In an essay for The Nation, author Viken Berberian explains how manga became one of the world’s favorite forms of entertainment. He notes that in 2021, “manga made up 76.1 percent of overall graphic novel sales in the adult fiction category in the United States,” and almost a quarter of the overall French book market. And while I might quibble with some of his historical points–Moto Hagio is clearly a pioneer, but not “the mother of shojo manga”–my bigger concern about the article is tone. There’s a strong undercurrent of condescension that colors his prose, as he bemoans the fact his tweenage sons would rather read Jujutsu Kaisen than The Metamorphosis, and reassures the reader that “the hegemony of manga” has not “come at the expense of highbrow comics that wrestle with...
Sep 16, 2022 • Subscribe
More like this
The Manga Review, 9/23/22
This has been a relatively quiet week on the manga beat, so I’m going to lead off with a question: what are you reading? Is there a series…
Manga the Week of 3/16/22
SEAN: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the traditional Irish way… with some Japanese manga! ASH: I can do that. SEAN: There’s a pile of Yen On, most of…
Manga the Week of 2/16/22
SEAN: Valentine’s Day has gone, so what manga did you get? Chocolate manga? Is it food? Can you eat it? Viz Media has the one-shot Came the Mirror…
Golden Kamuy, Golden Kamuy Season 2, Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, No Guns Life
Manga the Week of 11/16/22
SEAN: It’s the week of Anime NYC, so I think a lot of publishers are preparing for the con instead. ASH: That’s fair. SEAN: Airship starts us off…
The Manga Review, 7/22/22
Great news for fans of Fumiyo Kouno: the crew at Mangasplaining has teamed up with UDON to publish Kouno’s Giga Town: Manpu Zufu (A Catalog of Manga Symbols). Giga…
The Manga Review, 4/22/22
Back in the roaring aughts–when earnest manga fans posted reviews on LiveJournal and Blogger–link posts were a simple, effective way to connect with like-minded readers. The widespread adoption…
Manga the Week of 9/16/20
SEAN: Mid-September, and, for once, quite a light week. We do have some very impressive debuts, though. J-Novel Club has two new digital light novels. The first, and…
Manga the Week of 3/9/22
SEAN: We’re hitting March proper now, so watch out for winds. ASH: Sound advice. SEAN: We start with Airship, which has print releases for Accomplishments of the Duke’s…
Manga the Week of 9/7/22
SEAN: It’s September, and Manga Bookshelf doesn’t even have an AOL account. What are we going to do? ASH: LOL SEAN: Airship has early digital releases for the…
Shangri-La, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Classroom of the Elite, Demon Lord, Retry!, Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
Manga the Week of 11/9/22
SEAN: It’s November, and witty line goes here!. Yen On is pushing out a lot of new light novels. We get Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided…
Pokémon, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, The Promised Neverland, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, High School DxD
Manga the Week of 2/9/22
SEAN: February still exists, despite all our best efforts. What manga is there next week? ASH: It still does, doesn’t it? SEAN: We start off with Airship, which…
Manga the Week of 9/15/22
SEAN: Has fall arrived yet? Certainly not QUITE here as of yet. ASH: So close! I can’t wait. SEAN: Yen Press is taking the week off, for the…
Manga the Week of 9/22/21
SEAN: Even the Delta variant cannot stop the flow of manga coming through. ASH: Which is impressive, really. SEAN: Airship, in print, gives us the third volume of…
Manga the Week of 9/28/22
SEAN: Oh no, I’m awake, September must be ending! Yen On is taking the week off, but we have some Yen Press manga. Dead Mount Death Play 8,…
Fist of the North Star, Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, Laid-Back Camp, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-
Manga the Week of 9/21/22
SEAN: OK, now it’s the first week of Autumn, and there’s even rain! A good week to read some manga! ASH: Truly! SEAN: Airship starts us off with…
The Manga Review, 9/9/2022
It’s been a relatively slow news week–manga-wise, at least–so I’m going to dispense with the snappy intro and get to the links. As always, if there’s a website,…
The Manga Review, 6/3/22
Two weeks ago, Seven Seas’ employees formed the United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S). Their goal? To negotiate a standard benefits package that includes health insurance, retirement plans,…
The Manga Review, 8/19/22
Attention manga shoppers! Kodansha is currently holding a blow-out sale on digital manga. And when I say “blow out,” I mean it: they’re offering deep discounts on over…
The Manga Review, 7/8/22
By now, if you’ve been on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly learned that Kazuki Takahashi died on Wednesday. Media outlets from National Public Radio to the New York…
The Manga Review, 4/29/22
Back in March, Titan Comics announced that it would launching its own manga imprint, Titan Manga, with the publication of a new “director’s cut” of Takashi Okazaki’s Afro-Samurai. This…
The Manga Review, 5/13/22
April sales figures are in, and manga continues to dominate the NPD Adult Graphic Novels list. Though the list includes some perennial favorites–Berserk, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia—Spy…
The Manga Review, 11/4/22
This week’s biggest news story: Kadokawa has purchased Anime News Network. On November 1st, publisher Christopher MacDonald posted an open letter to ANN’s readership to reassure them that the…
The Manga Review, 10/28/22
Over the last year, The Comics Journal has been translating essays by prolific manga critic Natsume Fusanosuke. The topics have run the gamut from Taiyo Matsumoto’s distinctive visual…
The Manga Review, 11/18/22
Last week, ICv2 publisher Milton Griepp sat down for a lengthy conversation with Dark Horse Comics’ CEO Mike Richardson. The two discussed the company’s history–particularly its early investment…
The Manga Review, 10/21/22
“Manga won”–that was Heidi MacDonald’s pithy assessment of New York Comic Con 2022, as she noted how much the show was tilting towards Asian comics. “We all know…
The Manga Review, 7/15/22
Do you know about Azuki? This year-old company is working hard to make it easy for you to read your favorite manga on a phone, tablet, or laptop.…
The Manga Review, 5/6/22
When it comes to manga commentary, I freely admit that I’m more of a reader than a listener. Mangasplaining, however, is helping change my mind about manga podcasts.…
The Manga Review, 5/27/22
Everybody’s talking about Tokyopop this week, as the publisher that brought us Mixx, Sailor Moon, and Rising Stars of Manga celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. To mark the occasion,…
The Manga Review, 6/24/22
Hi, all! Its been a relatively slow news week manga-wise and a crazy week for me work-wise, so I’m going to dispense with the snappy introduction and get…
The Manga Review, 6/10/22
After Kentarou Miura passed away last year, fans feared that they would never see his long-running saga Berserk reach a proper conclusion. Then on June 7th, artist Kouji Mori announced…
The Manga Review, 7/1/22
Good news: The United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S) achieved a major victory this week when the company agreed to recognize their union. Though management has not yet…
The Manga Review, 11/11/22
Earlier this week artist Kentaro Sato accused Musk of using an image from Magical Girl Site, which is currently being serialized in Weekly Shonen Champion. “Twitter’s new CEO…
The Manga Review, 5/20/22
This year’s Eisner nominations have just been announced. In the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia category, VIZ Media garnered five of the six nominations with crowd-pleasers such as…
The Manga Review, 6/17/22
Big news from Yen Press: the publisher is launching IZE Press, a new imprint dedicated to Korean webnovels and webtoons. The imprint will debut this fall with three…
The Manga Review, 8/26/22
On Wednesday, Tokyopop released Peremoha: Victory for Ukraine, an anthology of nine stories written shortly after the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24, 2022. These stories,…
The Manga Review, 10/7/22
Bust out that Sailor Moon costume–New York Comic Con is in full swing! If you’re looking for a good manga panel, I highly recommend This Manga Is Awesome!…
The Manga Review, 10/14/22
Historically, New York Comic Con was the event for big licensing announcements, but in recent years manga publishers have focused more on promoting their best-selling series than on unveiling…
January 16-22, 2022 Week-in-Review
This past week was a very busy and productive week for me, here at the blog. I had a couple of days off, so I managed to plow…
![Featured image for The Frontline Report [1/16/22]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220116/1642345114.29315.56857.jpg)
The Frontline Report [1/16/22]
This week: Ousama Ranking, Tokyo 24th Ward, My Dress-Up Darling, CUE!, and Artiswitch!
Artiswitch, CUE!, My Dress-Up Darling, Ranking of Kings, Tokyo 24th Ward
The Manga Review, 9/2/2022
The big news story this week: Shueisha and MediBang just launched MANGA Plus Creators, a portal where English and Spanish-speaking artists can upload original manga. Anyone who self-publishes…
TSUTAYA Weekly Manga Sales Ranking: September 16 – September 22, 2024
There have been some changes to the reporting style here on the Blog. Please refer to the post here for further information. All of the data you find…
A Couple of Cuckoos, Shangri-La, Shangri-La Frontier, Solo Leveling, Umamusume: Pretty Derby
TSUTAYA Weekly Manga Sales Ranking: October 16 – October 22, 2023
There have been some changes to the reporting style here on the Blog. Please refer to the post here for further information. All of the data you find…
A Couple of Cuckoos, The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses, Case Closed, My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999, Shangri-La Frontier
Manga the Week of 6/22/22
SEAN: When a manga meets a manga, coming through the rye… ASH: None, they say, have I. (And they would be very wrong.) SEAN: Yen On gives us…
Bungo Stray Dogs, Bungo Stray Dogs 2, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Sword Art Online
Bookshelf Briefs 8/16/22
HIRAETH ~The End of the Journey~, Vol. 2 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Kodansha Manga (digital only) – In the first volume, we met a girl who’s desperate…
Bookshelf Briefs 12/16/22
Blue Box, Vol. 1 | By Kouji Miura | Viz Media – Sports manga always sell well in Japan, and high school romantic comedies are also popular. So…
D-Frag! Volume 16 Manga Review
AstroNerdBoy reviews the Seven Seas manga, D-Frag! Volume 16. Chitose gets Funabori and Takao to rescue the game trapped in the cursed VR.
Japan Top Weekly Manga Sales Ranking: October 16 – October 22, 2023
There have been some changes to the reporting style here on the Blog. Please refer to the post here for further information. It is thanks to the amazing…
Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange, Case Closed, SHADOWS HOUSE, Shangri-La Frontier, Tokyo Revengers
Manga Review – Black Panther and Sweet 16
Black Panther and Sweet 16 黒豹と16歳 (Kurohyou to 16-sai) TORIUMI Pedoro Shoujo – Comedy, drama, mature, reverse harem, romance, smut 11 Volumes (complete) Kodansha Comics Summary: While exploring…
School Rumble Volume 22 Manga Review (Finale)
AstroNerdBoy reviews School Rumble Volume 22 manga, which Del Rey never published and Kodansha only published digitally.
Bookshelf Briefs 9/20/22
Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 11 | By Nanashi | Kodansha Manga – I haven’t actually briefed this for a long time. Since I did, in…