Today’s big news comes at the end of Manly Manga and More’s best of 2008 post: Kodansha has not renewed its contracts with Tokyopop Germany. The German arm of Tokyopop publishes Beck, Cromartie High School, School Rumble, Perfect Girl and Hell Girl, according to Jonathan, so all those series have been canceled. Christopher Butcher and Simon Jones have more thoughts on this, and Simon locates the announcement on a German forum.
ComiPress is celebrating the new year in a big way, with a roundup of 2008-in-review posts, a look at Oricon’s list of the top manga in Japan, and Chloe Ferguson’s year-in-review Panelosophy column. Matt Blind continues his month-by-month summaries of online sales with a look at the best-selling manga of November. And happy news for otaku: Heisei Democracy and Ikimashou are back online. Content note: HD is pretty NSFW, and I’m sure Ikimashou will be too, once Randall gets everything up and running again.
At Okazu, Erica Friedman looks at the top ten yuri phenomena of 2008.
Meanwhile, at About.com, Deb Aoki looks at 10 trends and 5 unanswered questions to watch for in 2009.
The MangaCast crew look at this week’s new manga and present their 2009 wish list as well. David Welsh points out a few highlights from the latest crop at Precocious Curmudgeon.
News from Japan: ComiPress rounds up coverage of Comiket 75. At MangaCast, Ed treats us to a look at the manga magazines’ New Years’ covers.
Reviews: Phil Guie takes a look at vol. 1 of The Flat Earth/Exchange at Manga Recon. Michelle Smith reads vols. 6, 7, 8, and 9 of Monster and takes a break to look at The Walking Man as well. Johanna Draper Carlson recommends the series Parasyte at Comics Worth Reading, but Ed Sizemore is less taken with the Genshiken Official Book. Tiamat’s Disciple has some thoughts on vol. 5 of Hissing and vol. 4 of COMIC. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie’s recent reads include vol. 3 of Human Club, vol. 8 of Hoshin Engi, vol. 5 of One Thousand and One Nights, and vol. 1 of Nora: The Last Chronicles of Devildom. David Welsh has decidedly mixed feelings about Gantz at Precocious Curmudgeon. Ed Chavez has an audio review of vol. 3 of Hanami up at MangaCast. New at Comics Village: Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Claymore and John Thomas on vol. 1 of Eden: It’s an Endless World. Julie checks out vol. 1 of Higurashi: When They Cry, vol. 16 of Skip Beat! and vol. 1 of Basilisk at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo reads The Dawn of Love at Kuriousity.
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