MangaBlog

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha puts the CMX series Emma into context, talking about the background of the book and the influence it has had on the Japanese. Also at PWCW, the March best sellers list, which includes a few non-manga titles in the top ten.

What are the most popular manga in Japan? Readers of PUFF magazine voted for their favorites, and Fruits Basket topped the list, with other favorites like Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist making the cut as well.

Ed Chavez continues his publisher report cards at AoD with critiques of Go!Comi and Icarus Publishing.

Pata gives the Right Turn Only!! treatment to Negima, Wild Adapter, Suzuka, and To Terra, but saves most of his love for the classic Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga.

At Newsarama, Matt Brady begins a multipart examination of why Naruto rocks so hard. (Executive summary: Univeral themes of adolescence and maturation, plus awesome battle scenes.) Be sure to check out the comments thread, which is refreshingly free of haterz; those who dis Naruto do so because Death Note and Blame are better, not because it’s manga. Also, they post lots of clips of battle scenes, if you like that sort of thing.

The latest publisher to enter the yuri realm is Infinity Studios, which has just announced that it has licensed Iono-Sama Fanatics, by Miyabi Fujieda, from Mediaworks. It sounds deluxe, with color pages, dust jacket, and 4-koma extras. At Okazu, Erica is enthusiastic.

The students of Walt Whitman High School go to Katsucon. This is a charming little article, and I’m impressed that the high school offers Japanese, and that the students came to manga because of their Japanese class, rather than the other way around.

Kitty Sensei at The Star of Malaysia decides Newtype USA is good value for the money, which is saying a lot.

Elae links to some previews at Deutsche Mangaka.

Mely is not impressed by vol. 1 of Backstage Prince. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out two Harlequin manga, vol. 7, Misunderstood, and vol. 8, Heart on Fire. Anime on DVD’s Jarred Pine gives mediocre grades to vol. 1 of Phantom. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 7 of Girls Bravo and vol. 1 of Gravitation EX.

Dead titles watch: Frank Pannone, managing editor of Media Blasters/Kitty Media, reveals that a number of titles are being dropped. More discussion on the full thread.

In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh discusses Mushishi and Apothecarius Argentum.

Clamp or CLAMP? Ed gives his take on the latest Wikipedia controversy.

Manga Monday is Blue Monday at Comics-and-more, where Dave is disappointed by Until the Full Moon. Fortunately he has Hikaru No Go and Naoki Urasawa’s Monster to cheer him up!

Feb. 21 must have been a slow day at Asahi Shimbun because they devoted an entire article to a guy who likes Saint Seiya. And here’s an article about homeless people living in manga cafes.

Reviews: AoD’s Matthew Alexander reviews vol. 1 of Let’s Be Perverts. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie reads vol. 6 of Kekkaishi. Slightly Biased Connie reads vol. 1 of Flower of Life. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 5 of Love Roma and vol. 13 of Negima.

The newest MangaBlogCast is up at the MangaCast. This week Jack and I cover the news out of NYCC but also some stories that broke outside the Javits Center. Links after the cut.

NYCC news

ICv2: Graphic novels outsell periodicals
New titles from Del Rey
Go!Comi new series
Vertical panel writeup
Ishii on the “herpes of the internet”
CPM series back on track

Outside the con

Yen Press to publish Square Enix and Svetlana Chmakova titles
Yen to publish manga anthology
PWCW on Yen plans

Yen parent buys PIKA
MangaCast comments on the significance of this

Monthly Shonen Jump to stop publishing
More from Manganews

After the cut: MangaBlog reader Ceena e-mailed me from Japan with this info about Kodansha’s international manga competition. So sharpen up your pencils/steel nibs/styluses and get to work! I have added Ceena’s e-mail at the end of the press release and she says anyone with questions can e-mail her directly.

ABOVE US ONLY SKY
There are no boundaries. There is one sky.

The first full-scale international competition for Manga worldwide.
INTERNATIONAL MANGA COMPETITION presented by the manga magazine “Weekly Morning,” Kodansha, Japan.
Submissions are now being accepted in ten languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Thai, Italian, and Swedish.
The deadline: May 31 2007.
For more information at www.e-morning.jp/imc/.

**********************

E-mail Ceena directly at animecomics4u@ybb.ne.jp.

Self-promotion first: My latest web manga column, “Small Packages,” is up at Comixpedia.

Super-librarian Robin Brenner files two reports from NYCC, one professional, the other personal.

Via Deutsche Mangaka, the artists for round two of Carlsen Chibi have been announced.

I came down with the traditional post-NYCC cold last week, so I took it easy and therefore missed the Cool Japan 2007 event down the road at MIT. Comicsnob’s Bob Holt did make it and files a detailed report (part 1, part 2).

This month’s issue of Owl, a Canadian children’s magazine, features a cover and manga lesson by Dramacon’s Svetlana Chmakova. (Via Andre’s blog.)

British artist Siku, whose credentials include 2000AD and Judge Dredd, has completed the first part of The Manga Bible. This could be a really dopey project, but Siku seems to really be into telling a good story with sequential art, rather than preaching, and I liked the look of the sample pages. It’s also highly compressed—the entire Passion story takes up just a two-page spread—which should make for an easier read.

ComiPress reports that part 2 of Negima will debut in March and links to this article about Japanese diplomats in Iraq leveraging the popularity of Captain Tsubasa to increase goodwill. Here’s my favorite part: “The Iraqi people didn’t know he was Japanese—they thought Tsubasa was Saudi Arabian,” the diplomat said. Matt Thorn, call your office!

Reviews: At Active Anime, the indefatigable Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 4 of Basilisk, vol. 1 of Mamotte! Lollipop, vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess, and vol. 11 of Fullmetal Alchemist, and Scott Campbell checks out vol. 1 of Mushishi. Comicsnob Matt Blind calculates that vol. 1 of InuBaka: Crazy for Dogs averages 5.8 cute puppies per page, if you like that sort of thing. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie enjoys vol. 3 of VS. Versus. One of the Jones Boys is lost in the hall of mirrors that is vol. 10 of Death Note. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie continues her run through W Juliet with reviews of vols. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, then wraps it up with a look at vol. 5 of Sugar Sugar Rune.

Chris Mautner has already made the Newsarama Blog much more interesting to us non-Marvel-and-DC types. Now he redeems the newspaper manga-101 genre as well with a well researched and well written primer on yaoi.

If that whetted your appetite, registration for Yaoicon is now open. (Via Yaoi Suki.)

Manganews translates an interview with pseudonymous manga-ka 07th Expansion.

It’s time to vote in the latest Rising Stars of Manga contest. Check out all the entries, then select your favorite by March 12. If you’re not sure who to vote for, Tina Anderson has a suggestion. And if you can’t get enough Tokyopop, Ed has audio of their NYCC panel up at the MangaCast.

Same Hat! has a great NYCC post that includes news, views and pictures (even one of yours truly). They also bring the sad tidings that Dark Horse is discontinuing Museum of Terror after vol. 3. One of the Jones Boys blames it on Joe Quesada.

Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle shares his memories of NYCC.

At Icarus Comics (NSFW!), Simon Jones has some thoughts on Yen’s recent moves.

The Manga Junkie checks out vol. 25 of Sanimuni Go.

Reviews: At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie continues her trip through W Juliet, with reviews of volumes 5, 6, and 7. She also checks out vol. 5 of Dragon Head and gets frustrated with vol. 5 of Reiko the Zombie Shop. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 3 of Suzuka, vol. 3 of Beauty Pop, and vol. 5 of Skip Beat, while Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 18 of Firefighter Daigo of Company M. Manga Punk reads vol. 2 of Juvenile Orion.