It’s that time of the week again: I write it, Jack reads it, you can listen to it on your iPod or computer. Liner notes after the cut.
Rising Stars of Manga
Changes at RSoM
Rising Stars of Manga page
David Welsh’s thoughts
Beedlejuice: Tokyopop titles picked as best “Amerimanga”
PUFF top ten
PWCW best sellers
Three manga hit Booklist
Heidi: Is Borders carrying less manga?
MangaBlog readers: Not that we’ve noticed
It’s time for one of my favorite features of the internet, the Overlooked Manga Festival! This week Shaenon Garrity jumps on the Fantagraphics bandwagon with a look at their sole non-porn manga title, Anywhere But Here.
Simon Jones comments (NSFW) on the recent news of declining manga sales in Japan, noting that the decline applies to print only; manga is not going away, he concludes, but the delivery method (and possibly the look) may change.
Read Express has an interview with My Dead Girlfriend creator Eric Wight. (Via Manganews.)
Are you running out of things to read? David Welsh has ten series to check out in his latest Flipped column, and he muses on his own recent reading at Precocious Curmudgeon. But is his stack as big as this?
At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala weighs in on cancelled series, manga in bookstores, and David Welsh’s choices.
ChunHyang72 rounds up the latest happenings in TokyopopSpace.
ICv2 has the latest on Tokyopop’s kids’ books.
A new member at Manganews is looking for opinions about the educational value of manga.
Reviews: Pata reviews vol. 1 of Mamotte! Lollipop, a new Del Rey title, at ANN. The Del Rey folks were handing out lollipops like, well, candy at NYCC to promote this one, which looks like a lot of fun. The BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog checks out vol. 1 of VS Versus and vol. 1 of Stray Little Devil. At Anime on DVD, Danielle Van Gorder reviews vol. 1 of Gentleman’s Alliance. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie reads vol. 1 of Cipher. Erica Friedman reviews the 100% yuri manga Shoujo Bigaku at Okazu. Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 7 of Kizuna: Bonds of Love and vol. 2 of My-Hime at Active Anime, while Christopher Seaman reads vol. 7 of Guru Guru Pon-Chan. Yesterday was Manga Monday at Comics-and-More, with reviews of vol. 4 of The Drifting Classroom and vol. 10 of Death Note. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie looks at vols. 6 and 7 of Trigun Maximum.
Tokyopop has posted the winners of the Rising Stars of Manga competition. Congratulations to all who participated!
(First spotted by the sharp-eyed folks at Manganews.)
First up: The Australian has a nice article about Queenie Chan and The Dreaming.
The big story at ComiPress is that manga sales are down 4.2% in Japan, dropping below 500 million yen for the first time in recent memory.
The reasons behind the decline of the manga market could be attributed to the decline in the young adult/teen population Japan, and the movement away from the printed-book culture. Especially with the declining sales of manga magazines, which indicates a change in social trend where the younger generation’s time is occupied by their cell phones.
Kids these days!
Over at the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, Ginger Mayerson interviews Digital Manga CEO Hikaru Sasahara. (Via Journalista.) Also via Journalista: a look at the Japanese cult classic The World Is Mine.
And thanks to Dirk for putting me on to this: an English version of the French comics site du9, which is currently featuring Xavier Guibert’s review of Non Non Ba, the manga that just took the Best Album prize at Angouleme.
At MangaCast, Ed links to previews of Category: Freaks, Times of Botchan, and MAIL. He also has news of new titles from Broccoli, along with an interview with Editor/Producer Dietrich Seto, and the latest new title announcements from DMP.
Reviews: At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna enjoys the “quiet charm” of vol. 2 of Emma. Julie is reading vol. 3 of Chibi Vampire at the Mangamaniaccafe. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie is reading vol. 4 of Loveless, vols. 6 and 7 of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, vols. 1 and 2 of Baoh, and vol. 17 of Bleach. Over at Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews Solfege, vols. 1-4 of Embracing Love, vol. 11 of Shaman King, and vol. 19 of Yu-Gi-Oh Duelist. The Comic Book Bin’s Leroy Douresseaux checks out vol. 1 of Naruto. Jog reads vol. 1 of To Terra.
Tomorrow is the last day to vote for the Rising Stars of Manga People’s Choice Award. Confused by the 24 selections? Manga Jouhou has prepared a handy guide, with quick synopses and opinions. Also: a report on the Otaku Awards.
Thanks to a tip from an alert reader, Ed has the skinny on new titles from Viz at the MangaCast, and he has also posted audio of the NYCC panel with the unfortunate title “Capturing Female Readers.” And don’t miss his essay on titles on hiatus.
Webdoujinshi? CuriousFactory, is offering distribution of non-Japanese works through the web portal DLSite.com. Simon Jones considers the possibilities. (Second link is NSFW.)
ChunHyang brings her usual bounty of links to the latest Manga Minute.
David Welsh takes a field trip to check his preconceptions about manga in bookstores.
One Potato Two asks: Which way does your interrobang go?
Here’s more on the recently announced Yaoi Press titles.
Send in a questionnaire, get an awesome sticker from Broccoli.
An Irish magazine called The Mongrel explains the history of tentacle porn (NSFW, obviously).
At the Star of Malaysia, Tom Baker explores the joys of cosplay in a review of Cosplay: Catgirls and Other Critters, and the staff also post reviews of vol. 1 of Captain Nemo, vol. 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam: Lost War Chronicles, vol. 1 of O-Parts Hunter, and the novel Scrapped Princess. At the Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseaux enjoys Chibi Vampire: The Novel. At the Mangmaniaccafe, Julie reads vol. 1 of Moon Boy and the manga adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Active Anime’s Christopher Seaman adds the police yaoi title Alcohol, Shirt, and Kiss to his rap sheet and goes the alliteration route with reviews of vol. 6 of Guru Guru Pon-Chan and vol. 5 of Sugar Sugar Rune, while Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 11 of Trigun Maximum: Zero Hour. Tangognat reads Vampire Night and Trinity Blood. Tom Mazanec reviews vol. 1 of Buddha for the Calvin College newspaper, starting out with an arresting comparison of manga fans to a neighbor’s Doberman. At Anime on DVD, Danielle Van Gorder checks out the Princess Ai artbook, Princess Ai: Roses and Tattoos. Slightly Biased Manga reviews vol. 3 of Bride of Deimos and vols. 11, 12, and 13 of Detective Conan.
At PopCultureShock, Erin F. has a good writeup of the NYCC panel “Comics Publishing: Review and Outlook 2007.” I just started listening to the podcast from MangaCast, but it’s nice to see it in writing as well.
Stephanie Folse (Telophase to the LJ readers) has a new column up at Tokyopop. This one is a how-to on moving from script to thumbnail.
Vertical is betting big on the Aranzi Aranzo phenomenon, which takes scary-cuteness to the next level by putting it in the hands of the people. Check out their new website to see what I’m talking about.
Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle has exciting news about two of his titles: Kat and Mouse was chosen one of the two best “AmeriManga” of 2006 by Anime Boredom, sharing the honors with another Tokyopop title, Dramacon. And Starz has optioned East Coast Rising for an animated film to be released in theaters. Tim also shares a page from the upcoming vol. 2 of that series.
David Welsh likes the new format of the Rising Stars of Manga competition.
Pata relays a conversation about what the Japanese call manga. Up next: How do you ask for French toast in Paris?
Manga 201: If you’re lucky enough to live anywhere near UC Irvine, they are offering a followup to their initial course on manga and anime. And Dallas Middaugh is a guest speaker. I’d go to that, if it wasn’t on the wrong coast! And continuing this academic theme, Japan’s Academie du Vin will be offering a two-week class on hot topics in the wine world, taught by Kenichi Hori, creator of the manga Sommelier.
ICv2 has DMP/June/801′ s release schedule for the rest of the year.
The Broccoli blog links to some new cover images.
Is Borders slipping on the manga front since Kurt Hassler left? That’s what Heidi is hearing. I haven’t noticed any difference at my local store, but I suppose these things take a while to percolate through. Meanwhile, my Barnes & Noble just enlarged the size of their manga/GN section quite a bit but doesn’t seem to have many more titles than before, just larger quantities of the Tokyopop and Viz stalwarts.
Reviews: At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie has some interesting choices: vol. 1 of the manwha novella collection Lie to Me and Hot Gimmick S, the novel based on the Manga of Deep Feminist Shame, as Mely calls it. Comic Book Bin checks out vol. 5 of Gacha Gacha. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingood reviews vol. 2 of Trinity Blood and vol. 4 of Never Give Up, while Scott Campbell gives his take on vol. 15 of Project Arms—The Fourth Revelation. Anime on DVD’s Julie Rosato enjoys the writing in vol. 1 of Loveholic. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie orders up vol. 2 of Peppermint. Class is in session at Okazu, where Erica Friedman compares and contrasts Fun Home and 12 Days. At Comicsnob, Matt Blind reviews vol. 1 of In the Starlight, a new series from Netcomics.
