Manga minis today are more links of interest and less news, but no less worth sharing:
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund‘s executive director delivered a speech at the Manga Freedom Tour in Japan. They’ve uploaded the whole thing for reading on their website, and it’s well worth checking out. It goes over a number of the legal situations readers have faced with manga, the medium’s North American expansion and the work that the CBLDF has done to support the work and its fans.
CBLDF’s article also mentions their upcoming publication, MANGA: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices, which is being released this December. I consider myself very fortunate to have been a part of this project, especially since it meant I got an early read of the great content.
“Made possible with a grant from the Gaiman Foundation, CBLDF Presents Manga is a handbook designed to provide a concise and informed overview of manga—its history, genres, and issues. This educational work delves into the history of manga, its major demographic divisions, its most significant creators, and the challenges it has sometimes faced in North America.”
And speaking of working to support manga and its readers, Organization Anti-Social Geniuses blog has posted a handy guide to the current ways to read manga (legally!) online. They have a comprehensive list that also includes their experiences with those they’ve used.
Sailor Moon‘s 20th Anniversary has led to lots of shiny goodies, and they just keep coming! Jewelry, toys, trinkets, cosmetics and the pages and pages of merchandise GE Animation has licensed and produced. And that’s the whole point of this snippet, just to remind you how many super shiny new pieces of Sailor Moon merch are out there. And I want them all.
Speaking of reminders, Jason Thompson is still writing his manga articles for Anime News Network, House of 1000 Manga. Every one is worth a read. In fact, two reads. At least. His most recent post was about Kaoru Mori’s Bride’s Story while last week was a detailed and entertaining look at the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga. Bask in that archive, it’s all good, and don’t forget Carlo Santos’ Right Turn Only!! column either.
And, though not manga, I was pretty giddy to first read about the new Pokemon anime that is a more faithful adaptation of the original games. While I’d love a series closer to the Pokemon Adventures manga series, I think the nostalgic look and sound of this anime adaptation of the original games seems pretty darn fun.
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Rounding out the shopping trip were some Black Jack DVDs to finish off my collection (yay discount bins), and also an adorable Sailor Moon keychain and Tuxedo Mask plushie. I also couldn’t help but buy a couple Fate/Zero key chains of Rider and Waver. I’ll buy anything with those two on it! Maybe someday I’ll do a write-up of the phenomenal 
Viz Media announced via their Shoujo Beat 
This is great news for those who’ve been buying these series like this, especially when a lot of these series’ individual volumes are difficult to come by. It’s been a huge sore spot for me that they’ve done these 3-in-1 re-releases of several series and have always ended them after only 3 books, then making note in that last book for readers to look for the singles. It’s a big slap in the face for collectors since the omnibus editions are cheaper and of course look very different from the singles. I hope this decision for Hana Kimi and Skip Beat! are because they’ve sold well, and I also hope it could inspire Viz Media to continue re-releasing some other series they’ve cut short this way such as Full Metal Alchemist.
We don’t cover much in the way of digital manga here on Kuriousity, but there are always exceptions and this is one. Viz Media made a great announcement for fans of the medium with their 
