Brigid Alverson

Yen Press has the license for the manga based on the Disney film Big Hero 6. The manga has just launched in Kodansha’s Magazine Special, and not only is it the first manga to precede a Disney film, it’s also the only comic adaptation of the film currently in the works. I talked to Kurt Hassler of Yen Press about their plans for the book—and why Yen got the license and not Kodansha Comics.

Crunchyroll has added two new manga series to its digital service, The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer and Kippo to Catalog.

This past week was Banned Books Week, and Lori Henderson takes the opportunity to look at some manga that have been challenged in school and public libraries in recent years. Sarah does the same at Nagareboshi Reviews.

Erica Friedman has the latest yuri update in her Yuri News Network post at Okazu.

Justin Stroman interviews a manga fan who lives in the United Arab Emirates; Dubai has both a Kinokuniya and a Borders, despite the fact that the chain has shut down in the U.S. (But it sounds like a zombie Borders—they have Del Rey titles but nothing recent).

News from Japan: Claymore will come to an end in the November issue of Jump Square.

Reviews

John Rose on vol. 1 of Bloody Brat (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Farewell Yamato (Three Steps Over Japan)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
John Rose on The Misfortune of Kyon and Koizumi (The Fandom Post)
Sakura Eries on vol. 3 of My Little Monster (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
G.B. Smith on vol. 1 of The Seven Deadly Sins (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Terra Formars (The Fandom Post)

I’m back from San Diego, which was great, as always. I covered a ton of panels for CBR, where I am a contributing writer, and I got to be one of the folks who went up on stage when that site won the Eisner Award for best comics journalism, which was pretty damn awesome. Aside from that, though, one of the best moments was being part of the Best and Worst Manga panel, arranged and moderated by the amazing Deb Aoki. It was held in one of the bigger panel rooms, which I would estimate seats about 300 people, and it was standing room only. This was in contrast to the other comics panels I covered, which were mostly in smaller rooms that were only half full. What’s more, the audience was really engaged, reacting with enthusiasm to all our choices. Clearly, the manga scene is alive and well, at least in San Diego.

Here’s Deb’s writeup of the panel. tl;dr: Read Vinland Saga. Seriously.

Deb also rounded up the manga news from the con. Some highlights:

• Udon licensed Kill la Kill
• Kodansha announced two new licenses, including Let’s Dance a Waltz, by Kitchen Princess manga-ka Natsumi Ando
• Drawn and Quarterly announced Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler and a collection of short stories by Tadao Tsuge that originally ran in GARO magazine.
• Artist Katsuya Terada (The Monkey King) was signing at the Dark Horse and Last Gasp panels, promoting two of his books.
• Viz, Vertical, Yen Press, and Seven Seas didn’t have panels but they all were doing a brisk business at their booths.

Sean Gaffney has his usual astute commentary on the announcements at his blog. Meanwhile, deb, Deb, who was my roommate at the con, has more on the Udon announcements and a video of Terada drawing the Monkey King at her site, Manga Comics Manga.

Lori Henderson rounds up the con news in her latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Vertical sold completely out of their newest Moyoco Anno title, In Clothes Called Fat, at the show. I read it before I left and again when I got back, and then I reviewed it for Robot 6.

The ICv2 folks sat down with Viz execs Leyla Aker and Kevin Hamric for a meaty interview (part 1, part 2) about the state of the manga market, print versus digital sales, their rescues of some Tokyopop licenses (including Deadman Wonderland), and whether they will release a Doraemon manga anytime soon (it’s already being published digitally in English by Shogakukan).

Meanwhile, while we were in San Diego, the Japanese government started a new anti-piracy campaign that has two prongs: They are sending takedown notices to pirate sites and directing readers to legitimate online manga sites.

Hiroshi Oti, the creator of Ganbare Goemon, has died at the age of 54.

Reviews

L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Black Rose Alice (ICv2)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Blood Lad (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Food Wars (ICv2)
Ash Brown on In Clothes Called Fat (Experiments in Manga)
Lori Henderson on Insufficient Direction (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Inu x Boku SS (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on Les Miserables (Manga Classics) (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Monster (perfect edition) (Comic Attack)
Rob McMonigal on La Quinta Camera (Panel Patter)
Drew McCabe on The Shadowman (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Spell of Desire (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Terra Formars (Comic Attack)

It’s been a busy few weeks, so let’s start with new license announcements. Sean Gaffney has a thorough writeup of the Anime Expo news, which includes the big news that Viz will be releasing (or re-releasing, in the case of the third arc) JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Here’s a quick rundown of the rest:

Viz
Baraou no Souretsu (Requiem for the Rose King), by Aya Kanno (Otomen)
Faster than a Kiss, by Meca Tanaka (Omukai Desu, Pearl Pink)
Momochi-san Chi no Ayakashi Ouji (The Demon Prince of Momochi House), by Aya Shouoto (Kiss of the Rose Princess)
… plus a digital one-off chapter of Vampire Knight and new omnibuses of Yu-Gi-Oh and Gyo

Vertical
Yume no Kaseki (A Fossil of a Dream), a short story collection by Paprika director Satoshi Kon

Dark Horse
Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt
… plus omnibus editions of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and Oh My Goddess and a Satoshi Kon artbook

Kodansha
Maria the Witch (Junketsu no Maria), by the creator of Moyashimon
A Silent Voice, which is already running digitally on Crunchyroll

In other news, SuBLime has licensed Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi (English title: The World’s Greatest First Love:The Case of Ritsu Onodera), which is a Junjo Romantica spinoff; the anime has been running on Crunchyroll.

Returning to the present day, the Manga Bookshelf team looks at this week’s new releases.

In a panel at the Tokyo International Book Fair, translators Yoda Hiroko and Matt Alt discuss translating Doraemon for the American audience.

Wired has a short interview with Kazuto Tatsuta, who wrote about his experiences as a cleanup worker at the Fukushima nuclear plant in 1F: The Labor Diary Of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant.

This came out a couple of weeks ago, but it’s an interesting post: Justin asks some manga insiders why they think fans are still reading manga illegally and aren’t embarrassed to admit it.

News from Japan: Good news for fans of Arata: The Legend, which has been on hiatus: Manga-ka Yuu Watase plans to return to work on it in time for fall serialization.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team turns in this week’s set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown looks back at a week’s worth of manga reading and reading about manga at Experiments in Manga.

Sarah on vol. 11 of Blue Exorcist (nagareboshi reviews)
David Brothers on Dorohedoro (4thletter!)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 1 of Gakuen Polizi (Yuri no Boke)
Kristin on vols. 4-6 of Midnight Secretary (Comic Attack)
Kristin on vol. 3 of Millennium Snow (Comic Attack)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of My Love Story!! (Good Comics for Kids)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of My Love Story!! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 6 of Midnight Secretary (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Monster (Perfect Edition) (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of Nisekoi (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of No. 6 (Good Comics for Kids)
Alice Vernon on vol. 1 of Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance (Girls Like Comics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Terra Formars (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of UQ Holder! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of World War Blue (Manga Xanadu)

DC Comics will release Jiro Kuwata’s 1960s Batman manga, Batmanga, as a digital-first comic starting this Saturday, and later it will be released as three print volumes. The manga will be released unflipped and the digital price will be 99 cents a chapter, available on the DC Comics app, Readdcentertainment.com, Comixology, iBooks, Google Play, the Kindle Store, and the Nook Store.

Another new license announcement: Viz confirmed it has the license to the two-volume Little Battlers eXperience (Danbōru Senki) manga by Hideaki Fujii.

And the BL imprint SuBLime announced it will release The World’s Greatest First Love: The Case of Ritsu Onodera (Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi ~Onodera Ritsu no Baai~), by Shungiku Nakamura, in February.

Manga creator Moyoco Anno talks about her life and her work, including Happy Mania, Sakuran, Sugar Sugar Rune, and Insufficient Direction, in an interview at Publishers Weekly.

The Manga Bookshelf team looks at this week’s new releases and discusses their Pick of the Week.

Shonen Jump is publishing a two-chapter Nisekoi/My Love Story crossover.

Laura looks at some new shoujo manga coming out in July at Heart of Manga.

At Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin talks about scanlation and its place in the modern manga scene, triggered by a Tumblr post by a scanlator who is blocking Japanese IPs so the creators won’t find out their work is being put online without their consent.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team keeps it short and sweet in their latest set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown looks back on a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 6 of Btooom! (Comics Worth Reading)
Sakura Eries on vol. 15 of Goong (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 1 of Highschool DxD (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on vol. 7 of No. 6 (Experiments in Manga)
Ash Brown on The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame and Endless Game (Experiments in Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 6-12 of Sumomomo Momomo (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Sword Art Online: Fairy Dance (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal (The Comic Book Bin)

Viz signs on with comiXology, making that digital-comics platform the closest thing there is to one-stop shopping for digital manga.

Yen Press announced four new licenses on Friday the 13th: Akame Ga Kill!, Kagerou Daze, Secret, and Sword Art Online: Progressive. Lissa Pattillo has the details.

Lori Henderson discusses Seven Seas’ new license announcements in the latest edition of her Manga Dome Podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Calvin Reid and Heidi MacDonald’s report on Book Expo America includes a chat with Viz senior director of sales and marketing Kevin Hamric, who says the company has had another strong year:

The manga and anime distributor will publish about 300 titles in 2014 in addition to about 30 titles (including non-manga originals and licenses) coming from Perfect Square, Viz’s children’s imprint. The house is also launching 14 new manga series this year (up from its usual 5 or 6). Viz began selling its English language print manga in India this year (distribution is by S&S U.K.) and the fans “are eating them up,” Hamric said. Viz launched the program with 25 series from Shueisha and expect to increase that number after the program is reviewed in June.

Plus they have the Sailor Moon anime, and they are dubbing July Pop Culture Month.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date in her latest Yuri Network News post at Okazu.

Shaenon Garrity writes about the wine-tasting manga Drops of God in this week’s House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Over at Mangabrog (hey!), there’s a translation of a conversation between Taiyo Matsumoto, Inio Asano, and Keigo Shinzo.

Zainab Akhtar takes a look at Dark Horse’s plans to publish two Satoshi Kon manga, Opus and Seraphim.

News from Japan: The Diet is about to pass a new child pornography law that bans possession of photos and videos but exempts anime and manga. Sankarea will end with the next volume, on November 7.

Reviews

Ken H on vol. 12 of Attack on Titan (Comics Should Be Good)
Ken H on vol. 29 of Blade of the Immortal (Comics Should Be Good)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 15 of Case Closed (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Ken H on vols. 1-3 of Countdown Seven Days (Comics Should Be Good)
Erica Friedman on Dark Cherry to Shoujo A (Okazu)
Ken H on vols. 4 and 5 of The Flowers of Evil (Comics Should Be Good)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 23 of Higurashi: When They Cry (The Fandom Post)
Sarah on vols. 1 and 2 of Millennium Snow (nagareboshi ★ reviews)
Kevin Church on Nijigahara Holograph (Comics Alliance)
Angela Sylvia on vol. 19 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Fandom Post)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 2 of Ranma 1/2 (omnibus edition) (The Fandom Post)
Ken H on vol. 1 of Say I Love You (Comics Should Be Good)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign (Manga Report)

Amazon appears to be targeting Yen Press in its current war with parent company Hachette. Amazon and Hachette have been wrangling over contract terms, and Amazon has eliminated discounts on their books, lengthened the turnaround time for orders of older books, and omitted pre-order buttons for some upcoming titles.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their Picks of the Week.

Justin Stroman has really been killing it at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses lately with a whole series of interviews with manga insiders. Here are two more, and they’re both fascinating reading: Former Tokyopop senior editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl talks about her years at Tokyopop and discusses how scanlation and piracy have affected the industry at different times, and artist
Jamie Lynn Lano, who worked as assistant to The Prince of Tennis manga-ka Takeshi Konomi and has written a book about it, The Princess of Tennis, talks about her experiences.

Atsushi Ohara at the Asahi Shimbun reports on the deliberations for the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prizes, which were announced in April.

David Brothers looks at the depiction of sudden death in Knights of Sidonia.

Erica Friedman updates us on the world of yuri in the latest Yuri Network News episode at Okazu.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team files this week’s Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown summarizes a week of manga at Experiments in Manga.

Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (Manga Xanadu)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-3 of Inu x Boku: SS (Manga Xanadu)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 5 of Midnight Secretary (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of One Piece (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on Rainy Song (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 1 of Say I Love You (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of Sweet Rein (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Takasugi-San’s Obento (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
David Brothers on Wolfsmund (4thletter!)

I’m back from a couple of crazy weeks that included travels to C2E2 and TCAF as well as a bunch of personal and day-job stuff, and I’m jumping back in with some big anime news: Disney has licensed the Doraemon anime for its Disney XD channel and Viz got the license for all the Sailor Moon anime—the original series, including the episodes that have never been licensed in North America, plus three movies and the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime that will debut in July. Since both these anime started as manga, we can expect some strong synergy. Kodansha Comics’ Sailor Moon manga was already a chart-topper, but perhaps we will see new readers picking it up; as for Doraemon, right now it’s available only digitally, via Amazon, but the time may have come for a print release.

Keeping with that anime theme, co-author Helen McCarthy announces the third edition of The Anime Encyclopedia.

OK, enough of that. Back to manga news. At Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin Stroman interviews Leyla Aker, the editor of Gangsta (and also Viz’s vice president of publishing), and he also talks to Eric Eberhardt, director of digital publishing marketing, about the new Viz Select imprint for digital-first releases.

Manga was prominently featured at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), with guest appearances by Moyoco Anno, est em, and the two-woman team of Akira Himekawa. Deb Aoki reports in on the “Future of Manga Publishing” panel she moderated, which featured manga editor and literary agent Yohei Sadoshima, and she also presents a Twitter conversation with fans about what would make manga more appealing.

Erica Friedman posts her con report on TCAF, along with a list of books she bought and why they are awesome. Ash Brown reports in as well. And here’s my take, at Robot 6.

Laura is back blogging again at Heart of Manga, after some harrowing health problems, and she has a look at the shoujo manga that will be coming out this month.

News from Japan: Drops of God will come to an end in the June 12 issue of Kodansha’s Morning magazine; three more volumes of tankoubon will be released, for a total of 44. Death Note and Bakuman writer Tsugumi Ohba is working on a new story, Skip Yamada-kun, a one-shot that will run in “Jump” meets “Girl” SPECIAL COMIC, a special issue of Shukan Young Jump. Robico, the creator of My Little Monster, will do the art.

Reviews

Joe Iglesias on vol. 5 of Battle Angel Alita (Eastern Standard)
Justin on vol. 1 of Gangsta (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on Insufficient Direction (Comic Attack)
Alice Vernon on Inu x Boku SS (Girls Like Comics)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 3 and 4 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on Showa 1939-1944: A History of Japan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Maggie on solanin (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Manjiorin on vols. 1 and 2 of Sweet Rein (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Sweet Rein (Comic Attack)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 17 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of xxxHoLIC: Rei (Comics Worth Reading)

Justin Stroman talks to Yen Press freelancer Abigail Blackman about manga editing and the ins and outs of licensing manga. And here’s an interview with translator Adrienne Beck about translating Food Wars.

Helen McCarthy dishes a bit about her new book, A Brief History of Manga.

Zainab Akhtar lists five books that helped her get into manga, and since it’s Zainab, they are all great choices: Black Blizzard, Sunny, Pluto, Yotsuba&!, and Uzumaki.

News from the Vertical Tumblr: Knights of Sidonia will be available as an e-book, starting this week with vols. 1 and 2.

News from Japan: Yoshihiro Togashi will resume work on Hunter x Hunter after a lengthy hiatus. Ouran High School Host Club creator Bisco Hatori has a new series in the works. So does Mochi, creator of Cuticle Detective Inaba.

Reviews

Maggie on vol. 11 of Attack on Titan (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on vols. 16 and 17 of Black Bird (Comic Attack)
Matthew Warner on vol. 11 of Blue Exorcist (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 9 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of Food Wars (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 14 of Kamisama Kiss (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
A Library Girl on vols. 1 and 2 of Midnight Secretary (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 1 and 2 of Monster Musume (ANN)
A Library Girl on Olympos (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Different Story (ICv2)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of The Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
David Brothers on Space Brothers (4thletter!)
Sarah on vol. 9 of Strobe Edge (nagareboshi reviews)

More license announcements from Sakuracon: We covered the Yen Press news over the weekend, and Dark Horse announced some new licenses as well: CLAMP’s Legal Drug (previously published by Tokyopop) and the sequel, Drug & Drop; two by Satoshi Kon, OPUS and Seraphim: 266613336 Wings; and an Oreimo spinoff, Oreimo: Kuroneko. Also, Dark Horse will start publishing CLAMP manga digitally, starting with Clover in May and then Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits in June.

Sean Gaffney has plenty of commentary on all the new Sakuracon licenses at his blog.

The manga lineup at TCAF was looking pretty solid already, with Moyoco Anno and est em slated to be guests, and now they have added Akira Himekawa, the two-woman team that draws the Legend of Zelda manga and the Japanese version of My Little Pony.

Justin Stroman gets opinions from several manga editors about scanlations and whether or not they drive demand. Ben Applegate of Kodansha Comics leads off with an interesting comment as to why manga publishers don’t use scanlations as a guide:

The biggest reason is that, unfortunately, heavy social media users are just not representative of a majority of English-language manga fans. But it can’t help that most of the target audience has already read the series online, and thus isn’t very motivated to buy.

Ichiro Marutani takes a look at the way that Japanese publishers and the Japanese government are fighting piracy.

Justin also has an interesting roundtable with manga adapters about what they do.

Moyoco Anno’s Insufficient Direction is now available on Crunchyroll.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses this week’s new releases and their Pick of the Week.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date on the world of yuri in the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Lori Henderson chats about what she has been reading and presents her weekly wish list in the latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

At nagareboshi reviews, Sarah explains why she wants to be just like Nanami Momozono (from Kamisama Kiss) when she grows up.

Reviews: Ash Brown rounds up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers take a quick look at some new releases in their latest Bookshelf Briefs column.

Sean Gaffney on vol. 12 of Attack on Titan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Matthew Warner on vol. 60 of Bleach (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 50 of Case Closed (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Deadman Wonderland (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 34 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Anna N on Insufficient Direction (Manga Report)
Matthew Cycyk on vol. 8 of Knights of Sidonia (Matt Talks About Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Library Wars (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sarah on vol. 11 of Library Wars (nagareboshi reviews)
Matthew Warner on vol. 11 of Library Wars (The Fandom Post)
Kory Cerjak on vol. 4 of Magi (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Magi (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Maka-Maka: Sex, Life, and Communication (Experiments in Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 19 of Naruto (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 65 of Naruto (The Comic Book Bin)
Sarah on vol. 65 of Naruto (nagareboshi reviews)
Ash Brown on Nijigahara Holograph (Experiments in Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Nijigahara Holograph (Comics Worth Reading)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 5 of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (perfect edition) (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 14 of Rin-ne (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Sailor Moon Short Stories (Manga Xanadu)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Say I Love You (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Say I Love You (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Seven Deadly Sins (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Derek Bown on the April 7 issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Bookshelf)
Sarah on vol. 17 of Soul Eater (nagareboshi reviews)
Sarah on vol. 8 of Strobe Edge (nagareboshi reviews)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Sweet Blue Flowers (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Sweet Rein (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Torikaebaya (Okazu)
Sarah on vol. 1 of Umineko When They Cry (nagareboshi reviews)
L.B. Bryant on Sword Art Online: Aincrad (ICv2)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of xxxHOLIC: Rei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Yen Press charged into con season today with a slew of new announcements at their SakuraCon panel. First up is a new light novel imprint, Yen On. Yen already publishes quite a few light novels, including Spice & Wolf and the previously announced Sword Art Online (also a manga) and Accel World. They announced three new titles for the imprint: Another, which they previously published digitally, and which is also a manga; A Certain Magical Index; and Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

They followed that up with some new manga announcements. I’m just gonna pull these from the press release.

KING OF EDEN by Takashi Nagasaki, art by SangCheol Lee – Maybe you’re not familiar with the name Takashi Nagasaki, but you sure should be! Nagasaki, the critically acclaimed co-author of Monster, 20th Century Boys, Master Keaton, Billy Bat, and Pluto, pens a grotesque thriller that will leave you begging for more! Starting May 1, chapters will be simultaneously published worldwide!
PandoraHearts ~odds and ends~ by Jun Mochizuki – If you love the cracking mind-warp that is PandoraHearts, you won’t want to miss this art book! Lavishly presented in hardback with a slipcase, Mochizuki’s darkly whimsical world comes to vivid life in this collection of over 120 color and black-and-white illustrations from PandoraHearts, Crimson-Shell, and more! Look for it in November 2014!
GOU-DERE SORA NAGIHARA by Suu Minazuki – No Yen list would be complete without a little raunch, am I right? In this hilarious fantasy romp out in November 2014, Shouta Yamakawa, a boy in love with his favorite demure manga heroine, Sora Nagihara, casually wishes she could be real…only to find himself staring into her eyes?! But Shouta soon realizes he got more than he bargained for ’cos this Sora turns out to be one bold, brazen babe!
LOVE AT FOURTEEN by Fuka Mizutani – Serialized in Hakusensha’s wonderful Rakuen Le Paradis anthology, LOVE AT FOURTEEN is a charming, bittersweet slice-of-life story about two very mature students in junior high falling in love like the teenagers they are. If you have a soft spot for subtle (not to mention adorable) romance, you’re going to have to read this in November 2014!
THE ANGEL OF ELHAMBURG by Aki – In this beautiful standalone volume, a close friendship between a king blessed by a strange angel and his knight begins to crumble under the weight of jealousy and contempt when a woman, and soon her child, comes between them. We love Aki with a burning passion here at Yen, so we’re beyond excited to be adding the gorgeousness of THE ANGEL OF ELHAMBURG to our Spring 2015 list!

A couple of other things…

Tokyopop, RightStuf, and Gentosha have announced that vol. 6 of Hetalia: Axis Powers will be released on May 31. Also, I don’t have a link for this but their latest newsletter announces that a motion comic of Sokora Refugees will launch on Saturday—but if you’re the impatient type, check out this Hulu link, as it seems it has been out since 2010.

Jason Thompson takes a look at The Legend of Koizumi in his latest House of 1000 Manga column for ANN.

The big news this week is the Eisner nominations. Here’s the list in the manga category (officially known as Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia):

The Heart of Thomas, by Moto Hagio (Fantagraphics)
The Mysterious Underground Men, by Osamu Tezuka (PictureBox)
Showa: A History of Japan, 1926–1939, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)
Summit of the Gods, vol. 4, by Yemmakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist, by Asumiko Nakamura (Vertical)

If the choices seem pretty far from the mainstream, keep in mind that the Eisner judges have a difficult task (I was a judge in 2012 so I know this): You have to read a LOT of comics, and reading a series is a big investment of time; you’re looking for excellence, which implies literary quality; and you have to judge based on what came out in the nomination year, so even if you read a lot of series, you can’t consider the series as a whole, just a one-year slice. This biases the selection process heavily in favor of one-shots. All that said, I’d love to hear from you what you think the judges missed. I have my own opinions, which I’ll post eventually…

Attention creators! Entries are now being accepted for the Eighth International Manga Award.

Reviews

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 60 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Mark Thomas on vol. 5 of Demon Love Spell (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 5 of Happy Marriage?! (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of Happy Marriage?! (I Reads You)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Insufficient Direction (Comics Worth Reading)
Kimi on vol. 6 of Itazura na Kiss (The Kimi-Chan Experience)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 11 of Library Wars (The Comic Book Bin)
Mark Thomas on vol. 2 of No Matter How You Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 20 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Jocelyne Allen on Sakuran (Brain Vs. Book)
Kristin on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Comic Attack)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 3 of Wolfsmund (The Fandom Post)

The Google Cultural Collection has put up an exhibit on Osamu Tezuka—the first one to feature manga or anime.

Ken H files his con report on Anime Boston.

News from Japan: Mike Masick of TechDirt writes about concerns among doujinshi creators that the Trans Pacific Partnership will lead copyright holders to shut them down; he seems to be quoting from another article, but I can’t find a source. The print run for the 13th volume of Attack on Titan was a record-shattering 2.75 million. Along those lines, ANN translates a list published by the magazine The Tsukuru of the top print runs of manga from Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan.

Reviews

Ken H on vol. 1 of My Little Monster (Comics Should Be Good)
Alice Vernon on No Matter How You Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular (Girls Like Comics)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (ANN)
Lori Henderson on Pokemon Black and White Pocket Comics (Good Comics for Kids)
Maggie on vol. 1 of Rensou (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on vols. 29-31 of Slam Dunk (Comic Attack)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 5 of Triage X (The Fandom Post)

Seven Seas has licensed No Game, No Life, a story about a brother and sister who are legendary gamers and are called to save humanity in an alternate world where games substitute for war. The first volume will be out in October.

More new licenses: Digital has announced it will add three digital titles to its lineup: The classic Kimagure Orange Road; Sweet Blue Flowers (Aoi Hana) by Wandering Son manga-ka Takako Shimura; and the ecchi sci-fi series Let’s Go Play! (Asobi ni Ikuyo!/Cat Planet Cuties). That was their second announcement of the week; they announced earlier that they have licensed Kotoura-san and Aria the Scarlet Ammo.

And here’s one more: One Peace Books has licensed Raqiya, by Masao Yajima and Boichi. The series, which first ran in Kodansha’s Morning magazine, is about a girl whose family is killed in an accident; she makes a deal with the devil to bring them back, but her actions have grave consequences.

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

Erica Friedman chronicles new releases, new licenses, and more in the latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin Stroman is on a roll; he has posted a ton of interesting articles lately. Check these out: A list of legal manga reading apps, with basic information about each one; a discussion of why publishers will license some manga and not others; and a roundtable discussion with a number of experienced manga editors. Also, Justin is curious about manga that U.S. publishers seem to have given up on mid-series, so he’ll be looking into that. Stay tuned!

Tokyopop founder and CEO Stu Levy took part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit the other day. He talks about the early days of Tokyopop, why the company stopped publishing, and what they are doing now, and he tosses in a story about getting stuck in Mexico with GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa.

ABC News profiles Kazuto Tatsuta, the creator of the manga 1F, which recounts his days as a worker in the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Ironically, Tatsuta (not his real name) took the job because being a manga creator wasn’t paying enough; the story has been his biggest success to date.

At long last, Doraemon is available in English, in digital form. Translator Matt Alt gives the details and explains why Doraemon is so important.

Sarah Horrocks posts the second part of her thoughtful analysis of Nijigahara Holograph.

In her latest Manga Dome podcast, Lori Henderson looks to the past and the future with a discussion of the latest new license announcements and a look back at what was going on in the manga world ten years ago.

Ken H files a detailed con report on Anime Boston.

In case you’re curious, here’s a look at the manga scene in the United Arab Emirates.

News from Japan: The winners of the 18th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prizes have been announced; the grand prize went to Chica Umino’s March Comes In Like a Lion. Space Brothers, which is available on Crunchyroll, won the Readers Prize. Meanwhile, Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story is the winner of the Manga Taisho Award. Fairy Tail is getting its own magazine, which will feature a new Fairy Tail Zero series by Hiro Mashima and other spin-offs; the main Fairy Tail manga will continue to run in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The magazine will cost 2,980 yen per issue, which is a lot, but each issue will come with four DVDs of the television anime. Children of the Sea manga-ka Daisuke Igarashi will publish a one-shot story in the April 24 issue of Afternoon magazine. Shogakukan has published a special commemorative magazine celebrating the 80th birthday of the late Fujiko F. Fujio, the co-creator of Doraemon. The Rozen Maiden spin-off Rozen Maiden dolls talk is coming to an end.

Reviews

Kate O’Neil on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (The Fandom Post)
Justin Stroman on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Junior High (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lori Henderson on vol. 15 of Bakuman (Manga Xanadu)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1-4 of The Earl and the Fairy (Manga Xanadu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Food Wars! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on Insufficient Direction (Experiments in Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 5 of March Story (The Comic Book Bin)
Justin Stroman on vols. 1 and 2 of No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 70 of One Piece (The Comic Book Bin)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (Comic Attack)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 21 of Pokemon Adventures (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 15 of Psyren (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 5 of Real (Experiments in Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on the March 24 issue of Shonen Jump (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 19 of Soul Eater (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
G.B. Smith on vol. 7 of Sunshine Sketch (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on Sword Art Online: Aincrad (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sarah on vol. 2 of Time Stranger Kyoko (nagareboshi reviews)
Darius Washington on Unico (The Fandom Post)
Kimi on Until the Full Moon (The Kimi-Chan Experience)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 35 of Vagabond (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna N on vol. 1 of What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Manga Report)

Ben Applegate of Kodansha Comics had some announcements to make at Anime Boston this week: They will publish The Heroic Legend of Arslan, by Fullmetal Alchemist manga-ka Hiromu Arakawa, and they also announced a digital re-release of Mushishi. And that Attack on Titan: Colossal Edition will include 15 color pages that have never been collected in book form before; they only appeared in the magazine serialization.

License rescues! Well, sort of: Viz will be republishing Chibi Vampire and DN Angel in digital-only editions, available via their own digital service and e-book platforms. These two series were originally published by Tokyopop and Viz is using the Tokyopop translations. At the moment there are no plans to complete either series; there are two volumes of Chibi Vampire that were published in Japan but not in the U.S., and Viz has no plans to translate those. As for DN Angel, the creator left that series unfinished.

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

Sean Gaffney takes a look at the new digital manga service Comic Walker.

Erica Friedman keeps us up to date with the latest edition of Yuri Network News.

A school board in Osaka Prefecture has removed Barefoot Gen from school libraries, at the behest of the mayor and over the protest of the school principals.

Jason Thompson devotes his latest House of 1000 Manga column to the works of Usamaru Furuya.

David Brothers writes about Shotaro Ishinomori and Cyborg 009 in the afterword to Archaia’s adaptation; this is a nice essay and a good introduction to the original.

Matt Emery at Sequential has a great interview with manga translator Kumar Sivasubramanian (Knights of Sidonia, Message to Adolf, Blade of the Immortal), who talks about how he got his first gig, how he approaches his work, and how page rates and demand have changed over the years. It’s an interesting insider’s take on the industry, sprinkled with fun anecdotes.

The first volume of Attack on Titan: Before the Fall tops the New York Times manga best-seller list.

It’s Manga Month at Diamond Previews, so Drawn and Quarterly pulls together a checklist of all their manga series.

News from Japan: Lots of farewells here: The long-running series Oh My Goddess is coming to an end. The 26th volume of The World God Only Knows will be the last. Btooom! is going into its final story arc. Feel Young has a new series by Yamaji Ebine. ANN has the latest Japanese comic rankings.

Reviews

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of 07-Ghost (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Junior High (Experiments in Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 11 of Blue Exorcist (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 23 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Reviews)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 23 of Hayate the Combat Butler (I Reads You)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 2 of Judge (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Midnight Secretary (The Comic Book Bin)
David Brothers on My Grandpa’s Stories Can’t Be This Weird (4thletter!)
Anna N on vol. 1 of One-Punch Man (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 16 of Oresama Teacher (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Erica Friedman on vols. 3 and 4 of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Perfect Edition) (Okazu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Ranma 1/2 (2-in-1 edition) (ANN)
Ash Brown on vol. 4 of Real (Experiments in Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on the March 17 issue of Shonen Jump (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 8 of Strobe Edge (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Ken H on vol. 1 of Takasugi-San’s Obento (Comics Should Be Good)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Umineko When They Cry, Episode 3: Banquet of the Golden Witch (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of UQ Holder (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
David Brothers on World Trigger (4thletter!)

Hirofumi Watanabe, the suspect in the Kuroko’s Basketball case, admitted in court yesterday that he was the one who sent hundreds of threat letters to stores and convention centers and says the motive was jealousy of manga-ka Tadatoshi Fujimaki’s success. Watanabe said he was suicidal before he sent the letters and would attempt to kill himself once he was out of prison; “That way, society can rest assured that I won’t do anything stupid again.”

Crunchyroll has been adding a lot of new series to their digital manga service lately, including, most recently, Ajin Koe no Katachi, and Hiromu Arakawa’s adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan.

Sean Gaffney rounds up the latest license announcements, with commentary.

Justin Stroman asks seven manga translators to talk about the joys and challenges of their jobs.

The Manga Bookshelf team chat about this week’s new releases and discuss their Pick of the Week.

Erica Friedman updates us on the world of yuri in her latest Yuri Network News post at Okazu.

At Gagging on Sexism, Erin discusses some shonen manga written by women.

Lori Henderson looks at manga that feature fairies in her latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Moyoco Anno is coming to TCAF!

Reviews: Ash Brown chronicles another week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf team posts their short takes on new releases in the latest Bookshelf Briefs column.

Ken H on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (Comics Should Be Good)
Ash Brown on vol. 28 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Erica Friedman on Dare mo Korinai (Okazu)
Maggie on vol. 1 of Hitohira (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Joan Li on Honey and Clover (The Harvard Independent)
Matt Cycyk on Insufficient Direction (Matt Talks About Manga)
Matthew Warner on vol. 7 of Is This a Zombie? (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 10 of Itsuwaribito (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 70 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on Phantom Thief Jeanne (Good Comics for Kids)
Anna N on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (Manga Report)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Ranma 1/2 (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1 and 2 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 3 of Real (Experiments in Manga)
Derek Bown on the March 10 issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Bookshelf)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Sickness Unto Death (Manga Xanadu)
Matt Cycyk on vol. 3 of Thermae Romae (Matt Talks About Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Until Death Do Us Part (Manga Xanadu)