MangaBlog

The organizers of the Toronto Comic Arts Fest, a.k.a. TCAF, announced their first round of guests this week, and it includes Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet, GoGo Monster) and Gengoroh Tagame. Both will be debuting new books at the show: Matsumoto will have the first volume of Sunny and Tagame will premiere The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame.

Good news for fans of Jen Lee Quick’s Off*Beat, originally published by Tokyopop: She will be reprinting the first two volumes, with some extras, and she’s working on volume 3.

Both Viz and Tokyopop redesigned their websites lately, and Lissa Pattillo critiques the new designs.

News from Japan: Yu Yagami returns to his classic story with Those Who Hunt Elves 2, which will run on the Comic Meteor website starting January 30. Kiichi Toyoda, the first editor-in-chief of Shonen Sunday, has died at the age of 87.

Reviews: Carlo Santos has some strong opinions on recent releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. The Manga Bookshelf team gets their two cents in with a new set of Bookshelf Briefs.

Ash Brown on vol. 17 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Anna on vol. 3 of Jiu Jiu (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Loveless (The Comic Book Bin)
Ken H. on vol. 1 of Trigun (Comics Should Be Good)

I talked to the editor of IKKI’s webcomics site, Yumetaro Toyoda, and translator Simona Stanzani about the new site, which carries a House of Five Leaves spinoff (in Japanese only, alas) and a very interesting new comic, Pandemonium, by Sho Shibamoto, which is in both English and Japanese.

And I got a little cranky about how-to-draw-manga books at Robot 6.

As the countdown continues to simultaneous release with Japan, Shonen Jump Alpha adds a new series, One Punch Man, by Eyeshield 21 manga-ka Yusuke Murata and the pseudonymous ONE. Sean Gaffney has more on One Punch Man.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of the week.

Matt Thorn notes a few lines of missing text in Heart of Thomas. ‘Fess up, now—how many of you even noticed?

Daniel BT isn’t that excited about the return of Tokyopop; he’d rather see a revival of CMX, DC’s sometimes excellent but sadly neglected manga imprint. But he can’t resist highlighting a few bloopers.

News from Japan: Keiko Suenobu, creator of The Limit (licensed by Vertical) and Life (formerly licensed by Tokyopop) will launch a new series, Hope, in the Feb. 13 issue of Bessatsu Friend. Nanae Chrono is winding up Vassalord in the Feb. 15 issue of Comic Avarus. Buronson and Ryoichi Ikegami are also bringing their series Soul Lord 2 to an end. Gokusen manga-ka Kozueko Morimoto has a new rom-com series in the works for for Monthly You.

Reviews: Ash Brown shares some thoughts on a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Kristin on vol. 22 of 20th Century Boys (Comic Attack)
Ken H on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Jiu Jiu (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of One Piece (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Paradise Kiss (Manga Xanadu)

The slow return of Tokyopop continues with the relaunch of their website. A much calmer version than the previous iterations, it puts the books front and center, with a selection of print manga (Hetalia and OEL titles) that are available via RightStuf, some e-books from Graphicly, and some merch from CafePress. I took a look at what’s going on at MTV Geek, and Mike liveblogged their Anime LA panel, at which they discussed what’s going on, at Anime Diet. And at Robot 6, I picked six of their OEL manga that rate a second look.

Diamond lists the top-selling manga in comics shops. Spoiler alert: Sailor Moon and Naruto dominate.

The Manga Bookshelf team takes a look at this week’s new manga, both in print and coming up from JManga. Lissa Pattillo looks at the past week’s new releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Back at Kuriousity, Lissa opens up the swag bag and discusses her latest purchases, and Victoria Martin concludes her countdown of her favorite manga of 2012 with parts 3 and 4.

Justin lists his top ten manga of 2012 at Organization ASG.

Derek Bown kicks off a new column at Manga Bookshelf: A weekly Shonen Jump Alpha recap.

Erica Friedman posts a new episode of Yuri Network News at Okazu, and she also announced a new yuri manga from ALC and JManga, Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan, by Fujieda Miyabi.

In his latest House of 1000 Manga column, Jason Thompson takes a long, thoughtful look at Barefoot Gen, whose creator, Keiji Nakazawa, passed away last month.

Molly McIsaac lists the ten manga she is most looking forward to in 2013.

Justin and Manjiorin discuss Attack on Titan at Organization ASG.

Khursten Santos introduces Blush, a BL fan anthology, which is up on the web for free, although you’ll have to log in to Issuu to read it.

Starsamaria discusses beta couples—second bananas—in shoujo manga at Shoujo Corner.

Anna is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of 07-Ghost at Manga Report; hit the link to find out what you have to do to enter.

News from Japan: Two manga magazines, Manga Sunday and Comic Cawaii, have ceased publication. A Touhou Project doujinshi event scheduled for late February has been cancelled after the management of the Sapporo Teisen Hall, where the event was to take place, received a threatening letter. The incident follows a string of threats to people and venues involved with Kuroko’s Basketball, but there doesn’t appear to be any connection between the two other than the venue—a Kuroko’s Basketball event was scheduled to take place in the same hall on February 10. A manga series based on the film A Certain Magical Index will begin running in Shonen Gangan in March. Btoom manga-ka Junya Inoue is working on a new series, La Vie en Doll, which will begin running in Monthly Jump X this spring. The March issue will also include a one-shot by Saturn Apartments creator Hisae Iwaoka. And Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is coming to an end.

Reviews

Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of 07-Ghost (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of 21st Century Boys (I Reads You)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Angel Heart (Comics Worth Reading)
Sakura Eries on vol. 17 of Bakuman (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 54 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Sweetpea on Bride of the Water God (Organization ASG)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 7 of Bunny Drop (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Angela Eastman on Danza (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on Emerald and Other Stories (Blogcritics)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 24 of Excel Saga (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Girl Friends (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Helen on vol. 1 of The Good Witch of the West (Narrative Investigations)
Victoria Erica on vol. 1 of Gossip Girl (Inside AX)
Connie C. on Jyu-Oh-Sei, Paradise Kiss, and X (Comics Should Be Good)
Lori Henderson on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (Manga Village)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Mayo Chiki! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Oh My Goddess (Blogcritics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Paradise Kiss (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Psyren (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Blogcritics)
Erica Friedman on Wagamama Millefeuille (Okazu)

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their picks of the week.

MJ and Michelle Smith discuss the end of Chocolat in their latest Off the Shelf column.

Johanna Draper Carlson takes a detailed look at Digital Manga’s revamped eManga site.

Alex Hoffman muses about whether we need more manga micropublishers at Manga Widget.

News from Japan: Ikki magazine debuted its webcomics site this week with two new comics, one a House of Five Leaves spinoff by Natsume Ono. Recorder and Randsell creator Meme Higashiya and Shiba Inuko-san manga-ka Uzu both launched new series in the latest issue of Manga Town. The Shonen Jump series Nisekoi (which is published here by Viz) and Haikyū (which is not) will cross over. And there are 10 million copies of Blue Exorcist in print in Japan.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team kicks off the new year with a fresh set of Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown takes a look at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Carlo Santos on vol. 45 of Case Closed (ANN)
Infinite Speech on vol. 7 of Dorohedoro (Comic Attack)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Heroman (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 25 of Hunter x Hunter (I Reads You)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 13 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Psyren (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire (Blogcritics)
Anna on vol. 2 of Strobe Edge (Manga Report)

Jason Thompson looks at censorship of manga (usually done internally by the publisher) and the greatest censorship fails of all time in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers look forward to next week’s new manga.

Moto Hagio’s Heart of Thomas is out, finally, and Comics Alliance has a preview.

Erica Friedman has a new installment of Yuri Network News for us.

Lissa Patillo looks back at the year 2012 and she looks over the past week’s new releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Khursten Santos looks back at 2012 and picks 12 favorites at Otaku Champloo. Dave Ferraro names his top ten manga of 2012 at Comics-and-More.

At Organization ASG, Justin takes a look at the state of the manga world in 2012.

Matt Blind has the manga best-sellers for the past week.

Reviews:

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of 07-Ghost (The Comic Book Bin)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of 21st Century Boys (Comics Worth Reading)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 17 of Black God (The Fandom Post)
Connie on Blade of the Immortal, Bride of the Water God, and Oh My Goddess (Comics Should Be Good)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Blood Lad (Comics Worth Reading)
Sweetpea on Cantarella and Brave Story (Organization ASG)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Blogcritics)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 21 of Claymore (The Fandom Post)
Justin on chapters 13 and 14 of Cross Manage (Organization ASG)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 11 of Dengeki Daisy (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
John on issue 16 of GEN (Anime Nation News Blog)
Erica Friedman on Girls’ Ride (Okazu)
Ash Brown on Good-Bye Geist (Experiments in Manga)
John Rose on vol. 14 of GTO: The Early Years (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 29 of Hunter x Hunter (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 2 of The Limit (The Fandom Post)
Helen on vol. 1 of Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries (Narrative Investigations)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Message to Adolf (Manga Village)
Jocelyne Allen on Mushi to Uta (Brain Vs. Book)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 2 of Paradise Kiss (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on R.O.D. Rehabilitation (Okazu)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 6 of Sailor Moon (Yuri no Boke)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 11 of Soul Eater (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Strobe Edge (I Reads You)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Tenjho Tenge (The Comic Book Bin)
Matthew Cycyk on vol. 1 of Thermae Romae (Matt Talks About Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of W Juliet (Blogcritics)

Time to use your gift cards: This is a great week for new manga, with Heart of Thomas, the second volume of Message to Adolf, and a big stack of shoujo and shonen manga hitting the stores (vol. 3 of Jiu Jiu FTW!). Check out my picks at MTV Geek.

The Manga Bookshelf Team also looks at the new manga coming out this week week, both in stores and on JManga, and they discuss their Pick of the Week.

Writing for The Atlantic, Noah Berlatsky analyzes Moto Hagio’s Heart of Thomas and introduces Boys Love to mainstream readers.

ANN has a preview of the art from Yoshitaka Amano’s first novel, Deva Zan.

MJ makes her picks for the best manga of the year: Part 1, Part 2; she talks about the manga she found under her Christmas tree in a special holiday edition of My Week in Manga, and she’s back for more with this week’s episode.

At Okazu, Erica Friedman picks the top ten yuri manga of the year and the top ten yuri events of the year, and she posts the latest episode of Yuri Network News.

This month’s Manga Moveable Feast will focus on Moyoco Anno, and host Ash Brown has posted the call for participation and the archive page.

Matt Blind has the list of manga best-sellers for the past week at Manga Bookshelf.

Lori Henderson looks back at the year 2012 at Manga Xanadu.

At Heart of Manga, Laura looks at the new shoujo series that debuted in 2012.

News from Japan: Winter Comiket attracted 170,000 people on each of its first two days, but the Kuroko’s Basketball area was kept empty and no kurobas doujinshi circles were allowed to exhibit because of a series of threats. SaiKano creator Shin Takahashi has a couple of short projects on the drawing board.

Reviews: Carlo Santos takes aim at a crop of new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown reviews a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers bring us up to date on some recent volumes in their latest set of Bookshelf Briefs.

Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of A Bride’s Story (Blogcritics)
Connie on vol. 3 of A Bride’s Story (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 23 of D.Gray-Man (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 5 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 8 of Dorohedoro (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 3 and 4 of The Earl and the Fairy (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on Higurashi When They Cry vol. 1: Massacre Arc (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 20 of Higurashi: When They Cry (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vols. 18-23 of Hikaru No Go (Manga Xanadu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Missions of Love (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Nisekoi (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 6 of One Piece (Blogcritics)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Strobe Edge (Comics Worth Reading)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 10 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Thermae Romae (ANN)

Happy New Year! Sorry I dropped out of sight over the past week—I was busy writing a ton of posts for Robot 6, where we are celebrating our fourth anniversary by filling the blog with exclusive content—you should go take a look! We had two good manga stories: Fantagraphics will publish Inio Asano’s horror story Nijigahara Holograph, complete in one volume. Hit that link to get an early look at some of the pages. And we also ran a preview of Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro, coming this spring from Drawn and Quarterly.

Meanwhile, I posted my list of the best manga of 2012 (in my humble opinion) at MTV Geek.

There will be no Yaoi-Con in 2013, according to an announcement from Hikaru Sasahara, the president of Digital Manga, which started running the con last year; the next one will be in spring 2014.

We lost manga creator Kieji Nakazawa, creator of Barefoot Gen, last month; Matt Thorn wrote his obituary for The Comics Journal.

This month’s Manga Moveable Feast had Hikaru No Go for the main dish; Linda hosted it at her blog, animemiz’s Scribblings, and here’s the archive page.

Reviews

Matthew Warner on vol. 8 of Blue Exorcist (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Cactus’s Secret (Blogcritics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Cardcaptor Sakura (omnibus edition)
Kylee Strutt on vol. 4 of Durarara!! (Animanga Nation)
Amy Grockl on vol. 3 of Flowers of Evil (Manga Village)
Andre Paploo on vol. 1 of Heroman (Kuriousity)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Hikaru no Go (Experiments in Manga)
Lori Henderson on vols. 12-17 of Hikaru No Go (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on One Piece, Fairy Tail, and The Law of Ueki (Comics Should Be Good)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 12 of Pandora Hearts (The Fandom Post)
Jocelyne Allen on Wata no Kuni Hoshi (Brain Vs. Book)
Matthew Warner on vol. 11 of Yotsuba&! (The Fandom Post)

Keiji Nakazawa, the creator of Barefoot Gen, has died at age 73. I wrote about him for Robot 6, and Jonathan Clements reprints an interview he did a few years back at Schoolgirl Milky Crisis. David Brothers recalls the impact the anime had on him when he watched it as a pre-teen:

Barefoot Gen is an important movie to me because it turned an abstract idea concrete. “The atomic bomb is awe-inspiring and amazing, a true triumph for America!” turned into “The atomic bomb is awful. We murdered innocent people and the effects are still being felt today.” I’ve spent most of my life on or around air force bases, and as a kid, war was exciting. Fighter pilots, right? Glamorous. Awesome. But I didn’t understand the cost. I didn’t understand collateral damage, acceptable losses, and war crimes.

I was a kid then. I’m glad I learned better.

Johanna Draper Carlson takes a look back at the year 2012 in manga at Comics Worth Reading.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their picks of the year for 2012 as well as this week’s new print manga and this week’s new releases from JManga. Also at Manga Bookshelf, MJ and Michelle Smith devote their final Off the Shelf column of the year to two books of short stories, Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something and Takako Shimura’s The Devil Is So Cute, MJposts a new episode of her video series My Week in Manga, and Travis Anderson has a license request, Fumi Yoshinaga’s Kinou Nani Tabeta? Also: Matt Blind compiles his list of the manga best-sellers for the week ending December 23.

Tony Yao discusses a moment from Pandora Hearts that reflects his own feelings about the burdens of life.

News from Japan: Rumiko Takahashi will draw a special InuYasha one-shot for the tenth issue of Shonen Sunday, which is a benefit for the Heroes Come Back earthquake charity. Kekkaishi creator Yellow Tanabe plans to launch a new series in Shonen Sunday in the spring.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf bloggers file their final set of Bookshelf Briefs for the year. Ash Brown looks at a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Manga Village)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Aron’s Absurd Armada (Experiments in Manga)
Sakura Eries on vol. 1 of Aron’s Absurd Armada (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on Asago to Kase-san (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on Akaniero Confiture (Okazu)
Kristin on vols. 16 and 17 of Bakuman (Comic Attack)
Andre Paploo on vol. 3 of Blood Blockade Battlefront (Kuriousity)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Blood Lad (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 6 of Bunny Drop (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Justin on chapter 12 of Cross Manage (Organization ASG)
Richard Bruton on Danza (Forbidden Planet)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of The Earl and the Fairy (The Comic Book Bin)
Erica Freidman on Eden no Higastotsuka (Okazu)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 19 of Higurashi (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 19 of InuYasha (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Itsuwaribito (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Phillip Anthony on vol. 1 of A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks (Manga Bookshelf)
Erica Friedman on Kisu wa Owari de Hajimari de (yuri doujinshi) (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on K-ON! College (Okazu)
Alex Hoffman on vols. 1 and 2 of The Limit (Manga Widget)
Matthew Warner on vol. 4 of March Story (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Mayo Chiki! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
John Rose on vol. 1 of Missions of Love (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 13 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1-3 of Neon Genesis Evangelion (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Manjiorin on vol. 2 of Oreimo (Organization ASG)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 3 of Oh My Goddess (Blogcritics)
Matthew Warner on vol. 65 of One Piece (The Fandom Post)
Ken H. on Orion (Comics Should Be Good)
Connie C. on Parasyte, Skip Beat! and Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (Comics Should Be Good)
Anna on vols. 3 and 4 of Pride (Manga Report)
Matthew Warner on vol. 7 of Psyren (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 3 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Okazu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 10 of Rosario + Vampire: Season II (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 8 of Sailor Moon (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Slam Dunk (Blogcritics)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of Soulless (The Fandom Post)
Shannon Fay on vol. 1 of Start With a Happy Ending (Kuriousity)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 1 of Triage X (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL (I Reads You)

Deb Aoki and Rebecca Silverman discuss the best manga of 2012 and what lies ahead for 2013 in the latest ANNCast.

At Blog of the North Star, Milo looks back on the past year’s manga releases and isn’t too impressed.

News from Japan: Namco Bandai Group will open a Shonen Jump theme park in Ikebukuro next summer. Akiyo Satorigi is bringing his Durarara!! Saika Arc to an end. Yen Press, which licensed the original Durarara!!, will publish the first volume of Saika Arc in March. Minami Ozaki, creator of Bronze: Zetsuai since 1989, has just launched a new series, Devil x Children x AS, in Enterbrain’s web magazine Comic B’s Log Air Raid. A new Rozen Maiden spinoff, Maite wa Ikenai Rozen Maiden, is coming to the next issue of Shueisha’s Miracle Jump. Black Lagoon will return to the pages of Sunday GX magazine in January or February, according to creator Rei Hiroe. And Five Star Stories will resume in the May issue of Newtype.

Reviews: Carlo Santos rounds up the latest manga releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown looks at My Week in Manga at Experiments in Manga.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 21 of 20th Century Boys (I Reads You)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Kristin on vols. 14 and 15 of Bakuman (Comic Attack)
Justin on vols. 3 and 4 of Drops of God (Organization ASG)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 1 of Himawari-san (Yuri no Boke)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 8 of Pokemon Black and White (Blogcritics)
Helen on vol. 1 of Soul Eater Not! (Narrative Investigations)
Ben Leary on vol. 2 of Witch and Wizard (The Fandom Post)
Justin on Wolf (Organization ASG)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 11 of Yotsuba&! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)

Tezuka Productions director of licensing Yuriko Fukuzawa and Diamond vice president for business development John Parker discuss their plans for next year; Diamond has just become the worldwide distributor for TezukaPro. They identify Astro Boy as the most important property, and Kimba the White Lion as one with a lot of potential for the U.S.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week, and they also look at this week’s new releases from JManga. MJ and Michelle Smith talk about some recent reading in their Off the Shelf column.

Erica Friedman has the latest yuri news, and she also has an interesting post for would-be manga creators on how to write a query letter to a publisher.

Matt Blind counts down the manga best-sellers for the week ending December 16.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team takes a quick look at some recent releases in their latest set of Bookshelf Briefs.

Connie on vol. 36 of Berserk (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ash Brown on vol. 16 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Lissa Pattillo on vols. 50 and 51 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Blogcritics)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Danza (Comics Worth Reading)
Connie on Devil’s Secret (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kylee Strutt on vol. 3 of Durarara!!! (Animanga Nation)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 24 of Excel Saga (The Comic Book Bin)
Jocelyne Allen on Golondrina (Brain Vs. Book)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Honey Darling (Comics Worth Reading)
Connie on vol. 13 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Slightly Biased Manga)
Andre Paploo on vol. 1 of The Limit (Kuriousity)
Connie on Love Syndrome (Slightly Biased Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Message to Adolf (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on vols. 10 and 11 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 20 of Slam Dunk (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ben Leary on vol. 20 of Slam Dunk (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on Songs to Make You Smile (Blogcritics)

Guest writer Shaenon Garrity discusses the works of Inio Asano, including Solanin, What a Wonderful World, and a few others that haven’t made it into English yet, in the latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers take a look at next week’s new releases.

Victoria Martin presents the second part of her countdown of the top manga of 2012 at Kuriousity.

Tony Yao looks at the theme of deception, including self-deception, in Sakuran.

News from Japan: The Daily Yomiuri takes a look at the popularity of manga courses in Japanese universities, what they can offer an aspiring manga-ka, and the attraction they hold for students from overseas. Mitsukazu Mihara will resume her series The Embalmer in the January 8 issue of Shodensha’s Feel Young magazine after a three-year hiatus. Manga professionals ranked their favorite titles of the year for the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook. And ANN has the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews

Rebecca Silverman on vol. 7 of Bunny Drop (ANN)
Justin on chapter 11 of Cross Manage (Organization ASG)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie C. on Dorohedoro, Itazura na Kiss, and Bakuman (Comics Should Be Good)
Angela Eastman on vol. 10 of Kamisama Kiss (The Fandom Post)
Carlo Santos on vols. 1-7 of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (box set) (ANN)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 6 of Pokemon Adventures Diamond and Pearl Platinum (Blogcritics)
Erica Friedman on vol. 1 of Rock it GIRL!! (Okazu)
Ken H on vol. 7 of Rurouni Kenshin (VizBig edition) (Comics Should Be Good)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Thermae Romae (Manga Village)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 13 of Toriko (The Comic Book Bin)

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

Seven Seas confirmed that it has licensed two more Alice in the Country of Hearts manga, Alice in the Country of Clover: Ace of Hearts and Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Clockmaker’s Story.

MJ treats us to another episode of her video feature My Week in Manga.

Erica Friedman takes a look at Hana to Yume, the magazine that has been the source for many series that made it big in translation (Fruits Basket, Kamisama Kiss), as well as a number we have never heard of.

Reviews

L. B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (ICv2)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 13 of Neon Genesis Evangelion (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 12 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Comic Book Bin)
Sakura Eries on vol. 11 of Oresama Teacher (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 8 of Pure Yuri Anthology Hirari (Okazu)
Lexie on vol. 1 of Strobe Edge (Poisoned Rationality)
Victoria Erica on vol. 2 of X (three-in-one edition) (Inside AX)

It’s Pick of the Week time at Manga Bookshelf!

Shonen Jump Alpha will publish Kurapika Tsuioku-hen, a two-chapter Hunter x Hunter flashback arc; the first chapters is in this week’s Japanese Shonen Jump.

ANN looks at the manga best-sellers in U.S. bookstores last month; Naruto was the top seller, at number 7 on the graphic novels best-seller list.

Otaku News has a (NSFW!) interview with tentacle manga creator Toshio Maeda.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team has some short takes on recent releases in their latest Bookshelf Briefs. Ash Brown sums up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Sean Gaffney on Danza (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (Manga Xanadu)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Genshiken: Second Season (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Alex Hoffman on vol. 1 of Heroman (Manga Widget)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (Comics Worth Reading)
Kristin on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (Comic Attack)
Sean Kleefeld on vol. 1 of Real (Kleefeld on Comics)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 3 of Paros no Ken (Yuri no Boke)
Anna N on vol. 8 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Manga Report)
Michael Buntag on vol. 1 of Sundome (NonSensical Words)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 11 of Yotsuba&!, vol. 13 of Otomen, and vol. 13 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Worth Reading)

The Manga Bookshelf team of Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, and MJ looks forward to this week’s new manga and this week’s new releases from JManga.

Lissa Pattillo checks out the list of the past week’s new manga releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. The Manga Village team checks out the new releases as well.

MJ and Michelle Smith discuss Sweet Blue Flowers, Bunny Drop, and Thermae Romae in their latest Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

Erica Friedman brings us up to date on all things yuri in her latest edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Fist of the North Star manga-ka Buronson talked a bit about his creative process at a library in Tottori, Japan, recently.

Matt Blind calculates the past week’s manga best-sellers (online sales).

Derek Bown’s latest Combat Commentary comes from chapters 91 and 92 of Fullmetal Alchemist.

News from Japan: The Four Immigrants manga, first published in the U.S. and Japan in 1931 and arguably the first ever OEL manga, is back in print—in Japan. Kôji Kumeta, creator of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, is working on a one-shot manga to appear in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen magazine, out December 26.

Reviews: Angela Eastman contrasts the novel and manga versions of Clockwork Angel at Manga Bookshelf.

Lexie on Anything and Something (Poisoned Rationality)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 3 of Attack on Titan (The Fandom Post)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 17 of Bakuman (Comics Worth Reading)
Carlo Santos on vols. 50 and 51 of Bleach (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 53 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of A Devil and Her Love Song (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 6 of Cage of Eden (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (I Reads You)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 10 of Dengeki Daisy (ANN)
Ash Brown on vol. 2 of Dororo (Experiments in Manga)
Erica Friedman on Fujiyuu Sekai (Okazu)
Jessi Silver on vol. 1 of Hot Gimmick (omnibus edition)
Erica Friedman on Lemonade (Okazu)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Pokemon Black and White (Blogcritics)
Jocelyne Allen on vol. 1 of Shirokuma Cafe (Brain Vs. Book)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro (Blogcritics)
Leroy Doouresseaux on vol. 25 of Slam Dunk (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Blogcritics)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 1 of Thermae Romae (The Fandom Post)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 5 of Toradora! (AstroNerdboy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 13 of Toriko (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Victoria Martin on vol. 15 of Vampire Knight (Kuriousity)

I wrote up my picks from this week’s new releases, including a new Natsume Ono short story collection, at MTV Geek.

Jason Thompson takes a look at some digital manga available via ComicLoud in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

MJ debuts a new feature at Manga Bookshelf: My Week in Manga, a video roundup of what she has been reading and what she plans to read.

Julie Opipari takes a good look at the latest issue of Shonen Jump Alpha.

Erica Friedman has found some bargains on yuri bundles at RightStuf.com

Reviews: Carlo Santos looks over a handful of new releases in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN.

Kate O’Neil on vol. 2 of Attack on Titan (The Fandom Post)
Connie on A Bride’s Story, A Devil and Her Love Song, and MAOH: Juvenile Remix (Comics Should Be Good)
Justin on vols. 9 and 10 of Cross Manage (Organization ASG)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Comic Book Bin)
Paige McKee on vol. 2 of Jiu Jiu (Sequential Tart)
Ken H on vol. 13 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Should Be Good)
Omar, Melanie, and Tommy on Message to Adolf, vol. 20 of Claymore, and vol. 1 of Heroman (About Heroes)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Oh My Goddess! (Blogcritics)
Katherine Hanson on vol. 2 of Paros no Ken (Yuri no Boke)
Patti Martinson on Three Wolves Mountain (Sequential Tart)
Ashley on Wandering Son (Rabbit Library)