Anime On DVD reported a few days ago on something that caught my eye – eBook manga. It seems are though some English Tokyopop titles are going to be offered in a format compatible with Sony’s eBook Reader. In fact, there’s a whole section of manga/graphic novel titles, many of which seem to have been product of the Rising Stars of Manga contests, along with Princess Ai and some of the Harlequin Pink series. The prices are good, too – worth checking out if you’ve got the hardware to read them!
Yakitate!! Japan (”Baked Fresh!! Ja-pan”) is a manga serialised in Shogakukan’s Shonen Sunday, by Takashi Hashiguchi. 21 graphic novels have been released as of January 2006, and has been licensed for English distribution by Viz. The series won the 2004 Shogakukan Manga Prize for best Shounen Manga.
The story focuses on Kazuma Azuma, a boy on his quest to create Ja-pan, a national bread for Japan itself. He initially heads to Tokyo to expand his bread-making horizons at the bread-making chain Pantasia; the story continues with Azuma’s exploits with his other coworkers.
The title of this series itself is a play on words; Yakitate translates to “freshly baked”, but Japan has a double meaning. Besides referring to the country of Japan, “pan” is the Japanese word for “bread” (a borrowed word stemming from Portuguese “pão”). Ja-pan is a pun for this series. This mimics the style of the names of other varieties of bread in Japanese, such as “furansupan” (French Bread), “doitsupan” (German rye-based bread), “itariapan” (Italian bread), etc..
Besides the desire to create his Ja-pan, Kazuma also possesses the legendary Solar Hands. These hands are warmer than normal human hand temperature, and allow the dough to ferment faster. This gives him some advantage at the beginning of the series, but his innovation and many Ja-pans are what really shine through.
Although the story has baking as its main theme, the parts that generate the most interest are the outrageous puns in the story. Especially notable are the “reaction” based puns made by the judges, who go to great lengths to prove a single point about the bread that they tasted. The series in general also pokes fun at the shounen genre’s tendency to be melodramatic over mundane tasks.
A 69-episode anime was produced by Sunrise, and was broadcast on TV Tokyo and other local stations from October 2004 through March 2006.
Links:
Shounen Sunday Website
English Manga Preview
Source:
Wikipedia
×××HOLiC is a manga series planned and presented by CLAMP. It has been serialized in Kodansha’s Young KC Deluxe periodically since 2003 and currently published in the United States by Del Rey Manga.
The series’ protagonist, Watanuki Kimihiro, is a high school student who is continually plagued by supernatural monsters which are magically attracted to him. The creatures are invisible to all but himself, and as a result he feels extremely burdened by them. When he quite literally stumbles into a shop that grants wishes, everything in his life changes drastically.
Within the shop is the seductively beautiful Yūko Ichihara, a witch of many names and esoteric renown. The seemingly all-knowing witch soon gets right down to business: she offers to grant Watanuki’s wish to be rid of his ability to see spirits. However, a price equal to the power required to grant the wish must be paid. Yūko also discovers that Watanuki is very skilled with his hands. As a result, Watanuki soon finds himself forced to perform housework and odd jobs for Yūko until he has done enough work for his wish to be granted.
Fans of the anime/manga series Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE will already be familiar with Yūko, who crosses over into that series periodically. It and ×××HOLiC are famous for their numerous cameos from other CLAMP works.
×××HOLiC has recently been made into an anime series as well, the second episode of which aired just previous to this writing. It’s worth taking a look at, and is already licensed for English distribution by FUNimation.
Links:
Del Ray official site
Anime series official site
EXOTiQUE (fansite)
kimihiro.net (fansite)
Source:
Wikipedia
The nominations for the 2006 Eisner awards (for material released in 2005) have been announced.
The only two manga to have been nominated are Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha (vols. 5-8), published by Vertical, for “Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books” and Eiji Nonaka’s Cromartie High School, published by ADV, nominated for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material.
Buddha, which has won Eisners for the past two years running, is up against the following nominees: Absolute Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons; The Contract with God Trilogy, by Will Eisner; DC Comics Rarities Archives, vol. 1; and Fantastic Four Omnibus, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Cromartie High School will compete with these titles for the Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material award; Dungeon: The Early Years, vol. 1, by Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim, and Christophe Blaine; Ordinary Victories, by Manu Larcenet; The Rabbi’s Cat, by Joann Sfar; and Six Hundred Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer, by Killoffer.
Read the rest of the article here!
Saiyuki, known as Gensōmaden Saiyūki (幻想魔伝最遊記, “Romanticized Tale of a Journey to the Extreme”) in Japan, is a popular manga series created by Kazuya Minekura and loosely based on the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West (Xī Yóu Jì). It has been turned into an anime series by Studio Pierrot as well.
Gensomaden Saiyuki deals with the fortunes of four fighters – the monk Genjyo Sanzo (transliterated Genjo in the anime and Singapore English manga), the monkey deity Son Goku, the half-demon Sha Gojyo (sometimes spelled Gojou), and the demon Cho Hakkai, who have been dispatched by the Sanbutsushin (The Three Aspects of the Buddha) to India to investigate the reasons behind the recent insanity among the demons. Demons, who have formerly coexisted peacefully with humans in Shangri-La, are going berserk and turning against them.
The manga is published in English in North America by Tokyopop, and in Singapore it is published in English by Chuang Yi. The original anime series is produced in North America by ADV Films. Sequels Saiyuki Reload and Saiyuki Reload Gunlock are licensed by Geneon in North America. The prequel manga, Saiyuki Gaiden – which takes place 500 years before the first series – is currently published in the quarterly Japanese manga magazine Zero Sum WARD.
Source: Wikipedia
Lagoon Engine (distributed in English by Tokyopop) is a manga by Yukiru Sugisaki, which is a supposedly pre-story of Lagoon Engine Einsatz. It features two main characters: 12 year old Yen Ragun, and his little 11 year old brother Jin. While Yen is intelligent, calm, and thinks tactically, Jin is hotheaded and rushes into battle.
The Ragun family is dedicated to defeating ghosts, evil spirits, etc. – all known as ‘Maga’! Yen and Jin just happen to the successors of the family, and they have to fight Maga too. In short: Yen and Jin are Gakushi. Both Yen and Jin have Maga – though not evil maga (obviously). Yen’s Maga is called Koga, while Jin’s maga is named Sora. Koga is good with gathering information, analyzing, and remembering things, though he’s extremely bad at attacking. On the other hand, Sora has no intellectual power whatsoever, but his attack power is very high.
Lagoon Engine was created by Yukiru Sugisaki, the successful creator of several other successful anime/manga. Sugisaku is probably most well known for D.N.Angel and Candidate for Goddess.
Source: Wikipedia
DN Angel sure is popular! Wow! I’ve never seen that many comments on any other entry here. In any case, since a visitor, Ginny, posted looking for sheet music from the anime, I had a look around to see what I could find. I hope this is of some use to her and any other DN Angel fans with musical talent!
True Light (piano with solo) Sheet Music (hosted by animescores.com)
True Light guitar chords (Hosted by animechords.com)
You can also find lots of other DN Angel (and other anime) scores at Josh’s Anime Sheet Music Collection. Enjoy!
Now here’s something interesting!
Japan’s NHK-BS2 will begin airing what is believed to be the first ever [regularly aired] manga review TV show, Manga no Genba, on April 4 at 11:30pm. The show will follow the hottest manga titles and authors and discuss manga’s popularity.
1st Episode: Takehiko Inoue – Vagabond
Kusaka Satoki – Helpman
2nd Episode: Misono Suzuki - Zeni
Akimoto Osamu – Kochi Kame
3rd Episode: Hiroshi Kawasumi -Taishi Kakka no Ryouri-nin
Keisuke Itagaki – Baki.
Each episode is scheduled to re-air the following Friday at 6pm.
Source: Anime News Network
Genvid L.L.C., the people who brought you the hit book Warriors of Legend: Reflections of Japan in Sailor Moon, are proud to announce their second major effort, a one-in-a-lifetime Tour of Tokyo based on the locations described in their book and seen in the Sailor Moon anime and manga series, to be held in June 2006.
The Warriors of Legend Tour of Tokyo is a for-fans, by-fans tour which promises devotees of the blockbuster series an inside look at the life of the characters in a way seldom experienced by even Japanese otaku. During the day, attendees will live out the moonlight legend, visiting dozens of sites that the characters lived and fought at (such as the real life Hikawa Shrine) as well as locations that formed some of the series’ spectacular backdrops to key moments (for example, the Tokyo Tower.) During the evenings and nights, they will journey to important cultural landmarks throughout the city of Tokyo, from Asakusa to Zojoji Temple, Akihabara to Shinjuku Station.
That sounds fantastic! For those fans who are in the area (or want to go enough to GET to the area) this sounds like the chance of a lifetime. For more info, check out the Warriors of Legend website!
Source: Anime News Network
Hmm, what to think of this…?
In an effort to give something back to the manga community, Bemmu.com, a web store specializing in the import of Japanese language manga and Japanese music to Scandinavia and worldwide, will be considering applications to provide free copies of new manga to established scanlators.
Bemmu.com does not and will not assist in scanlation efforts in any way. The received books may be used in any way the receivers see fit. The applicant may name one or multiple series for which they wish to receive newly released books.
How to apply
Please send a free-form application by e-mail to manga@bemmu.com. The application should mention
- Name or alias of applicant
- Name of the scanlation group
- Position of the applicant in the scanlation group
- URL to group home page or to a list of previous releases
- ISBN of the first book in the series for which the applicant wishes to receive new releases for
- Full address where the new releases are to be sent
English-language site for bemmu.com can be reached at bemmu.com/e.
To be honest, I’m not certain whether they’re offering this for any particular language, or what will come of it. However, it’s nice to know that there’s a store out there trying so hard to give back to the manga community!
Source: Anime News Network
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