Brigid Alverson

It was bad news, then good news for Digital Manga, which was informed earlier this week that Amazon was suspending their Kindle account. Digital has been publishing quite a bit of manga in digital format, including Kindle, so this would be a blow to them and their readers; furthermore, as they point out in their blog post, there is a lot of other adult content on Amazon that doesn’t seem to be threatened. The good news is that they were informed yesterday that their account has been restored, although Amazon cautioned that it could be terminated at any time if their content violates Amazon’s guidelines.

Sean Gaffney looks forward to next week’s new manga. And Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all-ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

License rescue news! Viz has confirmed with ANN that they have licensed 07-Ghost, a shonen fantasy series that was originally published in English by Go! Comi. Lori Henderson explains why that’s awesome at Manga Xanadu.

Jason Thompson takes on Pretty Face, the story of a boy who fell in love with a girl—and woke up looking like her twin sister—in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN. Thompson also guests on the ANNcast, talking about his years as a manga editor, his own graphic novels, and what he thinks of the industry now.

The next Manga Moveable Feast is coming up; it will feature the work of Jiro Taniguchi and will be hosted at Manga Worth Reading.

Anna has been checking out some manga-themed podcasts at Manga Report.

AstroNerdBoy looks at the fates of several different series and wonders whether bad endings or the time lag between Japanese and U.S. publication hurt some manga.

Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary focuses on a recent chapter of One Piece.

In case you were wondering what Stu Levy has been up to since the implosion of Tokyopop, here is an L.A. Times article about his experiences during and after the Japan earthquake and the movie he made about it.

Manga fan Neokitty shows off her manga stash to The Manga Critic.

If you’re heading to WonderCon this week—or maybe just thinking about it—Deb Aoki has a rundown of the attractions for manga and anime lovers.

Kanata Konami, the creator of Chi’s Sweet Home, will make her first North American appearance at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival in May.

News from Japan: Ai Kano has announced a spinoff to Your and My Secret, which will run as a webcomic on Mag Garden’s Web Comic Beat and will feature the four main characters from the original story.

Reviews: Melanie Valdivieso, Tommy Pfeiffer and Omar Valdivieso post some quick reviews of recent manga at About Heroes. Other reviews of note:

Anna on vol. 7 of Blade of the Immortal (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on Bleach MASKED: Official Character Book 2 (The Comic Book Bin)
Kate Dacey on vols. 2 and 3 of A Bride’s Story (The Manga Critic)
Jocelyne Allen on Chokodoshujin (Brain Vs. Book)
Anna on vol. 3 of Dawn of the Arcana (Manga Report)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Hoshikawa Ginza Yon-choume (Okazu)
Anna on vol. 12 of Otomen (Manga Report)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Poor Poor Lips (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 3 of Sailor Moon (ANN)
TSOTE on vol. 21 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Three Steps Over Japan)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 20 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Tony Yao on solanin (Manga Therapy)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Soulless (Comic Attack)

As manga readers are well aware, Canadian customs views all comics, and especially manga, with great suspicion. Two years ago, Ryan Matheson was detained at the Ottawa airport and ultimately arrested and charged with criminal possession of child pornography because of a manga image on his computer. Today, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced that the Crown has dropped all criminal charges in the case. Check out my article at CBR for all the details, and I’ll be back tomorrow with the regular roundup.

With a new volume of Sailor Moon, the end of Twin Spica, and the debut of Young Miss Holmes, not to mention new volumes of Gunslinger Girl and Ninja Girls, this week’s new manga is all about the girls. Check out my selections at MTV Geek and Lissa Pattillo’s choices in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Don’t know your BL from your shonen-ai? JManga has an ABCs of BL feature that runs through the basics of the genre and suggests ten titles for beginners, each with a special bonus attached.

Vote for your favorite comedy/slice of life manga in the latest round of Deb Aoki’s Reader’s Choice Awards at About.com.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their Pick of the Week, and for once, everyone agrees.

Erica Friedman points out two new essays on yuri manga at the Yuricon page: The Evolution of “Recognition/Assertion of a Lesbian Identity” vs. “Akogare” in Manga, by Katherine Hanson, and The Impact Of Globalization On Yuri And Fan Activism, by Yaritza Hernandez.

News from Japan: Yoshihiro Togashi is putting Hunter x Hunter on hiatus—again. Nico Nico Seiga has launched a new site, Nico Nico Manga, which will host both official and user-uploaded manga.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers kick off another week with the latest round of Bookshelf Briefs. Carlo Santos has more fast-moving commentary in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown looks over a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. Dave Ferraro reviews some yaoi on the Nook at Comics-and-More.

Connie on vol. 17 of 20th Century Boys (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 2 of A Bride’s Story (Manga Report)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (Blogcritics)
Connie on Cold Trilogy 3: Cold Fever (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 10 of Future Diary (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Golgo 13: The Impossible Hit (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 5 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Margaret O’Connell on Husband, Honeymoon (Sequential Tart)
Kristin on vol. 4 of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow (Comic Attack)
Connie on vol. 8 of Kamisama Kiss (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Kiss Blue (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 14 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Oh My Goddess (Slightly Biased Manga)
Anna on vol. 7 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Report)
Lori Henderson on Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Movie Trilogy (Good Comics for Kids)
Chris Mautner on Princess Knight (The Comics Journal)
Connie on Rainy Day Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Skip Beat (omnibus edition)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 12 of Twin Spica (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

The New York Times manga best-seller list has a good mix of publishers this week; the final volume of xxxHOLiC (published by the otherwise mostly defunct Del Rey) tops the list, with vol. 1 of Soulless, from Yen Press, in second place and vol. 13 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei in third. Batting cleanup is vol. 11 of GTO: The Early Years, a former Tokyopop series that was rescued by Vertical. Overall, Kodansha and Viz each get three slots, Yen Press has two, and Vertical and Del Rey each get one, which makes for an unusually mixed list.

Meanwhile, manga grab 13 of the top 20 spots in February’s Nielsen BookScan list of the best-selling graphic novels in bookstores.

Looking ahead, Johanna Draper Carlson takes a look at the March Previews, which spotlights manga this month.

Erica Friedman has a new edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu, and she also discusses the concept of family in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

Graphic Novel Reporter has a preview up of Jiro Taniguchi’s Summit of the Gods.

Apparently, Digital Manga has been allowing members of the Digital Manga Guild to send DMCA (copyright infringement) notices on their behalf, a practice that disturbs Ginger Mayerson. She points out that many scanlators work hard and love what they do, and that they will almost always take down scans of a book as soon as they hear it is licensed, and encourage readers to buy the new edition. (She dismisses the large aggregator sites, although they really are a bigger part of the problem.) Looking at a thread from the DMG discussion group, she is bothered by the aggressiveness of the Guild members, although it seems from the discussion that they are sending takedown messages for licensed properties.

Three Steps Over Japan has another peek inside a seinen manga magazine for us; this week, it’s Super Dash & Go.

News from Japan: A new series is launching in Shonen Sunday: Area D – Inōryōiki, by Kyoki Nanatsuki (Project ARMS) and Kyung-Il Yang (Blade of the Phantom Master). Meanwhile, at Monthly Shonen Sunday (Gessan), Cross Game creator Mitsuru Adachi is winding up his series Q and A and working on a new one, which the promotional images suggest will involve baseball. Shūzō Oshimi, the creator of Flowers of Evil and Drifting Net Cafe, has a new series, Boku wa Mari na Naka (I’m in Mari), which just started running in Futabasha’s Manga Action magazine. And the French site Manga news informs us that Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is coming to an end; the entire series will run to 30 volumes.

Reviews: Adam Stephanides discusses vols. 7 and 8 of Billy Bat, Naoki Urasawa’s current series (not out in English yet) at Completely Futile. Connie writes briefly about some manhwa that have crossed her radar at Slightly Biased Manga. Other reviews of note:

Sweetpea616 on vols. 1-3 of 100% Perfect Girl (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Erementar Gerade (Sequential Ink)
Lesley Aeschilman on vol. 1 of Flame of Recca (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of House of Five Leaves (The Comic Book Bin)
Kinukitty on I Give to You (The Hooded Utilitarian)
Lori Henderson on Kiichi and the Magic Books (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 61 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Oresama Teacher (The Comic Book Bin)

JManga is running a special this weekend: Sign up for a $10 monthly subscription and get two books’ worth of points for free; sign up for a $25 subscription and get five free books. Don’t feel like spending any money? Just for this weekend, unregistered guest users can read the free previews of 199 different manga on the site (as opposed to the usual limit of six).

More JManga news: Erica Friedman just announced another ALC/JManga collaboration, Kimi no Tamenara Shineru, a yuri manga set in the Heian period.

Lissa Pattillo picks the choicest morsels from this week’s new releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

At Comic Attack, Kristin checks out the manga in the latest issue of Previews.

Jason Thompson steps into the wayback machine for a look at Bringing Home the Sushi, an anthology of business manga, with a side trip along the way to discuss Mangaijin, in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Seven Seas announced a new license yesterday: Guardians of Luna, a werewolf manga by Nozomu Tamaki, the creator of Dance in the Vampire Bund.

Digital Manga has three new licenses: Honey*Smile, Secret Thorns, and Start with a Happy Ending. Honey Smile and Secret Thorns are yaoi and will be published both digitally and in print; Start with a Happy Ending is a josei manga that will be print only. Also, the first two volumes of Erementar Gerade, their latest license rescue, are now up on eManga.com.

It has been 20 years since the Sailor Moon anime was first shown on Japanese television, and the LA Times Hero Complex blog celebrates with a little retrospective.

Lori Henderson has the list of this week’s all ages comics and manga at Good Comics for Kids.

Lovely Duckie shows off her amazing manga and figurine collection at The Manga Critic.

News from Japan: Haruhi publisher Kadokawa Shoten has signed a deal with Amazon Japan to put all its content on the Kindle, including Kindle apps on all platforms. Black Lagoon creator Rei Hiroe has set a tentative date for his return to the manga, which has been on hiatus, but he’s nervous about going back to it.

Reviews: MJ and Michelle Smith discuss some new titles, messy and otherwise, in their latest On the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf. Other reviews of note:

Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Amnesia Labyrinth and vol. 1 of Dracula Everlasting (Manga Xanadu)
Phillip Anthony on vol. 1 of Codename Sailor V (Manga Bookshelf)
Brigid Alverson on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (MTV Geek)
David Gromer on vol. 1 of Durarara!!! (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Jocelyne Allen on equus (by est em) (Brain Vs. Book)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Is This a Zombie? (The Manga Critic)
David Gromer on vol. 2 of Maximum Ride (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Angela Eastman on vol. 1 of Soulless (manga and novel) (Manga Bookshelf)

I’m looking at this week’s new releases, including a new volume of Fairy Tail and a new shoujo title from Viz, The Earl and the Fairy, at MTV Geek. At A Case Suitable for Treatment, Sean Gaffney peers ahead to next week’s new manga.

Deb Aoki invites you to vote for the best new Action/Drama manga in the latest round of 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards at About.com.

News from Japan: Nico Nico Manga will run the six-part game-based manga Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition online for free. The game becomes available later this month. Two manga adaptations of novels by Yūsuke Kishi are in the works.

Reviews

Connie on Betting My Life With You (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Buddha (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 1 of Cousin (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 9 of Dengeki Daisy (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 1 of Drifters (Sequential Ink)
Kristin on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Comic Attack)
Connie on Golgo 13: Galinpero (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer (Hoshi no Samidare) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 5 of Kizuna (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Like a Love Comedy (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 13 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Michelle Smith on vols. 1 and 2 of Psyren (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Stepping on Roses (The Comic Book Bin)

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers hold their weekly Pick of the Week discussion.

The Manga Moveable Feast has become a tradition in the manga blogging community, and Kate Dacey opens the floor for discussion of which books and creators should be included in upcoming Feasts.

Reviews: Ash Brown reviews a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Matthew Warner on vol. 6 of Blue Exorcist (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Dawn of the Arcana (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vols. 4 and 5 of Highschool of the Dead (The Fandom Post)
Anna on vols. 4-6 of House of Five Leaves (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 55 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase (Blogcritics)

MangaBlog had its seventh birthday yesterday, and as we launch our eighth year as (I hope) the morning paper of the manga world, I just want to thank all of you for your support over the years. Writing without readers is like shouting into an empty room, so I really appreciate all of you who have commented, e-mailed me, or just said hi at a convention—and especially all of you who have become friends over the years.

I want to start off the week with a shout-out to James Perry II, the creator of the Tokyopop OEL manga Orange Crows. Like many Tokyopop creators, James found himself with an incomplete series when Tokyopop went through one of its periodic reorganizations; unlike most of his colleagues, though, James managed to come to some sort of agreement and is going to self-publish the rest of the series. Check out his Kickstarter page for a summary of his plans and a link to an online version of the first volume; at this point he has made his goal, but he promises to put any additional funds into the next volume.

Vol. 19 of 20th Century Boys tops the New York Times manga best-seller list, followed by the final volume of xxxHOLiC, vol. 5 of Tenjho Tenge, and vol. 5 of Pokemon Black and White. We are nothing if not eclectic!

Meanwhile, the Sequential Tart staff takes on the question of Is Manga Dying? and comes up with some interesting perspectives on the industry and how it should evolve.

Erica Friedman brings home the yuri with the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Jason Thompson looks at the action-packed manga Golgo 13 in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie writes about the October 1978 issue of Comic Jun, an early precursor to the BL magazine June.

Manga Worth Reading will host the next Manga Moveable Feast, which will focus on the works of Jiro Taniguchi.

LC Moran posts the latest con report on MangaNEXT. Animemiz rounds up her tweets from the Tomo Maeda and Makoto Tateno Q&As.

Three Steps Over Japan peeks inside the covers of Manga Action magazine.

Ash Brown is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of King of Thorn at Experiments in Manga. Hit the link for all the details!

News from Japan: The Tokyo Shimbun takes on the question of whether manga rots your brain, and Crunchyroll translates the results. Meanwhile, the Daily Yomiuri celebrates the memory of Junzo Ishiko, an art critic who took manga seriously when no one else did. AstroNerdBoy has some clarifications on recent news and rumors about the end of Negima. Young Ace magazine will run a manga adaptation of Mamoru Hosoda’s anime Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki). Eiko Kera is bringing her long-running comedy manga ATASHI’nCHI to a close.

Reviews: Drew McCabe reviews Viz’s Shonen Jump Alpha digital magazine at Comic Attack.

Lori Henderson on vols. 6-10 of Dazzle (Manga Xanadu)
Joy Kim on vol. 1 of Durarara!! (Joy Kim)
Sweetpea616 on vol. 2 of Gate 7 (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Serdar Yegulalp on vol. 11 of GTO: The Early Years (Genji Press)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Hana-Kimi (omnibus)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 61 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Princess Knight (Manga Xanadu)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Recorder and Randsell (The Manga Critic)
Empress Eve on vol. 1 of Soulless (Geeks of Doom)

Is Apple holding LGBTQ comics to a different standard than others? MJ looks at the question from several angles, noting that most publishers of comics with gay content don’t even bother with Apple because they don’t think their comics will pass the content restrictions. And those fears may be justified, because Digital Manga has just been told to remove some of its yaoi manga from the iTunes store. MJdoes some side-by-side comparisons with other comics and finds that Apple is letting plenty of steamy stuff through when it’s het sex. (Obviously, this post is NSFW.)

Recovering xxxHOLiC reader Lissa Pattillo looks over this week’s new releases in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

MangaNEXT posts are still trickling in: Justin files his con report at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses and Linda (animemiz) posts a transcript of the State of the Industry panel and a Q&A with Felipe Smith.

Digital designer Karen shows off her manga collection at The Manga Critic.

Reviews: MJ and Michelle Smith chat about some new manga in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 38 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 19 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Otodama: Voice of the Dead (Comic Attack)
Kinukitty on This Night’s Everything (The Hooded Utilitarian)

We have won the war, but not the battle: While it’s true the JManga site was made available worldwide this week, it turns out that individual series are still grayed out because the publishers have not chosen to make them globally available. Erica Friedman has the scoop, along with how you can protest this, and there’s some handy advice in the comments section as well.

At Publishers Weekly, Danica Davidson looks at Yen Press’s move into global releases with Soul Eater NOT!, which they publish in their digital Yen Plus magazine the same day it comes out in print in Japan.

I posted my picks from this week’s new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Sean Gaffney goes over next week’s list at A Case Suitable for Treatment. Lissa Pattillo travels even further into the future with a look at the best manga in the February Previews.

Seven Seas announced two new manga licenses yesterday, both tied to anime: Haganai: I Have No Friends and Mayo Chiki!

Yuusuke Marata, the creator of Eyeshield 21, has posted some interesting short manga on Twitter that use paper folding and other techniques to create a three-dimensional appearance.

News from Japan: Lots of returns and revivals this week: Naoki Urasawa is working on Master Keaton Remaster, a sequel to his Master Keaton mystery series, with a different writer. Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond returns to Kodansha’s Weekly Morning on March 15. The anime Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai is being adapted into a manga for Jump Square. The mystery series Kindaichi Case Files returns to Weekly Shōnen Magazine after a 12-year absence. Usamaru Furuya’s Bokura no Hikari Club (Our Light Club), the prequel to his Lychee Light Club, will end with the next chapter. Santa Inoue is wrapping up Dan Da Barbarian in the April issue of Comic Birz. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Omar posts some short reviews of recent releases at About Heroes.

Connie on vol. 5 of Blue Exorcist (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Classmate (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 2 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Cold Trilogy 2: Cold Light (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jason Yadao on Osamu Tezuka’s Crime and Punishment (Otaku Ohana)
Greg McElhatton on vol. 6 of Cross Game (Read About Comics)
Connie on vol. 1 of Embracing Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 17 of Fairy Tail (Sequential Tart)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of Fluffy, Fluffy Cinnamoroll (Sequential Tart)
Zack Davisson on vol. 2 of Gate 7 (Japan Reviewed)
Karen Maeda on vol. 3 of Gon (Sequential Tart)
Connie on vol. 3 of Gravitation (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of GTO: The Early Years (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 7 of Kamisama Kiss (Sequential Tart)
Connie on vol. 1 of Lizard Prince (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 12 of Mars (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 8 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Ohana Holoholo (Okazu)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Pandora Hearts (The Fandom Post)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 8 of Rin-ne (Sequential Tart)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Sequential Ink)
Patti Martinson on vol. 2 of Shugo Chara-Chan! (Sequential Tart)
John Rose on vol. 5 of Tenjho Tenge (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Tokyo Mew Mew (omnibus edition) (The Fandom Post)

Erica Friedman trumpets the good news at Okazu: After a week of Tweets and Facebook comments from readers and would-be readers, the powers that be at JManga have acceded to the will of the public and gone global. No longer will manga fans outside the U.S. and Canada be faced with an unfriendly blue screen; now they, too, can spend $10 per month to read Anesthesiologist Hana and Poor Poor Lips. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some individual titles are blocked (boo!) but overall, this is a great step forward for the manga biz, and kudos to the manga folks (and hard-working business manager Robert Newman, who led the charge) for taking it.

Animemiz reports in on MangaNEXT as well as the yuri panel, the Vertical panel, and the GEN Manga panel.

Viz’s SuBLime imprint announced two new titles yesterday, Yaya Sakuragi’s Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love and Makoto Tateno’s How’s Your Ex?

Previews kicks off its Manga Month with an interview with Dark Horse editor extraordinaire Carl Horn.

Naru has an interesting post on what it feels like to lose your interest in manga—along with three possible cures—at What is this “Culture” you speak of? (Yes, that’s the name of the blog.) (Via Justin.)

It’s Toriko vs. the robot in Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary at Manga Bookshelf.

Reviews: Carlo Santos makes some hard choices and tells some harsh truths in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Shannon Fay on About Love (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vol. 5 of Bokurano: Ours (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 17 of Higurashi When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ken Haley on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon (Sequential Ink)
Justin on vol. 1 of When I’m With You (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lori Henderson on vols. 12-13 of Zombie Loan (Manga Village)

I’m still processing everything that happened at MangaNEXT. Check out my con report at PWCW and my interview with Tomo Maeda, the creator of Black Sun, Silver Moon and Beyond My Touch, at MTV Geek, and don’t miss Erica Friedman’s very thorough con report at Okazu–she was on the industry panel, which I missed, but reading her account makes me feel like I was there.

Kate Dacey wraps up the Manga Moveable Feast with part 2 of her essay on Tezuka, Sex, and Gender and a final day’s worth of links. Khursten Santos takes a look at three of Tezuka’s female characters at Otaku Champloo.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses our Picks of the Week.

Corinna Lawson of Wired’s GeekDad blog takes the Viz iPad app for a spin and likes it better than paper.

The Calcutta Telegraph profiles manga artist Yukichi Yamamatsu, whose Stupid Man Goes to India chronicles his stay in that county.

News from Japan: Kare Kano creator Masami Tsuda will launch a new fantasy series, Hinoko, in the May issue of Hakusensha’s LaLa magazine. That’s the issue to get, apparently, as it will also feature a one-shot by Bisco Hatori (of Ouran High School Host Club fame). The Dengeki Online website is running Oshiete! Mordin-sensei! (Teach me! Professor Mordin!), a webcomic that explains the setting of the Mass Effect 3 game and introduces some of the characters. And Puyo, the artist behind The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan, is working on an Itsuki Koizumi spinoff to run in Altima Ace.

Reviews: For those in a hurry, the Manga Bookshelf team has a brand-new set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown lays out a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Honey Hunt (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Rin-ne (The Comic Book Bin)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of Soulless (Comics-and-More)

I’m back from an incredible weekend at MangaNEXT; watch for news, interviews, and all sorts of interesting features in the next couple of days. I posted the big license news at Robot 6 already: Vertical announced two new licenses, The Limit, by Life creator Keiko Suenobu, and Heroman, which is based on a plot by Stan Lee.

I’m heading out to New Jersey today for MangaNEXT—if you’re going to be there, be sure to say hi! In the meantime, check out my review of Viz manga on the Nook at MTV Geek. And I hope you saw my interview with Robert Newman of JManga right here at MangaBlog.