I’ve been an anime and manga fan for long time, and there have been some titles that were thought to be more far off dreams than actual candidates for licensing. One of those dreams was getting anything from Leiji Matsumoto, co-creator of Space Battleship Yamato, and creator of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, and Queen Emeraldas among many others. At best, all we had were 5 volumes of the second Galaxy Express 999 manga ...

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A couple of tweets came across my Twitter timeline making some unfavorable comments about a panel at SDCC 2016; “Comics vs Manga: Which is Better.”  The panel was supposed to have a “panel of experts” in both comics and manga, and looked to compare things such as getting started, diversity, plot, sales, and fandom. I didn’t attend the panel, but I respect the commentor’s opinion. And the description of the pan...

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I wasn’t sold on Bleach when it was first announced, but fortunately, I had a subscription to Shonen Jump back in the day, and read the first few chapters, and was hooked. I really liked the characters and the world that Kubo had created for them.  I was a huge Bleach fan, buying the books as they came out, watching the anime, and even collecting the toys from Toynami, several sets of gashapon, and the trading cards. I loved the first arc ...

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Recently, Seven Seas Entertainment released a press release announcing their renewal with Comixology and expanding to Amazon. While I think this is great and all, what I really have to ask is, what took them so long?...

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Viz Media’s digital strategy and I have not gotten along very well. For the longest time after Viz released their Vizmanga app, I couldn’t install it because Google Play kept saying it wasn’t compatible with my Android tablet. I finally had to go through Amazon’s App Store and install it through there. I had something to say about that....

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Wondercon, for those who may not know, is a younger sibling to Comic-Con International’s San Diego Comic Con. For many years it was held up north in San Francisco, but starting in 2012 is moved down to Southern California in the LA area. It’s first four years were spent taking over the Anaheim Convention Center, but this year, the con moved up to the Los Angeles Convention Center. Since its move down to SoCal, its major manga publish...

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A few weeks ago my Twitter TL is was filled with comments about a post that went up on Vice about Tokyopop. It is a very long puff piece that espouses the virtues of the old Tokyopop, blames its fall on the economy, and then puffs it back up with all the great things they will be doing. ...

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I’ve never denied it. I’m a crazy cat lady. I’ve grown up with cats and can barely remember a time when I didn’t have a little furball as a pet. So when tweets about the Japanese game Neko Atsume, or Cat Collecting, started appearing in my time line, I had to check it out. Calling it a game might give the wrong impression. It starts out with just a typical looking back yard, and using fish as currency, you can buy toys and...

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  Recently I was tagged by Ash Brown of the Experiments in Manga blog to join in the game of Manga Tag that been making the rounds of manga blogs and vlogs. I thought it would be fun to join in and share some pictures of the manga I have stacked all over the house....

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Tokyopop, the former manga publisher that ceased publication and closed its doors in 2011 has been slowly coming back to life. In the last few years it has begun showing signs it might want to return to the stage, starting with a newsletter soon after shutting down, publishing more Hetalia in conjunction with Rightstuf, and the bringing back their website and making the OEL titles they still held rights to available as eBooks. In June, the websit...

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I have really grown to like digital manga. Considering the lack of space I currently have, and the difficulty I have in letting things go, being able to stack digital files is a lot easier than physical books. And they’re a lot easier to carry. I can carry several different titles to suit what ever my mood is in just my tablet, and it’s a lot easier to eat and read on a tablet that can stand on its own and doesn’t need one of my...

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No matter what the culture, knowledge has been equated with power. For centuries, this knowledge has been stored as words in books. Whether it’s a list of names or a wizard’s tome, books have been regarded as being magical. It’s no different in manga. There are several titles that feature books and the power of words with the ability to create, transport its readers to other worlds, and even kill. Fushigi Yugi and it’s prequel...

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This Week at Manga Village ** 2/06/08
Weekly Roundups / February 7, 2008

It’s time to check the results of another week at Manga Village! And in honor of Super Tuesday that just passed, we’ve got some reviews that fit political life. Charles Tan starts off with the classic political drama Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President Book One from Viz. This is definitely worth a look in light of the current campaigns. If you can find it. Do some womanizing with Lissa Pattillo’s review of...

Competition for the Kindle?
Digital Manga , Ebook Readers / February 5, 2008

In a previous post, I spoke about the Kindle as being a possibility for reading electronic books and manga. But, a little searching around the web has brought to light another possibility that is much more inexpensive, and more readably available. As a matter of fact, you may have on in your home right now! It’s the Nintendo DS. Nintendo’s newest handheld game platform can be a tool for more than just games.While Nintendo ha...

PR: Viz Media Lounges in DC
Press Releases / February 5, 2008

I don’t know if it could be considered rehab or feeding the habit, but being able to go to the Manga Cafe and Reading Lounge would be so cool! Sigh… Since it’s in Washington DC, maybe they might feature some of that good political manga we never get to see? Hey Viz! This year would be a perfect time to re-release Eagle: Making of An American President. Unflipped. You can call it the Big Election edition. Wishful thinki...

Tokyopop.com Goes to the Darkside
Articles / February 2, 2008

A situation has arisen at Tokyopop.com that I don’t think should be kept only there. As many of you may know from Brigid’s posts on the Mangablog, people have been frustrated about the condition of the Tokyopop.com website. Namely, since the “upgrade” to 2.0, it has been buggy and not well managed. One of the users of the site, an artist known as Sixxx, has been very vocal about the bad code and poor management o...

This Week at Manga Village ** Jan. 31, 2008
Weekly Roundups / January 31, 2008

As well as keeping this blog, I’m the Editor in Chief of Manga Village, a news, reviews, commentary website. We’re squatting at Comics Village until our own site is ready. We’ve got some great reviews and columns for you at Manga Village! This week Charles Tan gets ready for the Super Bowl with Eyeshield 21 Vol 1 from Viz. John Thomas helps with the Half Time show with some hot girls with guns with Gunsmith Cats Revise...

Reading (Subtitles) is Fundamental
Ask Manga Mom / January 27, 2008

As many parents with school age children know, getting your child to read can sometimes be a real hassle. This is especially true if your child is struggling in school. In this post-“No Child Left Behind”-world, this can mean pressure from teachers and schools to get your child to improve. I was having this problem with my youngest daughter. Now, I’ve always believed the way to get someone interested in reading, was to...

Taking the Next Step
Confessions of a Mangaholic / January 26, 2008

Now that I’ve admitted that I have a problem, it’s time to take the next step. Cut down the number of titles I buy. To do this, I first made a list of my manga in order of priority. What titles I would get no matter what. What titles I would get when the first list didn’t have any coming out, the titles I could take or leave and then the titles that I could drop. Do everything in moderation, even reduction, right? Once...

Haruka Anime Joins Manga in US
Manga to Anime / January 17, 2008

Bandai Visual USA has announced that it will release the anime version of Haruka ~Beyond the Stream of Time. This is both good and bad. The good is that a shojo anime series has been licensed. There aren’t a lot of shojo anime out there, and with the manga version of this story being released in Viz’s Shojo Beat, a tie-in should help sales. Readers who like Haruka should check it out when it comes out. I do encourage people ...

No Respect
Uncategorized / January 15, 2008

Why do I read so much manga instead of American comics? Let’s take Marvel’s latest story line in Amazing Spiderman as a good example. It’s riled up a lot of comic fans, and been kind of hard to avoid if you follow the forum boards at all. Basically, in the story line called “One More Day”, Aunt May is dying. She’s old, it was bound to happen. Peter, who’s been married to Mary Jane for the last 1...

Can't Say I'll Miss It…
News / January 9, 2008

According to ANN, ADV is discontinuing Newtype USA. No reason why, just that a “new, unnamed” magazine will take it’s place. To be honest, I’m not going to miss Newtype USA. Of all the anime/manga magazines out there, this one had the greatest potential that was completely wasted by ADV. But then, that’s no surprise either. I remember the excitement at the news that Newtype would be coming to the US in an e...

They’re Not Helping…
News / January 8, 2008

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 fami...

Addicted to Manga
Confessions of a Mangaholic / January 5, 2008

Hi. My name is Lori, and I’m addicted to manga. It started innocently. It was 2002. My husband and I were in a comic book store, and I was looking for some new series to pick up. There, I discovered Dragon Knights, a series Tokyopop was publishing in comic form. It was fun and I love dragons anyway. It lasted 6 issues before Tokyopop abandoned the comic form and went to publishing in graphic novel form, unflipped. I of course, fol...