Tomorrow’s news today!

Posted on June 10, 2007 by Brigid Alverson

Plus some of last week’s. We like variety here at MangaBlog Headquarters!

Nymphet manga-ka Kaworu Watashiya reflects on the cancellation of her book in the U.S. in a blog post translated by Japanator. She attributes the problems to an incestuous situation and a scene of an adult bathing with a child in the second volume, which is not what we heard from Seven Seas. (Via The Beat, where Heidi and her commenters have quite the discussion.)

The Wall Street Journal (still not owned by Rupert Murdoch!) notices the trend of marketing comics to women. And what might have put that into their heads?

Total sales of manga books jumped 22% to 9.5 million units in 2006 from 7.8 million a year earlier, according to Nielsen BookScan, which collects point-of-sale information from 6,500 retail locations across the country, including those operated by Borders Group Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc.

And those “manga books,” as observed earlier in the article, are girl-friendly, with less fightin’ and more lovin’. Then they talk about Minx, with some cover scans, and mention in passing that DC also has a manga line. Marvel, apparently, also has a strategy for attracting girls, but it’s rather oblique:

Instead of starting a separate line dedicated to the demographic, the company has been hiring writers known for their established female following. In format, these comics are more like traditional superhero periodicals, but the company’s strategy also involves repackaging the material in hardcover and graphic novel formats.

In other words, same stories but with girl-friendlier authors. I’m not familiar enough with Marvel to know whether this is an actual strategy or someone in PR straining to be included. At The Beat, Sequential Tart’s Katherine Keller comments:

I’m glad that “the big two” keep hiring writers in an attempt to attract women readers.

So where’s the part about the artists who draw in a style that makes women not want reach for an eyefork? Comics being a visual medium and all.

Oh, yeah, right.

David Welsh has more at Precocious Curmudgeon.

At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie hunts for good manga in the June Previews.

ComiPress has a three part article on online copyright issues that includes an interview with yours truly, as well as David Welsh, Ed Chavez, and other manga bloggers. For once, we all agree: plagiarism is bad, giving credit is good, asking permission and giving credit is even better.

Speaking of Ed Chavez, he has a podcast up about the Tezuka exhibit.

Shaenon Garrity has another Overlooked Manga Festival up, this one celebrating the weirdness of Junko Mizuno.

ANN translates a Japanese blog post claiming that Japanese manga magazines include over 100,000 pages of manga per month.

Erica Friedman is hard at work on vol. 5 of Yuri Monogatari.

Reviews: At the MangaCast, Mangamaniac Julie reviews vol. 2 of Zombie Powder, and Readilbert reviews Kocchimuite Miko and Sabbath Cafe. Anime on DVD’s Connie Zhang checks out vol. 1 of Parasyte. At Manga Life, Michael Aronson reviews vol. 6 of Tezuka’s Buddha and vol. 12 of Death Note, and Dan Polley reads vol. 8 of Young Magician and vol. 2 of Free Collars Kingdom. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 5 of Real/Fake Princess. And at Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand liked vol. 1 of Canon a lot less than I did.

Posted in Mangablog | 5 Comments

MangaBlogCast, a bit late

Posted on June 9, 2007 by Brigid Alverson

Thanks to Ed’s travels, this week’s MangaBlogCast is a bit late, but the news should still feel fresh. We have commentary on Nymphet, ADV Manga, and changes in Viz’s magazine lineup, plus new titles and more! Linkage after the cut.

Nympho-mania

DeAngelis explains why he canceled Nymphet
Dirk Deppey condemns Nymphet (November 2006)
Zac Bertschy’s critique
Christopher MacDonald on the influence of columnists
The pages in question

Changes afoot for Viz magazines

Summary at ANN

ADV Manga: Back from the dead?

ANN interview with John Ledford
Tom Spurgeon’s review of Yotsuba&!
ADV Manga website

New titles watch

Tokyopop to publish Meg Cabot manga
Tokyopop, Kaplan to publish vocabulary guides

Posted in Mangablog | 1 Comment

Review: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Brigid Alverson

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, vols. 1 and 2
Story by Eiji Otsuka
Art by Hosui Yamazaki
Not rated
Dark Horse, $10.95

You can’t beat the concept of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service: An otherwise unemployable group of Buddhist students set up a business to help the dead find eternal peace. There’s the ensemble of talented misfits, the puzzle of how they can get the dead to pay for the service, and the many logistical difficulties involved in transporting decaying corpses back to headquarters and then to their final resting places.

What’s missing from most of these stories is the human element. The task of helping the souls of the dead find peace crops up often in Japanese and world literature, and usually it involves the living as well—offering comfort, completing unfinished tasks, tying up loose ends. Kurosagi shies away from that emotional territory. The departed, even an executed murderer, are sympathetic creatures, and the students themselves are a fine and likeable group, but the people they deal with are just grotesque. It’s hard to say “These stories are unrealistic” when they start with a man who can talk to the dead, but there is an emotional truth to them that vanishes once the friends and relatives come into focus.

The first volume contains four short stories, each well told and neatly resolved but varying in their gross-out factor. The first and the third are simple gore-fests in which dead victims wreak horrific revenge on their tormentors. Fair enough, but that gets old in a hurry. I thought the other two stories were more satisfying. One is about an old woman who sacrifices herself to save her family, and it’s not only poignant but makes a larger point. The other, about an evil actuary, is quite clever and a fun read.

The second volume is a single long story about a mortuary that offers a new service: re-animating the dead so the relatives of their victims can wreak revenge. Yes, it’s grotesque, but it wraps in a good whodunit and some glimpses of human longing.

Yamazaki’s clean-lined style is sterile enough that even the drawings of slashed or decaying corpses didn’t gross me out. What got to me was the leering father leaning over his dead, naked daughter, or the naked woman suspended on a wall in an obvious S&M position. These scenes aren’t gratuitous—they are necessary to the story being told—but that necrophiliac vibe was just a bit too creepy for me. Less would have been more in some of the other sequences; a decaying hand with flies buzzing around it is plenty scary, while a full view of a bloody, animated corpse lurching across the room, guts plopping on the floor, is more cartoony and ultimately less effective.

Despite these flaws, there is a lot to like about Kurosagi. I really enjoyed watching the students try to get to the bottom of each case; the characters are well defined and work nicely together, although the kid with the puppet is a bit much. Yamazaki’s art style is clear and expressive, and Dark Horse does a great job with production: high-quality paper, attractive design, and copious endnotes by editor Carl Gustav Horn. The endnotes are mainly translations of the sound effects (such as yurai, the sound of a body floating in water). Horn also adds cultural and personal notes, which make this section much more entertaining than most endnotes.

Kurosagi is definitely not for younger or more sensitive readers. The corpses are plentiful and right in your face. If you can handle that, though, it’s a worthwhile read, wrapping mystery, horror, and ensemble humor into a very attractive package.

(This review is based on complimentary copies supplied by the publisher.)

Posted in Reviews | 4 Comments

News, reviews, and deep philosophical thoughts

Posted on June 7, 2007 by Brigid Alverson

In the wake of the Nymphet controversy, Seven Seas president has started a blog. The first post talks about why he changed the name from Kodomo no Jikan and why those few pages in volume 3 crossed the line. It’s an interesting read, especially for those who like to see how the sausages are made, and it’s accompanied by an uber-cute 4-koma webcomic.

The first Sweatdrop podcast is up! Dock and Fahed report on the floor from the London Expo, and it’s an interesting look at the British otaku scene. Sonia Leong and Emma Vieceli drop in at the beginning for a chat.

Three manga grace this week’s USA Today Top 150 books list: Vol. 14 of Negima debuts at number 94, vol. 19 of Bleach moves up to number 104, and vol. 14 of Naruto slips to 118.

Following John Jakala’s lead, David Welsh lists some manga he’d like to see in omnibus format; readers add more in the comments section. David also posts his early reactions to MPD: Psycho.

DMP has put up the website for Vampire Hunter D. It starts with one of those pan-and-scan manga trailers the publishers seem to be so fond of these days. Am I the only one that thinks they look cheesy? (Via ANN.)

Over at the Tokyopop blogs, Andre picks up on a Tokyopop announcement from BEA: They will be publishing the Gothic Lolita bible. Um, it’s a fashion book, not some Mitsukazu Mihara version of the Good Book. ChunHyang72 has an unusually long Tokyopop Round-up with a preview of Tokyopop 2.0 (the revamped website), lots of site news, and even a link to a sample of the new Viz title, Honey and Clover. Oh, and this is handy: Tokyopop has grouped all their manga previews on a single page for one-stop shopping. You can actually read quite a bit for free on the site, if you know when to look.

Yaoi Suki has new title announcements and good news for fans of the Shota and Pornish Pixies LJ communties—both have been un-suspended.

Yaoi creator Alex Woolfson takes a hard look at sexism in his own work and the responsibility of creators in general. If that’s too heavy for you, check out some drawings of guys in their underwear!

Manga_Talk LJ community member psychoe posts a link to her (?) thesis “Mutilating the Maidens: Problematizing the Dismemberment of Female Bodies in CLAMP’s Manga X.” It sounds interesting but you have to download it so I haven’t read it yet.

At the Yaoi Press blog, Yamila Abraham says the art books are selling better than anticipated, and several other titles are going into new editions. Also, YP stories will debut on Netcomics on June 15.

Draw a comic, win a comic: At Same Hat! Same Hat!! Ryan and Evan are giving away a vintage Junji Ito comic to the person who draws the best four-panel gag strip.

Tina Anderson reports that A-Kon was a success despite the organizers’ attempts to quell any hint of yaoi or yuri.

If you’re lucky enough to be in or near San Francisco tonight, go see Jason Thompson talk about manga at the Asian Art Museum.

Deutsche Mangaka has news about German manga, including Yonen Buzz and Gothic Sports, both of which are published in the U.S. as well.

Mecha Mecha Media spots two new Pocky flavors for summer.

Reviews: At Manga Life, Michael Aronson reviews vol. 2 of Gyo, which has a cover that makes Heroes for Hire look like Ms. magazine. Robots Never Sleep looks at the untranslated manga Flying Girl, which combines romantic comedy and wacky inventions—a surefire formula for success! On the French blog du9, two of Xavier Guilbert’s manga reviews have been translated for English readers: Itsudemo Yume Wo and Parasyte. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Brave Story and Miranda reviews vol. 1 of Apothecarius Argentum. I’m a bit late with these, but Manga Jouhou has some new reviews up: vol. 1 of After School Nightmare and vol. 1 of Cafe Kichijouji de, by Floating Sakura, and vol. 2 of Strongarm, by Xen. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 5 of Basilisk and The Complete Guide to Manga, while Scott Campbell looks at vol. 1 of Rhysmyth and a Tokyopop novel, vol. 1 of Alex Unlimited: The Vosarak Code. Julie reviews vol. 5 of Tail of the Moon and vol. 4 of Beauty Pop at the Mangamaniaccafe. Carlo Santos has a new Right Turn Only!! column up at ANN, with reviews of vol. 5 of Basilisk, vol. 1 of King of Thorn, and all of Cromartie High School, among others. Anime on DVD also weighs in with Small Bodied Manga Reviews of recent volumes of Crossroad, Hayate the Combat Butler, Tail of the Moon, and more.

Posted in Mangablog | 2 Comments

And now for something completely different…

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Brigid Alverson

Check out my contribution to the I (heart) comics feature at Blog@Newsarama, where I write about something manga-like but not manga: British girls’ comics.

Posted in Mangablog | 5 Comments

Manga news and interviews

Posted on June 6, 2007 by Brigid Alverson

The latest Publisher’s Weekly Comics Week is up, and it’s chock full of manga-rrific goodness. Their BEA coverage starts off with a juicy quote from Kurt Hassler about the rosy future of the manga market and moves on from there. Elsewhere, Kai-Ming Cha interviews Jason DeAngelis about the sudden demise of Nymphet, and I talk to NBM’s Terry Nantier about his newest manhwa, Run, Bong-Gu, Run! The review is of Avril Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes, and the top ten list? Mostly manga.

Meanwhile, Viz has a two-part interview with Viz VP of Sales Gonzalo Ferreyra and Director of Retail Marketing David Rewalt about the coming Naruto invasion.

The Osamu Tezuka show opened in San Francisco last week, and Tezuka stories are popping up all over. The LA Times has a longish background piece this week, and Jeff Yang of SF Gate interviews Fred Schodt about his new book, The Astro Boy Essays.

David Welsh looks over this week’s comics, and not one but two Simon Joneses, with radically different opinions of MPD Psycho, show up in comments.

So it turns out that Otaku Central is actually located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Well, that’s the home of Otaku USA, anyway. The local paper has an informative article on the new magazine, which launched yesterday, including the fact that the initial print run is 100,000 copies and that the editors plan to go from bimonthly to monthly next year.

Attention publishers! John Jakala muses about which series he’d like to see in omnibus editions.

A daughter turns her father on to Naruto in this sweet, comic-geeky essay. Linked by blog@Newsarama, where Wayne Beamer wonders if anyone else has been introduced to a new comic by their kids. That would be me, actually; I started reading manga because my kids were reading it, and my daughter regularly hands me new books to check out. At Sporadic Sequential, Jakala mentions that his daughter, who is only two, was instinctively attracted to Naruto as well.

Mainichi has an update on the cases of three men accused of illegally sharing manga on the internet using the file-sharing software Winny. Two of the men, who both admit to the deed, have been charged with copyright law violation, while the youngest, who is 17, was referred to family court with a recommendation that he be charged as an adult.

Reviews: Connie of Slightly Biased Manga has been busy: Over the past few days she reviewed all of Gals!, plus vol. 13 of Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 3 of Bird Kiss, vol. 19 of GetBackers, vols. 5 and 6 of Pastel, and vol. 6 of Nana. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood takes a look at Jason Thompson’s magnum opus, Manga: The Complete Guide. PopCultureShock’s Katherine Dacey-Tsuei reviews vols. 1-3 of The Times of Botchan. Kethylia is underwhelmed by Ode to Kirihito. Ariadne Roberts reviews vol. 1 of Beyond the Beyond for Anime on DVD.

Posted in Mangablog | 4 Comments