This seems to be an unusually good week for new manga. At Same Hat, Ryan and Evan are psyched about new volumes of Dragon Head and Death Note. David Welsh is envisioning an iron cage match between Tohru Honda, the brothers Elric, and Light Yagami. Taking a broader perspective, the MangaCast team runs the entire list and picks their favorites. At Comicsnob, Matt Blind has his own list and picks.
If that’s not enough, Comics Worth Reading’s Rob Vollmar recommends seven classic manga, and they’re not all the usual suspects, either.
Happily, I just got an e-mail from Tokyopop today saying that Borders is having a buy three, get one free sale on Tokyopop titles, so that will lessen the bite a bit.
Speaking of Tokyopop, they are previewing the first chapter of the German manga Gothic Sports on their website this week. (Via Deutsche Mangaka.) And the Rush blog has a brief preview of chapter 2 of Venom Fang.
PWCW has a seven-page preview of Warriors: The Lost Warrior, the first in their series of manga that spin off the popular Warriors kids’ novels. Also: A report on the publisher Japanime, whose 2007 lineup includes a manga gift book, a manga cookbook, and a new OEL title about sisters working in a maid cafe.
Becky Cloonan’s comments on the difficulties of the graphic novel format have sparked an interesting discussion at the Newsarama blog.
MangaCast has the scoop on Viz’s second-quarter releases and Svetlana Chmakova’s manga workshop.
ANN says that Weekly Shonen Jump is the most popular manga magazine among Japanese girls, but Chloe points out that there are cultural reasons for this, and it doesn’t mean the girls aren’t reading their shoujo.
ICv2 has more info on the newly announced Yen Press title, Into the Light…, including their opinion that it is “likely to be more of a succes d’estime than a best-seller.” At The Beat, Heidi MacDonald reflects on Chris Arrant’s recent interview with Yen principals Kurt Hassler and Rich Johnson and the evolution of the market.
Business Week discovers BL manga… because of the business opportunities, of course. Actually, this article on cell phone manga has an interesting take on why BL is so popular: Remember, it’s not as acceptable in Japan, so downloading it to a cell phone saves the shy fujoshi from having to actually face a sales clerk. But you gotta love this:
“Women and girls in their teens, 20s, and 30s like BL for their portrayals of innocent love,” says Toshiki Fujii, a manager in the cell-phone content division at Nagoya-based Media Do. “But now those who might have been coy about walking into a shop can find what they’re looking for online.”
Memo to possible investors: I don’t think it’s the “innocent love” they’re downloading. The cost is about 25 cents for a 10-page chapter, or $15 a month, and it added up to $20 million last year.
Go!Comi has renewed its contract with Diamond. Hey, if it ain’t broke…
Contests, contests, contests. For artists, Kodansha is holding an international manga competition and HP Singapore is holding a “Comidol” contest to find the best digital artist in the country, and For readers, there’s the first annual Manga Proficiency Test, and Public voting is now open for Kadokawa Shoten’s 2007 Light Novel Awards.
Same Hat has a glimpse at another Suehiro Maruo tattoo for your viewing pleasure.
Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle explains why Genju no Seiza is so awesome.
Reviews: Comics-and-more checks out vols. 2 and 3 of Alien Nine and vol. 5 of The Drifting Classroom. At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda gets no pleasure from with Pleasure Dome (“a bunch of well-dressed Ken dolls raping each other”) but Ferdinand enjoys vol. 1 of Chikyu Misaki. Tangognat has a new addiction after reading vol. 1 of Nodame Cantabile. At Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas posts a scan of his latest column, which includes reviews of vol. 1 of To Terra, vol. 1 of E’S, The Two Faces of Tomorrow, and vol. 1 of Train + Train. Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood reviews vol. 28 of Inu Yasha and vol. 13 of Hana-Kimi, and Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 3 of Crying Freeman. At Manga Life, Dan Polley reviews vol. 1 of East Coast Rising and Michael Aronson takes on the classic Ode to Kirihito. At the Mangamaniaccafe, Julie gives vol. 1 of Midori Days a C+, which is better than I would have rated it. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reads vol. 4 of Dokebi Bride, Poison Cherry Drive, vol. 18 of Bleach, vol. 2 of Swan, and vol. 13 of Eyeshield 21. Ed Chavez finishes up a popular series with his review of vol. 4 of Antique Bakery at Anime on DVD, Jarred Pine starts a new one with vol. 1 of Wild Adaptor, and the whole staff chimes in for some Small-Bodied Manga Reviews.
Brigid, is that Borders sale for the Web site only, or does it apply to the brick and mortor stores as well.
The e-mail says “all Borders and Waldenbooks,” and it links to a store locator, so I think it’s brick and mortar. I’ll be checking it out in the next couple of days. Incidentally, the sale runs through May 14.
Ugh! And just when I got into Chobits, too!
What would you have given Midori Days, if you don’t mind my asking..?
Hey I wanted to pass this on I got an email from rightstuff with 30% off Del Rey manga
http://www.rightstuf.com/mail-templates/del-rey-2007-04-09/
Thanks, Deni!
Cameron,I would have given Midori Days a D, because I thought the idea was icky and it didn’t really work. With a premise that bizarre, you really need good writing or art, but nothing rose over the level of mediocre. I wouldn’t give it an F, because it’s not the worst manga I have ever read. (That would be Innocent W, of course.)