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30 April 2012 4 Comments

My Week in Manga: April 23-April 29, 2012

My News and Reviews

Last week was the Viz Signature Manga Moveable Feast, hosted by Kate Dacey at The Manga Critic. In addition to last week’s quick takes, I took a closer look at Q Hayashida’s Dorohedoro, Volume 1 for the Feast. If you don’t mind graphic violence (which I don’t), the series is well worth checking out. It’s a little weird and has great art and memorable characters. The giveaway for April has also been posted. This time around I’m giving away the first volume of I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow by Shunju Aono (which happens to be a Viz Signature title). As usual, the giveaway is open worldwide. And there’s still a couple of days left to submit your entries! If you’re not sure about the series, The Manga Critic has a few reasons why I’ll Give It My All…Tomorrow is the one of the best manga you’re not reading.

On to some cool things online! The second Aniblog Tourney is well underway. The voting for the first round finished up recently. Experiments in Manga has been matched up with Shameful Otaku Secret! for the second round of voting which will begin on May 1st. (Hello to all of you tourney folk who may be visiting Experiments in Manga for the first time, and welcome back to all of you who have wandered by this way before.) Only three manga-centric blogs (Heart of Manga, Kuriousity, and Shades of Grey) made it through the first round of voting. However, some manga blogs, including Experiments in Manga, were seeded into the second round and haven’t been voted on yet. I’m interested in seeing how Experiments in Manga, which isn’t particularly well known and hasn’t been around for long, will fare.

Elsewhere online, Vertical mentioned on Twitter that they expect to have at least five new licenses to announce this summer. I always enjoy Vertical’s manga and novel releases, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what they have in store. Manga creator Moto Hagio was recently awarded the Purple Ribbon Medal of Honor. Deb Aoki has a great article about the medal at About.com: Manga. I also came across an interview with Hagio from 2005 conducted by manga translator and shoujo aficionado Matt Thorn.

Quick Takes

20th Century Boys, Volumes 7-9 by Naoki Urasawa. I’ll admit it—Naoki Urasawa is one of the of the reasons I developed an obsession with manga. 20th Century Boys the most recent of Urasawa’s works to be released in English and I’m loving it. Granted, it can be a bit frustrating that every time the Friend is about to be revealed Urasawa cuts away, but otherwise he does a fantastic job of generating suspense. In fact, he can create some incredibly intense and exciting scenes. Urasawa also handles a large cast well; I like how he brings in new characters to interact with the players that have already been established. He’s dealing with a couple of different timelines, but they’re slowly coming together nicely.

A Bride’s Story, Volumes 2-3 by Kaoru Mori. If I had to describe A Bride’s Story in one word, it would be “gorgeous.” Mori’s artwork is marvelous to behold. The amount of detail she devotes to each panel is astounding but never overwhelming. The story, too, is lovely. Reading the manga I’m torn between lingering over the artwork and turning the pages to find out what happens next. The first volume was fairly quiet, but the second volume has significantly more conflict as Amir’s family comes to reclaim her, by force if necessary. In the third volume the story actually begins to follow Mr. Smith, the linguist staying with the Eihon family. I liked Smith as a secondary character but I wasn’t sure how well I would like him as a lead. It didn’t take long for Mori to convince me.

Fist of the North Star: Master Edition, Volumes 1-3 written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. Fist of the North Star is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which people are struggling to survive, fighting over the most meager of resources. Enter Kenshiro, a dark hero who wanders the land protecting the innocent. Even though Kenshiro’s martial art of Hokuto Shinken may seem to be nearly invincible, he still takes quite a beating from time to time as he faces more and more powerful foes. But he’s calm and collected and enough of a badass that he tends to come out on top in the end. I really enjoyed Fist of the North Star; I’ll definitely be tracking down the couple of volumes that I have missing from the series.

The Book of Bantorra, Episodes 1-13 directed by Toshiya Shinohara. It only took two words for me to pick up The Book of Bantorra: Armed Librarians. As a librarian myself, I can’t help but love kickass and fantastic portrayals of my profession. Unfortunately, beyond the basic premise of the series which I really liked, I found The Book of Bantorra to be rather disappointing. For one, the narrative is a mess. Perhaps it makes more sense to someone who’s had the opportunity to read the novels upon which the anime is based. Plot developments seem to come out of nowhere and often aren’t explained adequately. Neither are the characters’ motivations. Still, as much as The Book of Bantorra frustrates me, I will be following the series through to the end.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi directed by David Gelb. At the age of 85, Jiro Ono is considered to be one of the greatest sushi masters in the world. His skill and passion for his work is readily apparent in Gelb’s debut documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The film shows the absolute care and thoughtfulness that goes into every detail of making sushi: the cooking of the rice, the selection of the fish, the presentation of the meal, the development and honing of techniques, and more. Making sushi is frequently compared to making music and this is nicely reflected in the film’s soundtrack. Orchestral works and concertos are expertly paired with beautiful imagery of the sushi’s creation. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a wonderful film.

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5 December 2011 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: November 28-December 4, 2011

My News and Reviews

It took two weeks, but it looks like I’m nearly completely recovered from my headache of doom. I still wasn’t able to read for very long periods of time last week, but at least I could start to watch things again. Subtitles are still a bit of a strain though, as I discovered while watching Toward the Terra. Last week I posted the November 2011 Bookshelf Overload as well as a review of Osamu Dazai’s breakthrough novella Schoolgirl. Also, don’t forget about my latest manga giveaway, Give Me Some Gin Tama! Enter for a chance to win the first three volumes of Gin Tama.

And now, I am absolutely thrilled to report that the House of Five Leaves anime has finally been licensed for a Region 1 DVD release! I cannot begin to express how incredibly happy this makes me—NIS America News. And other news that I’m happy about—Jen Lee Quick to Resume OffBeat. This news is actually a bit old, but I just recently found out about it. I’m really looking forward to seeing the final volume of this series. Also of note, Brigid Alverson of MangaBlog (as well many, many other awesome sites) has been named as one of the judges for this year’s Eisner Awards—Judging time! And finally, Deb Aoki has a post on 12 Cooking Manga Good Enough to Eat. It’ a great list with some great manga on it. And if you like food manga (like I do), keep an eye out for the February 2012 Manga Moveable Feast to be hosted by Khursten Santos of Otaku Champloo which will feature Oishinbo and other food manga.

Quick Takes

Cardcaptor Sakura, Omnibus 2 (equivalent to Volumes 3-6) by CLAMP. There is definite potential that Cardcaptor Sakura could be too sugary sweet, but CLAMP skillfully balances the adorably cute with more serious themes of love and loss. I find Cardcaptor Sakura to be an incredibly enjoyable series to read. The characters are all very likeable. Even the secondary characters play important roles in the story and have very distinct personalities. I’m particularly fond of Yamazaki and his delightful tendency to make up completely ridiculous origin stories for just about anything. This omnibus marks the halfway point for the series and I’m eagerly awaiting Dark Horse’s next omnibus release scheduled for next year.

Hero Heel, Volume 1 by Makoto Tateno. Works by Tateno tend to be fairly hit-or-miss with me, and so I was somewhat surprised by how much I liked this first volume of Hero Heel. Minami has been working as an actor for three years and has yet to really make a name for himself. Although he’s not particularly enthusiastic about it, his agent convinces him to audition for a superhero show and he lands the heroic lead. His attitude starts to change when he realizes how talented and serious his openly gay coworker Sawada is about his work. Unfortunately, Minami’s admiration and curiosity turn into unwelcome infatuation. Tateno creates an interesting dynamic between Sawada and Minami and I’d like to see where things might go next.

King of Wolves written by Buronson and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. I wasn’t particularly impressed by Japan, another manga that Miura and Buronson worked on together, so I didn’t have high expectations for King of Wolves. The manga turned out to be kind of fun though, even if I couldn’t bring myself to take it too seriously and it was fairly predictable. The narrative does have some issues, particularly with pacing and flow. Some plot developments, like Iba’s domination of the north, are done and over so quickly that it makes me wonder why they were even included to begin with. It feels like the creators were simply shoving too much story into a single volume.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Season 2, Part 2 (Episodes 41-51) directed by Seiji Mizushima. Fullmetal Alchemist really is a fantastic series. I was very glad to see the Elric brother’s father finally introduced and all the disparate story elements are tied together nicely by the final episodes. Fullmetal Alchemist has a complex, engaging story and great, well-rounded characters. The good guys have their flaws and the bad guys have their admirable points. The series does a wonderful job exploring the grey areas of science, religion, morality, ethics, philosophy, war, revenge, and more. The characters are forced to repeatedly confront and take responsibility for their past mistakes.

Hetalia: Axis Powers, Season 2 directed by Bob Shirohata. Hetalia is probably not for the easily offended. Fortunately, I’m not at all easily offended so I quite often find it to be hilarious. I think the second season of Hetalia is even more consistently funny than the first. Even though the accents can sometimes be shaky, I really love the English dub of the series. The second season features more antagonism between Britain and France and other repeat appearances from the established cast. And Canada, oh Canada! finally gets a bit of screen time. One of the things I like best about Hetalia is that I actually do learn a bit of world history along the way in spite of (and sometimes because of) all the crazy antics.

Toward the Terra directed by Hideo Onchi. Toward the Terra is based on Keiko Takemiya’s award-winning manga series, published in English as To Terra… I was actually impressed by how much of the original story was able to be included in the anime adaptation. Granted, there were some plot developments in the movie that I only understood because I had already read Takemiya’s manga series. But, I do like the story and the anime catches most of the highlights. A utopian society has been established in order to protect the Earth but a new race of humans with psychic powers, known as the Mu, have evolved, posing a danger to the system. Also, Nozomi Entertainment’s remastered version of the film both looks and sounds great.

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21 February 2011 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: February 15-February 20, 2011

My News and Reviews

This past week was the February 2011 Manga Moveable Feast, hosted by Sam Kusek over at A Life in Panels. It was a great feast featuring Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen; even Last Gasp, the publishers for the series in English, participated. I had three related posts, including reviews of Nakazawa’s autobiography Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen and my first in-depth manga review for February for Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima.

I really need to updated the Resources page—I’ve a bunch of new sites to add—so I’ll try to get around to that this week. Also coming up this week: Wednesday will start my monthly manga giveaway. I haven’t quite decided which manga it will be yet, so you’ll just have to drop by on Wednesday to find out. I’m also excited for Wednesday to roll around since Kodo will be in town for a performance, and I have tickets!

Quick Takes

Dog Style, Volumes 1-3 by Modoru Motoni. The first volume of Dog Style is a bit sporadic and difficult to follow at times, but by the end of the third volume Motoni had completely won me over. As the series progresses, both Motoni’s art (which was pretty good to begin with) and writing improves greatly. The story gets a bit angsty at times, and it’s not exactly romantic, but I enjoyed seeing Teru and Miki’s relationship develop. Teru and his friends are delinquents, so he tends to get involved in violent fights, and Miki has his own problems and past to deal with. The two start out as strangers but come to rely on each other; complete with some killer kisses and more. (Also, bonus points for use of condoms.)

Japan written by Buronson and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. The primary reason I picked up Japan was that Berserk‘s creator, Kentaro Miura, worked on it. Also, the setting interested me since post-apocalyptic fiction is one of my favorite sub-genres. There were some nice story elements in Japan that could have made a great short series. Unfortunately, in this one-shot they’re overshadowed by the constant and unnecessary, semi-political commentary on what it really means to be “Japanese.” I think Miura’s art works best in the post-apocalyptic setting; I wasn’t quite as convinced by his modern environments.

K-ON!, Volume 1 by Kakifly. This may just be the best yonkoma manga that I’ve read so far. I laughed so much. Granted, as a musician, I felt a particular fondness for the girls in the pop music club as they try to put together their own band. I found Yui, the accidental guitarist, particularly amusing since she doesn’t know a thing about music but she’s still very enthusiastic about the whole thing. Actually, I like all of the characters that have been introduced up to this point. K-ON! makes me very happy and I can easily see why this series is so popular. I’ll definitely be reading future volumes as they are released in English.

Chi’s Sweet Home: Chi’s New Address, Episodes 1-52 directed by Mitsuyuki Masuhara. Chi’s New Address is the second Chi’s Sweet Home anime. I’ve never seen the first, but I have been reading and loving the original manga series. And I’m loving the anime, too. The season is 104 episodes long, but each episode is under three minutes long. At first, the baby noises that Chi makes annoyed me, but I soon got over it. The anime is every bit as cute and adorable as the manga. The animation is simply delightful and almost every episode made me laugh. And it didn’t matter how many times I watched the opening—I giggled every single time.

Monster, Episodes 40-60 directed by Masayuki Kojima. While I’m still enjoying the anime adaptation of Monster, I think I can safely say at this point that I prefer the manga. The slow, deliberate plot development that worked so well in the original comes across as tedious and ponderous in the anime. It’s a problem of the anime trying too faithfully to recreate the manga. It probably would make a better series if the story was trimmed and focused a bit more. However, it’s not all bad. Grimmer, probably my favorite character in the entire series, makes his first appearance in these episodes. And Nina and Johan’s backstory, the truth behind everything that is going on, begins to be revealed.

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