ICv2 lists the BookScan top 20 graphic novels, and vol. 28 of Naruto tops the list. No surprise there. A little more surprising is that the number two property is vol. 4 of Vampire Knight, and vol. 19 of Fruits Basket is third. Could Vampire Knight be the next Furuba? If so, that’s bad news for Tokyopop. (As the mother of a teenager, I can tell you that vampires are huge in this age group.) Anyway, Viz took 16 of the top 20 slots, leaving just enough room for one title each for Tokyopop (Fruits Basket) and Del Rey (Fairy Tail), plus two non-manga titles from DC.
In other charts news, ANN points out that Naruto has finally exited the USA Today Booklist and a new title has entered: Volume 3 of the Warriors manga, a global title based on a popular series of YA novels.
At Manga Life, Park Cooper files his NYCC con report, including quite a bit about the ICv2 conference.
Patrick Galbraith interviews Moe USA artist Okura Atsuhisa for Akibanana. Atsuhisa also drew the manga section that appeared in Wired magazine a few months back.
Go!Look: The Go!Comi folks are in Japan right now, and they’re blogging about their experiences, with lots of pix, at the Go!Comi blog. The latest post features their meetup with Japan Ai creator Aimee Steinberger in Harajuku. And if you just can’t get enough Japan Ai, Kristy Valenti presents part two of her Steinberger column at comiXology.
News from Japan: ANN reports that the TV anime series Tenkai no Shichi Ryu is getting its own manga in V Jump magazine.
Reviews: Kethylia takes down The Push Man, maintaining, “The emperor has no clothes.” Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 2 of The Other Side of the Mirror at Kuri-ousity. Julie gets an advance look at vol. 3 of High School Debut at the Manga Maniac Cafe. The Manga Recon team files a sheaf of brief reviews of recent releases at PopCultureShock. Scott Campbell knocks down the stack at Active Anime, filing reviews of vol. 15 of Dr. Slump, vol. 9 of D Gray-Man, and vol. 2 of Sand Chronicles, and Rachel Bentham adds her take on vol. 1 of B.O.D.Y. Park Cooper is a busy guy, too; he checks out vol. 1 of Buddha, vol. 3 of Full Metal Panic: Overload, and vol. 5 of Lunar Legend Tsukihime at Manga Life, and Shannon Fay contributes a look at vols. 4 and 5 of Cheeky Angel. Michelle reads vol. 29 of InuYasha at Soliloquy in Blue. At Anime on DVD, Briana Lawrence finds Great Place High School almost as boring as real high school, while Matthew Alexander takes a look at vol. 3 of Alive! Ferdinand takes a look at the vaguely Oz-related new title vol. 1 of Toto! at Prospero’s Manga.
I, for one, am not the least bit surprised that Vampire Knight has shot up to popularity so fast. It’s a 100% pure shoujo soap opera, and I adore it. The art is beautiful and as overdone as the plot and characters. And vampires are big in just about ANY age group ;)