Largo

Reports of Animerica magazine's demise have been spot-on: Now comes a new report that subscriptions are no longer available, and remaining subscription issues will be replaced with Shôjo Beat. (This doesn't change the fact that the new-format Animerica will still be available as a convention exclusive and also in limited runs at bookstores.)

Manganews.net has started a new Manga Discussion series: This week's topic, "How do you feel about the increasing gaps between official English releases, esp. for titles that have finished their run in Japan, and/or nearing completion in N. America?" Personally, I didn't realize this was a problem except in the case of ADV Manga. Right now the discussion looks more like a bitch session about how ADV is completely slacking off on so-and-so's favorite series. When I think about my favorite manga titles, I mostly worry about how Hot Gimmick is just a few steps behind the Japanese tankoubons now, or how Evangelion comes out so slowly mostly because Yoshiyuki Sadamoto himself can't draw fast enough. So it all depends on your perspective.

And the point about Sadamoto is verified by Animania's link to a Japanese interview session with manga editors. One of the questions was how the editors deal with manga-ka who fall behind schedule, and the editor who manages the serialization of Evangelion in Shonen Ace magazine said: "I give up." Ouch.

ICv2 has images of the new Princess Ai doll, which looks like perfect snark material if it had been in Previews or something.

James @ Reading Along has the first look at Del Rey's new releases, Nodame Cantabile and Genshiken. With Nodame Cantabile we finally get a classical music-themed comic, which is clearly the new alternative/underground, because all the other music-related comics out there are either rock or hip-hop, it seems.

The Pop of Tokyo

More late-breaking Tokyopop news at Love Manga. TP is just about to reach their 1000th manga release, though I have to wonder if they really need to be throwing this much Princess Ai merchandise and promotion out there. A cosplay contest? Don't you normally need a fanbase before cosplay even starts to happen? Last I checked, there weren't a whole lot of people getting into this series. Hell, if you're going to sell fashion dolls, I'd license the material in Paradise Kiss before anything else. Now THAT would sell. There are also webpages up for two upcoming OEL* manga, Dramacon and Steady Beat.

*Original English-language.

Dorian got Baron: The Cat Returns at his store, which makes me sad, because I swear I didn't see it at all at my comic store. But he's right, I guess the distribution is a little spotty.

Digital Manga jumps into the latest manga publishers' trend with online previews for Bambi and Her Pink Gun, Twilight of the Dark Master, IWGP, Worst, and a bunch of How-to books. Oh, and they also got some nominations in the ALA Young Adult reader awards for Only the Ring Finger Knows and Desire.

And fanservice fetishes go too damn far with a French-maid and cosplay cafes in Tokyo. As one restaurantgoer puts it: "We just came to watch the otakus, but this is too much."

Periodical

From Manganews.net, we're reminded that Tokyopop will be releasing Fruits Basket, Get Backers, Saiyuki/Saiyuki Reload and Samurai Deeper Kyo monthly from June-October to tide over the schoolkids on vacation.

TP is also premiering Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode this June, which introduces a new girl to the cast whose animal genetics are half-cat, half-rabbit. The series is popular enough that it should be quite promising, although the sheer cuteness does seem to intimidate more refined readers. >:D

Love Manga also muses over the dirty side of things with a link to more Tenjho Tenge discussion and an article on some creepy hentai guy who was stopped at the airport. On a more positive note, there are a handful of new Tokyopop licenses which include Kingdom Hearts (yes, the cheesy-ass Disney/Squaresoft video game) and the mysteriously mysterious Spiral.

Animania catches up with some new manga anthologies starting up in Japan. (It's funny how in the US, we get like ONE shoujo anthology and it's the event of the year.) Osaka Geijutsu Daigaku Daigaku Manga looks interesting as it's a compilation of old works from manga-ka who graduated out of the Osaka University of Arts, such as Rumiko Takahashi and Hideaki Anno. We've got two new boy's love magazines, and I wonder if DMP is getting any ideas yet. On the more mainstream side there's Shônen Sirius and Chu♥Girl, while alt-manga is represented by the mysterious and unlinked magazines Angel Share, Flamingo R and Platinum. (I hope Kotonoha gives some of those a try.)

Speaking of which! Look who updated today. Definitely check out Fumiko Takano's The Yellow Book - A Friend Named Jacques Thibault, winner of the Tezuka Cultural Prize, manga's highest award; Kotonoha makes its first dive into yuri with Ebine Yamaji's Love My Life; and another chapter of Smuggler is up.

So I finally sauntered over to check out the Squiddie Award pseudo-nominations, and I'm impressed that Hot Gimmick got picked for both best manga series and best ongoing comic series. However, I am rather sad that Scott Pilgrim is nowhere to be found among the best comics characters.

Chronicle

Love Manga is consistently terrific and covers all the news that I missed over the past day-and-a-bit, but here are the highlights that caught my eye.

CMX continues to be everyone's whipping boy for What's Wrong With Manga in America (and justifiably so). Even Diamond gets a chance to stick a fork in them, and hell, Diamond's usually the whipping boy for What's Wrong With Comics Distribution in America. That's pretty damn sad.

Yes, yaoi is fascinating. Even The Boston Globe thinks so.

It's awards season in the comics biz, and Tokyopop got a few nominations for releases like Fake and Tokyo Tribes.

Speaking of Tokyo Tribes, manga-ka Santa Inoue is starting a new series called Tokyo Drive, as reported by Manganews.net.

Animania has the Top 10 manga in Japan for this week, and look who's on top. Hahaha. The one that I'm pretty sure will never make Top 10 in the U.S. just because it's so badly hacked up.

In the multimedia field, Seven Seas' manga-on-PSP gimmick has garnered 12000 downloads in 5 days. Meanwhile, Viz plans to tie-in an Ultra Maniac manga preview with the first volume of the anime*, and have announced similar plans for Fullmetal Alchemist. I won't even try to put a spin on the resounding sales potential of "moe" (that's a two-syllable word, not the Stooge), because that's its own brand of creepy.

And finally, Production I.G has put up its website for the anime movie adaptations of Tsubasa and xxxHOLiC. There's not a whole lot of preview imagery available yet, but considering that this is the studio that produced the highly lauded Ghost in the Shell franchise, I expect the animation to be nothing less than stellar.

*I just realized I do have this DVD on hand. The preview ... has left me feverishly counting the days until the July release. Wataru Yoshizumi won me over back with Marmalade Boy, and it looks like she's done it again.

Top!

Animania has the list of Top 10 manga in Japan for March:

1. NANA Vol. 12
2. Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 10
3. BLEACH Vol. 16
4. Berserk Vol. 28
5. D. Gray-man Vol. 3
6. Konjiki no Gash!! (Zatch Bell) Vol. 20
7. KareKano Vol. 20
8. 20th Century Boys Vol. 18
9. School Rumble Vol. 8
10. Aishiteruze Baby Vol. 7

Numbers in bold indicate titles that have been licensed in the US, which as you can see, is pretty impressive. The industry is doing a good job of keeping up with what's popular.

Keep an eye on your local comic store, because the Shojo Beat Issue 0 preview is coming out!

And you know you want to read the next chapter of Kobato ... well, I do.