The conversation continues

The anti-piracy coalition announced last week seems to have jumped right into the fray: Deb Aoki reports that MangaFox has pulled down over 200 series. In a forum post, an administrator stated “Our boss is trying to negotiate with them, any updated news, we will let you know.” The list of deleted manga is here. In the forums, the fans go through the usual stages—sadness, indignation, dismissal. I rounded up a few of the responses at Robot 6, and Lissa Pattillo does a good job of answering all the arguments at Kuriousity.

ANN talks to Digital Manga president Hikaru Sasahara and gets a few more details on Digital’s online manga plans, which would allow fans to legally translate the manga:

The program is set to feature over a thousand manga titles or as many as “a few thousand,” mostly in the boys love genre, to establish a following before branching out into other genres and possibly novels, Sasahara said. The business model will allow for DMP, the Japanese licensors, and the translators to each receive a cut of digital sales, and additional revenue will come from derivatives such as advertising, and possibly television or other adaptations of manga titles. Titles that perform well online may also go into print.

The program has apparently been in the works for over a year, and Sasahara mentioned that Digital plans to invite potential translators to the office—at their expense—for a presentation on the program. Digital has been putting already licensed and translated manga online at its eManga.com site for about two years.

Oguie Maniax posts a possible model for an online manga site; the catch here, and people seem to forget this, is that the pirate sites make money in part because they aren’t paying a dime for content. It’s easy to turn a profit on internet ads when your costs are relatively low; when you have to pay creators, editors, and translators, it doesn’t work so well. Digital’s initiative eliminates most of those costs from the front end, but even so, all those people will have to be paid eventually, or the whole thing will fall apart.

Sean Gaffney checks out this week’s new manga, and Johanna Draper Carlson takes a look at the August releases.

Shaenon Garrity lists ten defining manga—and explains what they define—in her latest column at comiXology.

At Masters of Manga, Marc Bernabe shows a video of Kimagure Orange Road creator Izumi Matsumoto drawing.

David Welsh has a license request and some manga suggestions for Rachel Maddow.

News from Japan: Alive manga-ka Tadashi Kawashima died of liver cancer at age 42. He continued to work even when seriously ill, and he mangaed to finish the series and even start another one before his death on June 15.

Reviews: Scott VonSchilling leads the pack with the first review I have seen of Vertical’s much-anticipated Chi’s Sweet Home, at The Anime Almanac. EvilOmar has a fresh batch of short manga reviews at About Heroes. Tangognat takes a quick look at some new Tokyopop titles.

Zack Davisson on vol. 4 of Animal Academy (Japan Reviewed)
Michelle Smith on vols. 19 and 20 of Cheeky Angel (Soliloquy in Blue)
Emily on Danshing Girl (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Dorohedoro (Manga Recon)
Michelle Smith on vol. 3 of Happy Cafe (Soliloquy in Blue)
Ed Sizemore on vols. 2 and 3 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Comics Worth Reading)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Portrait of M and N (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Portrait of M and N (Japan Reviewed)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Shinobi Life (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 10 of Slam Dunk (Comic Attack)
Sergar on Twin Spica (Genji Press)
Kate O’Neil on World of Warcraft: Mage (Mania.com)

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