My Week in Manga: October 18-October 24, 2010

My News and Reviews

I currently have a manga giveaway going on that ends on Wednesday, October 27 (this week)—Mushishi Madness. No one has entered yet, which makes me very sad. Mushishi is a great series and I want to share the love! So, come on, get your free manga.

I haven’t updated the Resources page in a while, but I have been collecting links and have found some great new (to me) sites. I’ll try to get most of those added this week. I’ll also be creating a new section for podcasts, so if you know of any good ones, let me know.

On Friday I posted my personal response to the Gay for You? Yaoi and Yuri Manga for GBLTQ Readers panel held at NYAF/NYCC. Deb Aoki has posted the transcript of the event. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you should. I’m rather proud of myself and this post and am very happy to see the number of hits it’s been receiving. Thank you to David Welsh of The Manga Curmudgeon and Melinda Beasi of Manga Bookshelf for helping to get the link out there. I’d also like to thank everyone for the kind comments, support, and encouragement I received after posting it.

Quick Takes

Black Lagoon, Volumes 1-5 by Rei Hiroe. Black Lagoon opens with what has to be my favorite first panel ever—a close-up of a salaryman taking a hard punch to the face. From there, the action and mayhem hardly ever stop. It’s violent, over-the-top, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes rather dark, but man is it a fun ride. I like this series best when either Revy or Rock are on the scene. Revy is a gun-toting badass with an extremely foul-mouth and viscous attitude. She’s kinda scary in a psychotically awesome sort of way. Rock on the other hand, the aforementioned salaryman, seems like he won’t last too long as part of the underworld but he’s a lot more reslient than he first appears.

Cat Paradise, Volumes1-2 by Yuji Iwahara. At Matabi Academy a small group of students, along with their cats, have been chosen to protect the school and the world against the evil demon Kaen and his minions. The superpowers granted to each pair is based on what suits them best, something that they can do better than anyone else. In the case of Yumi, that’s creating outfits for her cat Kansuke, much to his embarrassment and dismay. How can you not love magical knitting that gives a cat human form so that he can fight monsters? So it might be a little silly, but the series is extremely entertaining and I can’t wait to read more.

Embracing Love, Volumes 1-3 by Youka Nitta. Iwaki and Katou are rival porn stars that end up sleeping together as part of an audition for a mainstream film. Straight Iwaki, whose career is waning, at first can’t stand the younger, more successful Katou but ends up developing feelings for him. In addition to having to deal with career problems and media scandals, the two will also have to confront their families about their choices. Nitta includes plenty of sex scenes for the two, none of which feel out of place. Katou’s carefree nature plays nicely against Iwaki’s more restrained personality. This is seriously one of the best yaoi series that I’ve read and I really hope that someone rescues the license.

Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa has directed some brilliant films, including Seven Samurai, one of my personal favorites. A few years before that he directed Rashomon, which won an Oscar in 1951 for Best Foreign Language Film. A woman is raped and her husband murdered while traveling through the woods. Three days later the women, the assailant, the dead man (through a medium), and a woodcutter who happened across the scene give their testimony at the local court. But they each give a different version of the events and each has a reason to lie or hide truth of what actually happened.


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