Brigid Alverson

Shonen Jump adds a new series to its lineup, and the artist is Takeshi Obata! The series is Gakkyu Hotei: School Judgment and the writer is Nobuaki Enoki. It’s about a school that has its own court; if that sounds familiar, it’s because the manga ran for a while as a smartphone-only series and just relaunched on December 1.

Kodansha has expanded into China with a local magazine, Jinmanhua, and homegrown manga by Chinese artists; the creative duo who go by Navar have seen their manhua Carrier: Xiedaizhe, go the other way—it is now running in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in Japan and has been published as collected editions there as well.

Got some last-minute shopping to do? Erica Friedman posts the Okazu Gift Guide, and she also has a fresh serving of Yuri Network News for us.

Laura reveals her favorite shoujo series at Heart of Manga, and she also looks at the series currently running in the magazine Be Love.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team takes a quick look at recent releases in their newest Bookshelf Briefs post.

Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Ajin (ANN)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Attack on Titan: No Regrets (Experiments in Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 6 of Attack on Titan (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 11-13 of Attack on Titan (Manga Xanadu)
Alice Vernon on Bloody Cross (Girls Like Comics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 24 of Fullmetal Alchemist (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Kristin on The Garden of Words (Comic Attack)
Sarah on vol. 16 of Kamisama Kiss (nagareboshi reviews0
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 25 of Naruto (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 10 of Ooku: The Inner Chambers (Comics Worth Reading)
A Library Girl on vols. 1-3 of Pandora Hearts (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on Philosophia (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on the December 15 issue of Shonen Jump (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Soul Eater Not! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Terra Formars (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 2 of UQ Holder (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)

Kodansha Comics announced a new license out of the blue on Wednesday: Naoshi Arakawa’s music-romance story Your Lie in April. Here’s the blurb:

Kosei Arima was a piano prodigy until his cruel taskmaster of a mother died suddenly, changing his life forever. Driven by his pain to abandon piano, Kosei now lives in a monotonous, colorless world. Having resigned himself to a bland life, he is surprised when he meets Kaori Miyazono, a violinist with an unorthodox style. Can she teach Kosei not just how to play, but how to start living again?

The anime is already running on Crunchyroll, Aniplex Channel, and Hulu, and apparently it’s quite popular; Kodansha may be banking on the same anime/manga synergy that made Attack on Titan such a hit. There’s more at the anime website, including trailers for an upcoming movie.

At Publishers Weekly, I talked to Digital Manga Publishing CEO Hikaru Sasahara about their ambitious Kickstarter, which would have raised over half a million dollars to publish 31 volumes of manga by Osamu Tezuka. I also talked a bit about their new Kickstarter, which is closer to the older model. At Eeepers Choice, Phillip questions the wisdom of their plans to hold another Kickstarter to fund a new printing of Unico, Swallowing the Earth, and Barbara.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses this week’s new releases.

Volume 72 of Naruto will be the final volume; it will be out in February in Japan and sometime in 2016 in the U.S. Also, Shueisha has announced the full list of post-manga Naruto novels, which will continue the story and feature art by manga-ka Masashi Kishimoto.

One Piece is taking a one-week hiatus from Shonen Jump (in Japan, so presumably from Viz’s Shonen Jump as well) so author Eiichiro Oda can do some research.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date with a new Yuri Network News post at Okazu.

Lori Henderson posts the weekly top ten lists from Viz’s digital site and the New York Times, plus a list of the manga that appeared in BookScan’s top 20 list for November.

Lori also posts a Manga Gift Guide at Manga Xanadu, and she gives her take on the past week’s new manga.

News from Japan: Da Vinci magazine revealed its list of the top manga of the year, based on votes by over 4,000 readers, retailers, and reviewers, and Attack on Titan was number one for the second year in a row. Inio Asano is taking a break from his current series, Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction; it will return to Big Comic Spirits in the spring.

Reviews

Erica Friedman on Ashita no Kimi ni Hanabata wo (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Attack on Titan (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Dan Greenfield on vol. 1 of Batmanga (13th Dimension)
A Library Girl on vols. 1-4 of Durarara!!! (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Drew McCabe on E-Robot (Comic Attack)
Erica Friedman on Himitsu no Kakera (Okazu)
Laura on vol. 1 of Kiss of the Rose Princess (Heart of Manga)
Ash Brown on vol. 7 of Mobile Suit Gundam (Experiments in Manga)
A Library Girl on vols. 1, 2, and 5-18 of Monster (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Lori Henderson on vols. 15-21 of Pokemon Adventures: Ruby and Sapphire (Good Comics for Kids)
Anna N on vol. 3 of Seraph of the End (Manga Report)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 5 of Sherlock Bones (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Spell of Desire (Comic Attack)
TSOTE on vol. 2 of Swallowing the Earth (Three Steps Over Japan)
Josh Begley on vol. 4 of Vinland Saga (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Yukarism (I Reads You)

Zainab Akhtar posts a preview of Satoshi Kon’s Opus, which is due out this week from Dark Horse.

At Eeeper’s Choice, Phillip weighs in on Digital’s new Tezuka Kickstarter, which is considerably more modest than the last one.

Doraemon is the most iconic children’s character in Japan, if not all of Asia, so why have publishers been so slow to bring him over here? Roland Kelts looks at the problem, with input from translators Matt Alt (who is translating the manga, which is being released digitally), and Matt Thorn.

This week’s Pick of the Week at Manga Bookshelf comes down to two very different manga.

Erica Friedman recommends the digital magazine Sparkler Monthly.

Laura looks at this month’s new shoujo manga releases at Heart of Manga.

At Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin and Manjiorin discuss five fears they have about buying manga. Any dedicated manga reader will relate!

A Library Girl notes a mini-revolt going on in the Crunchyroll forums because the company did not offer its traditional Black Friday discount on the All Access pass. Why are we writing about this on a manga blog? Because the All Access pass is what you use to read manga; if a substantial number of customers drop their subscriptions or convert to the anime-only service, it could hurt their digital manga program.

Peking University in Beijing, China, has opened a manga library.

News from Japan: This year’s best selling manga were One Piece, with 11,885,957 volumes sold, and Attack on Titan, with 11,728,368, but the numbers drop off quickly after that; Naruto, in the number six slot, had only half the sales of One Piece. Princess Resurrection manga-ka Yasunori Mitsunaga has a new series, Kako to Nise Tantei (Kako and Detective Nise), set to debut in the next issue of Young Jump.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers round up some quick takes on recent releases in the latest edition of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown sums up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. At Brain Vs. Book, Jocelyne Allen reviews Fumiko Fumi’s Memento Mori, which hasn’t been translated into English. Johnanna Draper Carlson takes a look at the how-to book Kawaii Manga: Adorable! at Comics Worth Reading.

Ash Brown on All You Need Is Kill (Experiments in Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Black Rose Alice (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on the September issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Sakura Eries on vol. 6 of GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class (The Fandom Post)
TSOTE on Heureka (Three Steps Over Japan)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Manga Dogs (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 14 of Neon Genesis Evangelion (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 16 of Rin-ne (The Comic Book Bin)
A Library Girl on vols. 7-9 of The Story of Saiunkoku (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)

On the eve of Thanksgiving, we decided to whet our appetite for tomorrow’s dinner with a conversation about our favorite food manga. Our guests around the table today are the Manga Bookshelf bloggers: Melinda Beasi, who runs Manga Bookshelf and blogs there as well, Ash Brown of Experiments in Manga, Michelle Smith of Soliloquy in Blue, Anna N of Manga Report, and Sean Gaffney of A Case Suitable for Treatment. Bon appetit!

Michelle: I’ve thoroughly been enjoying What Did You Eat Yesterday?, especially the idea that this is everyday fare that a person on a budget might be able to make, were they so ambitious. Somehow it’s so refreshing to see someone using powder mixes! I love Shiro’s shopping trips and his sense of triumph upon scoring a good deal. My one regret is that I really can’t imagine how the vast majority of what he makes actually tastes.

Another food manga I enjoy, somewhat despite myself, is Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma. I kind of feel like I should be more bothered by the fan service than I am, but to me it seems purposefully ridiculous and not meant to titillate, but I suppose it could be doing both things at once. Anyway, this manga is basically Prince of Tennis with food. You’ve got the cocky protagonist, whose father possibly is a famous cooking ninja or something, who immediately takes on and bests his classmates at an elite culinary school. And being that it’s kind of sports manga with food, it is completely up my alley.

Ash: I love food and I love manga, and so when the two come together in the same work I’m always going to check it out. More often than not, I end up enjoying it, too. My first food manga was Oishinbo: A la Carte, and it remains one of my favorite food series. With its food and family drama, Oishinbo is both informational and highly entertaining. Occasionally it can be controversial as well. Despite being a best-selling food manga in Japan, back in May publication of the series was suspended after its depiction of health issues in the Fukushima area. The series can be very opinionated, and at times those opinions aren’t widely held or popular. Another example is the support shown in favor of whaling. But I appreciate a work that can take a strong stance; even if I don’t necessarily agree with it I usually learn something by reading it.

Currently my go-to food manga is What Did You Eat Yesterday? Granted, it’s not just the food that particularly appeals to me about the series; I also welcome its realistic portrayal of gay life in contemporary Japan. Food frequently has an important role to play in Fumi Yoshinaga’s manga, as can be seen in Antique Bakery and Not Love But Delicious Foods among others, but What Did You Eat Yesterday? takes it to a whole new level. I know plenty of readers who don’t really enjoy the detailed food preparation and recipes found in the manga, but I’m one of those people who can happily watch cooking and food shows for hours at a time (if I actually had the time, that is) so it doesn’t bother me at all. And I especially like how the creation of a dish is shown to be a method of personal expression and communication.

Melinda: I’ll pipe up here to add myself to the list of folks who are rabidly consuming What Did You Eat Yesterday? There’s pretty much nothing I love more than the combination of Fumi Yoshinaga and food. As a food-lover who does not cook, I suppose I especially appreciate the fact that even food-preparation serves to move the story along in a Yoshinaga manga, so I’m never left to face my inadequacies in the kitchen alone; there’s always a little bit of human drama to keep me company. Actually, I think that’s a significant part of what always drew me to CLAMP’s xxxHolic as well. It’s not a food manga by any means, but there’s an enormous amount of food and food-preparation involved in the story. These things are inextricable from the character’s lives.

Brigid: Michelle, I’m right there with you on Food Wars. It’s so over the top that it’s hard to take seriously, and it must be said that the delicious food has the same effect on guys as on girls, although somehow it’s funnier with the guys. Anyway, it’s one of those manga I enjoy in spite of my better judgment. And the food is interesting.

I’m going to toss out a few more titles to get your reactions: Back when it first came out, I read the first couple of volumes of Yakitate!! Japan, a shonen manga about a guy who wants to create the national bread of Japan—it’s funny because Japan is a rice culture, not a bread culture—and it was sort of interesting how he had these bread-baking beatdowns with other would-be bakers. Then there’s Kitchen Princess, a super-shoujo drama about a good-hearted orphan girl, Najika, who has perfect taste, the way some people have perfect pitch, and can make really delicious, classic dishes out of cheap ingredients. This story is very much about the emotional side of food, as it’s basically a soap opera in which all problems are solved by Najika’s cooking. I also really like Toriko, the story of gourmet hunters in search of the world’s rarest and most elusive foods, just because the plants and animals the author comes up with are so imaginative. And finally, an oldie but a goodie, Iron Wok Jan, sort of a manga version of Iron Chef that’s set in a Chinese restaurant. Does anyone have any thoughts on these, or am I the only one who read them?

Michelle: I have the complete runs of Kitchen Princess and Yakitate!! Japan, but haven’t read them. I did, however, watch a few episodes of the latter’s anime and what I remember also kind of reminds me of Food Wars, in that it’s a big sports manga-ish (maybe what I really mean here is simply that it’s thoroughly shounen) and there are over-the-top reactions to food, though not so much fanservicey as wacky. Like Drops of God or something. :) I definitely intend to read both series one of these days.

Ash: Yakitate!! Japan is a series I’ve been meaning to read, but haven’t quite got around to yet. Kitchen Princess, on the other hand, I have read. It’s deliciously melodramatic, and the food is tasty, too! I’ve actually seen more of the Toriko anime than I’ve read of the manga, but I do enjoy the series. It’s a lot of fun. As you mentioned, Brigid, the flora and fauna are incredibly imaginative. The gourmet hunters and their prey are both fantastically over-the-top. And I really like Toriko himself—he’s a powerful and skilled fighter, but he also has a respect for life and a childlike delight in food. It’s been a while since I’ve read Iron Wok Jan (it was one of my very first food manga), but I do remember some pretty epic and intense battles in that series, too!

Anna: I enjoyed the first few volumes of Yakitate!! Japan, mostly due to the horrible puns and the baking competitions. Iron Wok Jan I read several volumes of many years ago, and it had a bit of a fiercer edge to the cooking competitions, just because the main character was so intense. There was a little less humor and more over the top cooking aggression from what I remember from that series. I read most of Kitchen Princess, and I enjoyed being able to read a foodie manga in a shoujo setting, because it seems like more often when food manga comes out here, it comes with an Iron Chef-like series of shonen competitions.

I have to say that for food manga now I do prefer the works of Fumi Yoshinaga, just because her enthusiasm for food is so genuine it ends up getting reflected so well in the way her characters react to their meals. I’m a little less than enthused about Food Wars due to the fanservice, but there still is something entertaining about the combination of cooking mastery and an elite school for young chefs.

I do also enjoy food manga that are a bit more didactic or instructive in addition to the variations of battle manga. I was really glad to have the chance to read some translations of Ekiben Hitoritabi when JManga was up and running. I’ve also enjoyed a few volumes of Drops of God and Oishinbo.

Sean: I enjoy a lot of food manga, but not necessarily for the food—I’m honestly a McNuggets kind of guy. I like how it shows that anything can be adapted to fit the manga style. The titles like Food Wars and Yakitate Japan all are very much shonen fighting/training/making friends series, just about food.

Most of the seinen food manga we’ve seen consist of “talk about food preparation/eat food/exult about how delicious food is”, with close ups of amazed faces. Though Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday? at least does have characters, much as I don’t care for Shiro. With Oishinbo, characterization was so irrelevant that Viz could simply release seven omnibuses from all over the spectrum, with Kurita going from vaguely attracted to Yamaoka to already having kids and back depending on the food “theme.” (Also, lots of Shiros in food manga.)

As for series like Mixed Vegetables and Kitchen Princess, the food is a vital ingredient, but it isn’t the plot, like with Food Wars or What Did You Eat Yesterday? The standard shoujo romance and high school traumas take the front seat, though food may be used to advance those plots.

And josei, well, that’s Yoshinaga as well, right? Not Love But Delicious Foods?

Michelle: Oh, Ekiben Hitoritabi! I forgot about that one, but I also really liked it. Too, JManga had Gokudou Meshi, in which a bunch of prisoners had a yearly tradition of telling each other about delicious food they had eaten. I’m sad I won’t get to read more of either of those.

Kate: I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one mourning the demise of JManga–that was my go-to source for off-beat food manga! I was a big fan of both Ekiben Hitoritabi and Gokudou Meshi, in part because neither had fanservice, over-the-top battle sequences, or idiot savants whose one great gift was making awesome cakes. Of the two, I had a slight preference for Gokudou, as the script was a deft blend of slapstick comedy and culinary shop-talk, with characters waxing poetic about their last meal “on the outside,” or favorite comfort food. Ekiben unfolded at a more leisurely pace that, at times, bordered on snoozy; how much is there to say about the food at train stations? Still, Ekiben captured the feeling of train travel, and made me sad that the food options at Penn Station are so abysmal.

Another JManga title that I loved was Kodoko no Gourmet, quite possibly the least manly-man title ever illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi. Its hero, Goro Inoshigara, is a traveling salesman who spends most of his time checking out new restaurants in each city he visits. (If he actually transacts any business during the course of the series, I missed it.) Each chapter is just a few pages long, but gives us a window into a variety of different types of restaurants, from mom-and-pop noodle joints to upscale bistros. Taniguchi does a terrific job of conveying the atmosphere of each place that Goro visits–something that frequently gets overlooked in competition-oriented food manga, where the tastiness of the food trumps all other considerations.

I’d also like to join the chorus of folks praising Fumi Yoshinaga. Though I share Sean’s opinion of What Did You Eat Yesterday?, I adored Not Love But Delicious Foods. The story consists of fifteen vignettes, each centered around a particular eatery: a Korean restaurant, a French bistro, a bagel bakery. (Call me a recovering New Yorker, but I hate to think of what passes for a decent bagel in Tokyo.) The meals are an important ingredient in every story, but it’s the conversation that really pops; Yoshinaga does a great job of demonstrating the power of wine and food in bringing people together, smoothing over disagreements, and giving people license to break taboos.

Still hungry? Back in 2012, Khursten Santos hosted a Manga Moveable Feast devoted to food manga; click here to view the entire archive.

Johanna Draper Carlson has some commentary on Digital Manga’s Tezuka World Kickstarter, which failed to reach its goal last week. Lori Henderson shares her thoughts as well at Manga Xanadu.

Some sharp-eyed folks spotted a couple of unannounced manga on Amazon, and Yen Press confirmed it: They will publish Sword Art Online: Girls Ops in May and Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Rebellion Story in June. They also announced that they will publish Tomoco Kanemaki’s Kingdom Hearts light novel series in a single volume.

What’s good this week? The Manga Bookshelf bloggers have some recommendations.

Lori Henderson rounds up the Viz and New York Times best-sellers in one handy post.

Erica Friedman looks at the latest issue of Eureka Magazine, which focuses on “The Current State of Yuri Culture,” and she updates us on just that with the latest edition of Yuri Network News.

Help Ash Brown decide what series to write about next at Experiments in Manga.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project will end this summer.

News from Japan: Matsuri Hino wrapped up Vampire Knight a little while ago, but now she’s back with a new chapter that will run in the March issue of LaLaDX. Shueisha’s Miracle Jump magazine announced that there are now 4.5 million volumes of One Punch Man out there. Crunchyroll has a preview of Peach-Pit’s first shonen manga, Wandering Wonder World, which will debut in the January issue of Shonen Ace. Kaiji Kawaguchi (Zipang, Eagle) will launch a new series, Kūbo Ibuki (Aircraft Carrier Ibuki), in Big Comic Magazine in December.

Reviews: Streamline your reading by checking out this week’s Bookshelf Briefs at Manga Bookshelf. Ash Brown has more short takes and a roundup of a week’s worth of manga reading.

Lori Henderson on Another (Manga Xanadu)
Sarah on vol. 18 of Black Butler (nagareboshi reviews)
Anna N on vol. 2 of Black Rose Alice (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Bousou Girlsteki Mousou Renaiteki Suteki Project (Okazu)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 5 of Deadman Wonderland (The Fandom Post)
Damion Julien-Rohman on Gangsta (The State Press)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 26 of Higurashi: When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Warner on vol. 5 of Inu x Boku (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 4 of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (The Fandom Post)
Steve Bennett on vol. 1 of LBX: New Dawn Raisers (ICv2)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 17 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 25 of Pokemon Adventures (Lesley’s Musings on Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire (I Reads You)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 17 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 5 of Vinland Saga (Experiments in Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Voice Over (The Comic Book Bin)

Shonen Jump’s latest “Jump Start” manga are Ryohei Yamamoto’s E-ROBOT and Nobuaki Enoki and Takeshi Obata’s Gakkyu Hotei. The magazine will run the first three chapters of each series.

In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun, Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto talks about how he was different as a child than the character he created:

“I was unable to do well in school and felt a strong sense of inferiority,” he said. “When Naruto said, ‘I will be Hokage,’ people surrounding him laughed at his dream. Since childhood, I also told others that I would be a manga artist but had no foundation.

“Unlike Naruto, I did not have the courage to declare that I will become a manga creator at any cost. So I would just say in my mind, ‘It may be possible.’”

Erica Friedman updates us with a new Yuri Network News post at Okazu.

News from Japan: The Osaka Prefectural Police have filed charges against 16 people, including manga-ka Rensuke Oshikiri, in the Hi Score Girl copyright infringement case. A new volume of Doraemon Plus will be released on December 1, the 80th birthday of creator Fujiko F. Fujio. A One Piece spinoff, One Piece Party, will launch in the January issue of Saikyo Jump; it will feature super-deformed versions of the One Piece cast. The next issue of Morning magazine will include a one-shot by Go Nagai, titled Kaiketsu Furo Zukin (The Amazing Bath Hood).

Reviews: Ash Brown takes us through a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Three Steps Over Japan reviews the Osamu Tezuka manga Neo Faust, which has not been published in English.

Connie on vol. 2 of Castle Mango (Slightly Biased Manga)
Matthew Warner on vol. 8 of Happy Marriage?! (The Fandom Post)
A Library Girl on vols. 1-5 of Kobato (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Connie on vol. 2 of Moon and Blood (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Neon Genesis Evangelion (3-in-1 edition) (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 9 and 10 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 10 of Rin-Ne (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of Sailor Moon (Slightly Biased Manga)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Soulless (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Void’s Enigmatic Mansion (The Fandom Post)

I wrote a roundup of the current manga scene for SLJTeen newsletter, with notes on publishing trends (omnibuses, license rescues) and some recommended series.

CBR has more details on the Attack on Titan/Marvel crossover, including where it’s going to run: In the Japanese culture magazine Brutus.

Lori Henderson looks at this week’s new manga at Manga Xanadu.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses next week’s new manga, and Melinda Beasi has some pix of the new Pandora Hearts art book.

Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama was named “Tourism Friendship Ambassador to the ‘Beautiful Riverside Location of Hita,'” his home town in Oita Prefecture. Isayama came back to his hometown for a two-day cultural event, “Shingeki no Satogaeri” (Attack on Returning Home), and during a talk show that was part of the event, he said that the landscape of the area was his inspiration for the setting of Attack on Titan.

Three volumes of Attack on Titan make the BookScan best-seller list, which tracks graphic novel sales in bookstores; just like in the old days, the latest volume of Naruto tops the list, and vol. 19 of Vampire Knight is there as well.

Naruto comes to an end next week, but it’s not really going away: Next week’s issue of Shonen Jump includes an announcement that a new mini-series will launch in the spring, and a couple of novels are already in the works. What’s more, something called the “Naruto Shin Jidai Kaimaku Project” (Naruto’s New Era Opening Project) has a countdown for a big announcement on Monday. So stay tuned!

Kadokawa launched its Book Walker app this week with an array of titles, some old, some new.

Laura looks at the series currently running in BetsuHana magazine.

Reviews: Sean Gaffney and Anna N. look at some new releases from Viz, Seven Seas, and Vertical in the latest edition of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown looks back at the week in manga at Experiments in Manga.

Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Barakamon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ein Gamagori on vol. 2 of Food Wars (The Fandom Post)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of Kiss of the Rose Princess (Manga Report)
Sarah on vol. 12 of Library Wars (nagareboshi reviews)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 8 of Magi (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Mebae (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 5 of Nisekoi (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on vol. 9 of No. 6 (Experiments in Manga)
Sakura Eries on vol. 17 of Oresama Teacher (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire (ANN)
Sarah on Sword Art Online: Aincrad (nagareboshi reviews)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 0 of Übel Blatt (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Marvel editor CB Cebulski Tweeted some startling news yesterday:

Not a joke, folks. Attack on Titan and the @Marvel universe are crossing over!

And then he posted the sample art above.

ANN collected all CB’s Tweets about the crossove, and Steve Sunu has a bit more at CBR, but the Marvel folks haven’t said much beyond the original Tweet. We know the crossover is happening in Japan, but presumably they will be bringing it over to the U.S. as well.

Reaction on Twitter and the CBR boards has been mostly positive; it may be that the Marvel and Attack on Titan audiences are already crossing over, and the story is just following them.

Welcome to another edition of Bookmarked, our weekly feature in which Kate and I, and an invited guest, discuss what we’re reading this week. These are not formal reviews—they are more like works-in-progress, and we totally claim the right to have opinions about manga we haven’t finished yet. Our guest this week is Justin S, founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Take it away, Justin!

Justin: Last week, Deb and Kate ended up choosing My Love Story!! as titles they’ve been reading recently. Brigid chose Barakamon. Both are titles I’ve also read in the past week and probably would have chosen for this column had they not been covered already. I’m only bringing this up because I just want to say you should definitely be checking out those works as they’re both pretty great.

But I think I have a fairly solid backup to those two titles, and while it’s been finished for a while now, it still manages to chill me every time I turn the page: Monster!

For Vol 2 of the Perfect Edition of Monster, the search for cold blooded killer Johan is on for Tenma and Anna, while they both have to deal with their troubles: Tenma’s been framed for murders he didn’t commit, while Anna has to delve into the seedy backgrounds of Frankfurt and avoid getting into unnecessary trouble. During their search, the past of Johan—how he got himself into the situations he did as a child, the people involved with him, his true personality, or personalities—are uncovered, and this discovery only leads the two to conclude one thing: They must stop him, at any cost.

Monster is always going to be a weird beast for me. I’ve read this story a couple of times, yet each and every time I read it again, it feels like something new happens and I’m taken aback. In this omnibus format, the experience of seeing seemingly minor characters like Heckel the thief and Schumann the doctor (who lives in a remote area) and how they influence the story this time around is exciting and fresh! Yeah, we know who the story really revolves around and those guys ultimately are the focus, but I find that in re-reading some works, sometimes the other things, like the supporting characters, take your attention that makes you appreciate the ongoing journey. In this case for example, just seeing a regular nurse treat a kid that Tenma, who is wanted for murder, gives to her and has to leave for some time, and then watch her give the kid to someone else—that someone else happened to be abusing the kid—even though rationally, she is supposed to give the kid up because he’s the guardian and has no knowledge of how he’s been treated, makes me angry. Predictable, probably, but being predictable can be a good thing if everything else is set up properly. That is one of the reasons Monster still continues to be so great even despite time passing by, and I can only thank Viz enough for re-releasing it in this brand new version.

Another manga that’s gotten my attention is on Crunchyroll. It has something to do with “delinquent, former gang leader” “Teacher” and “immature schoolkids with a host of problems.”

That practically sums up Fujisawa’s latest GTO iteration, Paradise Lost. As the sequel to GTO, it’s still grounded in the same roots that’s made the series popular: Onizuka is not the normal teacher, most of his co-workers are out to get him fired, and he has to deal with problem kids… that also are out to get him fired. This time however, he has to deal with students who are also idols, which means they bring their stardom (and their fans), along with their sense of superiority and arrogance, to the classroom. Needless to say, Onizuka doesn’t stand for that, especially if that means treating the lesser classmates that may not be stars but have an importance nonetheless, like trash.

I knew going in that I was probably going to like this new version of Onizuka, but I’m surprised I like it as much as I do. It’s still the same as all the others, but the angle of working with a former model, teaching a bunch of kids that are destined to be famous, and seeing how he does it considering how they act inside and outside of school has been neat. It’s gotten pretty crazy recently with one idol who can’t stand Onizuka, to the point where he decided it’d be cool to let one of his stalker fans kill Onizuka. But as always, Onizuka finds a way to survive it, though whether he’ll have success teaching him a lesson…well, he probably will eventually, but it’s still too early to say. Anyways, while the art still remains somewhat of a distraction, this is still classic GTO, and hard to turn down.

Well, the art does have its good moments.

Kate: I had a similar experience re-reading Monster this summer: I found myself more interested in the subplots and supporting characters than in Tenma’s quest to find Johann. I often feel like Urasawa does his best work on the periphery of the main story, populating it with memorable people who feel truer-to-life than his lead characters. He also does a better job of wrapping up these brief story arcs; much as I love Monster, Pluto, and 20th Century Boys, Urasawa can’t end a series to save his life.

Speaking of older gems, I’ve been reading the first volumes of Kaiji Kawaguchi’s time-traveling thriller Zipang. Kodansha published a bilingual edition in 2002, and while they didn’t translate the whole series, it’s still a good read. The premise is uncannily similar to The Final Countdown (1980), a cheesy Martin Sheen-Kirk Doulgas flick in which an American aircraft carrier is accidentally transported back to 1941. The crew then must decide whether to use their superior weaponry to thwart the bombing of Pearl Harbor or allow history to follow its textbook course. Zipang tells a similar story from a Japanese perspective: the crew members of the Mirai, a state-of-the-art destroyer, find themselves deposited in the Pacific theater on the eve of Midway. You can guess what happens next: characters debate the ethics of altering the space-time continuum while engaging in some good old-fashioned sea battles. This time-traveling gimmick has been done to death, but I have a terrible fondness for hyper-serious manly-man manga, especially when the pacing and artwork are as crisp as Kawaguchi’s. I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to read the whole series–at 43 volumes, it’s easy to guess why no American publisher would touch it—but can’t help but wish that Crunchyroll would license it.

Brigid: I also have been reading My Love Story!!, and I especially enjoy the art and the way that Aruko uses patterns and screentones to express emotion—every time Yamato does something that Takeo finds unspeakably cute, his profile is filled with streaks of lightning. It’s totally over the top, but that’s what makes it so funny.

I’ll weigh in on Monster as well: I agree with Kate about Urasawa’s endings. The end of Monster made me want to throw the book across the room. It’s a shame, because Urasawa is a master storyteller, and I love following all the story threads, so it’s disappointing when the series just goes “pfft” at the end.

I started a couple of promising series this week. One was Noragami, a comedy about a homeless god, Yato, who makes up in attitude for what he lacks in tact. The book begins with Yato somewhat reluctantly helping a bullied girl—as so often happens in manga, the chief culprits are not her jerky schoolmates but supernatural creatures called ayakashi. Yato slashes them to ribbons with the help of his shinki (“divine weapon”), a girl who becomes a knife at his command, but then his shinki leaves. Perhaps this is one of those manga that started as a one-shot chapter in a magazine, because this first chapter stands completely apart from the rest of the story.

What happens next is a bit confusing: A girl named Hiyori is hit by a bus and almost dies, or has some sort of near-death experience, and while she seems to have recovered, she keeps slipping out of her body. She attaches herself to Yato, and it looks like maybe she will become his new shinki, but noooo, some other dude shows up at the end. So I’m not sure where the Hiyori thing is going. There’s plenty to like about this book anyway, though, with lots of humor in this book (including the fact that Hiyori is a closet wrestling fan) and just enough action. Adachitoka lays on the screentones with a heavy hand (and not as skillfully as Aruko), which makes the art hard to look at sometimes, but the characters themselves are well drawn and well defined. I’ll be on board for at least one more volume of this one. Bonus points for the extensive translation notes in the back!

I thought that World Trigger might be something special, as Viz released the first two volumes at once, but it seems pretty average. It’s your basic Shonen Jump story about teenagers protecting the world (or in this case, Mikado City) from invaders from outer space, the Neighbors. The group of protectors is called Border, and they have the usual tightly fitted uniforms and cool weapons (they get a special battling body when they fight, which minimizes damage to the actual body). There are a couple of twists in the book: The main character, Osamu Mikumo, is a low-level trainee who isn’t much of a fighter. However, he is a very ethical guy who won’t allow a classmate to be bullied or allow one of the bullies to be eaten by a space monster that pops up out of nowhere. The bullied classmate is the new kid in town, who seems a bit more clueless than he ought to be. It’s hard to say more without giving the plot away, but there is a bit more to it than your average fighting-the-monsters story. If you like a book with a lot of battles, this is one to try, but by the beginning of volume 2, I had had enough.

ICv2 looks at the graphic novel market in general, noting that women and children are becoming a larger slice of the audience, and then lists the top 25 manga and the top 10 shoujo and shonen franchises.

In an interview done at NYCC, Justin talks to Viz vice president of publishing Leyla Aker about her work, her gateway anime and manga, and what has surprised her the most at her job. He also chats with Shonen Jump editor Andy Nakatani about the direction he thinks the magazine is heading in and with Danika Harrod, brand manager for manga at Crunchyroll.

Also from NYCC: Here’s a video of Takeshi Obata drawing Death Note sketches.

The Manga Bookshelf team discuss next week’s new manga, and also on the site, Melinda Beasi discusses problematic relationships in three different manga in her Three Things Thursday post.

Something to look forward to in January: Image will publish Ken Niimura’s Henshin. Zainab Akhtar explains why that’s awesome.

Tiffany Pascal writes about “Spiritual Gender-Bending in Solanin.” Warning: Spoilers!

Previews shows off all the October manga.

Just so we can remember why we like this, David Brothers picks out a great example of Tite Kubo’s storytelling from chapter 601 of Bleach.

Comicosity has a preview of the latest chapter of Batman: The Jiro Kuwata Batmanga, the Batman manga that DC is releasing digitally.

Paul Gravett dusts off a 2013 interview with Junko Mizuno, who is in the UK at the moment for a couple of appearances.

Here’s a look at the Manga Hof manga cafe in Dusseldorf, Germany, where you can read all you like for five euros an hour.

A UK man, Robul Hoque, has been convicted on 10 counts of possessing “prohibited images of children,” all of them manga depicting young girls in a sexual way. While the judge acknowledged that these were drawings, not photographs, and therefore no children were harmed in the making of them, he said, “This is material that clearly society and the public can well do without. Its danger is that it obviously portrays sexual activity with children, and the more it’s portrayed, the more the ill-disposed may think it’s acceptable.” This is the prosecution of this kind in the UK involving manga, and Hoque’s lawyer pointed out that many of the images in his possession were legally available on legitimate websites, saying, “This case should serve as a warning to every Manga and Anime fan to be careful. It seems there are many thousands of people in this country, if they are less then careful, who may find themselves in that position too.” Negima creator Ken Akamatsu had some thoughts on the case as well.

Here’s this week’s New York Times manga best-seller list.

News from Japan: MariaHolic will end in November. Shonen Ace magazine celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special video. Here’s the latest Japanese comic rankings.

Reviews

Melinda Beasi on Antique Bakery (Manga Bookshelf)
Sarah on vol. 24 of D.Gray-Man (nagareboshi reviews)
Guy Thomas on The Flowers of Evil (Panel Patter)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Honey Blood (ICv2)
Manjiorin on Legal Drug (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Magical Girl Apocalypse (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Manga Dogs (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Catie Coleman on Monster (Women Write About Comics)
Ken H. on vol. 2 of Monster Soul (Sequential Ink)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Monster Soul (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Noragami (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of Say I Love You (The Fandom Post)
G.B. Smith on vol. 2 of The Seven Deadly Sins (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on vol. 4 of Summit of the Gods (Experiments in Manga)
Laura on Sweet Rein (Heart of Manga)
AJ Adejare on Time Killers (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Urameshiya (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Whispered Words (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of World Trigger (The Comic Book Bin)

I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview Death Note manga-ka Takeshi Obata at New York Comic-Con. On our agenda: Bakuman, Hikaru no Go and, of course, Death Note.

Kodansha will be reissuing an oldie but goodie: Hitoshi Iwaaki’s body-snatching classic Parasyte.

In other licensing news, DMP will be launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of six Tezuka titles including Rainbow Parakeet, The Three-Eyed One, and The Vampires.

Justin Stroman of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses interviews Robert McGuire of GEN Manga, which started out publishing serialized manga in digital and print format and is now focusing on print graphic novels.

Spooky Pokemon designs by Junji Ito? Yes, please!

Over at Nagareboshi Reviews, Sarah examines the horror element in Tezuka’s beloved medical drama Black Jack.

Reviews: Shaenon Garrity sings the praises of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service in the latest House of 1,000 Manga column, while Adam Stephanides investigaes Shintaro Kago’s Superconducting Brain Parataxis. Here at Manga Bookshelf, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith post brief reviews of the latest VIZ volumes.

Lori Henderson on vols. 1-7 of Attack on Titan (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 52 of Case Closed (Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on The Garden of Words (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland (Anime News Network)
Matthew Warner on vol. 4 of Inu X Boku S.S. (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 12 of Library Wars: Love & War (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Manga Dogs (Anime News Network)
John Rose on vol. 3 of Neon Genesis Evangelion Omnibus (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 21 of Pandora Hearts (The Fandom Post)
Sarah on vol. 22 of Soul Eater (Nagareboshi Reviews)
Anna N. on vol. 2 of Spell of Desire (Manga Report)
Jocilyn Wagner on vol. 1 of Sweet Blue Flowers (Experiments in Manga)

Non Non Biyori

Seven Seas is announcing seven new licenses in seven days; the first is Non Non Biyori.

And Viz has rescued another Tokyopop title, adding Kyo Kara Maoh to their Viz Select digital line.

ICv2 has the September BookScan numbers, which cover sales of graphic novels in bookstores. There are eight manga on the list, including three volumes of Attack on Titan, plus the spinoff, Attack on Titan: No Regrets; the first volume of Noragami; and the latest volumes of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, One Piece, and Naruto.

Lori Henderson checks out this week’s new manga at Manga Xanadu.

In case you haven’t heard, Takeshi Obata (Death Note, Bakuman, Hikaru No Go) is coming to New York Comic Con.

Reviews

Matthew Warner on vol. 4 of From the New World (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Genshiken: Second Season (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 7 of Wandering Son (Experiments in Manga)
Ash Brown on vol. 4 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Experiments in Manga)

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week.

Ride Back creator Tetsuro Kasahara is writing a prequel to Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy; the prequel, which is being supervised by Tezuka’s son, Makoto Tezuka, will launch in December in Monthly Hero’s Magazine and will cover the period before Astro Boy was “born.”

At the Tokyopop website, James Perry II talks about the his global manga Orange Crows; the first volume was published by Tokyopop and he self-published the second volume some time later.

News from Japan: A One Piece spinoff, following the further adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates, will launch in December in Shueisha’s Saikyo Jump magazine. Bunny Drop manga-ka Yumi Unita has a new series in the works, Para Para Days, a romantic comedy that will launch in the next issue of Big Comic Spirit.

Reviews: The gang at Manga Bookshelf files this week’s Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown discusses a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

A Library Girl on Angel (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
A Library Girl on Angel Nest (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Attack on Titan (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Black Rose Alice (Comic Attack)
Ash Brown on vol. 3 of Dororo (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vol. 1 of The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Comic Attack)
Naru on vol. 2 of Kingdom Hearts (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
A Library Girl on vols. 1 and 2 of Mad Love Chase (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Monster Soul (Manga Xanadu)
Anna N on vol. 2 of My Love Story! (Manga Report)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 7 of Sherlock Bones (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on Sword Art Online: Aincrad (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on Time Killers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Alice Vernon on Umineko: When They Cry (Girls Like Comics)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 2 and 3 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Comics Worth Reading)