MangaBlog

David Welsh brings good tidings: The 2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list has been released! The list was compiled by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. So, what manga made the list? A pretty good selection, as it turns out:

Dramacon, by Svetlana Chmakova
Inverloch, vol. 1, by Sarah Ellerton
Sorcerers and Secretaries, vol. 1, by Amy Kim Ganter
Psy-Comm, vol. 1, by Jason Henderson and Tony Salvaggio
Death Note, vols. 1-3, by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Off*Beat, vol. 1, by Jen Lee Quick
Chocolat, vols. 1-3, by Ji-Sang Shin and Geo
Monster, vol. 1, by Naoki Urasawa
Nana, vols. 1-2, by Ai Yazawa
Antique Bakery, vols. 2-4, by Fumi Yoshinaga
Cantarella, vol. 1, by You Higuri

David breaks it out by publisher and adds some commentary of his own.

Tokyopop is celebrating the new year with lots of Princess Ai-ness, from novels to tattoos. Full scoop after the cut. (Warning: Contains excessive punnage and a reference to “poetry by D.J. Milky.”)

TOKYOPOP LOOKS Ai-HEAD AT 2007

Princess Ai & Ai-Land

Year Sees Company’s Top Manga Franchise Expand to Novels, Art & Poetry Books, Daily Newspaper Comic Strips, Music and Film

Los Angeles, CA (January 25, 2007)-The “Year of the Boar” will be anything but a “bore” for TOKYOPOP’s top manga franchise property, Princess Ai and the world of Ai-Land, the chart-topping melange of music, fantasy and Gothic fashion created by D.J. Milky and Courtney Love. This year, the company plans to launch an exciting slate of new Ai-Land related properties across multiple entertainment platforms including art and poetry books, novels, newspaper comic strips, music and film. Read on for more details!

The Daily Newspaper Comic Strip: Princess Ai of Ai-Land: In a landmark move a year ago, TOKYOPOP became the first company to publish manga in Sunday newspapers across North America. The launch was so successful that Princess Ai of Ai-Land, the all-new East meets West co-production written by D.J. Milky and illustrated by Pauro Izaki, will be the first manga ever to appear in American newspapers seven days a week. Based on the bestselling manga series created by D.J. Milky and Courtney Love, currently published in 18 countries and 17 languages, Princess Ai of Ai-Land captures the early teen years of the lovely Ai and her comedic struggle to cope with the doubled pressure of being a teenager and a royal princess. Fifty U.S. and international newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, as well as papers in Australia and China, have acquired the series beginning July 9, 2007

The Novels: The Ai-Land Chronicles: Book of the Second Revolution: This five-book novel series releasing under TOKYOPOP’s young adult publishing banner Pop Fiction expands upon the rich fantasy world of the Ai-Land universe as it examines the history of Ai’s homeland and her adventures with Nora, her half-brother. A collection of writings by renowned reclusive scholar and religious cult figurehead Sir Edwin See, along with his scribe Brian James, The Ai-Land Chronicles: Book of the Second Revolution will be available in bookstores everywhere in August 2007.

The Art and Poetry Book: Princess Ai: Roses & Tattoos: TOKYOPOP invites fans to beautify their surroundings with gorgeous art and poetry from Princess Ai: Roses & Tattoos. This limited edition collectible book, in stores now, presents never-before-seen illustrations by Misaho Kujiradou, along with poetry by D.J. Milky, and includes stickers and mini-posters for d’Ai-hard diva fans!

The Music: The Princess Ai Soundtrack: This summer, music fans can look forward to the long-awaited Princess Ai soundtrack featuring 8 songs from the Princess Ai manga trilogy. Written and produced by D.J. Milky and b_nCHANt_d, featuring Skye as Princess Ai on vocals and the indie-pop band Nude, the album will feature songs performed by Princess Ai in the best-selling manga series and will be available via iTUNES and wherever downloadable music is sold.

The Film: The Ai-Land Chronicles: With an Ai looking toward the 2009 feature film debut of The Ai-Land Chronicles, D.J. Milky and top anime studio Satelight (Macross Zero, Arjuna, Heat Guy J) are currently in post-production on a sizzling pilot that showcases the film’s groundbreaking blend of live action and animation. Written and directed by D.J. Milky with animation direction by Eiichi Sato (Full Metal Manic, Fortune Quest L), the reel features the original song “Broken Leash” that showcases the singer Skye starring as Princess Ai, backed by members of the indie-pop band Nude.

All of the above just adds the Ai-cing on the cake to an already dizzying array of dazzling Princess Ai merchandise available now, including dolls from Bleeding Edge, journals, T-shirts, stickers, postcards and all sorts of exciting accessories.

ABOUT TOKYOPOP
TOKYOPOP is hailed as a leading youth-oriented entertainment brand and an innovator of manga creation, with a revolutionary artistic vision that transcends countless platforms. From the introduction of the first-ever extensive manga publishing program in North America, to the development of its manga-originated intellectual properties into film, television and digital entertainment, TOKYOPOP has changed the way teens experience pop culture. The company’s global reach has expanded to Europe and Asia, with recent offices opening in the UK and Germany and partnerships in Australia and China, in addition to its original Los Angeles and Tokyo operations. With millions of fans logging onto the new social networking site www.TOKYOPOP.com, reading its books, and watching its DVDs and television programs, TOKYOPOP’s award-winning catalogue of licensed and original properties has made the company a visionary in an ever-growing teen entertainment marketplace. Visit www.TOKYOPOP.com for additional information.

With its talking cats and wandering samurais, Japanese manga is taking France’s booming comic-book market by storm, challenging home-grown icons like Asterix as young readers lap up the eastern fare.

Talking cats? Is Where’s Michael? that much bigger in France than here? This article on the popularity of manga in France updates the Asterix-is-dead meme with a nod to Vanyda, author of The Building Opposite, but manages to mangle both the title and the book’s recent distinction. (There is no Publishers’ Weekly’s best manga award; the book merely topped their best-of-2006 list.) Given the French national tendency to revere its own culture above all others, I thought this fact was interesting:

France’s publishing giants, who saw the manga wave coming, have managed to salvage their overall market share by licensing and distributing most of the Japanese titles sold in France.

Very pragmatic. But the reporter still seeks out the crusty old guy who sees modern art as degenerate:

Joseph Verhoeven, a 76-year-old retiree and fan of comic book artwork, tut-tutted over what he calls the manga “invasion”.

“It’s an easy option for authors, but there’s a lot less subtlety, fewer facial expressions,” he said, as he pored through the bookstore’s shelves for the latest French or Belgian gem.

Good luck with that, grandpere. Actually, I think the French do most things better than anyone else, but their comics leave me cold.

The new manga list is a bit thin this week, but the MangaCast crew still finds some books to like.

ComiPress translates a blog post responding to American complaints about racial depictions in manga. It’s interesting that the Japanese blogger didn’t really see what the problem was but feels manga-ka should be more sensitive to the opinions of others.

Takeshi Miyazawa posts some scans from the Japanese version of Spiderman. (Via Journalista.)

At Shuchaku East, Chloe has no problem with Japanese names and customs in global manga.

Case Closed fans take note: A museum dedicated to manga-ka Aoyama Gosho will be opening in Hokuei, Japan, in March.

News from Japan, from ComiPress: The adult manga magazine Comic Dolphin calls it quits; boozy manwha are popular in Korea; fans are accusing the creator of Switch of copying a photo too closely; and an announcement is imminent about Kodomo no Jikan (which has been licensed in the U.S. by Seven Seas under the title Nymphet.). Also: Tohan’s Top Ten!

MangaCast has a press release on three new titles from Viz, InuBaka: Crazy for Dogs, Backstage Prince, and The Gentlemen’s Alliance. Also: a preview of the latest 18+ title from Icarus.

At One Potato Two, Satsuma is halfway through Devil x Devil, a title we’re unlikely to see at Wal-Mart.

Manga Creep Watch: The Daily Nebraskan includes references to yaoi and yuri in an article on slash and erotic fiction.

Pata starts off the latest Right Turn Only!! column with a One Year Later parody, which confuses the readers. In his usual eclectic style, Pata reviews Hibiki’s Magic, Negima, and Blank, among others, and manages to find something interesting to say about each one.

Yuno Ogami, the creator of June’s Japanese Original English Language (!) manga L’Etoile Solitaire, has a blog. It looks like mostly drawings and sketches so far.

Reviews: Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood enjoys the new twists in vol. 3 of Enchanter. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 4 of Land of Silver Rain. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie likes Kissing. Comicsnob’s Matt Blind reviews vol. 1 of Utopia’s Avenger and vols. 1 and 2 of Suzuka.

ICv2 has a bit more on the yaoi-at-Wal-Mart story (they were selling Yaoi Hentai on their website but yanked it as soon as they realized it), including this:

The folks at the Consumerist Website seemed more interested in catching Wal-Mart, which promotes a squeaky clean image and even forced record companies to produce bowdlerized disks in order to get distribution in its mega-retail empire, in a hypocritical act rather than in fighting pornography, and their report, which was entitled “Wal-Mart and Target Sell Anime Porn,” was wrong on several levels — the items cited were not anime, but OEL manga titles written and published in the U.S.

This explains why the fact that Target was also selling the book didn’t attract as much attention. I just checked Wal-Mart’s books page, and their top seller was a book on the New Testament. On the other hand, they have a “Gay & Lesbian” category, which makes me suspect that the issue with Yaoi Hentai was more the hentai part than the yaoi. Not that Wal-Mart would be the first place I would go to find hot man-sex. A search for “yaoi” netted me the first three volumes of Claymore, a book on home decor, a physics book, and Degenerate Differential Equations in Banach Spaces, which sounds promising until you read the second word of the title. I checked for a couple of yaoi titles, and the only one I found was Gravitation, which might have slipped by because they thought it was another physics book.

Anyway, ICv2 wonders for the umpteenth time whether this will be the beginning of the yaoi backlash and adds

Unfortunately if this story does make it to the national press, yaoi will undoubtedly be crudely characterized as “homosexual porn,” and no notice will be taken of the fact that the audience for these books is not gay men, but rather straight young women.

What difference is that supposed to make? I doubt Wal-Mart would put Yaoi Hentai back on their website if they realized more women than men were buying it. I think ICv2 is trying to point out that yaoi has what they used to call redeeming artistic value—it’s literary porn—which is fine, but Wal-Mart isn’t going to knowingly sell pictures of buttsex no matter what the context, so the point is lost on them.

The Brothers Elric return to the USA Today Booklist: Vol. 11 of Full Metal Alchemist moves up from number 184 last week to 133 this week, hopefully taking down a couple of diet books and Junie B. Jones stories along the way. Vol. 12 of Naruto also inches back on, going from 154 to 150. This is Naruto’s sixth week on the list, although it hasn’t been a consecutive run.