Continuing with my streak of being very behind with convention news this summer, here’s a quick finishing round-up of manga news at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Links in the article will direct you to AnimeNewsNetwork where their on-site staff shared all the details from the panels.

The company Top Shelf announced one new manga license: Cigarette Girl by Masahiko Matsumoto and also expressed the hope to license the manga artist’s auto-biography series Gegika Freaks to “complement to Tatsumi’s own autobiographical manga A Drifting Life.” And speaking of which, the ginomrous auto-biography manga A Drifting Life won two Eisner awards at the event  - Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia category and Best Reality-Based Work of the Year. (Note: Though I never wrote a complete review on this book, I did read it and got completely swept away in the story. It’s a very inspiring non-fiction story and makes for a fantastic (plus satisfyingly lengthy) read.)

Viz Media didn’t have any new licenses at SDCC (saving them for NYAF I hope?) but they did announce a re-release of the popular series, Death Note. Titled Death Note: Black Edition, this new edition will be released as omnibus books (multiple volumes in one) with new covers and larger trim sizes than the originals. Viz Media also announced that there will be a new layout for their manga magazine, Shonen Jump, upcoming in their December issue.

Vertical Inc. had a new license, Lychee Light Club by Usamaru Furuya who had another work licensed by Viz Media (Genkaku Picasso). The plot of Lychee Light Club definitely sounds unique (from Robot6): “The students at an all-boys school create a robot to track down beautiful women, a robot that for some reason runs on lychee fruits. Everything gets complicated when the machine develops self-awareness, however, and stops being quite so compliant.” Neat Vertical fact extra: Chi’s Sweet Home, released just a few weeks ago, has already become Vertical Inc’s best selling release. Wow!

And lastly in this SDCC round-up comes from the Canadian company Drawn & Quarterly who had a couple new titles to share at the event: Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths and NonNonBâ both by Shigeru Mizuki. Both are older titles by a manga artist known best for their work GeGeGe no Kitarō (which hasn’t yet been released in English).

Apologies to any who now have a four word jingle stuck in their head and want to clean things with the aid of a brawny bald man. Here we are on Monday, meaning San Diego Comic Con is behind us for another year. Not as many announcements as people were hoping but still some fun new titles to look forward to. As I’m all behind on posting on them, we can look at it as a sort of extended SDCC 2010… right?

Tokyopop had its panel mid-weekend and offered up few new series for the masses:

The staff also went over the list of upcoming releases which you can read in its entirety over at AnimeNewsNetwork. After noticing an absence of a number of titles I was really looking forward (such as the newest volumes of Matsuri Akino’s series), I asked over Twitter and was promptly responded to by Tokyopop who assured me they were coming soon (with picture proof!). Now that’s service :)

Other tidbits of news included confirmation of the new Gakuen Heaven titles discovered on Amazon a few months ago ( Endo ~ Calling you & Shichijo ~ Sweet Sweet Darling) along with schedule updates for a few other BLU titles as well – “Baseball Heaven, due out 10/12/10, Stray Cat by Halco (11/9/10), Secretary’s Love by tohko Akiba (12/7/10), and You and Me, Etc. by Kyuugou (2/8/11)” (from ANN)

Tokyopop will also be releasing some jigsaw puzzles for their original properties (yay?), will be releasing more manga via digital means at $5.99 a book and shared some more details on a How To Draw Shoujo Manga book which will include material from Japanese company Hakusensha’s line-up including fan-favourites Ouran Host Club and Fruits Basket.

San Diego Comic Con is upon us! As one of the largest (the largest?) convention of its kind, it tends to be a safe bet we’ll hear some snazzy manga news from the packed convention panel rooms over the weekend. So far the biggest list goes to Yen Press who had their panel today. The folks on Twitter and ANN were there to share the news -

New licenses:

Aron’s Absurd Armada – Misun Kim
Highschool of the Dead – Shoji Sato/Daisuke Sato
Higurashi: When They Cry Demon Exposing Arc – En Kitou
Otoyome-Gatari (The Bride’s Stories) – Kaoru Mori
Uraboku (The Betrayal Knows My Name) – Hotaru Odagiri *Missed one!

The title here that really excites me is Kaoru Mori’s The Bride’s Stories. Granted, I was rather bored by Emma and couldn’t finish but I really like her artwork and after watching some digital art-processes with some of the cover art from The Bride’s Stories, I was in love. I look forward to giving another of her series a go and Yen Press should give it fantastic treatment, which according to Deb Aoki “will be a hardcover edition w/ a larger trim size”. Extra shiny!

In other news:

After announcing back in April that Yen Plus would be moving to digital, Yen Press staff announced at their panel that today is the day. Starting today a free preview of the format and content is available up on their new Yen Plus website. All it takes is signing up for an account and you’re ready to go.

I must say, the cost of $2.99 a month is a really good price and includes access to the current and past months’ edition of Yen Plus. New content, serialized chapters and each issue is available to the purchaser for two months after its released. I also like that they chose not to make it Flash based – it loads really smoothly and can be viewed on mobile devices such as iPads. More info is available via their site’s FAQ page – though the link most will likely be curious about (“What series are in the magazine?”) is currently not working.

My only real issue with Yen Plus digital as it stands now is the difficulty much of their target audience will have paying for the subscription. It’s only available via PayPal (which works through credit cards or bank accounts) and this isn’t something the younger audience really has access to. I hope they have some sort of at-convention registration process as well in the future. Not being able to buy subscriptions in multiple month installments also seems like something people won’t like but this policy could change as the process evolves. All a learning experience!

During their panel’s Q&A, YP staff also stated they’re not currently looking into license-rescuing any of the titles previously held by the recently expunged CMX, and they don’t at this time have any new light novel announcements to make.

Two days without a post – we’re not dead, we swear! Though it means a lot people have actually asked. It makes us happy to know readers have come to look forward to Kuriousity’s daily posts and they shall be returning shortly!

Due to an upcoming convention that 5/6 of the Kuriousity are staffing at (just realized that – neat!), the site will be on a short hiatus for a couple more days. Manga news, reviews and that odd stuff in between will return after this weekend and the conclusion of our second Animinitime event.

Until then happy manga reading!

This afternoon Viz Media had their panel down at Anime Expo. During the panel they confirmed a number of Viz Media titles that’ve popped up on Amazon and retail sites in recent months (such as Genkaku Picasso and Itsuwaribito) and had some new titles for eager ears as well!

You can check out the complete list of titles under the cut:

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Anime Expo, North America’s largest anime convention, is upon us once again this weekend! The internet’s been buzzing with excitement from industry folk, bloggers, guests and attendees alike in the weeks leading up to it – and though I can only speak as a spectator to the spectators – it certainly feels like the excitement has reached a level greater than the decline of last year, which saw less industry-presence and fewer announcements.

The big manga news to start goes to Digital Manga who had their panel on Thursday evening. AnimeNewsNetwork is covering all the major events of the convention and thanks to them I’m able to offer the abridged version here for your curious eyes:

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Adorable image by PantsDancingly

Happy Canada Day from the Kuriousity-folk! Hope all fellow Canadians are enjoying another yearly ritual of wearing our pride under a sea of brightly coloured fireworks, among other festivities your own local area is throwing to celebrate our country’s 143rd birthday. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else – I adore my country… even if they did just raise taxes on Canada Day – but even so!

In Canadian anime/manga news today – Fan Expo has opened it’s registration for the August convention and Animinitime, a single-day convention coming up mid-July, closes it’s pre-registration today along with some prize giveaway draws.

Looking for some fun Canadian content for this special day? Be sure you have a copy of Svetlana Chmakova’s DramaCon on your shelf, Faith Erin Hick’s upcoming Brain Camp on order and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s upcoming final volume of Scott Pilgrim etched firmly in the ‘does-want-now’ part of your brain – to name a very short few.

Now if you’ll excuse me, there’re some good books to read, friends to see and fireworks to ogle at like a 5 year old and love it. Happy Canada Day!

After a good night’s sleep, day two of Anime North officially began. The registration lines began to form fairly early but paled in comparison to the line for the dealer’s room which stretched on hundreds of people down the sunny parking lot. A pleasant change from yesterday, a portion of the parking/line-up area had now been sectioned off from traffic meaning that cars were no longer able to drive inbetween groups of con-goers. Yay for minimizing the risk of getting run over!

And so – day two! (watch out, it’s a long one)
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Day one of Anime North has been survived! Mostly anyway. I will admit to unfortunately being careless to my two hours of sleep, limited food sources and sorching-in-the-sun heat that rendered me incompasetated by the evening. But a long nap followed by a hopefully full night’s sleep (pending the airplanes taking a halt on the constant very-close-over-head flying) and all shall be right as rain and ready for day two!

But how was day one you ask?
(Photos will be included in a future post as current server problems aren’t allowing me to upload them – sorry!)

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Good morning blogsphere – it’s 6:29am and I’m no doubt one of many currently waiting to board a plane and head over to Toronto for Anime North 2010!

Fellow Kuriousity reviewer Marsha is joining me on what is her second time at the yearly event and my first – being a Canadian anime fan for over fourteen years, it seems about time that I give AN a go.

Expect some recaps, photos and the first edition of a new Kuriousity feature over the weekend as we share our experience at Canada’s largest anime-theme convention! Curious or attending? You can check out Anime North’s website for the complete programming schedule.

So doom may be a little grim a word but it’s a rampant sort of tone recently with all that’s going on in the English manga-industry. I popped in on this week’s ANNCast to share some of my thoughts on recent events, in particular DC’s announcement regarding CMX and the disappearance of Go!Comi.

I’m starting to feel like all my efforts to promote CMX are being intentionally smited somehow though – first CMX’s shutdown is announced mere days after we here at Kuriousity make the decision to push out a bunch of CMX reviews (since the site’s been sadly lacking them!) and then here in the ANNCast I tell everyone to go check out CMX’s site and look through the books they have – only to have DC Comics, for some inexplicable reason, strip down CMX’s website today. Yikes. And triple-boo on you, DC Comics. What the heck is going through your corporate mind over there?

Also on the ANNCast this week is a guest sharing her thoughts on the difference between Canadian and American anime conventions. Interesting ideas there. As someone who’s been staff helping run a convention and holding panels more than an attendee of any, I don’t have all that much to go on pertaining to the concept. Comparatively I’ve been to San Diego Comic Con and Fan Expo, which are ‘very’ similar in their target-audience but different in obvious ways because, well, SDCC is in California and Fan Expo is not. I am heading to Anime North next week and New York Anime Fest in October however, so for pondering’s sake, I’ll keep the concept of difference in mind. The discussion about the semi-thankless nature of running an anime convention is interesting too. Super-duper hard work but worth it for all the thank yous and happy fans? Yup!

So check out the podcast if you so feel inclined – it always makes for interesting listening! And beware my voice, which you may be doomed to hear in your mind each time you read one of my reviews from now on ;)

Gardena, CA (May 19. 2010)- Digital Manga Publishing is excited to announce their special guest for Yaoi-Con 2010, the prolific and fan-favorite yaoi mangaka-Hinako Takanaga! The creator of numerous manga, including Little Butterfly, The Devil’s Secret, Challengers, Croquis, Love Round!!, Liberty Liberty, and the soon to be released The Tyrant Falls In Love, Hinako Takanaga has been one of the most popular yaoi mangaka in the US, and will be making her second appearance at Yaoi-Con!

So come up to San Francisco in October, and meet the immensely talented Hinako Takanaga in person, and hear her answer questions about her process and her work!

Yaoi-Con takes place over the Halloween weekend, October 29-October 31, and at a brand new location in Burlingame, CA! For more information on Yaoi-Con, including location, hotels, and registration, please visit their site at: www.yaoicon.com

Covention season is upon us and that means a lot of things –  but for the sake of this post, it means art contests! New York Anime Fest (which is joining with New York Comic Con for the first time this year) has opened up its annual mascot design contest with snazzy prizes and a one month submission time.

“Announced May 1 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Sakura Matsuri and running until May 20th, Kinokuniya, theOtaku.com, Del Rey Manga, and the New York Anime Festival welcome artists and anime fans from around America to think about what “Anime”, “New York City”, and (because we’re in October) “Halloween”, mean to them and draw these thoughts into an original character. Whether it’s big, small, a towering mecha, or chibi, we want to see your entries!”

The grand-prize winner will not only have the fun of seeing their artwork used on all NYAF”s official merchandise but will also receive a copy of all the material the art is used on, 10 free passes to the event and 50 volumes of Del Rey manga!

All entries are due May 20th with the finalists announced on June 1st. Then, after a month of voting at their Kinokuniya bookstore in New York, the official grand-prize winner will be revealed at the end of June.

Good luck to all the entrants!

YaoiCon’s website has updated for the 2010 convention year with an attractively slimmed down layout and some news that’s bound to make than a few attendees go running for the reg books.

Not only does the site confirm the conventions new location at the larger Hyatt Regency but also 2010′s Guest of Honour: the boys’ love artist who will always make you do a double-take for all the right reasons – Ayano Yamane!

“When Yamane-sensei came to Yaoi-Con in 2004, she was a rising star in the BL industry. Six years later, she is now arguably the genre’s brightest star, renowned for her detailed, beautiful art and sexy stories.

Whether it’s her manly semes like Finder’s Asami, Crimson Spell’s Havi or Ikoku Irokoi Romantan’s Albert Valentine or fiesty ukes like Akihito, Prince Vald or Ranmaru, we love Yamane-sensei’s attention to detail, sense of humor and steamy love scenes. And we’re sure you will too!”

YaoiCon is also offering their three-day badges for only $40 up until March 31, 2010 as part of a 10-year anniversary special.

My wallet’s already tied for travel this year but YaoiCon sure knows how to tempt a boys’ love fan! Any Kuriousity readers planning to attend? Or are you simply joining me in imagining the entertaining genre-junkie mayhem?

With the next cycle of anime/manga conventions coming up, I’ve spent the last couple days budgeting out my plans for 2010. I’ve always wanted to travel more and conventions feel like a great starting point – lots of different places, lots of different people and a safety net of shared interest and fun new experiences.

But there are so many conventions to choose from! Last year I had the pleasure of attending San Diego Comic Con, and while it was a great experience, I’m sitting it out this year in place of several smaller events.

So with the help of friends, co-workers and fans much more traveled than I, I’ve put together my confirmed list of anime/manga conventions for 2010:

Animinitime Halifax (April 25)
Anime North (May 28 – 30)
Animinitime Moncton (July 17)
New York Anime Fest/NYCC (October 8 – 10)

Both Animinitime events are local to my area (and admittedly I’m staff at them but it still counts, right?) and Anime North has been a long-time Canadian anime tradition that I’ve yet to indulge in. As for New York, I’ve always wanted to visit America’s ‘Big Apple’ and there’re way too many fantastic people attending this year for me to ignore!

But what about you? Have some conventions you know you’ll be attending this year or have hopes to? Any you’d recommend or have enjoyed in the past? Let me know – I’d love to hear about your experiences and con-choices! Who knows, I may even be able to sneak another con into my schedule (aka, budget) this year and would love to meet up with people at those I already know I’ll be attending :)