We stopped by my local Borders yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the manga section, which was already pretty big, had been moved to a more central location and expanded. Anime has been relocated to that section, and one whole row (four bookcases) is given over to other graphic novels and how-to books. The employee who was responsible for the move said manga sells quite well, and she thinks it will sell even better now because they can actually shelve all the books. They seemed to have at least one of every volume of most series, and when someone buys a volume, she immediately orders another one. She was surprised to hear that Borders just sent back a bunch of unsold Tokyopop titles, but she admitted that they don’t sell too well; Naruto, Bleach, Gravitation, Shojo Beat titles, and Hellsing were the series she sees flying out the door. We had come there from Barnes & Noble, so it was possible to do a quick compare-and-contrast; our B&N has a large manga section as well as quite a few American graphic novels, but it’s harder to find an individual volume of a long-running series there. Anyway, it was refreshing to see that despite the recent reports of gloom and doom, manga is still doing pretty well in my part of the world.
Charts: Vol. 29 of Naruto is in 109th place on the USA Today best-seller list, down from 96th place last week, and vol. 23 of Bleach makes it to number 121.
Lissa Pattillo has penned a spirited defense of global manga at Kuri-ousity. Be sure to read the comments as well.
Free manga on the web: John Jakala is enjoying some sneak previews at Sporadic Sequential.
Good news for Furuba fans: At Sleep Is For the Weak, Lianne Sentar, who freelances for Tokyopop, has been told her series, Fruits Basket, Saiyuki, Tactics, and Rave Master, have not been canceled, but she is mourning the loss of her longtime co-workers.
Michael Lorah interviews Adrian Tomine about Yoshihiro’ Tatsumi’s Goodbye, which Tomine edited, and Rachel Kaufman talks to Daniel Pink about The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. (Both found via Journalista.) Also from Journalista: Fish porn. (Probably SFW, unless you work in an aquarium.)
Reviews: Ferdinand gives thumbs up to vol. 1 of Two Flowers for the Dragon at Prospero’s Manga. Erica Friedman checks out vol. 4 of Battle Club at Okazu. NotHayama reviews Gentlemen’s Alliance Cross at Sleep Is For the Weak. Ed Chavez’s latest podcast discusses vol. 1 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro and vol. 2 of Metro Survive at the MangaCast. Connie checks out vol. 1 of Two Flowers for the Dragon, vol. 2 of Oyayubihime Infinity, and vol. 11 of Saint Seiya at Slightly Biased Manga. At Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews, Sesho’s latest podcast covers vol. 1 of Dance in the Vampire Bund. Deb Aoki reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Flower of Life at About.com. Scott Campbell gives his take on vol. 8 of Suzuka, vol. 15 of Monster, and vol. 12 of Claymore at Active Anime. Lori Henderson reads vol. 2 of Muhyu & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Law at Manga Xanadu. Michelle has a big yawn for vol. 23 of Bleach at Soliloquy in Blue. Leroy Douresseaux reads vol. 4 of Junk at The Comic Book Bin. The Ya Ya Yas take a quick look at The Manga Cookbook. 
At Manga Life, Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane reviews vol. 1 of Fever and vols. 2 and 3 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Barb Lien-Cooper reads vol. 10 of Gals!, and David Rasmussen checks out vol. 1 of Priest. Cathy writes about Restart at It can’t all be about manga. At Anime on DVD, Danielle Van Gorder takes a look at one of our favorites, vol. 1 of Yakuza in Love, as well as vol. 3 of Cantarella and The Reformed. Julie looks at vol. 2 of Minima! at the Manga Maniac Cafe.
Brigid –
I think the link for the Bleach 23 review should go here. (A “C”??? Actually, that probably is a fair grade.)