MangaBlog

The blogs are alive with the news that Japanese Foreign Minister and noted otaku Taro Aso may be next in line for prime minister. Japundit notes that manga, anime, and game stocks are up. The Broccoli blog reports that the Wall Street Journal called up and requested a cover image of Murder Princess. In their article, the WSJ helpfully defines “otaku” as “nerds.” Simon Jones suggests investing in Rozen Maiden dolls. And Giapet isn’t thrilled with Aso’s politics.

Speaking of Broccoli, they have updated their site with previews of E’S and Coyote Ragtime Show.

ICv2 interviews Viz senior vp Liza Coppola about the Naruto blitz, retail shelving, anthologies, the problem of shoujo anime, and more.

Chris Mautner pens a nice overview of Naruto Nation.

And how is Naruto doing? Just fine, thanks. On this week’s USA Today booklist, vol. 18 charts at number 37, vol. 17 at number 65, and vol. 16 at number 74; all three are up from last week’s rankings.

Bookslut interviews The Comics Journal’s Dirk Deppey. (Via ComiPress.)

Jeff Yang reads Tekkonkinkreet while on a Disney cruise and pens a thoughtful column about the contrasts and parallels between the two. (Via Comics 212.)

David Welsh and Ed Chavez discuss Digital’s recent announcement that it would be co-branding with Japanese publishers.

The MangaCast crew check out this week’s new manga.

At Mania.com, columnist Nadia Oxford wonders if manga will go the way of the Hula Hoop.

ComiPress has an interesting exchange between a scanlator and a Viz editor frustrated with the flipping and slow release schedule of Inu Yasha. (ComiPress notes that Viz has not confirmed the response.) Also: Prince of Tennis is coming to an end.

Tiamat’s Disciple has more on the latest scanlation controversy.

The doujinshi artist who was arrested recently for distribution of indecent material has been fined 30,000 yen, which Canned Dogs says is a token amount. Simon Jones agrees (NSFW) it’s probably less than the artist’s printing bill but would like to see him fight it on general principles.

Wish I could be there: Manga maven Fred Schodt will give a talk in San Francisco tonight on the classic Four Immigrants manga.

Reviews: EvilOmar turns in a comprehensive review of vols. 1-5 of Basilisk at About Heroes. The latest volume of Fruits Basket leads off the Small Bodied Manga Reviews at Anime on DVD. Over at Manganews, Serenity reviews the one-shot Spell and Ishaan checks out vol. 1 of Gon. Connie is busy at Slightly Biased Manga, where she gives her take on vol. 5 of Adolf, vol. 2 of Golgo 13, Fake Fur, and vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly. Ed Park reviews Apollo’s Song for the LA Times. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda reviews vol. 1 of June Pride, Takumi-kun Series. Michael Aronson reads vol. 10 of Claymore at Manga Life. Tiamat’s Disciple wrestles with the shrinkwrap to review vol. 1 of Eden: It’s an Endless World.

Digital Manga Publishing will be co-branding some of its books with the imprint of the original Japanese publisher and has also secured the rights to publish some of the stories online. PWCW has more.

David Welsh looks over this week’s releases, and makes his choices, at Precocious Curmudgeon. Matt Blind posts the full manga list at Comicsnob.

Retoucher Susie Lee gives a step-by-step explanation of retouching sound effects. (Via John Jakala, who particularly enjoys the exchanges in comments.)

Everybody’s doing it—publishing anthologies, that is. The newest publisher to jump in is Boombox Media, which is accepting submissions for its first Shockpop World Manga Digest.

Reviews: Matt Brady checks out the October Shojo Beat at Warren Peace Sings the Blues. At Anime on DVD, Greg Hackmann gets an early look at an upcoming Del Rey title, vol. 1 of Psycho Buster. Dan Polley checks out vol. 6 of VS at Manga Life. At Hobotaku, Nick gives an A to vol. 1 of King City. Scott Campbell reviews vol. 17 of Project Arms—The Fourth Revelation: Meltdown at Active Anime. Julie checks out an upcoming title, Portus, at the Manga Maniac Cafe.

Today’s must-read: David Welsh interviews manga omnivore Jason Thompson, whose research for the upcoming book Manga: The Complete Guide required him to read pretty much every manga available in English. Good quote:

When I get the “what manga do you recommend?” question, there’s always the urge to straighten my tie and talk about some “respectable” manga like Osamu Tezuka, or Vagabond, or something. But I don’t want to do disservice to the good manga which are created under formulaic conditions.

A former Viz editor, Thompson is now the manga editor of Otaku USA and creator of the webcomic The Stiff.

There’s a new edition of the manga chat podcast Manga Curry no Maki up at the MangaCast, featuring Jump Squared, manga in the Philippines, and an interview with Tezuka: Marvel of Manga curator Philip Brody.

Tokyopop will be releasing the sequel to Pet Shop of Horrors and a new shonen title, Shin Megami Tensei. ICv2 has the scoop.

Also at ICv2: The Harvey Awards have been announced; the only manga on the list was Abandon the Old in Tokyo, which tied with Moomin for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

Trouble in scanlationland? Tiamat comments on scanlation groups that try to impose rules on readers and aggregators.

ComiPress has an interactive report on Kumoricon. Also: Hobby Japan plans a collection of comics detailing the lives of fujoshi.

The Manila Sunday Times interviews two Filipino artists, Elmer Damaso (Ravenskull) and Jhomar Soriano (Mr. Grieves). Both artists work for Seven Seas.

The Manga Junkie orders some manga from Japan and jumps into a new series with vol. 4 of Hataraki Man.

The upcoming release of Tekkonkinkreet inspires John Jakala to create Team Mammoth Manga.

Becky Cloonan posts some more samples from the upcoming volume of East Coast Rising.

At the Icarus Comics blog (NSFW), Simon Jones muses about an incentive discount that had unexpected results, and the difficulty of getting any information about the retailers that buy his books. The latter post contains an interesting breakdown of where your manga dollars go.

The Canada-Japan Society of British Columbia will host a festival in honor of To Terra… manga-ka Keiko Takemiya, who will be their special guest. (Via ANN.)

Nissan designs a manga-influenced car.

Reviews: At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro dedicates Manga Monday to vol. 1 of MPD Psycho and vol. 2 of To Terra. Holly Ellingwood goes for the yaoi at Active Anime, with reviews of Freefall Romance and vol. 1 of Ordinary Crush. Leah checks out vol. 1 of Hayate the Combat Butler and Nick turns thumbs down on vol. 1 of Shutterbox at Hobotaku. At the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie checks out vol. 2 of Buso Renkin. Erica Friedman reviews vol. 7 of Hayate x Blade at Okazu. Reviewer Serenity checks out Picnic for Manganews. At Anime on DVD, Danielle van Gorder enjoys Paradise on the Hill.

Thinking ahead to Wednesday? TheOtaku and Manga Recon have this week’s new manga lists up, and Manga Recon adds some reviews of recent titles. As a special bonus, blogger Katherine Dacey-Tsuei takes an early look at vol. 1 of Jim Henson’s Legends of the Dark Crystal: The Garthim Wars.

Meanwhile, Comicsnob posts the online sales rankings for this past week.

Same Hat! Same Hat!! hosts another short scanlation, this one of Shintaro Kago’s The Memories of Others.

Shaenon Garrity has an Overlooked Manga Festival Special Event: The top ten lines from Excel Saga.

David Welsh looks at online manga in last week’s Flipped column. (Yes, I’m late noting this, but it’s well worth a look.)

Animetique comments on that WSJ article criticizing Japan for using manga to enhance cultural ties.

Over at Blogcritics, Bill Sherman takes a look at the Naruto Nation blitz.

New titles watch: Yaoi Suki notes a possible new license for Deux, the yaoi imprint of new publisher Aurora. At the MangaCast, Ed has the cover plus another possible title. He also posts covers and info on four possible new titles from Netcomics; the newly announced Dororo, from Vertical; the global title Undertown, from Tokyopop; two new titles from Icarus (NSFW); and the latest volume of Lunar Legend Tsukihime. And he throws in some previews to get your week off to a good start.

Blogger Daelite shares some pages of the classic manga The Tale of Genji.

The museum show Shojo Manga! Girl Power! is coming to British Columbia.

The New York Times pays a visit to the New York outpost of Japanese used-book store chain Book-Off.

Reviews: At Muttblog, Muttpop Bob reviews Lady Snowblood. I somehow missed out on last week’s batch of reviews from The Star of Malaysia, so here they are: vol. 2 of 100% Perfect Girl, vol. 1 of Togari, and vol. 1 of Kon Kon Kokon. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 4 of Adolf. Erica Friedman looks at a yuri manga in Japanese, Kawaii Anata, at Okazu. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand enjoys the art in vol. 1 of Demon Flowers. Julie Rosato checks out the one-shot Spell at Anime on DVD. At Manga Life, Robert Murray reviews vol. 1 of Poison Candy, Dan Polley reviews vol. 14 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and vol. 3 of Kitchen Princess, Steven Mortiboy checks out vol. 1 of Black Metal, and Lori Henderson takes a look at vol. 1 of Samurai Commando: Mission 1549. Mangamaniac Julie reviews vol. 2 of Love Pistols at MangaCast. Back at the Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie checks out vol. 18 of Kare Kano and vol. 1 of The Devil Within. The weekend brings a flurry of activity at Manganews, where Cornerofmadness reviews Othello and vol. 5 of Kurogane, and Anne looks at Let’s Draw Manga: Yaoi.

I’m off to work early today, but I’ll be back later with more news and reviews. In the meantime, here are some highlights:

ICv2 has a three part interview with Tokyopop publisher Mike Kiley in which he talks about the popularity of global manga, Tokyopop’s expansion into digital media, and the predicted effect of Viz’s Naruto binge (“I’m optimistic that it will lead to a rising tide lifts all boats situation”—well, what else is he going to say?)

The Associated Press takes a look at cell phone comics, including Tokyopop manga. (Via ComiPress.)

UK manga publishers warn booksellers that if they’re not shelving a lot of manga, they may be missing out on sales. True, but a tad self-serving.

New blog alert: Comic Gays is a linkblog, a la When Fangirls Attack, but covering strictly GLBT issues in comics, and powered by Dorian Wright of postmodernbarney.com, so you know it’s good.

The Wall Street Journal discovers that girls read comics, leading them to write a weirdly hybrid article about manga and Minx. (Via The Beat, where sarcasm abounds in the comments.)

A manga artist visualizes a protein for the cover of the biology journal Cell.

Reviews: About Heroes lets loose another flurry of short reviews. At PopCultureShock, Erin F. takes a look at two series that may never end, Boys of Summer and Peach Girl: Sae’s Story. Connie reviews Don’t Say Anymore Darling, vol. 4 of Stray Little Devil, and vols. 1 and 2 of Adolf at Slightly Biased Manga. Active Anime’s Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 1 of St. Lunatic High School and vol. 5 of Chibi Vampire. Brian Henson checks out vol. 1 of The Empty Empire at Anime on DVD.

A good week for manga starting with “N”: On the USA Today best-seller list, vol. 18 of Naruto rises from number 116 to 62, vol. 17 goes from 123 to 93, and vol. 16 goes from 131 to 102, while vol. 15 of Negima debuts at number 132.

The MangaCast crew give their picks from this week’s new comics list, and David Welsh talks about his choices as well.

And in case they missed something, ComiPress rounds up all the weekly manga release lists. Also: A new manga festival in Akibahara and an online manga teaching gaming etiquette.

Christopher Butcher is in Japan, and he’s got photos.

Publisher’s Weekly reports that DC is switching its bookstore distribution from Warner/Hachette to Random House.

Reviews: Lori Henderson reviews vol. 1 of La Corda d’Oro for Manga Life. Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 1 of Translucent and Sandra Scholes checks out vol. 2 of Not So Bad at Active Anime. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out vol. 5 of Oh My Goddess. Julie looks at vol. 2 of Canon at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, new guy Ken Haley reviews vols. 1-6 of Golgo 13. Riseabove77 reviews vol. 1 of Peacemaker at Manganews. About Heroes checks out a slew of new titles, and Anime on DVD posts this week’s Small Bodied Manga Reviews.