31 December 2012 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: December 24-December 30, 2012

My New and Reviews

Last week was the last full week of the year! I’m looking forward to what 2013 might bring. Today ends the Hikaru no Go/Game Manga Manga Moveable Feast. I had two contributions for the Feast this time around. Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata’s Hikaru no Go is a fantastic series; I was excited to see it selected for the Feast. For my first contribution, I reviewed the first volume of Hikaru no Go. Keeping with the Feast’s game theme, I also posted some random musings on mahjong manga. I love mahjong, and it’s very unlikely any mahjong manga will be licensed in English, but references to the game can be found all over the place in manga. Not related to the Manga Moveable Feast but also posted last week was the final manga giveaway for the year. There’s still time to enter for a chance to win the first volume of Saki Hiwatari’s shoujo science fiction epic Please Save My Earth!

I was also saddened to learn last week that Keiji Nakazawa, survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and creator of Barefoot Gen, passed away from lung cancer at the age of 73. In the past, I reviewed both the first volume of Barefoot Gen and Nakazawa’s autobiography Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen. Jonathan Clements also recently reprinted his interview with Nakazawa from a few years ago. Nakazawa and his work will be missed.

Quick Takes

Blood Lad, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-2) by Yuuki Kodama. I wasn’t planning on reading Blood Lad, but I recently heard some good things about the series. For the most part, Blood Lad was a lot of fun. But it’s a pity that the plot hinges on what is probably the weakest element in the entire manga—Yanagi Fuyumi, a human girl who’s fallen into the demon world. Unfortunately, she’s all boobs and no personality. But I do like the rest of the characters, particularly Staz, a vampire who’s obsessed with human, and specifically Japanese, pop culture. I was a little surprised that Blood Lad is a seinen series; it feels more like shounen to me. I’m not in a rush to pick up the next omnibus, but I certainly wouldn’t turn it away, either.

Blue Spring by Taiyo Matsumoto. I sought out Blue Spring specifically for the story “Mahjong Summer,” but I also happen to be a fan of Matsumoto’s work in general. I really liked this collection of loosely related stories about the delinquent, disillusioned, and apathetic students of Kitano High School. The teachers don’t care about what’s going on at the school and the students care even less. They are bored with school and life and seek out ways to occupy themselves before entering adulthood: playing dangerous games, getting involved with gangs and yakuza, showing off and talking shit, and so on. The school itself is rundown and covered with graffiti both inside and out. There’s a touch of the surreal to Blue Spring which is one of the things that makes the manga work so well.

Paradise Kiss, Parts 1-2 by Ai Yazawa. I don’t have a particular interest in fashion which is one of the reasons I haven’t picked up Paradise Kiss until now. It really is a shame I took so long because the series is fantastic. Yazawa excels at writing characters. They all have their histories and faults. They’re not always likeable, but they always come across as real people. I’m particularly fascinated by George in Paradise Kiss. He’s a hard person to read, and there’s a reason for that. He’s manipulative and a bit twisted, but he’s been damaged and hurt in the past, too. After reading part of Nana and now first two-thirds of Paradise Kiss, I am extremely impressed by Yazawa’s work; she is a phenomenal creator.

The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy by Youka Nitta. Embracing Love is one of my favorite boys’ love series, and so I was looking forward to trying another work by Nitta. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I was particularly impressed by The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy. Although I liked the story’s setup—two diplomats navigating their affair and liaisons, taking both personal and political risks in order to do so—I ended up fairly bored with the manga as a whole. And, except for a few brief moments, I wasn’t really feeling any chemistry between the two men, either. Apparently, The Prime Minister’s Secret Diplomacy is the beginning of a series; there’s at least one more volume, but it doesn’t appear to have been licensed in English.

Hikaru no Go, Episodes 1-15 directed by Shin Nishizawa. I love the Hikaru no Go manga, but up until now haven’t seen any of the anime adaptation. I’m enjoying the anime, but the manga is definitely the superior of the two. The art and pacing of the story are better in the manga and the anime isn’t as forgiving if you don’t already understand go. Granted, the anime does teach a little more about the game than the manga does. It even includes short go lessons with professional player Yukari Umezawa (who was also the supervisor for the manga) at the end of each episode. Sai seems to have lost much of his cute side, which made me a little sad; his serious nature is more prominent in the anime.

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29 December 2012 1 Comment

Random Musings: Mahjong Manga

“Luncheon of Tears Diary (Vagabond Shoujo Manga-ka)”
by Hiroaki Samura

Since December 2012’s Manga Moveable Feast featured Hikaru no Go as well as other game manga, I figured I would take the opportunity to ramble on a bit about one of my favorite games: mahjong. When mahjong is encountered in manga, it’s usually riichi that is being referred to or played. I’ve been playing riichi mahjong for about two and a half years now. I’m not a very strong player at all, but I enjoy playing the game immensely. I’m envious of all of the mahjong manga that is available in Japan and would love to read it for myself.

There are three mahjong manga that seem to be particularly well known even outside of Japan: Ritz Kobayashi’s ongoing series Saki, the six-volume The Legend Koizumi by Hideki Ohwada (Jason Thompson wrote a great article about the series last year), and Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s Akagi, which is also ongoing. Except for the anime adaptation of Saki (which is available streaming through Crunchyroll), none of these series have been licensed in English. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that they ever will be licensed. Even in Japan mahjong manga is a niche genre. Despite mahjong’s popularity in some areas (there’s the United States Professional Mahjong League based in New York, for example), mahjong would largely be considered esoteric in the West.

Probably the Western game that would come closest to mahjong in terms of social context (at least in the United States) would be poker. Both mahjong and poker are gambling games and are occasionally associated with organized crime. Skilled players are admired, but playing either game can also bring with it connotations of delinquency. But at the same time, a large number of people know how to play the games. It’s fairly easy to get together a group of people to play—families and/or friends—or to find a place to play, either online or in a salon. Both mahjong and poker can be played casually for fun or more competitively in established or even professional tournaments.

Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga
by Koji Aihara and Kentaro Takekuma

Because of my love of mahjong, I’m always on the lookout for references to the game in the manga that I read. And once I started looking, I discovered that there were references almost everywhere. It doesn’t seem to matter what the manga’s intended audience is, either. I’ve found references to mahjong in shoujo, shounen, seinen, and in josei. Often it’s just a brief mention in a conversation, but there are plenty of manga in which a game of mahjong can be seen in progress. Sometimes mahjong even plays an important role in the plot of a manga or in the development of a character. I’ve actually made a note of all of the references to mahjong that I’ve come across in my reading. I’m not sure if anyone else will really be interested in it, but I do plan on eventually pulling all of my notes together at some point in a more coherent and comprehensive fashion in order to make them available to others.

In addition to collecting mahjong references when I come across them, I also make a deliberate point to track down manga that has been licensed in English that incorporate mahjong in some way. I’ve discovered some great series because of this. Take Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter as one example. (I’ve actually written about Wild Adapter‘s mahjong connection before—Random Musings: Mahjong, Kubota, and Wild Adapter.) Makoto Kubota in Wild Adapter and Shinichi Gotō in Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi’s Old Boy both get by in the world in part due to their mahjong skills. Although mahjong plays a very minor role, the reason I got around to picking up Dengeki Daisy by Kyousuke Motomi was because one of the main characters, Tasuku Kurosaki, was described as a slacker who plays mahjong online.

So, where can you find manga in English with mahjong as a prominent element? I’ve already mentioned Wild Adapter—mahjong is particularly important at the start of the series. Shiuko Kano’s boys’ love anthology Affair includes the story “One Lucky Guy” in which a game of mahjong costs a man his job, but also gives him an excuse to move in with one of his ex-coworkers. One of the chapters in Koji Aihara and Kentaro Takekuma’s parody manga Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga features a lesson on “How to Draw Mahjong Manga” which is hilarious. Hiroaki Samura (best known for his series Blade of the Immortal) plays mahjong and there are plenty of references to the game in his collection Ohikkoshi, including in the story “Luncheon of Tears Diary (Vagabond Shoujo Manga-ka)” in which a female shoujo artist briefly becomes the foremost mahjong player in Kanto (among other things.) Samura’s soon to be released collection Emerald and Other Stories also includes the four-page mahjong manga “Low-Grade Strategy: The Mirror Play.” Finally, Taiyo Matsumoto’s short manga “Mahjong Summer,” included in Blue Spring, is a brilliant piece which juxtaposes and overlaps mahjong with a baseball game.

“Mahjong Summer” by Taiyo Matsumoto

I would love to see more mahjong manga available in English, but I know that that is very unlikely to happen. Still, I will continue to seek it out in the manga that I read and will continue to keep track of all the mentions of mahjong that I happen find. It’s a bit of a silly hobby, but I get a kick out of it.

This post is a part of the Hikaru no Go/Game Manga Manga Moveable Feast.

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28 December 2012 Leave a Comment

Hikaru no Go, Volume 1: Descent of the Go Master

Author: Yumi Hotta
Illustrator: Takeshi Obata
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781591162223
Released: May 2004
Original release: 1998
Awards: Shogakukan Manga Award, Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize

Hikaru no Go, written by Yumi Hotta and illustrated by Takeshi Obata (who is also the artist for the very popular manga series Death Note), is one of the first manga series that I made a point to collect in its entirety. I had first borrowed Hikaru no Go from my local library, but less than half of the series was available there. But I was so impressed by what I had read, I went and bought myself a complete set of Hikaru no Go, all twenty-three volumes. I was pleased when Hikaru no Go was selected for the December 2012 Manga Moveable Feast because it is a series that I’m quite fond of. I’m not the only one, either. Hikaru no Go received a Shogakukan Manga Award in 2000 and was later awarded an Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize in 2003. Hikaru no Go, Volume 1: Descent of the Go Master was originally released in Japan in 1998. Viz Media first serialized the manga in issues thirteen through sixteen of Shonen Jump before publishing the collected volume in 2004.

While scavenging through his grandfather’s attic, Hikaru Shindo comes across an old go board which he hopes he can sell for some extra cash. Instead, he finds that he must share his consciousness with the ghost attached to the board, Fujiwara-no-Sai, a go master from the Heian period. Although Sai died long ago, his spirit lingers on due to his great love for the game. Even in death he strives to play the Divine Move. But for some reason, he’s stuck with Hikaru, a sixth-grader with absolutely no interest in go. But Hikaru isn’t a bad kid. With the right kind of encouragement—namely Sai agreeing to help him out with his history classwork—Hikaru is happy to allow Sai the opportunity to observe and even play a few games of go. And Hikaru can’t help but be impressed by the intensity of the players he sees, some who are even younger than he is. A spark has been lit in Hikaru. He started paying attention to go for Sai’s sake, but now a small part of him wants to play for his own.

Hikaru no Go has a great, engaging story, but it’s Obata’s artwork that really brings everything together. At it’s very core, Hikaru no Go is a manga about a boardgame. Now, I personally love games, but I still wouldn’t necessarily think that they would make a compelling subject for a manga series. Hikaru no Go shows that they can. Obata’s artwork captures the excitement and drama surrounding go and its players with effective and cinematic panels and page layouts. The character designs are memorable and distinctive without resorting to caricature; even the individuals in groups and crowds each have their own look. Obata also adds some nice touches to Hikaru’s design, often incorporating the number five (pronounced “go” in Japanese) into his clothing choices. And I love Sai’s design, too. He can go from elegant to adorable at a moments notice.

One of the greatest things about Hikaru no Go is that it requires absolutely not prior knowledge of go to enjoy the series. To be completely honest, almost everything I do know about go I initially learned from reading Hikaru no Go. The series even inspired me to give the game a try. Hikaru himself is a complete beginner at the start of the manga. But Hikaru no Go also reveals the “tenacious perseverance and hard work” that is required of players who are serious and passionate about go. The series is even supervised by Yukari Umezawa, a professional go player holding the rank of go-dan at the time of the publication of Descent of the Go Master. As Hikaru learns more about the game, so do the readers, but the technicalities and rules of go never overshadow the story and characters of Hikaru no Go. The series really is a lot of fun; even having read it before I still enjoy it immensely.

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26 December 2012 4 Comments

Manga Giveaway: Shoujo Science Fiction (Please Save My Earth)

The end of the December approaches, as does the end of the year (although it looks like we avoided the end of the world), so it’s time for Experiments in Manga’s final manga giveaway of 2012! This month you will have the chance to win a new copy of the first volume of Saki Hiwatari’s shoujo science fiction epic Please Save My Earth. As always, the contest is open worldwide!

When I was younger, I was constantly reading science fiction. Now that I’m older I read a bit more broadly when it comes to genre, but I still love science fiction. It’s probably not too surprising that my love of science fiction impacts my manga reading as well. I’ve discovered that I have a particular fondness for shoujo science fiction. In the United States, young adult science fiction is generally aimed towards young men. I think it’s marvelous that science fiction intended for young women, in this case shoujo manga, exists and has been translated. When it comes to shoujo science fiction, I personally love the classic manga by Moto Hagio and Keiko Takemiya. (Granted, both of the works by Takemiya that are currently available in English are technically shounen.) But I do enjoy more contemporary works as well. What I particularly like about the shoujo science fiction manga that I have read is the focus given to character development within the context of the stories.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Please Save My Earth, Volume 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me about your favorite shoujo manga with science fiction themes. If you don’t have one, or you’ve never read shoujo science fiction manga, just mention that.
2) For a second entry, simply name a shoujo science fiction manga that hasn’t been mentioned yet by me or someone else.
3) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

It’s as easy as that! Each person can earn up to three entries for this giveaway. You have one week to submit your comments. If you have trouble leaving comments (Blogger sometimes has issues), or if you would prefer, you can e-mail me your entries at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. I will then post the comment in your name. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on January 2, 2013. Best of luck, and have a fantastic new year!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Shoujo Science Fiction Winner

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24 December 2012 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: December 17-December 23, 2012

My News and Reviews

It’s the holiday season and I’m doing all sorts of traveling, but I did manage to post two reviews last week. The first was for the historical novel An Alaskan Tale by Jirō Nitta. Only three of Nitta’s novels have been translated into English; An Alaskan Tale was the first to be published, but I ended up reading it last. An Alaskan Tale, based on a true story, is about the life and adventures of Frank Yasuda, a Japanese in Alaska in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I also reviewed MiSun Kim’s yonkoma-ish manhwa Aron’s Absurd Armada, Omnibus 1. I was actually surprised by how much I ended up enjoying the volume, and look forward to the next omnibus, scheduled to be released June 2013. Later this week, December 26 to be exact, the Hikaru no Go Manga Moveable Feast will begin! I’ll be reviewing the first volume of Hikaru no Go as part of my contribution. I’ll probably also be using the Feast as an excuse to talk about mahjong in manga again (having previously written about Mahjong, Kubota, and Wild Adapter.) The 26th is also the last day of Akadot Retail‘s End of the World Blowout. This is the best sale I’ve ever seen on Akadot: 45% off of orders of $60 or more, which also qualifies you for free shipping if you live in the United States. Simply use the code xmas2012 at checkout. Last year I posted Finding Manga: Akadot Retail which has some tips about finding and buying manga through Akadot.

Quick Takes

The Crimson Spell, Volumes 1-2 by Ayano Yamane. There don’t seem to be many fantasy-oriented boys’ love manga available in English. The Crimson Spell is one of the few that I have read. It was also my introduction to the work of Ayano Yamane. Even though only two of the four volumes were ever released in English, The Crimson Spell is my personal favorite Yamane manga. I enjoy the fantasy setting, Yamane’s beautiful artwork, the drama and sword fights, the outlandish characters, and the healthy dose of humor that the series incorporates. I also like that sexual energy is tied so closely to magical energy, which ends up being a perfect excuse to include plenty of explicit sex scenes.

Genshiken, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-3) by Shimoku Kio. I missed out on Genshiken when it was being released by Del Rey Manga, and so was excited to get a chance to read it when Kodansha began releasing the omnibus editions. Genshiken is probably best described as an otaku slice-of-life comedy. Kanji Sasahara is a university freshmen who has never had the confidence to pursue his interests until he joins a club filled with other otaku who act as his guide to the wonderful world of fandom. Genshiken covers a lot of ground: dōjinshi, Comiket, cosplay, models, video games (including porn games), and more. While I wasn’t blow away by the first Genshiken omnibus, I still thoroughly enjoyed the story and characters. I look forward to reading more of the series.

Here Is Greenwood, Volumes 6-9 by Yukie Nasu. I really enjoyed Here Is Greenwood. I wouldn’t call it a spectacular manga, but I’m glad that I read the series. I was consistently entertained by its offbeat characters and goofy humor. Here Is Greenwood is a funny and even heartwarming series. I like the guys of the Greenwood dormitory quite a bit. The manga is mostly episodic, but these last few volumes introduce an overarching background story and love interest for the series’ main protagonist Hasukawa. Not surprisingly, he has even more to be stressed out about now than when the series first started. And though he’s able to begin to stand up for himself, he still has pranks pulled on him on a fairly regular basis.

X, Omnibus 4 (equivalent to Volumes 9-12) by CLAMP. For me, X is a series that’s so bad it’s good. I have to admit that I love the manga in all its melodramatic glory, but it really is a ridiculous series. Not ridiculous as in funny, but in how incredibly over-the-top it is. The cast of characters is huge and more and more characters continue to be introduced. None of the characters are particularly well-developed, but I do like them. The plot is a mess and doesn’t always make a lot of sense despite the fact that what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen is constantly being rehashed. Because of this, the story doesn’t go anywhere fast. But I still find the series to be engaging. I like the omnibus releases of X. I don’t think I’d have as much patience with the single volumes.

Slam Dunk, Episodes 24-38 directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa. At this point, I’ve seen more of the Slam Dunk anime than I’ve read of Takehiko Inoue’s original manga, so I can’t really compare the two. I’m still enjoying the anime, though. Basketball is the main focus of the series, but I’m glad to see that all of the delinquents are still getting some screen time. (Mito is probably my favorite character in the entire series.) The basketball team has a fair number of delinquents on it, too, including the series’ lead Sakuragi. Except for his enthusiasm and comic relief, I’m not entirely sure what purpose he serves on the team yet, but I am very fond of him as a character.

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