Animes-bg.com's 7th Birthday

On July 28th was held http://www.animes-bg.com/main/ 's 7th birthday party. This is the biggest anime and manga web-site in Bulgaria. So here is my experience form the event.

I met up with a friend - Taho (not his actual name) and we went together to Interpred center, where the event was held. There we met up with my kouhai Suzuki (not her actual name). The party was supposed to start at 11:00h, but there was a delay (which is not unusual) and we entered the building and bought tickets at about 11:40h. There were a lot of people gathered in front of the building and it took some time for everyone to get in so the event started at about 12:15h.

So the event started with a little greeting from the creator and administrator of the web page and announcement of the program. Many AMVs were played between different parts the program and filled the time. 

The most important thing, that was announced during the event, was the start of the publishing of actual Japanese manga here in Bulgaria. Artline Studios are going to start publishing Naruto and One Piece in September 2012 and if everything goes well they are planning to start publishing Bleach and Death Note. It appears, that they wanted to start this project for quite a while now, but they had trouble negotiating with the Japanese publishers. The great thing is that the manga is going to be translated directly from Japanese and will be on a very reasonable price, in my opinion - 10 lv a volume (about 5 euro). I hope that this time everything works out just fine and we finally have some manga on our market.

This announcement was followed by a very interesting presentation on Modern Japan by Eastern Spirit. They talked mainly about Tokyo and the Kanto region, showing many photos of different places.

After that was the cosplay review and I have to say that our cosplayers are becoming better and better with every event. There also were many really good cosplayers that had come as a public and were not a part of the show.

The cosplay was followed by a raffle with many prizes like figures, headphones, t-shirts, hats and so one. Suzuki won a t-shirt.  

Meanwhile Taho had gone playing in the Mortal Combat 9 tournament and won himself a LineAge II art book and a key chain PS controller.

There were many other games like Magic the Gathering and the traditional Japanese game  Go that anyone could play. Taho and I played some Magic the Gathering and it was fun. There was also a cake, but there were too many people, who wanted to get a piece of it that I decided not to try it.

The event ended at about 18:00h, when the final prizes were given away. 

So many things were going on that there was just no chance that you could get bored. Time really passed by fast and I fully enjoyed myself. I think that the only downside is that there wasn't any merchandise you could buy. (not that I didn't buy a figure and some manga that same day, but they weren't bought from the event, so I will be talking about them in some other posts)
Here are the photos I took :)

 Suzuki's One Piece gear

Our pass bracelets that came with the tickets

 The announcing of the publishing of Naruto and One Piece

This is what the ticket looked like.

Manga releases in Bulgaria: N3

This post will be just a short update. 

One of my readers pointed out to me that I had forgotten one of the manga books, that have been published here. So here it is:

This is volume one of Hemispheres. This is a photo from one of our bookstores. I don't have the book and I don't plan on buying it, because I read it online at http://www.amilova.com/en/ and wasn't impressed by it. The artwork is mediocre and the story isn't my type at all. However, if you like medieval comedy, you may like this book :)

A little comic book adventure

So I had some spare time the other day and went to the bookstores to search for volume 1 and volume 2 of Scott Pilgrim (since these are the only two that have been published here so far). Actually, volume one came out last year, but I wasn't really interested in the series at the time (I had only seen the movie), but when I saw that they had translated and published volume two, I decided to give it a try. And besides, the price is 10 lv (about 5 euro), which is quite acceptable.

I am mentioning Scott Pilgrim in this blog, because it's a black and white graphic novel, which is inspired by Japanese manga and it's a really great comic!

Anyway, I got in a bookstore, that was on my way home. This bookstore is in a subway and it's usually a pretty bright place, but that day the lights were kind of dim and you couldn't see very well inside. So I got to the comic book section and found volume two. I looked for volume one, but I didn't see any, so I ask a staff person, who also said that there are none left. I said ok and went to pay for volume two.

 I went out of the bookstore and decided to go to another one to see if they had volume one. After a little looking around I finally found it (in the children's books section -_-''') and took it, too. I started reading on the bus on the way home and got really into it. 

So I finished volume one and found nothing wrong with it. Well, the were two pages, that were stuck together, but I fixed them really easily.

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
and
Scott Pilgrim vs. World
by Bryan Lee O'Malley

And then I took volume two out of the bag and... Remember how I said that it was really dim in the first bookstore? Yeah.... I saw that the edges of the cover were kind of worn out as you can see in the picture on the side. And this is a brand new book! I really couldn't see that in the store.

This morning I found out there is one more thing that is wrong with this book. On the side you can see a comparison of two pictures. The first one is a photo, that I took of the book, I have, and the second one is a picture of what there should have been in the blank space. There is quite a big difference! Now, I can deal with the worn out edges, because what's important for me is the inside of the book, but this really irritated me.

I don't know if the publisher decided to print every copy of the book this way, or I was just "lucky" enough to get the messed up copy, but I plan to find out. And if the other books have this picture I might just buy a new copy and sell the one I have for lower price, I'll see. 

All in all, I liked the first two volumes of Scott Pilgrim and I am really tempted to read the next four volumes. The artwork is simple, but really nice, the story is very interesting and the characters are intriguing. What more would you want from a graphic novel?

Manga releases in Bulgaria: N2

This post will be about Shogun magazine - the manga magazine we had here in Bulgaria.

This magazine has only 16 issues and ran from April 2009 to October 2010. It's actually a copy of a French manga magazine and most of the manga in it is French. There is only one Japanese manga. Every issue is about 180 pages long, including articles and four manga chapters from different stories.
Here is the web page of the magazine - http://manga.pres.bg/ Unfortunately, the forum doesn't work anymore.

The magazine as a whole wasn't taken very well by the public and this is the reason it soon died. Many were very excited by the news that a manga magazine is starting here and many bought the magazine, while it was being published, but soon decided that they are not interested in it and wanted to sell the issues they had. So, soon the forums were flooded with posts from people, selling the magazine on much lower price than it actually was. And the magazine wasn't that expensive itself - you had to give 6 lv. (about 3 euro or 3,50 $) for an issue, which came out once a month. Later the price became 7 lv. and I still didn't find it expensive, at all. At the time I wasn't collecting any other magazines, because there was nothing to collect and I was thrilled with this new magazine. 

Overall, I liked how it was made. Of course, there are things that I didn't like so I will start with them and proceed with the things I liked about it.

First of all it was short for a monthly magazine. One issue contains about two or three articles and four manga chapters and you can finish reading the whole the thing for about an hour or so and than you have to wait a whole month for the next issue, which was kind of irritating. I don't know if you have seen Japanese monthly magazines, for example, but they are as big as phone books.
Second, the choice of manga. Of all six manga, that were published I like only three, two of them I find to be ok, but not really my style and the last one was utterly boring. I will explain more about the manga below.
And third - this magazine is not Japanese. There is only one Japanese manga in it, and even though it's interesting, that doesn't make the whole magazine Japanese and they actually try to sell it for one. This, I think, is the main reason why it died so fast.
Lets continue with the things I like about the magazine.
I really like how every issues is made. I like the covers and the formation of the pages. The paper has great quality and the covers are thick. I find this to be a big plus, because most of the things such as books or comics, that are published here, usually don't have good quality and fall apart very easily.
The articles were always very interesting and they talked not only about anime and manga things, but also about Japanese culture. There were articles about the history of manga, the different genres, different editions and specifics. There were also articles about ijime (bullying in Japan), enjo kousai (young girls, who work as companions to elderly men) or Japanese mythology. All in all the articles were very interesting and educational.
One of the greatest things about the magazine were the art contests. They allowed young unknown Bulgarian artists to be published in a magazine and seen by manga fans around the country. I personally have won the contest four times and have friends, who have also won many times. There was a competition about manga and for picture to advertise a web page.

 This is a picture of all the 16 issues together.

 Here you can see what they did with the spine of every issue. I really like that they chose to form Hokusai's picture.

 The cover of issue number one. This is art from B.B Project - a manga by the French artist shonen-san. This guy has really amazing artwork. I really love his style and the story B.B Project was quite decent.
Shonen-san's gallery

 The cover of issue number three. Artwork from Vairocana - a manga by the Japanese artist Moa Hato. Very interesting story and great artwork.
Moa Hato's gallery

 The cover of issue number six. Artork from Omega Complex - a manga, again by shonen-san. Needless to say, the artwork is awesome and the story is amazing.

The cover of issue number four. Artwork from Pen Dragon - a manga by Mika, who I think is French. The artwork and  the story are kind of narutoish. It's a typical shonen. Interesting, but not really my style.

This is a picture from the manga Kairi by Janina Gorrisen (a German artist) and Audrey Diallo (a Fernch writer). The art is really decent, but the story is a little bit too dramatic for me.
As you can, I didn't use a cover to show you a picture of the manga, because, they never put Kairi on the cover.
Janina Görrissen's gallery

The cover of issue number two. Artwork from All In - a manga by Diaz, Irons. D and N'Dish, who I think are a Spanish team (correct me if I'm wrong; I really couldn't find much information about the creators). This manga is about poker and since I don't play and don't know anything about poker, I thought that the story was quite boring and the artwork is crappy.

These are three of the four pictures of mine, that were published in the magazine in issue six, issue eight and issue twelve.







I actually liked the magazine, even though it had problems. I think that it would have turned in a really nice magazine, which features Bulgarian artists, with time if it had been more popular and if it hadn't bankrupted.
I also think that fans should be more supportive of the things that come out on our market, because if they are not, they risk not to have anything here in the future.
That's about it. Comment if you have any questions and suggestions :)

Manga releases in Bulgaria:N1

As the title says, in this post I will be talking about manga releases in my home country - Bulgaria.This is number 1, because I will be focusing only on book editions here and in number 2  I will focusing on the manga magazine we had here.

The very first manga-like thing that we got here in Bulgaria was volume 1 of the Warcraft: Sunwell Trilogy, story by Richard A. Knaak and artwork by Kim Jae-Hwan. This was actually my first volume of manga. Fortunately, the series was finished and the whole three books were published here and I have them in my collection.

Next we were presented with the work of Judith Park and four of her stories - Dystopia, Y Square, Y Square PLUS and Luxus. I have only Dystopia, since this is the only story of hers that I liked. I read the other three books, but they weren't quite my style.

 Next we have volume one of Shin by Lilian nad Jan. This one had an interesting story, but the artwork wasn't good. I actually had it, but sold it later, because I didn't really like it.

 We continue with volume one of Breath Effect by Asan. I read only one chapter of this .... thing, because it was in the magazine, that I was buying at the time and I have to say that it is awful... Crappy artwork, stupid and uninteresting story, really irritating main character... I think that you get my point.(This is a personal opinion. I know people, who liked the book and I'm not judging them)

 And last but not least - the first volume of Amilova. I find this an interesting story with average artwork. I have it in my collection and I'm waiting for volume two now.

As you can all clearly see by now, none of these "mangas" is actually a Japanese manga. They look like manga, but they are not. We have French, German and Korean things, but no Japanese and I think that this is a major problem of our publishers. They never even tried to get anything Japanese on our comics market and thus never got the attention of the audience. I find this to be a big mistake. This fact discourages potential buyers from buying these books. Some people buy them, yes, bit not as many as the publisher would like. Fans here want the real thing, not just some knock off. People here want mangas like Naruto, One Piece, Hellsing, Death Note or Tsubasa Chronicles, they don't want European black and white comics. 

And this makes me wonder - what is the real problem of our publishers? Maybe they don't know what people seek, or maybe they can't contact Japanese publishers, or maybe the licensing is too expensive. I don't really know. All I can do for now is watch and see what happens next.

I would really like to make a discussion on this topic so feel free to comment and ask questions.

Where I find merchandise

I was planning a longer and more interesting post and I was just starting to take photos of the things I wanted to show you guys, but there is something wrong with my camera and I'm still not sure what it is. I hope it's just something from the batteries...

Anyway, in this post I will be telling you about where I find and buy anime things in my country.
First of all I want to make it clear that I live in a small country, where anime and manga are not very popular. There is a community, which is quite big, but normal people know almost nothing or nothing at all on the subject. And this is the reason why it's a pain in the ass to find merchandise here. And since I live in like Narnia or something most of the online shops don't make deliveries here or if they do the shipping is expensive, so I rarely use use amazon or ebay.
I usually buy things on conventions (which are getting more and more with each year and that is great). I also buy a lot of second hand manga and figures, which are always in great quality. Actually most of my things are second hand.
I recently found this book store, called Knigomania (book mania), that purchases manga and comics in Russian and English. The English volumes are somewhat expensive, but not too much. However the Russian volumes are just fine as a price. Actually there aren't many things that I would like to buy from there, but just knowing that there is manga near me feels nice. Here is a link to the site --> Knigomania
Another recently opened online shop is Baka no Kimchi. They sell mostly anime merchandise and Kpop merchandise on reasonable prices and they are regular on getting new things on stock. Lately I've been buying a lot of things from them and I'm really pleased with their work.  Here is a link to their site --> Baka no Kimchi
That's about it for now.
As usual, if you have any questions and suggestions, please tell me. :)

Manga Collecting Guide

This post will be about manga collecting. I will reveal some tips, that I have found useful and I try to follow (or at least I try). These are MY tips and my opinion. I am not telling anyone to follow them strictly. This is all up to you.

If you are the kind of person that likes buying every single volume of a manga only because it is popular or just because you know that it is manga, or you buy manga so that you can sell it later for a higher price this guide is NOT for you. For tips about this kind of collecting please visit tokirocket on youtube. Here is her channel:http://www.youtube.com/user/tokirocket?feature=results_main    which is quite interesting, actually.
This is a guide for people, who collect manga and want to keep it for themselves…hmmm let's say forever.

I used to be the kind of person who would buy every manga volume I see. This is the reason I later found that I was stuck with things I didn't like or didn't want and wanted to sell (thank God there were people, who wanted to buy them) or give them as gifts for friends. I had a lot of volumes in languages I didn't understand like German or Spanish and I decided that it's kind of stupid to keep things that I will not be able to reread later on. 

Tip One: Which mangas to buy? 
The most important thing is to buy manga series that you like. Don't just go off buying anything you see on the shelf in the bookstore, because you may regret it later. Pick the ones which are really important and valuable to you. Also, you may buy certain volumes, not the whole set of the manga. You can buy volumes where major events have happened, or just volumes you like, because something has cute happened, it depends on you. I am telling you this, because you may not like the whole series, but just a part like a volume or chapter. This is totally personal. If you like the whole series, go ahead and buy all the volumes. I am telling you this, because as you know, manga takes space. Try not to get stuck with things you don't like, because you may not be able to sell them later on when you want to get rid of them.

Tip Two: How to get familiar with manga series before you buy one?

Before I get into this tip I want to tell you that in my country there is almost no manga and if you want to read some you have to to turn to the Internet.
There are many Internet sites for reading manga online. You can first find and see the manga there, before you buy it. These kind of sites, like Mangafox, Onemanga, Maxmanga or Unixmanga are full of manga series you can read and judge for yourself if you want that certain story on paper or not.
I know that submitting manga online is illegal, but if it hadn't been for that I wouldn't have begun reading and collecting manga… And a lot of my friends also wouldn't have done it.
Here are some helpful links:
http://unixmanga.com/

http://mangafox.me/

http://bakabt.me/index.php

Tip Three: Language
One of the most important things is that you buy manga in a language you can UNDERSTAND!  If you know many languages, well good for you, you can buy manga, translated in them. If you want to buy manga in Japanese, because it is the original language, the manga has been published into go ahead and do it, but it will be a good thing if you actually know the language. I had manga volumes in Spanish, German and Italian and I felt stupid for buying them, because I wanted to read them, but I could only look at the pictures, since I don't understand these languages. That's why in the end I sold them or just gave them away. The manga I have now is mostly in English and some of it is in Bulgarian, Russian and Japanese, because these are the languages, which I know and I can read.

Tip Four: First hand or second hand manga?
I say that this does not matter. I actually prefer buying second hand manga volumes, because it is cheaper, and I have to say that every single secondhand volume I have bought is as good as new! Of course, I do have first hand manga volumes but for financial reasons I prefer secondhand. But then again… this does not really matter and it depends on your personal preferences.

Tip Five: Care and Organization
I don't agree with some of the things that tokirocket says about manga collecting, but her videos about care and organization of manga were really useful and they actually made me consider the well-being of my own collection so I tried some of her advice and it really works good for keeping your manga books safe and as good as new. I don't have much to say about that but I strongly recommend that you her videos on the topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pmaP8UiWXM

Tip Six: Price
In my country one volume of manga is quite expensive and I really try to find the cheapest way to buy myself the things I want. This is why I usually buy second hand manga from people that want to get rid of it. 
For me a price about 10$ is acceptable. If it's above 10$ I will probably reconsider buying it. However I am willing to give a little more for art books and things like that, because they have much better quality and, of course, coloured pictures.

That's about it.
If you have any questions, please ask me.
If you don't agree with some of the things I have stated you can tell me. I am open for new tips and opinions.