18 February 2013 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: February 11-February 17, 2013

My News and Reviews

I posted two reviews last week. The first was for Dana Sachs’ novel The Secret of the Nightingale Palace. I didn’t like the main characters which made it difficult for me to enjoy the book, but there were still some parts that I appreciated. I also reviewed Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal, Volume 18: The Sparrow Net. This volume is an important one for both plot and character development. Plus, we get to see Isaku and Dōa fight as a team.

Licensing news! Sean Gaffney has a nice writeup on the New Licenses from Viz and Seven Seas at A Case Suitable for Treatment. Vertical also announced some great titles at Katsucon which will be released this fall: Satoshi Kon’s Tropic of the Sea and Hikari Asada’s Sickness Unto Death. I’m particularly excited for Tropic of the Sea. I hadn’t heard about Sickness Unto Death before, but it looks like it will be an intriguing psychological manga (and it’s only two volumes).

Finally, the Naoki Urasawa Manga Moveable Feast has begun! This month’s Feast is being hosted by Justin at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Urasawa is one of my favorite mangaka, so I’m very excited for this particular Feast. Later this week I’ll be taking a look at Pineapple Army, his first work to be published in English.

Quick Takes

Knights of Sidonia, Volume 1 by Tsutomu Nihei. I’ve heard Knights of Sidonia called Nihei’s most accessible work to date, which I think is probably true. His artwork is certainly cleaner and more simplified, but I personally prefer Nihei’s darker, grungier illustrations in Biomega and Blame! So far the story in Knights of Sidonia is fairly straightforward, too. After living alone for years in the depths of the spaceship Sidonia, Nagate is discovered must learn to adapt to a human society that has evolved to survive in space. I find Nihei’s exploration of the course of human evolution one of the more interesting aspects of Knights of Sidonia; I’m particularly curious to learn more about Nagate’s friend Izana, who is neither female or male.

Rurouni Kenshin, Omnibus 7 (equivalent to Volumes 19-21) by Nobuhiro Watsuki. After the completion of lengthy Kyoto arc in the last omnibus,  Rurouni Kenshin is now well into its next story arc. Particularly important in this omnibus is the revealing of Kenshin’s background and past life as an assassin, for which he is still trying to atone. A new group of antagonists have appeared looking for revenge and they’re not afraid to strike out at those who are close to Kenshin. There are a few nice fight scenes, but this section of the story is much slower compared to the flurry of duels that ended the previous arc. I do like that these fighters are slightly more realistic. It’s not so much that they are super-powered but that they have access to technology and weapons that give them an advantage.

Sumo by Thien Pham. I really enjoyed Sumo, Pham’s first solo graphic novel. Scott is a football player whose dreams of playing professionally have crumbled. When he is offered a chance train in Japan to become a sumo wrestler, he takes it. Sumo is a surprisingly quiet and introspective work. Scott is trying to find his place in the world and struggling to reclaim the confidence he once had. Pham weaves three different time periods in Scott’s life together to create a single coherent story. The artwork is simple and stylized but very effective. It is not absolutely necessary to enjoy the work, but it does help to have some basic understanding of the hierarchy system inherent to sumo training halls.

Your Story I’ve Known by Tsuta Suzuki. In addition to a few volumes of A Strange and Mystifying Story, You’re Story I’ve Known is the only other manga by Suzuki currently available in English. I’m rather fond of Suzuki’s artwork. Her characters look like grown, adult men and she is capable of drawing some of the most endearing grins that I have ever seen. Your Story I’ve Known collects four boys’ love stories of varying lengths. There isn’t really a theme to the collection other than the fact that the characters have some actual depth to them. Unfortunately, the translation is problematic in a few places, and at least one scene is nearly incomprehensible. Granted, that may have been just as much Suzuki’s fault as the translator’s. But in the end, I still enjoyed the manga.

Blue Spring directed by Toshiaki Toyoda. Ever since I read Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga Blue Spring, I’ve had a hard time getting it out of my head. When I discovered that there was a live-action adaptation of it, I knew that I had to see it. Toyoda’s film is missing some of the more surreal elements of the original manga, but it still captures a lot of its heart. The film combines bits and pieces of many but not all of the stories included in the Blue Spring manga into a single narrative. It actually works quite well. It’s a violent tale about the disaffected students at an all-boys high school and the ways they find to take control of their realities. As a bonus, the film has a great soundtrack, too.

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15 February 2013 Leave a Comment

Blade of the Immortal, Volume 18: The Sparrow Net

Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781593078713
Released: February 2008
Original release: 2004
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

The Sparrow Net, the eighteenth volume of Hiroaki Samura’s award-winning manga series Blade of the Immortal as released in English, was published by Dark Horse in 2008. Dark Horse’s English-language edition of the series divides the individual volumes by story arc rather than strictly by number of chapters. Because of this, The Sparrow Net is most closely equivalent to the seventeenth Japanese volume except that The Sparrow Net includes one additional chapter. Also because of Dark Horse’s tendency to compile the volumes by story arc, The Sparrow Net ends up being on of the longest books in the series. Blade of the Immortal is one of my personal favorites. I’ve been enjoying the manga’s mix of historical fiction, martial arts, and the supernatural along with Samura’s complex characters and great artwork.

After the Ittō-ryū was betrayed and nearly wiped out by the bakufu, the surviving members of the rogue sword school have been quietly working in the background, biding their time and preparing a return assault against the government. Although they are supposed to be in hiding and keeping a low profile while in Edo, two of the Ittō-ryū’s most recent members, Dōa and Isaku, can’t seem to help but draw attention to themselves. After a confrontation with the police force, Isaku goes missing and Dōa is left behind with Rin who in a strange twist of fate has been helping to hide them (her parents were killed by the Ittō-ryū.) Although their relationship is less than ideal, the two young women must work together in order to find both Isaku and Manji, Rin’s bodyguard who has also disappeared under troubling circumstances.

Dōa and Isaku are relatively new characters in Blade of the Immortal having first been introduced towards the end of the fifteenth volume, Trickster. Although Dōa in particular has been shown to be violent and easily provoked, The Sparrow Net is the first time that she and Isaku are seen to really fight. With Isaku’s size and strength and Dōa’s speed and viciousness they make an incredibly effective and formidable team. The Sparrow Net is also the first volume in Blade of the Immortal to delve into the pair’s backstory. Previously, there have been some hints as to their pasts and who they really are, but until now their history has largely remained a mystery. I am still very curious to learn how they joined up with the Ittō-ryū.

While chaos surrounds Dōa and Isaku, Rin continues her search for Manji. Eventually she hears rumor of a bizarre immortality experiment. The procedures being performed on Manji and the other felons have reached disturbing new heights of cruelty. However, this escalation means that more people are involved and it is increasingly difficult to hide. Even those who are only tangentially involved suspect that something horribly wrong is going on. And those who are at the heart of the investigation—the doctors and their assistants, not to mention their human guinea pigs—have all been affected in terrible ways. The change in Ayame Burando, one of the head doctors on the case who himself is on death row, and what that brings about is particularly horrifying. I’m almost afraid to see what is in store in the next volume, Badger Hole.

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13 February 2013 Leave a Comment

The Secret of the Nightingale Palace

Author: Dana Sachs
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780062201034
Released: February 2013

The Secret of the Nightingale Palace, published in 2013 by HarperCollins, is Dana Sachs’ second novel. When I saw The Secret of the Nightingale Palace offered through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program it caught my attention. I was unfamiliar with Sachs and her work—she has written both fiction and nonfiction, and translates Vietnamese fiction into English as well—but the title and cover implied that Japanese culture influenced the story. I’ll admit it was those elements that most interested me in The Secret of the Nightingale Palace. Although I requested a copy of the novel, I was still a little surprised when I was matched up with the book—I don’t read much contemporary American fiction these days. Still, I was looking forward to giving The Secret of the Nightingale Palace a try.

Since her husband For died of leukemia two years ago, Anna has struggled to move on with her life, stuck in a sort of limbo. Although she loved Ford dearly, his illness was an extremely difficult one and strained their relationship. Anna’s marriage to For also negatively impacted her relationship with her family. In particular, her grandmother Goldie never approved of him and the two women haven’t been on good terms for years. But now Goldie has called Anna up, somehow convincing her granddaughter to accompany her on a cross-country trip from New York to San Francisco, supposedly to return a collection of Japanese art prints to a close friend she hasn’t seen since the 1940s. Sixty years after she left the city, Goldie returns to San Francisco but she has hidden the personal significance of the journey from Anna.

The Secret of the Nightingale Palace alternates between Anna and Goldie’s travels across the United States in the 2000s and Goldie’s life in San Francisco in the 1940s as a young woman. I much preferred the parts of the novel that focused on the past and Goldie’s relationship with the Nakamuras, an aristocratic Japanese family she befriends after moving to the city, under the shadow of World War II. Unfortunately, I didn’t really like Goldie herself as a person. She is very calculating and manipulative. Despite declaring that race and money shouldn’t and doesn’t matter, Goldie is extremely judgemental and classist. Seeing as The Secret of the Nightingale Palace seems to be more her story than it is Anna’s, I had a difficult time actually enjoy the novel. To be honest, I wasn’t that fond of Anna, either. Sachs does capture the women’s generational differences very well, but the two of them can be very cruel to each other.

Another difficulty I had with The Secret of the Nightingale Palace was the novel’s pacing. Particularly at the beginning of the book there seemed to be superfluous information and extraneous scenes. Instead of creating any sort of atmosphere, they just seem to be getting in the way of the actual story. I found the first part of The Secret of the Nightingale Palace to be very tedious. Fortunately, the pacing improves immensely as the novel progresses. But even though I was largely frustrated with The Secret of the Nightingale Palace, there were a few elements I really liked. For one, I greatly appreciated the broad diversity (ethnicity, sexuality, etc.) of the cast of characters. I also enjoyed the connection and inspiration that Anna, as a comic artist, was able to draw from the Japanese prints. Sadly though, my favorite part of The Secret of the Nightingale Palace wasn’t the novel itself, but Sachs’ acknowledgments in which she discusses her motivations, influences, and research methods for writing the tale.

Thank you to HarperCollins for providing a copy of The Secret of the Nightingale Palace for review.

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11 February 2013 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: February 4-February 10, 2013

My News and Reviews

Last week the Blue Exorcist Giveaway Winner was announced. The post also includes a pretty great list of some favorite manga that was read in 2012 by those who entered the giveaway. I also managed to post two reviews last week. The first was for Yaya Sakuragi’s boys’ love manga Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Volume 2. Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love isn’t my favorite Sakuragi manga, but I’m still amused and entertained by it. I also reviewed Isuna Hasekura’s Spice & Wolf, Volume 7: Side Colors, a collection of three side stories to the main series. It’s not essential reading, but still a nice addition to the series for fans of Spice & Wolf.

In other news, I finished reading Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima by Naoki Inose and Hiroaki Sato. (The book is enormous, so I consider it to be an accomplishment.) I’m planning on posting an in-depth review of Persona next week, but I wanted to mention a section included in the biography called “A Paean to Manga” which briefly explores Mishima’s thoughts and opinions on manga. Mishima actually really like manga. He wasn’t a fan of Shirato Sanpei, but he loved Hirata Hiroshi (which I previously knew) and Akatsuka Fujio and liked Mizuki Shigeru’s yokai stories. He is quoted as saying, “Compared with American comics, Japanese graphic tales are a shade more grim and dark both in eroticism and cruelty. To make up for it, though, they are avant-garde in nonsense.”I thought this was interesting and wanted to share.

Elsewhere, some very exciting developments in comics publishing were revealed last week! Kuriousity interviewed Jen Lee Quick, creator of Off*Beat (among other things) which I really enjoy. The first two volumes of Off*Beat were published by Tokyopop, but the series was left unfinished. Happily, Quick was able to get the rights to her work back. The series will be reprinted, and completed, by the newly established Chromatic Press. For more information about Chromatic Press, check out Brigid Alverson’s exclusive at MTV Geek—Chromatic Press Launches New Manga Magazine, Brings Back Off*Beat. I’m very excited about Chromatic Press and what its trying to do.

A couple more more manga publishing developments that I wanted to mention. At Good E-Reader, Brigid Alverson looks at Gen Manga’s plans for the year—GEN Manga Offers Free E-Books, Prepares to Launch Korean Comics Magazine. And on Twitter, Vertical mentioned in passing that its Keiko Takemiya licenses will be expiring this summer. This means that Andromeda Stories and To Terra… will be going out of print. I’m a huge fan of Takemiya’s work. To Terra… in particular is a fantastic space opera and is definitely worth picking up before it disappears.

Quick Takes

Eyeshield 21, Volumes 1-7 written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Yusuke Murata. Despite watching every single football game in high school and college (I was in the marching band), I’ve never really been a fan of American football. I picked up Eyeshield 21 mainly because it is illustrated by Murata who many of the artists I follow admire. Sena, a rather timid high school first year, has developed impressive running skills, mostly as a way to flee from bullies. But this also makes him an ideal candidate for the running back of the Deimon Devil Bats, his school’s football club. Eyeshield 21 turned out to be a surprisingly fun, entertaining, and slightly ridiculous series. And yes, Murata’s artwork is great.

Genshiken, Omnibus 2 (equivalent to Volumes 4-6) by Shimoku Kio. I’m continuing to enjoy this otaku slice-of-life series. After nearly burning down one of the university’s buildings at the end of the last omnibus, this volume finds the Genshiken club homeless and assigned to community service as penance. New characters and proclivities are introduced which creates some conflict within the group. I love that most of the Genshiken members are completely comfortable with themselves as otaku. They might occasionally be embarrassed, but they aren’t ashamed. There is one notable exception: Ogiue claims to hate all otaku although she is one herself, but she seems to be coming around. I also am greatly amused by how often porn comes up as part the group’s discussions.

Samurai Legend written by Kan Furuyama and illustrated by by Jiro Taniguchi. Yagyū Jūbei is a famous swordsman who was active during the Tokugawa era in Japan. Although there are few confirmed facts about his life, he has become a popular legendary figure. Samurai Legend is more than two decades old now, but it’s still a great historical one-shot. It was actually the first historical manga on which Taniguchi worked as an artist. His efforts paid off—the manga is filled with dynamic action sequences and believable battles. The characters don’t need superpowers to have amazing and impressive martial skill. Taniguchi also deliberately strives to be as historically accurate as possible in Samurai Legend.

Sweet Revolution written by Serubo Suzuki and illustrated by Yukine Honami. Tatsuki and Ohta are two transfer students who aren’t nearly as human as they first appear and the young men’s relationship is more complicated than their classmates realize. The first two chapters of Sweet Revolution are told from the perspective of Kouhei, one of their classmates, and have a slightly different tone than the rest of the volume. But then the manga begins to explore the pair’s history and motivations more directly. The storytelling builds quite nicely from there. I particularly enjoyed the supernatural elements in Sweet Revolution. I didn’t realize when I began reading the manga that in part it would be a yokai tale. And, well, I happen to like yokai.

Fist of the North Star: The TV Series, Volume 1 (Episodes 1-36) directed by Toyoo Ashida. While at this point I can safely say that I prefer the Fist of the North Star manga, I’m still getting a kick out of the anime adaptation. Granted, a large part of this first box set is a bit of a grind and rather repetitive. The beginning of the manga started out in a similar way, so I wasn’t entirely surprised. However, the anime has a lot of filler at the beginning. But even so, I enjoyed myself. I can’t help but like Kenshiro, one of the most stoic badasses that I know of. Plus, there’s plenty of over-the-top martial arts in the series. I’m really looking forward to watching more of Fist of the North Star.

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10 February 2013 Leave a Comment

Spice & Wolf, Volume 7: Side Colors

Author: Isuna Hasekura
Illustrator: Jyuu Ayakura
Translator: Paul Starr
U.S. publisher: Yen Press
ISBN: 9780316229128
Released: December 2012
Original release: 2008

Side Colors is the seventh volume in Isuna Hasekura’s light novel series Spice & Wolf, illustrated by Jyuu Ayakura. The volume is actually a break from the main series and collects three side stories together. The novella “The Boy and the Girl and the White Flowers” and the short story “The Red of the Apple, The Blue of the Sky” were first released online. The second short story, “Wolf and Amber Melancholy,” was written specifically for the collection. Side Colors was originally published in Japan in 2008. Yen Press’ English edition, translated by Paul Starr, was released in 2012. I am actually rather surprised by how much I have been enjoying the Spice & Wolf novels; I find that I am quite fond of the two leads—Lawrence and Holo. Since I have been following the series, it made sense that I would pick up the seventh volume.

Side Colors, begins with “The Boy and the Girl and the White Flowers,” which takes up the first half or so of the volume. Klass and Aryes, a young boy and girl, have recently been evicted from their home when a new lord takes over after the previous lord dies, apparently without publicly naming an heir. Their journey isn’t an easy one and they are about to run out of food when they are approached by Holo, a wolf spirit, in the form of a young woman. The story takes place centuries before Holo meets Lawrence. It is probably because of that that “The Boy and the Girl and the White Flowers” was my least favorite story in Side Colors. Simply put, I missed Lawrence. But the story does show a younger Holo, one who hasn’t yet been overwhelmed by a melancholy loneliness and who acts much more as a trickster character. Granted, she has always been and still is mischievous.

Happily, Lawrence is in both of the short stories included in Side Colors. “The Red of the Apple, The Blue of the Sky” takes place during the first volume of Spice & Wolf, not long after Holo and Lawrence started traveling together. Of the three stories collected in the volume, this story most closely fits the mold established by the Spice & Wolf series proper and includes economic elements as a part of its plot. However, my favorite story in Side Colors is the final one, “Wolf and Amber Melancholy,” which takes place during Spice & Wolf, Volume 2. Unlike the rest of Spice & Wolf, which is primarily told from Lawrence’s point of view, this story is seen from Holo’s perspective. It’s a refreshing change and it’s clear that Hasekura had a tremendous amount of fun writing it.

Technically, Side Colors is written in such a way that doesn’t require much previous knowledge of Spice & Wolf. But at the same time, I’m not sure that the collection would actually appeal to someone who isn’t already a fan of or at least familiar with the series. The stories really aren’t that strong outside of the context of the novels. Because of this, “The Boy and the Girl and the White Flower” is probably the weakest of the three vignettes since it is the furthest removed form the series proper. Both “The Red of the Apple, The Blue of the Sky” and “Wolf and Amber Melancholy” read like they could be deleted scenes from their respective volumes. Although I wouldn’t say any of the stories are essential reading, they do make a nice addition to the Spice & Wolf series.

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