On January - 26 - 2012ADD COMMENTS
J-Comi launches English beta
Manga-ka Ken Akamatsu has pioneered online manga in Japan with his J-Comi site, and on Friday he announced a beta version for foreign languages, including English, as well as a Japanese and English iOS app, JReader. Most people think of the late Jerry Robinson, who passed away this week, as the early Batman creator who helped come up with The Joker; thanks to Anime News Network for reminding us that he was also one of the creators of the sci-fi comedy manga Astra. Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for ...
Book Girl and the Captive Fool
by dm00 Let the book fairy be your guide This weekend I read the third Book Girl novel: Book Girl and the Captive Fool. In this book, Tohko discovers that someone is cutting pages out of library books. This offends her (despite her own habits where books are concerned), because the person is taking some of the best parts — like taking the strawberry off the top of a cake — and leaving the rest. She drags Konoha into an investigation, and they catch the culprit, red-handed. As penance, the culprit must take part in the play the Book ...
Otakon news, Comic-Con reflections, MMF wrapup
It’s con season for sure, so let’s start with that: I rounded up the manga and anime news from Otakon at MTV Geek, Erin Finnegan has a podcast of her Unusual Manga Genres panel at the Ninja Consultant website, and Ed Sizemore reports on Friday at Otakon at Comics Worth Reading. Deb Aoki reports on the Shonen Jump panel at San Diego Comic-Con, in which Weekly Shonen Jump editor Hisashi Sasaki critiqued storyboards sent in by readers. Sharp-eyed Lori Henderson picks up on a second-time-around announcement at SDCC: Udon will publish a two-volume Sengoku Basara manga, a project they ...
Mizuki, Mizuno, Mameshiba!
Public Radio International’s program The World recently featured an interview with Shigeru Mizuki, creator of Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths. And Jackie of Green Tea Graffiti talks to Junko Mizuno. (Both links via The Manga Critic. ) Johanna Draper Carlson has put together an interesting timeline of josei manga in the U.S., which is, sadly, mostly a series of false starts. Daniella Orihuela-Gruber reviews the new manga magazine GEN at All About Manga. This week, Viz Media unleashes the hybrid bean-dogs Mameshiba on an unsuspecting world. Reviews Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Maid Shokun (A Case Suitable for ...
Special big Sunday paper edition
My big week of post-C2E2 madness is over, and I’m so far behind, I figured I would just do a big catch-up post. Think of this as the MangaBlog version of the Sunday New York Times, oversized and bulging with the week’s news, for you to peruse at your leisure over bagels and lox. Enjoy! Jason Thompson devotes his latest House of 1000 Manga column to yaoi manga creator Hinako Takanaga (Little Butterfly), who “isn’t wildly weird like est em and Yoshinaga, but is just plain good at what she does.” It’s worth checking out the column just for ...
New manga, old manga, vintage manga, overpriced manga?
Lori Henderson has the list of the past two weeks’ all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids. Manga Curmudgeon David Welsh looks at this week’s new releases, and rather than choose one of two books in Previews, he orders them both. David teams up with Kate Dacey and Melinda Beasi to discuss their Pick of the Week at Manga Bookshelf. Sean Gaffney looks ahead to next week’s new manga. at A Case Suitable for Treatment. At ComicAttack, Kristin takes the long view with a look at the best manga in the February Previews. And David looks even ...
Revolutionary Girl Madoka Magica
by Link Hey, I’m not dead yet. As a frequent visitor to the SHAFT Bar & Girl, I was heavily intrigued the second I heard about rumors of the studio’s Power of Anime (Anime no Chikara, Aniplex’s now-defunct timeslot that pumped out three A-1 Pictures ventures of varying quality) series. Reports were swirling around of a SHAFT original cartoon, another promising entity. Put two and two together and that makes for Akiyuki Shinbo ’s possible next big hit. Remember that Aniplex funded their very successful Monstory ( Bakemonogatari ). This project came to be known as Puella Magi Magica ...
Monday morning news update
Sean Gaffney starts us off with a look at this week’s new manga at A Case Suitable for Treatment, and he also wraps up the latest Manga Moveable Feast, which featured After School Nightmare. The Comics Village team, meanwhile, picks the best of the past week’s new releases. Lori Henderson takes us through the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman posts the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu. On the heels of Banned Books Week, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber has some thoughts on self-censorship, as opposed to the type imposed from the outside. How-to-draw-manga books come ...
Still catching up…
… but I’m getting there. Looking forward to that long weekend. At Good Comics for Kids, Kate Dacey has some advice for librarians (and others) on how to keep a manga collection current. Jason Thompson’s latest House of 1000 Manga column takes a look at doujinshi based on American superhero and Star Trek comics. At The Manga Critic, Kate Dacey also peers into the dusty recesses of manga history with a look at Pineapple Army. Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss a handful of manhwa in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf. Melinda also winds up ...
Manga: Not dead yet
At Reverse Thieves, Hisui and Narutaki take a look at the changes in the manga market and point to some possible factors, including the fact that publishing in general has been hit by the recession. And translator William Flanagan nails it in the comments: [T]here seems to be no real decline in popularity of manga, just that the fans aren’t paying for it anymore. Meanwhile, Danielle Leigh is taking matters into her own hands by learning Japanese so she can read her favorite series without worrying they will come to an untimely end. Kai-Ming Cha paints a brighter picture ...
PR: The Saturn Apartments
The print edition of The Saturn Apartments is on the way from Viz, due in stores on May 8. This is one of the stories that has been appearing regularly at SigIKKI.com, and you can check it out online, at least for a little while longer. I haven’t read it, but from the writeup below, it sounds kind of interesting: It’s the story of a window washer in a futuristic space colony. Read on for more. AN EXTRAORDINARY VIEW OF THE FUTURE SHINES IN SATURN APARTMENTS MANGA SERIES FROM VIZ MEDIA A Young Window Washer Offers A Panoramic View ...
Musical Impressions on 19 Colors by Natsumi Kiyoura
I first started paying attention to Natsuki Kiyoura after hearing her sing the OP to Sketchbook , and I haven’t gotten tired of her voice since then. Maybe because of that song itself, I like to think of her singing as soothing, regardless of how she’s been using it since, for power, for fun, or for awesome. That quality is something that I don’t usually hear in people who perform OP/EDs for anime, so it was captivating for me, especially after hearing the OP from Spice and Wolf for the first time. I also haven’t met a song of ...
PR: Dorohedoro
Time for some PR! It looks like there are some interesting manga hitting the bookstores in the next few weeks, so I’m going to go ahead and post the press releases, with covers, links to previews, etc. Feel free to drop by and tell me what you think. First up is Dorohedoro, a “gritty urban sci-fi/horror series” from Viz about Sorcerers who create animal-human mutants, and the alligator-headed man who hunts them. You can actually read most of the first volume on the Sigikki website right now. I went over and took a look—it’s interesting, that’s for sure. Not ...
Japan Expo awards up; Aurora speculation
The nominees for the Japan Expo awards are out, and they include some interesting titles. Japan Expo is a European event so all these manga are licensed over there; in some cases, they have different titles than the American editions. Here is a nice page from the Expo site with the covers of all the nominees. (Image of Vinland Saga lifted from Manga Curmudgeon, where it was a featured license request a while ago.) In other awards news, the L.A. Times Book Prizes have added a graphic novel category, and GoGo Monster is among the nominees. Simon Jones speculates ...
Translations, best-of lists, and deep thoughts
David Welsh and Kate Dacey make their picks from this week’s batch of new comics, and the Comics Village team picks the best of the last week’s releases as well as their November manga of the month. You could read all the best-manga-of-2009 lists, or you could let Deb Aoki boil them down into a single list of critics’ recommendations for you, since a lot of books are being mentioned over and over this year. Deb also lists her choices for the best continuing series of the year. Erica Friedman lists her top ten yuri manga of 2009 at ...
Becky Cloonan interviewed; more best-of lists
East Coast Rising artist Becky Cloonan is the featured artist in the latest edition of The Gallery at ANN. Lori Henderson rounds up the week’s manga news and announces the winner of her The Color of Earth giveaway at Manga Xanadu. Deb Aoki presents her list of the 25 best new manga released this year at About.com. At Comics-and-More, Dave Ferraro lists his choices for the 10 best manga of 2009. Reviews: The Manga Recon team has a new set of Manga Minis to start the week. Megan M. on vol. 2 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Bookshelf) Connie on ...
Manga death watch begins
As I noted yesterday, the Good Comics for Kids gang posted our picks for the best comics for kids and teens of 2009, and there were quite a few manga on the list. Gia linked to it at Anime Vice, and her fans have some suggestions of their own for younger readers. Gia also wonders if digital distribution would work for a manga magazine in the U.S. Are manga and anime dying in Japan? Roland Kelts makes that bold assertion in a recent blog post at the new Comics Journal site, and he enlarges on that point in this ...
Opportunity and rejection
I didn’t get to listen in on the latest Tokyopop webinar, which featured CEO Stu Lefy and senior editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzybl but Daniella Orihuela-Gruber liveblogged it and then offered some additional thoughts, and ANN summarized the high points. Apparently Tokyopop is considering using “fan translators” to finish up series that are on hiatus due to low sales. It’s hard to know what this means—is “fan translators” a synonym for “unpaid labor”? Because from what I hear, professional translators aren’t paid that well to begin with. Anyway, they are in negotiation with a scanlation site, and they mentioned Crunchyroll, a ...
Domo creator speaks; yaoi readers pick their faves
Just a quick update today as I’m heading out for what I anticipate will be a busy day at work. One important reminder, though—if there’s an election going on where you live, get out and VOTE! We’re having municipal elections today, and although we all pay more attention to the president, local officials have a much more direct effect on everyday life. So take a minute to pull that lever or fill in that bubble. OK, on with the manga news… Lissa Pattillo and Deb Aoki write up the most recent Tokyopop webinar, which featured Domo creator Tsuneo Goda. ...
New manga, news from Deux, the annotated bookshelf
Lori Henderson has a thorough roundup of the week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu, and Erica Friedman checks in with the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu. The Comics Village clan makes their picks from this week’s new releases. David Welsh, meanwhile, contemplates the upcoming titles featured in the September Previews. Gottsu-Iiyan posts some Naoki Urasawa sketches from a Japanese magazine at The Eastern Edge. The Daily Yomiuri reports that Japanese publishers are putting more of their works online to beat scanlators, since legal means have had limited success. Things were looking kind of bleak at Deux ...
Touka Gettan Review – 80/100
Touka Gettan is part of the “WTF am I watching!?”-series. From the creators of Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito comes an equally eccentric series that will have just about everyone confused as hell in the first five episodes. Its big selling point is of course that the episode aired backwards: it starts with the conclusion and ends with the introduction. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! In any case, it’s definitely an interesting and unique experience watching this series. The first five episodes are a complete mindscrew, with just about everything not making any sense because ...
PR: Viz at SDCC
My in-box is overflowing with press releases, so I’m going to try to post a few. I do this for two reasons—to organize a lot of information in one place, and more importantly, to hear what you have to say about it. So feel free to comment away, or send in bulletins from the floor about the events listed here. Read on for the Viz schedule: VIZ MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2009 COMIC-CON Array Of Notable Personal Appearances, Events And Activities In Booth 2813 Showcase ULTIMO And New Imprint SHONEN SUNDAY AND SIGIKKI.COM San Francisco, CA, July 15, 2009 – ...
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