MangaBlog

Alert reader sub_divided notes some suspicious similarities between Samurai Zombie, one of the Rising Stars of Manga finalists, and some frames in the manga series Blade of the Immortal.

Telophase spotted it too but adds

The artist has great talent and I love the detail and the hatching and the design, but the poses were a little too close to the references. I would absolutely love to see this artist teamed up with a really great writer, to see what (he? she?) could do with that.

(Via Irresponsible Pictures—welcome back, Pata!)

The Japan Times has an interview with American writer Frederik Schodt, who translated the first five volumes of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix into English (with Jared Cook).

The main subject of the interview is Schodt’s newly published book Native American in the Land of the Shogun, about Ranald MacDonald (no, that’s not a typo), a half-Chinook, half-Scottish explorer who traveled to feudal Japan. The book sounds fascinating to someone who, like me, is interested in both history and Japanese culture.

Schodt spent part of his youth in Japan, studied at the International Christian University in Tokyo, and went back to Japan as an adult. He’s in the happy position of being able to pick and choose which books to translate.

Fred thinks manga comics are wonderful entertainment, offering also “a straight view into the Japanese id, you might say. They are great fun, and also very useful to me in my line of work. Right now, with a friend (Jared Cook) I am translating one of the most famous manga series, Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Hi no Tori’ (‘The Phoenix’).”

Fred and Jared translated the first five volumes almost 30 years ago, but these were published in English only a few years ago, by Viz in San Francisco. “We’ve been commissioned to finish the series (12 volumes all told), so our work has come full circle. I’m also working on a short manga-related book of essays.”

I guess the rest of the world just caught up with him. If you happen to be in Tokyo, Schodt will be speaking at Good Day Books in Ebisu, Tokyo, on March 19 and at the Asiatic Society of Japan on March 20.

Telophase has posted reviews of the Rising Stars of Manga finalists. Just reading them is an education in itself.

As I was looking over the July books (see post below), I noticed something that I guess I knew but never really registered before.

Viz charges girls a dollar more.

No kidding. All their Shonen Jump books are priced at $7.95 or $7.99. The Shoujo Beat books are $8.99.

Why? Is it more expensive to translate Hikaru No Go than Crimson Hero? I seriously doubt it. And it’s not like there is a big difference in print or paper quality, at least not that I can see. As for demand, Naruto just cracked the USA Today top 30, yet it’s one of their cheapest manga. It seems like a shrewd business model would be to charge top dollar for the hottest properties.

I realize that this isn’t a deeply significant issue, and also that some girls read shonen and some boys read shoujo. But I’m really, really tired of getting charged more for girl stuff. My husband and I go to the same hairdresser and get essentially the same haircut, yet I pay $10 more. Men’s clothes are consistently cheaper than women’s for the same level of quality. And we have to pay more for our manga as well? Boooooo!!!

I’d like to say we’re going to boycott Viz, but they’re too addictive. And the books are still cheaper than Tokyopop, which are $9.99 all across the line. But I’ll be checking a little harder with inter-library loan before I shell out that extra dollar for a Viz book, because with the quantity we buy, the price of sexism gets high in a hurry.

Anime on DVD has a list of some of the new titles to be expected from Viz in July, August, and September, so we can start saving our pennies now. ANN has information on Skip Beat, a manga that Viz will debut in July.

Tokyopop has posted the finalists in the Rising Stars of Manga competition and is letting fans vote on a People’s Choice award. Even if you don’t vote, the finalists’ work makes for some interesting reading.