MangaBlog

A site called the Open Critic discovers horror manga-ka Hideshi Hino and goes to town with six reviews of his work, accompanied by a brief essay. There’s an awful lot of attitude on display, but the reviews and links are probably worth a peek for Hino fans.

The first paragraph kind of makes me doubt the whole thing, though:

Manga, as we in the west have come to know it, manifests itself in cute-girl images and effeminate-pretty-boys with big eyes and androgynous bodies. Depth of emotion is removed by a dearth of reality. In creating the singular style, the artists have removed much of what connects a reader or viewer from the characters and, for lack of better word, neuters the text.

Actually, I think most people who read manga do feel connected to the characters. And I thought John Jakala did a pretty good job of disposing of that old big-eyes stereotype. It sounds like someone needs to send these guys a copy of The Push Man.

Here’s some interesting reading to start your day: MangaNews translates an article about 4-koma manga (four-panel gag strips). Floating_Sakura adds some history in the comments section.

Womanly manga for womanly women? Girly manga for girly girls? Hmmm. Dark Horse is branching out into global shoujo with Red String, and Newsarama’s Benjamin Ong Pang Kean interviews creator Gina Biggs about love and comics.

The MangaCast gang—down to Jack and Ed because of Valentine’s Day duties—run through this week’s new manga. Also: PR on vol. 6 of Kamui and the latest volumes of Princess Princess and Enchanter.

Meanwhile, Tokyopop blogger Andre checks out the Diamond Previews and comes up with at least one nugget: Hoshin Engi, from Viz.

If you’re in DC this weekend, check out Kastucon.

Translator Satsuma has more info on the works of the late manga-ka Emiko Sugi, who died on Feb. 10. Manganews links to scanlations of her work.

At Manga Punk, David Doub talks to Camilla D’Errico about her upcoming title, Nightmares & Fairy Tales.

Wendy Pini will be appearing at NYCC as the guest of Go! Comi. David Welsh posts the press release and speculates about what it means.

Got opinions? Anime on DVD is looking for reviewers.

Reviews: At Shuchaku East, Chloe has good things to say about vol. 1 of To Terra. Julie reads vol. 5 of Nana at Mangamaniaccafe. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood has an advance review of vol. 1 of Millennium Snow, the new offering from Ouran Host Club manga-ka Bisco Hatori. She also checks out vol. 1 of Bondz, and colleague Scott Campbell reviews vol. 2 of Satsuma Gishiden. Comicsnob’s Matt Blind reviews vol. 1 of E’S. And Death Note claims another victim: the reviewer at SFist.

The Cybil Awards, the bloggers’ awards for children’s and Young Adult literature, have been announced and … no manga. But it’s hard to argue with the graphic novel choices, Amelia Rules in the 12-and-under category and American Born Chinese for 13 and up.

Oh well, there’s always next year.

(Via Tangognat.)

I’m posting a bit late today. I’d love to say it’s because of the ice storm hitting our area, but that’s actually making me more efficient—didn’t have to get the kids out to school, don’t have to do my volunteer tutoring. Actually, I’m delayed because I was finishing an article, on deadline, about the history of the Fluffernutter sandwich. (Yes, I did just give a talk about that. I’m not a Fluffernutter missionary, just an efficient recycler of research.) If anyone is interested, I’ll post the link when it comes out.

If Valentine’s Day is getting you down, or even if it isn’t and you just need a good laugh, check out the Valentines Day Massacre, a set of short, sweet, webcomics on love and not-love by Rachel Nabors. And then you can read an interview with her at Comic Book Resources.

In addition to their love letter to Del Rey, PWCW has a nice article about Vertical’s release of To Terra that touches on the genre controversy. I liked this quote from Anne Ishii the best, though:

“There’s something immediately touching about it,” she said. “It’s old, but new. It’s space travelers wearing bell-bottoms. It’s incredible that one woman drafted that many spacescapes and travel machines.”

At The Beat, Anne presents Vertical’s NYCC plans in dialogue form.

Comicsnob’s Matt Blind takes a look at manga’s appeal to teenagers: they can identify with the characters. I think he’s right, but that’s only part of the story. This local newspaper piece interviews teachers and kids, who cite the art and the different culture as being big draws. Also: noodles.

ComiPress reports the death of manga-ka Emiko Sugi. At Journalista, Dirk Deppey does some digging and finds more.

At Irresponsible Pictures, Pata checks out a movie and a TV show about the “manga lifestyle.”

Research assistance: At Manga Talk, a scholar doing an art history thesis on CLAMP is looking for info.

Job board: Broccoli is looking for freelance Japanese-to-English translators. And Go! Comi has two positions open, Director of Site Engineering and Director of Manga Licensing.

Reviews: Ed Chavez celebrates Valentine’s Day at the MangaCast with podcast reviews of three sort-of romances: vol. 3 of CMX’s Densha Otoko, vol. 10 of Samurai Executioner, and vol. 2 of Yubisaki Milk Tea. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood has an advance review of a new yaoi title, vol. 1 of Ichigenme… The First Class Is Civil Law and also looks at vol. 22 of Flame of Recca and vol. 18 of Banana Fish—now that’s range!—while Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 12 of Negima. Comics-and-more’s Dave Ferraro awards an A+ to vol 1 of Tapenshu. AoD’s Julie Rosato reviews a new title from 801, vol. 1 of Bondz, and the staff kicks in some Small Bodied Manga Reviews. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 4 of The Law of Ueki. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie is not too crazy about vol. 1 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs. Comicsnob’s Matt Blind reviews vol. 1 of Legend. Prospero’s Manga saves you some time (and possibly money) with series updates of School Rumble and Basilisk.

This week’s MangaBlogCast is up at the MangaCast, bringing you a quick audio summary of all the week’s manga news—or at least the most entertaining bits—with commentary from your host, Jack Tse. Here are the links:

Listmania

PWCW top manga for February
David Welsh adds commentary

ICv2’s top ten manga properties

American Anime Awards manga finalists
Chloe wants her life back
Dirk Deppey shakes his head.

That darn doujinshi!

Doraemon doujinshi story, with links to entire work
More details from Manganews
Commentary from Simon Jones

The mighty Warriors

Tokyopop announces Warriors manga

Yuri, yuri, yuri

Interview with Erica Friedman
Interview with Adam Arnold
History of yuri manga
Categorizing yuri

Vericon venue recognizes manga

Harvard to publish manga book

New titles watch

Gothic Sports, Don’t Say Anymore Darling, Not Enough Time
New titles from Blu
Brave Story

Incoming

Galaxy Angel II previews
World of Disgaea illustration book

Publisher’s Weekly has a nice piece on Del Rey Manga that tracks the company’s growth:

“We were criticized for starting so slowly,” said Del Rey manga director Dallas Middaugh, “but it’s worked well for us. We launched with books by [bestselling Japanese manga collective] CLAMP, so people took us seriously.”

Well, that would do it.

Because of the Internet, American manga fans demand what’s currently popular in Japan and the time between Japanese publication and U.S. licensing is shrinking. Middaugh said the house pays attention to fans, but works closely with Kodansha on titles to consider. He credits [licensing director Mutsumi] Miyazaki, who speaks Japanese and spends time in Japan, for the string of hits. “She’s passionate about manga and knows what will sell or not sell,” he said.

It sounds like direct market sales are becoming more significant for Del Rey, which is interesting, as is the fact that Ballantine is including manga in its book club offerings.

David Welsh goes toward the fluff in his latest Flipped column but stays hard-core at Precocious Curmudgeon, where he reviews vol. 2 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.

At Anime on DVD, Ed Chavez turns in his publisher’s report cards for Dark Horse and Del Rey.

I missed it, but ANN caught it: Vol. 17 of Bleach debuted at number 123 on last week’s USA Today Booklist.

There’s a flurry of activity at MangaCast, with PR and commentary on vol. 2 of E’S, Gravitation EX, Vertical’s spring lineup, and new titles from DramaQueen, as well as some previews and, rounding it out, a podcast on the Japanese manga magazine Comptiq Ace. Something for everyone!

Manga on film: The guys at Same Hat! Same Hat!! are having a good time digging up links about the Drifting Classroom movie, while Jog links to some NSFW snippets of films from Osamu Tezuka’s Mushi Productions.

How many hiatuses has Hunter X Hunter taken? ComiPress has a timeline and analysis.

Kevin Melrose has a new blog, Comics Covered, which will focus on the art and design of comics covers, plus, it seems, some of the insides as well. I’ve been enjoying Kevin’s writings since his Thought Balloons days, so it’s nice to see him in this clean, well-lit space. And he’s already writing about manga.

Also, comics news site ComicMix makes its slightly belated debut. Not a lot of manga content so far, though.

At PopCultureShock, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei offers an otaku’s guide to NYCC. And her alter ego, ChunHyang72, offers her weekly otaku’s guide to Tokyopop.

Job board: Del Rey must be doing well, because they’re looking for an associate publicist to help promote their manga titles. And Viz has an opening for an ad sales/marketing manager. (Via ANN.)

Reviews: At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vols. 7 and 8 of From Eroica With Love. The BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog checks out vol. 3 of Tezuka’s Buddha. Erica Friedman critiques vol. 2 of Steady Beat and is going to add author feedback, once her readers vote on whether they want it with or without spoilers. At Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine has mostly praise for vol. 1 of Mushishi. Julie at Mangamaniaccafe enjoyed vol. 6 of Claymore.