A partial “best of” list

Manga Life has posted its end of 2008 wrap-up. I contributed a few thoughts on my favorite manga and anime releases in 2008.
Click on the link to see what I and other ML contributors cited as our favorites. I read lots of other things I loved this year, of course, but most of the others [...]

Voice actor performances

Voice acting is one of those things I never really noticed until I started watching anime. Then I went and compared the original Japanese-language audio tracks of a couple anime to their English-language dubs and heard for myself the difference a voice performance can make. For some series, it’s not that big a deal. For [...]

Hagaren miscellany

Via umadoshi: Jake Forbes on the joys of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. An excerpt:
Any anime fan who’s followed the scene for the last five years is probably quite familiar with this ongoing tale of angst and alchemy, but if you’ve only experienced Fullmetal in its animated form, you’re really missing out. The manga, still going [...]

Naruto Nation redux

As others in the comics & anime blogosphere have already reported, Viz will be repeating last year’s Naruto Nation in the first half of 2009.
On the manga front, eleven volumes of manga will be released between February and April 2009; after this, the series will go back to its old quarterly release schedule. On the [...]

Link roundup 2008-09-24

I know, I know – all work and no blogging makes Joy a dull girl. To make up for my long radio silence, I present you with some recent interesting links on libraries, Asian-American media, and anime. Semi-regular posting will resume eventually.

The American Library Association has relaunched its website with a fresh new design. Check [...]

Female characters in manga and anime

A while back, over at Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala posted a list of his 25 favorite manga characters. I’m a big fan of lists, but in the tradition of “5 things makes a post,” I’m going to do a shorter one: my top five favorite female characters in manga and anime.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)

I first heard of director Shinkai Makoto through a brief mention of his work in Asia Pacific Arts’ Best of 2007: Asian Film roundup. I do not usually find anime recommendations over at APA, which made this mention worth investigating, so I added Shinkai’s work to my Netflix queue. I started with Shinkai’s most recent [...]

Anime and manga that rock

I’ve just started watching the BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad anime courtesy of Netflix (verdict so far: not bad at all!), and it inspired me to brainstorm all the manga and anime that I know that feature rock music as a subject or as a central theme.
First, there are the obvious shojo and shonen-ai counterparts to [...]

Sakura 101

For me, learning to interpret a whole new set of cultural references and symbols is one of the pleasures of reading manga and watching anime. And one of the most widely used symbols in manga and anime, especially at this time of year, is sakura, or cherry blossoms.
Sakura is known for its short-lived beauty. As [...]

Cowboy Bebop

I’ve decided to start a new feature for this blog: the recommended series. I’ve been writing reviews of individual manga volumes and plan to do some of individual anime DVDs, but sometimes it makes more sense to write a post on a series as a whole. To start things off, here’s a look at one [...]

Link roundup 2008-02-25

Over at Asia Pacific Arts, Gene Yang talks about the growth of Asian American comics and his current projects in The Second Life of Gene Yang. Am I a geek for being excited by the prospect of a comic about the Boxer Rebellion?
David Welsh’s Flipped column has found a new home at The Comics [...]

New lists from ICv2

ICv2 has released its latest top manga and anime properties list. You’ll have to get the actual guide to see the full lists, but here are the top ten titles:
ICv2’s Top Ten Manga Properties for 2007:
1. Naruto
2. Fruits Basket
3. Death Note
4. Bleach
5. Kingdom Hearts
6. Pokemon
7. Vampire Knight
8. Fullmetal Alchemist
9. Absolute Boyfriend
10. Loveless
ICv2 Top Ten Anime [...]