MangaBlog

Best read of the day: At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala has come up with a new concept: the Reconsideration Review (TM), in which he takes a second look at a book he had previously written off. He’s looking for suggestions, but his first one is a hilarious takedown of The Drifting Classroom, which he pulls off with a bit of help from Scott McCloud. Money quote:

a book that dares to be the sequential art equivalent of THOSE ANNOYING EMAILS YOU GET WHERE THE SENDER FORGOT TO TURN OFF THE CAPS LOCK!!!!

Yaoi-Con reports continue to roll in. Lillian DP writes about her experiences in her LiveJournal and at MangaCast, Ed posts audio of his interview with Kawai Touko. ICv2 also has their report, which includes, not surprisingly, a bit of trend analysis:

Kuo-Yu Liang of Diamond Book Distributors told ICv2 that right now the market is eagerly embracing all yaoi releases, and while a lot of series were announced at Yaoi-Con, DMP and the other publishers still have fairly conservative release schedules at least in terms of the number of new books per month. Still, while all this variety will be great for consumers, at some point the publishers could face lower per-title sales if the growth in the number of releases outpaces the growth of the market.

They also bring up the problem that the more explicit the books get, the harder it will be to get them into the chains—and the more likely it becomes that there will be some sort of backlash.

From the Broccoli patch: MangaCast has the press release on Disgaea 2. And ICv2 has a brief report on their change of bookstore distributor, from Diamond to Publishers Group West. Diamond will continue to distribute Broccoli books and other merch to the direct market.

At MangaCast, Ed is suffering from overwork but nonetheless manages to post today’s manga releases, with copious commentary, as always.

Finally, here are two links in Japanese from Manganews: A book on the history of BL manga and Beth, a magazine for female otaku.

At Publishers Weekly Comics Week, Ian Brill and Kai-Ming Cha wrap up Yaoi-Con with a nice article that hits the high points and brings in some tidbits from the panels. Meanwhile, Calvin Reid interviews Jason DeAngelis of Seven Seas about that company’s planned yuri line, which is slated to include seven titles next year. As always, Simon Jones of Icarus offers some perceptive comments on both articles.

The big Broccoli news at Yaoi-Con was… that Broccoli showed up, because they’re planning on introducing some yaoi titles. They’re going to have a separate yaoi imprint, and they’re looking for suggestions for the name. Winner gets two years’ worth of hot, sweet boys’ love (manga, that is).

The conversation continues about ICv2’s ten most powerful list, with manga veteran Jake Forbes questioning the whole concept at Comics Worth Reading:

“POWER!” seems like such a silly term when discussing the manga market. Savvy is much more applicable, as the real power comes from Japanese editors/creators/publishers and from grassroots fan networks who decide what is going to be a hit before things are licensed.

Forbidden Planet chats with Ilya, the editor of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga, which he plans to be the first volume of an annual anthology. (Via Journalista.)

Lillian DP shares her enthusiasm for volume 6 of Saiyuki Reload, which she just finished editing.

Seven Seas has a sneak peek at the cover of volume 2 of Aoi House.

Lots of lengthy and worthwhile reviews out today: Dirk Deppey thoroughly enjoys volume 1 of Emma. Otaku Champloo compares Planetes to a chocolate cake in a thoughtful review. At Okazu, Erica reviews Coyote Ragtime Show. Johanna looks at Project X: 7-11. Anime News Network reads Bird Kiss. And Manga Punk likes Audition well enough to give volume 2 a chance.

Tomorrow’s my deadline day for paying work, so I don’t have time to go into this right now, but check out the links Pata has dug up at Irresponsible Pictures. One is about maid cafes, the other is a critique of a critique of girls in manga. Interesting stuff in both, and I’m looking forward to reading them with full attention once my article is filed.

Seven Seas is launching a yuri line, to be dubbed “Strawberry.” Seven Seas’ first yuri title, Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, won’t be part of the line, which will kick off next year. From the press release:

In 2007, however, Seven Seas will officially inaugurate its new STRAWBERRY line, which will include such titles as Sakurako Kimino’s Strawberry Panic (the manga), which will act as a sister release to the previously announced Strawberry Panic light novels; Mera Hakamada’s popular series Saigo no Seifuku (“The Last Uniform”), about the crushes and heartbreaks at a girls’ boarding school; and the Yuri-flavored occult fantasy series Tetragrammaton Labyrinth. The company will be announcing several additional Yuri licenses that it has acquired in the near future, which are also slated for a 2007 release.

The trim size is going to be a bit bigger than regular manga, which is sort of interesting. Seven Seas has already broken with standard sizing with its square edition of Boogiepop doesn’t laugh.

At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh has some late-night meditations on Monster, Golgo 13, and this week’s list. And he points us to Alex Scott’s post about the mature section in his local Books-A-Million.

At MangaCast, Ed is still recovering from Yaoi-Con but manages to post the November Previews titles.

If you liked… In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh takes a look at Ohikkoshi, from Dark Horse, a collection of self-contained stories that may indeed apeal to indie fans.

Sweatdrop Studios has two anthologies with a twist: The two volumes, called Pink is for Girls and Blue is for Boys, tell the same nine stories but with different styles and points of view. They’ll be launching them at the London MCM Expo next weekend, but if you don’t happen to be in London, you can check out some samples of Pink and Blue.

At Comics-and-more, Dave skips the regular Manga Monday reviews and treats us to some cool links instead.

Posters on the AoD forum agree: Tokyopop is too slow with the releases these days.

Here’s an opportunity to show some love for your favorite manga: Nominate it for The Cybils, the 2006 Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards. Check the site for the rules, but they’re pretty straightforward: The book must be published in English in 2006, and only one nomination per category.

ChunHyang72 has divided her posts into a Manga Minute, with latest news and reviews culled from the TokyoSpace blogs, and the Tokyopop Roundup, featuring the best of the blogs, art, columns, etc. Elsewhere in TokyoPopLand, Lillian DP posts a Dramacon fan video.

At The Star of Malaysia, Kitty Sensei reviews volume 2 of ES: Eternal Sabbath. At Anime on DVD, Matthew Alexander reviews the Tokyopop one-shot Daphne in the Brilliant Blue. And if you’ve been thinking that La Corda D’Oro might be another Nodame Cantabile, Mangalife has some bad news for you.

This is slightly off topic, but given the prominence of France in manga, not too far off: Apparently some Japanese tourists are traumatized by the realities of Paris:

“Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis,” psychologist Herve Benhamou told newspaper Journal du Dimanche.

Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families, said: “In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them… people using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling.”

I have to say that although it has its good points, Paris is one of my least favorite cities. The Japanese would do better to shun it and hit one of the small provincial towns, where people are not in such a hurry.

This is an interesting twist: Anime on DVD reports (no permalink) that DMP announced they would have Japanese manga-ka draw yaoi manga to be released initially in the U.S., with Japanese publishers having the option to license it. That’s how the previously announced Etoile is being handled.

Yaoi Suki has put all its Yaoi-Con updates on a single page for your convenience. They also have an interesting interview with manga-ka Kawai Toko (Bondz, Our Everlasting). This was a big con for Toko as Digital Manga announced they had licensed Bondz and the harder-core 801 Media licensed In the Walnut.

At Icarus Comics, Simon Jones analyzes the new title announcements and comes up with all kinds of good stuff.

from the looks of things the transition of Be Boy to Libre has not impacted the licensing relationships of the North American companies, as evident from the number of newly licensed Be Boy imprint comics spread among three publishers… 801, BeBeautiful, and June. BL fans who’ve held their breaths since April can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Also, the fact that CPM is announcing new Be Beautiful books is a hopeful sign for that company. And finally, but quite notably, Yaoi Press is working on licensing its first Japanese title.

DramaQueen has a press release out with a few details of its new titles.

Ed Chavez is roaming the halls at Yaoi-Con; despite recording over the DramaQueen panel, he has managed to get some news bites and promises audio soon. Also, he got a copy of RUSH and recommends that we all do likewise. Meanwhile, David Taylor has cover scans of all the new licenses and lots of juicy commentary as well.

Reactions are still rolling in to ICv2’s ten most powerful list and Johanna’s addenda. At Icarus Comics, Simon Jones notes a bias toward bookstores.

Wilma Jandoc at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reviews two global titles, Once in a Blue Moon and Last Hope.

The Star of Malaysia checks out manga cafes and a manga hotel.

Icarus Comics reaches an “emotionally significant milestone”: the first edition of Innocence has sold out. Apparently Icarus is continuing the tradition of the Edo period, at least according to the Museum of Sex. Go figure. This link is only slightly NSFK, but worth a click for the comments (“Needs more tentacles”).