8 February 2013 Leave a Comment

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Volume 2

Creator: Yaya Sakuragi
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421549583
Released: November 2012
Original release: 2009

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Volume 2 by mangaka Yaya Sakuragi was first released in Japan in 2009. The English-language edition of the volume was published in 2012 by Viz Media’s boys’ love imprint Sublime. I consider my self a fan of Sakuragi’s work and so am very happy that Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love is being released in English. It’s her second series to be licensed, following the tangentially related Tea for Two. Sakuragi also previously had two one-shot boys’ love titles published in English: Hey, Sensei? and Stay Close to Me. Although Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love isn’t my favorite manga by Sakuragi, I still quite enjoyed the goofiness of the first volume and its characters. I was looking forward to reading the second volume, and not just because I’ve already read everything else available by Sakuragi in English.

While at first Ao wasn’t sure, after somehow convincing Ryomei to submit to a kiss he is now certain: he is in love with the older man. Ryomei on the other hand, while being rather fond of Ao, isn’t quite ready to accept those affections. Unfortunately, turning Ao down without crushing his feelings turns out to be a difficult task and Ryomei is a little harsher than he really intended to be. Heartbroken after being rejected, Ao comes to realize how much he really does care about Ryomei. Shunpei, who feels he’s partly to blame for the situation, is concerned for his best friend. He, like Ryomei, didn’t understand just how serious Ao was about the neighborhood Shinto priest. And to make matters worse, Ao’s brother Aka, who he doesn’t seem to get along with well at all, is in town with some potentially troubling news.

Sakuragi admitted in the first volume of Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love that the series reflected some of her personal preferences when it comes to boys’ love manga, specifically a couple with a significant age difference and traditional Japanese attire. Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, while remaining its own series, incorporates many elements found in Sakuragi’s other works: a younger man aggressively pursuing an older, more reserved partner (Hey, Sensei?), karate and traditional Japanese culture, not to mention Shunpei (Tea for Two), cakes and pastries and a slightly airheaded lead (Stay Close to Me), and so on. But even though Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love shares these and other characteristics, the way that Sakuragi has pulled them all together in the series doesn’t really feel repetitive even if it does seem as though she’s thrown in anything and everything she personally likes. And I’m perfectly okay with that.

So far, Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love is a rather silly manga and won’t be to everyone’s taste. For me, that is part of the series’ odd charm. I don’t think I would like Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love nearly as well if Sakuragi had taken a more serious and realistic approach with the story. Most of the humor comes from the characters’ personalities. I was unsure of Ao at first—he’s very different from most of Sakuragi’s characters—but he’s really grown on me. He is delightfully crass and blunt, readily speaking his mind and completely oblivious to the discomfort and social awkwardness this causes others. He doesn’t embarrass easily (if at all) unlike Ryomei who is constantly being caught off-guard and greatly flustered by Ao. At this point in Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love it is clear that Ryomei cares deeply for the younger man, but this has yet to develop into a romantic love. I’m very curious to see how their relationship will progress.

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6 February 2013 Leave a Comment

Manga Giveaway: Blue Exorcist Giveaway Winner

And the winner of the Blue Exorcist Giveaway is…Sean Kleefeld!

As the winner, Sean (who can be found online at Kleefeld on Comics, among other places) will be receiving a brand new copy of Blue Exorcist, Volume 1 by Kazue Kato. Blue Exorcist was a series that I finally got around to picking up simply because it appeared on so many “best of the year” lists. I’ve never personally created one of these lists, but I do enjoy reading the lists that other people pull together. And so for this giveaway, I asked entrants to tell me about their favorite new manga (or new to them manga) from 2012. Check out the Blue Exorcist Giveaway comments for all of the responses, but here’s a list!

Some favorite manga from 2012:
Animal Land by Raiku Makoto
Bakuman written by Tsugumi Ohba, illustrated by Takeshi Obata
Bunny Drop by Yumi Unita
Crayon Shinchan by Yoshito Usui
A Devil and Her Love Song by Miyoshi Tomori
Message to Adolf by Osamu Tezuka
One-Punch Man written by ONE, illustrated by Yusuke Murata
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi
Sakura Hime by Arina Tanemura
Silver Spoon by Hiromu Arakawa
Spice & Wolf written by Isuna Hasekura, illustrated by Keito Koume
Sun-Ken Rock by Boichi
Thermae Romae by Mari Yamazaki
Wandering Son by Takako Shimura

I think it turned out to be a pretty nice selection of manga; there’s a good variety, too. (I’ll admit, though—I’m particularly pleased that more than one person mentioned Wandering Son as a favorite, a series that is near and dear to my heart.) Thank you to everyone who shared your favorite manga from 2012! I hope to see you all again for next month’s giveaway.

Filed Under: Giveaways, Lists Tagged: , ,
4 February 2013 1 Comment

My Week in Manga: January 28-February 3, 2013

My News and Reviews

I’ve mostly recovered from hosting the Manga Moveable Feast in January and it looks like things will be getting back to a more normal schedule here at Experiments in Manga. This past week I posted January’s Bookshelf Overload. There were quite a few nice deluxe hardcover releases last month. Speaking of nice, hardcover releases: I also posted the first in-depth manga review of February—Osamu Tezuka’s Message to Adolf, Part 2. I am absolutely thrilled that this series is available in English again. I sincerely think it’s one of Tezuka’s best works. January’s manga giveaway was also posted last week. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, so there’s still time to enter for a chance to win Blue Exorcist, Volume 1 by Kazue Kato.

On to other fun things online! Sublime Manga, Viz Media’s boys’ love imprint, is celebrating its first anniversary with a great sale at Right Stuf and some fantastic license announcements. I am absolutely thrilled that Sublime will be releasing Tetuzoh Okadaya’s The Man of Tango and est em’s Tableau Numéro 20 in print later this year. On Twitter, Digital Manga is hinting that its next Kickstarter project will have something to do with Ishinomori Shotaro, which would be very exciting indeed. In other release news, the third issue of the English-language edition of the Japanese literary journal Monkey Business has been sent off to the printers. I really enjoyed the first two volumes, so I’m very excited to read the next one as well.

Elsewhere online, Kuriousity posted a great interview with Digital Manga’s newer hentai manga imprint, Project-H Books—Handling Hentai: An Interview With Project-H. Noah Berlatsky of The Hooded Utilitarian (among other places) wrote an essay on The Ethics of Scanlation for the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy. It’s a fantastic summary of some of the issues and different perspectives involved. On Facebook, Vertical shared a breakdown of its recent reader survey. Finally, the call for participation for the Naoki Urasawa Manga Moveable Feast has been posted. Justin at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses will be hosting be hosting the Feast later this month.

Quick Takes

Girl Friends, Omnibus 2 by Milk Morinaga. As much as I enjoyed the first Girl Friends omnibus, I think the second collection is even better. The first half of the series was told largely from Mari’s perspective; this time Akko’s point of view has become more prominent. At this point, Mari is trying to suppress her feelings for Akko, hoping that they can at least remain friends. Akko, on the other hand, is reassessing their relationship, trying to work out the differences between friendship and love. Eventually the two young women must navigate their budding romance together. Girl Friends really is a wonderful series and certainly one of the most realistic yuri manga that I have read.

The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts by Paul Pope. If you’ve never read any of Pope’s work, the newly released, hardcover anthology The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts is a fantastic introduction. It collects his longer work The One Trick Rip-Off (originally published by but now out of print from Dark Horse) as well as fourteen shorter comics, including the manga and manga-influenced work he created for Kodansha in Japan. The collection exhibits a nice variety of styles and genres from the more realistic to the more fantastical. The selected works span nearly a decade of Pope’s career. There is an appealing quirkiness to many of Pope’s characters and stories. At other times there is a sense of poetic lyricism. I loved The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts; it’s a marvelous volume.

Rurouni Kenshin, Omnibus 6 (equivalent to Volumes 16-18) by Nobuhiro Watsuki. This omnibus sees the conclusion of the lengthy Kyoto arc of Rurouni Kenshin as well as its aftermath. The duels between Kenshin and his allies and Shishio and his faction continue, ultimately ending in a violent showdown against Shishio himself. Some of the duelists’ techniques and powers are over-the-top and logically ridiculous, but they do make for some exciting and dramatic fights. I particularly liked how Watsuki was able to end the conflict with Shishio in such a way that Kenshin was still able to remain true to his vow. Kenshin and the others may have dealt with the immediate threat, but they haven’t made it through unscathed.

Tenjo Tenge, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-2) by Oh!Great. Tenjo Tenge was originally published by CMX manga in a heavily edited version which was never released in its entirety. However, the license was rescued by Viz Media and released in a non-censored, “full contact” edition. The manga is certainly deserving of its mature rating: Tenjo Tenge is violent and has plenty of fanservice. I’ve been told Tenjo Tenge gets better as it progresses, but right now neither the characters nor plot interests me enough for me to continue with the series. There were some really nice fighting bits, and legitimate martial arts philosophy and strategy were worked into the story, too, which I liked. There was also a hint of the supernatural. Even so, Tenjo Tenge didn’t really grab me.

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2 February 2013 Leave a Comment

Message to Adolf, Part 2

Creator: Osamu Tezuka
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654445
Released: December 2012
Original run: 1983-1985
Awards: Kodansha Manga Award

Osamu Tezuka’s manga series Adorufu ni Tsugu was my introduction to Japanese comics. Initially published in English by Viz Media in five volumes under the title Adolf between 1996 and 1997, the series is now available from Vertical in two hardcover omnibuses under the title Message to Adolf. The second omnibus, Message to Adolf, Part 2, was published in 2012 and collects chapters eighteen through thirty-six of the manga. In Japan Adorufu ni Tsugu was first serialized between 1983 and 1985. Tezuka went on to win the Kodansha Manga Award for the series in 1986. I am absolutely thrilled that after being out of print for so long the series is once again available in English. I was also happy to discover after reading Message to Adolf, Part 1 that the series was just as good if not better than I remembered it being. I looked forward to re-reading its conclusion a great deal.

Forced to join the Hitler Youth and forced to kill, Adolf Kaufmann is no longer the innocent boy he once was. Despite being half-Japanese, he has quickly climbed the ranks of the Nazi elite, even becoming the personal secretary of Adolf Hitler for a time. Although his indoctrination is nearly complete, he is still plagued by guilt over the deaths he has caused. Back in Japan his best friend Adolf Kamil, a Jew, has come into possession of documents proving Hitler’s Jewish heritage. Guarding the information with his life, the time has come to try to find a way to reveal the secret to the world in an attempt to take the Nazi party down. Those documents will bring Adolf Kamil and Adolf Kaufmann together once again, along with the Japanese journalist Sohei Toge.

One of the things that makes Message to Adolf work so well is that Tezuka expertly combines his historical fiction with historical fact. Placing his story within the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II (and eventually the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well) emphasizes the realism of the tale. Tezuka’s message in Message to Adolf is not a subtle one: the manga is inherently anti-war and anti-prejudice. A major theme is that war, hate, and extreme ideology are not only destructive but ultimately pointless. This is poignantly captured in the development of the character of Adolf Kaufmann who loses everything—his friends, his family, and even himself—as he strives to achieve the ideal that he has been taught is right. His downfall and undoing and the atrocities he and others commit in the name of justice and patriotism are as tragic as they are harrowing.

Message to Adolf is an impressively complex and layered narrative with several storylines that weave in and out of one another, sometimes overlapping and sometimes standing alone. Plot threads and characters introduced early on in the series return again in the second half, often in unexpected ways. Events that at first appear tangential are later pulled back into the main narrative. But as complicated as the structure of Message to Adolf is, Tezuka is in complete control the entire time. It is easy to follow and easy to be swept up in the epic tale. Message to Adolf is understandably bleak; it does deal with a dark period in history after all. Moments of light appear only to be repeatedly crushed. But ultimately, Message to Adolf leaves a hope that human beings can change and can do better. It’s not free of problems, but I honestly believe Message to Adolf is one of Tezuka’s best and most compelling series.

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1 February 2013 Leave a Comment

Bookshelf Overload: January 2013

I still have a few things coming in from my ridiculous holiday buying spree. Other than that, January’s acquisitions were limited to preorders and some out-of-print finds. For the most part. I completed my collection of Yugi Yamada manga available in English, picking up the very last copy that Right Stuf had of Spring Fever. I also managed to snag a copy of Shotaro Ishinomori’s out-of-print Cyborg 009, Volume 7 for a good price. Unfortunately, the last three volumes of that series that made it into print are really expensive right now, so it may be some time before I can complete my collection. The manga release I was most excited about in January was The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio from Fantagraphics. Some people received their copies in December; I had to jealously wait for my copy to arrive. Fantagraphics did a lovely job with the volume’s production—it’s a gorgeous, hardcover omnibus. I plan on writing an in-depth review of it in the near future. Paul Pope’s The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts also received a deluxe, hardcover treatment. It’s a fantastic collection that includes his work done for Kodansha among other things. Yet another giant, glorious hardcover I was excited about in January was The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia from Dark Horse Comics. If you’re a Zelda fan, you’ll really want to check it out.

Manga!
Black Sun, Volumes 1-2 by Uki Ogasawara
A Bride’s Story, Volume 4 by Kaoru Mori
Chicago, Volumes 1-2 by Yumi Tamura
Cyborg 009, Volume 7 by Shotaro Ishinomori
Dengeki Daiy, Volume 11 by Kyousuke Motomi
Eyeshield 21, Volumes 20-22, 26-34 written by Riichiro Inagaki, illustrated by Yusuke Murata
Flutter by Momoko Tenzen
Genshiken, Omnibus 3 by Shimoku Kio
Genshiken: Second Season, Volume 1 by Shimoku Kio
Girlfriends, Omnibus 2 by Milk Morinaga
The Heart of Thomas by Moto Hagio
Heroes Are Extinct!!, Volumes 1-3 by Ryoji Hido
I Give to You by Maki Ebishi
Love Song by Keiko Nishi
Loveless, Omnibus 2 by Yun Kouga
Mister Mistress, Volume 2 by Rize Shinba
Spring Fever by Yugi Yamada

Comics!
First, Do No Harm by Guilt|Pleasure
Johnny Wander, Volumes 1-3 written by Ananth Panagariya, illustrated by Yuko Ota
The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts by Paul Pope
Sullivan’s Sluggers written by Mark Andrew Smith, illustrated by James Stokoe

Light Novels!
S, Volumes 1-4 written by Saki Aida, illustrated by Chiharu Nara
Tokyo Demons, Book 1: You’re Never Alone written by Lianne Sentar, illustrated by rem

Novels!
Body by Asa Nonami
Hikikomori and the Rental Sister by Jeff Backhaus
Strange Tale of Panorama Island by Edogawa Rampo

Nonfiction!
The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia edited by Patrick Thorpe

Anime!
Simoun directed by Junji Nishimura

Film!
Blue Spring directed by Toshiaki Toyoda

Filed Under: Bookshelf Overload
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