The Speed Racer movie causes the mainstream media to notice, once again, that Japanese culture seems to be popular over here. Look, there’s sushi in the supermarkets and manga in the bookstores and hey, that Gwen Stefani lady designed a line of clothes! This piece makes me wonder if MSNBC keeps their reporters locked up somewhere and only lets them out to do trend stories—I was buying sushi in the supermarket in South Bend, Indiana, at least six or seven years ago. Anyway, they do talk to Roland Kelts and Viz’s Seiji Horibuchi about kawaii which probably makes this one worth a click. Kelts himself looks at J-Pop in Hollywood at The Star of Malaysia.
Erica Friedman rounds up the week’s yuri news at Okazu.
Lori Henderson celebrates Mother’s Day with a look at moms in manga at Manga Xanadu, and then she weighs in on a few recent news items, including Viz’s OEL line.
At Sporadic Sequential, where John Jakala admits to mixed feelings about Alive and then assesses several other long-running series (and decides he likes most of them).
Gia has the scoop on the Japanese guests coming to Comic-Con this summer. ICv2 has more on Yoshitaka Amano’s visit.
At Comics Village, John Thomas talks about the life of a translator. Back at Mecha Mecha Media, he posts the latest Yuuyake Shimbun, which includes a story on Dark Horse’s 20th anniversary of manga.
The Digital folks have a new Speed Racer website up (spotted by sharp-eyed Deb Aoki of About.com).
Specialty titles: Erin Finnegan investigates the world of fishing manga, and a paleontologist checks out a dinosaur manga.
The Ninja Consultants post audio of the 70s Shojo Manga panel from Anime Boston.
Rumiko Takahashi will exhibit her original work in Tokyo next summer.
Manly Manga and More brings us up to date with the latest manga news from Germany, including the upcoming Comic Salon and word that Heyne has cancelled several titles.
Job board: A Manila-based artist is looking for paid assistants. This could be interesting!
News from Japan: The winners of the 12th Osamu Tezuka cultural prize have been announced; unfortunately, they probably won’t be familiar to English-speaking readers. The 37th Japan Cartoonist awards are a different matter, as Naoki Urasawa took the grand prize for 20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys. At MangaCast, Ed continues his big list of May releases with a look at new titles from Shueisha, Shogakukan, and some mid-size publishers.
Reviews: Deb Aoki enjoys vol. 1 of Toto! at About.com. Tim and Weltall review Strawberry 100% and Fake on the latest Anime Pulse podcast. Salimbol reads vol. 2 of Suppli and compares it with the dorama. At PopCultureShock, Katherine Dacey checks out three Shojo Beat titles, vol. 1 of Fairy Cube, vol. 1 of Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, and I.O.N. David Welsh adds his two cents on I.O.N. Danielle Van Gorder reviews two BL titles, Say Please and A Love Song for the Miserable, and Sakura Eries checks out vol. 5 of School Rumble, at Anime on DVD. Tiamat’s Disciple reads the light novel vol. 3 of Scrapped Princess. Lissa Pattillo reviews The Sky Over My Spectacles and vol. 2 of Aventura at Kuri-ousity. Michelle reads vol. 8 of Boys Over Flowers and a Japanese title, vol. 1 of 7SEEDS, at Soliloquy in Blue. Mangamaniac Julie reviews A Foreign Love Affair at the MangaCast and vol. 5 of Crimson Hero and vol. 2 of I Shall Never Return at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At The Star of Malaysia, Stephen Taylor looks at vols. 1-6 of Gatcha Gacha and Pauline Wong reviews vol. 1 of Sand Chronicles. Hazel looks at Hellgate London at Anime Infatuation. Ferdinand checks out vol. 1 of Devil’s Bride at Prospero’s Manga. At Active Anime, Davey C. Jones reads vol. 7 of Hayate the Combat Butler and vol. 1 of Heavenshield, Rachel Bentham checks out vol. 3 of Cherry Juice, and Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 1 of Foxy Lady. Cathy enjoys Kiichi and the Magic Books at It can’t all be about manga… Erica Friedman reviews chapters 3 and 6 of Gunjou, which runs in Morning 2 magazine in Japan, at Okazu. Snow Wildsmith reads Baku at Manga Jouhou. Kate Dacey gives vol. 1 of The Record of a Fallen Vampire a D at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Leroy Douresseaux enjoys vols. 1 and 2 of Speed Racher: Mach Go Go Go at The Comic Book Bin.
The MSNBC article sort of reinforces the belief I’ve been holding (and trumpeting) all along, which is that when you bring in even a few sensible people who seem at least moderately competent when it comes to the subject of the “gee-whiz, Japan!” factor, the quality of these bit pieces improves dramatically. It’s not great, but I don’t find the coverage particularly terrible at all. (Then again, the precedent for these kinds of things is pretty much through the floor…I suppose once you hit the bottom, you have to go up??)
Hey sensei, your link to fishing manga link doesn’t quite work.
The link worked fine. I just neglected to put it in. ^_^
Sorry—it’s fixed now.