Folks, there is a reason why I am a blogger here, and am not developing TV shows for major networks. And the reason...is that I have never tried to get any work developing TV shows for major networks, actually, but the reason I've never tried is because I doubt anyone would put me in charge of anything like that. Because this is the kind of stuff I'd come up with. SHINIGAMIS - Yes, it would have that terrible pluralization, and it would also use the font from Friends. The basic idea is that you'd have this apartment building, and each apartment housed two or three of the hilarious match-ups from Bleach: Ichigo and Renji live in one apartment, while Rukia and Orihime live in another right across the way, and Ichigo and Renji both compete for the affections of Rukia, to hilarious effect! Their neighbors include Aizen, who has a penchant for meddling in their love lives! The episode where Kenpachi tries to hide Yachiru from an amusingly obsessive Child Protective Services agent will be comedy gold.   SURVIVAL: NARUTO - In the first episode of this reality series, a group of 12-year-old martial artists are enrolled in a ninja school. As the season continues they spend less and less time in school and more and more time out taking part in challenges against one another, trying to earn immunity from the producer, who will be referred to as the Hokage. In episode six, a major twist will be introduced: the kids will be informed that all of their parents are dead, and the series will shift to a giant emo-fest.   TRUE VAMPIRE KNIGHT BLOOD - HBO's latest sizzling soap opera-- with vampires! Love triangles, familial battles, mysterious classmates and amnesiacs...actually it'll be exactly like the Vampire Knight manga, but live-action. Huh.      Share your own wacky TV anime/manga takes in the comments!
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Comic Natalie reports that Yubisaki Milk Tea's last issue is now on sale in Japan, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about the manga-- and why you should seriously consider picking it up. And not just because it involves a dude in a dress (though for me, that's an added perk). Yubisaki Milk Tea is a romantic drama about a young man who's torn between two women; one is his slightly younger childhood friend, and the other is an emotionally damaged classmate. The twist is that the man, Yoshinori Ikeda, has a hobby: he cross-dresses. In the end he actually creates an entirely alternate identity named Yuki, as whom he originally befriends said classmate.  Yubisaki Milk Tea v8 It sounds like the setup for a wacky comedy, and there are some amusing moments, but this M-rated manga is a bit more of a dark look at growing up and discovering one's identity. It's also a manga that's often brought up in conjunction with Kodomo no Jikan due to the frequent sexual tension and occasional nudity and other content, because the characters involved are young: Ikeda and his classmate Minamo are in high school, and his childhod friend Hidari is in middle school. Yubisaki is one of the titles that sometimes comes into question when people talk about the potential fallout of Chris Handley's sentencing-- but volume 8 is still currently scheduled on TOKYOPOP's website. The story that develops, in all honesty, doesn't really deliver as much as it could. The result is in large part an angsty love-triangle soap opera.  But in my opinion it's still a bit more creative than your average love-triangle manga (more so than, say, the earlier chunks of Vampire Knight, which was entertaining but let's face it, pretty trashy).  It's also published in Hakusensha's Young Animal seinen anthology, which is known for some of its more fanservicey titles (and photos of real women in bikinis), but I think its story combined with its more sketchy, fairly neutral art style makes it one that will appeal to members of both genders who like a bit of romantic drama in their lives. If that's you, go pick up a copy of Yubisaki Milk Tea #1 today. And then come back here and tell me what you think! (Or, if you've already read it, get a-commenting!)    
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 I have a confession to make... The ongoing discussions about plagiarism, fanart, and scanlations continue on Twitter, and have taken a remarkable turn: one blogger, Melinda Beasi, noted that a reader and LiveJournal user had made the accusation that all the discussion is, in fact, a "blog/twitter campaign" originating with the licensors (I'm not sure if the author is using this in the correct way to refer to Japanese publishers or the incorrect way to refer to localizers). But the main accusation is that bloggers are somehow involved in a conspiracy with manga publishers to argue against scanlations. And I'm here to tell you that this accusation is absolutely 100% TRUE FACT.Manga bloggers and publishers actually have monthly meetings at the Big Sight event hall in Tokyo (the city where we are all secretly located), and that's where we decide that Vampire Knight is going to nestle up against Naruto on the sales charts, while Black Jack has to remain critically acclaimed, but can't sell TOO well, because if Black Jack was too popular then we couldn't keep writing posts asking you to go out and buy it, which would cut our content by about 15%. Additionally, we have this really coo stealth jet. Whenever we get names and addresses for a scanlation group we go out, knock them unconscious with tasers, and introduce a ton of bad sectors into their hard drives so they fry in a seemingly spontaneous manner while the scanlators are in the middle of scanning or lettering. And of course, manga publishers pay for the jet, and our cool uniforms. (I can't reveal the designs to you, but they're pretty freakin' sweet, and bulletproof.) They pay our secretly seven-figure salaries, too. ...THIS IS COMPLETELY 100% TRUE GUYS. But seriously: the very simple fact of the matter is: once you start to know the people who are impacted drops in sales and by the inability to fight the tide of piracy-- once people you know have been laid off from a company that's downsizing or shutting down --it stops looking like such a minor or victimless issue and a bit more like a problem. So, yes, bloggers who start to know industry members and publishers may become less forgiving of scanlations as time wears on, and yes, that relationship often begins when a blogger requests or is offered free review copies. Whether that's a conspiracy or a conscience is your own decision to make.  Apologies to All About Manga for making you Jubilee. It had to be someone.
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Last week I reported on Alter's new Altail line of figures aimed at female fans in Japan, and today I just caught word (and pics!) of the first figure they're going to release: it's Natsume and Nyanko-sensei from Natsume Yuujinchou. And it looks great! Due out this July, this piece will run ¥7140, about $80 USD-- not expensive as figures go, but not cheap. If Hobby Search or another site has it on a bit of a discount, I'm going to seriously consider snatching this up. A, because I want to support the idea of more figures that aren't bishoujo character (even though I love those too), and B, because it just looks like a really nice figure. Natsume seems like it's a pretty good choice to start with, too, because it seems pretty popular with guys as well as with women. (How many of you were aware that Natsume Yuujinchou is a shoujo manga that runs in the same mag as Ouran High School Host Club and Vampire Knight?) What do you think? Look like something you might want?    
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Introduction My Darling! Miss Bancho is the latest shoujo comedy from CMX manga. Its Japanese name is Aa Itoshi no Banchousama, and it's serialized in Hakusensha's LaLa anthology-- the same anthology that features titles like Ouran High School Host Club, Vampire Knight, Natsume Yuujinchou, and plenty of other shoujo hits. If I may note, particularly the ones that do fairly well among male readers as well!  But can Miss Bancho hold up to her illustrious (and popular) counterparts? My Darling! Miss Bancho Volume 1 Publisher: CMX Manga Release Date: 03/16/10 MSRP: $9.99 Length: 192 pages PlotSouka is about to become a high school sophomore. Living with her newly-divorced mother, she decides on her own to transfer to a tech vocational high school, focusing on subjects like chemistry and architecture-- it'll be cheaper than her old private school and she'll have an easier time getting a job after she graduates. But the school she decides turns out to not only be MOSTLY male-- it's ALL male, because the boys fight so much that all the girls transferred out at the end of the prior year. Souka worries about whether she'll even survive her first day, but she manages to make it through a few days as she learns that her scary classmates are, in fact, really nice guys. In fact, they're all just overgrown, easily-excited children. At least until the school bancho comes back from a suspension! He immediately starts in on Souka's only semi-aware classmate, Yu, and in an attempt to help him in the fight Souka winds up beating up the bancho...and, by school tradition, becoming bancho herself. Tone At the beginning, Souka's accidentally becoming bancho and subsequent protectiveness from her classmates (particularly Yu) when another senior makes a move to take over by defeating her was starting to worry me a little bit, but then Souka took a stand against the senior, effectively supressing my concerns that she was going to be more damsel-in-distress than fleshed-out character. Sports tournament arc: begin! Granted, she's no anti-heroine; although I can compare the over-the-top comedy style to Ouran High School Host Club or My Heavenly Hockey Club, Souka can't really compare to gender-neutral Haruhi or sleepaholic Hana-chan. Souka is a sweet, mildly oblivious heroine, and we've seen her archetype before. Actually, we've seen all of the archetypes in this story before, and to some extent we've seen the story before, even if the particular mechanism used to surround Souka by nothing but men is mildly different. The only thing that sets My Darling! Miss Bancho apart is that its comedy is, in fact, pretty strong-- things get increasingly silly throughout the book, and the mangaka (Mayu Fujikata; this is her first ongoing manga) throws in a lot of asides, fourth-wall breaking, and just plain goofy situations. (A random note: Fujikata's younger brother attended a tech school like the one depicted here, and she has some interesting notes-- she'll point out when she does things that aren't like the reality of such schools, but she points out things that are, like during a school sports festival, female students only sat back and watched while the boys competed.) But Miss Bancho shows no signs of going to the same level of character development of Ouran, for sure, and probably not even a similar level to My Heavenly Hockey Club, which (as a reverse harem) does go through each of its male stars. Miss Bancho is more of a one-on-one rom-com between Souka and Yu, and the rest of the characters are there for flavor, comedy, and to screw everything up, but they're not especially well-rounded. As such: this is the kind of manga where I have to say, if you like this kind of thing, you'll totally dig My Darling! Miss Bancho-- but I don't think it has enough going for it to really break out of its category into that "great manga all around" level. But it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and I found myself chuckling and laughing out loud while I was reading, so even if it's not a "great manga all around," it's still a pretty good one within its world. Pros/ConsPositivesGood comedy NegativesMildly inconsistant art (proportions were odd at the beginning)Characters may be charming, but they're a little flat. (But we're only one volume in.) If, Then, But If you like these, then you might like My Darling! Miss Bancho. But... Ouran High School Host Club (but with considerably less focus on character development-- so far)My Heavenly Hockey Club (but with slightly less focus on character development-- so far)Kaichou wa Maid-sama (but not quite as strong a heroine)     
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Also, simplified Chinese manga: Kuroshitsuji 8, Arata Kangatari 3, Yankee-kun to Megane-chan 9, and... (kindly scroll down). Black Jack Neo © Taguchi Masayuki/Akita Shoten (Serialized in Young Champion) Published in Singapore by Chuang Yi Chuang Yi double launching the seinen reinvention of Tezuka Osamu-sensei's beloved Black Jack series with Black Jack Neo by Taguchi Masayuki kinda eclipsed the
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Medium: Manga (11+ volumes) Genre: Fantasy/Drama Author: Matsuri Hino Original Run Jan 2005 – Ongoing (LaLa–JPN) Released: Sept 2008 – Ongoing (Viz Media–NA/UK) Age Rating: "Older Teen" (15+) In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that this review came about in a strange fashion. I was on a popular online bookstore website (amazon.co.uk) and I thought “Hmm, I wonder what is popular right now?” I brought up the bestseller list, expecting to see a sea of Naruto volumes. Instead, around 4 out of the 10 top spots belonged to this series, with the latest volume taking the top spot. I had not previously heard of this series, and wondered what all the interest could be about, so I bought the first volume sight unseen. To be perfectly honest, I was not expecting much of this title, given the recent trend of poor quality vampire-based media, and my hopes were not raised after reading the rather bland blurb on the back of the volume. In short, there are two sets of students at Cross boarding school — a set of normal humans (who all appear to be female barring one or two exceptions, strange that) and a set of vampires who have a separate dorm and come out for lessons at night. The main character, Yuki, who already knows of the existence of the creatures from being nearly killed by one when she was younger, helps to protect both the vampires and the normal students as part of a disciplinary committee. The humans must be kept in the dark in regards to the existence of vampires, as well as be shielded from any vampire who gets hungry for hemoglobin. The plot is fine as it is and works well to set up the world — the one complaint I have is that in every single chapter the manga spends time reminding you of this established world, which gets tiresome very quickly. The pace can be inconsistent, with a lot of possible plot threads slowly brought to light while the main character goes through a series of massive, unexpected events. This jarring change of pace just as you are getting to know the character deadens any impact the event would have normally had. The characters highlighted in this first volume are well realized, with one notable exception being the main character, Yuki. While Yuki is portrayed as being highly knowledgeable, she comes off as irritatingly dense and oblivious at times, frequently failing to gauge the gravity of a situation and putting herself in grave peril as a result. This is not helped by the fact that the entire cast absolutely adores her, wanting desperately to drink her blood/hug her/both at the same time and leaving you to wonder what exactly they see in the cute little airhead. While I desperately wanted to like Yuki, I found myself wishing that one of the male characters was the main protagonist, as he seemed to have his head on straight even if he was a seething pile of angst. I can only suppose that Yuki was designed in this fashion to be the reader's viewpoint on the events in the manga — something that is not fully successful due to her frequent dumb moments. Many more characters are hanging around in the shadows to be properly revealed later, a move I liked, as it allowed me to get acquainted with the core characters without being burnt out on introductions. The art in Vampire Knight is well drawn, focusing primarily on the characters and their painstakingly designed school uniforms. The volume even has a set of design instructions for potential cosplayers (Looking at this, it would cost you a fortune in rose-shaped buttons.), showcasing the huge amount of thought put into the designs. The level of detail becomes almost pornographic at one point, when you have a main male character with a stream of blood on his neck and torn shirt — something for the ladies, I guess? The characters, in particular the vampires, share a similar character design style and I was a little worried about being unable to tell them apart when the majority of the cast was introduced in a single panel, but thankfully they contain enough individual detail and personality that this is not a problem. There are some issues with the art — sometimes the character proportions or perspective are jarringly off, which has the potential to pull you out of the story. A larger annoyance is that the character's eyes remain the same in each panel. For example, Yuki has wide-open eyes and they stay that way with little change, almost as if they had been copied and pasted into each panel. The whole cast is a victim of this off-putting phenomenon, which and robs facial expressions of emotion and makes the characters harder to differentiate. All in all, I was rather pleasantly surprised by Vampire Knight and found myself enjoying the read, especially during its lighter moments. While I would not be opposed to picking up the following volumes to see how things develop, I am rather hesitant due to the frustratingly clueless behavior of the main character. Maybe it’s just me, but if your earliest memory was being almost murdered by a slavering and gore-drenched vampire, you might display a bit more hesitation around the creatures than Yuki displays. I would certainly say to have a look at the first volume to see if it grabs you — especially if you are a fan of impossibly pretty, aloof vampire boys, although this is not a necessity. This review is based on a Shojo Beat release from Viz Media purchased by the reviewer. fair. Post a Comment!
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  Title: Vampire Knight Vol 9 Author:  Matsuri Hino Publisher:  Viz ISBN: 9781421531724 May Contain Spoilers From the back of the book: Cross over to the night. Meet your knights in shining darkness. Cross Academy is attended by two groups of students: the Day Class [...]
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  As many of you know, many manga magazines in Japan come with a wide variety of promotional items to entice newsstand buyers as well as subscribers. For the most part, I prefer the shoujo anthologies for promo items, which tend to include useful things like stationary, pens and pencils, bags, and occasionally even jewelry (ask me about my Vampire Knight bracelet and necklace sometime). But every once in a while, I just cringe. The next volume of Sho-Comi features a special additional book that's all about catching men based on their bloodtype.  See, Japan uses bloodtype the same way we use the zodiac: your bloodtype says certain things about who you are as a person. This is why in most detailed character profiles, you'll find the character's blood type, which may seem like a random piece of information to westerners.  (Actually, some people THINK we use this in the west too, but the "type A personality" concept actually comes from a 1950s psychological theory, not blood types-- though there are also "type B" and "type AB" people within  that theory. It really wasn't a very good naming concept.) So the blood types are:Jet Black: Type A - Type A: earnest, creative, and sensible, but fastidious and sometimes overly earnest.   Faye Valentine: Type B - Type B: Wild, active, proactive, but selfish and irresponsible.    Ed: Type AB - Type AB: Cool, controlled, and rational, but critical and indecisive.    Spike Spiegel: Type O - Type O: Agreeable, social, and optimistic, but vain and rude.    Which type are you based on your blood? Which one SOUNDS more like you? ALL of them sound like me. And none of them. Hm..
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 Money makes the world go round, the world go round, the world go round... We Are One Piece Anime!anime! offers up some word on Oricon's 2009 manga sales chart, and the top series-- to no one's surprise! --was Eiichirou Oda's One Piece, and subsequently its publisher, Shueisha. One Piece sold over 14 million books last year in Japan-- and can you believe we can't even get the anime adaptation to stay on North American TV? Second and third place for individual titles were, of course, Naruto (6.83 million) and Bleach (6.47 million), in that order. The entire manga industry in Japan, according to these charts, was 1.156 trillion yen ($12.85 billion USD). By contrast, ComiChron guesses the overall North American comics market to be $680-710 million for 2008 (the 2009 estimate isn't available yet-- but note that it's based entirely on Diamond sales alone). Whew. Of the publishers, Shueisha-- who publish One Piece, Naruto, AND Bleach, topped the company charts; Kodansha followed behind with big names like Saint Oniisan and Fairy Tail, and Shogakukan (Rinne, Hayate no Gotoku, Detective Conan) placed in third. After them came Square Enix (Fullmetal Alchemist), Kadokawa (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), and Hakusensha (Vampire Knight) in fourth, fifth, and sixth. Interesting stuff, but nothing too surprising. I still can't believe Saint Oniisan hasn't been licensed for North America yet, either!    
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