My shipment of manga from Amazon.com came in, and though I’ve been busy adding features to Anime Nano, I found some time to read volume 1 of Death Note. I usually lean towards the cute manga, so I was taking a gamble with this one. So does this manga deliver, or would I rather write my own name in the notebook after reading it?
So my sister had me buy her some stuff at Amazon.com that resulted in a $30 gift certificate rebate. She told me to keep it as my birthday present. At first I was gonna use it to help buy a Macbook, but I think I’ll wait on that. I Remembered that Amazon.com had a buy 3 get 1 free book promotion thing going on ages ago. Apparently it’s still going on! So Instead, I used the credit to buy manga! Manga manga manga!
So apparently, Free Comic Book Day is on Saturday, May 6th. I’ve never actually gotten a free comic book on this holiday, but I imagine they’re more like samplers than “real” issues.
The part that caught my eye is that Tokyopop and Viz are both participating. So it might be a good time for me (and other manga addicts) to pick up some manga samplers. That Shoujo manga sampler I got a while back was pretty good reading (despite it being for 12 year old girls!). I just hope it won’t be a bust with just that American-made fake manga that Tokyopop likes to release…
Anyway, you can find a list of participating stores and the comics being offered at freecomicbookday.com. If only it were “Free Manga Day”…
I was minding my own business at ANN, when I saw a review for a manga called “Chibi Vampire.” But wait, the girl on the cover looks exactly like Karin! Could this be a Karin knockoff!? Upon closer inspection, it appeared that Chibi Vampire is the North American name that Tokyopop has given Karin.
I just found this CNN story on digg.com about the United States banning anime and manga sales! Apparently they’ve decided that ALL forms of anime and manga are pornography, not just hentai:
The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 made it illegal to possess or distribute any visual depiction that “appears to be” or “conveys the impression” of a child engaging in a sexually explicit act.
The Japanese media regularly presents under-aged characters in compromising positions. Some stories are merely suggestive, while others show graphic nudity of minors.
Click here to read the whole story!
This is utterly ridiculous. I knew that Canada and Malaysia didn’t like anime, but the United States? This is the home of free speech! Just because some porn exists in anime and manga form, it doesn’t mean all of it is! They’re creating a blanket statement on all forms of anime and manga saying they’re porn! They’re even using Negima! as an example of underaged porn!
If you live in the United States, or care about free speech rights at all, I’d suggest you call your Senator or Congress person at once! I’m calling mine at 505-555-0401!
If this really happens, I might have to shut down the ol’ anime blog…
Just busy. Really busy. Super omega kawaii busy. So just a few news things and then I’ll get back to being busy.
For pretty much a whole week, I was in Tucson, AZ for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Our team won the first game, so I had to stay there until Yesterday. While there, we pretty much ate all the time, went to malls, and had fun. But I didn’t really have any access to the outside world.
I think I’m going to switch this to a “look what I bought” post, because I did get quite a few things in my absence:
While at the mall, I went into a Borders and checked out their manga selection. Unlike my normal Borders at home, they had import stuff! I saw a few titles that I recognized (Death Note, other stuff I can’t remember), but the one that caught my eye was the School Rumble manga! They were really expensive (like, $12 a book), but I decided I’d go ahead and grab the manga anyway. So now I have the first 2 volumes of School Rumble in Japanese! And it’s really tough to read!
I also got my yesasia.com order finally. It included the Keroro manga, the Hantsuki manga, Hayate Cross Blade, and Shikabane Hime. I’ll try and post pics and reviews and whatnot when I’ve got more time to breathe.
I just wanted to give a quick heads up, especially after reading this post about quitting the whole anime manga blogging scene and realizing I seem to be falling off the face of the Earth.
So when I first started up the anime forums section of this ol’ site, I did so somewhat recklessly. That is to say, I figured I had the resources to put em up there, and that was enough of a reason.
Things started off pretty cool with nice people such as Mr. Rogers (okay, he’s my cousin), Os, and Problematic (one of the reasons why she’s the nicest anime blogger around) joining and contributing a lot!
Via ANN, Via Manganews, Via ODN.ne.jp,
Apparently, manga characters are evolving a 6th finger. No one really knows why. As Manganews has translated:
In any case, fingers are a pretty famous topic in manga, but 2004 saw some strange occurrences: one after another, titles from famous shonen magazines started showing people with 6 fingers.
I thought that originally, cartoon characters had four fingers because they were easier to draw. Think about it. If you’re doing 24 or so frames per second, and you have 1 less finger to draw per hand, that’s 63,360 less fingers to draw per character per 22 minute anime episode! Sure, fingers aren’t the hardest thing to draw, but they add up!
I wonder if this is just a wacky coincidence, or if these manga artists are seriously trying to change the way that manga are universally drawn. Do they really need to make things harder for themselves? Though it’s weird seeing six fingers on a manga character, it’s probably just as strange seeing 4 fingers on an American cartoon character. I’ve just sort of been desensitized to it.
After enjoying Full Moon wo Sagashite, I was hoping to find another shoujo manga that might be a good read. Does MeruPuri – The Marchen Prince pass the Basugasubakuhatsu shoujo manga test?
