September 2009

  • Manga Creator, Yoshito Usui, Dies at 51

    By akgoemans on 9/21/09 3:27am
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    Crayon Shin-chanCrayon Shin-chan

    This is sad news for fans of manga creator, Yoshito Usui. The popular Japanese cartoonist appears to have died from a hiking accident sometime after September 11. He was first reported missing on the night of the 12th and his body was found days later in the mountainous area of the Gunnma prefecture.



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  • Scanlations: It is all about demand and supply

    By akgoemans on 9/14/09 8:48am
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    Abel buys what?Abel buys what?I came across an article recently about the scanned manga works that are being uploaded to various websites without the copyright holder's permissions. According to the article, the injured parties in these cases are thinking of ways to counter this and have already dreamed up a few schemes. I was quite upset with the views and stance of these companies regarding the scanned work or scanlations as they were referred to in the article. And that is what prompted me to write this article.

    Basically, the article highlighted how scanlations were bad for the manga creators. Interestingly, the most common anti-pirate arguments of the music industry did not crop up here – i.e. the sad image of the starving artist – but rather, it focused on quality control as the theme of the day.



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  • Barefoot Gen

    By akgoemans on 9/8/09 7:14am
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    GenGenUnlike the controversial Mein Kampf manga, this is the type of manga I would class as educational. It talks of real-life experiences and teaches us about the follies of nuclear weapons. The manga in question is Barefoot Gen and it revolves around the post-war experiences of writer, Keiji Nakazawa.

    In this manga, Nakazawa describes the daily life of folk affected by the nuclear bombings (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). It describes scary instances like the side-effects, the hardships as well as touching moments like the people's perseverance to survive and make it through the tough times.



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  • Mein Kampf as a manga finds eager customers?

    By akgoemans on 9/7/09 7:39am
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    Manga Mein KampfManga Mein Kampf

    Consider this your WTF news of the day. Adolf Hitler's infamous book, Mein Kampf, was made into a manga series and released in Japan. Contrary to any naysayers who might think that the book sales would stagnant, maybe even fall faster than Fanny Hill's garters, this manga did rather well. Apparently the Manga de Dokuha or 'read it as a manga' book reeled in at least 45,000 buyers!



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  • Naruto Postage Stamps

    By akgoemans on 9/3/09 3:04am
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    NarutoNaruto

     

    With the introduction of Naruto Postage Stamps at the end of October, Japanese postal service is definitely jazzing up the system. The stamp collection will be called 'NARUTO-Naruto – Accel' (google translation) and it features ten prominent characters from the popular manga/anime series:


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