Forum - View topicWhat is hot in Japan right now?
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
cboudreau
 Posts: 69 Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada |
|
||
|
I'm looking for a little help from folks living in Japan, who know what manga is currently hot in Japan, but is not yet licensed to come to North America. I'm a writer / reviewer for the Web site comicreaders.com and am looking to do a monthly manga column that spotlights some of the hot / popular manga in Japan. I think a column like that would give good insight to North American readers as to the diversity of manga and as to what is currently popular overseas, as a lot of what we get here in North America are older series.
I've tried doing online research, but most of the sites I hit are in Japanese, and I unfortunately, don't know the language. If you're interested in helping me out, you can drop me an email at [email protected]. I'm not opposed to having a lot of input from multiple people, and whoever helps me out will get a byline credit in the colum. Thanks for reading. |
|||
|
|||
|
linlinchan
Posts: 286 |
|
||
|
Too bad you didn't catch me last year. (spent the whole year in Kyoto, and all I did was read new manga releases, went to the bookstore almost everyday)
|
|||
|
|||
|
sacchan
Posts: 277 Location: Okinawa, Japan |
|
||
|
These are rankings I got from Amazon Japan:
manga in general 1. Hagane no renkin jutsushi 9 2. Genshiken 5 3. Ah Megami Sama! 30 4. Real 4 5. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou 12 shojo manga ranking 1. Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden 3 2. Hanazakari no Kimitachi e 23 3. Kimi wa Pet 11 4. Mizu ni Sumu Hana 2 5. Yuri Shimai 5 My personal "hot" manga (although not in this top 5) is 7SEEDS by Yumi Tamura. See here for more details 
|
|||
|
|||
Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
|
||
|
Thanks for the links sacchan. Very interesting top 25 (I'm suprised at Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Blade of the Immortal being on there; didn't know they were that popular). REAL is a great manga from Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk, Vagabond). It's about wheelchair basketball, but what sets it appart from other sports manga is that it really focus on characters and how basketball brings them together, rather than just showing them playing the game. Imagine a mature, dramatic Slam Dunk and you've got REAL.
It isn't on the list, but I've heard several accounts that 20th Century Boys is big right now. It's by Naoki Urasawa, one of the most acclaimed manga-ka of our time, and has already won some pestigious awards. I have to say that this is his best manga (yes, even better than Monster, which should be released in the US soon). The writing is nothing short of brilliant; from the beginning you can see that Urasawa knows exacally where he wants to take it, and because of that the pacing is perfect. There are alot of characters, but they are all very good, and you really get a feel that they're real people (which makes their heroism all the more inspiring). The plot is full of mystery and suspense, and is filled with twists and turns. http://animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=3424 |
|||
|
|||
|
cboudreau
Posts: 69 Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada |
|
||
|
Cool, thanks for the great input! Kagemusha and sacchan, are you both in Japan, or are you just super-big manga fans more in turn with Japanese pop culture than little ole me?
|
|||
|
|||
|
Kagemusha
Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
|
||
|
Nope; I've heard from several sources that 20CB is very popular right now though (practically everything that author does is a smash).
|
|||
|
|||
|
lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
|
||
|
I tend to keep my eye on
http://www.animaxis.com/en/zine/ranking.asp? which gives you the weekly Japanese top sellers. Also, though ANN discourages linking and such, scanlation sites are a good place to check out. Most of them are really good about taking off licensed titles, so their current projects are usually fairly recent things from Japan.
Don't quite know what you're considering "older," but I'd like to point out that while it may have been the case a couple years back, N. America is getting a slew of quite recent manga today. We're getting series as recently as a couple months to only a couple of years after they come out in Japan. Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for fans who are looking for those older series, as the companies are focusing their attention on the newer, more popular titles at the moment. |
|||
|
|||
|
sacchan
Posts: 277 Location: Okinawa, Japan |
|
||
Yes, I'm Japanese, and I live in Okinawa 
I just came back from seeing Howl's Moving Castle and I bought Hanazakari no Kimitachi e 23, too
|
|||
|
|||
|
seiramas
Posts: 24 |
|
||
|
I think Gundam SEED destiny and The prince of tennis are popular in Japan. Because there are many private fan website about them. They've been published in many magazines in Japan. I like both, too.
|
|||
|
|||
|
cboudreau
Posts: 69 Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada |
|
||
I agree with your statement. I guess I was speaking historically. |
|||
|
|||
Sarki-Kun
 Posts: 594 Location: Spain |
|
||
|
Animaxis.com? Weekly? Are you sure? It has been stuck for three years, and that's (sadly) a common thing there...In my opinion, they could do it better...u.u
|
|||
|
|||
littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
|
||
Well, seeing that Death Note volume 4 JUST came out, I'd say it's pretty updated on that page Liann linked to. |
|||
|
|||
imaginary_num6er
 Posts: 53 Location: In the U.S, was in Japan for 18 years |
|
||
|
Basically, most of the stuff in "Weekly Shiyonen Jump" or in "Magazine" or "Sunday" should be what is popular in Japan. Since these manga collections are always at competition at each other, they have to be better than average. However, there are always once in a while, a skrewball that is bad, but that never dies lol. You must also remember that some manga, although they might be good, might not be selling individualy that well because the majority of fans rely on reading the episodes within the larger manga collections (ex. BLEACH).
|
|||
|
|||
|
Sarki-Kun
Posts: 594 Location: Spain |
|
||
|
Death Note 4 may be something a bit new, but I still think that having the list over three weeks inactive is not enough...I think they could do it better.
Don't tell me you're actually trying to impress... |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group