Get Your Nerd On With 'Manga Minutes'

Those of you looking to stay current on video games, animé, and manga will be glad to know that Starz and Bang Zoom! Entertainment are partnering up to continue Manga Minutes, a web series that does just that.

Manga Minutes is sponsored and hosted by Manga.com, the portal for Manga Entertainment. (If you didn’t already know, “manga” is a Japanese comic book. Manga manga manga.) The show is currently slated to go for 24 episodes in total – several of which have already been produced and are available for your viewing consumption here and on YouTube. It’s also a video podcast on iTunes, if you prefer. Episodes are due out every other week, and the next one is coming out on February 6.

The show consists of two animé-stylized hosts by the names of “Yoko” and “Rogue” bandying opinions about the latest and greatest in the world of geekdom, with a particular focus on the action-packed titles that Manga Entertainment has built their business on. Dead Space, Soul Calibur IV, Gunsmith Cats, and Hell Girl are typical coverage fodder for Manga Minutes, though occasionally they branch out to more mainstream material like Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Don’t expect to see a whole lot of emotional conversations about your relationship with your parents here, folks. If you’ve ever watched any of those cheesy-but-awesome promotional VHS tapes video game companies would occasionally send out during the 1990s, you’ll have some idea of what Manga Minutes feels like.

Bang Zoom! Entertainment’s Jonathan Sherman was remarkably coy about future plans for Manga Minutes, only saying that any work past 24 episodes with Manga.com was still undetermined, and that Bang Zoom! is planning other ventures into the world of web TV but declined to say anything further. Alas! I’ll have to tide myself over by listening to Yoko and Rogue’s sweet, sweet voices all day.