Kodansha, Tezuka winners announced

Well, I suppose the cat is out of the bag, so I will confirm what everyone knows: we’ve licensed Aqua Bless.  Which is a record, and probably will remain so for a long time, for newest book we are able to license.  (As Ed notes, Aqua Bless was released at the tail end of February this year.)  AtCat gets my props as s/he with the perfect photographic/pornographic memory.  m(_ _)m

And just this morning, I received another confirmation… Chataro’s Bikini no Reina Sensei (English title not yet determined, Chataro sensei wants to change it.)  Thanks to everyone for your help in finding licensing information on the book.  We still aren’t 100% sure of the book’s status in all of Europe, but the answer from Japan was “we got your back”, and that’s good enough for me.

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I could rant about how terribly artists are treated, how big companies don’t take care of their own, or even how the healthcare system in America is broken, but it really comes down to this… some good people have been hit hard by fate, and are in dire need of assistance.  It’s not the obscene generosity of a few, but the small kindness from many that makes the difference.

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MangaCast has the winners of the Kodansha Award while ComiPress scoops the Tezuka Award winners, and PreCur manages to find what sliver of info exists on one of the triumphant authors.

MangaCast notes that every winner of the Kodansha Award last year was licensed for publication in the U.S.. I sure hope the title “InterSexual” is kept in tact when it heads for the states, whoever ends up with it.

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Here’s a post at CWR about the gender-related expectations of Superhero comics that’s apparently attracting negative feedback, most of which I don’t understand since the observations presented seem to reflect the current and less-than-desirable state of comics market reality quite accurately, and is painfully reminiscent of past discussions of gender-specific manga genres.  Given how often definitions are played loosely, straw men are erected, and the ease with which completely separate issues are conflated in such debates, I know better now than to join the fray and will merely point you towards it.