“On the Eighth day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me…Pantheon High vol 1!” Yeah! More manga! I read the first chapter of this, and have been wanting to read the whole thing! Now I can! And you can too. But just until 5pm PST. Check it out, and then check out vol 2 which comes out in January. Something to spend your Christmas money on! Check back here or at Tokyopop.com for the next gift.
My thanks to Mangacast for catching this. At the NYAF, Bandai Entertainment quietly announced the licensing of 3 new manga and one light novel: Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. This was an anime series that premiered in Japan last year, becoming an instant hit. With character designs by CLAMP, and a well written story, this series has spawned not only a second season, but three manga adaptations and light novel. 10 years ago, the Empire of Britannia invaded Japan, using it’s mecha called Knightmares and overwhelmed the Japanese people. The country became known as Area 11, and the Japanese called Elevens. Now, a 17 year old boy named Lelouch, a Britannian, seeks revenge on his father, the Emperor, for the assassination of his mother and crippling of his sister Nunnally. That’s just the basic plot, and doesn’t even begin to cover what going on in this series. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion is a direct adaptation of the series. It follows Lelouch as he gains the power he needs to enact his revenge and possibly bring down an empire. The complexity of the plot and how well it stays true to the series will determine it’s success. The…
“On the Seventh day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me…another imanga mp3!” Now we’ve got the mp3 for the iManga Bizenghast. Closer from Divine Madness. I really liked this song when I first watched the imanga of Bizenghast on MySpace. You’ve got until 5pm PST to grab it, so go to Tokyopop.com now to get it. Check back here or Tokyopop.com after 5pm PST to find out your next gift!
“On the Sixth day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me….Tokyopop Universe Wallpaper!” Yes, this time, it’s a wallpaper of at least one character from all of Tokyopop’s OEL manga. It looks a little cheesy if you ask me. Most of the pictures are just taken from cover art. It’s also a very crowded picture as you can imagine. You really have to be very familiar with the Tokyopop library to know them all. It’s kind of hard to believe they’ve come out with so many original story books. Can you name them all? (No searching the TP website!) You can get this wallpaper until 5pm PST today (12-18-07). Check back here or the tokyopop website for the next present!
“On the Fifth day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me, Biiiiizenghast Vol 1!” For the whole weekend you can read Bizenghast vol 1. I’d really encourage people to check out this series. It’s very good, involving riddles that must be solved to put spirits to rest. I enjoyed it anyway. And it also goes over the usual 3 volume model of most Tokyopop OEL! Check back here Sunday night/Monday or go to Tokyopop.com for the next gift!
“On the Fourth day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me…more mp3s!” Yes, it’s another mp3 from their iManga. This time it’s Home from Riding Shotgun. Looks like we’re going to get a chance to get all the main songs from the iManga. Hey, how about a chapter of a mangapod to preview? Once again, the mp3 is available free until tomorrow (12-14-07) until 5pm PST. Check back here or at Tokyopop.com for the next gift.
Erin F. of the PopCultureShock website has some great coverage of the Industry talks that went on during the New York Anime Festival. At the panel called “Marketing to the Otaku Generation”, it seems quite apparent that the people making the decisions about what to license and how to do it is completely out of touch with their audience. Particularily Funimation and 4Kids though the second is a foregone conclusion. 4Kids is just in it for the money. Mr. Kahn made that very clear from his comments. If a property doesn’t instantly make them lots of money, then it’s obviously a failure to them. And because the Japanese won’t automatically bend to their will and do what they want, then “there’s a real systemic problem in Japan”. Uh, Mr. Kahn? Ever hear the saying about beating a dead horse? Everyone needs to move on. That’s not a problem, it’s nature. Maybe you should try it. Read Erin’s coverage here, which also includes a link to the unedited audio recording she did of the panel. I found this really insightful and interesting. This is a must read if you’ve ever wondered what’s wrong with the companies that license and release anime.
“On the third day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me….Holiday Avatars?!” Okay, this seems more like a stocking stuffer than a present. You get a choice of 5 “holiday” avatars. Undertow teddy bear with a santa hat, I Luv Halloween skull with mistletoe, Gothic Sports with dreidels, Bizenghast with mistletoe, or Princess Ai with a santa hat. They look pretty cheesy if you ask me, but hey, they’re free and do have a holiday theme to them. Go to Tokyopop.com to get them. You have until 5pm PST.
“On the second day of Christmas Tokyopop gave to me…imanga mp3!” I guess it’s not all just manga. Though this is one of the things I’m liking about Tokyopop. They are trying to expand manga beyond the printed page, and use the available technology. I just wish they would stop with the Princess Ai over-promotion. Anyway, the mp3 from the Princess Ai imanga, Broken Leash is available to download at Tokyopop. (I would have preferred the song from Bizenghast, but I prefer that manga too.) Once again, it is only available until 5pm PST tomorrow (Wed, 12-12-07). Check back here or on Tokyopop.com tomorrow after 5pm to find out what’s next!
“On the first day of Christmas, Tokyopop gave to me…Fools Gold Vol. 1!” For the holidays and in honors of it 10 year anniversary, Tokyopop is making available full volumes of their original manga through their manga reader. Starting today until 5PM PST, you can read the first volume of Fools Gold by Amy Reeder Haley, a previous RSoM winner. Every weekday after, a new volume will be available to read. This is a good time to check out some of the OEL manga that Tokyopop’s been doing without risking your pocketbook. The manga reader is easy to use, and works in both IE and Firefox. And how can you say no to free manga? I know I can’t! And you never know, you might actually find yourself liking a title! So keep checking here or the Tokyopop website for updates!
Five and a half years ago, Viz put out a sampler at the San Diego Comic Con for a new manga anthology; Shonen Jump. Anchored by Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh!, Shonen Jump introduced us to new titles such as Naruto, Shaman King and One Piece at only $20 for 12 issues. Ah…those were the days. The December Issue featured some important milestones. Besides heralding in the 5th year of the magazine, it had the first Naruto story Masashi Kishimoto wrote. This Naruto and his world was very different from the one we know now. A “Proto-Naruto” is you will. Instead of being a ninja-in-training with the spirit of the 9-Tails Fox Spirit in him, Naruto is the son of the 9-Tails Fox. He has been raised by the last living warrior that fought his father, who is also a Yokai. Naruto has not been able to make any human friends, as he has been a mean-spirited trickster to them. The warrior sends Naruto from the mountain temple where they have been living, and tells him he can not return until he has made a human friend and brings him back to the mountain. The rest of the story is following…
Whatever happened to this old adage? It tells us that looks can be deceiving, and by making a judgment based on what’s on the outside will make us miss what’s on the inside, which is what really counts. ANN has just reported a story from South Carolina about a mother that complained to a Books-a-million store about a manga being the children’s section based solely on the cover. What makes this a story is that the bookstore acquiesced to the parent’s complaint and is now moving the manga section away from it’s core audience. All because ONE parent complained. The book in question, Absolute Boyfriend vol 1 by Yuu Watase, feature a boy in a gift box. The only parts of the boy that can be seen are his chest and knees, with the nudity only implied. What galls me about this story is that it was the mother that was offended. The mother of a boy, that came in to shop for her son. She wasn’t offended after her son picked up the book and she looked at what he picked. No boy would pick up a series called Absolute Boyfriend. And once again a rush to judgment is…