Manga Xanadu

I’ve been making license requests ever since I started blogging. In fact, one of my first posts was a plea to see City Hunter back in print. I’ve made wishes since then when titles by a creator I know about catch my eye, or certain subjects or other media tie-ins build my interest. Just recently I’ve notices that a few of my wishes have been granted! Kodansha started things off when they announced Bloody Monday as one of their new licenses at NYCC in 2010. I wished for it a year earlier in October 2009. But I didn’t learn of the manga first. It was through the J-drama that I discovered this title and it’s manga roots. I really enjoyed the J-drama with the plus that is seems to have been faithful to the manga (so far). Another plus about this title is that it written by the same writer as Kindaichi Case Files and Drops of God, two other titles I really enjoyed. I was absolutely surprised and thrilled that this title was picked up. It’s a little over the top sometimes with the drama and suspense, but that’s part of the fun! Jmanga is becoming a genie with…

It’s been awfully slow in the news department lately. Maybe everyone is busy with holiday preparations. But fear not! All is not lost as the news this week features unexpected licenses as well as confirmations of some found in the wild. Half confirmations of rumors, and trying to reach out to the casual manga fan join regular features of best sellers, podcasts and roundups.

Another weekend sick meant missing a week of news. Whatever is going around really sucks. My whole department at work was coughing and sneezing all week. Hopefully this post will make up for my absence. We’ve got new licenses, movie plans, the return of aggregators, “big” changes, more NYCC/NYAF, and some trick or treating from around the mangasphere.

It’s been a few weeks since DC announced the end of CMX Manga, and the mangasphere has had something to say about it, including me. And then there’s been the inevitable analysis of why CMX failed. Some have said it was because they didn’t have a recognizable brand or specific line. Others have said it was because one person was choosing the licenses. Hindsight is 20/20, so it’s easy to try to come up with different reason but were they really the cause? It’s been suggested that one of the reasons CMX failed was because they couldn’t find an audience. Their licenses were all over the place, from 70’s shojo to senien to horror. There was no focus to titles chosen, and therefore no audience to focus on. Is this really a bad thing though? I thought CMX has a great catalog because of all the variety. You could find something for everyone in it. Something for kids and tween, comedy romance, drama, horror, even historical. Variety is the spice of life! And putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. Having a diverse catalog is just what a good manga publisher should have. And CMX…

I’m gonna try and make this a weekly feature, rounding up the stories from the week I found most interesting from the web and twitter.  Of course, I’ll be adding my own two cents with some commentary on the news items. Anime Expo – 7/2-7/5/09 Normally associated with anime (obviously), manga pubs usually have a presence at AX, as a booth and/or panel.  Though, with the tough economy, smaller pubs seem to be fleeing the crowds and expense of SDCC, in favor of a more targeted audience.  Here ae some items I want to highlight.

Wandering around the web yesterday, I stumbled upon a Livejournal group for an unlicensed manga called 07-Ghost. It’s a shonen sci-fi that I read a few chapters of a few years ago and liked. No new chapters came out after the initial few, so I figured it was dropped as happens so often in scanalations. But, on the community, there was a message about the possible licensing of this manga based on a Take Down notice Tokyopop had sent to this manga trading website. The list of manga Tokyopop asked to be taken down can be found here. The Take Down notice was sent in January of this year. I found this list rather odd though. Yes, all of Tokyopop’s titles were there, as well as 07-Ghost. There were also a couple of other titles on the list that were not announced licenses such as Saiunkoko Monotagari, Sayuki Gaiden, and Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam. These are all series I would love to have, and Sayuki Gaiden just makes sense since Tokyopop has published Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload. But, what made me wonder about the reliability of this list is that there were several series’ on this list that were licensed,…