{"id":2038,"date":"2012-01-09T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T08:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mangavillage.co.uk\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2012-06-09T21:36:55","modified_gmt":"2012-06-10T04:36:55","slug":"2011-year-end-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/2012\/01\/09\/2011-year-end-roundup\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Year End Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With 2011 in the rear view mirror, the Villagers look back at some of the titles, publishers and events that made the past year good (or bad).<\/p>\n

What was your favorite new title(s) of the year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Connie:<\/strong> There are a lot of different titles, so picking, say, Lychee Light Club<\/strong> over Sakura Hime<\/strong> is tough, since I like them both, but one ran in Ribon<\/em> (for little girls) and the other in Manga Erotics F<\/em>. \u00a0Lychee Light Club<\/em> was probably my favorite one-shot this year, a great and very shocking book full of violence and objectionable content, but with amazing art and a manic, intense plot. \u00a0Sakura Hime<\/em> was probably my favorite general audience title, if general audience can mean people who read magical girl series. \u00a0I\u2019m a fan of Arina Tanemura, and while I\u2019m not an instant convert on all her books, Sakura Hime<\/em> was quite good, and I\u2019m enjoying the setting and mythological ties so far.<\/p>\n

But my favorite title this year was probably Wandering Son<\/strong>. \u00a0I have a hard time talking about Wandering Son<\/em>, because I feel anything I say won\u2019t do the story enough justice. \u00a0It\u2019s simply a nice, quiet book about pre-teen classmates exploring their gender identities, and beginning to question why they don\u2019t fit in. \u00a0The age of the characters is the perfect place to start in a story like this, and I\u2019m so happy to see that Shimura Takako handled the subject with such attention to detail and emotion. \u00a0I can\u2019t wait to see where this story goes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alex:<\/strong> I think of all the titles that have come out this year, I have three that really stick in your craw, which has more and more become my definition of \u201cfavorite\u201d when it comes to these end of the year type things. I could gush about manga series that I really enjoyed reading in this space, but I want to focus on the comics that really forced me to think – at the end of the day, these are the titles I will keep throughout my life.<\/p>\n

While it may not have been the most pleasant read, Lychee Light Club<\/strong> was a stellar book that really forced me as the reader into places I didn\u2019t want to be, and it did so with an unnatural grace and poise. It was terrifically, frantically destructive in its purpose, and managed to deliver on almost every front.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Kaoru Mori\u2019s A Bride\u2019s Story<\/strong> was a fantastic, beautifully constructed slice-of-life story set in the 19th century Silk Road. Mori, a stickler for research and gorgeous, intricate drawing, shows off her skills as an illustrator as well as the consummate storyteller we know her to be in this series, and the books are gorgeous hardcovers. Yen Press has done a bang up job with this series, and I am looking forward to the next volume in 2012.<\/p>\n

Finally, I would be ignoring a great gem of a series if I did not mention Wandering Son<\/strong>, the Fantagraphics hardcover written by Shimura Takako, and translated\/edited by Matt Thorn. Thorn would only allow his name to be attached to a project like Wandering Son, and I think his attention to detail and activism for these comics has really done Fantagraphics a lot of credit. Shimura Takako is a name in manga that I hope becomes as widely popular as Fumi Yoshinaga and Naoki Urasawa – she has shown with just one volume of manga that she has what it takes to deliver a fantastic story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Justin: A Bride\u2019s Story<\/strong> is one of the few new series I\u2019ve enjoyed. It is so effervescent and honest and engaging, it really has come to sit in a rare pantheon of titles that I recommend without hesitation to anyone interested at all in the least in any form of comics. There\u2019s more to be said about this in the digital section, but I was so happy to see Taiyo Matsumoto\u2019s epic No. 5<\/strong> released in English in full. I\u2019ve also liked Drops of God<\/strong> and No Longer Human<\/strong>, from Vertical. Meanwhile, my daughter has had her mind blown by Sailor Moon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

John: The new MPD-Psycho<\/strong> volume made my year.<\/p>\n

Lori:<\/strong> I was surprised by some of the new titles I enjoyed this year. Sakura Hime<\/strong> really surprised me, especially since I had yet to find a Tanemura title that I liked. Psyren<\/strong> is one of the few shonen titles I\u2019m enjoying right now. It and One Piece<\/em> are the only titles I really look forward to in Shonen Jump<\/em> anymore. Kodansha had a good line up with their new titles. I liked Monster Hunter Orage<\/strong> and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex<\/strong> more than I probably should have, but they were fun reads and that\u2019s what really matters to me. My biggest shock though was two Vertical titles that I was sure I wouldn\u2019t like. Book of Human Insects<\/strong> and No Longer Human<\/strong> were two titles I wasn\u2019t going to read, but did anyway, and they were both very compelling reads.<\/p>\n

What title(s) are you going to miss most that ended?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Connie:<\/strong> I\u2019m almost ashamed to admit that I looked forward to Detroit Metal City<\/strong> as much as I did. \u00a0Every volume was basically the same jokes over and over again, but it made me laugh every time, which probably makes me a bad person. \u00a0I\u2019ll miss it\u2019s filthy mouth quite a bit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll miss Black Jack<\/strong> quite a bit, too. \u00a0I\u2019m a big fan of Tezuka, and the bimonthly dose of crazy that Black Jack<\/em> has been delivering for the last few years is something I\u2019m going to miss. \u00a0Where else can I read stories about someone delivering a baby on a rickety raft during a flash flood via C-section in the same volume with a story about euthanasia?<\/p>\n

John:<\/strong> Black Jack<\/strong> is an ambitious long series that I am sad to see end. Although it isn\u2019t as heady as some of Tezuka\u2019s other works, it isn\u2019t as heady as some of Tezuka\u2019s other works.<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/strong> As a series, Black Jack<\/strong> is that one highbrow pulp entertainment I\u2019m going to have trouble replacing. The big losses, of course, aren\u2019t titles so much as the big blows to the industry: the collapse of Tokyopop and Borders. It\u2019s hard for me to talk about what I\u2019ll miss from 2011, because this has been a rough year – it seems like much of the manga I read was suspended, cancelled, or ended in 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lori:<\/strong> I liked Black Jack<\/strong>, but I won\u2019t miss it as much. It\u2019s going to be hard to replace Full Metal Alchemist<\/strong>. It\u2019s a title that\u2019s been with me since 2006, and while it\u2019s gratifying to finally see it\u2019s conclusion, it\u2019s also a title I don\u2019t want to say goodbye to. I loved the characters, the world, everything about it so much! It\u2019s a hard series to say goodbye to. Another series I\u2019m sad I\u2019ll never see the end of is Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko<\/strong>. A title that was cut off in it\u2019s prime by Tokyopop\u2019s sudden demise, it will sit sadly unfinished on my shelf for years to come.<\/p>\n

Any titles you won’t miss?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Connie:<\/strong> \u00a0I finally, finally gave up on Bleach<\/strong> this year. \u00a0Good riddance! \u00a0I\u2019m tired of eternal fight scenes with a thousand characters I couldn\u2019t care less about.<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/strong> I don\u2019t know that they\u2019re ended, but I\u2019m glad there hasn\u2019t been the huge response to Yen\u2019s YA novel adaptations that I feared. I\u2019d much rather see more manhwa from them.<\/p>\n

Who did digital manga right in 2011?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Connie:<\/strong> DMP and eManga.com<\/a>! \u00a0Honestly, I\u2019m not that interested in digital formats, and don\u2019t read them unless I have to, but from a content perspective, as a fan of romance and BL manga eManga gets my vote. \u00a0I\u2019ve had a lot of fun with that site this year. \u00a0I was reading a good number of the Harlequin manga earlier in the year, before the price went up, and I\u2019ve been consuming the DMG BL series quite frequently lately, despite the high price tags. \u00a0I also like how regularly their new content comes out, and how easy the site is to navigate. \u00a0I do like the variety of content on Jmanga.com<\/a>, but I find that new releases for things I want to read are infrequent, and the site isn\u2019t as friendly as eManga.com. \u00a0I\u2019m also still a big fan of Netcomics.com<\/a>, who recently started digital releases of Korean romance comics again a few months ago. \u00a0I\u2019m happy to see Full House<\/em> come back!<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t tried a lot of other publishers platforms, just because I\u2019d rather not read digital versions of stuff I can get in book form, but I do like that digital offers a cheap alternative to titles that might not be feasible in a print format, and I\u2019m curious to see if more publishers take that route in the future.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Justin:<\/strong> I think digital is the one place where you don\u2019t end up sampling across the board as much as you do in-store. I pretty much stuck to Viz\u2019s output and a smattering of other works. I really like their sigikki<\/a> page. One of the most fascinating things for me was to see the No. 5<\/em> app that Matsumoto released. Not only is it gorgeous, but I\u2019m fascinated by the idea of an individual artist releasing work to an international audience. I don\u2019t see this as supplanting publishers, so much as a way to deliver quirky, personal, and more niche material directly into the hands of an audience hungry for it, without a publisher risking money to print it.<\/p>\n

Lori:<\/strong> Until manga is available on all platforms freely and without restriction, I don\u2019t think anyone is really doing it right, but of all the publishers, I think Viz comes the closest. They have put a lot of effort into getting manga into the most hands. They have a wide selection across their catalog and are always adding more volumes and titles. If they made their manga available offline for everyone, they would be prefect! I would give DMP and emanga.com<\/a> a close second except I don\u2019t read BL, so their extensive catalog is mostly useless to me. Jmanga<\/a> has a lot of potential, and I think the coming year will be a make or break for them. If they keep their prices down and actually add to their catalog, they could give Viz a run for it\u2019s money in the selection department.<\/p>\n

What titles are you looking forward to in 2012?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Connie:<\/strong> \u00a0Usually I look forward to the Tezuka that Vertical releases regularly, but this year I\u2019m a little disappointed since it\u2019s a series that was previously released by Viz. \u00a0A Message to Adolf<\/em> is still one of my favorites though, and very much worth reading. \u00a0I am happy it\u2019s being made available to an audience who isn\u2019t as insane as I am about tracking down out of print books. \u00a0I am really looking forward to Sakuran<\/strong> by Moyoco Anno, also coming from Vertical this year. \u00a0It\u2019s a beautiful one-shot, both art and story-wise, and I can\u2019t wait to read it in English.<\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m a little ashamed to admit how excited I am about Viz\u2019s new BL line. \u00a0There\u2019s quite a few titles coming out from SuBLime that I\u2019m looking forward to, including titles from You Higashino and Toko Kawai.<\/p>\n

Lori:<\/strong> 2012 is already shaping up to be a good year. Seven Seas and Yen Press will be getting more of my money this year with Young Miss Holmes<\/em>, Witch Hunter<\/em> and Lizzie Newton<\/em> from Seven Seas and Soulless<\/em>, Until Death Do Us Part<\/em>, and the Alice in the Country of…<\/em> from Yen Press are all titles I\u2019ll be checking out. I can sate by pretty-boy hunger with Starry Sky<\/em> from DMP, and I\u2019m looking forward to Vertical\u2019s Sakuran<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Winners and\/or Losers of 2011? (Publishers, successes\/failures of year, etc.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Connie:<\/strong> One of the stories that I think had the most potential was the DMP Kickstarter drive to fund the reprinting of Swallowing the Earth<\/em>. \u00a0I was happy to see that it was successful, and I am eager about the possibilities that print-on-demand on that scale opens up to other publishers. \u00a0I heard rumors that such a drive might be questionable license-wise, but seeing what fans want and will actually put up money for themselves opens the door for quite a few titles that might not see print otherwise. \u00a0In addition to reprints, I\u2019d love to see it work towards getting something like, say, niche classic material published in English. \u00a0But then again, I don\u2019t know how that works.<\/p>\n

Justin:<\/strong> I\u2019ll talk a little about Tokyopop: they were never a great company, but they were a good publisher. And some of their greatest achievements occurred despite themselves, but it\u2019s a big loss to the manga market, as well as a great loss to many a OEL artist. Where would James Stokoe (King City<\/em>), Svetlana Chmakova (Nightschool<\/em>), Felipe Smith (Peepo Choo<\/em>) or even somebody who\u2019s found success outside comics like Eric Wight (Frankie Pickle<\/em>) be without Tokyopop? \u00a0Also Kodansha looks to be a big winner, having picked up where Del Rey left off, and rereleasing Sailor Moon<\/strong> to the market. If anybody has a question about whether or not there\u2019s any demand for it, just ask my 8-year-old daughter, who\u2019s never seen or heard of SM<\/em> before, and absolutely loves it.<\/p>\n

Lori:<\/strong> The biggest loser this year as I see it was Tokyopop. They shut down just as they were putting out titles that could make them relevent again, disappointing their legions of fans, and then come back a few months later to tease them with a \u201cwell, maybe we\u2019ll start publishing again…\u201d They\u2019re like an abusive boyfriend who beats you and then comes back trying to say they didn\u2019t mean it. An epic fail in my book. My winner will have to be a tie between Kodansha and Vertical. Everyone had doubts about Kodansha but they came out strong, releasing good titles and on a timely basis. If they updated their website more often and had a good presence on Twitter, they could have taken it all! Vertical had some really strong titles come and go this year. Their continued strategy as a boutique publisher that cherry picks their titles really paid off this year, and next year is looking just as strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 2011 in the rear view mirror, the Villagers look back at some of the titles, publishers and events that made the past year good (or bad). What was your favorite new title(s) of the year? Connie: There are a lot of different titles, so picking, say, Lychee Light Club over Sakura Hime is tough, since I like them both, but one ran in Ribon (for little girls) and the other in Manga Erotics F. \u00a0Lychee Light Club was probably my favorite one-shot this year, a great and very shocking book full of violence and objectionable content, but with amazing art and a manic, intense plot. \u00a0Sakura Hime was probably my favorite general audience title, if general audience can mean people who read magical girl series. \u00a0I\u2019m a fan of Arina Tanemura, and while I\u2019m not an instant convert on all her books, Sakura Hime was quite good, and I\u2019m enjoying the setting and mythological ties so far. But my favorite title this year was probably Wandering Son. \u00a0I have a hard time talking about Wandering Son, because I feel anything I say won\u2019t do the story enough justice. \u00a0It\u2019s simply a nice, quiet book about pre-teen classmates exploring their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[21,46,52,72,83,140,208,147,209],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","tag-21","tag-dmp","tag-emanga","tag-jmanga","tag-manga","tag-vertical","tag-viz-media","tag-year-end","tag-yen-press"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/files\/2012\/01\/BRIDE_1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2umma-wS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2321,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/2321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/manga.jadedragononline.com\/village\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}