Brigid Alverson

Kate Dacey has some good news: JManga has rescued some former Tokyopop titles, including Your and My Secret and Tactics (both originally licensed by ADV), Animal Academy: Hakabune Hakusho, The Good Witch of the West, and Monochrome Factor.

And Deb Aoki has some background on Viz’s new shoujo titles, Strobe Edge and Demon Love Spell.

At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie continues her look at the Eroicaverse with a discussion of the character known as Z.

Justin reports on the industry panels at Anime Boston at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses.

Tom Good files his con report on Sakura-Con at the Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society.

News from Japan: The winners of the Osamu Tezuka Awards have been announced; the grand prize went to Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Historie, and the judges awarded a special prize to a single copy of Shonen Jump that was shared by over 100 children after the March 11 earthquake. After Silver Spoon, by Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa, won the Manga Taisho award, the publisher went back to press and printed an additional 1 million copies.

Reviews:

Ash Brown on vol. 8 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Connie on vol. 37 of Bleach (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Blood Blockade Battlefront (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 3 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 7 of Cross Game (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 3 of Dawn of the Arcana (Comic Attack)
Lesley Aeschliman on FLCL Omnibus (Blogcritics)
Connie on Golgo 13: Hopper the Border (Slightly Biased Manga)
Shannon Fay on vol. 3 of Higurashi When They Cry: Atonement Arc (Kuriousity)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 17 of Higurashi When They Cry (ANN)
Jocelyne Allen on Hyouge Mono (Brain Vs. Book)
Michelle Smith on vols. 5 and 6 of Kamisama Kiss, vols. 5 and 6 of Oresama Teacher, and vols. 25 and 26 of Skip Beat! (Soliloquy in Blue)
Justin on vol. 3 of No Longer Human (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of Princess Knight (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Ranma 1/2 (Blogcritics)
Sweetpea616 on vols. 1-3 of Sailor Moon (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
TSOTE on vol. 24 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Three Steps Over Japan)
Connie on vol. 17 of Slam Dunk (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 9 of Tegami Bachi (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Tenjho Tenge (omnibus edition) (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschilman on vol. 2 of Twin Spica (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Voltron Force: Shelter from the Storm (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna on Working Kentauros (Manga Report)
Connie on vol. 5 of Ze (Slightly Biased Manga)

Johanna Draper Carlson takes a look at the Yen Press manga that are due out this week. Lissa Pattillo checks out all this week’s new releases in her latest On the Shelf column for Otaku USA. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers make their picks from this week’s shipment to Midtown Comics, and Sean Gaffney skips right ahead to next week and looks at the new manga releases for April 25.

At The Manga Critic, Kate Dacey highlights some new additions to Viz’s digital lineup.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber writes about the perfect manga editing scenario and the extremely imperfect scenarios that are becoming more and more the norm.

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month, and Lori Henderson takes the opportunity to highlight manga that deal with the mistreatment of animals.

News from Japan: Bakuman will come to an end in next week’s issue of Shonen Jump, and the 20th volume will be out in July. Creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata told their readers to look forward to their next work, which suggests that there will be a next work to look forward to. Natsume Ono has drawn a short promotional manga for an online site. Stepping on Roses manga-ka Rinko Ueda is drawing a two-part story for the manga anthology You. Kazume Kawahara (High School Debut) is the writer for the new series Ore Monogatari!! for Bessatsu Margaret. The last volume of the D.C. II ~Da Capo II~ spinoff manga A.C.D.C. II will be published this week.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team files the latest set of Bookshelf Briefs. Kristin posts some short takes on recent Digital Manga Guild releases at Comic Attack. Ash Brown looks back at another week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Connie on vol. 18 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Ai Ore! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-10 of Antique Gift Shop (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on The Apartments of Calle Feliz (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate Dacey on The Apartments of Calle Feliz (The Manga Critic)
Anna on vols. 11 and 12 of Basara (Manga Report)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 5 of Bunny Drop (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 5 of Bunny Drop (ANN)
Connie on vol. 4 of Cross Game (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Cross Game (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Cross Game (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Dorohedoro (The Comic Book Bin)
Ken Haley on vols. 3 and 4 of Erementar Gerade (Sequential Ink)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 23 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 5 of House of Five Leaves (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Is This a Zombie? (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Itsuwaribito (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 6 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 4 of Negima (omnibus edition) (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Connie on Open the Door to Your Heart (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Sasamekikoto (Okazu)

It’s been busy around here lately: PWCW just published my interview with Makoto Tateno as well as my article about being an Eisner judge—in case you haven’t figured it out, that’s what I was doing when I disappeared a few weeks ago. This week I’m out in Chicago for C2E2, which is why posting has been spotty of late. Next week we’ll be back to normal.

After a weekend of new license announcements, we have another one this week: The small publisher One Peace books has picked up Crayon Shin-Chan, which makes the third time this series has been licensed (first by Comics One, then by CMX). One Peace will also release some manga adaptations of classic works of literature (Don Quixote, Ulysses, Moby-Dick) that were originally published by Variety Art Works.

ANN rounds up the latest additions to JManga’s digital lineup, including new manga by set em and Takao Saito.

Sean Gaffney takes a look ahead to next week’s new manga releases.

AstroNerdBoy looks at the drop in manga sales and blames it more on the economy, high prices, and a dearth of legitimate digital alternatives than on piracy.

Kodansha has announced the winners of its Morning International Manga Competition. The grand prize winner is Demi-Human Symbiosis, by Taiwan’s Ya Shen, and the second prize went to Over the Rainbow, by Brazilian artist Maguinha.

Vol. 4 of Sailor Moon and vol. 55 of Naruto placed second and third on BookScan’s list of the top 20 graphic novels sold in bookstores.

Sara K. presents another look at the Condor Trilogy manhua at Manga Bookshelf.

News from Japan: Black Jack Sōsakuhiwa, manga biography of Osamu Tezuka, focusing on the creation of Black Jack, will debut in the June 12 issue of Bessatsu Shonen Champion.

Reviews: Carlo Santos delivers the verdict on a handful of recent titles in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown recount’s a week’s worth of reading at Experiments in Manga. Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith find plenty to squee about in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Connie on 100 Blossoms to Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 20 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of A Bride’s Story (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of A Devil and Her Love Song (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 23 of Excel Saga (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 23 of Excel Saga (The Fandom Post)
Rob McMonigal on issue 2 of Gen (Panel Patter)
Lori Henderson on vols. 9 and 10 of Honey and Clover (Manga Xanadu)
Zack Davisson on Ichiro (Japan Reviewed)
Kristin on vol. 8 of Kamisama Kiss and vol. 7 of Oresama Teacher (Comic Attack)
Annaon vols. 12 and 13 of Kimi ni Todoke (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on vol. 7 of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (Okazu)
Ash Brown on Rohan at the Louvre (Experiments in Manga)
Connie on vol. 3 of Saturn Apartments (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 7 of Tegami Bachi (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 8 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (Comic Attack)

This was a busy weekend, with Sakura Con on the West Coast and Anime Boston out East, and publishers at both cons had some new licenses to announce. Sean Gaffney has a good roundup; here are the highlights:

As we noted on Friday, Vertical announced it had rescued Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss, originally published by Tokyopop.

Yen Press announced Thermae Romae, Kaoru Mori’s Anything and Something (a book of short stories), Umineko When They Cry (a sequel to Higurashi When They Cry), Blood Lad, Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit, The Misfortune of Kyon and Koizumi (a Haruhi spinoff), and Triage X, by the creator of Highschool of the Dead.

Dark Horse’s new announcements included Oreimo/My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute, Blood-C (based on the anime), Evangelion: Comic Tribute, Emerald and Other Stories (by Blade of the Immortal manga-ka Hiroaki Samura), and a novel by Yoshitaka Amano, Deva Zan.

For those who are fascinated by process, Melinda Beasi describes her work as an editor for the Digital Manga Guild. Melinda is very articulate, so I’m sure she is a good editor, but Digital has is no managing editor supervising her work, nor is there a proofreader checking it, which is troubling.

Kristin picks the manga highlights from the April Previews at Comic Attack.

Connie puts the artist spotlight on BL manga-ka Toko Kawai.

Lori Henderson celebrates Easter with some manga that feature eggs.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 10 of Bakuman (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Bakuman (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 39 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Drew McCabe on Dororo (Comic Attack)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 12 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Worth Reading)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Sailor Moon (Blogcritics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 27 of Skip Beat! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Big licensing news today: Vertical announced they will be publishing Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss. The five-volume series was originally published in the U.S. by Tokyopop, and marketing director Ed Chavez Tweeted that Vertical will publish it as three 300-page volumes with color plates, new covers, and a new translation.

JManga announced a number of new releases for next week, including three by est em that have already been published in English: Age Called Blue, Red Blinds the Foolish, and Seduce Me After the Show. They are also having a big Takao Saito promotion, with six new volumes up this week and a 100-point rebate on all purchases of works by the Golgo 13 creator.

Jason Thompson checks out Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN:

In a manga world where every artist tries hard to create the most memorable character with the craziest hair, Black Jack is an icon among icons. That scar. That hair (too bad it’s often concealed under a surgical cap). That suit. That job. It’s nothing special to have a hero that looks like a villain, but it’s incredibly rare to have a hero whose power doesn’t involve killing; the opposite, in fact. Black Jack, the outlaw doctor, has waded through as much blood as anybody, but he only cuts people open to make them better.

Erica Friedman reports in from Yaoi and Yuri Con (YaYCon) in the Netherlands.

Feast your eyes on Morgan’s wonderful, and wonderfully organized, manga collection at The Manga Critic.

Sara K. has some more lovely manhua goodness from The Condor Trilogy at Manga Bookshelf.

News from Japan: Manga-ka Oh! Great is winding up Air Gear after just five more chapters. Yumeiro Pâtissière returns for a one-shot in Ribon magazine.

Job board: Viz is looking for interns.

Reviews

Kelakagandy on vol. 7 of Arisa (kelakagandy’s ramblings)
Anna on vols. 1-3 of Cousin (Manga Report)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (The Manga Critic)
Milo on vols. 1 and 2 of The Monkey King (Blog of the North Star)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Skip Beat! (omnibus edition) (ICv2)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 21 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Lissa Pattillo on Sun Fish Moon Fish (Kuriousity)
TSOTE on Tousei Gensou Hakubutsushi (Three Steps Over Japan)

The big news of the week is that the Eisner nominations are out. I won’t have too much to say about this because I was one of the judges who helped choose them this year, except to say that it was an honor to serve and that the manga category was exceptionally strong this year. Of course, the real reason such awards exist is for people to argue about what is and isn’t on the list, and which book should be the winner, and Kate Dacey is offering a manga-focused open thread for just that at The Manga Critic. At About.com, Deb Aoki notes that this year marks the third nomination for 20th Century Boys and the sixth year that Naoki Urasawa has been nominated.

Lissa Pattillo makes her recommendations from this week’s new manga releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Sean Gaffney looks at next week’s new manga but he has to work hard to see anything beyond vol. 23 of Excel Saga.

Yen Press is having a Black Butler giveaway; “like” their Facebook page and you could win a copy of the Black Butler anime or manga.

News from Japan: A magazine is born: Akita Shoten’s Shonen Champion magazine announced the launch of Bessatsu Shonen Champion on June 12.

Reviews

Matthew Warner on vol. 13 of Black Bird (The Fandom Post)
Zack Davisson on Breathe Deeply (Japan Reviewed)
Paige McKee on vol. 4 of Deltora Quest (Sequential Tart)
Anna on vol. 9 of Dengeki Daisy (Manga Report)
James Bacon on vol. 1 of Soulless (Forbidden Planet)

This is a really good week for new manga releases, and I picked the best of the best at MTV Geek.

Also at MTV Geek, check out Battle Arena Otaku Fight! Fight, which pits your favorite characters of manga, anime, and film against each other in a bracket-style tournament—it’s like March Madness only interesting. Mameshiba or Totoro? Speed Racer or Kamen Rider? Sailor Moon or Hatsune Miku? (Is that even a contest?) Only the strong will survive, so go check it out and vote for your favorites.

Blue Exorcist was the top pick in Deb Aoki’s Readers Choice Manga Awards; click through to see the winners in all the categories.

Shaenon Garrity is calling for more cat manga, and she has put together her own catalog for the publishers’ convenience.

Chris Sims looks at some ersatz Batman manga created for the animated cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Check it out, it’s pretty good!

At Manga Bookshelf, Sara K. is looking at manhua adaptations of the Condor Trilogy. Up this week: Tony Wong’s The Eagle Shooting Heroes. Click for some cool art!

News from Japan: Excel Saga manga-ka Koushi Rikoudou has a new series, Kimi to Batsu (Kari), that will run in Young King Ours starting with the April 28 issue.

Reviews

Connie on Abandoned Cat’s House (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Dorohedoro (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of The Drops of God (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vols. 1 and 2 of Gate 7 (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 2 of Kiss Blue (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Scent of Apple Blossoms (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 5 of Tenjho Tenge (omnibus edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 7 of Toriko (Slightly Biased Manga)

Lissa Pattillo has the scoop on two new licenses from Digital, See Me After Class and President Momoi-kun.

Melinda Beasi discusses her experiences with the Digital Manga Guild at Manga Bookshelf.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week.

News from Japan: The end of the Cyborg 009 story will be made into a manga series, Cyborg 009 Kanketsu-Hen conclusion God’s War, which will run on the Club Sunday website. Translator Tomo Kimura shows off the alternate cover for the Japanese edition of vol. 17 of Pandora Hearts. And Hokkaido launches a Lupin-themed train—autographed by creator Monkey Punch—to boost tourism in the area.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers keep it short and sweet in their latest set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown discusses a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of @Full Moon (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Blue Exorcist (The Comic Book Bin)
Alex Hoffman on The Book of Human Insects (Manga Widget)
Justin on Breathe Deeply (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of Bunny Drop (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna on vol. 2 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Manga Report)
Rob McMonigal on issue 1 of Gen Manga (Panel Patter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Is This a Zombie? (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sakura Eries on vol. 9 of Maoh: Juvenile Remix (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley (Comics Worth Reading)
Matthew Warner on vol. 8 of Rin-ne (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Soul Eater (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Twin Spica (Blogcritics)

Lissa Pattillo picks up on two new Digital Manga licenses that were announced via Facebook and Twitter: Wild Honey and Tender Hearts. And speaking of Lissa, Justin interviewed her at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses.

A member of the Digital Manga Guild group Cynical Pink tries to clarify the situation with regard to the DMG groups, noting that they are all independent and are freelancing for Digital Manga Inc., so dissatisfaction with one should not transfer over to all the others. And here’s some excellent advice:

Readers have commented that the quality of DMG titles can be hit or miss, and with the huge selection of titles available now, it’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. To that, I say – PLEASE REVIEW. If one out of every 10 people who read a DMG title left a review on Amazon or B&N or even just on their own blog site (which would then show up in a Google search), then deciding what to read would be that much easier. The localizing group is listed on the credit page of each book. If you find a book you like, look for more by the same group, and vice versa if you unfortunately didn’t like it.

On a more technical note, Erica Friedman explains how manga is produced and how the process differs from other books. The bottom line: Fewer eyes during the editing and production phases results in more typos and clunkier translations in the finished product.

On the latest Manga Out Loud podcast, Ed Sizemore and Johanna Draper Carlson discuss the Jiro Taniguchi MMF, the possible surge of manga sales in comics stores, and the news that Vertical will allow Twin Spica to go out of print.

Melinda Beasi and Michelle Smith discuss the rather odd vintage manga Moon Child in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Khursten Santos turns the spotlight on BL/josei manga-ka Tomoko Yamashita at Otaku Champloo.

Elisabeth Watson talks to Kurt Hassler about scanlation and its effect on overseas licenses at Publishing Trends:

Hassler argues that rather than “pushing” manga publishing into the digital age, the genre’s robust digital piracy-base has retarded its progress. As if the challenges of image-rich content weren’t enough, Japanese publishers have feared that licensing digital editions internationally is as good as hanging out a “pirates welcome” Jolly Rodger. Consequently, digital rights have been all but impossible for US and other international publishers to negotiate.

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson reviews the April issue of Shonen Jump, which is the final print issue, and she has some thoughts on how Viz handled the digital transition.

Anna is giving away vol. 1 of Toradora at Manga Report; click the link to see how to enter.

News from Japan: Here’s exciting news for those of you who read Japanese (and even those who don’t): A free online version of Hana to Yume. According to the French site Manganews, the site will update every Friday and right now, only series by the younger creators are available online but more are on the way. AstroNerdBoy calls attention to a proposed Japanese copyright law that has some rather alarming provisions—including forcing creators to share copyright with publishers and allowing publishers to shut down doujinshi—and suggests that may be the reason Ken Akamatsu wound up Negima so quickly.

Reviews: Lissa Pattillo links to some short reviews by her and Shannon Fay in their local paper, The Coast.

Page McKee on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vols. 1 and 2 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Sequential Tart)
Kate Dacey on vol. 2 of A Devil and Her Love Song, vol. 3 of Drops of God, and vol. 2 of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (The Manga Critic)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Drops of God (Comics Worth Reading)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Gate 7 (Blogcritics)
Margaret O’Connell on In the Bed of My Dear King (Sequential Tart)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 8 of Jormungand (Panel Patter)
Sheena McNeil on vols. 7 and 8 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 7 of Rosario + Vampire: Season II (Sequential Tart)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Rosario + Vampire: Season II (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Sailor Moon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Sakura Hime (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Soulless (Comics Worth Reading)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 7 of Stepping on Roses (Sequential Tart)

Here’s my quick rundown of this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek. Johanna Draper Carlson and Lissa Pattillo give their takes as well.

Sean Gaffney looks over next week’s new releases at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

JManga announced that they are not stopping at going global–they are going intergalactic! Before our readers on Mars get too excited, though, you should check the date–we are awfully close to April 1. What’s not a joke is their deal on Moritasan Wa Mukuchi—they are giving away the first volume for free to anyone who signs up for a new account or upgrades to a paid subscription by midnight (PST) on April 1. Also new at JManga: Nihongo Corner, a place to buy and read untranslated manga, and a special deal on manga from Shinshokan’s Wings magazine.

Everyone has their biases, and Melinda Beasi talks about her own preferences when it comes to BL.

In his latest House of 1000 Manga column, Jason Thompson takes a look at one of Naoki Urasawa’s early manga, the first to be translated into English: Pineapple Army.

Deb Aoki alerts us that Chi’s Sweet Home creator Konami Konata is coming to TCAF (the Toronto Comic Arts Festival) this May.

Matt Blind posts a recent list of manga best-sellers (based on online sales) and he also posts a fresh edition of Manga Radar with some added commentary.

Barcelona-based manga fan Sara shows off her collection at The Manga Critic.

To celebrate the coming of spring—and the start of baseball season—Ash Brown is giving away a volume of Cross Game at Experiments in Manga.

Reviews: Omar has some short manga reviews, including the last volume of Twin Spica, at About Heroes. Ash Brown posts My Week in Manga at Experiments in Manga.

Connie on vol. 9 of Bakuman (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 7 of Blue Exorcist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of Dengeki Daisy (Slightly Biased Manga)
TSOTE on Garouden (Three Steps Over Japan)
Connie on Glass Sky (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on Kanojyo no Sekai (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Magic Knight Rayearth (omnibus edition) (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Philip Anthony on Sakura Hime (Manga Bookshelf)
Connie on vol. 7 of Sakura Hime (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 3 of Summit of the Gods (Comics Worth Reading)

Hi everyone! I’m back from my trip to an Undisclosed Location—all will be revealed shortly! Thanks to Kate for her able stewardship while I was gone!

I’m a bit late in mentioning this—tomorrow is the last day—but JManga is running a yuri promotion right now: They are giving a 100-point rebate (about a dollar) on each yuri manga, although they only seem to have three. Interestingly, the JManga front page is starting to look like the front of a Japanese manga site, crowded with small banner ads offering various deals (50% off on Tsugumomo!) I like this—it’s not very elegant, but it has a feeling of richness—so many bargains!

In other digital manga news, Khursten Santos reviews Viz’s SigIKKI site, which delivers the goods in every way but one: The manga is free, it’s really good, and it is available worldwide, but the site hasn’t been updated since December, presumably because Viz is shifting its efforts toward its app and VizManga site.

Ed Sizemore wraps up the Manga Moveable Feast, which highlighted the work of Jiro Taniguchi, and he also revisits the question of whether manga can be defined in any strict, formal sense.

Reviews: Anna reviews some Harlequin manga from the JManga site at Manga Report.

Zack Davisson on vol. 1 of .hack//CELL (Japan Reviewed)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 19 of 20th Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Bunny Drop (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vols. 8 and 9 of Dengeki Daisy (Comic Attack)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Kamisama Kiss (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of One Piece (Blogcritics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Sand Chronicles (Blogcritics)
TSOTE on vol. 22 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Three Steps Over Japan)
Erica Friedman on vol. 16 of Tsubomi (Okazu)

A big thank you to everyone who has commented over the past few days about where they like to buy manga, and what manga would entice them into a special trip to a comics shop. Unfortunately, Johanna Draper Carlson doesn’t think you are the sort of customers a comics shop wants. Boo! It is true, though, that the shopkeeper probably wants to stock what sells—the popular titles—while the customer may be going to a specialty comics shop precisely in order to find books that are not available in chain bookstores. Since manga readers are not likely to fall for that thing Western comics readers do, pre-ordering their comics in advance sight unseen, shop owners are left with a certain amount of risk.

I picked the best manga from a slim selection of this week’s new releases at MTV Geek.

Erica Freidman gives the JManga site a thorough workout, and while she admits her biases (her publishing company ALC partners with JManga to publish yuri manga), she makes a lot of good points, and she provides individual reviews of a number of manga titles on the site.

David Brothers pens a lovely essay on Twin Spica and the nostalgia it evokes for the stargazing boy he once was.

AstroNerdBoy has some thoughts on the end of Negima, which has just ended in Japan.

News from Japan: Barefoot Gen is being used as a textbook for elementary school students in Hiroshima. Tozen Ujiie will start a new series in Kodansha’s Magazine Special next month. Flex Comics has put the comedy Hyakko on hold without warning or much of an explanation.

Reviews

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 19 of 20th Century Boys (The Comic Book Bin)
Danica Davidson on vol. 8 of Butterflies, Flowers (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 6 of The House of Five Leaves (The Fandom Post)
angela Eastman on vol. 7 of Kamisama Kiss (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 27 of Skip Beat! (ANN)
Ash Brown on A Zoo in Winter (Experiments in Manga)

In response to the ICv2 article we linked to yesterday, comics retailer Todd Merrick says he has seen a small increase in manga sales in his store, and he hopes to build on that. Part of the problem for retailers is not knowing which manga to stock, so he’s sticking with the popular titles for now.

That actually raises an interesting question: You can buy Naruto anywhere, but Twin Spica is hard to find in a bookstore—I would make a special trip for that, but I can see the opposite point of view as well—retailers want to stock what sells. So let me throw this question to the readers: Which manga would entice you to do your shopping in a comic shop?

At Manga Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore rounds up the first day’s worth of contributions to the Jiro Taniguchi Manga Moveable Feast.

Reviews

Kate Dacey on Benkei in New York (The Manga Critic)
Kristin on Bleach Official Character Book 2: Masked (Comic Attack)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Erementar Gerade (Sequential Ink)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Kodoku no Gourmet (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Phillip Anthony on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Manga Bookshelf)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-4 of Shiki Tsukai (Manga Xanadu)
Anna on vol. 27 of Skip Beat (Manga Report)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Soulless (ICv2)

ICv2 finds an interesting trend in comics sales: Sales of manga in comics shops have gone up in the past year. As those of us who have tried to buy manga in the local capes-and-tights emporium well know, many comics shops are not friendly to manga, but they do have the ability to offer books you can’t find in Barnes & Noble (which seems to have shrunk its graphic novel section drastically, at least in the store I visit). Borders had a huge selection of manga and catered to a wide variety of tastes, and ICv2 points out that the demise of the chain could be an opportunity for comics retailers. While a lot of folks buy their manga online, you can’t replace the immediacy of picking up the book in your hands and buying it right away, and a comic shop would be a great venue for that—if they have the foresight to stock the books.

Lissa Pattillo gives us a bit of background on Digital’s new licenses at Kuriousity.

Matt Blind looks at the manga best-sellers from the week of Feb. 19.

Time for another peek inside a Japanese manga magazine: Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at Weekly Manga Times.

Reviews: Ash Brown takes us briskly through a week in manga at Experiments in Manga.

Erica Friedman on the March issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Comics-and-More)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Hana-Kimi (omnibus edition) (The Comic Book Bin)
Drew McCabe on vols. 54 and 55 of Naruto (Comic Attack)
Philip on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (Eeeper’s Choice Podcast)

Erica Friedman adds an op-ed page to this week’s Yuri Network News with her commentary on the CBLDF manga case, Apple and Amazon’s content restrictions, and the difficulty of selling yuri manga in print.

Ed Sizemore kicks off the Manga Moveable Feast at Manga Worth Reading. This month’s featured creator is Jiro Taniguchi, and Ed hosts a review of Taniguchi’s The Walking Man by JE Latosa.

Johanna Draper Carlson looks at the most promising manga from this month’s batch of new releases.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of the week.

Lissa Pattillo has some background on Viz’s latest license rescue, 07-Ghost, as well as the news that Amazon is carrying listings for omnibus editions of the early volumes of Loveless. Yen Press announced at NYCC last year that it had rescued Loveless, but they only revealed plans to publish the volumes not already published by Tokyopop, so this is something new.

Connie continues her look at the Eroicaverse (the world of From Eroica with Love) with an article about Der Freischütz, a side story from 1982.

Matt Blind compiles another list of manga best-sellers, looking at online sales, from mid-February. Six of the top ten volumes are Sailor Moon or Codename Sailor V.

News from Japan: As Skip Beat celebrates its 10th anniversary, there are 10 million copies of its 30 volumes in print in Japan. A new Devilman spinoff, Devilman G, will be previewed in the May issue of Champion RED. And Kotaku catches a blooper in the latest issue of Comic Yurihime.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team kicks off the week with a new set of Bookshelf Briefs. Other reviews of note:

Sweetpea616 on Angel Gunfighter (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (Blogcritics)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Manga Village)
Philip on vols. 1-4 of Kingyo Used Books (Eeeper’s Choice Podcast)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Library Wars (The Comic Book Bin)
Dan Morrill on Nadesico (Comics Forge)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 9-11 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 13 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Swan (Blogcritics)