Yen Press plans to make the out-of-print manga Thermae Romae available again. Mari Yamazaki’s Thermae Romae: The Complete Omnibus is due out October 18. The original books were published at $35 each ($40 for the third and final), so $75 for the complete hardcover is a comparative deal. The manga is the story of a Roman architect who falls through time via a bathhouse. He’s been told his ideas aren’t modern enough. When he emerges in present-day Japan, he learns […]
Long ago (2009), I wrote about Yokohama Shopping Trip (Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou). It was a scanted manga series where “sometime in the future, the world (or maybe just Japan) flooded. Fewer people live in smaller villages as a result, leading to a return to the simple life. The story follows Alpha, a robot (although you wouldn’t know it to look at her) who owns a coffee shop with almost no customers.” It’s a charming slice-of-life series that I adored because […]
Some amazing person has uploaded the episodes of America’s Greatest Otaku to the Internet Archive. This reality show was what Stu Levy did as an attempt to pivot Tokyopop from print to a “manga-lifestyle entertainment” company. It was filmed in 2010, aired in 2011, shortly before Levy, company founder, shut down the publishing side of the company. The publisher has since returned, albeit with plenty of people side-eyeing them. Anyway, enjoy a little slice of time capsule stupidity.
The Summit of the Gods was a mountaineering manga published in English by Fanfare/Ponent Mon between 2009 and 2015. (I’ve previously reviewed Volume 2 and Volume 3.) The appeal for me was the amazing art by Jiro Taniguchi. I’ve just noticed that it was adapted into an animated film by French director Patrick Imbert and is now available on Netflix in the US. (It had previously been a live-action film in Japan in 2016.) From an interview with Imbert: In […]
Kodansha has announced that until August 2nd, you can get free digital copies of a number of their series. Additionally, second volumes are 99 cents, and third volumes are $1.99. Three volumes of these popular series for three bucks is a terrific summer reading deal! Check your favorite digital vendor for this offer. I recommend grabbing the first of any you’re interested in and reading them in the next two weeks so you can buy more if you like them. […]
Given that I don’t read Japanese, it’s rare I get to make direct comparisons between an original manga volume and its English translation. So I was excited to see how much I could find out about Sherlock: The Great Game. This is the third, concluding volume in the manga series telling the story of the BBC show Sherlock‘s first season. It was published in English by Titan in 2018. I have a copy of the original Japanese printing of the […]
Kodansha has announced today that they are unifying their “English-language publishing program” with a new website, kodansha.us (formerly KodanshaComics.com), and the elimination of Vertical as a label. Well, they didn’t exactly announce that last part, but that’s one of the results. The combined website “spotlights not only the Kodansha manga you know and love but also highlights all of Kodansha’s award-winning and fan-favorite English-language, novels, cookbooks, craft guides, historical/cultural literature, and more.” This includes what was formerly Kodansha Comics, Kodansha […]
In the new Mangasplaining podcast (updated weekly), some comic and manga heavyweights — Deb Aoki, David Brothers, and Christopher Butcher — try to convince Chip Zdarsky to read manga by talking about great titles. The first episode covers Akira volume 1. I’m eagerly waiting for the second episode, about Delicious in Dungeon.
Mangajin ran from 1990-1997, a total of 70 issues. It was an English-language magazine that taught Japanese by using manga pages with translations and commentaries. Now, someone’s put the entire run online. I thought some readers might find this interesting for studying how manga became a factor in American popular culture and cross-cultural presentation.
As a tie-in to the upcoming US Thanksgiving holiday, Kodansha has put a number of food-connected digital manga titles on sale through November 30 in a promotion they’re calling “Delicious Delicacies”, with installments up to 50% off. The lead title is one of my very favorites, What Did You Eat Yesterday? by Fumi Yoshinaga. Unfortunately, not all the series volumes are discounted. Only the first half of the Yesterday series is included, for example, although it’s a great price for […]
I have been remiss in not linking to this before now. In the time frame of what would have been the New York Comic Con in mid-October, Deb Aoki, Brigid Alverson, Erica Friedman, Heidi MacDonald, and I did a livestream where we talked about manga for over an hour. It was a lot of fun! Deb, Brigid, and Erica read a lot more in that format than I do these days, and I got some good suggestions of titles to […]
If you’ve read any amount of manga or have an interest in Japanese culture, you’ve likely heard of Calpis. If nothing else, it’s one of those names that are accidentally funny in English, because of the sound. The actual beverage is a fruity, non-carbonated drink with a hint of yogurt. (It’s made through lactic acid fermentation.) It was first launched in 1919, it comes in several flavors, and it’s now more widely available in the US! It’s owned by Asahi, […]
Boy, Cells at Work is its own little franchise, isn’t it? Makes sense — we’re all curious about how bodies work, and anthropomorphizing the functions and processes gives it all a sense of adventure (and in many cases with these series, fan service). In addition to the original manga by Akane Shimizu, Kodansha Comics has released in English Cells at Work! Code Black (about a guy with more adult problems, by Shigemitsu Harada and Issei Hatsuyoshiya) and two even more […]
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Tron: Identity
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