MangaBlog

ComiPress translates an article about the most popular search terms for anime and manga, but it’s not quite what you think. We all get people searching for scanlations and naked manga characters, but Yahoo Japan and Infoseek just listed the most popular manga and anime titles. It’s interesting to see that Pokemon outranked Death Note on the Infoseek listings, and that Anpanman and Doraemon made both lists. Why haven’t these titles been translated?

David Welsh weighs in on DC’s new Minx imprint in this week’s Flipped column, comparing DC’s plans to historical developments in shoujo manga (and putting in a plug for translating Rose of Versailles.)

Call for entries: Publisher Creber Monde is having a Shakespeare manga contest. They sent me a note about this a couple of weeks ago and it got buried in my in-box, but Manganews was more enterprising than me and has posted an interview with director Paul Illidge. Also via Manganews: A report on the new Kyoto International Manga Museum.

ComiPress links to three interviews with hentai manga artists.

Moto Hagio’s science fiction manga Barubara Ikai has won the 27th Japan SF Grand Prize.

At MangaCast, Ed Chavez and David Taylor discuss the RUSH anthology.

Pata has a new Right Turn Only column up in which he takes on After School Nightmare, Aoi House, Princess Princess, and the latest volume of Death Note, among others.

Photographer Laurie Toby Edison discusses yaoi and its antecedents in slash. (Via Journalista, who corrects the chronology and adds a cool scan from Song of the Wind and Trees (scroll down).)

Kethylia reviews two yaoi titles from June, The Man Who Doesn’t Take Off His Clothes and Cold Sleep. Comics-and-More devotes Manga Monday to reviews of vol. 4 of Eden: It’s an Endless World and vol. 5 of Hikaru no Go. Active Anime has brief reviews of vol. 2 of Eternal Sabbath and vol. 5 of La Esperanca. At Anime on DVD, Ed Chavez finds Comic rather cliched. And at Comic Book Bin, Leroy Douresseaux describes the plot of Queens as “quasi-romance novel piffle for female readers.” I guess I’m young at heart, because I enjoyed it.

John Jakala rounds up bloggers’ reactions to Tintin Pantoja’s proposal for a shoujo version of Wonder Woman, and they are overwhelmingly positive. If everyone who praised it pledged to buy a copy of the finished book, DC would be fools not to publish it.

Newsarama talks to Joshua Elder about volume 2 of his Mail Order Ninja.

Deutsche Mangaka has the latest news from Tokyopop’s German newsletter and links to a links to and translates a preview of Evergrey, an upcoming Tokyopop title from Lime Studios. I picked up a couple of Lime’s doujinshi at MangaNEXT and was really impressed with their work.

At MangaCast, Ed checks out the new Rush blog and likes what he sees—including a new title. Also: A look at DMP’s books for December, which include an Edu-Manga about Albert Einstein and volume 3 of the 18+ title Robot. Now that’s range! Speaking of Robot, check out DMP’s latest contest.

Its Aoi House: The Music Video! (Via Floating Sakura.) Bouncy pop with lots of G-rated fanservice, if you can imagine such a thing.

They’re making a list, they’re checking it twice: June Manga is having a Christmas contest. Also, the editors clarify the nomenclature of the Close the Last Door series.

ICv2 will hold a graphic novel conference at the New York Comic-Con; Viz has signed on as a co-sponsor.

At ADD Theater, Shannon puts in a word for variety.

I guess this is the wave of the future: A company called MovieSeer has signed a contract to deliver Tokyopop content to mobile networks in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore. “Content” seems to be a broad term that encompasses manga, audio and video files, and games.

Reviews: Pauline Wong at the Star of Malaysia reads Night of the Beasts with a sense of deja vu and Kadzuki enjoys RA.I At Active Anime, Christopher Seaman finds volume 2 of CMX’s Densha Otoko “electrifying” and Blake Waymire enjoys Boogiepop Dual, which I’m reading right now. And at Anime on DVD, Matthew Alexander has only good things to say about Any Way I Want It, not just the content but the print quality as well, wondering why the big publishers can’t be as consistent.

My dad is out of the hospital and doing a bit better, so I’m starting to get everything back in order again. Here are a few links, with more coming later.

Here is a look at Takeshi Obata’s art for Blue Dragon, his newest manga.

ChunHyang72 rounds up the latest news and reviews on and off the Tokyopop site.

Pata is celebrating the holidays with 25 (or so) days of beautiful girls. Translator Tomo Kimura, on the other hand, has some Christmas cake instead of cheesecake.

For those who like to think ahead, David Welsh lists all the new manga series debuting in February.

At Completely Futile, Adam Stephanides links to some other works by Kaworu Watashiya, the manga-ka of Kodomo no Jikan, which has been attracting some comment lately for its loli-esque qualities.

Queenie Chan drew a Zelda fan manga and she’s inviting audience participation. She also confesses

And my lifelong ambition is to draw swords-and-sorcery fantasy manga. I’m not kidding. *flexes muscles*

In the meantime, she’s doing OK with The Dreaming, which has been picked up in four European countries.

At the MangaCast, cover scans and more info on Del Rey’s three new licenses, My Heavenly Hockey Club, ALIVE, and Dragon Eyes. Also: more Comiket tips.

Telophase highly recommends The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga, based on the first story alone. This sounds soooo British—they love to make big, fat books that promise plenty of delights inside. I used to get books with titles like “The Big Book of Fun and Games” every Christmas from my Irish aunts, along with my Bunty and Beano annuals.

Anime on DVD reviewer Matthew Alexander thinks My Hime will appeal mainly to people who have already seen the manga and don’t mind the book taking off in a different direction. This is the most positive review I have seen yet for this particular title (which I’m finding unreadable, but then, I haven’t seen the anime).

Mely has brief reviews of three books she likes, Emma, Skip Beat, and VS. (Versus). Be sure to read the comments for more.

Otaku Champloo has set up a fan site for Nodame Cantabile.

At Okazu, Erica thinks DrMaster did a terrible job with Tori Koro Meanwhile, Kethylia thinks volume 4 of Yuri Monogatari is too uneven, with the weaker pieces detracting from the whole. At Tokyopop, ChunHyang72 reviews Trinity Blood.

Minx Linx: It’s not really manga, but as it touches on some of the same issues we discuss, here’s a roundup of recent comments: At The Beat, Heidi has a lengthy meditation that covers a lot of the bases: Yes, it’s a step forward for DC; yes, it’s good that they are putting some serious marketing into it; yes, the name is rather unfortunate; and yes, it’s a bit odd that there are so few women creators. Tiredfairy, who worked on the line, is cautiously optimistic. Remix17 is offended. Lucy_anne has doubts and is hosting an open thread, so check it out. There’s lots more at When Fangirls Attack, which is where I got most of these links.

If posting seems spotty and terse lately, it’s because my father is in the hospital and I’m not around the Internets much at the moment. Here are today’s early highlights:

The new Sequential Tart is up, and a quick glance shows that Margaret O’Connell has a thorough critique of Hybrid Child. There’s also a nice review of Agnes Quill by David Roman, the creator of Astronaut Elementary.

Mechademia is an academic journal about manga and anime. Every now and then I read a book (at the moment it’s After School Nightmare) and think “There’s a PhD thesis in this.” Maybe I should send them some suggestions.

While the rest of us are just gearing up for Christmas, David Welsh is looking over the Previews Valentine’s Day suggestions.

Happy blogiversary to It can’t all be about manga… Drop by and congratulate Cathy on a year of insightful blogging.

From ComiPress, the Japanese government spends some ad dollars on manga.

Yaoi Suki reviews Your Honest Deceit.

Del Rey announced three new licenses today: My Heavenly Hockey Club, Dragon Eye, and Alive. All should be out next summer.

Queenie Chan rethinks her previous post on the three-act structure, and explains how it actually breaks out in The Dreaming.

ComiPress translates a followup to an earlier article about sexually explicit manga.

David Welsh updates the ALA Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.

Your Minx Minute: ICv2 interviews Karen Berger, senior vice president of DC, about the new line of graphic novels aimed at girls. Johanna adds her take.

Pata thinks loli fans are worrying too much about backlash from Kodomo no Jikan, which was recently licensed by Seven Seas. Dirk Deppey disagrees (scroll down). Simon Jones sets things straight:

Seven Seas isn’t publishing porn, we are.

Having drawn that distinction, he explains why KnJ isn’t porn and what would happen if it was. Then he throws in a bonus post about the book and the manga-ka. Floating Sakura has more, including a brief preview.

Shaenon Garrity’s Overlooked Manga Festival rolls on with a look at Swan.

John Jakala finds Tintin Pantoja’s proposal for a shoujo manga Wonder Woman and can’t figure out why DC didn’t jump on it.

Volume 4 of Yuri Monogatari will be debuting at Comiket. But you can get it now at the Yuricon shop.

Middle-schoolers will soon be able to pick up Amazing Agent Luna and Destiny’s Hand at their Scholastic Book Fairs.

Tokyopop is revamping their website a bit: “version 1.7” is supposed to go live today, around 9:30 a.m. PST. And on this forum thread, moderator Peter Ahlstrom says there will be more moderation soon. (Via Andre’s blog.)

Product placement in manga? Tangognat thinks not—at least, not much.

Here’s a cute little animated ad for volume 8 of Immortal Rain. (Via Lillian DP’s blog.)

At the MangaCast, Jarred takes Kamui for a ride.

At Okazu, Erica reviews volume 1 of Read or Dream and questions the rating. I haven’t read this particular title but I have to say the ratings are awfully inconsistent. Or maybe consistent in a stupid way—I don’t think that all books with no nipples should be 13+ and all books with nipples should be 18+, for instance. The ratings really should take the themes and plotline into account. I think they’re asking “Who shouldn’t be reading this book?” when they should be asking “Who would enjoy it the most?”

Ed Chavez reviews Emperor’s Castle, a new gangster manwha from Netcomics. ChunHyang72 reviews The Dreaming and 12 Days. Kethylia enjoyed Negima in spite of her better judgment. Dirk Deppey really likes Strawberry Marshmallow. Active Anime’s Holley Ellingwood has short reviews of volume 3 of Little Butterfly and volume 17 of Angel Sanctuary. At ANN, Melissa “Minai” Harper likes the art in volume 2 of Pichi Pichi Pitch but not much else.

I missed this when I looked at PWCW but thank heaven Journalista picked it up: Kai-Ming Cha interviews Tina Anderson about Boys Love manga—why she likes it and why she writes it.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh imagines the effect of newly available American comics on Japanese kids:

Now I’m picturing Japanese children cluttering the floors of the local equivalent of Barnes & Noble, reading Identity Crisis, and putting it back on the shelf.

Elsewhere, David devotes this week’s Flipped to two manwha titles, DVD and Banya the Explosive Delivery Man.

Alert Tokyopop blogger Andre notices that Diamond is picking up the Tokyopop “exclusives” as Diamond exclusives, which means that they will be available in comics stores.

At Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine reviews the first volume of a new series from Tokyopop, Kamiyadori.