Back in 2003, an anime was made of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. Because the story was still ongoing, and Arakawa didn’t want to give away any of her story, this anime took a turn at about episode 29 into a completely different direction. There’s nothing wrong with the remaining 20 episodes of the anime, but it doesn’t follow the manga. With the publication of the 20th volume of FMA, Arakawa announced another an...
Another manga publisher has jumped on the Kindle bandwagon. Seven Seas has announced that some of their titles will now be available for purchase on the Kindle. It’s good to see manga publishers embracing e-books, but I would hope they are looking not just at the Kindle/iPhone, but beyond at the other devices that are coming out. Soon....
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 ...
Cute Dogs: Craft your own Pooches By Chie Hayano Publisher Vertical, Inc. Age Rating: All Ages Genre: Craft Price: $14.95 Rating: Vertical Inc is a unique publisher in the manga world. They are a boutique publisher who does more than bring manga over from Japan. They also publish novels from horror to business, Sudoku puzzle books, and coolest of all, craft books. Their newest release is Cute Dogs, which is filled with exactly tha...
Viz’s second big foray into the online world of manga is Shonen Sunday. It’s based on another manga magazine from Japan. Several popular titles came from this magazine, such as most of Rumiko Takahashi’s works (Urusei Yatsura, Ramna 1/2, Inuyasha, Mermaid Saga), Detective Conan, Zatch Bell, and Yakitate!! Japan, just to name a few. Now Viz has brought some titles from the magazine online....
A short conversation came up on Twitter about whether Japanese names should be translated. I found some of the point that were made interesting, and it got me thinking. When you hear someone’s name, do you think about it’s meaning? Pick up a baby book of names, and you’ll see that every name, even our English names have another meaning. But because it’s a name, we don’t consider the meaning importan...
Kodansha Letting Licenses with Tokyopop Lapse Brigid Alverson of the Manga Blog reported on Monday something that’s been suspected for a while in the mangasphere, and has finally been confirmed by Tokyopop. Kodansha, one of the big Japanese publishing houses, is not renewing its licenses with Tokyopop. David Welsh provides a quick, convenient, if possibly incomplete list of the titles affected at his own blog Precocious Curm...
Static writes: Is Taboo considered a genre that should be used as a general description for manga sites that contained taboo typed manga books? Also, could you give me a perfect but brief (short) definition of the “TABOO” that I cold use to describe the genre if it were to be used as a general – common – genre type. This isn’t my area of expertise, but I thought I’d weigh in anyway. A taboo is a s...
It’s just another night on the prowl for vampires for Kyrian of Thrace when he meets the most frightening thing imaginable. And accountant. But Amanda Devereaux is much more than she seems. Hunted by one of the deadliest of vampires, Amanda is the key to our survival. If she goes down, so does he, and –no offense– he doesn’t want to die (hence the whole immortality thing). And he doesn’t want humanity dead ...
Manga for older readers has been few and far between, as teen manga dominates bookstores and sales. But as manga readers grow up, there needs to be something to appeal to them and keep them interested in the medium. Viz Media has been working in that direction with their Signature line, and now with a website that provides manga to read for free. Working with Ikki Monthy magazine, they have brought out a diverse line of tit...
Next Tokyopop Webinar Announced Tokyopop has announced it’s next webinar, and this time far enough ahead of time for people to plan for it! It’s in the evening this time, 7PM PST/10PM EST, on Tuesday, September 1 5PM PST/8PM EST on Wednesday September 2. It’s a better time though I’m going to miss the beginning. 5:15 is the best I can do getting home. East Coasters will have a better time of it. There&#...
When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. Sora begins investigating their strange connection to the sea. But the current research is too slow for Sora, who is lured away by with the promise of answers. This l...