MangaBlog

I’m off to register voters today, but here’s the latest to tide you over.

It’s Wednesday! Don’t head out to the comics store without checking out the MangaCast list, complete with picks of the week.

PW Comics Week is out, and although it’s light on manga-specific content, there are some articles of more general interest: Little, Brown is the latest publisher to make plans for a graphic novel line, which will include manga; a new publisher, MG, rolls out its line with two sudoku manga, but next up is a manga adaptation of Lafacadio Hearn’s Kwaidan; and an article on the Sony Reader. They also introduced a monthly bestseller list, which combines data from comics stores and bookstores. David Welsh has a much more thorough overview and commentary, and David Taylor critiques the chart, noting that it comprises new releases only, but volume 1 of Naruto has been outselling some of these titles in the direct market. As for Ed Chavez, the chart only makes him thirst for more.

Yaoi Suki unveils its publisher awards, and they’re looking for readers’ nominations in other categories.

Back at Love Manga, David Taylor likes what Colleen Doran says but isn’t so sure about her book.

New title watch: CMX picks up GON.

At Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine reviews Bus Gamer.

ICv2 announces some new Dark Horse titles, including a global manga title, Red String, which collects the shoujo-inspired webcomic of the same name. Also in the works: Tapenshu, by Hiroki Endo, creator of Eden; a full-color Akira “companion volume” that will include original art not used in the manga; and a Gunsmith Cats omnibus that promises to be a good value for fans of that title.

Journalista takes a look at the slowly growing popularity of shoujo-ai and yuri manga and provides some links from the scanlation group Lillilicious.

Seven Seas has an interview up with company founder Jason DeAngelis. No, they don’t ask any hard-hitting questions, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless. How do you relax at night when manga is your job? Jason reads American comics:

There’s something about seeing grown men running around in tights that somehow sets the mind at ease…

And Adam Arnold dropped me note to say that their artist Shiei has completed volume 2 of Aoi House, her fifth volume for Seven Seas (she also draws Amazing Agent Luna). Pretty impressive!

ChunHyang’s weekly roundup once again picks out the diamonds from the dross at the Tokyopop blogs. Be sure to check it out, as she has an unusually good crop of links this week. And she also has some breaking news: Tokyopop will offer free shipping on its online exclusives, which goes a long way toward ameliorating (sorry, I’m doing SAT tutoring this week) the high prices.

Yoshihiro Yonezawa, a Japanese manga critic and co-founder of Comiket, has died at the age of 53.

Lillian DP waxes lyrical over Suikoden III.

Tokyopop has come up with a brilliant idea: give the gift of manga this Christmas!

Star Trek: The Manga gets a five-star review from people who actually know something about Star Trek.

OK, everyone, if you’re on or near the East Coast and you haven’t made plans to go to MangaNEXT—why the heck not? Perhaps the opportunity to go to the first evarrr manga convention (untainted by anime or superheroes) is not enough to entice you?

Well then, how about this: It’s a chance to see Brigid and Jack live and in person. Yes, we’ll both be there, and it promises to be interesting as we’ve never actually met before. I will be moderating a panel on manga for kids at noon on Saturday, and Jack is joining me to offer his insights. As he and I both read a lot of manga but have completely different tastes, I think we’ll have all the bases covered.

And if you’d pay money not not to have to listen to Jack and me, there’s plenty of other stuff. All the cool kids will be there—Del Rey, Dark Horse, DramaQueen—as well as special guests Hiroki Otsuka, C. B. Cebulski, Mari Morimoto, Tania Del Rio, and—uh oh—Carl Horn himself. Jack and I will have to don the dark glasses when he’s around. And there are panels on all kindsa stuff, from Sailor Moon to hentai.

Anyway, it’s cheap ($30 to get in the door), it’s easy (just show up) and with this lineup, it promises to be a lot of fun. So grab some manga to trade at the manga swap, get your cat ears out, and come on down.

In this week’s Flipped column, David Welsh really likes two manga that dabble in the supernatural, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Dokebi Bride.

At Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine reviews Banya the Explosive Delivery Man. It appears that explosive is the word of the day.

On a calmer note, Yaoi 911 has a review up of Hinako Takanaga’s Little Butterfly.

MangaPunk talks about dumpster diving and Bizenghast 2.

Lots of links today!

A new month means a new issue of Sequential Tart, and this issue features an interview with librarian and manga fan extraordinaire Robin Brenner, the proprietress of No Flying, No Tights. Robin talks about her work as a member of the committee that’s putting together the American Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens list and talks about the place of graphic novels in libraries. Inexplicably, she fails to pimp her upcoming book, Understanding Japanese Manga and Anime, due out soon from Libraries Unlimited.

In a totally different direction, Love Manga’s David Taylor interviews Simon Jones, the philosophical pornographer. Jones’ blog at Icarus Comics is worthwhile reading even if you’ll never buy ero-manga (although that would break his heart). (NSFK)

Dirk Deppey reads the scanlations so you don’t have to, and at Journalista, he’s linking (scroll down) to scanlations that may appeal to his audience (i.e. grownups).

Japanese culture watch: Pata links to a Japan Times article on government attempts to help NEETs—men who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training.

Livejournaler deconcentrate has some warm words for Colleen Doran’s new how-to book on shoujo manga, but the discussion gets more complicated in the comics. (Via When Fangirls Attack.)

David Welsh meditates on Dirk Deppey’s review of Nodame Cantabile.

Reviewage: At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna questions the entire premise of Peach Girl: Sae’s Story: Why focus on such an unlikeable character? Comics-and-More devotes Manga Monday to Hikaru no Go and The Red Snake: Hino Horro #1. Livejournaler jlg1 gives Mitsukazu Mihara’s Beautiful People a mixed review. Blogcritics reads Death Note. Active Anime likes volume 3 of Kage Tora. PopCultureShock checks out Banya The Explosive Delivery Man, a new series from Dark Horse, and the lede says it all:

If you like your manhwa with a healthy dose of pow! and splat!, then Banya The Explosive Delivery Man is for you.

David Welsh brings an education professional’s perspective to manga programs at Japanese universities:

It can be worrying when a discipline becomes a bandwagon program (it’s hot, and everyone has to have one, even if the graduate placement rates aren’t great). But arts education isn’t known for the vast majority of its graduates working in their field of study (as my dust-covered theatre diploma will attest).

Heh! I graduated with my MFA in printmaking and never touched an etching plate again, so I’m inclined to agree with David. But the manga programs could work if they operate on a vocational school model, tightly tailoring what they teach to what the market demands and facilitating apprenticeships. (There wasn’t a big demand for etchers in the job market I graduated into.) David would like to see an American enroll in one of the programs and blog about it—and so would I!

Colleen Doran talks to Newsarama about her new book on how to draw shoujo manga. She talks about the different styles of shoujo manga, rather than lumping them all together, and it sounds like she includes a lot of basic drawing techniques.

I’m not giving them a fish, I am teaching them how to fish. I spend a lot of time going over eyes (I think I gave it 11 pages!) and the construction of different kinds of heads. I don’t show you a bunch of hairstyles and say “This is shoujo hair!” I show you how to draw locks of hair from basic shapes. I not only tried to be analytical, I try to make the reader analyze as well. if you can break things down into simple, bare elements, you can draw anything.

Just how late are Dark Horse’s manga? John Jakala is keeping track. In other Dark Horse news, Jog found a bargain on Appleseed.

On Manga Island, Tony Salvaggio takes the Sony e-reader for a test read and mostly likes what he sees.

Lots of news on ComiPress: Square Enix has a new magazine that will feature a new manga by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist; a preview of the new Negima manga has appeared in Japan; and Viz is going to Central Park this weekend. Also, they pointed us to this Daily Yomiuri article about Osamu Tezuka’s Chinese inspiration.

Today’s Manga 101 story is better than most, with nice interviews with fans and a capsule history.

Emily reviews Idol Paradise and reminisces about a shoujo moment of her own.

Here’s a preview of Abandon the Old in Tokyo. (Via MangaCast, which will feed the previews directly to your podcatcher if you want them to.)

Broccoli employee Ardith gives her personal take on this week’s PWCW article on Broccoli.

Death Note goes to Europe.

Otaku-hunters stalk Akibahara looking for their prey in this story from the Mainichi Daily News (via Irresponsible Pictures). And why?

“Otaku are weak and they’ve got money, so we went after them,” one of the arrested youths told the police.

Shades of bank robber Willie Sutton:

When asked why he robbed banks, Sutton simply replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”

Apparently these days, it’s in Akibahara.