Who’s Going Down? ICv2 reports that manga sales will drop to below 1000 volumes for 2010. The drop in sales was seen more in bookstores than in the direct market, and they speculate that shojo fans getting older, distracted by other things (Twilight) and lack of hit shonen anime is hurting sales more than scanlations. Some of these elements make sense. I can see the drop in sales from bookstores being more, since ordering through the direct market through Previews can often net you a 30% discount on many titles. It’s my preferred way to buy. And fans, male or female, have priorities shifts as they get older, especially in the 20’s, where kids become adults and must establish themselves in the real world. I know that’s where I stopped collecting comics and watching anime. Work and starting a family became much more important. I wonder though how much the “Cartoon Network” effect really drove sales. I can see it driving the sales for first volumes, but like the anime that they are based on them, once a series hits a lather, rinse, repeat cycle, no amount of TV promotion will keep a series selling. Personally, I’m not concerned about…
Everyone’s afraid of Koguma– the biggest, most intimidating guy at school. So when Shinobu accidentally spills milk on his bag, you can bet she’s pretty scared about what’s going to happen next. Turns out the bag contains an antique kimono, of all things. It belongs to Koguma’s grandmother, who runs a kimono shop. To make up for ruining the outfit, Shinobu’s going to have to start modeling kimonos as part of grandma’s big plan to market her products to younger customers. Big, scary Koguma’s into kimonos? Turns out there’s a lot no one knew about this tall, quiet boy, and now Shinobu’s out ot change that. But in doin so, will she also end up with a new boyfriend? By Miku Sakamoto Publisher: CMX Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance/Comedy Price: $9.99 Rating: Buy This Book I’ve never been interested in fashion much, not as a teenage, and certainly not now, so I was wary about Stolen Hearts. The novelty of being set in a kimono shop did spark my curiosity, but I really wasn’t expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised then by the very sweet romance and great characters that I found in it’s pages. The title starts out like…
More Simon and Schuster Sightings The sharp eyes of Michelle Smith of Soliloquy in Blue has spotted some more manga listings on Simon and Schuster from Viz. Two of them we already knew about; Grand Guigol Orchestra and Cross Game. But then four new titles showed up scheduled to come out at the end of the year. Kurozakuro is scheduled for November, and the rest, Kamisama Kiss, Psyren, Itsuwaribito are scheduled for December. I can’t say any of them really inspire me, but I’ve been surprised before. I am saddened by the news of no sign of Story of Saiunkoku. I loved the anime, and am so dying to read the manga! Hopefully the new Kaori Yuki title, Grand Guigol Orchestra, will help to pass the time. Del Rey Ousts X-Men: Misfits & Wolverine: Prodigal Son The weekend ended with a bit of downer as news and confirmation of the cancellation of first X-Men: Misfits and then Wolverine: Prodigal Son came out on Twitter. This seemed to be surprising news as X-men: Misfits seemed to have sold fairly well, hitting the New York Times best seller list for a few weeks. But the creators of both series say Del Rey…
This is something that’s been wondering around in the back of my mind for a while now, but found a voice on Twitter this week. With the news of Del Rey’s cancellation of their X-Men manga reboots, the question came up asking if Del Rey was having problems. That seems a very valid question. A look at Del Rey’s sporadic release schedule and the fact that they’ve gone to releasing omnibuses to complete some series’ does suggest problems. But that wasn’t my take. Del Rey is a division of Random House, one of the power house publishers, so I don’t think it’s a financial problem. I think it’s more of an attention span issue.
Lucia is the new girl at school. She and her sister run a public bath that’s all the rage. When Lucia meets a terrific-looking surfer boy, there’s just one little problem: Lucia is a mermaid–not just any mermaid, but a princess on an important mission to save the seven seas from an evil force bent on taking control of the marine world. Such a responsibility doesn’t leave much time for romance. But Lucia vows to protect her world and win the heart of handsome Kaito. By Pink Hanamori Publisher: Del Rey Age Rating: Teen Genre: Fantasy/Romance Price: $10.95 Rating: Buy This Book This series is a a magical girl-fantasy-romance. Mermaids exist and live in the seven seas. Each sea has a princess with a pearl that gives them special powers. For not only can mermaids appear as human and walk on land, the princesses can transform into Idols, microphones and all. This series centers around three of the princesses. Lucia is the pink Princess of the North Pacific. She has come to land to find her pearl before her coming of age ceremony. She gave it to a boy she saved from a ship wreck when she was young. Hanon…
It’s the social season, and 17 year old Emma heads to London, with her family’s hope of finding a rich husband weighing heavily on her shoulders. One night, a mysterious man approaches her. A refined handsome face, curly black hair and deep blue eyes… Emma falls in love at first sight and shares with him her first kiss. 12 years later and now a widow, Emma visits the Earl of Greyston to discuss the marriage of her stepdaughter. It is the Earl’s younger brother who is betrothed to her stepdaughter, but the Earl never shows himself. While staying there, Emma spots the man she kissed all those years ago in a portrait on the wall…! by Karin Miyamoto, Gayle Wilson Publisher: DMP/eManga/Harlequin K.K./SOFTBANK Creative Corp. Age Rating: 16+ Genre: Historical, Romance Price: $4.99 Kindle/Digital Edition Rating: I’m not a big romance fan, but when I was given the chance to read some of the Harlequin romances from DMP, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. For the most part, I found the stories to be entertaining but formulaic. One story did stand out; Prisoner of the Tower. This is a historical romance that hits all the right…
When Isabella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret… By Stephenie Meyer; Art & Adaptation by Young Kim Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural/Romance Price: $19.99 Rating: Buy This Book INTRO: The book I’m reviewing now is called Twilight: The Graphic Novel Volume 1. I think I regret reading this, and I may never touch it again after setting my eyes upon it. But hey, as long as I’m allowed to bash it for what it is, I’m cool. Anyways, let’s talk about what the story is about.
Playing pranks is nothing new, and April Fool’s Day, which started out as a European tradition has spread all over the world, with nearly every country practicing some form of it. While there are no manga based on this particular holiday, there are a few where playing tricks to fool the characters or the reader are at the heart of the story.
When Alex’s sister, Sarah, vanishes and all memory and evidence of her existence is erased, Alex is determined to get to the bottom of her sister’s disappearance. What better place to start her investigations than the Nightschool itself? But when she discovers that sneaking into the Nightschool isn’t as simple as it might seem, Alex enrolls as a student. But is she prepared for what she might find? By Sveltlana Chmakova Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural Price: $10.99 Rating: Buy This Book The action in this volume moves to the titular Nightschool as Alex is forced to enroll in order to find out about her sister’s disappearance. We learn more about the school and it’s inhabitants as Alex goes through orientation and attends a class. We also see more of the Hunters as well as the seer Marina, as they relax and train at home, and more clues about the broken seal mentioned in volume 1 are dropped. In order to find her sister, Alex tries to enter the Nightschool, and is twice evicted, but not before meeting Ronee, another weirn that is somehow connected with the prophesy and Alex. So instead, she has to enroll in…
Nature vs Nurture The scanlation debate continues this week. The first salvo fired was by Kate Dacey of the Manga Critic blog. Spurred by a tweet that pointed to a link to a review of a Chrome plug-in for OneManga, she explains why a aggregator site like Onemanga is illegal. Johanna Draper Carlson replies with a post that readers of scanlations know perfectly well what they’re doing is illegal, and just don’t care. So is it the nature of the net, or a learned behavior? I think it’s a combination of the two, since a lot of kids are either hearing about the sites from their friends, or searching Google, and the aggregator sites always come up on top. And it’s going to take more than a “Just Say No” campaign to change things. Most teens, who are probably the majority of online readers, either don’t know or don’t care about copyright. Knowing is only half the battle, but as long as the illegal sites come up first in search engines like Google, behavior isn’t going to change. If publishers don’t try to take down these sites or offer legal alternatives, then readers are going to think they think it’s…
I’m a total girl geek. I read comics and manga, watch sci-fi and anime, and I love technology. One of the things I love about technology is the freedom it gives. It’s the great equalizer. With the advent of better and cheaper hardware and software, anyone can have their own radio and/or TV show. You don’t need to be in broadcasting or work at a radio or TV station to be seen and hear by millions of people. The tech I’ve come to love and really depend on are podcasts. They get me to and from work and sometimes through the long day. I can find podcasts on anime, manga, tech, astronomy, skeptic news and Doctor Who. I try to share at the manga ones on my This Week in Manga posts, but after listening to the latest batch I realized there was something missing from everything I listened too. A female voice.
I sometimes wonder where my obsession for collecting manga, for in many respects that is what I do, came from. It’s easy to assume that it started with comic collecting, but I wasn’t that big of a comic collector when I was growing up. There were a few series I followed, but it was nothing like the “gotta catch ’em all”, feeling I sometimes get with manga. It finally hit me, as I was driving home from work, listening to a podcast. I had grabbed the mp3 of a BBC Radio program, “On the Outside It Looked Like an Old Fashioned Police Box”. It’s a radio documentary about the old Target book novelizations of the Doctor Who TV series from the 70’s-80’s. This series of books made available all the episodes of Doctor Who long before there were VCRs or DVDs. And I used to read them. I was a big Doctor Who fan long before I was a manga/anime fan. And with the show not starting in the US until the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, there was almost 15 years of the show that couldn’t be seen, but through the novelizations, could be read. As I’m listening to this…