33 volumes a week!

Today’s top story is ICv2’s report on 2007 anime and manga sales. The final numbers aren’t in for manga, but the ICv2 folks comment on the broad outlines:

it does appear that manga had another strong year in 2007 although its rate of growth is clearly slowing. The major problem facing both publishers and retailers engaged in the manga market remains the proliferation of new titles, which, if publisher projections are to be believed, will be coming at you at the rate of 33 volumes of manga per week.

I don’t actually regard lots of new titles as a “problem,” but then, I can stack the books on the floor if I run out of shelf space. Bookstores aren’t supposed to do that.

Oh, and here are their top ten manga properties for 2007, which should come as a surprise to no one:

1. Naruto
2. Fruits Basket
3. Death Note
4. Bleach
5. Kingdom Hearts
6. Pokemon
7. Vampire Knight
8. Fullmetal Alchemist
9. Absolute Boyfriend
10. Loveless

Meanwhile, this week’s PWCW has two interesting stories for manga readers: Calvin Reid’s article on Christian graphic novels (which I mentioned yesterday) and Stephanie Mangold’s story on global manga at Tokyopop.

David Welsh picks the best of this week’s new manga. The Comics Villagers list their picks as well, and Charles Tan has an article on manga in the Philippines.

Comics Should Be Good has a new manga columnist, Danielle Leigh, who kicks off her “Manga Before Flowers” column with a look back at how she came to love manga.

Iris Print’s Kellie Lynch tallies her reader surveys and comes up with an interesting portrait of how people’s Significant Others feel about their BL habit. Also: E-books are coming!

Stretching the definition: We’re pretty loose about the term “manga” around here—basically, if the creator says it’s manga, that’s good enough for me. But… Gilbert Hernandez’s short webcomic is titled “Manga,” and it has nosebleeds and fistfights, but the resemblance pretty much ends there. And this “manga” version of “Happy Days” from India is even less manga-like, plus it’s some Indian “Happy Days,” not our familiar Richie and Fonzie version. But it gets bonus points for being in both Telugu and English—no need for scanlation. (Second link via Simon Jones.)

Count the ironies: A lawyer has accused the creator of Bengoshi no Kuzu (Scum of Lawyers), which runs in Big Comic Original magazine, of plagiarizing his novel.

Reviews: At Sleep is for the Week, NotHayama doesn’t see what the big deal is about Mushishi. The Comics Villagers have posted this week’s set of reviews: Lissa Pattillo on Poison Cherry Drive, Charles Tan on vol. 1 of the Rurouni Kenshin omnibus, Sabrina on vol. 1 of With the Light, Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of The Guin Saga Manga: The Seven Magi, John Thomas on vol. 1 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, and another defector from Manga Life, Michael Aronson on The Astro Boy Essays. At the MangaCast, BrianP has a written review of vol. 8 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure while Ed Chavez podcasts his thoughts on vol. 2 of Black Dog and vol. 5 of Gunslinger Girls. Snow Cleo reviews Garden Dreams at Manga Jouhou. Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Yozakura Quartet at Prospero’s Manga. Erica Friedman’s take on vol. 1 of He Is My Master: lamer than “Three’s Company.” On the other hand, Erica’s review is probably funnier than either one. Julie checks out vol. 3 of Hoshin Engi at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Active Anime, Holly Ellingwood reviews Necratoholic and Be With You, and Rachel Bentham reads vol. 7 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs.

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Comments

  1. I’m glad you enjoyed the review. I was thinking of you as I wrote it. lol

    Cheers,

    Erica

    Hungry for Yuri? Have some Okazu!
    http://okazu.blogspot.com

  2. Danielle Leigh says

    ohhhh happy day, my favorite blogger links to me!

    Already got a bunch of folks via your pointer, thanks for the publicity!

  3. Erica, it’s funny you chose “Three’s Company”—the title makes me think of “I Dream of Jeannie.”

    Thanks, Danielle! I’m looking forward to your future columns!

Trackbacks

  1. […] [Review] John Thomas on the first volume of Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki’s horror/mystery series, The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. (Above: You probably don’t want to know what’s happening in this panel from the book, but I’ll give you a hint — it involves nude revenge; ©2002 Eiji Otsuka Office and Housui Yamazaki, English translation ©2006 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Link via Brigid Alverson.) […]

  2. […] titles (33 of them a week by some counts) no longer have an unlimited lift ticket and automatic orders-and-placement in stores.  Manga is […]