Animanga in the News: 3/9/11

Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything sent waves through the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post! By the way, I'm saladesu, one of the translator-moderators of MH, and I'll be posting a post like this every day (as much as possible, anyway). Look forward to them ;)

If you would like to help in finding and translating news of this nature, please contact saladesu via PM ^^ Feel free to PM me any interesting bits of anime or manga news you find floating around the internet, too.




Everyone wants to read an interesting manga, but no-one knows which to choose. That's when one should pay heed to the sales floor. One will defintely be able to find a manga that resonates with you among the "Comics Bookstore Staff All Over Japan Recommend 2011", that is a ranking made by surveying over 1000 people working in bookstores across the nation. You can consider this list of interesting manga certified by the "professionals" who know well what sells and how readers have responded to these works!

There are probably many among you who look at this list and go, "I don't know a single title on this list..." That is to be expected. Unlike other rankings, this one is a little different - An important factor about it is that it seeks to sieve out the next big thing.

Of the 20 manga that made the top 10 in both the men and women's categories of the "This Manga is Amazing! 2011" ranking, which lists the best manga of the year, only 3 manga made the top 5 for the "Comics Bookstore Staff All Over Japan Recommend 2011". These are #1, "Shingeki no Kyojin", #3, "Thermae Romae", and #4, "I Am A Hero". Perhaps this is because bookstore staff are familiar with what sells, and are thinking that there are so many great series off the public radar that they want to bring to everyone's attention.

The biggest trend for this rankings is that there is not a single series from the most popular genre - weekly shounen - and the majority of entries are serialized in more minor magazines. Furthermore, a good number of entries were actually written by female mangaka. 8 of the top 10, or 12 of the top 15, are written by female mangaka. Perhaps this is the influence of the greater number of female bookstore staff that were surveyed, but it's not as if these manga were actually serialized in magazines aimed at women. #2, "Sangatsu no Lion", #5, "Ao no Exorcist" and #9, "Mashiro no Oto" are all serialized in seinen and shounen magazines aimed at men. It's possible that these manga are popular across genders and ages because women mangaka are able to better bring to life the nitty gritty details when portraying the emotions of the characters, yet balancing that with the dynamics and liveliness required of genres aimed at men.

On the other hand, the overall trend of the manga world also shows up in these rankings. A good number of mangaka depicting men who raise children ranked in, such as #6, "Gakuen Babysitters" and #7, "Barakamon". Furthermore, it's becoming increasingly the case that popular men have to be good at cooking, and this is something that shows in #10, "flat". Yet another trend is that of boys dressing up as girls. This can be seen in #11, "Usotsuki Lily" and even the first chapter of #13, "Danshikoukousei no Nichijou" when the main character wears his little sister's clothes.

Here is the ranking for the top 10:

1. Shingeki no Kyojin by Isayama Hajime (Bessatsu Shounen Magazine)
   
2. Sangatsu no Lion by Umino Chica (Young Animal)
   
3. Thermae Romae by Yamazaki Mari (Comic Beam)
   
4. I Am A Hero by Hanazawa Kengo (Big Comic Spirits)
   
5. Ao no Exorcist by Katou Kazue (Jump Square)
   
6. Gakuen Babysitters by Tokeino Hari (LaLa)
   
7. Barakamon by Yoshino Satsuki (Gangan ONLINE)
   
8. Shirokuma Cafe by Higa Aroha (Monthly flowers)
   
9. Mashiro no Oto by Ragawa Marimo (Monthly Shounen Magazine)
   
10. flat by Aogiri Natsu (Monthly Comic Blade Avarus)

original source





The April issue of Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday magazine is announcing on Saturday that Mizu Sahara (The Voices of a Distant Star, My Girl) is launching a new manga called Tetsugaku Retora in the next issue on April 12. The manga will follow the story of the strong bonds between a boy and a girl; it is Sahara's first series in a shōnen magazine.

Besides adapting the The Voices of a Distant Star anime into manga, Sahara also drew the Same Cell Organism and The Day I Become a Butterfly boys-love manga (both released by North America's Digital Manga Publishing) under the name Sumomo Yumeka. She drew My Girl, a manga about a man raising his former girlfriend's daughter, in Shinchosha's Weekly Comic Bunch magazine from 2006 to 2010. This manga inspired a live-action television series in 2009.

original source





Mangaka Murano Moribi (real name Satou Matoru) passed away due to heart failure on the 7th of March, at the age of 69. He was an apprentice to Tezuka Osamu, and his most famous works were "Kakine no Majo" and "Shokunin-zukushi Hyakkei"

original source