MangaBlog

Another swiping scandal? This reporter alleges, with panel-to-panel comparisons to back him up, that the U.S. government ripped off Doraemon. The feds are denying it, of course…

Bookseller Chick looks at yaoi.

I don’t really get the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, but everything they do is good. This week they interview Izumi Kawachi, creator of Enchanter, who got into the biz when an editor from Square Enix spotted her doujinshi.

A geezer goes to Anime Expo and pines for the good old days:

Back then you couldn’t buy anime at Suncoast or Wal-Mart. In the beginning, if you wanted anime, you had to go to Japan. A couple times a year the most dedicated (and fiscally solvent) fans would hop a plane, and come back with boxes full of laser discs. Then we would get together in clubs to watch the laser discs, or VHS copies of the laser discs distributed on the anime fan circuit or at comic book conventions.

This is pretty funny and well worth a read, especially at the end where he discovers a straight guy using a yaoi paddle to pick up girls.

A blogger in Japan visits (scroll down a bit) an internet cafe and the Ghibli museum, and takes some great pictures.

Ranma 1/2 comes to Russia, and presents some challenges for the translator:

“Since Russian has few onomatopoeias, I struggled with such expressions as ‘suta suta aruku’ (to walk briskly) and ‘sara sara nagareru’ (to flow with a murmur). I also had difficulty translating the martial arts tricks that the hero who trained in China named in Chinese characters,” he remarked.

Love Manga has this week’s treasures from the comics store. I picked up Kurogane already and was impressed by the art, if not the story.

At あいとゆうきのおとぎばなし blogger JP Meyer starts off dissing the new ANN blog but has a more serious point to make: ANN is about American fandom, not English-language fandom. The discussion continues into the comments, and I think many of the points may be applicable to the manga blogosphere as well. Even more so, in fact, as we have sites like Manganews that have a lot of info about manga that aren’t translated yet, even by scanlators. I’ve written for international audiences before, and it’s not easy, no matter where you are, because even in the most international city in the world (Meyrin, Switzerland, outside of Geneva—I lived there) you’re still only in one place at one time. Nonetheless, I try not to be too parochial here at MangaBlog.

Comic Book Resources has an interview with Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo. Gallagher talks about moving from Dark Horse to CMX, what sets volume 4 apart from the first three volumes, and how he draws the comic. A good read for fans and non-fans alike.

I’ve only recently discovered Tina Anderson’s blog, subtitled “Guns, Guys, and Yaoi,” but I’ve become a frequent lurker. Tina has just finished the script for a BL comic, and her submission letter is up. In this post, she distinguishes between true yaoi fans and those who are putting their own spin on everything else.

Livejournal poster Thomas Yan picked up the first volume of Hot Gimmick and doesn’t like where it’s going. “Is this series any good?” he asks. If only there were a simple answer to that question!

At The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon lists all the things he hates about “comics for your girlfriend” articles, and makes a good point:

I don’t think you can always trust the assumption that if there is a comics reader in a couple that it’s the male. Where are the “comics for your boyfriend” articles? Why do these articles assume different-sex couples?

In fact, I’m the comics reader in my marriage, although I have managed to draw my husband in. His interest has grown from almost none to the point where I keep him in mind when I’m on a buying spree. With shoujo manga so popular among girls, and yaoi and josei picking up steam, getting your boyfriend interested in comics may be the next trend.

This news article is actually about the Flight anthology, but it includes a brief interview with Sorcerers and Secretaries creator Amy Kim Ganter, who is the fiancee of Flight editor Kazu Kibuishi.

Here’s jog on the glut of Death Note spinoffs:

Over in Japan, part 1 of Death Note: the Movie has been quite a success, handily fending off The Da Vinci Code in theaters. Stay tuned for Death Note: the Anime, Death Note: the Video Game, Death Note: the Prose Novel, and (seriously) Death Note: the Tribute Album! The sooner I hear of Death Note: the Soft Drink the better, because I need the refreshment of mass-murder in my throat.

As always, Irresponsible Pictures should be your first stop, as Pata is actually there. If you’re just looking for the list of new licenses, check Manganews.

Tokyopop: The AnimeOnDVD report gives a list of newly licensed manga:

“Nosats” Junkie
Soul Rescue
Kilala Princess
Wild Adaptor
More of Somedays Dreamer
Gakuen Heaven
Sex Pistols (tentative title)

David Taylor has some of the covers up at Love Manga. But the big news at this panel is that Tokyopop is picking up three of ADV’s titles, Tactics, Peace Maker Kurogane, and Aqua. Here’s David:

Clarification is already appearing on the AoD forums with the ever helpful Peter Ahlstrom stating that the Peace Maker Kurogane will start with the original 5 volume series that ADV never published and the assumption is that they will then move onto the ADV Manga’s release and finish it too.

Needless to say, the folks at the ANN forums are going to town on this one. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez is ahead of the game and also has cover scans for the ADV titles. LJ posters maiteoida and helen_keeble, clearly fans of these series, have some insights as well.

Digital Manga: Pata has the hot skinny: Only one new title announced, but it’s a doozie, Vampire Hunter D. And here’s a twist: It’s being released in English first, then Japanese.

Del Rey: Sakura of AoD filed a straightforward report, while Pata feels free to editorialize a bit:

Dallas Middaugh is a fun guy, but Del Rey’s presence at AX was something of a non-panel panel as most of the announcements were for releases on upcoming series and licenses that were already known.

It sounds like they were playing things close to the vest, but this was interesting:

However, two things were very clearly answered: (1) they won’t do anime, ever, cuz it’s freaking RANDOM HOUSE and they do BOOKS thankyouverymuch; and (2) there are actually 2 original series in the works, as soon as they finish working out the contracts with the creators.

Dark Horse: The room must have been pretty empty because Pata is the only one reporting on it, and everyone else is quoting him. Here’s Pata’s new titles report:

Dame Dame Saito Nikki, a parodical work that looks at the strangeness of American fandom through a Japanese manga-ka’s eyes, and Satsuma Gishiden, a classic samurai work that Horn touted as their “manliest title yet.” Also look forward to the Samurai Champloo Roman Album, a guidebook to the popular anime series.

Bandai: Ed has the scoop on their one new title (bringing the line up to three): Witchblade.

Go!Comi: No news here—they made their announcements earlier—but Ed has plot summaries along with the covers.

For more, or to read about anime, check the panel reports at Anime on DVD.

It’s an interesting index of what people care about that the post that got the most commentary at Love Manga recently is the one on Go! Comi’s new licenses. Go check it out, and be sure to read the comments, because I learned something and it looks like David did too.

David Welsh gets a sugar rush in his latest Flipped column, where he looks at books that bring home the kawaii. If you go into insulin shock, the treatment is a bracing dose of Kawaii Not.

This LJ poster is disturbed by a shoujo manga called Boku ni natta watasi and concludes that all shoujo manga is freaky. I think she’s reading the wrong books, myself.

If you’re not at Anime Expo, don’t despair—there’s plenty of good stuff going on that you would probably miss if you were standing on line in Anaheim. So relax, put your feet up, and get a load of today’s links.

Bento Physics is going to take a look at a subject that I’ve always found fascinating but too broad to tackle in a blog post: The attitudes toward women that are expressed in shoujo manga. Their inspiration is this livejournal post by Rachel Nabors, on the dearth of comics for women, which is an interesting commentary in its own right.

There’s something new at Mainichi Daily News: a manga that you can read in Japanese or English. The text on the screen is in Japanese; mouse over it for the English (the translation appears very low on the page, so this works best with a big screen). The first work to get this treatment is titled A six feet girl: She cares about it being tall, which doesn’t make me real optimistic about the translations.

A Seattle paper looks at the graphic novel phenomenon, including manga, and elicits some thoughtful comments from purveyors.

Graphic novels were prominent at the recent American Library Association conference; ICv2 has the report.

This article from Korea looks at the popularity of “Against the Korean Wave,” the Korea-bashing manga that seems to be doing well in Japan:

According to Mainichi Shimbun on July 1, the comic book, which criticizes Korea in provocative languages, going against the Korean wave that swept Japan, has sold 670,000 copies a year after its release.

Apparently it actually has a plot, although I can’t imagine it’s a very good one.

Anime Expo is well under way, and for those who can’t be there, the reports are pouring out. Start with Pata’s, which is the most fun.

Here is a news article that gives the basics. Anime Convention has a transcript of CLAMP’s question and answer session and Anime on DVD has a shorter report.

Anime on DVD has a report on the Go!Comi panel, which included the announcement of these new titles:

Train + Train (December)
After School Nightmare, by the mangaka of X-Day (September)
Black Sun, Silver Moon by Tomo Maeda (January)
The Devil Within by Ryo Takagi (January)
Night of the Beasts (January)

It sounds like they’re building their catalog quite a bit from their modest start. More details, plus convention pix, at their site blog. Love Manga has some cover scans, and ICv2 has more.

AoD also has a report on the Shojo Beat panel, with the schedule of new series that will be debuting in upcoming months. Here’s the list of titles, some of which have been announced before:

Skip-Beat
Beauty Pop
Cain Saga
La Corda d’Oro
Tail of the Moon
Punch!
Vampire Knight
Gentleman’s Alliance

MangaCast has a bit more info on Gentleman’s Alliance. Also in the works: more color pages and manga lessons from Yuu Watase.

I’ve already covered the new Broccoli releases but AoD has more information here.

MangaCast has some comments on the titles Seven Seas announced earlier in the con.

Yes, you’re probably wondering, but what about ADV? Didn’t they promise a big convention presence? Yes—in fact, they have three panels, but most of the talk seems to be about anime. AoD summarizes their meet-and-greet and gets a lot of “Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny,” but manages to extract these nuggets:

ADV Manga is still publishing, and has just released Freaks, Angelic Days, and the last volume of Chrono Crusade.

Also,

The Aria manga is still being worked on at ADV Manga.

That’s not going to do much to mollify Aria fans.