MangaBlog

Sorry for the internet silence—paying work has kept me kind of busy the last two days. Here’s some of what I missed.

Viz veep Alvin Lu tells all to PWCW in a longish interview that covers a lot of bases. He announced one new title, an addition to the Signature line: Taiyo Matsumoto’s Black and White, which is being retitled Tekkon Concrete. Christopher Butcher explains why this is awesome. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez has still more, along with news of Viz’s newest shoujo title, High School Debut.

Newtype USA will be serializing the latest CLAMP manga, Kobato.

ComiPress has more on the demise of Monthly Shonen Jump; the series Claymore will continue in Weekly Shonen Jump, albeit on a monthly schedule, and a new magazine will replace MSJ towards the end of the year, in which several other series will continue. David Welsh comments that things aren’t as bad as they initially seemed.

David Welsh has some fun with this month’s PWCW bestseller list.

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

Katherine Dacey-Tsuei checks out some previews on the Tokyopop website. And Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle is wondering who reads previews.

Takeshi Miyazawa is mixing ninjas with Nazis, but that’s all he can say. Except that yeah, it is hard drawing right to left.

Simon Jones has some thoughts on licensing and what it means to Japanese manga-ka—and why some of them still do doujinshi. (NSFW)

Has John Jakala figured out what the problem is with Oh! My Goddess? Or… not?

Go!Comi’s artist search continues. Audry is very specific about what she wants but won’t say much beyond that.

Check out horror manga-ka Kazuo Umezu’s wacky sense of humor at Same Hat! Same Hat!!

At Yaoi Press, Yamila has news about their website and upcoming cons, and wonders if it’s OK to publicly out a bad creator.

June Manga has some exciting con news: Satoru Kannagi, creator of Only the Ring Finger Knows, will be coming to Anime Expo, and Challengers manga-ka Hinako Takanaga will be at Yaoi-Con.

At Deutsche Mangaka, Elae has news about some new German titles.

Reviews: At Anime on DVD, Danielle Van Gorder checks out vol. 1 of The Cain Saga and the staff chips in some Small Bodied Manga Reviews. In his latest Right Turn Only!! column, Pata has something to say about the latest volumes of Bleach, Yakitate!! Japan, and more, as well as the worst manga evarrr. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie reviews vol. 3 of Recipe for Gertrude and vol. 5 of VS Versus. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Tactics, vol. 13 of Hunter X Hunter, vol. 19 of Banana Fish, and vol. 2 of Incubus, and Scott Campbell checks out vol. 6 of Claymore. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda doesn’t care for the art in Love Circles and briefly updates vols. 2 and 3 of The Drifting Classroom, while Ferdinand enjoys the cuteness in vol. 1 of Aishiteruze Baby. At Okazu, Erica reviews vol. 3 of Sakura no Kiwa. And Calling Manga Island is back at Comic Book Resources, with reviews of two Densha Otokos and Banya the Explosive Delivery Man. (Via Andre’s blog.)

After the cut: Links to go with this week’s MangaBlogCast, where we dish the latest on Libre, Aurora Press, Go Nagai’s deep thoughts, and more!

Libregate continues
Libre talks to Manganews
Dirk Deppey comments

New publisher watch
MangaCast has the scoop
Aurora’s home page

Brains versus … boobs
Go Nagai interview

An inside look at Japanese publishing
Takeshi Miyazawa talks to a Japanese publisher

New titles watch
New shojo from Dark Horse: Translucent
Yen Press to publish story of family with autistic child
New licenses from Tokyopop
Andre finds new titles

Is “ladies comics” an idea whose time has come? Ed has more info on the new titles from the new publisher, Aurora, which has sparked this latest round of discussion. David Welsh speculates a bit, and the commenters join in. The Engine is abuzz as well. (Via Icarus Comics.)

The latest MangaBlogCast is up; I’ll post links later today. Also at the MangaCast: Jarred has another entry in the Manga Draft, Shin Angyo Onshi.

Interesting interview with Kelly Sue DeConnick on Newsarama, in which she talks about her new project, the process of manga adaptation, her opinions on global manga, and more.

The Japan Times interviews manga-ka Rieko Saibara. (Via Journalista.)

Bad news for Simon Jones and his colleagues, as well as their fans: A printer is refusing to print hard-core manga. (Link is NSFW, of course!)

ChunHyang72 rounds up the latest from Tokyopop.

Johanna Draper Carlson muses on the usefulness of how-to-draw-manga books.

In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh does some comparison shopping for manga. In other shopping news, John Jakala explores his local bookstores.

ComiPress translates part of a Japanese article on prevention of child pornography, the part that deals with manga. The speaker calls for manga to be held to “international standards,” although it’s not clear what that means.

What’s weirder than a Yoshida Sensha gag manga? A parody of a Yoshida Sensha gag manga.

Matt Brady admits that he reads Shojo Beat, and he explains why, with screenshots and reviews of all the manga currently running in the magazine. This is not the Matt Brady from Newsarama, by the way. His blog, Warren Peace Sings the Blues, contains witty commentary on a broad spectrum of comics, including manga, so I have added it to the blogroll.

Otaku News takes a peek at a new art book from Abrams, Hokusai: First Manga Master.

Reviews: Danielle Van Gorder takes a look at vol. 1 of Peppermint for AoD. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna finds that vol. 4 of Yakitate!! Japan springs a few surprises. At Yet Another Comics Blog, Dave Carter reviews Emma, Dr. Slump, and Project X: Cup Noodle. Mangamaniac Julie likes vol. 2 of Recipe for Gertrude better than the first volume. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Shakugan no Shana and Shakugan no Shana the novel, and Christopher Seaman takes a look at the Samurai Champloo Roman Album. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reads vol. 5 of Boy Princess and vol. 4 of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch.

My latest column is up at Comixpedia, and it’s about… Same Hat! Same Hat!! I told you you would be hearing about them soon!

ICv2 has more info on new publisher Aurora, including some new title announcements and price information. Also on the front page: Vertical’s fall lineup.

Manga Recon presents previews of the new Shakespeare manga.

Reviewer Jeff Lester reflects on the addictiveness of manga as he picks up and puts down Sgt. Frog. (Via Sporadic Sequential.)

Newsarama interviews Josh Dysart about his latest manga, April Lavigne’s Make 5 Wishes, and they also talk to Eric Wight about My Dead Girlfriend.

Robots Never Sleep looks at another bizarre title that we will probably never see in English: Heibon Ponch, by George Asakura, the manga-ka behind A Perfect Day for Love Letters.

Always on the prowl for something different, MangaCast has an interesting article on travelogue manga.

ChunHyang72 rounds up the latest manga news in her Manga Minute.

Johanna expresses some doubts about Tezuka’s serious work, such as the soon-to-be-published Apollo’s Song:

I know Tezuka is deservedly well-respected, and I’m disappointed in myself for not appreciating his work more, but I have a really hard time reading a story that features rape and violent death when the characters look like they should be starring in a happy Disney movie for six-year-olds.

I had the same problem with Buddha.

Satsuma of One Potato Two is translating With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child, the new title from Yen Press. Also, she’s celebrating her first blogiversary with a raffle.

Mely enjoys Kaori Yuki’s freetalk so much she pulls out a good bit. It’s certainly less bland than “I’m collecting hand lotions.” Check the comments for some tart remarks about translation and adapatation.

Manganews is rounding up April Fools Day pranks.

There were so many reviews over the past few days that I decided to give them a separate post, for ease of clicking.

Active Anime
Angel Sanctuary, vol. 19
Hana-Kimi, vol. 10
Kamui, vol. 4
La Corda d’Oro, vol. 3
Oh! My Goddess, Second Edition, vol. 4
The Prince of Tennis, vol. 18
Reiko the Zombie Shop, vol. 4

Comics-and-more
Inverloch, vol. 1

MangaManiaccafe
Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 1
Moon Child, vol. 6

Okazu
Maria-Sama ga Miteru, vol. 7

PopCultureShock
Millennium Snow, vol. 1
Mini-reviews of various titles

Slightly Biased Manga
Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 12
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, vol. 2
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, vol. 3
Monster, vol. 3
Monster, vol. 4
One Piece, vol. 12
One Piece, vol. 13
One Thousand and One Nights, vol. 3
Tenjho Tenge, vol. 10
Tenjho Tenge, vol. 11
Tenjho Tenge, vol. 12

Yaoi Suki
Gorgeous Carat

I didn’t get to do any news roundups yesterday as it was an unusually busy day, so that means an extra dose today.

Over at Digital Strips, I take a first look at scanlations for dummies—scanlations that you don’t have to download or learn IRC to read. One of the sites should be well known to MangaBlog readers: Same Hat! Same Hat!! This week, in observance of their second anniversary, Ryan and Evan have posted links to all their scanlations, which makes the reading even easier. Enjoy! (Note: This site leans heavily toward the NSFW.) I’m hoping to do more posts highlighting scanlations that are posted, as opposed to needing to be downloaded, so feel free to send in suggestions if you know of a good site.

MangaCast has the scoop on the newest publisher to enter the manga realm, Aurora Publishing. Their parent company, Ohzora, has a big library of josei manga. Check out the link—it’s in English—for some really different titles. Their first few titles sound like josei, plus a BL title from Yellow manga-ka Makoto Tateno under their yaoi imprint, Deux.

Ed also has the 411 on Broccoli’s upcoming title, Coyote Ragtime Show, and the cover designs from Vertical’s fall titles.

ComiPress translates Part 2 of “Why I Quit as a Manga Editor.”

Is Kodansha going global? They just launched Mandala, an international manga magazine, and the first issue features works by artists from six different countries. The magazine is in Japanese, though. In other comic magazine news, Hobunsha has a new title, Comic Yell, described as “a shoujo comic for boys.”

David Welsh is looking forward to the new edition of Gon.

At Completely Futile, Adam Stephanides supplies his own translation notes for vol. 15 of Fruits Basket.

Shaenon Garrity does another pre-emptive strike in this week’s Overlooked Manga Festival, with a look at the just-released Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms.

The Smithsonian is hosting a seminar on manga and anime, “Manga to Anime: From Astro Boy to Spirited Away,” on April 21. It’s part of their Japan WOW cultural series, which runs through June 9.

Police found stacks of violent manga in the apartment of a man who apparently murdered an English teacher in Japan. Simon Jones is already on this one, with links to several different accounts, not all of which mention the manga, and, in comments, more about the “otaku murderer” Tsutomu Miyazaki, whose otaku-ness was apparently exaggerated by the press.

Job board: Digital Manga is looking for a production associate and a licensing/guest relations assistant. (Via Comics Worth Reading.)

Reviews: At MangaCast, Manga Maniac Julie reviews vol. 2 of Vampire Knight. Anime on DVD’s Danielle Van Gorder reviews Digital’s one-shot, Wagamama Kitchen. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda takes a quick look at vols. 3 and 4 of ES: Eternal Sabbath and Ferdinand finds little to like about vol. 1 of Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories.