MangaBlog

The pictures tell the story in this report on sales of French comics: one of Naruto, two of the French (actually, Swiss) character Titeuf. That’s a good snapshot of the market; about one in three (34.5%) of the comics sold in France are manga, up from 30% the year before. (“Not much better,” sniffs the report, but that seems like a respectable increase to me.) Interestingly, if I’m reading this right, the number of books sold has held steady but the market is down a bit because manga are cheaper than BDs. And one reason for manga’s dominance, the report points out, is that Naruto, for instance, comes out six times a year, whereas it has been two years since the last issue of Titeuf. BDs are slower. And an interesting cultural point: BDs do better in December, because with their higher-quality format (full color, large size, and either a hard or a heavy paper cover) and correspondingly higher price, people think of them as gift books. Which may also be why they don’t do well during the rest of the year. (Via Journalista.)

But don’t count them out yet: remember, Publisher’s Weekly’s pick for the best manga of 2006, The Building Opposite, is French.

The motley crew at MangaCast picks the best of this week’s comics and links to some new previews.

Amish Otaku sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it’s actually a new web ‘zine published in the heart of Amish Country, central Pennsylvania. There are no ads for farm tools or recipes for shoo-fly pie, just lots of reviews of manga, games, and anime, although I believe using frames is the internet equivalent of a horse and buggy.

Has Death Note jumped the shark? No way, says Lyle.

Crossroad is the first of Go!Comi’s inaugural series to reach the end of its run, and the publisher is inviting fans to send in fanart for the last volume.

At Shuchaku East, Chloe gets weird looks at the bookstore for breaking out of her assigned niche.

Who’s who: They’re rearranging the chairs a bit at Viz, where three people were recently promoted: Gonzalo Ferreyra from Director of Sales for Home Video to VP Sales, Publishing and Home Video; Moneka Hewlett from Director of Consumer Marketing for the magazine division to Director of Sales, Publishing; and Brian Ige from Sales Manager to Director of Sales, Home Video.

At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie is unimpressed with vol. 2 of Peach Girl Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Death Trance and vol. 2 of Rin! AoD covers several ongoing series in its Small Bodied Manga Reviews. At Yet Another Comics Blog, Dave Carter posts some brief reviews of global manga.

… those who think there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don’t. Jason Thompson goes that one better and divides manga-influenced creators into three groups; in the comments, he explains why it matters.

At Shuchaku East, Chloe would like to see more niche marketing of manga.

In this week’s PW Comics Week, Kai-Ming Cha talks to Del Rey’s Dallas Middaugh and Ali Kokmen about the appeal of Basilisk, which was first a novel, then a manga, and now an anime, as well as other manga that have cross-platform appeal (e.g. Air Gear, the musical).

At Yaoi Suki, Jordan Marks has an interesting column about how serialization affects yaoi manga.

DramaQueen announces a new title, Devil x Devil, and a relaunch of their website. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez gives his impression of the redesign.

Here’s another manga readin’ politician: Meet Kondo Shinji, Commissioner of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and Yu Yu Hakusho fan.

At Icarus Comics, Simon Jones checks out upcoming adult manga from Previews Adult (link is likely to be NSFW). He also notes that Drama Queen and CPM books are now distributed by Diamond, which may mean some changes in the charts. And he posts a few previews of Icarus titles.

One more reason to go to NYCC: Yuri specialists ALC Publishing will be there, and they will be premiering Yuri Monogatari 4.

Candy is dandy, but sex won’t rot your teeth: Is there anything the Japanese won’t turn into a comics-themed snack? Here’s some yaoi candy, courtesy of Irresponsible Pictures.

David Welsh makes his selections from this week’s releases.

Now that we have three versions of the manga, it’s sort of inevitable: MangaCast brings news that the Train Man novel will be translated.

ComiPress has the news that Jinki: Extend has been dropped from the magazine that carries it, Comic Blade, and translates an apology from the creator. Ed Chavez and Simon Jones have more info and commentary.

Yahoo! Japan has launched a free web magazine.

At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood has an advance review of the latest from Antique Bakery manga-ka Fumi Yoshinaga: vol. 1 of Flower of Life. Anime on DVD’s Julie Rosato checks out the 18+ title White Guardian. At Comics Unlimited, Johanna Draper Carlson reviews four graphic novels, including 12 Days and vol. 1 of Monster. The snow has receded enough for Julie to resume blogging at Mangamaniaccafe, so she has reviews up of vol. 1 of E’S and vol. 1 of La Corda d’Oro. PWCW reviews Hot Gimmick S, the “alternate ending novel,” on their front page (scroll down). At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh has plenty of love for vol. 3 of Shout Out Loud. PopCultureShock’s Katherine Dacey-Tsuei gives vol. 1 of E’S a B+, and the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog likes it as well. (Via the Broccoli blog.)

The latest sales figures are out from ICv2. Vol. 15 of Fruits Basket is number 2 on the graphic novel chart, and there are three other manga in the top ten: Naruto at number 4, Berserk at number 7, and Bleach at number 8. This makes for an unusually good showing for manga. In its analysis, ICv2 calls it “astounding” and adds

While it’s easy to make too much out of what could be an aberration, it is interesting to note that while traditional American graphic novels are doing better in the bookstore market, manga appears to be making increasing inroads in the direct market.

At Coffeeandink, Mely posts her list of the best continuing series of 2006, with plenty of good analysis, followed by more from her very literate group of commenters.

David Welsh devotes this week’s Flipped column to two stories about alternate universes, Goong and To Terra. (In case you missed it, Christopher Butcher has posted a preview of To Terra.)

The Star of Malaysia interviews elusive Death Note creator Tsugumi Ohba.

Yaoicon has announced the 2007 guests of honor: manga artist Mayima Oki and novelist Kawahara Tsubasa. (Via Yaoi Suki, via Guns, Guys, and Yaoi.)

A student in the manga program at Kyoto Seika University was stabbed to death on a Kyoto street, apparently by a stranger.

Dirk Deppey reviews the Fanfare/Ponent Mon title A Patch of Dreams. At Okazu, Erica Friedman has high praise for Seven Seas’ translation of vol. 1 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~, which is all the more impressive as she has already read the Japanese version. Kethylia enjoys vol. 3 of Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden. Tangognat gives five stars to To Terra. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 3 of Robot. It’s Manga Monday at Comics-and-more, with mini-reviews of vol. 5 of Dragon Head, vol. 2 of Emma, and vol. 6 of Monster. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out vol. 5 of Sgt. Frog and vol. 2 of Ark Angels. Leroy Derousseaux reviews vol. 1 of Hibiki’s Magic at The Comic Book Bin.

We took the girls to see Linda Linda Linda yesterday at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, which is a great venue as it’s small and cozy. The movie, about four high school girls who form a band and struggle against obstacles, etc., etc., was pretty good, although it dragged in places and I didn’t really get some parts, despite the subtitles. It seems to be showing in limited screenings throughout the country; looks like it’s going to be in Atlanta next month.

I had been pretty much ignoring the news that Viz would make episodes of the Death Note anime available for download, but in today’s Journalista (second item), Dirk Deppey speculates that this might signal something big for manga readers. Remember that Viz is owned by three Japanese publishers who have an immense library of manga.

With the infrastructure in place, what’s to stop Viz from cutting deals with fansubbers and scanlators alike, offering a small cut of the profits in exchange for making their products exclusive to Viz’ online store?

Sort of iTunes for comics. If the price is low enough, it could expand the offerings available and provide compensation for artists whose work might not otherwise be licensed and for translators who are currently working for love rather than money. The only losers would be the readers who are currently getting scanlations for free. Check Dirk’s analysis for more.

ChunHyang72 has been asking readers to recommend Tokyopop titles to try, and she posts their suggestions. She also rounds up the best of TokyoSpace from the past week.

A blogger called Shadefell enjoys the authentic touches in Fruits Basket. (Via When Fangirls Attack!)

There’s a bit of Tezuka trivia at the Broccoli blog.

MangaCast has lots of news updates, with more previews of E’S, the week’s doujinshi ratings, and illustrated press releases from SelfMadeHero (Shakespeare manga), Tokyopop, Broccoli (Galaxy Angel II and The World of Disgaea) and DMP.

The shoujo manga exhibit “Girl Power” is coming to Washington, DC.

At Yaoi 911, Alex Woolfson reviews Same Cell Organism. Active Anime’s Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 1 of Rozen Maiden and Holly Ellingwood reads vol. 3 of Godchild. At Anime on DVD, Patricia Beard reviews vol. 3 of Passion. Julie gives vol. 2 of Yakitate!! Japan high marks at Mangamaniaccafe. Kethylia finds Kiriko Nananan’s Blue boring and unoriginal and then knocks off another point for being overpriced as well.

Japan’s first free manga magazine launches this week with an initial printing of 100,000 copies and a target audience of 20- to 40-year-old men. The magazine will have half as many pages as the standard magazine and will apparently be supported by advertising. I thought this was interesting:

The advantages of being free lie in the weekly not needing to secure a magazine code — in effect, a license — which is said to be difficult for new companies or magazines to obtain.

The Japan Times has an engaging article about the New York manga-ka who draws the English-language instruction strip collected as My Wife is a New Yorker.

At the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Wilma Jandoc and Jason Yadao read some new Tokyopop series and offer advice on what to pick up and what to skip.

Here is a list of what to expect at NYCC.

Reviews: Kethylia reviews vol. 2 and vol. 3 of Monster. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Kamunagara: Rebirth of the Demonslayer and Christopher Seamann checks out vol. 3 of ES: Eternal Sabbath. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie likes vol. 4 of Kamui but was less enthusiastic about vol. 1 of Goong. The Star of Malaysia’s Kurogane finds Legend to be nothing special, and Martin Vengadesan turns thumbs down on Star Trek: The Manga. Cheeky Monkey has slightly better things to say about vol. 3 of Skip Beat and vol. 13 of From Far Away. At The Yaoi Review, Sakura Kiss gives Lies and Kisses a ten. The Guardian rounds up some graphic novels, including Abandon the Old in Tokyo. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie has brief reviews of vol. 1 of Ark Angel, vol. 23 of Oh My Goddess, vol. 2 of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and vol. 9 of Video Girl Ai.