Shopping Alert! Deep Discount.com is having a sale on some manga titles in their book section. As well as discounting the books, they are doing a “buy 3, get 1” free promotion on certain titles. This is a comparable deal as Amazon, and better than Borders “buy 4, get 1 free”. Their shipping is free, and the books are discounted as well. The best discounted deals are on D. Gray-man from Viz, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi from Yen Press, and later volumes of Black Jack from Vertical. Also included in the sale are several of the VizKids titles such as Pokemon; Adventures and Diamond and Pearl, Leave It to PET, and Legend of Zelda, as well as Udon’s Big Adventures of Majoko. Vampire fans can pick up most of Vampire Knight, you can catch up on the latest volumes of Skip Beat!, or pick up most of Record of a Fallen Vampire which just finished this month. BL fans can get Junjo Romantica and Loveless. If you’ve got some spare cash, definitely check out this sale. How Bad Is It? Via Twitter. Builder, a ZDNet Japan blog, has posted the second part of an interview with Misaaki Hagino, President and…
This volume starts off with a new arc about Rinne’s family, specifically his father. The truth behind Rinne’s constant debt is revealed, as is more about the criminal shinigami organization, the Damashigami, and Rinne’s connection to it. And there’s some tidbits thrown out about Rinne’s and Sakura’s relationship, and for once, it’s not what you’d expect from Takahashi. By Rumiko Takahashi Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural/Comedy Price: $9.99/Free Online (Chapters 29-38) Rating: I’ve been disappointed by the previous volumes of Rin-Ne so far. It’s been so much “been there, done that,” but this volume is different. The quality went up for the chapters covered in this volume, to what I expect from a Takahashi series. The weak start made getting this far difficult, but I’m glad I waited it out. This volume introduces Rinne’s father, Sabato Rokudo. He is key to a lot of the problems in Rinne’s life, specifically his debt and the Damashigami. Sabato is a dead beat dad in every since of the word. He left Rinne with his parents after his wife (Rinne’s mom) disappeared. He is constantly withdrawing money from Rinne’s bank account using a forged stamp. He’s unlike any dad seen…
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…
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…
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…
So, I fell behind on Shonen Jump. It’s been an eventful month or so. But, I’m caught up now, and ready to share by insights on the last two issues. The magazine has some new features, but no new permanent series to replace Yu Yu Hakusho. I really hope they don’t keep this trend going. One Piece, Naruto, Bleach and Ultimo are not enough to hold my attention for an extended length of time. I’d rather go to waiting for GNs for the few titles I want than to continue to sludge through some of these chapters month after month. One thing of interest I noticed as I was tossing the insert subscription cards. Shonen Jump is now offering 6 month subscriptions, just like Yen Plus. SJ‘s are less expensive, obviously, but with the current SJ line up, the Yen Plus subscription definitely feels like the better deal right now.
One of the fun things about writing this blog is the little surprises that pop up unexpectedly. I stumbled onto this title while researching Yuu Watase for my Noted Women of Manga post. Appare Jipangu! is a short series, only 3 volumes long. It was published straight to tankoban form instead of being serialized in a magazine. It ran from 1998-2003, at about the same time as Watase’s more popular series Ayashi no Ceres (Ceres: Celestial Legend). Yusura was abandoned as a baby and was found under a cherry tree with the Kogoumaru, a staff that turns blue when it is around people who are sad. Fifteen years later, Yusura is now known as the Hikeshiya, or “extinguisher of sorrow”. She wields the Kogoumaru to take away people’s sorrow and redirect it at the people who caused it. What make this series sound so appealing to me is that it’s a lighthearted adventure with the romance secondary to the story the story. The characters might seem typical for a manga. Yusura is hot-headed and tomboyish, and Samon, a guy she rescues from assassins, is practically blind with out his glasses, often mistaking objects for Yusura. But the whole set up…
Hollywood, Here Comes Netcomics! Netcomics, the Korean publisher that puts all their titles online for a per-chapter fee, is producing a film of their manhwa X Diary. There’s not much news out yet, other than Variety’s report which includes the names of the writer of the script, one cast member and the producer from Netcomics. But the news itself isn’t too surprising. Ever since Hollywood started coming to SDCC, and they’ve found that there’s an audience for comics based books, practically every comic company has been looking to get a title into production. Though, the premise of X Diary does make it a good candidate. It’s about a cartoonist and musician who break up as a couple, but try to make it as friends. It’s a topic that surpasses culture and could very well appeal to non-comic/manhwa readers. We’ll have to wait and see how production goes. Lots of titles get started only to stall not far into the process.
St. Patrick’s Day is a decidedly American holiday that really isn’t celebrated or even mentioned outside of the US. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any good manga you can enjoy with your green beer and corn beef and cabbage. Now, admittedly, some of these titles are a stretch, but in the spirit of good fun, here are some titles you might find in a pot of manga gold.
Women creators in manga isn’t as an unusual thing as they are here in the US. Over here, publishers have special events to show that women can create comics, while in Japan no one even bats an eye at the idea. With March being Women’s History month, I thought I would highlight some of the women manga creators who have been influential in the medium in Japan and the US.
One Piece Exceeds 3 Million The print run for the newest volume of One Piece has been reported to be 3 MILLION copies. That’s right, 3 million. As the post points out, that’s even more copies than the Japanese edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which previous held the record for largest print run of a first edition. That’s quite an accomplishment, especially for a comic. American publishers can only dream of print runs like this. What’s really sad though, is how under appreciated One Piece is in the US. It should on the NYT list ever week with Naruto and Bleach! Viz is doing a good job of making the manga available with their 3-in-1 for the early volumes and the catch-up to the Japanese releases.
This set of chapters starts out stumbling under the weight of more “been there, done that”, but manages to shake some of it off by the end, leaving a volume of work that is at least palatable. By Rumiko Takahashi Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural/Comedy Price: $9.99/Free Online (Chapters 19-28) Rating: Buy This Book Chapter 19 starts out with another typical shtick of Takahashi’s; the rival love interest. Every one of her romantic comedies has one, all the way back to Urusei Yatsura, and Tsubasa Jumonji is right out of that boiler plate. He tries to look cool and in control, but in reality he’s just a bumbling fool. He’s ineffectual as a exorcist, his soul dust only causing people and spirits to cough, but not get rid of them. Of course, he fell in love with Sakura when they were children. Sakura was nice to him after he transferred to her school for a few days, and it was enough that now he’s declaring his love for her, and treating Rinne as his rival. These chapters also introduce the damashigami. They are rogue shinigami that take the life of a person who isn’t meant to die…