol. 2. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie posts reviews of vol. 7 of Nana, vol. 1 of 3×3 Eyes, and vol. 5 of + Anima.

Does every volume of Naruto contain some sort of mind control software? Readers seem to be undeterred by the accelerated release schedule; not only did the most recent three volumes take the top three spots in the September 23 Bookscan graphic novel chart, but the majority of titles on the chart were from Viz. Of course, one could argue that’s because Viz releases an awful lot of manga, even aside from Naruto, but they do seem to be hitting several sweet spots in the market, with strong shoujo and seinen appeal.

VIZ MEDIA SWEEPS TOP SPOTS ON NIELSEN BOOKSCAN GRAPHIC NOVEL TOP 50 LIST

NARUTO Maintains Strong Lead While A Total Of 33 Of The Top 50 Listings Go To VIZ Media Manga Titles

San Francisco, CA, October 1, 2007 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that NARUTO manga volumes 16, 17 and 18 occupied the first, second and third positions on Nielsen BookScan’s noted Top 50 Graphic Novel list for the week ending September 23, 2007. The trio of latest volumes from the popular ninja action series has remained in the top three spots on the BookScan Graphic Novel list for four consecutive weeks. More than 2.3 million NARUTO manga volumes have been sold domestically since the series launched.

Further expanding the favorable manga sales news for the week of September 23, VIZ Media titles occupied a total of 33 of the Top 50 spots on the Graphic Novel list. Various NARUTO titles, including previous manga editions and a recently released NARUTO ANIME PROFILES: EPISODES 38-80 book, swept 14 of the Top 50 listings. Some other notable VIZ Media placements include BLEACH Vol. 20 (at number 10), DEATH NOTE vol. 1 (at number 11), THE BEST OF POKÉMON ADVENTURES: RED (at number 12), THE GENTLEMEN’S ALLIANCE † Vol. 3 (at number 15) and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Vol. 14 (at number 17).

Nielsen BookScan operates the world’s first continuous retail sales monitoring service for books, with purchase information representing sales through a majority of the major retailers each week. In a typical week, sales of over 300,000 different titles are collected, coded and analyzed, producing complete market information for retailers, publishers and the media.

The impressive sale of so many NARUTO manga volumes helps to validate the continued massive popularity of the series among readers of all ages. Earlier this summer, VIZ Media launched NARUTO NATION, a broad campaign to bring an unprecedented increase in the frequency of publication of the wildly popular NARUTO manga series. In order to catch up to the present Japanese release schedule and to prepare readers for upcoming notable changes in the main character and story arc, VIZ Media will offer three new volumes of NARUTO per month from September through December 2007 – a first for any U.S. manga publisher.

“We are extremely pleased to see so many VIZ Media manga titles sweep the Top 50 Graphic Novel list and we’re especially excited to see 14 separate NARUTO volumes place so well,” states Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President, Sales VIZ Media. “The latest Bookscan list included a variety of VIZ Media shojo, action and kids’ titles aimed at the entire gamut of fans and readers and provides an even greater indication of the strong following that the manga genre, and NARUTO in particular, now enjoys across North America.”

Andrew Farago interviews Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, for The Comics Journal (via Journalista).

At Blog@Newsarama, critics’ critic Chris Mautner calls on bloggers to review something that’s not just hot off the presses. David Welsh likes the idea and offers to host reviews by those without blogs. Nonetheless, he devotes this month’s Flipped column to the first Yen Press offering, With the Light; Raising an Autistic Child.

Are you otaku? Do your shelves overflow with fansubs, figurines, and obscure manga? Put that collection to good use by entering the Seven Seas “Are You an Otaku” contest and win… more stuff to cram on your shelves, including a unique illustration by Jiro Suzuki, creator of I, Otaku: Struggle in Akibahara.

A new site called Manganovel puts manga online and invites readers to translate them, either for free or for a small royalty. ANN and ICv2 have more. (Memo to ICv2: When I read the headline “DC Has New S&M SVP,” sales and marketing is not the first thing that leaps to mind. You might want to watch the acronyms.)

Some of Tezuka’s rough sketches for Black Jack have turned up in Japan.

Otaku scientists develop a memory chip inspired by Detective Conan’s glasses.

At Completely Futile, Adam Stephanides has been critiquing the translation of Fruits Basket, which led to some discussion at the LJ of official Furuba translators Althea and Athena Nibley. If you’re interested, follow the links in Adam’s latest post to read both sides.

Could the technology in Doraemon become reality? Someone in Japan has written a book that says yes, although I’m pretty skeptical, myself. Also, a new serialization of Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga is beginning in Japan.

Manga Recon files a report card, including links to all the reviews and articles of the past two months.

Reviews: At Active Anime, Katie Gallant reviews vol. 4 of Baby and Me, Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 1 of Stand By Youth, Scott Campbell looks at vol. 1 of Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives and vol. 1 of Demon Flowers, and Holly Ellingwood reads vol. 8 of Buso Renkin, vol. 1 of Cherry Juice, vol. 2 of Tactics, vol. 9 of Girls Bravo, and vol. 3 of Vampire Knight. The Manga Junkie reads Honey and Clover (in Japanese). At Manga Life, Michael Aronson reviews vols. 3 and 4 of Adolf and vol. 2 of The Art of Fullmetal Alchemist, while Lori Henderson reviews vol. 1 of Pick of the Litter, Matthew Brady looks at Apollo’s Song, and Penny Kenny checks out vol. 1 of Andromeda’s Song. At the MangaCast, Hahapages reads Naruto: Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood, a novel, and Mangamaniac Julie reviews Lover’s Flat. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, she checks out vol. 1 of Shinshoku Kiss, vol. 8 of Tenshi Ja Nai, vol. 1 of me2, vol. 20 of Boys Over Flowers, and Naruto—Protect the Waterfall Village, another novel. Connie reviews vol. 15 of Fullmetal Alchemist at Slightly Biased Manga. Dan Grendell posts some brief reviews at Comic Pants and EvilOmar has more manga at About Heroes.

Comicsnob posts this week’s manga watch list—and last week’s as well. At the Manga Recon blog, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei looks over this week’s bounty, and the folks at The Otaku post their list as well.

Looking ahead: At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie looks at this month’s Previews.

Xavier Guilbert interviews Junko Mizuno for du9.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez is having some adult fun with side dish podcasts on Comic Beast and Ban ga Ichi, two 18+ Japanese magazines, and a review of The Spirit of Capitalism. And 801 Media is one year old this month!

NPR’s On the Media interviews Japanamerica author Roland Kelts about manga as cultural export; you can listen to the podcast at the link.

John Jakala is doing a week of dream teams. First up: Gon and Devil Dinosaur.

Becky Cloonan posts the cover art for vol. 2 of East Coast Rising.

Viz highlights their horror titles, just in time for Halloween.

Sorry about the internet silence—everything’s fine, I just had two really busy days, most of them spent in my car. So I’m back with a bonus Saturday post.

When Viz announced plans to release three volumes of Naruto a month for the last four months of 2007, a lot of people wondered if that would hurt sales of individual volumes. ICv2 looks at the BookScan numbers for September and concludes that sales are doing just fine:

Though it is difficult to compare sales totals exactly it appears that Volume 18 in the series has sold almost exactly the number of copies that Volume 15 (which was released by itself in July), while Volumes 16 and 17 have sold approximately 84% and 88% of Volume 15‘s total respectively.

Also, vol. 1 is on the Bookscan top ten, suggesting that the push is bringing in new readers. David Welsh helpfully lists the top books in order, something that ICv2 is averse to doing, and notes the appearance of vol. 1 of Death Note, presumably in anticipation of the anime debuting on Adult Swim in October.

In this week’s Overlooked Manga Festival, Shaenon Garrity sings the praises of What’s Michael.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala looks at Paul Pope’s experiences in Japan and wonders if foreign artists have a hard time in the manga industry because the audience is so conservative. Ed Chavez chimes in in comments with another view.

Jakala also asks: Where’s the comics version of MP3s? David Welsh looks at some potential problems, and his commenters chime in with their views.

Japanamerica author Roland Kelts discusses images of powerful women in anime and manga.

Patrick Macias traces Akibahara’s arc from obscure to cool to corporate-dominated tourist destination. There’s more at his blog.

The Mail & Guardian takes a close-up look at a homeless man living in a manga cafe.

Reviews: Kethylia pans vol. 2 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda likes vol. 1 of Nabi, The Prototype, and Ferdinand gives a middling rating to vol. 1 of The Last Uniform. Ferdinand’s alter ego, Billy Aguiar, checks out vol. 1 of Samurai Commando: Mission 1549 at the Comic Buyer’s Guide site. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out vol. 2 of Moon and Sandals, Tekkonkinkreet, and vol. 9 of Sorcerer Hunters. Melanie posts some concise reviews of different titles at About Heroes. At Anime on DVD, Ben Leary checks out vol. 1 of St. Lunatic High School and Ed Chavez looks at the adult title Masquerade.

In this week’s PWCW, I interview Tokyopop editor-in-chief Rob Tokar about the Battle Royale Ultimate Edition.

The MangaCast crew comb through this week’s new manga and list their picks. If this week’s selection doesn’t do it for you, David Welsh has some suggestions.

Borderline Hikkikomori tackles a problem for those of us who read manga but don’t watch anime (or speak Japanese): Commonly mispronounced Japanese terms.

New comic news: You don’t see too many manga released in color pamphlet form these days, so this is really news: C.B. Cebulski, Akihide Yanagi, and Petit Eva artist Ryusuke Hamamoto are creating a new monthly comic, Compass, to be published by Image. You can check out a preview here. I’m curious about this: Will dedicated manga readers, accustomed to getting 200 pages for $10-$12, pay $2.99 for a 32-page comic? Does the color compensate for the extra cost, or is it a distraction? Or will this comic reach a different segment of the market, rather than regular manga readers?

ComiPress notes that Flex Comics is starting a free online manga magazine (in Japanese) targeted at female readers.

In international news, some guy who isn’t uber-otaku Taro Aso was chosen as the prime minister of Japan. Aso has decided to take some time off to “rest,” which is probably code for “catch up on my stack of unread Big Comic Spirits.”

Reviews: If you’re wondering how your favorite series are doing, check out the Small Bodied Manga Reviews at Anime on DVD. Also up at AoD: Danielle Van Gorder checks out Fumi Yoshinaga’s Lovers in the Night. A. E. Sparrow posts a lengthy essay about Tekkonkinkreet at IGN. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell reads vol. 3 of Kamiyadori, Katie Gallant checks out vol. 9 of Ghost Hunt, and Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Invisible Boy. Dave Ferraro looks at vol. 1 of Andromeda Stories, by Keiko Takemiya, at Comics-and-More. At Manga Life, Michael Aronson reviews vols. 7 and 8 of Astro Boy and vol. 4 of Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo. Nick gives a solid A to vol. 1 of East Coast Rising at Hobotaku. Ed Chavez podcasts his thoughts on the 18+ title Juicy Fruits at MangaCast. At the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog, Hung reviews vol. 7 of Nodame Cantabile. Kethylia reviews the short yaoi collection Picnic. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda reviews Baku and Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Rure. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie gets an early look at Dragon Sword and Wind Child. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie finishes out a series with vol. 6 of Can’t Lose You. Ken Haley finds Portus rather mediocre at PopCultureShock. At Mecha Mecha Media, John T looks at two horror manga, vol. 1 of Parasyte and vol. 2 of MPD Psycho.