Broccoli dish, Dylan manga, and more!

In this week’s PWCW, Calvin, Kai-Ming, and I talked to the folks at Broccoli and some other manga movers and shakers about the Broccoli shutdown and what it says about the industry as a whole. And Kai-Ming still found time to talk to Erik Ko about Udon’s new kids’ manga line.

God Len lists this week’s manga and anime releases at Japanator, and the Manga Villagers make their picks from last week’s new releases.

Blaine Harden of the Washington Post interviews Makoto Yoshitani, who chronicles Japanese office life his manga Otaryman.

At ANN, Tina Anderson joins Casey, Bamboo, and Sara for a roundtable discussion of global BL and gay comics.

Yaoi Generation is getting ready to release its first title, vol. 1 of breath, on December 16, and they will start accepting pre-orders at their online store on Friday, November 28, with a special discount on their first day.

Lori Henderson is looking forward to some upcoming releases from Viz.

Erica Friedman posts this week’s yuri news at Okazu.

Erin posts audio of the Otaku USA panel from NYAF at the Ninjaconsultant site.

Susie, who retouches sound effects in manga, takes exception to a negative review of her work. If you’re wondering why she’s upset, take a look at this earlier post in which she explains how she changed a single sound effect in Gantz.

Danielle Leigh posts her true confessions, anime and manga style, at Manga Before Flowers.

Deb Aoki gets in the Twilight mood by counting down her top 18 vampire manga series. 18!!

Global edu-manga publisher eigoMANGA is putting their content up on Crunchyroll.

News from Japan: Gottsu-iiyan does a little digging on Naoki Urasawa’s Bob Dylan comic at The Eastern Edge. Ed Chavez has this week’s manga rankings and finds some turkey-themed covers at MangaCast.

Reviews: David Welsh reviews my favorite new graphic novel, vol. 1 of Yokaiden, at Precocious Curmudgeon. Ferdinand is less impressed at Prospero’s Manga. Manga Recon’s Michelle Smith and Kate Dacey present short takes on several shoujo series that don’t shy away from cliches in the latest edition of Manga Minis. Justin Colussy-Estes reviews vol. 3 of Mushishi at Comics Village. Dave Ferraro is glad he picked up vol. 1 of Slam Dunk at Comics-and-More. New at Active Anime: Scott Campbell on vol. 6 of My Heavenly Hockey Club, vol. 6 of Mushishi, and vol. 5 of Parasyte, and Davey C. Jones on vol. 4 of Hell Girl. Michelle Smith enjoys vol. 9 of Maison Ikkoku and a Japanese title, vol. 1 of Cat Street, at Soliloquy in Blue. Johanna Draper Carlson reads vol. 14 of Yakitate!! Japan at Comics Worth Reading. Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane reviews Gaba Kawa and vol. 1 of We Were There at Manga Life. Lissa Pattillo checks out vol. 3 of Legend and Romantic Illusions at Kuriousity. Greg Hackmann isn’t too impressed with Goth and vol. 3 of Gimmick! at Mania.com. (I’m not too impressed with Mania.com, which swallowed up the eminently readable Anime on DVD site and smothered their excellent manga reviews in tiny white-on-dark type, blinking ads, and a whole bunch of crap that I don’t care about. There is still some solid writing there, but you really have to search to find it. /rant.) Erica Friedman posts her take on the Flamboyant artbook, vol. 1 of Akatsuki-iro no Senpuku Majyo, and vol. 1 of Your and My Secret at Okazu. Emily reads HR de Tsukamaete at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Tangognat reviews vol. 1 of Jyu-Oh-Sei. At Anime Sentinel, James Fleenor rejects the shojo label on vol. 1 of Blank Slate on the grounds that it has plenty of slammin’ shonen action. Cyn posts new reviews of Dark Walker and Barefoot Waltz at Boys Next Door. Sesho checks out vol. 4 of Gon and posts an audio review of vol. 1 of Inukami! Oyceter has pithy reviews, some with spoilers, of vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess and vols. 12-13 of Claymore.

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Comments

  1. I completely agree about Mania.com! The first time I saw it, I thought AoD had been hacked. Thankfully, the AoD forums look the same as ever, and the most useful function—the manga comparison charts—is still there. I pretty much don’t read anything else, as the reviews are linked from the forums and I can find them that way.

  2. Why doesn’t a really smart person at one of the manga publishers figure out how to do a deal to make a Twilight manga? It just seems like a no-brainer. Or Harry Potter? The manga industry needs a big hit. Something to take it above and beyond Naruto (even thought I love Naruto). It really seems as though manga and anime have reached the glass ceiling. I think a Twilight deal could be done if you had the right team on it. I mean in terms of an artist and writer. The Dean Koontz In Odd We Trust was dreadful and it sold well. Just imagine if you did a manga on Twilight with a GOOD creative team. I think manga would smash through any barriers left that are keeping it from more mainstream inroads. The same with Potter.

  3. I think Twilight already has a manga in Japan – Shoujo Beat had a feature on it in this month’s issue. So a license of that would be even simpler than starting with a Western artist.

    And Broccoli Dish! I see what you did there. ^_^

  4. I gotta saw that review on Anime News Network for Gantz 2 really missed the mark. Susie has a right to be miffed (but that’s why I try to never read reviews of projects I was a part of).

    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/gantz/gn-2

    Carlos Santos is upset that after just two volumes the storyline of this series that goes over two dozen volumes isn’t all fleshed out yet? Then I recommend he stay away from Old Boy, M.P.D. Psycho and Death Note to name three of the hundreds of series that keep the reader guessing more than two volumes in. He then proceeds to nit-pick the volume to death. He complains that the style of the English SFX is in the same style as the original Japanese? Huh? He complains about a lack of “extras”? Is this a DVD?

    Don’t sweat it, Susie. It sounds like Santos wanted to be spoon-fed a story, and what he got was seinen awesomeness.

  5. Ten points, Lianne!

    John, Carlo is usually a good reviewer. He’s been doing this a long time, and he knows his stuff. I haven’t read Gantz, but Carlo’s critique sounds like an awful lot of other manga I have read.

    Twilight manga would be awesome. My daughter initially really liked the books but recently commented that the writing is terrible. Maybe a well written manga is just what we need.