19th Century Boys

Speaking of fanservice ... Xandria has started work on a new title, Sono Toki Heart wa Nusumareta, a yaoi quickie set in some vaguely 18th/19th century Europe.

Girls Barfo

I don't know what compelled RiSQ to release Girls Bravo Chapter 1. Perhaps it was the inexplicable popularity of its anime incarnation? After all, it starts with a bath scene, and there's this guy who is of course a perennial loser yet his childhood friend is the prettiest and most popular girl in school. Oh, and did I mention that he's "allergic" to the opposite sex? THEN he has to go and fall into a bath that transports him to another world (this is barely a step above the enchanted toilet of Kyou Kara Maou) and ends up in a town that's 90% women. OF COURSE. And it gets worse from there.

I won't even comment on the number of fanservice shots.

The title says exactly what it's about! (Unlike, say, Bleach)

Anime on DVD has a review of ComicsOne's High School Girls manga (Vol. 1).

Nanjing Massacre? What Nanjing Massacre?

From the Japan Today News:

TOKYO — A group of local assembly members has protested to the author and publisher of a manga weekly over a cartoon strip that depicted the Nanjing Massacre in a way they consider distorts history, group members and the publisher said Friday.

The group issued the protest to Shueisha Inc, a major publisher, and Hiroshi Motomiya who wrote the manga, "Kuni Ga Moeru" which is carried in Weekly Young Jump as a fictionalized serial, saying that the manga presents the Nanjing Massacre "as if it was the truth." The group sent a protest letter to Shueisha on Tuesday, claiming there is strong evidence that the Nanjing Massacre did not happen and no proof that it did.

Scaaary!

PRISMS has started working on a mature horror manga called Chairudo (join the Yahoo group to pick up the files).

Chairudo are childlike people (even when they have become adults) with each an exceptional supernatural gift, a power. Some are "firestarters" for example. The main character, Hinagata Heiji, looks like a looser, but looks are deceptive. He has the uncanny ability to bring to life every inanimate object by bringing the object in touch with his blood.

At Death's Door

From Anime News Service, a brief article on recently released comic-book-turned-anime Lady Death:

In production for over three years, the tale of a young woman’s betrayal by, and ultimately conquest of, the arch-demon Lucifer, marks the first adaptation of an American comic book character by North America’s largest producer and distributor of Japanese animation. ...

“Producing a project as epic as Lady Death was a big change for ADV,” adds ADV co-founder, Matt Greenfield, “But we’ve always been in agreement with creator Brian Pulido that this story and character were much bigger than what the motionless medium of comic-book art could ever portray. Lady Death has a unique and different look from anything ADV has released before, and I think the whole production team deserves applause for bringing this project to fruition.”

Zombies = cool, samurai = cool, therefore Zombie Samurai = UBAR!

Via ICv2: Central Park Media announces 3 new manga titles due in January.

Slayers Premium is the hilarious manga adaptation of the fifth Slayers movie in which the all-too-edible OCTOPI attempt to gain revenge on humanity in general and the voracious Lina Inverse in particular.

The Sword of Shibito Vol. #1 is the first book in a series about a zombie samurai written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, author of Demon City Shinjuku, Darkside Blues, and Vampire Hunter D.

In contrast to the dark happenings in Sword of Shibito, Over the Rainbow is a frothy comedy/romance about two clueless lawyers and their mysterious amnesiac client.

And, much as I enjoy the Slayers franchise, Slayers Premium still sounds like the name of a gasoline. :p

Passing Notes

Orange Tangerine's release of Death Note Chapter 37 is up. Check out the riotous Editor's Note on page 3. (I feel for ya, dude. If I were Raito, I'd have done the same.)

Snarktastic

Oh holy crap. Someone MSTed a David Gonterman webcomic.

I am in heaven.

Make it so

Newsarama has preview images of Tokyopop's Star Trek project, which thankfully is devoid of schoolgirl skirts and anachronistic ninjas. A more mature manga style has been adopted for this one.

The New Mainstream looks like a twentysomething girl

So, while everyone was busy reacting to James Lucas Jones' mission statement about Oni Press and building the "Real Mainstream", why did nobody bother to point out the kickass Scott Pilgrim Vol. 2 cover image??!?!!!

Bryan Lee O'Malley, I grovel at your feet! Also your stuff comes out mostly on time, unlike Chynna Clugston's.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones

Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba caught a glimpse of Newsarama's preview pages of Bone in color (for the Scholastic edition).

(See the rest of it here.)

Demo #10: Damaged

omgwtf actual content!

Blow-by-blow personal reactions:
Page 1: OMG, Becky has gone completely Paradise Kiss.
Page 3: And she's ripping Miki Aihara! (yes we all love Hot Gimmick.)
Page 5: This character looks rather shoujo-tastic but damn, if Becky had the time to enter RSOM, she would so win.
Page 6-7: Loving the 12-panel-based scattershot layout.
Page 9: During this entire monologue, I can already imagine the girl's voice. That's some pretty slick establishment of a concrete character.
Page 10: Panel 3 -- that's the closest I've seen Becky come to using chibi/SD. And comedy manga style. (note the screentoned circles)
Page 11: "Dude, I don't charge. I'm not a therapist or a hooker or anything." Brian Wood, you crack me up sometimes.
Page 14: Shut up; it's like you're talking about ME!
Page 15-16: Becky's use of rain here is a lot more controlled than the aggressive ink splatters of #5 (Girl You Want).
Pages 19 & 21: She screentones ON the inklines for that distorted effect! Brilliant!
Page 21: I believe I saw this one on Becky's DeviantArt account a while back.
Page 26: OMGOMGWOW.

There's a little bit of misdirection in here, because just when you think "Oh, I've got the superpower for this issue figured out" it slaps you in the face and goes "AHAHAHAHA fooled you!" Brian Wood admits in the letters section that he changed the script and apparently Becky Cloonan got surprised too. I recall that The Hurting brought up various faults of Demo, and yeah, I guess we're getting more of the same here. However, where #8 used manga layouts and Becky's personal character designs, #10 inverts that situation. Now we've got much more regimented panel layouts (rather like our regimented yuppie friend) but the character designs lean very strongly towards manga. My first reaction was Miki Aihara (Hot Gimmick), but looking at it again, I realize that I recognize the style of those eyes is a lot closer to Kosuke Fujishima's Ah! My Goddess. But I doubt that we'll see Becky illustrating complex mechanical devices anytime soon, seeing as she doesn't even like doing cars (Demo #3).

The photo-illust backgraounds are an interesting design choice; I normally associate these with throwaway teen manga where the artist is just too damn lazy to draw. I'm not saying Becky is lazy, though. It's clear that she put some thought in how to choose and use the photos.

I sometimes feel that Brian Wood's writing style isn't exactly suited to Becky Cloonan's art. I mean, they are doing some awesome stuff as a creative team, but I also get the feeling that Brian wants to do darker, more pessimistic stories, while Becky wants to escape to something more lighthearted and cute. Demo just happens to be the ground where they meet, and it makes for some very interesting reading no matter where they decide to go.

Now, the rest of the Comics Blogosphere can go discuss the actual story. Have at it!

90% of all crap is crap.

Christopher is wise.

And yeah, there really is no defense for Chobits. If you dig that shit, you have problems.

Now this is pathetic.

As if the convention scene didn't need even more Narutards and middle schoolers in Fruits Basket Kyo hats, ADV is now ripping Funimation's idea and putting out their own so-called Cosplay Caps.

(Hint: It isn't "cosplay" if all you do is buy a frigging hat!)

Game, set and match

Do you want to see the Prince of Tennis movie trailer? Sure you do!

Hey, we just want you to release Tsubasa faster

Via ListerX and AoD, it would appear that Del Rey has licensed a couple of new manga titles: Nodame Cantabile, about a music student who wants to Be The Best!!!11~® . . . at conducting; and Genshiken, a "peek into the world of Japanese otaku, poking fun as it follows the life of Sasahara Kanji in his drive for anime, manga, video games, and pornographic doujinshi." Yup, this one looks to be about as self-indulgent and inbred as any of the autobiographical indy comics out there. Mrhkljhgawgfrg.

Forces of Halfway Decent

Because Stefan said so:

You're all reading the new Forces of Good website, right? If not, WHY NOT?

So this alien frog soldier comes to earth and then he sees his father's ghost

The Rampaging Fanboy has noted Penguin's plans for publishing "classic literature" as "graphic novels" so that they can trick kids into reading them. (I had an old Jekyll & Hyde book in this style.) And of course, one of the projects just has to be done by a manga artist.

Oxidation-Reductionism

Via Highway 62: the Periodic Table of Comics.

Alas, there are no comics that mention the 109th element (Meitnerium) ... I think I shall go remedy that. :p

The New-Gi-Oh?

Cartoon Network plans to bring over the Konjiki no Gash Bell! anime as "Zatch Bell" (source: ICv2). This one appears to be really popular with the kids in Japan. Naturally, the manga version has also been licensed and is currently being released by Viz.

You want self-insertion wish fulfilment? I'll give you self-insertion wish fulfilment!

ShoujoMagic has just put out Pure Love Strip, a one-shot by Mayu Shinjo (better known for Sensual Phrase). Take one ordinary four-eyed girl and one childhood bully. Let stand for three years until childhood bully becomes unspeakably hot guy. Combine unspeakably hot guy with four-eyed girl in bedroom; blend in contrived sexual tension and studying for exams. Draw comic panels for about 50 pages to get racy, yet ultimately unremarkable shoujo tale.

Blogging about your own blog is sad.

But for the (one? two?) readers who may be interested, I've set up an Atom Feed and an RSS 2.0 Feed.

Looking at some search terms for this month so far:
"cheeky angel manga scanlations" -- It's LICENSED, you fool. Go buy it. Stop trying to consume media for free.
"dexter's lab doujinshi" -- I have no idea where to go for these, but that does remind me of Bleedman's Powerpuff Girls Webcomic, which is entirely derivative and anime-looking but damn if it ain't dynamic and shiny to look at.
"hot anime yaoi pictures" -- *SLAP* Bad otaku! BAD!

Meanwhile, somewhere in the South China Sea ...

Man, Gerry Alanguilan @ Komikero is awesome. Check out the sample page for his entry into the Filipino comics anthology Siglo:Passion. The Philippines deserves a lot more credit for its comics scene, if Gerry and his circle of fellow artists are anything to go by. Watch out, Japan.

Rurouni Märchen

Hooray! More quickies on unlicensed, out-of-the-way manga over at Completely Futile. I wanna read the one about Snow White and the Seven Samurai ...

They're at it again!

Anime News Service has a press release from EigoMANGA, who have proudly proclaimed October their "break-out month."

eigoMANGA will re-release Issue #1 of RUMBLE PAK to be offered for sale in Barnes & Noble, Media Play, and Tower Records stores nationwide, while expanding the title's reach to include independent bookstores throughout Canada. It will appear on magazine shelves on October 15, 2004. eigoMANGA's television program on ANIME MIX will feature original cartoons and animated shorts based off the comics featured in RUMBLE PAK as well as behind-the-scene footage of the artists of RUMBLE PAK.

Not that I want to discourage them or anything, but I've seen Rumble Pak #1. Why do I get the feeling that Seven Seas is going to totally PWN their ass when its anthology comes out?

Legal Yaoi

This morning at AnimeOnDVD: A review of Golden Cain containing the sentence: "With Golden Cain from CPM's Be Beautiful manga imprint, my yaoi cherry has finally been busted." And I think that says all that needs to be said about that title.

There are also reviews of Najica Blitz Tactics Vol.2 and Legal Drug Vol. 1, which sadly has nothing to do with crack dealers.

Rah Rah Sis Boom Wha--?

How exactly does one describe AnimeWaves' latest release, 3.3.7. Byooshi? It's about ... a male cheerleader who discovers the seedy Tokyo underworld? That's way too simplified for a story that manages to take about four crazy twists in the first chapter alone. But deep in my heart, I only wish that AW would hurry up and put out more chapters of the Stellvia manga.

Prince of Gaming

In a typical cross-marketing maneuver, Konami will bring manga into the digital world with Prince of Tennis for Nintendo DS. No word yet on whether you can get the characters to make out.

Ninjas and Pastries

Digital Manga has announced 3 new title acquisitions, and not surprisingly, one of them is boy's-love. :D

And the winners are:

Tokyopop names the winners of Rising Stars of Manga Contest #4. And now that indycomix up-and-comers like Dave Iseri and Amy Kim Ganter are winning, all hope is lost for Naruto-wanking fanboys who fancy themselves to be "manga-ka."

Come back, Stan Lee. Your country needs you.

Courtesy of Thought Balloons: Publisher's Weekly says that Marvel's Crappy Fake Anime Style Fantastic Four is ... well, crappy and fake.

Tokyopop Babylon

Dear manga fandom and industry:

PoMoBa hates you.

Love,
Discerning Comics Readers

P.S. We miss Viz's PULP imprint.

Magic Stick

Yet Another Comics Blog looks at a couple of manga titles, including Harry Potter Love Hina Negima.

In the Shadow of No Towers is the suckiest thing that ever sucked.

Ted Rall lays the hate on Art Spiegelman. Burn.

for truly it is a thing of wonder that a major publisher has the audacity to try to foist an object of such suckosity, even on the American public.

So good!

DGT has just released another chapter of So Bad, by Hot Gimmick creator Miki Aihara, on IRC (which will presumably move to Bittorrent as well after a while).

A*su manga dai ... uh, no.

Completely Futile jots down a list of Top 10 Favorite Comics, and among them are a few manga titles that you probably won't recognize, mostly because (1) they're not licensed or translated (2) they're not part of the standard "fandom." It's a big, big world out there ...