Kodansha aims to put out a “more diverse and robust library of manga officially than what’s available in print” by releasing a number of series digitally. They call them “digital-first” because the most successful ones may come to print release later. For the month of May, they’ll be putting out these five new series, one per week on Tuesdays. I find it interesting that they also include the Japanese title in their press releases, which suggests they’re building on awareness […]

As I mentioned at the beginning of February, this year, as part of the Anime Awards, Crunchyroll added a Best Manga category, for which I was one of the judges. The winner was… B E S T M A N G A #AnimeAwards pic.twitter.com/Xi5zzdrO5g — Crunchyroll Camp △ (@Crunchyroll) February 25, 2018 My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. Here’s the manga section from the awards ceremony: The awards allowed for both fan and judge voting, but Crunchyroll did this interesting followup, […]

Crunchyroll, the anime (and manga) streaming service, has launched their second annual Anime Awards. New this year is a Best Manga category, which you will be able to vote in starting Monday, February 5. The six nominees (in alphabetical order) are: Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui (Yen Press) Descending Stories: Show Genroku Rakugo Shinju by Haruko Kumota (Kodansha Comics) Golden Kamuy by Satoru Noda (VIZ Media) In This Corner of the World by by Fumiyo Kouno (Seven Seas Entertainment) […]

OverDrive, a service to provide digital copies through libraries, has posted their list of the 6 Most Popular Manga Series of last year. Note, though, that they only seem to offer manga from Kodansha and Viz (so leaving out Yen and others), and they are not the only digital library service. (Another I’m familiar with is Hoopla.) It’s also unclear whether this list is ranked or random. (That it nicely alternates between publishers suggests to me it’s “arranged”.) Anyway, I […]

Last month, I asked “Whatever Happened to the Rose of Versailles Plans?” This much-anticipated manga classic was announced in 2015 for release in 2016, but it has not yet appeared, and fans are curious. I emailed the publisher, Udon Entertainment, and now that things are settling down after the holidays and new year, they were kind enough to respond, as follows. While we do not have a solid date on release yet, the localization is coming along well. We have […]

As I’ve been looking back at manga I’ve enjoyed over the past few years, I realized that there was a much-anticipated project announced two and a half years ago that has yet to appear. As part of their appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con(TM) in 2015, Udon Entertainment announced that they would be publishing Riyoko Ikeda’s classic shojo manga Rose of Versailles. Dating from the 70s, Rose of Versailles is the story of a woman dressing as a man to […]

Seven Seas had a surprising success with this year’s My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi. The manga broke through to new and crossover audiences with its autobiographical tale of a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality after a series of struggles, including hiring a prostitute. Now they’ve announced that they will be publishing a sequel. My Solo Exchange Diary explores “personal issues surrounding mental health, identity, and intimacy. Her relationship with her parents is growing more […]

I’m glad that digital distribution makes it easier for companies to bring certain manga titles to the English language market, but as a fogey, I have to admit I much prefer reading a book to flicking pages on my tablet. So I was glad to hear Kodansha announce that one of their digital series I was particularly interested in would be coming to print in summer of next year. Tokyo Tarareba Girls, by Akiko Higashimura, creator of Princess Jellyfish, has […]