Tag Archives: 2011 manga

Manga Widget Retrospective 2011 Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

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At the beginning of the year, I posted my 2011 retrospective, hitting on a lot of the major news points of the 2011 year in manga and the publishing business, but I think that my retrospective had a large piece missing from it, that piece being the things that I really loved about 2011. As far as manga goes, there are quite a few things that were released or announced in 2011 that I have wanted for a long time, or found to be extremely wonderful. Today, instead of focusing on the “news” of 2011, let’s focus on the “renews” of manga – the things that renewed my enthusiasm and joy for comics.

 1. Drops of God is Licensed and Released in the USA by Vertical Inc.

 I have been writing about Drops of God well before its release in the USA. The series has always marveled me because of its wine economy-shifting powers and the way it champions the world of wine in an unpretentious, exuberant, and often fascinating way. Getting to read the first two volumes has been a fantastic ride, and a great reminder of why I love wine and comic books. I am looking forward to the identification of the disciples and the one wine to rule them all – but I am guessing I will be reading quite a while before I see that come to fruition.

2. Wandering Son Makes an English Debut

I have heard praise again and again for Wandering Son, a manga about two young children, a boy and a girl, who identify more with the opposite sex than they do with their own gender. This is a story of growing up, and of being different, and finding the support you need to live the way you want – volume one was one of my favorite manga in 2011, and having just purchased the second volume, I am looking forward to more of the simple slice-of-life that Wandering Son provides so well.

3. JManga Opens, and Actually Has Manga

I know I give JManga a lot of flak. I am a fairly demanding person when it comes to spending money on digital comics, and I don’t think that JManga is at a point right now where the service and selection are at a peak for their platform. They have been publishing 0-2 books per week now for the past few months, and while this is a fine pace, there are plenty of titles on the service that only have their first volume available to purchase.

Still, JManga represents a powerful tool to allow readers to legally purchase translated manga from Japan. If JManga continues to expand, manga that is “essential Japan” or too niche to be picked by a big publisher in the USA will become more and more a part of the offerings of the service. There have been a few great series that JManga has published that do this, and for that reason, I have to commend the folks at JManga for creating and improving their digital service in 2011. I am looking forward to more improvements in 2012.

4. Interacting With the Manga Community

One of the things I tried to focus on more in 2011 was interacting with other bloggers and writers who were talking about manga. I tend to be an internet lurker at heart – I love to sit and read other people’s comments, but I rarely talk about my own thoughts or opinions. That’s something I have slowly tried to change, and I commented more on blogs, spoke more on Twitter, and had the privilege of speaking on the Manga Out Loud Podcast twice in 2011, which was a great way to get to know more of my fellow bloggers. (Thanks to Ed and Johanna for the invitations!)

5. Hosting the Natsume Ono Manga Moveable Feast

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about the Natsume Ono MMF a few months before November of 2011. Having never hosted before, I wasn’t sure of what the requirements would be, and how I would be able to do a good job. Following in the footsteps of some very talented bloggers, I managed to write and host the MMF, and I think that the whole thing was a great success. I feel great about the content we generated in that month, and I am looking forward to the next time I host an MMF.

6. Reading A Bride’s Story for the First Time

I have read quite a few comics since I really started getting into them about 8 years ago – but nothing, not a single book, has swept me into its world like A Bride’s Story. This manga is absolutely fantastic, and I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone, ANYONE, who likes a good story. It is wonderful. The third volume comes out this year, and I am already impatient for it.

I hope that everyone has had a great start to their new year. Hopefully this is a year of great manga (and a year to possibly get to a convention for me!).

Where All The Good Books At? My My Appraisal of Kodansha’s Release Slate

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When Kodansha first announced their slate of series that would be released this summer, I was excited. Here was a new company taking over from Del Rey, and since the manga was coming straight from the publisher, it would be easier to get more obscure titles, more josei and seinen, and other manga oddities into print. I was excited to see some of the work from Morning and Afternoon, and I was hopeful that Kodansha would exceed my expectations of Del Rey acting in their stead.

They released their announcements list in mid-December, and since then I’ve been doing a fair bit of investigation into Kodansha‘s announced title list. There are a few titles that were getting reprinting (which I will get to in a minute), but there were a slew of new titles that I had never heard of. Let’s take a second to review what we know (and my first impressions).

Cage of Eden and Bloody Monday, (two series I’ve already done workups on) look to be some of the stereotypical manga that Del Rey is/was known for; overly complicated shonen titles with plenty of fan service (see Negima!, in comparison). Both Bloody Monday and Cage of Eden promise something other than the shonen stories that dominate Viz‘s Shonen Jump lineup, but that does not necessarily make them good reading.

Little information is available about two of Kodansha‘s other series, Deltora Quest and Mardock Scramble. Deltora Quest is a completed ten volume shonen fantasy about an Evil Shadow Lord, Seven Magic Seals, and the giant battle between GOOD AND EVIL, which honestly just sounds like a bad The Dark Is Rising. Mardock Scramble is a bit of an enigma, since its promise of cyberpunk noir seems at least a bit more interesting than a bad redo of a Susan Cooper novel, but information is scant. We do know that Viz‘s Haikasoru imprint printed the novel this manga is based on. However, my experience with adaptations of previous series seems to indicate that this will probably not be all that great.

Other titles are similarly uninteresting. Animal Land by Mokoto Raiku, the author of Zatch Bell, looks pretty poor. I wasn’t a fan of Zatch Bell, and I doubt that this series will get much traction in the shonen community. Another Pheonix Wright, Ace Attorney manga is also going to print. Weeeeeee.

Monster Hunter Orage is probably the most interesting of the series announced, but only because it is written by Hiro Mashima, the author of Fairy Tail.

Until the Full Moon, which is a boy/boy romance about a half vampire/half werewolf is getting a reprint. It was originally printed by Broccoli Books back in 2005, with excellent production values and a high price tag. I’m not sure what this reprint is supposed to represent, but it is one of the only shojo series that Kodansha announced in December. I am sure that some look at Broccoli‘s releases with fondness, but that was quite some time ago. Many new manga readers have never even heard of Broccoli Books. While I am happy to see Kodansha bring back this title, which is both bizarre and interesting, I don’t know how well its old-school art will be handled by a new audience.

Likewise, it is good to see Gon getting reprinted, but this will be the third time the series has been printed, and there’s only so much Gon a guy can take.

If you couldn’t tell already, I am not that impressed with Kodansha‘s announced releases. They all seem like fine titles for a certain crowd, and I’m sure that they will sell copies. I just don’t see a whole lot of value in them.

I haven’t read any of these announced series, and so I can’t doom them to mediocrity immediately. It is not as if these series are all going to be bad, but all of them are very… predictable. In a shrinking market where all series need to pay for their costs, printing “safe” series makes for an adequate return on investment, and I suppose that’s what the business of comics is all about. Unlike Viz, which has Pokemon, Naruto, and Bleach to give them some extra funds with which to print more experimental titles, Kodansha does not have that built up business. Theoretically, they don’t have as much financial room to work with. Realistically, Kodansha can publish whatever it pleases, but we are discussing business here, and Kodansha is not necessarily in the “make Alex happy” business.

Kodansha has time to develop its properties and generate some sales this summer. I think it’s probably a bit hasty to ask them for miracles as soon as they come out of the gates – at the same time, if Kodansha is going to just print the same old Del Rey manga, there’s no reason to get excited about them printing titles like Drops of God or Saint Young Men.

Note: Thankfully, we have publishers like Vertical Inc. to publish Drops of God! Check out my reaction here!

Still, comics like Saint Young Men are the reason why I was excited that Kodansha was starting its own imprint in the USA to begin with. I suppose my expectations are a bit too high. I wanted more complex, adult series to be released here in the States, and I am a bit disappointed that we don’t have any evidence of that yet from Kodansha.

My Reaction to the Princess Knight, Kami no Shizuku Licenses

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Last night, during the Anime News Network’s podcast, Ed Chavez announced that Vertical Inc. had acquired the licenses to translate and publish two manga that have been on many fans’ license request lists. The two series announced last night were:

Princess Knight, by Osamu Tezuka

Princess Knight is probably the manga that was the genesis for what we now know as shojo manga, and was printed three different collections in Japan. The series is three volumes long, which seems fairly standard for Vertical‘s boutique size and schedule. Amazon already has a preorder page up for the first volume, which says it will be released in October of 2011.

and;

Kami no Shizuku (The Drops of God), by Yuko and Shin Kibayashi (under the pseudonym of Tadashi Agi).

Kami no Shizuku merges my two favorite hobbies, wine making and manga, so I have been anxious to read and own this manga since I learned about it three years ago. Because of its subject matter (wine in general, but more importantly, its wine suggestions and evaluations) Kami no Shizuku has been used to increase sales of wine in Japan and has already been published in France. Vertical will release the 25+ volume series in two-volume ominbuses which will retail for around $14.95 apiece, a good value for manga. This publishing structure is similar to that of other omnibus style published series like Cross Game.

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I have become more impressed with boutique publishing in recent months; big publications companies, like Viz Media and Kodansha are linked to a specific parent company and have to serve a higher power concerned with margins and turnover. While this is important for any publisher, small boutique publishing has more creative liberty to develop and publish unique, sometimes niche content. Vertical Inc. has shown that it is willing to take a chance on Drops of God, and that is something I never really expected one of the larger publishers to release. Because of their unique stance on publishing, they have released manga that other publishers probably wouldn’t touch, which is overall a positive thing for readers and fans.

Last night, when the license announcements were made, I literally jumped for joy. I have been waiting and requesting these series from publishers since the earliest parts of my blogging experience.  Vertical Inc. is a company that knows its products, and is very intent on creating books that have a good niche appeal. Taking what I thought would always just be a pipe dream of a manga and turning it into an actual English title has me extremely impressed, and ultimately, extremely appreciative to Vertical for taking the time to listen to readers. Their dedication to their product and fans will hopefully be rightfully rewarded.