Anime Blog Online

Fantagraphics has signed a deal with Shogakukan to publish a line of manga edited by Matt Thorn. First on the list is a volume of Moto Hagio short stories, A Drunken Dream. At his own blog, Matt lists the stories he has chosen for that volume, reveals that Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son will also be in the series, and shows us the covers. Simon Jones speculates a bit as to what the new line may be like at the Icarus blog, and Christopher Butcher puts it into context and provides more details at Comics212. And ANN piles on with the news that Hagio will be a guest at this year’s Comic-Con.

Lori Henderson rounds up the past week’s manga news at Manga Xanadu. Erica Friedman presents another edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu. And Melinda Beasi looks over the March reviews in her Manhwa Monday roundup.

The Manga Moveable Feast continues with reviews and commentary on Emma from David Welsh, Khursten Santos, Rob McMonigal, and our gracious host, Matt Blind.

The Manga Curmudgeon, David Welsh, explains why he doesn’t read scanlations and adds some legitimate online initiatives he’d like to see.

Tangognat reads the March Previews and looks forward to Library Wars. Kate Dacey takes the shorter view with a look at this week’s new manga.

Akemi discusses learning about wine and Go from manga at Myth and Manga.

License requests: Lori Henderson would like to see the Square Enix title Tentai Seshi Sunred brought over here, please. David Welsh suggests some Tezuka volumes he’d like to see.

News from Japan: Kannagi creator Eri Takenashi is unable to continue the series at the moment, due to serious health problems, but her brother Shinichi Yuhki is starting up a spinoff titled Kanpachi, which will run in Monthly Comic Rex. Canned Dogs is pleased. And both Zipang creator Kaiji Kawaguchi and Suppli manga-ka Mari Okazaki are working on new series.

Reviews: The Manga Recon team checks out a varied array of manga in their latest Manga Minis column.

Kristin on 9th Sleep (Comic Attack)
Noah Berlatsky on All My Darling Daughters (The Comics Journal)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 1 of Arata the Legend (Comics Should Be Good)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of Arata: The Legend (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 30 of Bleach (Kuriousity)
Julie on Blood Honey (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Julie on vol. 5 of Bride of the Water God (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Tiamat’s Disciple on vol. 1 of Bunny Drop (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Erica Friedman on ChinMan (Okazu)
Snow Wildsmith on Croquis (Fujoshi Librarian)
Tangognat on vol. 1 of Crown of Love (Tangognat)
Jaime Samms on Desire – Dangerous Feelings (Kuriousity)
Shannon Fay on Dog x Cat (Kuriousity)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 18 of Hikaru no Go (Comics-and-More)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 8 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 17 of Love*Com (Comics Worth Reading)
Tiamat’s Disciple on A Most Suitable Wife (Tiamat’s Manga Reviews)
Julie on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (Manga Maniac Cafe)
M. on not simple (coffeeandink)
Michelle Smith on vols. 16-18 of One Piece (Soliloquy in Blue)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 35 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Michelle Smith on vol. 4 of Phantom Dream (Soliloquy in Blue)
Lissa Pattillo on vol. 1 of Stepping on Roses (Kuriousity)
Jennifer Dunbar on vols. 1 and 2 of Sugar Princess (A word is a unit of language)
Erica Freidman on vol. 5 of Tsubomi (Okazu)

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Matt Blind is hosting the latest Manga Moveable Feast, and he is taking his duties seriously. The book this time is Emma, and he has posted his thoughts on vol. 1 and vol. 2 at Rocket Bomber. posting his thoughts at his blog, Rocket Bomber. Checking in with their reviews are Garrett Albright, Johanna Draper Carlson, and Wilma Jandoc. Stay tuned!

Melinda Beasi has the scoop on Yuu Watase’s Arata: The Legend, coming soon from Viz. And David Welsh reviews it!

Gia picks up on some new manga licenses of note, including Wandering Son (Hourou Musuko), by Aoi Hana creator Takako Shimura, which was one of David Welsh’s license requests.

Your philosophical discussion of the day: Scott VonSchilling argues that women draw the best sexy manga; Gia answers that there’s a bit of sample bias going on, and then takes on the question of why women would want to draw smutty manga in the first place.

The latest volume of Negima tops this week’s New York Times manga best-seller list, which seems a bit more diverse than usual this week.

Pirates beware: Danielle Orihuela-Gruber lists ten ways you can legally read manga without breaking the bank.

The Yaoi Review gets an update on vol. 5 of Breath: It’s in the works but running late because of problems with the printer.

Is Sailor Moon poised for a comeback? ICv2 considers the possibilities for the manga and the anime.

Off topic, but interesting: I interviewed Amir, the writer of the webcomic Zahra’s Paradise, and Mark Siegel, the editorial director of First Second (which is publishing the comic) for this week’s Unbound column at Robot 6.

Reviews

Todd Douglass on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Maki)
Susan S. on vol. 7 of The Antique Gift Shop (Manga Jouhou)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 3 of Black Bird (The Comic Book Bin)
Snow Wildsmith on Black-Winged Love (Fujoshi Librarian)
Todd Douglass on Blood Honey (Anime Maki)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Cactus’s Secret (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 32 of Case Closed (Slightly Biased Manga)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 4 of Detroit Metal City (The Comic Book Bin)
Rob on vol. 1 of Dororo (Panel Patter)
Matthew J. Brady on vol. 10 of The Drifting Classroom (Warren Peace Sings the Blues)
A Library Girl on vol. 8 of Emma (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Excel Saga (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rob on vol. 4 of Flower of Life (Panel Patter)
Greg Burgas on vol. 1 of Gantz (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Hanako and the Terror of Allegory (I Reads You)
Laura on vol. 13 of High School Debut (Heart of Manga)
Connie on vols. 1-3 of Jihai (Manga Recon)
Susan S. on vol. 1 of Kiichi and the Magic Books (Manga Jouhou)
Connie on vol. 7 of Mixed Vegetables (Slightly Biased Manga)
Brenda Gregson on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho (Animanga Nation)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 5 of Otomen (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Diana Dang on vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (Stop, Drop, and Read!)
Connie on vol. 8 of Pluto (Slightly Biased Manga)
Melinda Beasi on vol. 1 of Reading Club (Manga Bookshelf)
Todd Douglass on Remember (Anime Maki)
Danielle Leigh on vols. 1 and 2 of Vampire Hunter D (Comics Should Be Good)
Connie on vol. 9 of Wild Act (Slightly Biased Manga)
Grant Goodman on The World I Create (Manga Recon)

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Deadman Wonderland, vol. 1
By Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou
Rated OT, for Older Teens
Tokyopop, $10.99

This tale of an innocent young man trapped in a prison that doubles as an amusement park isn’t exactly blazing a new literary trail, but the strands are twisted together very nicely, with clear art, good storytelling, and a bit of foreshadowing to tie it all together.

It starts with the first few pages, a hazy view of a boy and a girl playing together while a woman plays piano. The action is accompanied by a song lyric about a woodpecker who is poisoned by the gods and cannot touch his friends for fear he will poison them. Then a mysterious red man appears, armed guards storm him, and the apartment blows up. After which, Tokyo is destroyed by an earthquake.

(Spoilers after the jump)

Fast forward ten years, and say hello to Ganta Igarashi, a survivor of the Tokyo earthquake (and presumably the little boy in the opening sequence). Comfortably ensconced in junior high, Ganta is doing typical teenage things—goofing around with his friends and looking forward to the class trip—when suddenly, the mysterious red man appears in the window. Next thing you know, everyone in Ganta’s class has been reduced to slashed-up corpses. As Ganta stands up, still dazed, the red man advances on him and thrusts some sort of red jewel into his chest.

So, in the first 20 pages we have done the normal-life-shattered-by-unspeakable-violence thing twice, and we still have no clue why. But the book continues to rocket forward, and the creators drop just enough clues along the way to keep it interesting.

Ganta is quickly tried and convicted for his classmates’ murders, sentenced to death and sent to Deadman Wonderland, a prison that doubles as a theme park. This gives the creators plenty of scope for combining violence with goofy pop-culture cuteness, and they take full advantage of it, with a cartoony guide for prisoners and loudspeakers concealed inside super-cute roosters in prison stripes. The prisoners perform in deadly competitions for the entertainment of the spectators, who are told the whole thing is faked. In fact, the contests are just one of the highly creative ways that the prison administrators have of executing the prisoners’ death sentences.

Away from the public, of course, the prison is a brutal place, with a dominatrix of a guard, Makina, overseeing the prisoners and bullies imposing their will on the weak. All this is pretty much standard-issue prison-fantasy stuff. The twist comes in the form of Shira, a cheerful albino girl in a skin-tight jumpsuit who comes crashing into the story to act as Ganta’s protector and cheerleader. Shira is the ultimate manga girl—she is naïve, cheerful, unfailingly kind, and incredibly acrobatic. She absorbs much of the pain intended for Ganta, even taking a knife in the back at one point. She seems to be immune to any sort of physical harm, but it’s hard to tell whether she has some special power or it’s just dumb luck that keeps her from getting killed.

What emerges out of all this, and you can see it coming a mile away, is that there is Something Special about Ganta. On the one hand, he is determined to survive in a system that is stacked against him, and he wants to somehow prove the red man exists, in order to prove his innocence. At the same time, the whole thing is rigged: The prison administrator knows all about the red man (who is known as Original Sin and kept locked up in the same prison), and he has a special interest in Ganta, who saw the red man and lived. So Ganta is not going to be shrugged off and sliced into ribbons or tossed into an electrified tank of water like some ordinary prisoner.

Deadman Wonderland is an entertaining if somewhat gory read. The creators seem to delight in coming up with challenging and painful competitions for the prisoners, and Shira’s unexpected appearances keep the story from being too predictable. The test for this series will be whether the creators continue to bring in new ideas or allow it to become a simple series of battles, but the first volume shows a lot of promise.

This review is based on a review copy supplied by the publisher.

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Looks like Tokyopop is back in the game, according to All About Manga; they are planning a summer tour and looking for interns.

Yen Press director Kurt Hassler is the guest on the latest ANNCast podcast.

At 4thletter!, David Brothers has a fairly nuanced response to the defense of piracy posted on Anime Vice yesterday. Alex Hoffman links it back to the Nick Simmons affair at Manga Widget.

Meanwhile, Gia lays bare the horrible truth behind the manga blogger conspiracy at Anime Vice.

At Myth and Manga, part 2 of Beth Wagner’s history of manga and western comics looks at kusazōshi and chapbooks.

Lori Henderson posts this week’s all-ages comics and manga at School Library Journal.

ANN spots two possible new Digital Manga books on Amazon, Fafner and Desire Sensibility.

Lori Henderson is looking forward to the new digital manga magazines coming from Japan.

The United Arab Emirates gets their first home-grown manga.

Hiroki Otsuka, illustrator of The Boys of Summer, will be the artist-in-residence for the Japan Society in New York this spring and summer; he will draw a full-length manga during that time.

Mark your calendar: Casey Brienza will be speaking on Manga in America at Mount Holyoke College on March 23.

No-Sword translates a bit from Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, just for fun.

Reviews

Deb Aoki on vols. 1 and 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (About.com)
Todd on vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Maki)
Kate Dacey on The Apartment, How to Seduce a Vampire, and Otodama: Voice from the Dead (The Manga Critic)
Chris Zimmerman on vol. 1 of Deadman Wonderland and vol. 2 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (cbs4.com)
Leroy Douresseaux on How to Capture a Martini (The Comic Book Bin)
Sarah Boslaugh on vol. 1 of Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculturemanga (PLAYBACK:stl)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Octave (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 34 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Andre on vol. 1 of Pandora Hearts (Kuriousity)
Salimbol on vols. 1-11 of Please Save My Earth (The Chocolate Mud Wyvern Presents)
Connie on vol. 3 of Venus in Love (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on vol. 9 of We Were There (Slightly Biased Manga)
Vom Marlowe on vol. 1 of A Wise Man Sleeps (The Hooded Utilitarian)

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Five years ago today, I put up my first post on MangaBlog. I had only a hazy idea of what I was going to write about, and how I was going to do it. Everything I know today, I learned from watching and reading other bloggers and listening to my readers—oh and reading a ton of manga. So thank you everyone, for helping me figure it out, and keeping me writing all this time.

And special thanks to my husband, whose lattes fuel my writing and pretty much everything else in my life, and my two daughters, whose love of manga got me interested in the first place.

OK, on to year six!

Shaenon Garrity gets us off to a good start with her take on Nick Simmons’s “homage” to Bleach, at The Comics Journal. Simon Jones rounds up some more posts on the topic and adds his own commentary at the Icarus blog.

Jeff Trexler comments on the Christopher Handley case at Blog@Newsarama, noting that Handley’s relatively light sentence (relative to the initial recommendation, that is) may reflect a change in priorities at the Justice Department.

I’m a little late to the party with this one, but apparently Tokyopop is speeding up the release of Gakuen Alice, in part because it’s one of the top series on a certain scanlation site. At Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman argues that that’s not going to work.

Meanwhile, at Anime Vice, a guest author offers a defense of scanlations. Many, many comments follow.

Kristin sorts through the latest Previews and pulls out the good stuff at Comic Attack.

Joy Kim writes about scene stealers, second bananas who run away with the show, at her blog.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley discuss the question of keeping Japanese terms, with specific reference to their recent work on Negima.

Kris discusses why she likes Momoko Tenzen’s work, and then reviews Tenzen’s Suggestive Eyes, at Manic About Manga.

Manga Views profiles Dave Ferraro, the blogger behind Comics-and-More.

News from Japan: ANN has more details on the five manga to be based on the “virtual girlfriend” game Loveplus, plus the latest Japanese comics rankings.

Reviews: Tangognat takes a look at manga for twentysomethings at The Bureau Chiefs. Ed Sizemore posts some short reviews of Del Rey manga at Comics Worth Reading.

Lissa Pattillo on vol. 3 of 13th Boy (Kuriousity)
Michelle Smith on Adolf 2: An Exile in Japan (Soliloquy in Blue)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (I Reads You)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Anime Sentinel)
Snow Wildsmith on All My Darling Daughters (Fujoshi Librarian)
r2moo2 on Aoi House (Digital Strips)
Eric Robinson on vol. 2 of Bamboo Blade (Manga Jouhou)
Rob on vol. 2 of Basara (Panel Patter)
Connie on vol. 4 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Todd on vol. 1 of Biomega (Anime Maki)
Nicola on vol. 2 of Children of the Sea (Back to Books)
Erica Friedman on vol. 19 of Comic Yuri Hime (part 2) (Okazu)
Connie on vol. 1 of Dokkoida?! (Slightly Biased Manga)
Snow Wildsmith on vol. 1 of Itazura Na Kiss (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 16 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Life)
David Welsh on vol. 1 of My Darling! Miss Bancho and vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (The Manga Curmudgeon)
James Fleenor on vol. 1 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Anime Sentinel)
Connie on vol. 2 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (Slightly Biased Manga)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of One Fine Day (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 20 of Skip Beat! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Taimashin: The Red Spider Exorcist (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Ultimo (Graphic Novel Reporter)

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Kate Dacey, David Welsh, Brad Rice, and Gia Manry look at this week’s new manga.

After showing similarities between the work of Frank Miller and Yukito Kishoro (Battle Angel Alita), Gottsu-Iiyan talks a bit more about the double standard and why it matters.

Kai Ming Cha takes a look at Bandai’s new Code Geass manga at Publishers Weekly Comics Week.

ICv2 has the scoop on Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako, due out in October from Vertical.

Kuriousity has the latest YaoiCon news: A new venue and a newly announced guest of honor, Ayano Yamane, creator of Finder and Crimson Spell.

David Welsh has reached the letter T in the Shoujo-Sunjeong alphabet at The Manga Curmudgeon.

News from Japan: Coca-Cola is posting an Air Gear side story at their website, but only teenagers who are registered at the site can read it. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to anyone in Japan to lie about their age on the internet. Meanwhile, Kodansha lost 5.7 billion yen last year, and Brad Rice blames that partially on poor sales in the U.S.

Reviews: Carlo Santos unwraps some new manga in his latest Right Turn Only!! column.

Rob on vols. 1 and 2 of Black Jack (Panel Patter)
Eduardo Zacarias on vol. 29 of Bleach (Animanga Nation)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Cactus’s Secret (Comics Worth Reading)
Michelle Smith on vols. 11-13 of Cheeky Angel (Soliloquy in Blue)
Megan M. on vols. 4 and 5 of Higurashi When They Cry (Manga Bookshelf)
Christopher Butcher on Little Butterfly (omnibus edition) (About.com)
Julie on vol. 16 of Love*Com (Manga Maniac Cafe)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Nightschool (Manga Xanadu)
Billy Aguiar on vol. 1 of Panic x Panic (Prospero’s Manga)
Cynthia on vol. 2 of Selfish Mr. Mermaid (Boys Next Door)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Soul Eater (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danielle Leigh on vol. 2 of Soul Eater and vol. 8 of Slam Dunk (Comics Should Be Good)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee (The Comic Book Bin)

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… over at TCJ. He answers a lot of questions about what happened, why Handley was wrong to think his comics were legal, the problems with current obscenity law, and why Handley chose to plead guilty. This is a must-read for anyone who has been following the case—it clears up a lot of misconceptions. So go, read.

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