Bloom Reviews

Welcome back to another installment of “Last Week in Geekdom” where I comb the internet for all the news you need to know so you don’t have to. I’m back from vacation and trying to put together a few posts for the blog. I know it’s been sparse lately, but between work, wedding planning, and general exhaustion I just haven’t had the energy or head space to write anything. I’ll get back into though, and you can count on consistent news posts like these in the interim. Anyways, in terms of highlights from this week: the court case brought by Vic Mignogna against Funimation and various voice actors has been dismissed; the piracy site MangaRock has shut down and is rebranding to an official comics platform; and Marvel is partnering with Shonen Jump to bring some Marvel themed manga to their audience. Be sure to check out the articles and videos list below (I highly recommend The Cartoon Ciphers video), and as always, enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Top Anime and Manga News

Manga piracy site MangaRock has shut down. The company has apologized for the damage it has done to the manga industry and how its site has contributed to the popularity of scanlations. The sites creators are urging other scanlation sites to follow suit. The website has since rebranded as MR Comics and hopes to be a “100% official comics platform.”

Crunchyroll and Viz Media have announced an investment deal. Crunchyroll has recently signed an agreement with the Viz Media Europe Group to become its majority investor. Both companies hope the deal will enable them to grow and better promote their licensed content.

The lawsuits brought by Vic Mignogna against Funimation, Monica Rial, and Jamie Marchi have come to a head. The judge presiding over the suit has dismissed all claims of tortious interference and defamation brought by Mignogna. Mignogna may be required to pay a fine and all court expenses if his lawsuits are found to be frivolous.

Anime Announcements:

• Food Wars 4th season premieres Oct. 11
• Rising of the Shield Hero gets 2 more seasons
• African Office Worker premieres Oct. 6
• Violet Evergarden: The Movie delayed

Manga Announcements:

• Hanebado! ends in next chapter
• Babylon manga ends in 2 volumes

Top Comic News

Marvel Comics has partnered with Shonen Jump Plus for a collaboration to release six new manga stories featuring Marvel characters. The first story will be written by Yu-Gi-Oh creator Kazuki Takahashi. No date has been released yet for its publication.

Marvel Entertainment is partnering with Scholastic to bring new prose stories featuring their characters to more young readers. The partnership will kick off in 2020 with two new original stories, one featuring Shuri and the other an Avengers Assembly novel.

Featured Articles and Interviews

• Polygon talks with Kieren Gillen and Jamie McKelvie about the conclusion of their 5-year long series, Wicked + Divine, it’s history, and the process they took to reach its conclusion.
• Variety talks with Robert Pattinson on the recent announcement that he’d be the next actor to don the Batman costume.
• Sequential Planet sits down with Bitter Root and Runaways creator Sanford Green on his history with comics and the creation and reception of Bitter Root.
• @LossThief on Twitter discusses why the creation of a legal version of MangaRock, or a subscription-based manga service, is not financially possible.

Featured Videos

• The Cartoon Cipher takes a look at English dubs of anime and claims of censorship, the process of translation, and the differing opinions on what translation should be.
• Zeria takes a deep dive into psychoanalysis and how it can be used to examine Flip Flappers and what this type of analysis tells us about the series and its characters.
• Mother’s Basement digs into how the binging culture may be doing us and the whole series a disservice following the announcement that Disney+ is releasing content weekly.

Featured WordPress Post

• Rai’s Anime Blog discusses Sarazanmai and how the show’s focus on desire and love can be related to one of the key ideas of Buddhism.

~~Thanks for Reading!~~

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