It has been a busy week for manga lovers, with the debut of the new edition of Sailor Moon (and the prequel, Codename Sailor V), word that Tokyopop is considering coming back to life to publish the third and fourth volumes of Hetalia, the news that Fantagraphics is planning to publish the classic early BL manga Heart of Thomas, and the release of a Gurren Lagann artbook that will benefit the Japanese Red Cross Society.

At Rocket Bomber, Matt Blind takes a look at the past week's manga sales (tracking online sales, including pre-orders) and finds that Sailor Moon tops the charts.

Erica Friedman posts a manga reader's manifesto describing how she wants her digital comics—available anytime, anywhere, and cheaper than print.

Attention would-be creators: An English version of ComiPo!, a manga creation software from Japan, was released this week. Patrick Macias made a comic of his own to demonstrate the possibilities, and creator and critic Jason Thompson took it for a test run at Anime News Network.

Read and Discuss

Up front, I’ll say I found Usagi grating. She is also a good-natured, caring person. However, she is also very lazy and seems to always need rescuing. She certainly starts out having the steeper incline of development and maturity needed. She is the least likable character in the series. The other guardians are much more mature and developed persons.

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Tags CLAMP, Comiket, Digital Comics, Fantagraphics, Gurren Lagann, Hetalia, Manga, Moto Hagio, Resident Evil/Biohazard, Sailor Moon, TOKYOPOP

Good news for fans of classic manga: Fantagraphics announced plans yesterday to publish Moto Hagio's Heart of Thomas (Thomas no Shinzō /トーマの心臓) in a hardcover omnibus edition that collects all three volumes of the Japanese original.

First published in 1974, Heart of Thomas was one of the first boys-love manga, and it had a strong influence on the genre in the years that followed, but beyond its historical importance, Heart of Thomas is a manga that packs a strong emotional punch. When I interviewed Thorn for Publishers Weekly a few years ago, he described reading Heart of Thomas as "a life-changing experience." “The biggest shock to me was that it made me cry," he said. "I mean really cry. I had never imagined that a comic could do that.”

Hagio was one of the first manga creators to be translated into English, but her books They Were Eleven and A' A" have been out of print for years. Last year, Fantagraphics published a collection of her short stories, A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, which was also translated by Thorn.

Heart of Thomas is a tale of unrequited love between teenage boys, set in an all-boys boarding school in Germany. It begins with the suicide of Thomas, who leaves a note for Juli, the boy he loved but who did not return his affections. In a 2004 interview with Thorn, Hagio said

The theme is ... hmm ... "When does a person learn love? When does one awake to love?" Something like that. [Laughs.] So the whole crazy premise — a boy leaving a letter and dying right at the start of the story — is something I could only have come up with when I was so young. [Laughter.]

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Tags boys love, Fantagraphics, Manga, Matt Thorn, Moto Hagio, yaoi

The long wait is over: The first volume of Sailor Moon and its prequel, Codename Sailor V, both go on sale in bookstores on Tuesday, though they may take a bit longer to reach comics shops. Sailor Moon was one of the first shoujo manga to become popular with English-language readers, and Kodansha is publishing a new edition of the main series with a new translation—and bringing Codename Sailor V to English-speaking readers for the first time.

With these two on the way, it would be easy to miss the fourth volume of Arisa, a solid shoujo story about a high school where a mysterious, shadowy entity has led the students to form a secret society. But that would be a shame; written and drawn by Natsume Ando (Kitchen Princess), Arisa is a great series that deserves more of an audience. Read more...

Tags Kodansha, Manga, Sailor Moon, VIZ, Yen Press

When the manga publisher Tokyopop shut down their book publishing operations last May, they left a number of series unfinished, much to the dismay of fans—especially those who were just one volume away from the end of Alice in the Country of Hearts, Saiyuki Reload, and Deadman Wonderland.

On Friday, Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy stirred up a storm of comments when he went on the Tokyopop Facebook page to ask the readers a question:

if there is a way to bring you Hetalia V. 3 but it's a bit more limited than back in the old days, would you be interested?

The post attracted 993 likes, as of this writing, and over 245 comments, but the comments were a very mixed bag. Many commenters asked Levy to publish new volumes of their favorite series instead, while others said that they would rather have no new Hetalia at all than a limited release that some fans couldn't get. While some readers were clearly thrilled at the idea of getting more Hetalia, several people pointed out that this would simply delay the transfer of the license to another company that would handle it more carefully. (There's a huge expectation that Yen Press would pick it up eventually.) This comment summed up the general tone of what many people were saying:

Go away, and let the licenses lapse so a CEO of a company that cares about publishing can pick them up. Remember when you said Tokyopop's licensed titles will revert back to their original owners, rather than being held by the company's remaining media division until the contracts expire. So stop dangling the carrot unless you will go all the way, because you're just insulting fans.

Levy posted again on Sunday with a few clarifications:

First, "limited" does not mean limited copies - all fans will be able to access the title. "Limited" here means channel (i.e. retail). Second, Hetalia #4 would be published as well. Third, other titles are different rights owners -...

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Tags Hetalia, Manga, TOKYOPOP

Somewhere, Jason Statham's agent just got a phone call.
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Tags Davis Films, Golgo 13, Takao Saito

Since the earthquake and tsunami of last March, a number of artists and other creative types have put together anthologies and art books that serve a dual purpose: To raise money for disaster relief and to encourage the victims of the disaster not to lose hope.

The most recent of these is Believe In Yourself, a collection of sketches and character drawings based on the Gurren Lagann anime and loosely organized around the theme of hope. The project was led by Masahiko Otsuka, the director of Petite Princess Yucie and an episode director for such well-known anime as Fruits Basket, Gurren Lagann, and Gunbuster 2. Contributors include Hiroyuki Imaishi, director of Gurren Lagann and Panty & Stocking; Shouko Nakagawa (Shokotan), who sings the theme song of Gurren Lagann; Akemi Hayashi, character designer of Peacemaker KUROGANE and animator for Revolutionary Girl Utena; and Atsushi Nishigori, the character designer for Gurren Lagann and Idol M@ster. The American contributors include several members of the production team of the series Avatar: The Last Airbender: co-creator Bryan Konietzko, director Joaquim Dos Santos, episode director Ethan Spaulding (also the director of the Thundercats reboot), and background artist Elsa Garagarza. Read more...

Tags Anime, artbooks, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Gurren Lagann, Manga

The JManga.com website launched on August 17, and the initial reactions included delight at the selection of new manga and dismay at the prices, the cumbersome point system, and the number of manga that were displayed on the site as catalog listings only, tempting people with a cover and then not offering the actual manga for sale.

Three weeks later, the site is still growing and the JManga folks are promising that changes are coming. One thing the site owners are doing right is communicating with readers, through Facebook and Twitter.

Devil King, vol. 1

The site updates every Tuesday with new manga and offers three preview chapters via their JWeekly magazine. This week's new releases include vol. 4 of Devil King, by Golgo 13 creator Takao Saito. The series started out with a giant who claimed to be a god starting the destruction of Tokyo, and it looks like it's packed with plenty of action. Read more...

Tags Digital Comics, JManga, Manga

This is the big week for Viz manga—I count 19 Viz titles on this week's ComicList. None are volume 1's, but there are some solid series that are easy to jump into. As I noted last week, Viz published the digital edition of vol. 52 of Naruto—the seventh digital volume in as many days—the same day as the print volume, on VizManga.com and their iPad/iPhone app. They also did a simultaneous print-digital release of vol. 10 of Black Bird. My pick, though, would be vol. 6 of Dengeki Daisy, a clever and mildly suspenseful romance about a schoolgirl, Teru, who is on her own after her brother dies—except for the mysterious DAISY, who communicates and offers comfort via her cell phone. The big mystery in the first few volumes is who DAISY is (it's not that mysterious, but I won't spoil it here); by volume 6, Teru has figured that out, but there's a bigger plot under way as well. Dengeki Daisy isn't particularly subtle, but it's an enjoyable read that has some good characters and doesn't lean too hard on the conventions of shoujo manga.

Another good bet is vol. 9 of Twin Spica, the story of a young girl who aspires to be an astronaut on the Japanese space team. It's basically a school story, with friends and enemies all thrown together in a really cool sci-fi setting. Creator Kou Yaginouma's art is perfect for this subject, detailed enough to give a sense of place but not cold or overwhelming. It's a wonderful story with a lot of heart. Read more...

Tags Dark Horse, Kodansha, Manga, Vertical, VIZ

Shutterbox was one of Tokyopop's more popular non-Japanese series, but they only put out four volumes of the planned six-volume series; it fell victim to one of Tokyopop's periodic financial crises. Here's some good news, though: Creators Rikki and Tavisha Simons are now making volume 5 of Shutterbox available digitally through their online store, and they are working on a print edition—and on volume 6—as well. Read more...

Tags Manga, Shutterbox, Taiyo Matsumoto, TOKYOPOP

Viz Media is pulling out all the stops over Labor Day weekend, putting seven volumes of Naruto on its Vizmanga.com website and its iOS apps over the next seven days, culminating with vol. 52—which will come out in digital the same day as in print.

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Tags Digital Comics, Manga, Naruto, VIZ