Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!
As most of you probably know, Matt Blind is the guy we manga fans look to for weekly analysis of the Consolidated Online Sales Rankings over at his blog, Rocket Bomber. Recently he added some new analysis to mix, the Manhwa breakout, for the week ending August 8th.
It’s a pretty interesting list, and though most of the manhwa doesn’t really rate all that high, what’s surprising is what’s ranking, and in what order. The top three are not shocking at all (new volumes of Angel Diary, Jack Frost, and Bride of the Water God), but then things get a little weird, or at least unexpected.
It’s thrilling to me to see U Don’t Know Me next on the list, a boys’ love one-shot by Yeri Na (working under the pseudonym “Rakun”) and a particular favorite of mine. There are actually quite a few there from NETCOMICS and Tokyopop, despite the fact that some of the volumes were published as long ago as 2003.
Check out Matt’s blog for the full listing.
This week in reviews, Lu at Regular Rumination talks about Kim Dong Hwa’s The Color Trilogy (First Second). Despite being confused about Korean name order, she hits upon some of the things that bothered me about the trilogy as well, so it was a bit gratifying to see that come from outside the usual circles.
Elsewhere, at TangognaT, Anna reviews volume one of There’s Something about Sunyool (NETCOMICS). At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out the final volume of Pig Bride (Yen Press). And at Comics Village, Amy Grocki takes on volume two of Sugarholic (Yen Press).
That’s all for this week!
Is there something I’ve missed? Leave your manhwa-related links in comments!
Lu says
August 23, 2010 at 10:37 pmThanks for the link and the kind words. I should have been clearer – I am familiar with the order of Korean names, but I was under the impression it had been anglicized because I kept finding his name in different orders. One version I read had been anglicized and what I was confused about was which one! Once again, thanks so much for the link. I don’t read very much manga or manhwa, so it is very much a new style for me. Thankfully, the things I did like about The Color Trilogy will keep me coming back for more!
Melinda Beasi says
August 23, 2010 at 10:45 pmLu, your confusion is very much understandable, because there’s been no consistency at all among publishers in the US in terms of using Korean or western order for the names of manhwaga. In fact, there is even inconsistency between titles put out by the same publisher in some cases! With manga, you can be almost 100% guaranteed that anything published in English will have the author’s name converted to western order, but with manhwa, it’s anyone’s guess!
I enjoyed your review very much. Thanks for stopping by!