Crime does not pay for three would-be manga pirates in Tokyo, Morioka, and Osaka, who were arrested earlier today for uploading manga to the internet. Simon Jones (quite NSFW this week) speculates:
What’s interesting here is, given the amount of time it would take to scan a magazine the size of Weekly Shounen Jump, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is an “inside job”, and the police may yet uncover involvement of individuals higher up in the distribution and production process. Just my hunch.
Where is Yen Press? Their website is just a placeholder, but an alert commenter on the post below noted that their release schedule can be found at this PDF (scroll down).
Satsuma has a translation note and recipe from vol. 3 of Shugo Chara.
Johanna checks out the latest issue of Tokyopop’s Manga magazine.
Reviews: Pata has another Right Turn Only!! column up, in which he tackles vol. 1 of Black Sun, Silver Moon, vol. 11 of Death Note, and another truly terrible untranslated manga (featuring a bishie Beethoven, no less). At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews Waru, vol. 4 of Air Gear, and vol. 7 of Eden: An Endless World. At the BasuGasuBakuhatsu Anime Blog, Hung checks out vol. 2 of Alien Nine, and vol. 4 of Death Note. Johanna reviews vol. 1 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs at Comics Worth Reading. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie is not overly impressed with vol. 1 of Heaven!! At Okazu, Erica is reading vol. 2 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ and vol. 1 of Kedamono Damono.
Of all the artistic and musical liberties taken by the mangaka behind Mozart Doesn’t Sing Lullabies, the one least substantiated by the historical record is the depiction of Beethoven as… a bishonen. The rest are far-fetched, but not as crazy as one might suppose–Beethoven actually studied with Salieri around the turn of the nineteenth century, for example. Kinda makes me wish that someone would translate Tezuka’s unfinished series Ludwig B. (though that takes some serious liberties with the composer’s biography as well).
Is Yen Press going to publish anything good or are they going to be another assembley line for aimless shojo and yaoi ( i.e. Ice Kunion, Go! Comi!, DMP, Broccolli, Netcomics) ? I would love to see something different for once, something against the grain, something no one would expect. Garo published many fringe comics, why not something from them?
Time will tell, of course, as to what and how Yen Press will do, but I think their announcement on that autism-themed manga “With the Light” counts as something no one would have expected…