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9 March 2011 Leave a Comment

The Guin Saga, Book One: The Leopard Mask

Author: Kaoru Kurimoto
Illustrator: Naoyuki Kato
Translator: Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781932234817
Released: December 2007
Original release: 1979
Awards: Seiun Award

The Leopard Mask is the first book in Kaoru Kurimoto’s epic light novel series The Guin Saga. Kurimoto began the series in 1979 and as of the author’s death in 2009, she had published one hundred forty-seven Guin Saga novels, making it one of the longest works written by a single author. So far, only the first five novels of The Guin Saga, consisting of the first major story arc, have been released in an English translation. The Guin Saga, Book One: The Leopard Mask, translated by Alexander O. Smith with the assistance of Elye J. Alexander, was first released by Vertical as a hardcover in 2003 and then in a paperback edition in 2007. The English releases include the wonderful illustrations by Naoyuki Kato. In Japan, The Guin Saga is a very popular and highly influential work. I have seen numerous authors, mangaka, and creators cite Kurimoto and the series as a source of inspiration for their own work, including Kentaro Miura and his manga series Berserk. Additionally, The Guin Saga received a Seiun Award in 2010 for Japanese Long Fiction.

Twin brother and sister Remus and Rinda are the last remaining members of the royal house of Parros. Wandering the extremely dangerous Roodwood on their own in an attempt to escape their pursuers from the Mongauli army, they come across a fierce and frightening warrior. The man is nearly naked, wearing only a loincloth and a strange mask shaped like head of a leopard that seems to have been magically affixed to his own and which he is unable to remove. He has no memories of who he is, where he comes from, or why he is injured and alone in the Roodwood. He remembers two words: Guin, which he believes to be his name, and Aurra, which remains a complete enigma to him. But no matter who Guin really is, he may be the only chance for the twins survival.

At least for me, the most interesting character by far is Guin, even though hardly anything at all is known about him. The mystery shrouding Guin and his past intrigues me, not to mention his form and martial capabilities. One thing that did bother me, and something that Remus comments on about halfway through the novel, was that for someone claiming to be an amnesiac, Guin tends to remember some fairly important information when it’s convenient for the story. I have a feeling and hope that this may be further explained in later volumes. I found the twins to be slightly annoying; Rinda especially comes across as somewhat of a spoiled brat. I liked most of the side characters, particularly Istavan and Orro, even if he did gain and lose his accent from one appearance to another. Towards the end of The Leopard Mask, Kurimoto does some really nice things with the character of the Black Count, who is more complex than he might first appear. Characterization in the novel is mostly based on the character’s actions and reactions rather than really getting to know their thoughts or feelings.

The Leopard Mask is a good hook for the rest of the series, introducing the world and characters, but it doesn’t stand as well on its own; it really seemed more like a prologue to me. The prose can be overly dramatic at times, but that is more an indication of the genre rather than the fault of the translators. (In fact, I think that Smith and Alexander did a fine job with the translation.) It’s almost as if the story would be best read aloud or performed. The action and fight sequences are particularly well done and exciting. Kurimoto does have a tendency to “rewind” the chronology from scene to scene and sometimes it can be difficult to get a good sense of the passage of time. The best descriptions in the text are reserved for Guin as well as for the other freakish and bizarre things in The Leopard Mask. Overall, the world has a very dark atmosphere to it. While I eventually enjoyed The Leopard Mask, I wasn’t really taken with the book until close to the end. However, I’m still looking forward to giving book two of The Guin Saga, Warrior in the Wilderness, a try.

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28 February 2011 2 Comments

My Week in Manga: February 21-February 27, 2011

My News and Reviews

February is a short month, but I was still able to get in two in-depth manga reviews, woo! I’ve been able to reach my goal for several months now. It seems to be a good pace for me, especially as I review other materials in addition to manga. Eventually, I’d like to do more in-depth manga reviews, but I’m going to stick with at least two a month for now. My second review for February was Hisae Iwaoka’s science fiction slice of life manga Saturn Apartments, Volume 1.

My monthly manga giveaway is underway and you still have a couple more days to Have Some Hetalia. Enter for a chance to receive a brand new copy of the second volume of the global phenomenon Hetalia: Axis Powers by Hidekaz Himaru. The winner will be announced Wednesday, March 2.

This past week, LibraryThing posted an interview with Japanese translator Alexander O. Smith that I helped out with under the name PhoenixTerran. Smith is one of my favorite translators working today and he is incredibly versatile, so I was thrilled to have a chance to ask him some questions.

A while back I had a feature on Experiments in Manga called As Seen Online where I posted interesting things that I found online. I haven’t been doing much with it recently, and so I have decided to incorporate a version of it into the “My News and Reviews” section. Each week I’ll mention a few cool links. The first thing I want to bring your attention to (although you’ve probably already seen it) is a very interesting and informative post by a senior editor at Tokyopop about why series go on hiatus. And since I read AX: Alternative Manga, Volume 1 this week, I also wanted to revisit the AXed Twitter transcripts.

As promised, I’ve added a handful of new manga reviews and news sources to the Resources page: Angela L. Eastman, A Case Suitable for Treatment, Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page, Heart of Manga, Manga Cast, Manga Life, Manga Village, Otaku Champloo, Yuri no Boke. I’ve also added We Read Comics which isn’t specifically about manga but fairly regularly comments on manga. It’s run by the folks at Vault of Midnight, some of my very favorite people. If you’re a manga blogger or reviewer and would like to be added to the list, please just let me know.

Quick Takes

All Nippon Air Line: Paradise at 30,000 Feet by Kei Azumaya. Oh, All Nippon Air Line, you are such a silly, silly manga. It is a collection of short comics by Azumaya, some original to the volume and some previously published, all centering on the All Nippon Air Line or A.N.A.L. Yes, that’s right, A.N.A.L. Every single employee in the company is male and the large majority of them also happen to be gay. Let the bad puns and ridiculousness commence! Themed flights, diverse obsessions and fantasies, and more than a few workplace romances, A.N.A.L. has it all. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the artwork, but I didn’t mind too terribly much because I was so highly amused by the manga as a whole.

AX: Alternative Manga, Volume 1 edited by Sean Michael Wilson. A wonderfully diverse anthology by thirty-three creators of alternative manga. I didn’t always “get” some of the contributions, but there were plenty of others that I was able to more fully appreciate. Even when I didn’t understand what was going on, I loved seeing all of the different art styles. One of the most frustrating things about the collection is that most of the creators probably won’t have much of their other work published in English and I’d really like to see more. I’ll definitely be picking up the second volume of AX, currently scheduled to be released this coming November.

Lone Wolf and Cub, Volumes 1-4 written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Goseki Kojima. Once serving as the executioner for the Shōgun, Ogami Ittō now travels the path of the assassin accompanied only by his young son Diagorō. Ogami is an extraordinary swordsman and a brilliant tactician. The series tends to be just slightly more episodic than I would wish, but I still find myself absorbed in Koike’s story and Kojima’s art. Actually, the cinematic artwork is one of my favorite things about the manga. The fight sequences are kinetic and the landscapes detailed and serene. My only complaint is that the books, and therefore the panels and text, are small which with my bad eyesight can be problematic.

Black Jack, Episodes 1-17 directed by Makoto Tezuka. It’s been a while since I’ve read any of the Black Jack manga, but I vaguely remember Black Jack being more of a bastard than he is portrayed in the anime. I do wish that he’d get a bit more screen time though since he’s my favorite character. Some of the episodes I recognize from the manga while others are original to the anime series. Some familiarity with the original comic is expected (exactly who Pinoko is is never explicitly stated, for example) but even newcomers should be able to enjoy the Black Jack anime. The series is fairly episodic and each episode is mostly self contained although there are some recurring characters.

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11 February 2011 5 Comments

Harmony

Author: Project Itoh
Translator: Alexander O. Smith
U.S. Publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421536439
Released: July 2010
Original release: 2008
Awards: Nihon SF Taisho Award, Seiun Award, Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation

Harmony, by Project Itoh, was originally published in Japan in 2008, winning both the 2009 Nihon SF Taisho Award and the 2009 Seiun Award. Although I was previously unfamiliar with Itoh’s work, I was very excited when the novel was picked up by Viz Media’s Haikasoru imprint and released in 2010 with a translation by Alexander O. Smith. Happily, Harmony has been very well received in English and was recently nominated for the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award. As far as I know, this is the first book in translation and the first Japanese novel to ever be nominated for this award. (The nomination is also particularly meaningful to Haikasoru as the imprint takes its name from Philip K. Dicks award-winning novel The Man in the High Castle.) Harmony is currently the only work by Itoh available in English although a fairly reliable rumor has it that Haikasoru has more Itoh plans in the works. I really hope that is true.

After an unprecedented, worldwide mass suicide, admedistrations across the globe are thrown into turmoil. In a society that views the human  body as a vital resource and a public good to be protected at all costs, suicide is an unthinkable crime. The Helix Inspection Agency, a part of the World Health Organization, is charged with the investigation into the incident. For Tuan Kirie, a Helix member playing an important role in the investigation, the event is very personal. She herself once attempted suicide in defiance of the admedistrative system of which she is now an integral part. She watched as one of her friends took her own life during the mass suicides. Her father was one of the original developers of the WatchMe nano- and biotechnologies that allow the admedistrations to function, but which may have also laid the groundwork that would make such a wide-spread tragedy possible.

The most unusual element of Itoh’s writing in Harmony is his use of EML, or Emotional-in-Text Markup Language (which looks very similar to other markup languages such as XML or HTML.) Even if a reader isn’t familiar with markup languages, it is soon obvious what is going on and the EML shouldn’t provide too much of a challenge. Some people might see it as a clever gimmick, but I found the use of EML to be quite effective and integral to the story. It emphasizes many aspects of admedistrative society in both subtle and direct ways: The EML is a constant reminder of the biotechnological advances that have been made; the perpetual recording and surveillance of individuals’ lives, health, and minds is made obvious; emotional states and human desire are shown to have been reduced to data points for clinical observation; the barrier between one person’s experiences and another’s is broken down. I believe EML is critical to Harmony and I doubt anyone will be able to convince me otherwise.

As with any fiction successfully exploring utopia and dystopia, Harmony is extremely thought-provoking in addition to being engaging. It is easy to see the obsessions and neuroses of today’s societies, particularly those regarding health, reflected and taken to the extreme in Harmony’s world. Occasionally, Itoh can be a bit heavy handed, but overall his world-building has taken a logical if not entirely realistic path. Even a near perfect world can’t make everyone happy and the methods used to get there can be terrible no matter how they are justified. The epilogue doesn’t mesh as nicely with the rest of the novel, but it does provide important information, clarifying specific plot elements while still leaving some ambiguity to the story. I enjoyed Harmony immensely—it’s smart, thought-provoking, and has stuck with me for quite some time after finishing it. I really hope to get a chance to read more of Itoh’s work in English.

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28 January 2011 2 Comments

The Devotion of Suspect X

Author: Keigo Higashino
Translator: Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander
U.S. publisher: St. Martin’s Press
ISBN: 9780312375065
Released: February 2011
Original release: 2005
Awards: Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize, Naoki Sanjugo Prize

The Devotion of Suspect X is only the second of Keigo Higashino’s works to be translated into English. (Vertical published his novel Himitsu, “Secret,” under the title Naoko in 2004.) This is really too bad since he is both a popular and award-winning author in Japan. The Devotion of Suspect X is arguably his most notable book—originally published in Japan in 2005, it won him the Naoki Sanjugo Prize and was made into a film in 2008. The novel is scheduled for release in English in February 2011 by the Minotaur imprint of St. Martin’s Press. I was happy to receive an advance copy of The Devotion of Suspect X through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program. I was also very excited to learn that Alexander O. Smith—one of my favorite translators—worked on the novel’s translation with Elye J. Alexander. I had never read any of Higashino’s work before, but was really looking forward to The Devotion of Suspect X.

After Yasuko unintentionally kills her ex-husband during a violent struggle in her apartment, she is surprised when her next door neighbor, the brilliant mathematician Ishigami, offers to do all that he can to help cover up the crime. He asks for nothing in return but Yasuko and her daughter must follow his plan exactly for it to work. Incredibly, Ishigami seems to have taken into consideration all possible outcomes and the investigation proceeds just as he predicts. The detectives suspect that something isn’t quite right with the situation, but the evidence tells a convincing story even if they are uneasy about it. But then Ishigami is unexpectedly reunited with Yukawa, a former university classmate, rival, and friend. Yukawa, who often acts as a consultant to the police, may be the only person in a position to see through Ishigami’s schemes. However, Ishigami is prepared even for this unforeseen scenario.

Even though the characters are extremely important in The Devotion of Suspect X, the reader never really gets to connect with or know them that well, or see what’s going on inside their minds. It is this not knowing that drives the story. Ishigami is terrifying in his brilliance specifically because the depth of his devotion and the lengths he is willing to go to protect Yasuko are unknown. There is no question he has helped her and her daughter and his incredible intelligence has allowed him to do this extraordinarily well. Throughout the novel, the enormity of exactly what he has done and the ultimate truth behind the situation is slowly revealed. Although I predicted some of the plot developments, I’ll admit that I didn’t see some of the final twists coming. Ishigami’s genius is stunning and in many ways the ending is heartbreaking.

Technically, The Devotion of Suspect X is the third volume in Higashino’s Detective Galileo series, which features Manabu Yukawa. However, the book stands alone perfectly well. I wasn’t even aware that it was a part of a series when I started reading it and only discovered that fact later on. I do hope that the previous two books, Tantei Galileo and Yochimu are translated because I would really like to read them now. The thing that I was most impressed by in The Devotion of Suspect X was how Higashino effectively and very subtly built tension as the novel progressed. I didn’t even realize how worked up I had become until the end of the book when Higashino finally releases his grip. Occasionally, he would linger on a particular mathematical theory or concept for too long and I wouldn’t necessarily call The Devotion of Suspect X a page-turner. However, I found it to be thoroughly engrossing and I really hope to read more of Higashino’s work in English.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing a copy of The Devotion of Suspect X for review.

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23 August 2010 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: August 16-August 22, 2010

My News and Reviews

Obviously, my biggest news for the week was the launch of Experiments in Manga. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m very excited about it. Probably no one else really cares all that much, but it makes me happy. You can read about the release here: Announcing Experiments in Manga!

Also, the site’s search bar only seems to return results for posts published after August 18, 2010. This kinda defeats the purpose of having a search and so I’m working on getting this fixed as soon as possible. Fortunately, everything posted before August 18, 2010 can be found linked to from the Review Index.

Reviewed this past week was Miyuki Miyabe’s novel Brave Story. It’s a great story, if a bit long, with a very good translation from Alexander O. Smith. I also talked a bit about my 365 Days of Manga Loot. The contest is still running, so if you live in the United States you should go enter.

Quick Takes

20th Century Boys, Volumes 1-2 by Naoki Urasawa. Urasawa is one of my favorite mangaka so it was a no-brainer that I would pick up his most recent series to be translated into English. The plot is slowly revealed and it’s hard to know where he’s going with it, but its good. There are also some wonderful bits of nostalgia as characters reflect back on their childhood. I particularly like the character of Kenji and his design. Obviously this very normal guy is going to be caught up in whatever happens to unfold.

Gravitation Collection, Volume 5 (equivalent to Volumes 9-10) by Maki Murakami. Up until now I’ve really enjoyed the craziness that is Gravitation, but for whatever reason this volume just didn’t do it for me. The insanity is still there but it seems to have lost its originality and is knowingly repeating itself. A slew of new characters have been introduced while older characters have unfortunately been left by the wayside. The artwork is more polished than in previous volumes, but I’m not sure that necessarily is a good thing. I almost prefer the earlier, more spastic style—it fit the story.

Rin!, Volumes 1-3 written by Satoru Kannagi and illustrated by Yukine Honami. Originally intended as a single volume, the story ended up becoming three. I’m not sure if it’s because of the translation, but the first volume feels really disjointed and fragmented but the subsequent volumes improve. It’s a sweet story, more about Katsura learning to have confidence in himself than the boy/boy romance, although that’s there too. Honami’s art is lovely and her layouts are wonderful. I love kyūdō (even if I hardly know anything about it) so I like the series for that if nothing else.

Kurau: Phantom Memory, Episodes 1-9. I first learned about this anime series while perusing the TV Tropes Bifauxnen entry. It’s good science fiction with believable relationships. I have developed a huge crush on Kurau (as to be expected) and Christmas is adorably cute without being annoying. The two of them are wonderful together. It’s nice to see a competent, likeable over-twenty woman as a lead character. I’ve really liked what I’ve seen of the series so far and am looking forward to watching the rest.

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