MangaBlog

At their Anime Expo panel, Viz highlighted some upcoming titles and announced that Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal will join the lineup of Shonen Jump Alpha.

If you’re mourning the end of Ouran High School Host Club, check out Viz’s new Shojo Beat Facebook page for info about a live Tweetchat with the editor tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, Nico Nico is hosting a live event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon, and the press release promises “an exciting new announcement” that will “surprise the fans.” The editor of the manga and several members of the voice cast of the anime will be there for some behind-the-scenes chat.

Reviews

Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Cowboy Bebop (Blogcritics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Genshiken: Second Season (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Jiu Jiu (The Manga Critic)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Rin-ne (The Comic Book Bin)

I wrote up a quick summary of Tokyopop’s Anime Expo panel at MTV Geek (based on the transcript—alas, I wasn’t there), and Deb Aoki has a thorough analysis at her blog as well. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson looks at the mixed signals Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy is sending out regarding their original graphic novels.

And Viz had a few things to say at Anime Expo as well: They will be rolling out an Android version of their manga app, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal will join the Shonen Jump Alpha lineup in July.

At Manga Bookshelf, we discuss our Picks of the Week. I’m ready for some summer reading!

Matt Blind compiles his latest list of manga best-sellers (online sales), this one for the week ending May 13.

Reviews: Ash Brown takes a look at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan (Comics-and-More)
Justin and Manjiorin on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Justin on chapter 5 of Barrage (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on vol. 3 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 4 of Gunslinger Girl (omnibus edition) (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Jiu Jiu (I Reads You)
TSOTE on Manga Jung (Three Steps Over Japan)
Philip Anthony on vol. 2 of Sakura Hime (Manga Bookshelf)

Big news from Anime Expo: Tokyopop had a panel, and they announced they will be publishing that vols. 4 and 5 of Hetalia will be published in North America; Levy said the details are unclear but he is talking to Gentosha about it. Tokyopop will also publish the third volume of the OEL manga Psy-Comm, as print-on-demand books via the anime retail site RightStuf. More on this as it develops…

At MTV Geek I reviewed Viz’s newest shoujo manga, Jiu Jiu.

Erica Friedman rounds up the latest yuri news in her Yuri News Network post at Okazu.

The Yen Press staff blogs about their work on the new (finally complete!) edition of Alice in the Country of Hearts.

The Takehiko Inoue-focused Manga Moveable Feast continues at two sites; at Manga Report, Anna pulls out some of the highlights from the archive of older posts, and at Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle Smith posts the link roundups for days two, three, and four, as well as a special Inoue-themed edition of Let’s Get Visual, with Melinda Beasi.

Kimi-Chan posts a 2010 interview with Incubus creator Yayoi Neko.

Manga Bookshelf editor Melinda Beasi talks about manga, blogging, fandom, and girl-friendly comics, among other things, in a wide-ranging interview at women write about comics.

Reviews

Rob Clough on Black Blizzard (High-Low)
Erica Friedman on Black Yagi to Gekiyaku Madeline (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 1 of The Devil Does Exist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 3 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rob Clough on A Drifting Life (High-Low)
Connie on Good Morning (Slightly Biased Manga)
Manjiorin on vols. 2 and 3 of Hikaru No Go (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of House of Five Leaves (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 10 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Emily on Kyou Otoko to Isourou (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of La Corda d’Oro (Blogcritics)
Tom Spurgeon on Mai, The Psychic Girl (The Comics Reporter)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on NonNonBa (Comics Alliance)
Kristin on vol. 4 of Psyren (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Psyren (The Comic book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on vols. 1-6 of Slam Dunk (Manga Report)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Vagabond (Manga Xanadu)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1-3 of Vagabond (Soliloquy in Blue)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Vagabond (omnibus edition)
Anna on vols. 9 and 10 of Vagabond (omnibus edition) (Manga Report)

It’s that time of the week again: I checked out the list of this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Lissa Pattillo gave her take in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Sean Gaffney has a look at next week’s new manga, which look absolutely stellar, with new volumes of Wandering Son and Drops of God, as well as the manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai’s 5 Centimeters per Second.

Digital Manga’s Kickstarter drive reached its goal of $20,000 to publish Osamu Tezuka’s Unico, so the second new license has been unlocked: Tezuka’s Atomcat, a feline spinoff of Astro Boy. And if they reach $26,000, which looks likely, they will have yet another license to announce. Christopher Butcher and Johanna Draper Carlson voice some concerns about Digital using Kickstarter this way, but at the newly revived Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman argues that it’s an appropriate way to market a book, although not really necessary with a Tezuka property.

With the year half over (that was fast!), Kate Dacey asks her readers: What are the best new manga of 2012… so far? You can vote for up to five in her poll.

At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle Smith presents the first roundup of posts in the Takehiko Inoue Manga Moveable Feast, and at Manga Bookshelf, Michelle and Melinda Beasi devote this week’s Off the Shelf column to Inoue’s Real.

Jason Thompson devotes this week’s House of 1000 Manga column to the samurai manga Satsuma Gishiden.

Matt Blind has another list of manga best-sellers, this one for the week of April 29. Sailor Moon is still going strong, but it has a bit of competition.

Hey, all of a sudden it’s summer con season! Anime Expo is this weekend, and Deb Aoki has the manga highlights for you. And plan ahead, because Arina Tanemura is going to be the guest at AnimeFest in Dallas at the end of August.

Manga Therapy posts a video of author Helen McCarthy giving the history of manga in just nine minutes.

Ash Brown is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of From Eroica With Love to one lucky reader.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at Monthly Gessan, the monthly cousin of the weekly Shonen Sunday.

BIG news from Japan today: Chiho Saito, the creator of Revolutionary Girl Utena, will launch a new series, Torikae Baya, in the next issue of Shogakukan’s Monthly Flowers.

Reviews

Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Flowers of Evil (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Kitaro Collection (Three Steps Over Japan)
A Day Without Me on vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess (omnibus edition) (GAR GAR Stegosaurus)
Anna on vols. 1-5 of Real (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on Yume Yori Sutekina (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on Yuri Anthology Dolce (Okazu)

I took a look at this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek. I also reported on JManga’s new a la carte system, along with some suggestions for manga you can buy with those freely acquired points.

Now this is interesting: Tokyopop will have a panel at Anime Expo. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber will be on the panel, and she clues us in as to what to expect:

I’ll be helping Stu Levy explain what happened to TOKYOPOP in 2011, what we’re doing now and what the future holds. It will be my first time on an official industry panel, so I’m a bit nervous!

We’ll have news, trivia, giveaways and a few surprises! It will be a great panel, especially for Hetalia and Bizenghast fans, so I’ll hope you’ll join us, even if you weren’t originally planning to. Hope to see you there!

It’s time for the Manga Moveable Feast again! This month the focus is on the works of Takehiko Inoue, and it’s being co-hosted by Anna Neatrour (who will archive older links at Manga Report) and Michelle Smith (who is collecting current links at Soliloquy in Blue). Anna and Michelle explain a bit more at Manga Report.

Comics Alliance has a generous preview of Moyoco Anno’s Sakuran up right now; it’s mature content and they say it’s SFW but it wouldn’t fly in my workplace, so your mileage may vary.

Digital Manga wants to bring back Osamu Tezuka’s Unico, an all-ages tale of a cuddly unicorn, and they are running a Kickstarter campaign to fund it. As of this writing, it is almost funded, and if they hit their goal with time to spare, they will announce a second license.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan will end in this week’s Shonen Jump in Japan (and thus in a couple of weeks in Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha), but Japanese SJ editor Hisashi Sasaki says the sequel, which will run in Jump Next! in August, will be available in English as well.

ALC and JManga are collaborating to publish three yuri manga series from Comic Yuri Hime: Sorairo Girl Friend, Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu, and Yuru Yuri.

The Sugoi Books Android app is terminating as of August 7. The bad news is that after that date, any book not downloaded onto the user’s device is gone forever. The good news is that the app is so bad that I doubt many people will have anything to lose.

Jason Thompson talks about Kentarou Miura’s Berserk, “one of the greatest, darkest and longest fantasy manga ever made,” in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Nenena discusses the gender aspect of Attack on Titan.

How do you know when a series is going to end soon? Japanese readers suggested some warning signs in a recent survey.

News from Japan: Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto says he knows the end of the series and that the manga is currently heading toward its climax. The next story arc of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan will be in Jump Next!, not its usual home, Shonen Jump. TPeach-Pit (creators of Shugo Chara! and Rozen Maiden) has announced a new series is in the works, to run in Kodansha’s Dessert magazine. Nyankoi! creator Sato Fujiwara has started a free web manga, Ore to Moyashi to Ohanaya-san, in the web magazine Comic Meteor. The Idolm@ster game franchise is inspiring not one but eight manga spinoffs.

Reviews: Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss some new yaoi releases in their latest BL Bookrack column at Manga Bookshelf. Kate Dacey has some short takes at The Manga Critic. Ash Brown rounds up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Kristin on vol. 5 of Ai Ore (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 12 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Justin on chapter 4 of Barrage (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 4 of Dawn of the Arcana (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 1 of Excel Saga (Slightly Biased Manga)
Greg McElhatton on Fallen Words (Read About Comics)
Connie on Finder Series 6: Passion in the Viewfinder (Slightly Biased Manga)
Alexander on issue 12 of GEN (Comic Attack)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Hana-Kimi (Manga Xanadu)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 23 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on Honey Darling (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sweetpea616 on vols. 1-6 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Jormungand (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu (Okazu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 32 of Kekkaishi (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Love Hina (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Anna on vol. 18 of Ouran High School Host Club (Manga Report)
Sesho on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Connie on vol. 28 of Skip Beat! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Victoria Martin on vol. 8 of Soul Eater (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Sunshine Sketch (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 6 of Tenjho Tenge (Full Contact Edition) (Comic Attack)

Deb Aoki takes a closer look at two recently announced manga: Knights of Sidonia, from Vertical, and Kitaro, from Drawn and Quarterly.

Digital Manga has confirmed some new yaoi and hentai licenses.

Lissa Pattillo looks at this week’s new manga releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Lissa also has the PR on Viz’s newest shoujo manga, Jiu Jiu.

At Blog of the North Star, Milo continues his look at wrestling manga with a peek at the historical series Cestvs.

News from Japan: Kotaku reports the results of a recent poll asking people what their favorite manga was. Ultimate Venus manga-ka Takako Shigematsu is launching a new series, Nekozuka-san’chi no Gokyōdai, in the July issue of Gekkan Princess. ANN has word of two new Shonen Jump series: Ansatsu Kyōshitsu (Assassination Classroom) by Yusei Matsui (Neuro – Supernatural Detective) and Takamagahara by Jūzō Kawai.

Reviews: Carlo Santos rounds up the best, the worst, and the meh in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Other reviews of note:

Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Drifting Net Cafe (The Manga Critic)
Ken Haley on vols. 8 and 9 of Erementar Gerade (Sequential Ink)
Ed Sizemore on NonNonBa (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna on vol. 28 of Skip Beat! (Manga Report)
Sesho on Tekkonkinkreet (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Lissa Pattillo on Three Wolves Mountain (Kuriousity)