Shojo Beat may be gone, but Viz is not letting any grass grow under their feet: Yesterday they launched a new webcomics site, Ikki, that will feature seinen manga along the lines of their Viz Signature line. Kai-Ming Cha gets the background details at PWCW. The manga is free and you get unlimited reads; chapters will be released on a staggered schedule, and the most popular will go to print. They are launching with Children of the Sea, which is up there now, and I just read it—it’s beautiful. Their reader is easy to use, and the color pages, which are gorgeous, look great on the screen. John Jakala likes it too, but he sure asks a lot of questions!
It’s license request day at Precocious Curmudgeon, and David Welsh’s wish for this week is: Princess Knight!
Lori Henderson has a useful guide to Twitter for mangaphiles, including helpful suggestions for getting started and a list of folks to follow.
News from Japan: Zipang will return in the May 28 issue of Morning, now that manga-ka Kaiji Kawaguchi’s broken arm is better.
Reviews
Connie on vol. 1 of 13th Boy (Manga Recon)
Connie on vol. 18 of Banana Fish (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jason Van Horn on vol. 1 of Basilisk (The Hachiko)
Michelle Smith on A Distant Neighborhood (Manga Recon)
Marsha Reid on vol. 6 of Hissing (Kuriousity)
Connie on vol. 2 of Honey Hunt (Slightly Biased Manga)
Emily on Ki-chan Sensei no Jijou (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Faith McAdams on vol. 10 of Kurohime (Animanga Nation)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Manken (Okazu)
David Welsh on Oishinbo: Sake (Precocious Curmudgeon)
Michelle Smith on vol. 9 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Kinokitty on vols. 1 and 2 of Otomen (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Takeru: Opera Susanoh, Sword of the Devil (Prospero’s Manga)
Melinda Beasi on U Don’t Know Me (There is is, Plain as Daylight)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Venus Capriccio (Tangognat)
Connie on vol. 1 of Very! Very! Sweet (Slightly Biased Manga)
i’m completey OK with a new seinen site launch
[...] and Sides and Dead. Digital Strips reviewed Piled Higher and Deeper and Manga Blog points us toward sixteen manga reviews and a new blog from Viz, the publishers of the late Shojo Beat. Then there was a review of Giant Clam from Down The Tubes and Size Matters reviews The Would Be [...]