Wow! Linda Thai is up to part 10 of her interview with Stu Levy and still going strong!
The Comics Village team looks at the best manga of the past week.
Melinda Beasi links to an article about manhwa created for the rental market and some recent reviews in her latest Manhwa Monday post.
Masters of Manga is back in business, with a profile of Tokuo Yokota.
Alex Hoffman of Manga Widget and Kristin of Bento Bako Weekly present their 2010 manga gift guides.
News from Japan: I haven’t paid too much attention to Tokyo’s Healthy Youth Development Ordinance, which passed yesterday, but Erica Friedman takes a hard look at the potential effects on manga as well as the possible anti-gay motivation behind it at Okazu.
Reviews: Ash Brown looks at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Michelle Smith has short reviews of four Yen Press manga at Soliloquy in Blue.
Dave Ferraro on Ayako (Comics-and-More)
Shannon Fay on Azumanga Daioh (omnibus edition) (Kuriousity)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Genkaku Picasso (The Manga Curmdgeon)
Julie Opipari on vol. 23 of Kekkaishi (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Anna on vols. 5/6 of Papillon (omnibus edition) (Manga Report)
Amy Grockl on vol. 1 of My Girlfriend Is a Geek (Comics Village)
Johanna Draper Carlson on the December Shonen Jump (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on the November issue of Yen Plus (Manga Xanadu)
I think that whole Youth Bill is just an excuse to get rid of anime & manga in Japan. I’m looking at this whole situation beyond just that, though it seems apparent that there’s a huge disdain for Japan’s visual culture by the older generation in Japan.
I probably will post something about this up after the final vote on the bill is announced on Wednesday. Are we looking at the death of manga and anime? Maybe, but there will be huge shockwaves.
Remember the Youth Bill applies only to Tokyo. That said Tokyo is very influential and publishers are already talking about not starting some new series and giving guidelines to some creators as to what they cannot do. Noe of the law effects the adult manga and anima market, they are already restricted. I expect the biggest effect will be in the shojo market as that is where you often find works that could fall under the restrictions.