The return of Naruto Nation

Here’s the big news, and several of my readers called it last week: Viz is stepping up the pace of its releases of Naruto manga and anime, with 11 volumes of the manga coming out between February and April 2009, after which they will go back to a quarterly schedule. The aggressive schedule will bring the anime to the U.S. within days of its Japanese release, while manga will lag by a few months. As you may recall, Viz released 12 volumes of manga in three months in late 2007 and found that they sold about the same number of each volume despite the increased frequency. Still, ICv2 points out an imporant consequence:

the rapid releases of so many volumes from the #1 manga series seems to have accelerated the trend toward a sharp divide between manga bestsellers and the rest of the pack, with weaker titles now not garnering the same kind of sales they would have a couple of years ago.

It remains to be seen what the fallout will be this time, but it’s hard to imagine it would be much different. On the anime side, ANN reports that Crunchyroll will stream subtitled versions of the Naruto episodes an hour after they are broadcast in Japan, but only for paid subscribers; the episodes go up for free on several different sites a week later.

Meanwhile, Erica Friedman has an interesting and enlightening essay on the challenges of promoting manga at Okazu. She also takes a few minutes to round up this week’s yuri news.

The MangaCast team posts the past week’s new releases and picks their favorites. Manga Village editor-in-chief Lori Henderson, meanwhile sums up the best manga of October.

ANN profiles Audra Furuichi and Scott Yoshinaga, creators of nemu-nemu, the super-cute webcomic that should be balm for anyone’s Yotsuba&! jones.

Rocket Bomber has the rundown on online manga sales, including top manga for the week ending Nov. 9, emerging trends (including manga that are just coming online), new releases and pre-orders, and the big summary of the top 500 manga.

Things are mighty busy down at the Same Hat! Same Hat! site, where Ryan and Evan are celebrating the release of their first zine, Electric Ant, which is available online and in a few select bookstores. Also, SH correspondent Nate spent Halloween with manga-ka Shintaro Kago; like much of Same Hat, this report has lots of photos and is not safe for work—or the faint of heart.

Lori Henderson catches a manga moment on Mythbusters.

ComiPress has a brief report on the Salon de Manga de Barcelona XIII.

Mark your calendar: Chip Kidd will be talking about Bat-Manga at the New York Kinokuniya on Monday, Nov. 17. If you’re on the other side of the pond, a trio of artists who have done Shakespeare manga for Self Made Hero will be doing a signing at Orbital Manga in London on Nov. 22.

News from Germany: Jonathan lists Carlsen’s September best-sellers at Manly Manga and More.

News from Japan: Weekly Shonen Jump has announced that D.Gray-man creator Katsura Hoshino has put the series on hiatus due to health problems.

Reviews: At ComicMix, Andrew Wheeler reviewsanthree vol. 4s: Alice on Deadlines, Black God, and Zombie-Loan. I’m still catching up with a lot of the review sites I visit regularly, including Kuriousity, where Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 1 of Love Recipe, vol. 4 of Spiral: Bonds of Reasoning, vol. 1 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, vol. 2 of Pathos, vol. 1 of Blank Slate, vol. 3 of Comic, vol. 2 of Silver Diamond, and vol. 1 of Sound of My Voice, guest reviewer Marsha Reid checks out vol. 1 of Goong, and guest reviewer Gizmo enjoys vol. 2 of Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro. Mangamaniac Julie reviews vol. 1 of Vampire’s Portrait at the MangaCast and Stop Bullying Me!, vol. 5 of The Yagyu Ninja Scrolls: Revenge of the Hori, vol. 6 of Dragon Eye, vol. 5 of Alive, and Black Sun at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Emily posts her take on Oshiete. Sensei Jijou, Sensei to Watashi to Hajimete, and Coelacanth at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Edward Zacharias reads vol. 31 of Naruto at Animanga Nation. Huamulan03 reviews vol. 1 of Otomen at Japanator. Erica Friedman reads the light novel .(period) at Okazu. Michelle Smith reviews vol. 1 of With the Light and vols. 3, 4, and 5 of High School Debut at Soliloquy in Blue. Ed Sizemore is unenthusiastic about vol. 1 of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Tiamat’s Disciple checks out vol. 1 of Luno and vols. 1-5 of Banya the Explosive Delivery Man. At Manga Life, Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane reviews vol. 7 of S.A., vols. 5 and 6 of High School Debut, and vol. 7 of Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden. EvilOmar gets ambitious and reviews vols. 1-8 of Buddha at About Heroes. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 1 of Metro Survive at Manga Jouhou. At Comics Village, Charles Tan reviews vol. 22 of Eyeshield 21. Kris reads Hanky Panky and Junior Escort at Manic About Manga. Sakurapassion checks out vol. 3 of Kiss All the Boys at The Yaoi Review. Oyceter reviews vols. 2 and 3 of Fairy Cube and vols. 9-11 of Claymore at Sakura of DOOM; expect spoilers and hilarity for both. At Boys Next Door, Cyn has posted revies of A Capable Man, Vampire’s Portrait, and Black Sun. Tangognat enjoys vols. 1, 3, and 4 of Forbidden Dance. Greg McElhatton is intrigued by vols. 1 and 2 of Gantz at Read About Comics. Sandra Scholes reviews vol. 1 of Gakuen Alice and Rachel Bentham gets an advance peek at Dark Walker at Active Anime.

Did you enjoy this article? Consider supporting us.

Trackbacks

  1. […] – Looks like it’s official: Naruto Nation 2009 is totally a go. […]

  2. […] others in the comics & anime blogosphere have already reported, Viz will be repeating last […]