Slam Dunk Volume 1

Let’s see if this brings some new readers to manga! The Sports Illustrated pop culture blog Extra Mustard is reprinting an article by Ben Sin about how the manga Slam Dunk caused Asia to love basketball. It’s a nice overview, with sample art, of the appeal of the series.

Deadline reported that Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy director) is developing a series with HBO based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga. He will co-write with Steven Thompson (Doctor Who, Sherlock), and del Toro will direct the pilot.

The series, about a doctor who destroys his career saving the life of a boy who turns out to be a psychopathic killer, is well-suited to HBO, since it’s got artistic cred yet the possibility for violent content that couldn’t make it on network. The project was previously planned to be a feature film, in development at New Line since 2005, but the content — including the doctor’s attempts to find and stop the boy — was too much for a movie.

There was an anime adaptation, although only part of it is available on DVD.

Tiger & Bunny Volume 1

Somehow I wound up with three copies of Tiger & Bunny Volume 1, courtesy of Viz Media. So I’m hosting a contest!

Tiger & Bunny is based on the anime series, featuring a Japanese take on superheroes and reality television shows. Wild Tiger is an existing hero who’s no longer drawing as much audience attention, so he’s paired up with Bunny — Barnaby Brooks Jr. — who has a younger, fresher take on how to do things.

There’s a lot of action in this series, but not much content otherwise. We learn almost nothing about the heroes beyond their powers, and the idea of a team run by a company for commercial instead of heroic purposes has been around for decades in American superhero comics. However, those curious about how one nation’s favorite genre plays in another culture might be curious.

To win one of the copies, please leave a comment below telling me which manga and superhero comics you’d mash together, and what the result would be. A winner will be picked randomly from all entries on Wednesday, May 1. (U.S. addresses only, please. Winners will be emailed to confirm address. If email is not answered within 24 hours or a valid email address is not provided, a replacement winner will be selected. Your email won’t be used for any other purpose.)

They’ve teamed up with SOL REPUBLIC to release two different editions of Tracks HD on-ear headphones, retailing for $150 each.

TKDK (left) and tokidoki SOL REPUBLIC headphones

I was given a pair to try out — I got the TKDK edition — and I was impressed. I don’t have a lot of experience with the padded-cup over-ear headphone style, but I’d been wanting to try some. These work great at providing sound without leakage to others as well as blocking out extraneous external noise. (For that reason, they’re a good choice to focus at the office.) I was worried about the hard plastic headband, but it’s padded where it goes across the top of your head, and it hasn’t been uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I can’t wear these for long, since the cups press the plastic stems of my glasses against my head, and that gets sore quickly. I think that would be a side effect of any on-ear headphones for me, though.

Here’s the box they came in, covered in tokidoki images, inside and out:

Some of the unique features of SOL REPUBLIC headphones include interchangeable headbands — yet once you slide the ear cups on, the piece seems solid — detachable connection cables, and a headband that is flexible yet they claim is “virtually indestructible”. Here’s everything that came in the package: the headband, headphone cups, cable (with standard headphone jack), a promo brochure, card, and sticker, a carrying bag, and a cute little figure charm.

Thanks to the nice folks at SOL REPUBLIC, I have another pair to give away. To enter to win this contest, please leave a comment below telling me where you most use your headphones. A winner will be picked randomly from all entries on Tuesday, March 26.

(U.S. addresses only, please. Winners will be emailed to confirm address. If email is not answered within 24 hours or a valid email address is not provided, a replacement winner will be selected. Your email won’t be used for any other purpose.)

Points are no longer available for purchase. “Purchases” with existing point balances can be made through Tuesday, March 26, but since all viewing is online, you will only be able to read the titles before May 30, at which point it all shuts down. An apology was included in the message:

We deeply regret having to terminate our manga retail service in this manner and offer our sincerest apologies to the users, partners, and friends who supported us. As a small token of our appreciation we will be refunding each user’s unused points

If you have a balance of paid-for points, the service will be sending out Amazon gift cards from March 21-25 to reimburse you, rounded up to the nearest dollar. So it appears that you can use the points for additional reading and still get paid back for them, which is a bit of a consolation prize. JManga will also be erasing their social web presences on Twitter and Facebook.

I have no information on how widespread the usage of the service was, but it had its fans for allowing readers to sample series that would otherwise not be legally available. The operators were also very responsive to comments and complaints, dropping prices just two months after opening and making some significant changes after a year of operation.

Unfortunately, this was the second time fans of cancelled Del Rey series have been disappointed. First, Kodansha Comics announced they wouldn’t be rescuing any more titles, although some were available on JManga. Now, that venue is gone as well.

Fan reaction varied. On Twitter, Sean Gaffney summed up one attitude, pointing out problems with sites that depend on cloud access

“So what about the hundreds of dollars worth of manga I bought?”"We’re taking it away and you aren’t getting it ever.”

— Sean Gaffney (@Toukochan) March 14, 2013

while Ed Sizemore was more philosophical about enjoying the work in the moment

I have no regrets with my JManga membership. I paid for chance to read books. Most of what I read was fun, but not something I want to keep.

— Edward Sizemore (@edsizemore) March 14, 2013

Lissa Pattillo has a harsher response. Like many observers, she points out how the lack of ability to download titles (JManga users had to read online while connected to their site) and the lack of support for popular devices (such as tablets) were negative factors. She goes on

JManga was, simply put, offering scanlations to readers with the expectation of being paid for it…. Having read a few of their samplers, the quality of JManga’s work was also not near that which you see on Viz Media or Yen Press‘s websites. While one could argue JManga had fewer resources and experience, it still means nothing in a business where their main rivals are scanlaters pumping out the same quality but faster, cheaper and in heaping more quantities.

She suggests that JManga might have gone better if they were more like Netflix, charging a flat subscription fee for an “all you can read” approach instead of charging per title.

This is yet another example of how services that are selling digital comics are actually just rental sites. If you’re ok with the prices they’re charging for the chance to read for as long as they’re around, that’s fine, so long as you know that going in.

Also, I wonder if the fact that it’s been a year and a half as of February since the service debuted had something to do with this decision. I’m not sure how long the Japanese publishers behind JManga were willing to give this experiment, nor what expectations they had for income or profit, but the round number time period makes me think someone decided to dedicate resources elsewhere. Especially since the Japanese fiscal year tends to end in March, so companies are planning ahead and restarting their budgets.

Bakuman Book 10

Viz has announced a complete box set of Bakuman available October 1 (in time for holiday gift giving). All 20 volumes will be included, plus a two-sided color poster and a bonus minicomic of “Otter No. 11″, a series created by one of the characters in the series. List price is $159.99. For comparison, the Death Note box set is available at Amazon for over 40% off. A similar discount, if offered, would bring the Bakuman set down under $100.

Book 18 of the series comes out this week, with the final Volume 20 scheduled for August 6.

I’ve really enjoyed the series for its insight into the manga industry (which can be very similar and very different from the American comic business, depending on which piece of it you’re examining). The one caveat is that the treatment of women is mostly atrocious. They’re either invisible, prizes for the guys, or one-dimensional stereotypes. My most recent two reviews of the series cover Books 14-16 and Book 17.

Manga publisher Kodansha Comics has announced an ongoing contest. Each of their five new titles now has a “talkback thread” on their website. After thirty or sixty days (varying by title), one commenter on each thread will be selected randomly to get a free copy of the next book in the series. So if you talk about, say, Sailor Moon 9, you could possibly win a copy of Sailor Moon 10.

Chances to win are still good, since the threads only have (at the time of this writing) from zero to four comments. Based on the thread starters, they’re not going to be shy about spoilers; this seems to be aimed at existing readers and customers, who are asked to “chat about the events of this volume”. Yet they’re also told “No spoilers for those who have read ahead in the Japanese editions, please!” It’s gotta be tough to manage or build a manga fan community and walk that tightrope.

Vinland Saga Book 1

In October, Kodansha Comics will be publishing the first book of Vinland Saga, the story of Vikings in medieval England in the 1000s. This historical manga, already up to 12 volumes in Japan, is by Makoto Yukimura, author of the much-missed Planetes. I’m not a huge Viking fan, but I was very impressed by how interesting he made outer space garbage collecting in Planetes, so I’m definitely interested in giving it a try.

This will be Kodansha’s first hardcover, made necessary by their doubling of volumes (so two Japanese books in one U.S. one, putting it over 450 pages). Plus, Kodansha is including extras:

• Exclusive Q&A with Yukimura created specifically for the U.S. edition.
• Viking cosplay photos from the artist!
• Serializing the unreleased Yukimura story “For Our Farewell Is Near” (“Sayonara ga chikai no de”)

Chromatic Press has been launched by Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, former Tokyopop editor; Lianne Sentar, manga editor and novel writer; Rebecca Scoble, also a freelance manga editor and consultant; and Jill Astley, video game fan.

The publisher will release digital versions of Off*Beat 1 and 2 in May, with print versions to follow in June. They are also launching a digital magazine called Sparkler Monthly that will debut in May with a zero issue; Off*Beat volume 3 will be serialized beginning in the magazine’s first issue in June.

Based on this interview with the editors, the publisher is specifically aiming at girls and women aged 15-30. In addition to manga, they’ll be publishing light novels and audio dramas — basically, anything they think they can tap into or build a fandom around.

Pricing is planned to be $6 for ebooks; $12 for print; and $5 a month to access the digital magazine. This will likely be the only Tokyopop OEL rescue, since they’re more interested in new material. It’s great to see that the company supports creator ownership, too.

It’s nice to see them spacing out the series launches, too, so it’s not much of an economic hit to sample them. I’m most interested in the first two, what with the workplace setting, although it’ll be interesting to see how Midnight Secretary deals with the vampire elements. That’s so overplayed these days that it could be inadvertently quite funny.

I’m also curious about how Voice Over!: Seiyuu Academy will show the voice acting profession. It looks relatively girly, so the focus might be on the romance instead. Sweet Rein, on the other hand, looks hilarious just for showing how Japan has adopted and changed Christmas holiday mythology. She’s a Santa Claus? Like it’s a job description?

Here’s the information they provided on four shojo titles coming out in late summer and fall. All are priced at $9.99 US.

Happy Marriage?!
M rating, due August 6

In order to help her father, Chiwa Takanashi agrees to an arranged marriage with the company president Hokuto Mamiya — a man she doesn’t know — at the request of Hokuto’s grandfather. Chiwa believes the arrangement isn’t binding, but her new partner seems to think otherwise. Can two strangers living together find their way to a happy marriage?!

Midnight Secretary
M rating, due September 3

Kaya Satozuka is a brilliant secretary who excels at her job, which is why she doesn’t bat an eye when she’s assigned to be personal secretary to Kyohei Touma, the very difficult managing director of Touma Foods. It doesn’t faze her when her new boss seems determined to make her fail, and she even manages to take it in stride when she discovers the secret behind his prickly behavior… he’s a vampire! But while Kaya easily adapts to late nights and keeping a schedule of his “dinner dates,” will her ultra-competence help when Kyohei’s smoldering gaze starts turning her way?!

Voice Over!: Seiyuu Academy
T rating, due October 1

Hime Kino’s dream is to one day perform voice acting like her hero, Sakura Aoyama, from the Lovely Blazer anime. So getting accepted to the prestigious Hiragi Academy’s voice actor department is the first step in the right direction! But on her first day of class she meets Sakura’s grouchy son, Senri, who tells Hime that her voice is awful and Lovely Blazers is stupid. Hime will not let that stand unchallenged. She’ll show everyone that she IS a voice-acting princess, whether they like it or not!!

Sweet Rein
T+ rating, due November 5

Sad at the thought of spending Christmas alone, Kurumi goes out for a walk. While she’s crossing the street, a boy bumps into her and a rein suddenly appears that binds them together. The overjoyed boy tells her she’s his master, and that she’s a Santa Claus. Kurumi dismisses him as a crazy person, but then he transforms into a reindeer?!

Kingyo Used Books Book 1

According to this series review by Shaenon K. Garrity, the meta-manga series Kingyo Used Books has been cancelled. Four books came out in English, with the last appearing in 2011. Garrity says,

Viz published Kingyo as part of its SigIkki line, but was forced to cancel it after four volumes. It just became too difficult to acquire U.S. reproduction permissions for every manga featured in Kingyo (which hail from a variety of publishers; Kingyo definitelyisn’t just shilling for its own publisher, Shogakukan, and in one volume Yoshizaki even apologizes for the conflict of interest in plugging a Shogakukan magazine), after the Japanese publishers had already gone around laboriously acquiring the Japanese permissions several years before. Ultimately, Shogakukan gave up and halted the English translation.

It’s probably just as well. I enjoyed the first book, with its stories about people who loved manga and how the right book changed their lives, but by the fourth, two problems had become apparent. 1) It’s hard reading about how cool manga series are when you can’t read those series yourself and 2) The bits with the continuing characters were getting too confusing for not appearing very often. So I guess I’m not surprised to hear that the legalities killed the series, especially since it wasn’t terribly successful as far as I know, but it’s good to have it confirmed.

Digital Manga has posted a preview of Osamu Tezuka’s Unico, a book they funded via Kickstarter. It’s a kids’ book, to be published as a full-color, 400-page omnibus.

I can’t tell you when, exactly, it will be available, because while the website says the release date is 02/06/2013, the newsletter that announced the preview says “March”. However, since the newsletter is also promoting this classic all-ages manga at the top while showing a bare-butt upskirt shot at the bottom (as part of the “ecchi” section), it’s not the most consistent source.

Anyway, the preview is cute if old-fashioned, and who doesn’t want to see some Tezuka art for free?

I admit, I’m not sure I understand what this means, or how significant it is, although I can’t help viewing it in light of the news at the end of last year that Digital Manga was putting all its print titles on hiatus. Then again, if they’re not releasing print books, then they don’t really need a distribution arm, do they? Here’s the announcement:

On January 17th, 2013, Digital Manga, Inc. announced the closure of its wholesale division, Digital Manga Direct. Retailers who wish to make a final purchase through Digital Manga Direct are advised to do so by February 28th. Orders are first come, first serve, and subject to availability. For further questions or ordering information, visit http://www.dmd-sales.com… Digital Manga, Inc. will continue to sell books wholesale via Diamond Distribution and retail via their Akadot Retail and Project-H digital storefronts.

If they’re keeping their websites and using Diamond to send out existing books, then yeah, it seems that this is just streamlining.

Flowers & Bees Book 1

It’s that time again! This week, Experiments in Manga is hosting a Manga Moveable Feast dedicated to the works of Moyoco Anno. The author has had a number of series translated into English, each from a different publisher, including the newest, Sakuran: Blossoms Wild (Vertical), an historical manga about a courtesan; the josei series Happy Mania (Tokyopop); the parody Flowers & Bees (Viz), about making boys more attractive; and the kids’ magical girl story Sugar Sugar Rune (Del Rey).

You can participate in the MMF by posting about the author or any of her works by Saturday, January 26. I’m not sure what I can add, since I don’t have any of her manga I haven’t read — should I finally try Flowers & Bees?

The sales links caused some confusion, since they list an awful lot of Tokyopop’s OEL titles, plus Hetalia, the one license Stu Levy managed to keep. (Some random thoughts on the entire list: I had no idea Tokyopop put out so much non-manga manga, including many titles I’d never heard of. Plus, they’re putting them up with list prices attached, but RightStuf is selling them at less. Sometimes, much less.)

The Tokyopop Twitter account had to clarify last week,

It has come to my attention (thanks to @kuriousity) that some creators think we are publishing their books as POD without their consent.

— TOKYOPOP Manga (@TOKYOPOPManga) January 16, 2013

I would like to take the chance to explain that this is not true. We only have three titles up for POD: Hetalia, Bizenghast and PsyComm.

— TOKYOPOP Manga (@TOKYOPOPManga) January 16, 2013

I hope that puts some of your minds at rest. We won’t do your books POD without your full consent first. Feel free to ask me questions. :)

— TOKYOPOP Manga (@TOKYOPOPManga) January 16, 2013

Smiley face aside, Tokyopop’s promises in relation to the rights of the OEL creators in the past have been sketchy, so some might understand why creators would jump to negative conclusions. Six months ago, as discussed in that link, the publisher was saying that he’d negotiate for the return of OEL property rights, only to have some creators say when they asked, the answer was a flat “no”.

C. Lijewski, author of Re:Play, posted a plea on DeviantArt for her readers not to buy the books from Tokyopop. (She’s “lucyseven” on Twitter.)

Please don’t buy them. Buying them won’t help me at all, I won’t see a dime from them and any sales will just make my property seem like it has some money in it which will make it ever harder to ever get my property back.

That led to another Twitter exchange from the publisher’s official voice:

@lucyseven @debaoki The website is just promoting the sale of your books on RightStuf, which still has them in stock.

— Daniella O.G. (@allaboutmanga) January 16, 2013

In response to which the artist pointed out that she was still owed recompense from Tokyopop that they didn’t provide:

@allaboutmanga @debaoki really! Wow they owe me comp copies of three but said there were no print copies left, that’s kinda worse!

— MeowMixxx (@LucySeven) January 17, 2013

@spacedrakecf @debaoki the sell thru required for royalties was so high Ill probably never see any money #liveandlearn

— MeowMixxx (@LucySeven) January 7, 2013

However, another creator apparently did successfully reclaim her rights. Jen Lee Quick, author of Off*Beat, has announced plans to reprint books 1 and 2 and eventually publish the never-seen book 3, as she discussed in November 2011.

For more on Tokyopop’s future as a “virtual company”, read this panel liveblog by Mike Huang. Depending on your view of the company, the news that Japanese manga publishers are “reluctant” to license rights to a company using print-on-demand may be seen as a good or bad thing. Hetalia books 4 and 5 are still under negotiation. Tokyopop is looking into Kickstarter and potential TV/movie adaptations of OEL manga, since they still own the rights to those.

However, the Kodansha Comics Twitter account has some bad news for fans hoping to see other series return:

@starlightk7 Sorry, barring some special circumstance we’re not rescuing any more Del Rey Manga titles.

— Kodansha Comics (@KodanshaUSA) January 16, 2013

Sorry, fans, it’s been cherry-picked, and they’re moving forward. However, as is pointed out in response, some of the series previously published by Del Rey Manga are now appearing on JManga.com, including School Rumble, if you don’t mind reading digitally.

Our online reader is still available and better than ever, but now you can download our content in a variety of popular digital formats compatible with your e-reading device of choice. That’s right! Buy it. Download it. Keep it forever and read it however you choose. eManga has evolved and we are not stopping here. To ensure the best customer experience possible, eManga will continue to evolve beyond this new initial stage. Our future is bright, but our present is even shinier. Enjoy the new eManga and all it has to offer!

I have to quibble with the online reader bit, because I had an account for accessing review copies, and all of those previous library entries in my account have disappeared. Perhaps they just mean that the functionality is there.

eManga is run by Digital Manga Inc. to provide digital editions of “DMI’s various imprints (including Juné, 801 Media, DMG [Digital Manga Guild], DMP, DokiDoki)”. They’re now providing downloadable ebooks in seven different file formats suitable for all popular devices, including Kindle, Nook, iPad, Sony Reader, Kobo, Android, and more I’ve never heard of. Your download purchase only lets you pick one, though — you pay “a small additional cost” (right now, a dollar) for different file types. You can pretest by downloading their free sampler.

Their promotional language, such as saying how, “eManga allows you to effectively own your purchase. You download it. You keep it.” plays well into attitudes that resent paying high prices for what’s really a rental, but note the “effectively” language. You can’t share or resell your “owned” purchase, so it’s not really ownership, as they clarify in their FAQ. Also, some titles are not available to download.

Running their own store allows DMI to provide all their titles, including those that have run into restrictions on other sites. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems that their fastest growing-lines are their yaoi and hentai (explicit and/or porn) manga. It occurs to me that being able to download such material and read it without an internet connection may be helpful if one is in an environment that monitors network traffic. They’ve also added a new section, “Gradol Club Photo Collection”, which provides swimsuit pictures of young Japanese women in, as they have it, “tasteful but provocative poses”.

eManga will have the books first — a month before other storefronts — and more cheaply — which I thought violated at least one of the ebook stores’ rules. (Doesn’t Amazon have a most favored nation clause that requires one to make the Amazon price as low as anywhere else?) Ebooks are priced at $7.50 and up.

Along with the new functionality, they’re promising “a bold new graphical interface, an updated native manga reader with intuitive page-flipping, better navigational and search capabilities, integrated social networking options, frequent promotional offers, weekly newsletter, and more customer interactivity elements (including polls, articles, and a rating and review system).” Which are great buzzwords to please business folks, but I’m not sure how many customers are seeking them out. Except for the promotions — everyone likes a discount. Beware of the newsletter, by the way; the book cover images they run for the hentai line includes topless girls.

Another technical improvement is the change from having to buy points to the store accepting credit cards and PayPal directly, as well as the site selling gift cards for those customers too young to have either of the former. Previous point balances will be converted to their Reward Points (worth a penny each), which can also be earned through purchases. 5% of the price will be given to the customer as these points, “which can be applied to future purchases as significant discounts.” They can also be transferred to someone else.

Unfortunately, they’ve changed their account system, and there no longer seems to be any way to update your information — when I try to change my password or add in additional information, it tells me my email address is already registered. Well, yes, that’s how I got logged in in the first place. Something tells me they didn’t test the system as thoroughly as they should have — in spite of the delayed release. The new system was originally supposed to be out in the fall. I’ve emailed customer service to see what they say about the problem.

Update: Both this issue and the missing books from my library were solved quickly by customer service. Turned out that, due to a long-ago mixup, I had two accounts with the same email address, which caused the system to become confused. It’s all working well for me now.

With the new site, eManga also has what they’re calling a Neighborhood Watch program, a bribery system for either supporting intellectual property law or informing on file sharers, depending on your perspective. They bill it as helping catch “outlaws” and “crooks”. If you tell the company where you see pirate copies of their files, and “if [they] can properly determine the origins of the file” (that is, identify the sharer), they’ll give you some Reward Points. If the thieves are competent and able to remove watermarks, though, you probably get nothing.

In October, comiXology licensed the series for digital distribution, along with the rest of author Shotaro Ishinomori’s catalog. Right now, there are five volumes available, each with a free preview.

More surprising to me is the announcement that Archaia will be releasing a graphic novel adaptation for Western audiences. The hardcover is written by F.J. DeSanto and Bradley Cramp and illustrated by Marcus To.

The story itself is about nine kidnapped humans turned into cyborg weapons who fight back against their captors, a good basic manga plot. The art and premise sound like a good choice for a transplant, with lots of superhero-like elements. No specific release date has been announced, although the graphic novel will also be available digitally. I do wonder how they’re squishing 30-some volumes into one volume, or if this is intended to start another series.

Overall, I’m very thankful for whatever publications are still available to us. I know it can’t be easy to run a manga publisher these days, and I appreciate those who bring out the books I enjoy so much.

Best New Manga

I was glad to see that some new series came out that I enjoyed reading, enough to eagerly anticipate future volumes. These are those titles, in alphabetical order:

Thermae Romae Book 1

• A Devil and Her Love Song
• Lizzie Newton: Victorian Mysteries
• Message to Adolf
• Missions of Love
• Thermae Romae
• Young Miss Holmes

Best Continuing Manga

It’s sometimes embarrassing, but I look forward most to reading new volumes of Bakuman, which will likely conclude next year. Volumes 9-17 came out this year, so there was plenty of reading.

They’re released on much different schedules, but at least we got new volumes of Yotsuba&! (book 11), Ooku (book 7), and A Bride’s Story (book 3) this year, once for each series. I was also glad to see Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service get two volumes, 12 and 13.

Trends

Fewer publications, as noted above. Although JManga is still going strong, I’m really only paying attention to books in print. I’m now thinking of Start With a Happy Ending, which might be the last Digital Manga book in print, given their hiatus announcement.

Historical releases. It’s wonderful to be able to read older, classic stories to get a better idea of the roots of the medium. Message to Adolf, mentioned above, is, in my opinion, the best starting point to learn about the work of Osamu Tezuka, whom every manga reader should be familiar with, while The Heart of Thomas let us see the roots of shojo manga.

I should also note those who are rescuing out-of-print manga, such as Vertical bringing back Paradise Kiss. I hope someone does the same with Aria soon.

While researching, I discovered that as of next year, I will have 20 years’ worth of manga on my shelves, beginning with a 1993 edition of Rumiko Takahashi’s Rumic World. Here’s to next year!