Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast: Roundup Three

© Moyoco Anno

Welcome to the third Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast roundup!

As promised, I posted two reviews since the last roundup. I took a look at Sakuran: Blossoms Wild, the most recent of Anno’s manga to be published in English, as well as the first volume of Sugar Sugar Rune, the series which won Anno the Kodansha Manga Award for best children’s manga.

Both manga have strong-willed and saucy leads, but other than that they are very different. Sakuran is a period piece taking place in Yoshiwara, the pleasure district of Edo, while Sugar Sugar Rune is a fantasy in a more contemporary setting. Sakuran was serialized in a seinen magazine aimed at an adult male audience while Sugar Sugar Rune was shoujo created for girls between the ages of six and twelve. However, both manga have tremendous crossover appeal and show just how versatile a creator Anno can be.

Although not technically written for the Feast, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Melinda Beasi’s wonderful interview with Moyoco Anno on behalf The Beat which was recently posted—Interview: Moyoco Anno “I really don’t like women that much!”. The entire interview is worth reading, but I was particularly struck by Anno’s response when she was asked what she would like to see more of in comics for women:

So I think what I’d really like to see is comic books for women who are older–forty, fifty, or sixty–I don’t think that means you can’t write about romance anymore. You can still write about that theme, but I would love to see people writing for an older female audience–continue to write things like romance, but in a realistic way. That would be nice to see.

Today is technically the last day of the Feast, but I’m hoping to see more contributions before it ends. I will be posting one more roundup and a final farewell late tomorrow, so there’s still plenty of time to participate! Please let me know of any contributions that I might have missed and I will make sure to include them in the final roundup as well as in the archive. Please enjoy the rest of the Feast!