Manga Xanadu

The first day of panels at NYCC/NYAF was certainly full of surprises. And it started right off first thing in the morning for me, at 6:30 am (PST) when news started on Twitter about Viz Media’s big announcement. Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha will be a digital manga magazine that will run new chapter of the manga Bakuman, Bleach, Naruto, Nura, One Piece, and Toriko two weeks after they run in Japan. The magazine will be available through Vizmanga.com and through the iOS apps. The price is $25.99 for 48 issues, or you can rent single issues for .99 for 4 weeks. I’m a little confused on the .99 rental though. I’ve seen it described as .99 a month, which implies only paying .99 for four issues which is a lot better than 25.99 for a year, unless of course, the year subscription means you can keep the issues permanently. Whether the weekly issues are for keeps or for a limited time as the Nura serialization is now hasn’t been clarified. The digital magazine will start in January 2012, with the print magazine ending with the March issue. I can’t say I’m thrilled with the new line up. One Piece and…

Yokai, the ghosts and monsters of Japanese folklore, appear alot in manga, but how often do they get to be one of the main characters? This list features titles where they yokai is the protagonist of the manga, and not just a monster to be beat up before the hero moves on.

Twitter This The week started out with a bang, and just kept on going! Seven Seas started it off with license announcements on Twitter in anagram form with one clue. All three were guessed correctly by ANN and confirmed by Tuesday, the day of the last announcement. The three titles are ToraDora, Amnesia Labyrinth, and A Certain Scientific Railgun. Two of these titles have anime tie-ins, with ToraDora having already released its first disc earlier this month, and Funimation just announcing the license of A Certain Scientific Railgun at this past Anime Expo. Amnesia Labyrinth also has ties to a previously published work. Nagaru Tanigawa, who is the author of the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi light novels, is also the author of this series. Most of these titles came from ASCII Media Works, which Seven Seas seems to be mining. I’m definitely interested in Amnesia Labyrinth, and not just because it’s by the author of the Haruhi books, which I’ve enjoyed the manga of, but it’s also a mystery. And we can’t get enough of those! One Manga Down, 1000 Manga To Go Wednesday, One Manga, the top scanlation aggregator site on the web announced it would be taking down…

Anime Boston/Wondercon Roundups Two comics/manga related cons occurred this last weekend.  On the West Coast was Wondercon, the smaller, younger brother of SDCC, located in San Francisco.  While more comics based, it seems Hollywood is taking every opportunity to jump on the popculture bandwagon.  Manga related, Viz Media had a booth, as did CMX, Last Gasp, and EigoManga.  Deb Aoki of Manga.About.com has an overview of the con as well as links to other coverage.  Over on the East Coast, Anime Boston took place.  While mostly an anime con, many manga bloggers attended and even held panels.  Vertical, Inc. had a panel, and Ed Chavez, marketing director for Vertical as well as creator of Mangacast hosted a panel of manga bloggers.  The big news from the Vertical panel was the license of a title from a mangaka once published by Viz Media.  Calling it “Manga Series R” the clue is that the “R” refers to either the mangaka’s name or manga’s title.  I voting (hoping) its Leiji/Reiji Matsumoto.  Brigid Alverson has a full rundown of the Vertical panel at Robot 6, and you can hear the audio from the Manga Mania panel by scrolling down to the Ninja Consultant’s like…

Kumoricon Kumoricon, Portland, Oregon’s anime/manga/all thins J-popish was this last weekend.  John Thomas, a local and reviewer for Comics Village, was there for two of the three days and gave reports on the announcements, mostly from Dark Horse, as they are also local to the area.  The big announcement from Kumoricon though came from Jason Thompson.  His magnum opus, Manga: The Complete Guide will continue online.  Starting September 15, a new review of a series will go up once a day for 365 days (that’s one year) at Suduvu.com.  Jason will also be giving away 5 manga a day to some lucky commentor a day.  Go here for all the detials.

“On the Tenth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Ten Inukami,” Keita Kawahira is from a family of Inukami tamers, people who contract with dog-spirits to vanquish evil, but he is considered a failure since he couldn’t make a contract with one.  One day, his grandmother and head of the clan, tells Keita that there is an Inukami that is willing to contract with him.  He goes to meet Yoko, a beautiful girl with green hair and a big, bushy gold tail.  He’s thrilled at first, until he finds out how difficult Yoko is to handle. Inukami is based on a series of light novels, and has only one volume out from Seven Seas so far, but I have high hopes for the manga after having seen the 2006 anime (in fansub only).  Inukami is not a harem manga.  It is closer in relation to a series like Urusei Yatsura.  It’s a romantic comedy about Keita and Yoko’s relationship.  She wants to be his girlfriend, but he has a roaming eye.  None of the other females want anything to do with Keita, not that Yoko will let him be with anyone.  She can shoot fire from her…

Just off the presses from ANN and Comipress, Seven Seas/Tor has just confirmed that they have licensed Inukami!. This is a manga series based on Mamizu Arisawa’s light novel series of the same name. I found out about this series through a podcast I listen to, Anime Pulse, where it was reviewed. It’s a comedy/romance in the vein of Urusei Yatsura, only much more risque. It’s about a boy named Keita who comes from a family of Inukami (dog diety) tamers and who is also a letch, in the tradition of Ataru. Yoko, the Inukami he makes a contract with, decides she doesn’t like that, and wants to be Keita’s girlfriend, and not just Inukami. She has a fire attack that she hits him with, as well as the ability to transport instantly, which she does to him, minus his clothes. The anime was hysterical, and I was following the manga through scanalation, since I didn’t think *ANYONE* would *EVER* license it. But then, here comes Seven Seas, with their new buddy Tor, going and making ANOTHER series I now have to buy. I picked the wrong year to cut down on manga…