Podcast Nation
As its name implies, MangaCast's main attraction is its many manga-related podcasts, so what are these podcasts, and what are they about?
MangaCast - The original MangaCast that was born along with the website, plain and simple. With each podcast comes a review of a manga, sometimes two.
SamaCast - The sports manga podcast by Jarred. Done in "innings," it was originally its own podcast, and later became part of MangaCast. Its main purpose is to promote sports manga in the U.S.
Manga Recon Show - Reviews from Erin of the Ninja Consultant, where Erin reads the reviews that are posted on her "Manga Recon" column on Buzzscope.com.
MangaTheory - A project started by Tristan, who talks about the manga culture, it's meant to create conversations and make people think. MangaTheory is currently on hiatus due to Tristan's busy life in Japan.
Manga Curry No Maki - The Maki is a full course meal of manga news and commentary Where Ed and Jarred talks about anything manga...think of it as a manga variety show. It's a Mix or a Roll of manga, "Maki" means to mix and another kanji can mean roll (like the sushi), hence the name Maki. The "Curry" part comes from Ed's obsession with curry, as well as the manga Addicted to Curry. At the end of each episode of Manga Curry no Maki, Ed and Jarred also includes Curry recipes from Addicted to Curry.
Maki Side Dish - Side dish of Manga Curry no Maki, a smaller mix of Curry, something to tide the fans over till the next full course of Maki.
MangaBlogCast - A collaboration between MangaCast and MangaBlog that is focused on manga news, for more information go here.
Attack of the PodViews - An experiment involving distributing previews/PDF through RSS feed.
Other Features
MangaCast is not all about podcast, originally intended to be more of a manga news community, although later on MangaCast focused most of its attentions on reviews, traces of news-related contents can still be found lying around.
Manga Reviews, News, and Press Release: MangaCast provides reviews, news and press releases of manga and publishers from different parts of the world. Although not everything gets mentioned (on purpose), you can be sure what IS mentioned is of the highest quality.
Con Reports: MangaCast's con reports are some of the best around, thanks to its clever use of podcasting to cover major events, conduct interviews, and more. When MangaCast was first launched in 2005, it covered non other than the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con, afterwards it went on to cover many other events. A year later, around the time of its first anniversary, MangaCast provided arguably the best coverage on the 2006 SDCC.
Weekly Rankings: Weekly rankings from a variaty of sources. The weekly top 10 manga ranking comes from Japan's Taiyosha chain of stores, which provides a figure of what is popular within the otaku culture in Japan. The Weekly light novel ranking comes from Gamers, and the doujinshi/BL rankings are from Toranoana.
Japan Manga Releases: Although originally played only a small part in MangaCast, it has since become one of the more popular features. Based on releases posted by Taiyosha, MangaCast translates into English the manga titles that will be released, provides their cover images, information on what magazine they're serialized in, and more. This feature has become invaluable to those who do not understand Japanese, but would like to know what's new.
The Yomis
So Japan has their own Tezuka Award and their Kodansha Award, what about the U.S.? We have the Yomis of course! With the launch of the Yomis during 2006's SDCC, MangaCast has created one of the first manga-only award events in the U.S.