MangaBlog

Reactions to Kodansha’s move to set up a U.S. subsidiary continue to roll in. David Welsh wins for the day with his concise article summing up the importance of the move and the possible consequences for readers at The Comics Reporter. At his blog, Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas provides us with an English version of the Nikkei article that broke the news that Kodansha, the largest publisher in Japan, is opening a U.S. subsidiary. Simon Jones, always one of the most perceptive observers of the American manga market, takes a look (NSFW) at the reasons for and possible results of Kodansha’s decision, and he provides an interesting capsule survey of the American manga scene at the same time. And he points out what the rest of us tend to forget, that Kodansha has been doing the publishing thing quite well in the U.S. market for quite some time, so maybe, just maybe, they know what they are doing. At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson wonders whether this move will cause prices to drop across the board. And here’s an interesting twist: Annalee Newitz of io9 thinks the move means Kodansha will publish non-Japanese manga. (Hat tip: John Thomas.)

At Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson puts in her two cents on Kodansha and also notes that Tokyopop will be participating in panels and contests at Anime Expo, although they won’t have a booth there.

The MangaCast staff list this week’s new manga and what their picks will be.

The Manga_Talk LJ community is dormant most of the time, but whenever someone posts a question it gets interesting. The most recent one is about rape in shoujo manga, and both the post and the comments are worth a look.

Congratulations to Ryan and Evan of Same Hat! Same Hat!, who just got their advance copies of Tokyo Zombie, which they translated and edited.

Translators Alethea and Athena Nibley write about “workreation,” which is a good word to describe getting paid to read manga, at Manga Life.

News from Japan: ANN has word of a new manga by Dragonaut—The Resonance artist Satoshi Kinoshita and another Slayers manga.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore reviews two new Del Rey titles at Comics Worth Reading: Haridama: Magic Cram School and vol. 1 of Toto! The Wonderful Adventure. Also found at CWR: Lunch in a Box reviews a super-cute title, The Manga Cookbook. New reviews at Manga Life: Robert Murray on vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire, Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane on vol. 5 of S.A. and vols. 2-4 of High School Debut, and Park Cooper on vol. 1 of Real. Sakura Eries reviews vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly and Erin Jones checks out vol. 2 of Good Witch of the West at Anime on DVD. Lissa Pattillo reads A Foreign Love Affair at Kuri-ousity. At Okazu, Erica Friedman doesn’t find much to like about Goshujin ni Amai Ringo no Okashi. Sesho gives vol. 2 of 10, 20, and 30 a B+. Chloe Ferguson reads vol. 1 of I-Doll at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vol. 2 of Shinsoku Kiss, vol. 10 of Dragon Head, and vol. 7 of Kikaider Code 02.

There were a few things going on yesterday besides the big news about Kodansha.

At PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha takes a look at the seinen title Gantz, due out soon from Dark Horse.

David Welsh takes a look at the new manga reaching comics stores today.

Jeff Yang has a thoughtful look at death and manga at the San Francisco Chronicle.

At MangaCast, Jack Tse has an audio tribute to My Heavenly Hockey Club.

The Otaku USA crew have relaunched their website, and the Manga section looks like it has some fascinating content.

Since Tokyopop appears to have dropped the ball on the The Dreaming fanfic contest, Queenie Chan posts the winners and offers to send prizes. She also notes that her new book, In Odd We Trust, has already gone back to print. And if you’re planning on being in Brisbane, Australia, this weekend, you can even meet her at GenCon.

In other Tokyopop news, Leigh Dragoon reports that the manga adaptations of The Faerie Path will be going forward as planned, at least for now.

Manga via Nintendo? Lori Henderson considers the possibilities.

News from Japan: Gia reports that Strawberry 100% Mizuki Kawashita is working on a new manga based on the 1703 play Sonezaki Shinjuu (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki).

Reviews: Add Greg McElhatton to the growing list of folks who were disappointed by Kazuo Koike’s Color of Rage; you can read all about it at Read About Comics. Julie has a mixed reaction to vol. 1 of Ultimate Venus at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Ferdinand finds a harem comedy he doesn’t like, vol. 1 of Guardian Hearts, at Prospero’s Manga. Tangognat finds vol. 1 of Nephilim pretty but incoherent. New reviews up at Manga Village: John Thomas on vol. 2 of Dororo, Lori Henderson on vol. 9 of High School Girls, Sabrina on vol. 2 of B.O.D.Y., and Charles Tan on vol. 12 of Claymore. Julie Rosato looks at the King of Fighters Artbook and Danielle Van Gorder reads vol. 4 of Like a Hurricane at Anime on DVD. Michelle enjoys vol. 2 of Dororo at Soliloquy in Blue. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 2 of Pet Shop of Horrors Tokyo at Kuriousity. Tiamat’s Disciple reviews vol. 4 of Cynical Orange and vol. 4 of Hissing. Sesho pans In Odd We Trust in his latest podcast. Oyceter is reading more manhua; this time, it’s vols. 1-2 of Xiao Jun—Shadow of Visions.

The big news of the day, in case you spent yesterday in a cave with no internet, is that Kodansha, the biggest publisher in Japan, is setting up a U.S. subsidiary specifically to sell manga. Check out the comments on yesterday’s post for a lively discussion of what this might mean.

For U.S. fans, speculation revolved around the fate of several companies that license Kodansha titles, particularly Del Rey, a fan favorite that has built its reputation with several very popular Kodansha series. Dark Horse also has a number of Kodansha titles.

Del Rey editor Dallas Middaugh quickly hit the blogosphere to let fans know that his company will continue to publish current titles and license new ones, at least for the immediate future.

Gia Manry actually talked to someone at Kodansha, senior foreign rights manager Tomoko Suga, and this is what she got:

Unfortunately she couldn’t give me very many details on the company’s plans in terms of titles, genre, or dates– basically they’ve set up the company name and that’s about it so far. She DID tell me that there are going to be no immediate or direct changes to Kodansha’s deal with Del Rey Manga. This is slightly different from simply saying that Kodansha wasn’t pulling any licenses, as it means that presumably Del Rey Manga will be able to continue to license Kodansha titles (as most people have been speculating).

On the other hand, Gia wonders if Kodansha will hold back on the juicier titles in the more distant future.

As for Dark Horse, Christopher Butcher notes on Comics 212 that they no longer hold the license for Akira. And Tokyopop will no longer be publishing Beck, although a commenter says that may simply be because of poor sales. Chris also has some insight into Del Rey’s fate:

Also, just a quick guess here, but I would find it surprising if Kodansha pulled any licenses back from Del Rey, as they’ll likely be relying on Del Rey parent company Random House for distribution in America (under the auspices of the Kodansha/Random House “deal”), and that would likely sour the working relationship. Which isn’t to say that it won’t happen of course, but is far less likely and has not, to the best of my knowledge, happened yet.

Translator John Thomas speculates a bit at Mecha Mecha Media, and notes that Dark Horse has announced the next volume of Eden, although there’s no news on Blade of the Immortal.

At the Icarus Blog (possibly NSFW), Simon Jones pays homage to Cthulhu, the anonymous commenter who first alerted us all to the possibility of this happening, and scans the Japanese media:

Ahem… the English version of Nikkei apparently requires a subscription that I’m too cheap to fork over, but a quick search on the Japanese website turns up this brief article which mentions the words ”KodanshaUSA,” “New York,” “September,” and “$2,000,000.00 capital“ in the same paragraph. Tremble in fear, mortals!

Tiamat’s Disciple has some thoughts as well. Matt Blind, who doubted the story when Cthulhu initially leaked it, admits that he was wrong.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala just wants to know where to send his wish list. (If you want to make your own suggestions, go here for a look at the possibilities.)

That’s what ICv2 is reporting:

Japan’s highly respected Nikkei financial news service is reporting that Kodansha has set up a U.S. subsidiary “to publish and sell translations of its Japanese manga” in the U.S. starting in September. The reason for the move according to Nikkei, is “to boost its earnings in America, where its income has been limited to royalties received from U.S. firms.

This could obviously be a blow to Del Rey, which gets many if not most of their titles from Kodansha. More on this as it develops.

UPDATE: Heidi points out:

Kodansha setting up shop in the US does not invalidate the news that they are not immediately pulling licenses from US publishers, such as Del Rey, who have an existing relationship with the Japanese publishing giant. Kodansha has a huge number of properties to pick from, so there’s lot of stuff to go round, at least at first.

UPDATE 2: Christopher Butcher has more, but it’s on double secret background. And Gia links to the original article.

LATE UPDATE: At the Del Rey blog, Dallas Middaugh reassures us that Kodansha hasn’t pulled any licenses and it will be business as usual at Del Rey. (Thanks, Doinkies!)

Devil’s Due Publishing has made a deal with Digital Manga to publish a new Vampire Hunter D story in a monthly American-style comics format, according to ICv2. The Devils Due folks say the series, titled Vampire Hunter D: American Wasteland, will have “a noticeably North American feel never before seen in the Vampire Hunter D mythos, while closely paying respect to the history of D.” This struck me as curious:

Dark Horse publishes the Vampire Hunter D novels in the U.S. (Volume 11 is due out in October), and they continue to sell better than the vast majority of manga titles released here in the States.

Can that be? Of course, one could argue that the market is flooded right now with manga that aren’t selling, but I’d love to see hard numbers to back that statement up. (Image of the first Vampire Hunter D novel from the Dark Horse website.)

Rumors of Tokyopop returning rights to creators may have been greatly exaggerated. Rich Johnston puts a yellow light next to this item in his Lying in the Gutters column:

LITG had previous reported that TOKYOPOP would be negotiating the return of rights to its creators of properties, after the current reduction of publishing plans.

Well, it seems to have been all mouth and no trousers. Those who have made approaches buoyed by the news and with prominent publishers lined up have suddenly been rebuffed.

Johanna Draper Carlson lists some useful manga reference books at Comics Worth Reading.

Khursten takes a look at monsters in manga at Otaku Champloo.

Ed has good news at the MangaCast: Dark Horse will be publishing vol. 11 of Eden: It’s an Endless World, a series whose future has been in doubt for some time.

The Anime Expo drumbeat continues. Deb Aoki has a handy summary of the AX manga highlights at About.com,

News from Japan: This ran last week, but somehow I missed it: Suzue Miuchi will relaunch her classic manga Glass no Kamen (Glass Mask), one of the best selling shoujo manga of all time, in Bessatsu Hana to Yume magazine.

Reviews: Kiki Van De Kamp sings the praises of vol. 1 of Fairy Cube at Animanga Nation. Dan Grendell rounds up some brief manga reviews in his Manga Zubon column at Comic Pants. John Zakrzewski checks out vol. 1 of Rosario + Vampire and Matthew Alexander takes a peek at vol. 8 of Oh My Goddess at Anime on DVD. Dave Ferraro reads vol. 1 of Rin! at Comics-and-More. Lissa Pattillo takes a look at vol. 1 of Dark Prince at Kuriousity. Katie McNeill reviews vol. 1 of Vassalord at Blogcritics. Deb Aoki also reviews vol. 1 of Vassalord at About.com. Julie reads vol. 11 of Nana at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Johanna Draper Carlson reviews vol. 3 of Walkin’ Butterfly and vol. 1 of Kujibiki Unbalance at Comics Worth Reading.

There’s lots of excitement over the Vampire Hunter D franchise this week, what with Devils Due announcing that they will be publishing a VHD series in American comics format. Now the Digital Manga folks, who have the license for the VHD manga, are bringing the creators, Hideyuki Kikuchi and Saiko Takaki, to Anime Expo. Details, including the schedule for their panel and autograph sessions, are below the cut.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kiichi and the Magic Books, vols. 1 and 2
By Taka Amano
Rated T, for Teen
CMX, $9.99

The title of this series suggests one of those earnest reading-is-fun kids’ books written by well-meaning adults, which is a shame, because it’s actually much better than that. This is manga, after all, so the books don’t open up new wonderlands; they release demons and wild animals, which wreak havoc in various satisfying ways. The story doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a pleasant read and the art is unusual and quite graceful in places.

Kiichi is a little boy who is on his own. After his mother’s death, the people in his village noticed a horn sprouting from his forehead, which betrayed his oni [demon] blood, and they shunned him. His overriding emotion is not sadness or resentment but curiosity—he wants to know about oni, and he wants to find someone like him.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bizenghast is one of Tokyopop’s global manga that is showing some staying power—vol. 5 just came out, creator M. Alice LeGrow is working on vol. 6, and Tokyopop has extended the contract to an unprecedented vol. 7. You can check out what the fuss is all about this week, when Tokyopop is putting vol. 1 online for free. (Hat tip: Manga Xanadu.)

I missed this when it first came out, but it’s still pretty fresh: Ramsey Isler writes about Tokyopop’s troubles and the manga industry as a whole at IGN.com. I must say that I think the significance of people who read the manga in the bookstores and don’t buy it is overstated, but he makes some good points.

Planning ahead: Ed Chavez posts all the manga from the July Previews at MangaCast.

Looking for some light summer reading? Here’s a nice overview of sci-fi manga.

At Kuriousity, part three of Lissa Pattillo’s series on manga publishers focuses on boys love: Digital, 801, Blu, and Yaoi Press.

Anime Expo is coming, and Ed Chavez is ahead of the pack as usual with a rundown of all the manga programming at the MangaCast. Yamila Abraham invites everyone to the Yaoi Press booth, and Jason Thompson will be participating in the Otaku USA panel on Sunday.

Also, the latest Japanator podcast, Podtoid-San, is up, and it’s all about AnimeNEXT.

OT, but an interesting read: A longtime comics reader reflects one of the chief barriers to new comics readers: the retail comics system.

News from Japan: Koge-Donbo has a new manga in the works, titled Tame no Pavane (Pavane for a Dead Girl), to run in Comic Blade. This one is set in a Meiji-era music school. Singaporean blogger Vong Yonghow made it in to The LAST Manga Exhbition, an exhibit of Takehiko Inoue’s works, and he has the photos to prove it.

Reviews: Head over to PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog first, where Kate Dacey posts a host of mini-reviews. Lianne Sentar reviews Teru Teru x Shonen at Sleep Is for the Weak; check out this page for recent series updates as well. Mangamaniac checks out Feverish and Ed Chavez has a podcast review of vol. 2 of He Is My Master and vol. 1 of Kaze no Hana at the MangaCast. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand reviews the how-to manual Professional Manga. Sophie Stevens has high praise for vol. 2 of Honey and Clover at Animanga Nation. James Fleenor enjoys vol. 1 of Cowa! at Anime Sentinel. New reviews are up at the Boys Next Door blog: vol. 13 of Let Dai, vol. 6 of Junjo Romantica, and Gentle Cage. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 1 of Honey and Clover at Kuriousity. Tiamat’s Disciple posts reviews of vol. 1 of Sunshine Sketch, vol. 1 of Very Very Sweet, and vol. 1 of You’re So Cool. Michelle reads vol. 3 of Venus in Love at Soliloquy in Blue. Katie McNeill reviews vol. 1 of Devil’s Bride at Blogcritics. Leroy Douresseaux takes a look at vol. 1 of Time Stranger Kyoko at The Comic Book Bin.

C.B. Cebulski plays with our heads by posting some samples of a Junko Mizuno Spider-man project. Can this be for real? I guess we’ll find out. (Image swiped from C.B.’s blog—hey, everyone else is doing it!)

Danielle Leigh is getting ready to head off to the summer cons at Manga Before Flowers.

I don’t think I ever linked to this, so here it is: The winners of the 2nd Morning International Manga Competition, with links to the top-placing works as well as the judges’ comments. (Via Shari.)

Erica Friedman presents a week’s worth of yuri news at Okazu. And she looks at chapter 7 of Gunjou, which is running in the same Morning 2 magazine that features Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo manga.

Here’s evidence that Tokyopop is still alive: They have posted a lengthy preview of Vassalord on MySpace.

At the MangaCast, Ed Chavez takes a look at DMP’s new imprint, Doki Doki, which is strictly for books from the Japanese publisher Shinshokan, and ponders why Shinshokan chose to go that route rather than setting up their own brand here. He elaborates in comments at the Icarus blog (NSFW):

At a time when people are spreading rumors about Japanese pubs coming to this market, seeing Shinshokan further entrench themselves with DMP is actually refreshing. To me it shows confidence that DMP has a good grip on the BL market and that their Japanese partners see that also.

Also, Ed doesn’t think the BL wave has peaked. (Image of one of the new titles lifted from MangaCast.)

The ADV Death Watch crowd had a frisson of excitement on Friday when Anime on DVD reported on an auction of office furniture, etc. that had suspiciously familiar labels on it. ADV’s Chris Oarr confirmed that ADV was indeed auctioning off furniture but added that it was surplus stuff made unnecessary by already announced cutbacks, winding up his message with “P.S. Mention you heard about it on AoD and receive a free stapler with every purchase.” (Image swiped from here.)

Lissa Pattillo gives her impressions of several manga publishers at Kuriousity.

Tanoshimi is Del Rey’s British sister company, and blogger Alex of Nakama Brittanica has an appreciation of their books that will seem quite familiar to American fans of Del Rey.

Susie Lee of Studio QT explains how she retouched the sound effects on just one page of Gantz. John Jakala is impressed.

Visual Linguist Neil Cohn discusses some reasons why manga storytelling is so decompressed.

Alex Woolfson posts the pencils (rated 18+) for the second volume of his yaoi comic Artifice at Yaoi 911.

Friend of MangaBlog Matt Lehman wrote in to say that Comic Geek Speak interviewed Shannon and ?Angela, two staffers from his comics store, Comicopia.

The Manga Life writers heap scorn on a press release and reveal what they’re reading at the moment in the latest Manga Bulletin, and the staff also confess their guilty pleasures in a manga and anime roundtable.

The latest Japanator podcast, Podtoid-san, is up, featuring a discussion of ADV’s office furniture auction, Haridama Magic Cram School, and Maid Machinegun.

Nenena and Electric Goldfish express their opinions about the Harvey nomination for Witchblade. (Via When Fangirls Attack.)

Also via WFA: Ririka likes Claymore despite some WTF?s; Nenena adds some perspective in comments.

Queenie Chan posts the winners of the The Dreaming fanfic contest.

A Thai publisher has translated a 1984-vintage manga about Burmese human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, and it’s available for download for $3.

News from Japan: Yuu Watase is closing down Yuu Watase Perfect World Fushigi Yuugi magazine so she can start a new work, according to ANN. ANN also reports that a new series, Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Aoi Kioku (Blue Memories) just started up in Kadokawa Shoten’s Gundam Ace magazine. A new Macross manga and novel are on the way as well. Akio Tanaka, the artist for the manga Shamo, is suing Izo Hashimoto, who is credited as the creator of the manga. Tanaka claims that he was the one who came up with the plot and characters. Gia has more.

Reviews: Casey Brienza reviews vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly and Carlo Santos takes on vols. 14 and 15 of Monster at ANN. David Welsh takes a look at two new series from Go! Comi, vol. 1 of Kamisama Kazoku and vol. 1 of Ultimate Venus, at Precocious Curmudgeon. Michelle gets her hands on a copy of the hard-to-find Four Shojo Stories and reviews it at Soliloquy in Blue. She also checks out vol. 8 of Maison Ikkoku, vol. 2 of Sand Chronicles, and vol. 12 of xxxHolic. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie likes vol. 2 of Suppli better than vol. 1, and she’s disappointed that it may be cancelled. She gives thumbs up to vol. 13 of From Eroica With Love as well. John Thomas is pleased with vol. 1 of Gantz at Mecha Mecha Media. Kethylia enjoys vol. 28 of Naruto. At PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog, Ken Haley reviews vol. 1 of Real and Phil Guie checks out vols. 5-8 of Enchanter. Edward Zacharias has a detailed review of vol. 29 of Naruto and Faith McAdams takes a look at vol. 3 of High School Debut at Animanga Nation. These reviews focus heavily on plot, so there may be spoilers. Deb Aoki catches up with vols. 1-3 of Black God at About.com. Sesho posts an audio review of vol. 1 of Negima at Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews. Brian P reads Two Flowers for the Dragon at MangaCast. At Manga Life, Park Cooper snags an advance copy of vol. 30 of Naruto and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane reads vol. 1 of Time Stranger Kyoko and vol. 8 of La Corda d’Oro. Katie McNeill reviews vol. 1 of Hotel Africa and vol. 1 of Hellgate at Blogcritics. The Star of Malaysia picks up a Daily Yomiuri story about vols. 1-11 of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and reviewer Holy Cow checks out vol. 1 of Fairy Cube. Julie checks out vol. 2 of Hero Heel and vol. 2 of Yakuza in Love at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo posts on vol. 5 of Wild Adapter, vol. 3 of Winter Demon, and vol. 1 of +Anima. Erin Jones reads vol. 1 of B.O.D.Y. and Gary Thompson enjoys vol. 2 of Pumpkin Scissors at Anime on DVD. It’s Dragonball weekend at Prospero’s Manga, where Ferdinand reviews the two new Viz omnibuses (omnibi?), Dragonball, Big Volume 1 and Dragon Ball Z, Big Volume 1. Emily reviews two untranslated series, Shinai Virus and Flower, at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Sakura Kiss looks at vol. 1 of Tomcats, which is actually not yaoi, at The Yaoi Review. James Fleenor gives his impression of vol. 2 of Blood+ at Anime Sentinel. Brian Henderson reviews vol. 4 of Phantom at Manga Xanadu. Leroy Douresseaux reads vol. 1 of Battle Royale Ultimate Edition at The Comic Book Bin.

Benjamin Ong Pang Kean presents part two of his article on Tokyopop’s global manga creators at Newsarama. This one focuses on the fate of the series—some will continue as planned, some will go online, and some will be canceled outright. Some are in limbo, as the creators haven’t heard yet. Stay tuned.

Translator John Thomas sings the praises of light novels and addresses some of the issues around them, including the fact that bookstores aren’t sure where to shelve them.

The Japanese magazine Morning 2 posted the winners of its second international manga competition a little while ago. Now Ed Chavez posts his conversations with Morning 2 editor Eijiro Shimada; anyone interested in entering this year’s competition should take an especial interest in this.

Erin F. files a con report on Anime Next at the Manga Recon blog. And Anime Almanac’s Scott VonSchilling attended Anime Next with his first press badge ever, although he has been blogging along with the rest of us for several years. Welcome to the club, Scott. There’s a bottle of bourbon in the lower right drawer.

Hey, CLAMP fans: Shaenon Garrity wants to talk to you.

Kai-Ming Cha has more on the Shueisha/Shogakukan/ShoPro restructuring at Publishers Weekly. What does it mean to us?

In an e-mail exchange from Japan, Viz Media CEO Hidemi Fukuhara explained that the new partnership will impact “the process for animation and merchandising. Viz Media will be able to take more control of the properties because Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions will provide the various rights in a unified form.”

Sounds like they’re putting the final touches on their plans for world domination.

Reviews: The denizens of Manga Village have a new set of reviews up: Dan Polley on vol. 1 of The Reformed, John Thomas on Ohikkoshi, Sabrina on vol. 1 of Duck Prince, Charles Tan on vol. 3 of Eyeshield 21, and Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector. Connie reviews vol. 10 of Nana, vol. 3 of Andromeda Stories, and vol. 7 of After School Nightmare at Slightly Biased Manga. At Boys Next Door, Cynthia posts brief reviews of Weekend Lovers, vol. 3 of Totally Captivated, and vol. 1 of S. Chris Serani checks out Haridama Magic Cram School and Dick McVengeance critiques Maid Machinegun at Japanator. Julie reads vol. 2 of Honey and Clover at the Manga Maniac Cafe. David Welsh checks out two new titles from Go!Comi, vol. 1 of Kamisama Kazoku and vol. 1 of Ultimate Venus, at Precocious Curmudgeon. Erica Friedman reviews vol. 1 of Kannazuki no Miko at Okazu. Tangognat reads vol. 3 of Venus in Love.