Kuriousity | manga reviews and news

Posts Tagged Moyoco Anno

TCAF Welcomes Moyoco Anno to 2014 Event

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, March 10, 2014

Exciting news from Toronto Comics Art Fest last week – the annual comics event announced manga artist Moyoco Anno as their newest special guest!

Moyoco Anno is a name familiar to many English manga fans; her works have been released by several manga publishers over the past decade. Plus, she’s pretty great! Her titles include Insufficient Direction, Sakuran, Flowers & Bees, Sugar Sugar Rune, Happy Mania and the upcoming In Clothes Called Fat.

Moyoco Anno previously attended New York Comic Con 2012.

Well-timed to this news from TCAF is Crunchyroll adding three new Moyoco Anno titles to their digital manga program. Buffalo 5 Girls is a completed one-shot, while Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen and The Diary of Ochibi-san will be on-going simultaneous publications once the schedules line-up.

I’ve gone to TCAF for the past three years and have always loved it. The atmosphere, the artist’s present and the city itself are always worth the trip. This year is looking no less enjoyable! Along with Moyoco Anno, TCAF also recently announced est em would be attending. Can you say excited?

Share on Tumblr

Categories: News
Tags: Canada, Conventions, Moyoco Anno, TCAF, Vertical Inc

NYCC 2013: Vertical Inc Deals in Fat and Falls With Manga and Light Novel Licenses

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 17, 2013

No Comments »

Next up on Lissa-takes-a-while-to-post-manga-news-these-days, it’s more new licenses from this past week’s New York Comic Con, today courtesy of Vertical Inc:

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (Light Novel) – Ryō Suzukaze & Thores Shibamoto
In The Clothes Named Fat – Moyoco Anno

Kodansha Comics may’ve granted some wishes I thought were only a matter of time, but Vertical Inc did what I thought was impossible. The Attack on Titan prequel novel? Awesome! Before the Fall is a story that takes place seventy years prior to the events of Attack on Titan. The series is three volumes long and features the invention of the 3D maneuver gear.

Vertical Inc has the first volume scheduled to be released next summer, a couple months after Kodansha Comics will begin releasing the new manga version of the same story. I really hope this does well for Vertical, both out of adoration for the company itself and the want for more similar licenses in the future. Support the prose! I’ll be buying both versions but hope that one doesn’t negatively affect the other in regards to sales.

Next was manga time as Vertical pleased many a josei fan with their announcement of Moyoco Anno’s In The Clothes Named Fat. Vertical previously released her one-short, Sakuran (which was fantastic, by the way), and announced her romantic-autobiographical series, Insufficient Direction this past summer.

In The Clothes Named Fat is another one-shot, but set in modern day. It revolves around an office worker who is self-conscious and bullied about her weight. When her boyfriend breaks up with her, she becomes determined to lose weight no matter what.

Vertical Inc plans to release this title next summer as well. I’m really looking forward to reading it. After Sakuran, I gained a new respect for her works. A well-structured one-shot worked so much better for me than her previously released multi-book series, such as Happy Mania or Sugar Sugar Rune.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing
Tags: Attack on Titan, Conventions, In The Clothes Named Fat, Light Novels, Manga, Moyoco Anno, NYCC, Vertical Inc

Marital Bliss as Vertical Licenses Moyoco Anno’s Insufficient Direction

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, July 5, 2013

1 Comment »

Vertical Inc had their first of a few upcoming license announcements this week at Anime Expo:

Insufficient Direction – Moyoco Anno

This amusing looking one-shot is an autobiographical piece about Moyoco Anno’s relationship, and eventual marriage, to Hideaki Anno. Moyoco Anno already has a fair sized following among manga readers – her most recent title was Vertical Inc’s Sakuran – but I’m curious to see if this being a story staring the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, boosts it as well.

You can look at a view sample pages for this book on its Amazon.jp page. In her books, Moyoco Anno often depicts herself with a baby-avatar and from the preview it looks like she’s continuing to use that in Insufficient Direction. It might take some careful reading to remember that the ‘baby’ is Moyoco Anno herself. Looks to be a funny read though!

Vertical Inc dates the release for this book in Spring 2014.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: Conventions, Insufficient Direction, Moyoco Anno, one-shot, Vertical Inc

Manga Guests Announced for New York Comic Con 2012

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, September 20, 2012

2 Comments »

New York Comic Con – formally known in-part as the New York Anime Fest – is swiftly coming up with October just around the corner. Leading up to the date with news of their guests and events, the convention announced Tuesday (via their mobile app) that they’ll be having three manga guests in attendance for NYCC 2012.

Masakazu Ishiguro
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Moyoco Anno (website)
Sakuran*, Flowers & Bees*, Sugar Sugar Rune

Toshio Maeda (website)
Demon Beast Invasion*, La Blue Girl, Legend of the Overfiend*, Adventures Kid*

*These series are rated 18+ for sexual content, and sometimes violence, so readers be warned if you’re curious of what they are! Toshio Maeda’s website also has a lot of mature imagery.

The app lists Masakazu Ishiguro as a guest courtesy of JManga, while Moyoco Anno will be there as a special guest of Vertical Inc. JManga is currently releasing Ishiguro’s Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (digital only) and Vertical Inc. just released a beautiful omnibus release of Moyoco Anno’s Sakuran this past summer. They have a few more details about her appearance on their newly relaunched blog.

Vertical Inc’s marketing director, Ed Chavez, spent Monday teasing eager fans on Twitter with news that there would be a big announcement on Tuesday. Guesses ranged from new licenses to Vertical Inc going digital, but the closest hint he’d give was that the news would make some happy and others sad (“…will applaud but will be saddened all the same.”). The news is great for Vertical but I can’t say I was particularly happy or sad either way, finding the news rather lacklustre after all that hype. Then again I’m not someone who generally goes to conventions for the guests so that’s just me. None the less, I hope all three guests have a great time visiting the convention and meeting some of their global fans!

Share on Tumblr

Categories: News
Tags: Conventions, Digital, Hentai, Manga, Moyoco Anno, NYCC, NYCC 2012, Vertical Inc

13 Days of Halloween: Sugar Sugar Rune

By Shannon Fay on Monday, October 11, 2010

2 Comments »

Shannon, here – Halloween is my favourite holiday and to honour it I’m counting down 13 manga throughout the month that I think best capture the Halloween spirit. They aren’t all horror manga, as to me Halloween is about more than scares: it’s about a sense of fun and wonder. It’s about discovering that there may be more to this world than meets the eye. So with that in mind, there’s everything on this list from action-packed shounen to romantic-comedy to children’s manga to some lock-the-doors-and-leave-the-lights-on horror. (See all 13 Days of Halloween so far…)

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

10. Sugar Sugar Rune

Sugar Sugar Rune is a children’s fantasy series from Moyoco Anno, a manga-ka more known for her explicit josei manga like Happy Mania and Flowers and Bees. It’s about two young witches, Chocolat Meilleure and Vanilla Mieux, who are sent to the human world to compete in a contest to collect human hearts. Whoever collects the most wins and becomes queen of the magical world. The heart collecting is more symbolic than literal, so if you were expecting a manga where two little girls hunt down humans and rip the still beating hearts from their victim’s chest, well, it’s probably out their but this isn’t it.

What Sugar Sugar Rune is is a cute fantasy series that manages to be smart as well. There are lots of shoujo manga featuring witches as the protagonists, but Anno has really put a lot of thought into the magical system and the way magic works. Just like in her adult series there are some very interesting observations about gender and how men and women (or, considering the ages of the characters in Sugar Sugar Rune, boys and girls) relate to each other.

But much like D.Gray-man, it’s the art that makes this series rise above other manga featuring similar themes. Anno abandons her usual sparse style to go in the opposite direction here. There’s a ton of occult imagery packed into practically every page of the manga, all of it rendered in a sparkly, screen-tone drenched shojo style. It’s a weird mash-up, but it works. If you want a sparkly shojo this Halloween season, then Sugar Sugar Rune is what you’re looking for.

Share on Tumblr

Categories: Misc, Reviews
Tags: 13 Days of Halloween, Del Rey, Manga, Moyoco Anno