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The anime news network blog provides all enthusiasts with fresh quality anime gossip daily. You’re never too old to love anime. Come read our columns and extensive reviews to find out what’s hot and what’s not.

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 – ...

Sexy Voice blogathon, Yokyoama webcomic, and bishi Jareth

Posted by admin On February - 8 - 2010ADD COMMENTS

The first Manga Moveable Feast begins today: Over the next week, a number of bloggers will be reviewing and discussing the manga Sexy Voice and Robo. David Welsh, who organized the event, provides an introduction to the book at Manga Curmudgeon, and check back there for links to the reviews (including, hopefully, mine). If you’re reading this early, tune into Tokyopop’s live chat with Benjamin, the creator of Orange and the newly released Remember. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Very good, sir! Volume 1 of Black Butler was the surprise number one manga on this week’s NY Times Graphic Books Best-Seller List. And everybody’s reading it—check below for lots of reviews. Yu-Gi-Oh tops the BookScan graphic novel chart for January, but Black Butler shows up in the number 7 slot there as well. Yuichi Yokoyama, creator of Travel and New Engineering, is posting his latest comic, Outdoor, online. The site is in Japanese, but since Yokoyama’s comics are wordless, it doesn’t matter. And the navigation is in English. (Via Same Hat! ) Lori Henderson posts her weekly manga news digest at Manga Xanadu. Erica Friedman rounds up the week’s yuri news and offers her opinion on a variety of manga and non-manga topics at Okazu. David Welsh picks the most interesting books from the latest Previews, announces a winner in his Manga Moms contest, and asks publishers to please license The Life of the Genius Professor Yanagizawa at Manga Curmudgeon. Jake Forbes offers a sneak peek of the art from vol. 4 of Return to Labyrinth: Bishi Jareth. Tokyopop is offering replacement copies of the Blu manga Croquis to readers whose copies are partially in German due to a printing error. Editor Patrick Macias shows off the cover of the March/April issue of Otaku USA, due on newsstands any day now. Helen McCarthy links to Japanese in Anime and Manga, a site that uses manga to help explain subtle points like the relationship between two speakers. News from Japan: Alive is coming to an end. The anime Time of Eve is being made into a manga. Reviews: Yay! Manga reviews are back at About Heroes! Go check it out for short takes on the latest titles. Lori Henderson compares the manga and anime of 07-Ghost at Manga Xanadu. Japanator’s Brad Rice visits About.com to review vol. 1 of Gundam 00 and vol. 1 of Gundam 00-F. Gia doodles her review of vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts at Anime Vice. Other reviews of note: Sesho on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Heroes (Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews) Sterg Botzakis on vol. 1 of Barefoot Gen (Graphic Novel Resources) Rob on vol. 1 of Basara (Panel Patter) Connie on vol. 3 of Black Bird (Slightly Biased Manga) Connie on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Slightly Biased Manga) Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Black Butler (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Gia on vol. 1 of Black Butler (Anime Vice) Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Black Butler and vol. 1 of Crown of Love (The Manga Critic) Connie on vol. 9 of Black Jack (Slightly Biased Manga) Connie on vol. 5 of Black Sun, Silver Moon (Slightly Biased Manga) Rob on vol. 2 of Bleach (Panel Patter) Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Bloody Kiss (I Reads You) Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 4 of Cirque du Freak (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews) Rob on vol. 3 of Flower of Life (Panel Patter) Johanna Draper Carlson on Garden Dreams (Comics Worth Reading) Julie on vol. 12 of High School Debut (Manga Maniac Cafe) A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Higurashi When They Cry: Abducted by Demons Arc (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions) Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of I Hate You More Than Anyone (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (The Comic Book Bin) Scott Campbell on vol. 4 of Inukami (Active Anime) Ed Chavez on vol. 1 of Kimi ni Todoke (MangaCast) Vom Marlowe on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (The Hooded Utilitarian) Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Night Head Genesis (Stop, Drop, and Read) Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 30 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin) Connie on vol. 36 of One Piece (Slightly Biased Manga) Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 2 of Oninagi (Tiamat’s Manga Reviws) Rachel Bentham on vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (Active Anime) Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 7 of Pluto (Comics Worth Reading) Julie on vol. 1 of Rampage (Manga Maniac Cafe) AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Rin-ne (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog) Shaenon Garrity on vol. 1 of Rin-ne (About.com) Johanna Draper Carlson on Ristorante Paradiso (Comics Worth Reading) Rob on vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire (Panel Patter) Michelle Smith on vols. 3-7 of Slam Dunk (Soliloquy in Blue) Kristin on The Sheikh’s Reluctant Bride and Word of a Gentleman (Comic Attack) Edouardo Zacarias on vol. 1 of Ultimo (Animanga Nation) Andre on vol. 2 of Sugarholic (Kuriousity) Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Vampire Kisses: Blood Relatives (The Comic Book Bin) Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1-6 of V.B. Rose (Comics Worth Reading)