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15 October 2012 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: October 8-October 14, 2012

My News and Reviews

Two in-depth reviews for you all this past week, one for manga and one not. First up was my review of Yukio Mishima’s breakthrough, semi-autobiographical novel Confessions of a Mask. More than six decades after it was first published, it’s still a potent work. In some ways, it reminded me a bit of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human. The second review was for Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal, Volume 14: Last Blood, which is part of my Blade of the Immortal review project. Last Blood marks the end of one major story arc and the beginning of another. I’m still loving the series.

I’ve previously mentioned the Manga Out Loud podcast several times here at Experiments in Manga. The latest episode, which features a fantastic conversation about Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara with some big names in manga scholarship, will also be Manga Out Loud’s final episode. It’s my favorite manga podcast, so it saddens me greatly that the program is ending. Manga Out Loud was a fabulous show and the archives are well worth listening to even if there won’t be any new episodes added.

Both the New York Comic Con and Yaoi-Con took place over the weekend. Being stuck in the Midwest, I wasn’t able to attend either convention, but I was very excited about some of the manga license announcements to come out of the events. At NYCC, Kodansha Comics announced it will begin releasing Makoto Yukimura’s Vinland Saga in October 2013. I’ve wanted Vinland Saga to be licensed for years, so I’m thrilled that it will finally be making its way into print in English. JManga has licensed Aoi Hana by Takako Shimura, the creator of Wandering Son. I’m glad to see a digital release of Aoi Hana, but also a little sad since it means it’ll probably be less likely to be picked up for a print license now. Vertical also had some great licenses to announce at NYCC: Osamu Tezuka’s Twin Knight (the sequel to Princess Knight) and Kyoko Okazaki’s Helter Skelter.

Over on the other coast at Yaoi-Con, Viz Media’s boys’ love imprint Sublime had a slew of new licenses to announce, including a license rescue. I’m particularly excited to see more manga by Yaya Sakuragi and a series by Kano Miyamoto scheduled for 2013. And the license rescue? I had most of my bets on Youka Nitta’s Embracing Love and was delighted to be proven correct. Plans are to release the series in two-volume omnibuses beginning April 2013. I already own the five volumes of Embracing Love that were originally released in English by Central Park Media, but I’ll happily be double-dipping for this series.

Quick Takes

5 Centimeters Per Second written by Makoto Shinkai and illustrated by Yukiko Seike. I tend to avoid most anime-to-manga adaptations since they often leave something to be desired. But after watching 5 Centimeters Per Second film, which I loved, I wanted to spend more time with the story. I’m glad I gave the manga a try because it’s a beautiful work. Seike’s art is lovely and conveys the characters’ feelings well. This is particularly important since pages and pages may pass without any dialogue at all. 5 Centimeters Per Second is a quiet and melancholy work—love and loneliness are closely tied together. The manga is a marvelous adaptation as well as being a wonderful work in its own right.

Berserk, Volume 36 by Kentaro Miura. Berserk is one of my favorite series and so I’m always excited when a new volume is released. I do prefer the earlier story arcs over the more recent ones, but I still love the series. Guts and his companions continue to be pursued by demonic powers. The pirate captain Bonebeard, who is no longer human, won’t let them be and he’s got plenty of monsters in tow. Monsters and demons aren’t the only things that Guts is battling against. His berserker armor, even when it can be held in check, takes a tremendous toll on him. The artwork in Berserk is great and Miura has a talent for creating creepy monster designs. The fights, which are rather chaotic, are engaging even if they can be a little difficult to follow at times.

Cardcaptor Sakura, Omnibus 4 by CLAMP. I’ve been looking forward to the release of the final omnibus of Cardcaptor Sakura a great deal. Despite the adorably sweet characters, there’s actually a significant amount of tragedy, sadness, and sacrifice in the series. But, much like Sakura’s mantra “I’m sure everything will be all right,” I ultimately find the series to be comforting. In the end, even though there is plenty that has been lost, love and friendship do win out. It’s not entirely unexpected since it’s been one of the manga’s strongest themes from the very beginning, but it does make me happy. I like the emphasis that is placed on the concept of love and how it isn’t limited to a single interpretation of what love is.

Girl Friends, Omnibus 1 by Milk Morinaga. Mari is a shy bookworm who is befriended by the more outgoing Akko. Suddenly, Mari has not one but an entire group of girl friends to hang out with. Slowly, Mari comes to realize that Akko means much more to her than just a friend, or even a best friend. So far, Girl Friends is a very realistic portrayal of young love. Mari trying to come to terms with her developing feelings for Akko is particularly well done. I honestly care about all of the characters in Girl Friends, not just Mari and Akko, but their friends (and boyfriends), too. I do worry about them; I want everything to work out well for all of them and I want them all to find happiness. I’m really looking forward to finishing the series.

Gin Tama, Collections 3-4 (Episodes 27-49) directed by Shinji Takamatsu. I still get a huge kick out of Gin Tama. It’s definitely not a series for everyone; some of the comedy can be pretty stupid at times. The episodes can be a little hit-or-miss for me, but even the episodes that are only okay manage to make me laugh. And the episodes that actually click with me I find to be absolutely hilarious. Take the final episode in the first season—the game of strip mahjong was so epic, I was almost in tears. There’s a ton of Japanese history and pop culture references and parodies in Gin Tama. The more of these you can catch, the funnier the show is. I do pretty well, but I know that there’s plenty I’m missing out on.

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23 July 2012 2 Comments

My Week in Manga: July 16-July 22, 2012

My News and Reviews

Quite unintentionally, last week’s reviews were full of immortals. To start with, I posted my latest in-depth Blade of the Immortal manga review—Blade of the Immortal, Volume11: Beasts. It’s a pretty brutal volume, but it also includes some very important plot and character developments. I also posted a review of Fumi Nakamura’s debut novel Enma the Immortal. I enjoyed the book immensely and easily count it as one of my favorites of the year. Historical fantasy, immortality, demons, tattoos, Shinsengumi, and even shadows of Jack the Ripper—Enma the Immortal is some seriously great stuff.

Well, I honestly didn’t expect it to happen, but Digital Manga’s most recent Kickstarter project managed to exceed it’s final stretch goal. As a result, Digital Manga will be publishing three of Osamu Tezuka’s works in English: Unico, Atomcat, and Triton of the Sea. Granted, before the project closed Digital Manga announced that even if the goal was not met Triton would still be published. Digital Manga’s use of Kickstarter to fund publishing has been somewhat controversial in the manga blogging community. The most recent Manga Out Loud podcast episode takes another look at Digital Manga and Kickstarter (among other things). I haven’t had the chance to listen to it yet, but the featured guests include both critics and supporters. And speaking of Kickstarter, another project deserving of some attention is an alternative comics tribute anthology to the alternative and influential manga magazine Garo.

Today marks the beginning of CLAMP Manga Moveable Feast hosted by Manga Bookshelf! Melinda Beasi has written a phenomenal introductory post, so do check it out. In honor of the feast, my quick takes for this week all feature works by CLAMP. I’ll also be posting an in-depth manga review of the Clover omnibus later in the week.

Quick Takes

Cardcaptor Sakura, Omnibus 3 (equivalent to Volumes 7-9) by CLAMP. There is something about Cardcaptor Sakura that I find utterly delightful and charming. Despite it’s adorable surface, CLAMP somehow avoids making the series too sickeningly sweet. The artwork and characters are cute but are balanced by a story with ominous overtones. I was wondering where CLAMP would be taking the series since by the end of the second omnibus Sakura had found and gained mastery of all of the missing Clow cards. The story goes off in a slightly different direction, but the second half of the series continues to challenge Sakura and her skills while introducing new characters. I’m looking forward to the final omnibus.

Gate 7, Volumes 1-2 by CLAMP. Gate 7 is such a frustrating series for me. The artwork is simply gorgeous. However, the story (once CLAMP finally remembers to get around to it) isn’t able to stand up to it. The male lead, Chikahito, doesn’t seem to serve any purpose at this point in the manga despite the cryptic comments made by the other characters which would seem to imply otherwise. Underneath the narrative mess there are some cool elements that CLAMP is playing around with. I’m particularly interested in the reincarnations of historical figures from the Sengoku era (who, thanks to CLAMP, all have very attractive character designs) and the roles played by the oni. But, as badly as I want to like Gate 7,  it’s just not coming together yet.

X, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-3) by CLAMP. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy X as much as I did; a few years ago, I gave the first volume a try and wasn’t particularly impressed by it. I decided to give the series another chance when the omnibus editions began to be released. Although I had been warned, I was still surprised by how bloody and graphic the manga gets. X has its quirks: the dialogue is completely unrealistic; a lot of the esoteric imagery seems to be a stylistic choice rather than being used for actual symbolism; and although appropriate for an end-of-the-world scenario, the unfolding drama is very much over the top. But even considering all of this, I found the manga strangely addictive. I’ll definitely be reading more of X.

Chobits directed by Morio Asaka. My introduction to CLAMP’s work was through the Chobits manga series. If I hadn’t already read the manga, I might have enjoyed the anime adaptation more. As it was, I found the anime a chore to get through. The anime switched the story’s focus too much for my liking. Or maybe there was just too much filler and not enough attention given to the actual plot. The series now mostly seems to be about Chi being cute and doing cute things, which for me are the least interesting aspects of Chobits. I much prefer the more serious explorations of human-persocom relations and what it means to love someone. These elements still exist in the anime, but they aren’t emphasized as much as the romantic comedy is.

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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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20 December 2010 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: December 13-December 19, 2010

My News and Reviews

Some of you lovely readers are already aware of my glasses frame crisis, but I’ve been using a very old prescription for the last week (I think it’s from 2002, if not before). Because of this, I didn’t do as much reading as I would have liked because my eyesight is terrible and it gives me a headache. Also, apparently all the manga I read had to have a pink cover this week. However, I did discover that watching TV didn’t cause too much of a problem as long as I wasn’t expected to read subtitles. So, I ended up watching a lot of English dubbed anime. And speaking of anime: Crunchyroll is now available on the Roku player, woohoo!

This past week I posted my first in-depth manga review for December—I was very excited to see the publication of Yaya Sakuragi’s Stay Close to Me and hope more of her work is licensed in English. I also posted my first entry in my Finding Manga series where I gave some tips on finding and buying manga through Half.com—Finding Manga: Half.com.Over on All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber has been gathering together the 2010 Great Manga Gift Guides. It’s a great list of great lists, so you should check it out.

Finally, I meant to mention this last week but forgot. Over on Experiments in Reading I have a review posted for the anthology Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories about People Who Know How They Will Die. It’s a great collection and worth a read. Machine of Death includes the story “Prison Knife Fight” by Shaenon K. Garrity who is a freelance manga editor for Viz among other very cool things. The only explicitly Japan-related story (yakuza!) is “Improperly Prepared Blowfish” by speculative fiction author Gord Sellar who is currently living South Korea. 

Quick Takes

Cardcaptor Sakura, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-3) by CLAMP. Dark Horse’s omnibus reprints of CLAMP’s work have been of extremely high quality and the first gorgeous volume of Cardcaptor Sakura is no exception. Once upon a time I had seen a few episodes of the anime adaptation that I really enjoyed, so I was excited to finally get a chance to read the original story. So far, the manga is utterly delightful. I was afraid the cuteness might be overwhelming, but it’s balanced nicely against the more serious elements of the story. There is also plenty of humor, and I enjoy watching the interactions and the developing relationships between the characters. I’ll definitely be following this series.

Hate to Love You, by Makoto Tateno. In the United States, Tateno is primarily known for her boys’ love works and Hate to Love You was her first foray into the genre. Despite being the sons of rival real estate agencies, Masaya and Yuma became childhood friends although by the time they reach high school they’ve grown apart. But their constant fighting about their fathers’ businesses, which they stand to inherit, can’t hide the fact they still harbor feelings for one another. “Hate to Love You” wasn’t bad, but I found the unrelated bonus story “You Can’t Call It Love” to be more memorable. It’s not a pleasant story, in fact it’s rather dark and disturbing, but it is more emotionally potent.

Hayate X Blade, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 1-3) by Shizuru Hayashiya. Hayate X Blade is one of the few yuri-ish manga that I’m familiar with in English translation. It’s a bombastic action comedy that doesn’t always make a lot of sense but it is a lot of fun. I’m not entirely sure what the point of the Sword Bearer program is, other than being an excuse to have cute girls fight one another, but I’m okay with that. Not to mention the fact that I’ve developed a huge crush on Ayana (as well as a few others). I’m really enjoying this manga. It may be a bit ridiculous at times, which in this case is not a bad thing. It’s funny, has great art, and the girls are all unique in looks and personalities.

The Lily and the Rose, by Dany & Dany. The Lily and the Rose is the first work that Dany & Dany, a pair of Italian manga creators, wrote specifically with a United States audience in mind. Their artwork is quite accomplished and distinctive; I’ve never confused their style for anyone else’s. Christophe and Alain fell in love as schoolmates, but Christophe chose the priesthood over his friend. With Christophe gone, Alain is left with nothing but a burning desire to kill the man who murdered his mother. Seven years later the two meet again under less than ideal circumstances—Alain has been charged with catching Christophe in a scandal, creating one if necessary.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Second Season directed by Tatsuya Ishihara. I read and thoroughly enjoyed the first Haruhi Suzumiya light novel so I figured I’d give the anime a try as well. The second season is based on some of the later books. The animation team does some really cool things with color and lighting, especially in the “Endless Eight” sequence of episodes. Although the speculative fiction elements of the story are marvelous, Kyon is really what makes this series work for me. Although outwardly resigned to being the only “normal” person in the SOS Brigade, his inner dialogue and griping is hilarious.

Monster, Episodes 28-39 directed by Masayuki Kojima. These episodes include the University of Munich Library arc which has some of the most epic scenes in the entire story. I was really looking forward to seeing this part, and was not disappointed. At this point, the story also reveals quite a bit more about Johan and just how disconcerting he really is. Some plot threads are introduced in this section that don’t really go very far (this was the case in the manga as well), so I was surprised to see them included while some of the arguably more pertinent scenes were significantly compressed or dropped entirely. Had I not previously read the manga, I think I may have been confused by some of what was going on, but overall this is still an excellent adaptation.

One Piece, Season One: First Voyage directed by Kōnosuke Uda. I wasn’t particularly taken by Romance Dawn, the first volume of the One Piece manga, but I saw so much love for the series during the Manga Moveable Feast that I haven’t given up on it yet. It only took me a few episodes of the anime to get me hooked. Oda’s manga works fantastically well in adaptation and his artwork was just asking to be animated. (Although almost everyone seems to have bizarrely long arms. Luffy, okay that makes sense, but Nami, too?) The English voice cast is simply perfect and I loved the use of music for dramatic purposes, especially in the early episodes.

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