According to AnimeY, Tokyopop announced that Marie Sann and Guido Neukamm have a new series in the works. Krähen (Crows) will be two volumes long, the first of which should be out by the end of the year.

The blog Manly Manga and More recently posted Carlsen’s Bestsellers for 2007– fans of Chibi should be excited to see that four titles made the top 20: Luxus, Drachenschnee, Raccoon, and White Pearl. All four are from the first Chibi set. The blog does mistakenly say that all Chibi titles use a super-deformed art style, though.

Quite a few books are set to come out at the annual Leipzig Bookfair. One of these is Schwarzer Turm’s Hungry Hearts v2, which contains a short story called “Zweigeteilt” that might be of interest to readers of this blog!

German readers might be interested in an article recently published in the Bookfair-special edition of the Leipzig newspaper: Dragon Ball und die Folgen. According to the article, “Almost all up-and-coming German comic artists draw in this style.” It also lists some sales numbers for various authors, and gives summaries of the most well-known titles published.

The English reviews keep piling up!  Y Square has a new review up at Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review.

 I haven’t been a teenager for a long time and school is (thankfully) a distant memory as well. Consequently, there was nothing there that engaged me at all. I read the whole thing but there was nothing there that made me want to keep reading.

There’s another review of the English version of In the End up, this time at Prospero’s Manga.

This could have been an ugly look at the real world of abuse, but instead the author wants the reader to feel some kind of sympathy for Ren without putting enough work into describing Ren’s motivations.

Time for some very unabashed pimping!

I’m a finalist in Tokyopop USA’s Rising Stars of Manga 8! There are 21 finalists, only 8 genre winners, and 1 People’s Choice winner!
Voting went up last night, and you can take part by voting here! Voting will be open March 7 - 14.
There’s no need to register; all you need is an email address.

My entry is Crabapple Crush, a 16 page romance/drama.
Please vote if you like it!

- Niki (”Elae”, main blog writer here at Deutsche Mangaka)

Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone– I’ve been devoting every moment of my time to trying to break into the business myself!

Here’s a few bits of information I’ve spotted, though, for those interested in titles that have been licensed for release in the USA.

Yen Press has a new and improved website, and on their long list of titles one can spot Y Square Plus. There’s no more info up yet (release date, ISBN…), but I’ll try to let you know when I find it!

Also licensed but not widely announced: Tokyopop’s In the End. ActiveAnime did an advance review, and has little bad to say.

There is a great deal of mature subject matter in this story. It is not for the faint of heart or those hoping for neat endings with pretty bows to tie things up nicely. Although the men in this manga are drawn exquisitely and with edge, that edge is a part of the story and the riveting illustrations. A look that is a cross between punk and Goth, the dark drawings have detailed designs that are uncommon in most manga and have a unique texture to them that is absorbing to look at.

With Y Square’s release in America being one of publisher Yen Press’ first releases, many are jumping to review it. Here are a few samplings of what we’ve seen.

About.com: Deb’s Manga Blog

German-Korean manga artist Judith Park has a nice style – the boys and girls are cute and there are lots of lovely details on almost every page. But pretty pin-ups can’t hide the fact that Y Square’s characters are one-dimensional, their dialogue is stilted and the plot is all over the place.

Comixmix: Manga Friday

 Y Square is a lot more conventional, and not as much goofy fun as Sundome is. I also expect that Y Square will be much more popular, especially with young women who either haven’t quite made the big jump to full-on yaoi or young women who prefer their boy-on-boy sexual tension to remain unresolved.

EMA’s manga preview publication has gone online! Available in flash format, you can check out summaries of upcoming series and a wide variety of sample pages.
To see the info regarding global manga works, enter the following page numbers into “Gehe zu”:
5: Gott Gauss, a three volume work by Bruno Cotting & Viviane.
6: Musouka, a two volume boys’ love work by Diana Liesaus.
7 or 8: Drama CDs of Catwalk and Mon-Star Attack.

Also mentioned are a number of changes to the release schedule.
Moved to Summer 2008: Gott Gauss 2 and Independent 3.
Pushed back: Mon-Star Attack CDs, Fight!, Freaky Angel 2, and Without Identity 3.

Also of interest is a new manga-style tarot deck that’s being released with art by Viviane. The deck is coming out from publishing house Urania (well-known for their card decks), and sample images can be seen on Viviane’s portfolio site. “I had to draw all of 78 cards. What a huge amount of work!”

Tokyopop just sent out a newsletter, with a few points of interest:

Freche Mädchen - freche Manga!
Tokyopop has joined efforts with Stuttgarter Verlag Thienemann to put out a manga version of the successful series, Freche Mädchen - freche Bücher! (Cheeky Girls, Cheeky Books!). Originally written by Bianka Minte-König, Tokyopop has brought on artist Inga Steinmetz (who was in Manga Fieber) to draw the manga.
Each of the three planned books will focus on one of the three protagonists, and the readers can look forward to amusing and turbulent stories that revolve around the exciting teenage life of Hannah, Mila and Kati. Handykuss und Liebesrätsel comes out in June.

Kulla
Followers of Schwarzer Turm will find Kulla very familiar! Tokyopop is putting out a reworked version of Kulla und die Wunschblume next year, and the story will be followed by two more volumes of stories about Anne Pätzke’s small bunny.

While not part of the newsletter, it’s been revealed that Lime Manga has split from Tokyopop.  The creators have released volumes of two series through Tokyopop, Evergrey and Yaru, but will be taking over publication and distribution themselves, licensing the works from Tokyopop. The split “was a totally mutual split and on good terms,” according to Lime Manga. The two were interviewed for an article at Publisher’s Weekly, which mentions that they plan on bringing out remastered editions of their series at the end of next year, and are currently looking into English-language publication.

German publishers continue to prove that they’re much more willing than American pubs when it comes to selling merchandise of their global series. Carlsen has come up with a Dystopia-themed bag, and are promoting it through Daisuki, the monthly anthology the series was originally serialized in. Sign up for a year of Daisuki, and get a limited edition bag with art from Judith Park’s first series!