I’m glad Yen Press chose to go the anthology route and put out a magazine. Anthologies are probably the best way to get manga titles seen by the general public. But, some issues are starting to come up that make me wonder about their intentions for it. Since I wrote my less than stellar review of issue 2, I’ve been getting requests to sell it (which I did, sorry everyone else). I found out why by from one hopeful buyer. Yen Press doesn’t offer back issues for sale. This is confirmed on their website in the comment of their blog for Yen Plus here, in the second to last comment by Abby. She claims there is no way to order them through their distributor. And that struck me as kinda weird. I’ve personally never run into a situation where I couldn’t order a back issue of a magazine. Even with my small, more obscure publications such as Cross Stitching or Godzilla. Even if it’s for a limited time, back issues can be purchased from the magazine.
Mythbusters is a totally awesome show on Discovery Channel. Two guys and their three assistants take on myths from real life, the movies, and the internet and try to if they can confirm, bust or find plausible the myths they take on. The show has been running for 6 seasons now, and is not only entertaining, but educational, as it takes on things like physics, robotics and other science content to prove the myths. Last week, on the episode Coffin Punch, the assistants, Tori, Grant, and Kari took on a scene from Kill Bill, where the Bride punches her way out of a coffin she’s been buried in. Now, on Mythbusters, they like to use animation to illustrate the myth they will be trying to prove, often using the team members in appropriate parts. For this episode, the animation had a distinctly manga look to it. The whole Kill Bill scene is reenacted in comic book style, with the camera panning from panel to panel. The art is very cute, in that wants-to-look-like-manga sort of way. Kari’s constant clueless look is classic for so many shojo heroines that it’s impossible to count. And of course there’s the use speed lines…
I knew I shouldn’t have done it. I saw the con report for the State of the Manga Industy panel from NYAF at Manga Recon, and knew I should skip it. But, being a masochist, I didn’t. So now I have to write another rant about the ignorance of Michael Gambos. Now, I don’t know if it’s just that no one else cares, but the panel was happy to let Gambos speak for them on digital distribution and make his silly little comment about the Kindle.
This just occurred to me after I read Mang Blog Brigid’s commentary on the possibly new “Naruto Nation” and then coming to blog to post about something else. Apparently there are doubts about the dates for the Naruto releases, since errors have happened before. But, when I came to my home page, my last post before this was about the changes to Shonen Jump. The new title, Tegumi Bachi, is debuting at the same time as this “Naruto Nation 2” would be starting. To do the 11 volume release, Naruto would be taken out of the magazine again, and something else would have to fill the void. The start of a new series would fill that void perfectly. Viz did the same thing last time with the start of Bleach in SJ at the same time Naruto was taken out. Coincidence? I think not.
Viz is at it again it seems, trying to decimate our pocketbooks mercilessly, especially in this difficult economy. ANN has reported that Viz has listed 11 more volumes of Naruto for release in February, March and April. This second wave will essentially catch Naruto up with the releases in Japan, at what price? The last time Viz did this, the sales of their other titles suffered. It proved that there is a limit to what readers will buy, and that was back when the economy was still doing well. What’s going to happen this time? Did Viz plan for this with fewer releases scheduled for their other titles? And what’s the point of doing this again? The time jump in the manga made some sense the first time. But this time seems much more arbitrary. The only reason I can think of for this is to fight against the scanalators. Viz has been criticized for not doing anything about the illegal scans that keep coming out, and as anime companies have been learning, the best way to fight fansubs is to bring out the episodes at the same time they come out in Japan. Catching up the Naruto manga will…
In the December issue of Shonen Jump, there is a short announcement. Another manga will be joining the pages of the magazine. Tegumi Bachi, a title announced at SDCC, will start running in SJ starting in the March 2009 issue (out in February 2009). It comes from the pages of Jump SQ, and appears to be another soon-to-be big property in Japan. An anime special has already been created for it for the Jump Super Anime Tour event. Usually at these events, only popular titles from the Jump magazines are spotlighted. Dragon Ball/Z, Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece have all had specials created for these tours.
Lissa of Kuriosity did some searching of Amazon for Tokyopop titles, and while she spotted some new licenses, I’m more concerned with the fates of older series. Some of my favorites that show their staying power such as Chibi Vampire and Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo appear frequently on the list. Manga based on properties such as TV, video games and Harper Collins YA novels also seem to be doing well for them as they alot as well. But what really caught my eye was the relisting of Dragon Voice Volume 11! The final volume was cancelled from it August 2008 listing, and I thought it was gone for good. I don’t think it sold all that well, so to see it listed for a July 2009 release raises my hopes some what. I won’t have to live the rest of my life not knowing how it ends! I was also surprised to see that Lupin III: Most Wanted also appeared on the list. I didn’t think that one sold well either, but it’s got two volumes over a six month period, which appears to complete this series as well. Perhaps then there is hope that Kindaichi Case Files might get…
I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was pretty disgusted by what I read about the State of the Manga Industry at NYAF 2008 (how come every convention BUT SDCC has one of these?). When the topic of digital distribution came up, it’s nice to say the panelists were “skeptical, at best”. If transcriptions of their statements are accurate, I would consider them closer to downright ignorant! Just because older men who’s livelihood depends on the print industry don’t like the idea of digital distribution doesn’t mean their target audience, teenagers that do more online in an hour than most of them probably do in a day would agree! Guess what guys, it’s not about YOU! The sheer ignorance they display is in the assumption they have that digital distribution will replace book. Even as a firm believer in the digital model, I don’t believe that is going to happen. Audio books hasn’t done print in, digital isn’t going to either. And Gambos’ poor attempt at humor about holding “your Kindle up and wave it in the air” was just plain asinine. The Kindle as a lot of potential, yes, but it isn’t the “ipod of books”. Yet. Digital books, and…
We knew it was coming. The writing was on the wall for a while now. Cartoon Network has officially killed Toonami, and has effectively killed any chance for Adult Swim anime (who’s going to stay up/get up at 5am to watch Code Geass or Guardian of the Spirit, on a Sunday?!). So, anime companies have had to find new outlets to show their anime. They know no one is going to buy it without seeing it first. Sci-Fi seems to be doing fairly well with their Ani-Mondays, and Funimation is expanding their shows on their channel (for those of us lucky enough to have Verizon FiOS. hehe). But the wave of the future, and we all know it’s coming, is internet broadcasting. And anime companies seem to be embracing it now, while it’s still early.
This has been bugging me for a while now, and I’ve got to say something. It was spurred by an article in The Oregonian, and pointed out by Brigid Alverson of Good Comics for Kids. The gist of the Oregonian article was teachers incorporating comics into the classroom, through the Comic Book Project, a joint effort by Dark Horse Comics and Columbia University of New York. Included in the article was the following quote:
You know, I am really getting tired of these parents “outraged” by things they find in their kids’ rooms and feel the need to blame someone else for it. The latest is, of course, the man in Oregon who found his 12 year old son had checked out some mature rated manga from a public library. My question about all this, as a parent myself, is this; why is he blaming the library and not his son? In the news report, he said he went to the library to find answers and demanded that the library “enforce” the adult section. Why didn’t he ask his son why he checked them out? Just like he said, it plainly says on the cover “Mature 18+“. Surely if the kid can read the manga, he can read the age rating. This kid knew full well what he was getting, and this father is just pathetic for taking out on the library. It is not the library’s job to police the books it checks out. The library did exactly what it was supposed to; it put mature rated books in the adult section. That the kid was smart enough to either ask or look…
I just got this in my email today. I’ve been buying stuff from Deepdiscout.com ever since they were Deepdiscountdvd.com. But they’ve expanded, starting last year to include books, cds, games and even cell phones! But it’s mostly dvds I buy, with the occasional manga when the price is right. Starting today, until 8/17/08 (Sunday, 11:59PM CST), they are having a 5-for-4 sale on select (very select) Tokyopop titles. Deep Discount already slashes their prices by 20% (on average), but there selection can be hit and miss. This sale is no different. You can get volumes 1-3 of Cherry Juice, but only volumes 1 and 5 of Bizenghast. There are only 41 titles on the list, (including quite a few Fruits Basket) but a lot of volume 1s. So, if you want to check out a series or two, this is a good way to pick up some samples cheap.