Posted 1/31/13 10:28 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
It's a sparse week for new releases, but this week's list makes up in quality for what it lacks in quantity: Fresh volumes of "Sailor Moon," "Fairy Tail," and "Limit," as well as a new issue of Shonen Jump with an Akira Toriyama one-shot. Dive right in!
Posted 1/25/13 11:00 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
Last week was slow, but this week brings us the first novel by "Vampire Hunter" D illustrator Yoshitaka Amano as well as new volumes in some favorite series: "Black Butler," "A Bride's Story," "Flowers of Evil," and "Genshiken."
Posted 1/22/13 5:33 pm EST by alversob in Digital Comics, Manga
Yesterday was a big day for the folks at Viz: Their weekly digital magazine, Shonen Jump Alpha, changed its name to Weekly Shonen Jump, the same as its Japanese counterpart, and started running manga chapters the same day they come out in Japan. We talked to Andy Nakatani, the editor in chief of the American Weekly Shonen Jump, about making that transition and the changes that started this week.
Posted 1/17/13 10:45 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
Shonen Jump Alpha celebrates its first birthday with next week's issue, and they are changing things up a bit, starting with the name: Alpha no more (and certainly not beta), they are changing their name to Weekly Shonen Jump, the same as their Japanese counterpart. And the even bigger change is that new chapters of SJ series will appear in both magazines on the same day.
And there are some changes in the lineup: "Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan" comes to a glorious end in this week's issue of with the final battle between our hero Rikuo Nura's Night Parade of a Hundred Demons and his rival Nue and the Gokadoin clan, all in full color. The fate of the world is in the balance—if Rikuo can't pull it out, it's going to be all yokai, all the time around here. Read More...
Posted 1/14/13 11:27 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
If you're a fan of sophisticated seinen manga, the series you like probably came from IKKI Magazine: "House of Five Leaves," "Children of the Sea," "Afterschool Charisma," "Dorohedoro," and "Bokurano: Ours" are all IKKI series, and all were published in North America by Viz.
Now IKKI is cutting out the middleman with a webcomics site that is publishing comics in Japanese and, in at least one case, in English as well: "Pandemonium -Wizard Village-" by Sho Shibamoto, which updates on the second Friday of every month, is presented in both Japanese and English.
Posted 1/9/13 9:50 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
Back at the turn of the century, Tokyopop was in the vanguard of the manga revolution, with Mixx Magazine, "Sailor Moon," and later, "Fruits
Basket." At one point, they were the second largest manga publisher in the U.S., next to Viz. And then things slowly turned sour. "Fruits Basket" came to an end, Kodansha pulled their licenses from Tokyopop altogether, their Original English Language (OEL) manga initiative didn't sell a lot of books (although it launched or boosted a lot of careers) and finally, in April 2011, they announced they wouldn't be publishing manga any more.
That wasn't quite the end, though. Tokyopop still continued to exist as a company, and last year they announced that they were getting back into the book biz, in a limited way, publishing "Hetalia" and their OEL manga "Bizenghast" and "Psy-Comm" as print-on-demand books in partnership with the anime retailer RightStuf. They also launched a Tokyopop newsletter, which focused more on food and fashion and other "otaku lifestyle" topics than manga, via Nerdist. Read More...
Posted 1/8/13 10:23 am EST by alversob in Manga
After last week's bumper crop of great manga, things are a bit quieter this week. Actually, there are some interesting volume 2s popping up, so this might be a good week to pick up some volume 1s to go with them.
Posted 1/4/13 10:52 am EST by alversob in Manga
This is usually a slow news time, but the past few weeks have brought a flurry of manga news stories, including the death of "Barefoot Gen" creator Keiji Nakazawa, a change in the Yaoi-Con schedule, and word of a disturbing series of threats against the creator of "Kuroko's Basketball" in Japan. Read on!
Posted 1/2/13 10:19 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
We're starting the New Year off with a bang, with a stack of new and classic manga for every taste: Fantagraphics' deluxe edition of Moto Hagio's "Heart of Thomas," the second volume of Osamu Tezuka's "Message to Adolf," the first volume of Naoki Urasawa's "21st Century Boys" (the followup to his award-winning "20th Century Boys"), and a stack of solid shoujo and shonen titles. Let's read!
SPONSORED POST | Posted 12/31/12 2:00 pm EST by Eddie Wright in Best Of, Comic Books, Manga, Movies
There's the good, the great, and then there's the BEST. Welcome to MTV Geek's Best of 2012 -- what we thought were the cream of the crop this year in the world of GEEK!
Here's your handy guide to all of our "Best of" lists for 2012 - from Manga to TV to Comics to Cult flicks. Click the images to see each of our countdowns and let us know if you agree or disagree with our picks!
SPONSORED POST | Posted 12/28/12 1:00 pm EST by Brigid Alverson in Best Of, Manga
There's the good, the great, and then there's the BEST. Welcome to MTV Geek's Best of 2012 -- what we thought were the cream of the crop this year in the world of GEEK!
10. ALICE IN THE COUNTRY OF HEARTS by Quinrose and Soumei Hoshino - This quirky manga goes far beyond its roots in a dating-sim game. Quinrose takes the world of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" as a starting point and fills it with engaging characters, some guileless, some menacing. This was hugely popular when Tokyopop published it a few years back, and Yen Press has picked it up in beautifully designed omnibus volumes that really do the story justice.
Posted 12/19/12 5:06 pm EST by Charles Webb in Manga, Reviews
If we'd had a category for best re-release or collection among our Best of 2012 lists, Tezkua's WWII-era thriller "Message to Adolf" would likely be at the top. Not only is this first installment of the cross-crossing stories of two boys living in Japan named Adolf and a determined reporter out to avenge his brother's death an excellent read, but yet again, Vertical has reproduced one of the master manga-ka's work in a handsomely bound hardcover.
The story, which starts in 1936 and follows Japan and German's path to war, with Tezuka setting his murder mystery against the backdrop of the rise of his country's nationalistic fervor in time with the rumbling's of German's war machine and persecution of the Jewish people. Like his "Ayako," it's a story of murder and obsession as well as a cultural critique, although a broader look at its given period than the latter work.
Posted 12/19/12 11:06 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
Things are quiet in the manga world this week... too quiet. With the year almost over, and the holidays almost upon us, pickings are slim at the comics shop. But we do have a few new releases to tide us over till the January deluge.
This week's top choice is vol. 2 of "Paradise Kiss," Ai Yazawa's stylish story of a goody-goody high school student who has been faithfully following the path set out for her by her elders—until she falls in with a group of fashion students and gets a whole new outlook on life, helped along not only by her new friends' artistic endeavors but also by the romantic attentions of their leader, George. This is a fairly basic love story, but the fashion-school setting really gives it a boost, and the book is worth a look for Yazawa's art alone. (If it sounds familiar, this series was originally published in the U.S. by Tokyopop as a five-volume series; the current publisher, Vertical, has a new translation and is releasing it in three large-format volumes.)
Posted 12/14/12 10:42 am EST by alversob in Manga
Things are beginning to slow down a bit as the holidays approach, but Viz has just launched a holiday sale, Seven Seas is adding more Alice manga to its lineup, and Mitsukazu Mihara is back at work on her episodic series "The Embalmer."
Viz Redesigns Website, Cuts Prices for the Holidays
Viz Media quietly redesigned its website over the weekend, going from a fairly busy site that put a list of new print releases front and center to a quieter design that puts almost equal emphasis on print and digital manga and anime.
Meanwhile, Viz is offering 20% off every volume in its digital manga service, both the website and the iOS and Android apps, which means that most volumes have been marked down to $3.99. The sale will run through January 8.
And the digital magazine "Shonen Jump Alpha" will run a new, two-chapter "Hunter x Hunter" flashback story, which debuted in the Japanese "Shonen Jump" last week. Read More...
Posted 12/13/12 10:30 am EST by Brigid Alverson in Manga
It's a big week for Yen and Seven Seas but a quiet week for everyone else. Viz has the final volume of "Kekkaishi," Yen Press has a collection of short pieces by "Emma" creator Kaoru Mori, and Seven Seas launches a new series about high schoolers with gender issues.
Kaoru Mori has built up quite a fandom among English-speaking readers for two series: "Emma," the story of a Victorian maid in love with a wealthy man, and "A Bride's Story," which is set in Asia Minor in the 19th century. Mori composes her pages carefully and uses quiet moments to give her characters real depth, and in both series she indulges her love of period detail. This week, Yen Press has a treat for Mori fans: "Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something." This stand-alone book collects short stories and character sketches in a variety of genres, some of which may be new to English-language readers. It's a perfect sampler for anyone who loves good art.