MangaBlog

Ed has his report on the Viz Media panel, and it sounds like a busy time. Here are the new titles announced yesterday:

Brave Story, by Miyuki Miyabe
Shakugan no Shana, by Ayao Sasakura and Yashichirou Takahashi (manga)
Shakugan no Shana, by Ayao Sasakura (novel)
Dragon Drive, by Kenichi Sakura

At the AoD Blog, Ed lists two more from the Shojo Beat panel:

Milennium Snow, by Bisko Hattori
Love*Con, by Aya Nakahara

As always, covers and commentary at the MangaCast. Also, Ed reports that Slam Dunk is out of the picture, Gentleman’s Alliance will have a brand-new poster, and Claymore and D. GrayMan are doing very well.

Ed has his Tokyopop report up at MangaCast, including audio of the panel as well as his own inimitable commentary. First things first: The new titles announced yesterday are

Kamiyadori, by Kei Sanbei
Hibiki’s Magic, by Jun Maeda and Rei Izumi
Rure, by Dami Seomoon

As always, Ed has descriptions and cover scans. Kamiyadori is by the manga-ka who did Testarotho.

Much of the panel seems to have been taken up with discussion of books that have already been announced. Look for Kilala Princess, which sounds like it will be similar to Kingdom Hearts and will have the same low $5.99 cover price. And there was an interview with artist Kim JaeHwan. Ed has more on this at the AoD blog:

The guy is really laid back. Living in Thailand can do that but so can the special news mentioned at the end of the panel…. He is currently working on an original title for TOKYOPOP and has been trying to get a film made. Very cool. If you haven’t seen his art. Kim-sensei drew King of Hell and WarCraft. Both feature highly detailed art deep in the realms fantasy. I can only imagine what his new project will look like (a few sketches were not enough).

And this:

A question was asked about picking up the release frequency. Lillian repeated what I have heard from other publishers when she said – bookstores don’t want that!

Ed’s not buying it. We need more floor space if the manga revolution is to go forward.

Ed Chavez has filed a lengthy report on the CMX panel, and it’s worth reading as he has a very different take than some of the earlier reports. He also has covers and lots of info on their eight new titles, including correct spelling of titles and authors (I corrected the CMX post below to reflect Ed’s spellings).

Anyway, he didn’t sense a lot of negativity. He pointed out that there is a new team running CMX, and only one person from last year’s disastrous panel was at SDCC this year. This may be a good opportunity for change for the better; as Ed says, “the licensed title fans definitely were aware that CMX is no longer run by a computer.” And he didn’t sense the audience was entirely negative:

Then there are reports that the panel had a cloud over it and that fans were still not pleased. This is far from the truth. Actually, fans were very supportive as the audio will show later. While there were issues with TenTen, fans were pleased by the fact that CMX is releasing moving titles. While many of the titles are on the fringe a few like EMMA, Chikyu Misaki and KKJ were very welcomed. Still, it seemed like every title had a fan which is a testement to how diverse this line-up has become. And promises made really had the crowd on an upbeat mood throughout the hour.

We only read a few CMX titles, but it seems to me that the people who brought us Chikyu Misaki can’t be all bad. We’ll be watching.

Audio of the Del Rey panel is now up at MangaCast and audio of Broccoli and CMX will follow.

Love Manga has some thoughts on the CMX panel, and the discussion continues into the comments.

At Buzzscope, Erin has a new Manga Recon up, with reviews of Boy Princess, Enchanter, Pretty Maniacs, and Life. Check it out, not only for the witty commentary but also for her cartoon review of Life.

At Blogfonte, Mitch holds up Skip Beat as an alternative to wimpy shoujo heroines.

Telophase picks up a new Tokyopop series, Otogi Zoshi and doesn’t like it too much. I’m reading it myself and I’m glad I’m not the only one that’s bothered by the weirdly small heads in some panels. Anyway, the commenters tell Telophase the anime was better.

ComiPress translates a Japanese article on fansubs.

Here is the original cover of Air Gear (thanks to the obsessives at the AoD Forums). Don’t look if you’re a little kid or easily offended by panty shots. Del Rey announced at their SDCC panel that they would be altering the cover art to cover up the thong, but they promised there would be no other changes.

That’s reasonable enough: Middle America probably isn’t ready for a panty shot on the cover of a book, especially one that’s going to be shelved with books for younger readers, and it’s hard to buy a book if bookstores won’t carry it. On the other hand, I wasn’t ready for the panty shots inside the book when I read my first manga, The World of Narue. It didn’t stop me from reading the book, or letting my kids read it (because they already had anyway) but frankly, I find that sort of fanservice a bit creepy. As much as I deplore censoring a book like Tenjho Tenge, which is a mature story to begin with, I don’t think I’d have a problem with removing some of the gratuitous fanservice in books for younger kids, like Narue and Et Cetera.

I’m not even talking about nudity. A bare breast or a guy climbing out of the swimming pool naked (The Walking Man) is natural and inoffensive. Looking up women’s skirts is icky.

Mely, two weeks ago:

In the hope that what makes the licensing inevitable is saying out loud that something will never be licensed, I predict the following will never be licensed:

Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi, because clearly there is no audience for subtle, strange, sad, and magical tales based on Japanese folklore and an almost ecological understanding of folk magic;

Done!

Telophase tries it out in comments:

*optimistically mentions again that there is NO POSSIBILITY that Records of a Yokohama Shopping Trip will ever get licensed*

Anyone listening?