I don’t want to start a genre debate, since those can easily and quickly become tedious, but I’m hoping that the two shojo titles (manga for girls) Viz announced with a mature rating come close enough to josei (manga for women) as to scratch that itch. 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, […]

The Tokyopop website is up again. The domain was previously redirected to Facebook a little under two years ago. Now, it’s a way to promote sales of their titles through RightStuf.com, their print-on-demand partner, as well as logo merchandise hosted on CafePress. 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 […]

Kodansha Comics effectively replaced Del Rey Manga in late 2010. Their release plans then were a mix of new-to-US titles and reissues, some in omnibus form. Some series picked up where Del Rey left off, particularly if they were popular titles. 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, […]

In past years, I’ve written a post titled “Best Manga of [Year]”. This year, I’m retitling. My manga reading has decreased, in part due to my interests swinging back a bit to graphic novels, in part due to what material has been available. This year, I’m just looking back at what I enjoyed reading this year. I’m still using similar criteria in determining “Best” for me — and looking back at last year’s post, even then, I was noting fewer […]

Most will see this as a very bad sign, an indicator that business isn’t going well, but at least the company is being open about the announcement. Digital Manga has posted a message from their president that says … effective January 1st 2013, the print editions for our DMP, June Manga, DokiDoki, and 801Media imprints will be placed on a temporary hiatus. Please be advised that none of our licenses are cancelled, simply postponed. We will be resuming the distribution […]

Jason Thompson talks about one of the greatest shojo series of all, Fruits Basket, when he decided to reread all 23 volumes over a weekend. As Jason points out, “this is the manga that kept Tokyopop alive from 2004 to 2009.” It was remarkably popular in the U.S. market and probably the best-known shojo at the time. It’s the story of a self-sacrificing girl who gets involved with a family where everyone turns into one of the animals from the […]

Anime News Network has a story reporting that Young Ace magazine will be publishing a manga adaptation of the brilliant BBC series Sherlock. While there have been various Sherlock Holmes comics and manga in the past, this one will adapt specific episodes of the show written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and, based on the cover art, use the character likenesses of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who play Holmes and Watson, respectively. In the comment thread, someone suggests […]

Sean Kleefeld caught Tokyopop once again teasing readers on Twitter with hints that they would be publishing new volumes of their OEL series. (OEL, or “Original English Language”, is an umbrella term for what would simply be called “graphic novels” from other publishers. They were original works created for the American market.) The company stopped publishing over a year ago but returned from the dead with print-on-demand editions of Hetalia, followed by one of their most popular OEL titles, Bizenghast. […]