This One's For the Girls

Reading Along looks at Kare First Love and sees more of the same in shoujo manga.

Though I must admit, with the current standard in that field being set by Hot Gimmick, it is really hard to measure up.

Missed this one on the way through the ICv2 discussion ...

Torsten Adair of Barnes & Noble gives the dish on manga, and boy does he know what he's talking about. I'm especially partial to the graphic novel rental idea, which might (hopefully) cut down on all those tweeners who pounce into B&N manga aisles, park themselves on the floor with about 5 volumes, and just sit there reading, making it hard for other folks to browse.

Christopher Butcher checks in too.

Stop me before I start to look like one of those doe-eyed fanboys going, "Wow, they make COMICS in JAPAN too?! Where they are widely accepted and enjoyed by the general population?!"

On the anime front, FUNimation picked up Samurai 7, half the community is pissed that they won't be able to download it for free anymore, the other half is defending the ethical and moral principles of licensing, and that *WHUMPWHUMPWHUMP* sound you hear is Akira Kurosawa rolling in his grave ... with laughter.

Candidate for Serialization

So I guess this is today's big news. New manga to premiere in pages of Newtype USA:

Lagoon Engine Einsatz, a new serialized manga from best-selling creator Yukiru Sugisaki (D•N•Angel, Candidate for Goddess), will appear for the first time ever in the October issue of Newtype USA!

A special collaboration between the renowned artist and the top-selling anime magazine in the English-speaking world, Lagoon Engine Einsatz marks a first for any manga—it will be published in English before being released in Japan. The new manga project will also include several full-color pages in each installment, adding some unique visual flair to the traditionally black-and-white manga pages. [emphasis mine]

Meanwhile, some gormless fanboy is already preparing to seethe with rage at how the translators wrecked the English-language version of Lagoon Engine Einsatz. Yeah, I guess it would be pretty tough to translate a title that doesn't have an original Japanese script in the first place.

Lots of new Chapter 1 releases from shoujo specialists DGT, including Koigokoro Fantasia, Heaven, Yurara no Tsuki, and Dakishimete Noir. But maybe what you should really check out is So Bad, an earlier work by Hot Gimmick's Miki Aihara.

Broccoli/AnimeGamers is putting out Juvenile Orion trinkets. So now you can have those pretty boys with you everywhere.

Watch out! Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, SW:Clone Wars) is working on a live action Astro Boy.

No need for big pages? AoD reports that Viz is reprinting the Tenchi manga in the $10 format: Vol. 1 comes out 11/20/04, Vol. 2 on 1/29/05.

Get out your dictionaries

Fruits Basket fans: Let's have a contest to see how many ways there are to misspell "Furuba"!

So far we have:
Furouba
Fouroba
Furoba

And, wow, check out the hott spoiler action. Whole entire screens of blacked-out text.

San Diego comics scene REPRESENT!

Robert Scott of Comickaze has a few things to say to those head-in-the-sand fanboys who think manga will destroy us all.

Manga offers us a chance to sell books to an entire family, at increasingly consumer friendly price points and on far a more regular basis than most Western comics. Where customers are complaining about $7/issue for "fan favorite" JLA/Avengers, I have customers flocking in monthly to spend $10 a pop for not just on manga GN but two, three, four+ every week. And it's kids, young girls, and moms!!

And then they could give out moist towelettes too ... XD

Magical Drool Series

Kotonoha has just finished releasing the short story My Mysterious Girlfriend X, which is probably the friggin' weirdest boy-meets-girl story you'll ever read. It takes the concept of fanservice and schoolgirl fetishes and makes them quite disturbing. I like that.

Azumanga Proto?

Manga Sketchbook brings out the manga incarnation of Sensei no Ojikan, one of the hot new series on the anime circuit (but a precursor to Azumanga Daioh in the 4-panel gag format). Chapter 1 features a babyfaced teacher getting accustomed to her new school, including trying to convince her students that she really is a teacher.

SiGNs of the Times

Joey Manley reports that Graphic Novel Review is now open for business.

It's a mystery, it's a mystery

Reading Along has some things to say about Viz's release of the Detective Conan, I mean, Case Closed manga.

the book is just cute, I finished it not really wowed but curious enough to try the next volume when it hits shelves.

The face of CLAMP

When this news came out, I knew it was a good time to start IP.

The ladies of CLAMP, in the flesh!

I thought they'd never do it. Their whole image was about never revealing themselves to the public (they never go to cons, they all use pen names) and suddenly here they are for the whole world to see. Mokona Apapa looks a whole lot like her animal mascot counterpart ...

(Of course this is as good a time as any to pimp their site and the 15th Anniversary site.)

test

test post