So you may have noticed that I did NOT liveblog the Eisners. I had planned to but by the time they were coming up I was exhausted, plus my computer AND phone were drained of power, leaving me unable to liveblog even if I had gone.

Fortunately for you, The Beat DID liveblog them, and here’s the news pertaining to manga fans:

- The main manga-related category was of course the “Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material– Japan,” which included among its nominees The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories, Mw, Monster, Tekkonkinkreet, and Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms. The winner? Tekkonkinkreet.

- The only other manga-related category with more than one nomination was the “Best Comics-Related Books” category, which included Jason Thompson’s Manga: The Complete Guide and Robin Brenner’s Understanding Manga and Anime, both of whom lost to Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics.

The following were the nominees who did NOT win in their categories:

- Best Continuing Series: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ) - WINNER: Y The Last Man
- Best Publication for Kids: Yotsuba&! (Kiyohiko Azuma/ADV) - WINNER: Mouse Guard
- Best Archival Collection/Project: Apollo’s Song (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical) - WINNER: The Complete Terry and the Pirates
- Best Writer/Artist: Fumi Yoshinaga for Flower of Life (DMP) - WINNER: Chris Ware
- Best Writer–Humor: Brandon Graham for King City (TOKYOPOP) - WINNER: Eric Powell
- Best Penciller/Inker: Takeshi Obata for Death Note (VIZ) - WINNER: Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan

…The end! ‘Night folks.

Another thing that happened during this con: the announcement of the SPJA Industry Award winners, straight from the Anime Expo newsletter:

Best Voice Actor (JP): Tomokazu Sugita for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Kyon
Best Voice Actor (EN): Alessandro Juliani for Death Note’s L
Best Voice Actress (JP): Aya Hirano for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Haruhi
Best Voice Actress (EN): Laura Bailey for Shin-chan’s Shin-chan
Best Casting Director: Kaeko Sakamoto for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Character Design: Shoko Ikeda for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Mechanical Design: Eureka Seven (staff includes Shoji Kawamori)
Best Male Character: Ichigo Kurosaki, Bleach
Best Female Character: Haruhi Suzumiya, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Mascot Character: Mokona, Tsubasa
Best Background Desing: Gundam 00
Best Original Video: Hellsing Ultimate
Best Feature Film: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Best Television Series: Death Note
Best Original Score: Toshio Masuda & Musashi Project for Naruto
Best Original Song: “Hare Hare Yukai” from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Director: Mary Elizabeth Glynn for Naruto
Best Manga - Action: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Best Manga - Comedy: Negima!
Best Manga -Drama: Eureka Seven
Best Publication: Newtype

…Whew. Haruhi much? But really, “Hare Hare Yukai” for best song? It’s fun and catchy, but not all that impressive– I don’t remember which I voted for but I would easily have taken Black Lagoon’s OP “Fraction” (by Mell) or Darker than Black’s first ED “Tsukiakari” (by Rie Fu), or even Naruto Shippuuden’s “Nagareboshi ~Shooting Star~” by Homemade Kazoku over HHY in terms of what’s actually a “good” song. But maybe that’s just me.

Posted by gia in Con Reports, Features • Comments (9)

Ahem– perhaps I should get this done so I can get packing, eh? Luckily it’ll be pretty short and sweet:

Manga:
- The Harvey Award finalists were announced today (via Simon), and among the “Best Edition of Foreign Material” nominees are Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, a UK-produced manga, and Witchblade (pictured), the manga based on the…original American comic. (Unrelatedly– the Perry Bible Fellowship got a nom for best online comic, woohoo!)

Games:
- DS Fanboy notes that although Square Enix may be producing its own Soul Eater game for the Wii, Squenix has granted the license to Namco Bandai for a Nintendo DS game based on the series. Both games are 3D hack’n’slashes.

Figures:
- Okay, this Nagi Sanzenin figure (from Combat Butler Hayate) is pretty awesome– but where’s my figure of Hayate in drag?!

Posted by gia in Features, Roundups • Comments (4)

Yesiree, kids, I’m putting the finishing touches on the summer preview, which should go up later today. And of course, the anime news has been very rude and continued to occur while I’ve been working on it. So cruel, anime world. SO SO CRUEL.

Anime:
- I got a press release announcing that CrunchyRoll has teamed up with T.O Entertainment (probably best known for their involvement in the creation of the Strait Jacket OVA and Code-E) to offer up the CG anime EGG MAN, which will be released on CR this fall.

- Meanwhile, ANN reports– without a source link, ahem! –that AnimeSuki has received C&D letters from Kadokawa Pictures USA declaring the following shows off-limits: Canvas2 ~Niji-iro no Sketch~, Wagaya no Oinarisama, Spice and Wolf, Shuffle! Memories, Rental Magica, Mushi-Uta, Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo!, Junjou Romantica, H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~, Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun, and Demonbane. Several of these are part of Kadokawa’s new BitTorrent deal, but now many users are abuzz wondering if Kadokawa has some major move they’re going to make. That’s entirely plausible, I think, but I’m not going to hold my breath either.

Manga:
- Digital manhwa/manga/OEL provider NetComics has announced that they’re going to include American comics in their mix as well, starting with Ivan Velez Jr.’s Tales of the Closet. Which I think is awesome; I was just expressing some irritation over at Kuri’s blog that the popularity of manga seems to have led to some American comics-phobia.

Games:
- In the wake of the Akihabara attacks, Konami has cancelled their Metal Gear Solid 4 events, citing concern over the safety of their attendants.

Misc:
- Leave it to Japanator’s DickMcVengeance to post this right after I do the roundup– he’s got photos from NYAF and Kinokuniya’s maid/EGL day.

Required Reading:
- The Anime Blog Awards announced their last slew of awards, the Blogger’s Choice Awards. Some of these decisions were excellent– like MangaBlog taking the gold for best manga blog. Others were entirely questionable, like yours truly receiving anything at all (Best News Blog, Bronze award). But I’ve already offered my thoughts on that!

- If you have ever, will ever, or have even considered watching Serial Experiments Lain, you should read John Martone’s “rant” (it’s really more of an essay) on a particular theme of the series: the concept of the divine in the Internet and the definition of reality.

- This is totally not required, but I’m finding it really amusing anyway– the comments following John Sirabella’s hints at something major feature wild guesses, depressing rants, 10-meter jumps to odd conclusions, and more. There are about 12 pages of responses now, btw, so don’t try to force yourself through them all.

Posted by gia in Features, Roundups • Comments (1)

The “people’s choice” award winners of the first-ever Anime Blog Awards are out, and while there aren’t any surprises among the winners (except, at second glance, the lack of a “best manga blog” win for MangaBlog– hello?), everyone who won absolutely deserved to. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Now the trick for next year is that a lot of these people are just as likely to win next year. I think the ABA should consider a few other categories: best industry blog, for example, now that a lot of companies are offering their own blogs. Sure, you’ve got some that are just fluff (like VIZ’s), but Bandai Entertainment looks to be using it as an actual communication tool with fans, and of course Simon Jones writes a phenomenal blog (sometimes with porn!), while Shizuki (now joined by Yukiko) keep a constant log of Broccoli’s production processes going.

…I guess I just feel that companies who are active in the community deserve a bit of a shout-out. So here’s one, even if the ABAs don’t end up acknowledging it.

I also wonder if people like me, who are paid to do this, should be excluded from eligibility. Or if there should be some kind of separate category for us. Or maybe I’d just fit into “industry” blogs, if such a category existed? “Industry/Professional Blogs,” perhaps? I guess I just feel guilty for having such an awesome job, but I also think that people who are paid to do this often get resources and access from some of the companies that others don’t.

Anyway, just some random thoughts. Anyone else have feedback?

Edit: For those who didn’t know– yes, I am paid to do this. What’s actually happening is this: I work for a company that is developing a new anime site. That site is currently planned to have a “pre-launch,” where I’ll basically just move my news reporting to the new site (though this blog will continue to exist, it will mostly be for more editorial/speculation/commentary). Later on the new site will have a full launch, and I can’t give you details but it is going to be badass. I promise. :)

Posted by gia in News, Western News • Comments (10)

No, seriously, look: first, there were those Mangaka Association awards I posted about before. Then…

- The 32nd Kodansha Manga Awards, with Moyashimon taking the top prize (best general manga), among other familiar names (Shugo Chara! Woot!)

- The 12th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, with ¥2 million going to…Moyashimon! Hmm. I’m detecting a pattern here.

Right then, moving on to the rest of the news…

Anime:
- The sequel to MS Gundam IGLOO will be an OVA, says Moon Phase. Shown above.

- This is only barely anime-related anymore, but 4kids isn’t doing too well and I thought you should know. And yeah, I know a couple of you are snickering in the back row there.

- Anime on DVD thinks it knows FUNimation’s next licensing announcement. I’m convinced!

Movies:
- TokyoGraph is on a roll; they’ve confirmed a sequel film to the manga-to-live-action-movie Crows Zero. The sequel will be directed by the original’s helmer Takashi Miike, and Shun Oguri returns as the lead, Genji Takaya.

- TG also reports that Jin Akanishi, a member of the popular boy band KAT-TUN, is taking on his first voice acting role…as Speed in the Japanese dub of the new Speed Racer flick. Hmm.

Conventions:
- Girls rule, boys drool! Alafista reports that women outnumber men at the enormous Comiket doujinshi events, 57% to 43%. There are a lot of other interesting tidbits of info in the article, such as the fact that 71% of the doujinshika are women, and the average attendee is 2-3 years younger than the average circle member.

- FanimeCon is not only running a charity auction this year, they’ll also match all donations. Sweet!

Posted by gia in Features, Roundups • Comments (1)

Don’t worry; my to-do list includes a whole bunch of articles. So let’s get started with the catch-up first!

Anime:
- I’m trying to include more “interesting read” articles these days, and here’s one: a Gundam Wing retrospective.

- Dot Anime is now officially streaming the first episode of Super Robot Wars OG Divine Wars.

- Off in Japan, two of the Tales OVAs– Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Fantasia — are being released in Blu-Ray box sets.

- In case you didn’t believe me, I just got a press release confirming that FUNi has licensed Save Me! Lollipop.

Manga:
- Debbie at manga.about.com spots DMP’s new Speed Racer website.

- The Yomiuri has an article on manga that focus on traditional Japanese theater forms Noh and Kabuki.

- German yaoi publisher Fire Angels is planning on publishing in English– specifically, they’ll be releasing an English translated version of K-A-E 29th Secret. I’ve heard tell that yaoi is even bigger in Germany than in the US, and/or that their OEL market is huge, so this should be interesting to watch.

- Alafista has the winners of this year’s Japan Mangaka Association Award, which includes Monster creator Naoki Urasawa as grand prize winner for 20th Century Boys and 21st Century Boys. The other winner of the grand prize is Hiroko Minami for Hina-chan no Nichijo. Make sure you check out alafista’s article, which includes the Excellence Awards and special awards.

Movies:
- And if you hate yourself and want to be miserable, check out the first official Dragon Ball Z movie promo pic.

- This is only vaguely tangentially related to anime, but a Witchblade movie is in the works.

- Yes, Speed Racer isn’t doing as well as people had hoped, but at the #2 spot, it’s not completely floundering either.

Misc:
- AkibaBlog reports on various Miku Hatsune itasha (car decor).

- What Japan Thinks informs us of the cutest corporate mascots in Japan, and Japan picks the toucan over the viking kitty. WTF?

- Oh, here, this might explain it: Sankaku Complex discussing the decline in both IQ and lust suffered by Japan’s youth.

Posted by gia in Features, Roundups • Comments (1)

Just a quick FYI– nominations for the Anime Blog Awards are only open until April 22nd, which is a week from today. So if you’ve got a blog and plan to nominate, get to it!

And for those of you who are whining about the awards sucking…all the nominations come from bloggers (which could be you) and the votes will come from the general public (which is definitely you). If you want to make them better, don’t just whine; participate!

The Beat has this year’s Eisner Award nominations, which include Japanese names in many of the categories (not always for manga, mind).

But Naoki Urasawa’s Monster was nominated for Best Continuing Series and Fumi Yoshinaga was nominated for Best Writer/Artist for Flower of Life (pictured). I dunno about you, but I’m throwing a goddamn party! It’s about time Yoshinaga got some real recognition here.

Here’s a full list of manga nominations:
- Best Continuing Series: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ)
- Best Publication for Kids: Yotsuba& (Kiyohiko Azuma/ADV)
- Best Archival Collection/Project: Apollo’s Song (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical)
- Best Writer: Fumi Yoshinaga for Flower of Life (DMP)
- Best Writer–Humor: Brandon Graham for King City (TOKYOPOP)
- Best Penciller/Inker: Takeshi Obata for Death Note (VIZ)
- Best Comics-Related Book: Manga: The Complete Guide (Jason Thompson/Del Rey)
- Best Comics-Related Book: Understanding Manga and Anime (Robin Brenner/Libraries Unlimited & Greenwood Publishing)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: The Ice Wanderer and Other Stories (Jiro Taniguchi/Fanfare)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: MW (Osamu Tezuka/Vertical)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Monster (Naoki Urasawa/VIZ)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Tekkonkinkreet (Taiyo Matsumoto/VIZ)
- Best U.S. Edition of International Material– Japan: Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms (Fuyumi Kouno/Last Gasp)

Also nominated (but not really ‘manga’ per se, from what I can tell): Yuichi Yokoyama’s New Engineering, published by PictureBox.

Posted by gia in Manga, Misc, News, Western News • Comments (3)

Simon Jones alerts us to comics distro Diamond’s 2007 Gem Awards. He doesn’t link to the winners and I can’t find them on Diamond’s website, but I’m willing to take Jones’ word for it: VIZ has won both of the manga categories– “Manga Publisher of the Year” and “Manga Trade Paperback of the Year” (which Naruto volume 14 won).

Posted by gia in Manga, Misc, News, Western News • Comments (3)