Thursday morning tidbits

Tamika Taylor, a high-school junior, reviews Death Note for a local newspaper. It’s a nice little review and it’s nice to see a popular manga get some notice in the mainstream press. At coffeeandink, Mely and her commenters muse on the dark side of manga fandom—the bitterness and disillusionment that come when a series (Death Note) jumps the shark.

Mely lists her picks for the best licensed manga of 2006.

ChunHyang gives her take on the To Terra classification controversy:

My point: labels change over time. Knowing a work’s original stylistic label is important to understanding its history. But tweaking that label to suit current tastes isn’t necessarily a sign of ignorance, barbarity, poserdom, or—in Takemiya’s case—sexism.

Jen Parker presents the intelligent yaoi fangirls’ manifesto! And very sensible it is, too.

Elae has some updates on BL in Germany.

Just what the world needs: a Doraemon air cannon.

The user wears the air connon on his or her arm, and a powerful burst of air is fired when the user says “bang.”

At least it doesn’t sound too lethal.

Are the Japanese the only ones who use offensive racial caricatures in their comics? Nope, says John Jakala.

Save your pennies: Andre looks at Dark Horse’s offerings for April.

Lillian DP announces that volume 2 of Roadsong is now available, and she has previews on her photo page.

Reviews: Pata devotes the latest Right Turn Only!! column to manga with one-word titles: Basilisk, Emma, Life, Gachagachathenextrevolution… OK, he cheats a bit. At Mangamaniaccafe, Julie checks out vol. 2 of Nodame Cantabile and vol. 1 of Little Queen. Christopher Seaman reviews vol. 8 of XXXholic for Active Anime. Kethylia likes vol. 2 of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden but is lukewarm on Project X: Cup Noodle. Yaoi Suki’s Jen Parker finds the first three volumes of One Thousand and One Nights more “slashable” than true BL, but she likes ’em anyway. AoD’s Matthew Alexander enjoyed vol. 1 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~.