Home Archives for Fumi Yoshinaga
22 August 2011 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: August 15-August 21, 2011

My News and Reviews

As promised, this week’s quick takes section explores a bunch of manga by Fumi Yoshinaga. Technically, the Fumi Yoshinaga Manga Moveable Feast ended yesterday, but I’m still going to count this post as part of it (especially since I really meant to write it for last week). Also for the Feast, I posted my review for Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 3.

Last Thursday marked the one year anniversary of Experiments in Manga. I reflected a bit on this milestone (Random Musings: One Year of Experiments in Manga) and a few of my readers left me some very nice comments that made me very happy. Thanks, guys! I also posted one other review last week for the second volume of the Chinese classic The Journey to the West, as translated by Anthony C. Yu.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the Resources page, but I’ve added a few blogs: Organization Anti Social Geniuses (Justin occasionally comments here), Joy Kim, Comics-and-More (which has a Manga Monday feature), and Sesho’s Anime and Manga Reviews.

Quick Takes

All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga. All My Darling Daughters is one of the most recently translated single volume works by Yoshinaga. The manga collects a series of interconnected stories featuring Yukiko, her family, and her friends. The stories examine the characters’ relationships, and while many of them feel rather melancholy, there is happiness to be found as well. Yoshinaga makes me care about the characters and their lives; I want things to work out for the best for them. I am particularly impressed by Yoshinaga’s story-telling in this manga. The stories may be brief, but the narratives are suffused with a remarkable amount of emotional depth and complexity.

Antique Bakery, Volumes 1-4 by Fumi Yoshinaga. Antique Bakery won a Kodansha Manga Award in 2002 and was nominated for an Eisner in 2007. The pacing of the first volume is rather awkward but soon after Yoshinaga establishes a nice flow for the story. As appropriate for a manga about a bakery, the food has been drawn with just as much loving care as the rest of the characters. The panels can get a bit text heavy from time to time, but seeing as it’s often because of the delicious descriptions of the various pastries, I don’t mind too terribly much. The characters are more complex than they first appear, sometimes in unexpected ways. Working together at the Antique changes them and they each find something there that they needed.

Flower of Life, Volumes 1-4 by Fumi Yoshinaga. Flower of Life is one of my favorite works by Yoshinaga. To some extent, this surprises me; I’m not generally that big on school comedies. The series doesn’t really have a gimmick—it’s just a story about normal people. Flower of Life is funny and touching and just generally wonderful. It makes my heart ache. One of the complaints I often hear about Yoshinaga is that her characters look so similar to one another. However, in Flower of Life, the cast exhibits a delightful amount of variety and diversity not only in their appearances but in their (often intense) personalities as well. Flower of Life makes me nostalgic for a high school experience that I never had.

The Moon and the Sandals, Volumes 1-2 by Fumi Yoshinaga. The very first Yoshinaga manga that I ever read was The Moon and the Sandals. It was also her debut work outside of doujinshi. I originally picked it up when I first started reading boys’ love titles. While it still follows many of the tropes found in the genre, The Moon and the Sandals is much more realistic in its approach than most other boys’ love manga that I’ve read. The series also has sympathetic female characters. The first volume introduces all of the characters while the second volume features quite a bit of sex (a pattern seen in several other works by Yoshinaga). But it’s not just sex for the sake of sex—it’s necessary to show the development of the characters as well as the plot.

Tiger & Bunny, Episodes 13-20 directed by Keiichi Satou. I have been enjoying Tiger & Bunny immensely. Sure, the writing can be a bit uneven at times, but I really like the characters. Overall, it’s still a fun show. Some of the earlier episodes were rather goofy, but the anime has gotten more serious and goes to some pretty dark places. Since defeating Jake, Kotetsu and Barnaby’s relationship has become more amicable. I actually sort of miss their more antagonistic banter. But while they’re now generally on good terms with each other they still have some trust issues to work out. Kotetsu is still my favorite character and this set of episodes explores more of his backstory and family history.

Filed Under: My Week in Manga Tagged: , , , , , , ,
17 August 2011 4 Comments

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 3

Creator: Fumi Yoshinaga
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421527499
Released: April 2010
Original release: 2007
Awards: Japan Media Arts Award, Sense of Gender Award, Shogakukan Manga Award, Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize

Because Fumi Yoshinaga is such a skilled creator, it’s difficult for me to choose a favorite among her works but one of her most recent series, Ōoku: The Inner Chambers is definitely one of the major contenders. It is also her most awarded series so far, having won a Sense of Gender Award, a Japan Media Arts Award, an Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and most recently a 2010 Shogakukan Manga Award, in addition to being nominated for many other honors. Ōoku is currently up to seven volumes in Japan; the most recent volume to be published in English being the sixth. The third volume of Ōoku was published in Japan in 2007 and was released in English under Viz Media’s Signature line in 2010. Because Ōoku is one of my favorite manga series, and not just one of my favorite Yoshinaga works, I do intend to review each volume. The fact that August 2011’s Manga Moveable Feast features Fumi Yoshinaga doesn’t hurt either.

The Redface Pox continues to spread across Japan and more and more men are dying of the disease. Even the shogunate isn’t immune, but the death of Japan’s military leader has been kept a closely guarded secret. His daughter Chie is the only person remaining who can carry on the Tokugawa bloodline. Lady Kasuga is determined that Chie will bear a male heir and will stop at nothing to ensure that that happens. Chie and her chosen suitor Arikoto, who was initially brought to the Inner Chambers against his will, have managed to find some happiness together in these troubled times. However, their happiness is short lived when Chie fails to conceive. Although Kasuga’s power over them and the rest of the Inner Chambers is beginning to slip, she forces them to consider the fate of peace in Japan against their own happiness and desires.

The third volume of Ōoku begins about a year after the end of the second volume and continues the story for several more years. Some of the most noticeable things in the third volume are the changes and developments in the characters themselves, the Inner Chambers, and Japanese society. Lady Chie, who once was prone to violent outbursts, has matured greatly, much thanks to the presence of Arikoto. She has also shown herself to be quite keen and more than capable to act as the leader of state, much to the surprise of some of the senior ministers. Arikoto’s presence has also begun to change the nature of the Inner Chambers as he brings in aristocratic influences and is accepted by the other men there. Arikoto, as always, retains his dignity even in the face of tragedy; only Lady Chie and his attendant Gyokuei are privy to what he hides from others. And speaking of Gyokuei, he also has grown from a boy into a young man.

The characters are not the only things to change in the third volume of Ōoku; the society in which they live is also slowly developing into the Japan seen in the first volume of the series. While women, especially those in the upper classes, are still subject to their expected gender roles, the social system keeping them there is beginning to break down. Out of necessity, they will have to take on the work and leadership positions once reserved only for men, but at this point in the story it is still considered a temporary measure. One of the most interesting things for me, as someone with a particular interest in the Tokugawa period, is that with all of the changes Yoshinaga has made to history in Ōoku, some things remains the same, such as Japan’s seclusion policies, but for drastically different reasons. Ōoku fascinates and engages me on multiple levels which is one of the reasons I like the series so well.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
4 July 2011 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: June 27-July 3, 2011

My News and Reviews

Okay! You only have a couple more days to enter my most recent manga giveaway. We’re talking about samurai manga, so head over to Manga Giveaway: Rorouni Kenshin Contest to enter for a chance to win a new copy of the first Rurouni Kenshin omnibus. The winner will be announced Wednesday, July 6. And for those who are interested in what sort of manga and other goodies I’ve managed to recently procure, I posted the Bookshelf Overload for June. Not much else to report right now except that I’ll be going on an extended vacation pretty soon. Hopefully, there shouldn’t be any interruption to my normal posting schedule. That’s the plan, anyway; I’m still in the process of working things out.

I’ve made some updates to the Resources page. Unfortunately, Manga Views no longer seems to be running, so I’ve removed it from the list. But, I’ve also added three more resources: Manga Connection, Japanamerica, and Comic Attack. Comic Attack isn’t specifically about manga, but they do have a regular feature called Bento Bako Weekly (although it’s often more than weekly) that is worth keeping an eye on.

Quick Takes

Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun, Volumes 3-9 by Shin Mashiba. Nightmare Inspector is mostly episodic except for the ninth volume which ties everything together and reveals the truth behind Hiruko. The final volume is just about perfect. I don’t want to spoil the ending but I will say it is highly appropriate for a series that’s all about nightmares. The series is very dark and genuinely disconcerting. Knowing each story will end with some kind of grim twist doesn’t make it any easier. Hiruko gives each dreamer what they ask for and the results can be terrifying. There are a few humorous episodes, but their tone is so different from the rest of the series that I find it difficult to consider them part of the main story.

Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! by Fumi Yoshinaga. I found Not Love to be a charming little collection about friendship and the love of food. Each chapter features an actual restaurant in Tokyo, complete with locations, recommendations, and how much you should expect to spend for a meal. With plenty of self-deprecating humor and quirky “characters” (the manga is fairly autobiographical), Not Love is also delightfully amusing. Despite the obvious importance of food and eating, I’m not sure I would actually call Not Love a food manga. Instead it seems to me to be more about the relationships people develop around the table. And not just their relationships with the food, either, but their relationships with each other as well.

Not Simple by Natsume Ono. Not Simple is a tragic tale. A really, really tragic tale. Made worse by the fact that despite some melodramatic elements, it’s actually a fairly realistic story. Not Simple was the first of Ono’s works to be made available in English. It’s also one of her earlier works, so her distinctive art style was still in the process of maturing. The narrative is interesting in that the story is framed within another story, leaving it up to the reader to interpret the ambiguity and determine how much is true and how much has been embellished. But either way, it’s not an easy read. Ian is a very pure and innocent character. He’s a little odd, but he’s certainly not at fault for the way things turn out.

Your Love Sickness by Kuku Hayate. Okay, I’ll admit it. I picked up Your Love Sickness because it’s boys’ love and had a dragon in it (specifically, the story “Disappearing into the Dew.”) The title story features kitsune in love, or at least in devoted infatuation. And if anthropomorphism doesn’t float your boat, Hayate turns from the supernatural to the more mundane in the final two stories. “Cheeping” finds a model and the local bento shop owner locking eyes (as well as a bit more) and “Cross My Heart” sees two friends reunited only to find their developing relationship to be rather problematic since one has grown up to be a detective and the other is yakuza. Your Love Sickness is a fun collection with interesting stories with interesting character designs to fit.

Cowboy Bebop, Episodes 1-26 directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. Cowboy Bebop holds a special place in my heart. It is the very first anime series that I saw in its entirety and I frequently re-watch parts of it. I even have the opening theme song, “Tank!,” set as my ringtone. (The music, by Yoko Kanno, is actually one of my favorite things about the series.) It has been a while since I’ve sat down and watched the whole series through from start to finish, though. I’d forgotten how odd some of the episodes were—at times, Cowboy Bebop can be a rather eccentric series. But there’s also plenty of action, with dramatic gunfights and theatric hand-to-hand combat, humor, and a good overarching story.

Filed Under: My Week in Manga Tagged: , , , , , , ,
7 January 2011 Leave a Comment

Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 2

Creator: Fumi Yoshinaga
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421527482
Released: December 2009
Original release: 2006
Awards: James Tiptree Jr. Award, Japan Media Arts Award, Sense of Gender Award, Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize

The second volume of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, originally published in Japan in 2006, was released in an English edition by Viz Media’s Signature imprint in 2009. That same year the series won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and the first two volumes published by Viz received the year’s James Tiptree Jr. Award. Ōoku has also been honored with a Japan Media Arts Award and a Sense of Gender Award. I read the first volume of Yoshinaga’s gender reversing alternative history of the Edo period and quite enjoyed it. Despite some unfortunate decisions made with the English translation, I was very much looking forward to reading the second volume of Ōoku. The series has earned a fair amount of critical acclaim with which I agree and I think the second volume is an even stronger work than the first.

What was once thought to be a localized problem, the Redface Pox has steadily become a more widespread epidemic, reaching even Edo. The disease affects men, particularly young men, and due to its high mortality rate the male population has been decreased to almost half of what it once was. When the Shogun unexpectedly falls victim to the illness, those closest to him are determined to keep it a secret, supposedly for the sake of the stability of the government and country although there are also other more personal motivations involved. Arikoto, a young nobleman known for his devotion as well as his beauty, had been recently appointed as the Abbot of Keiko-in when he is swept up in the political machinations of those representing the shogunate. He unwillingly gives up his religious vows to lead a secular life and is forced to enter the Inner Chambers. There he learns the shogunate’s secret and is confronted with the realization that he is not the only one to have been placed in an unwanted and desperate situation.

I did not anticipate how intense, violent, and brutal the second volume of Ōoku was going to be. The Edo period tends to be romanticized in historical fiction, but Yoshinaga doesn’t shy away from some of the more unsavory aspects of the era’s society. The main story in the second volume takes place a few decades after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. Although the regime’s power has a firm foundation by this point, there is still some reluctance and class strife among the people. And in Ōoku’s version of history, they also have to deal with a devastating plague on top of the already existing political and clan turmoil. Particularly evident in the second volume of Ōoku is the class conflict between the nobility and samurai. Because of the helpful notes included in the Viz edition, it is not necessary to be well-versed in Japanese history, but not everything is explained in depth. Those who are already familiar with the Edo period and culture will probably get even more out of reading Ōoku than those who are not.

The second volume of Ōoku can be read completely separate from the first. However, there are still significant connections between the two: O-Man, who is only briefly mentioned in passing the first volume, plays a prominent role and the origins of many of the Inner Chamber’s customs and traditions, some of them quite troubling, are revealed. I still find the English translation, a sort of “Fakespearian” English, to be awkward and distracting although I do understand why and how it is being used to indicate the varying levels of formality in speech. The characters in Ōoku are forced to deal with terrible and unfortunate circumstances. They don’t always face their fates well and they don’t always make the best decisions, but they do what they can to bear the unbearable. While I enjoyed the first volume of Ōoku, I personally found the second to be even better and incredibly good. It is not always an easy read, and it can be emotionally draining as well powerful, but it is excellent.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
20 September 2010 Leave a Comment

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

My News and Reviews

I am so incredibly excited—Experiments in Manga got a brief mention in Katherine Dacey’s Friday Procrastination Aides, 9/17/10 over on The Manga Critic.

There aren’t any in-depth reviews from this past week, but I am running my first ever contest/giveaway. Head over to Manga Giveaways: Crazy Karate Contest for a chance to win a free copy of Ranma 1/2, Volume 11: Creative Cures. I also posted my second Library Love installment, and another should be coming very soon.

Only two additions to the resource page this week. The first, Genji Press, is run by Serdar Yegulalp who was recently hired as the anime guide for About.com: Anime. He reviews books, manga, movies, and anime at his site among other interesting things. The second resource that has been added is Comics Village, the home of Manga Village.

Quick Takes

Don’t Say Any More, Darling by Fumi Yoshinaga. This is the first short story collection of Yoshinaga’s that I’ve read. The five stories include “Don’t Say Any More, Darling,” “My Eternal Sweetheart,” “Fairyland,” “One May Day,” and “Pianist.” The first and last stories were by far my favorite (as a bonus, both were music related) although the others certainly held my interest as well. Three of the stories are distinctly yaoi, one is definitely not, and the other may have overtones depending on how you read it. It’s a rather odd collection and like most story collections some are stronger than others, but I enjoyed most of it.

Hikkatsu!: Strike a Blow to Vivify, Volumes 2-3 by Yu Yagami. I enjoyed the first volume of Hikkatsu and so decided to pick up the rest of the series. The second volume feels mostly like filler to me, a way to spend the time until we can get back to the “real” plot in the third volume. Not that there’s really much of a plot. Shota has perfected his repair blow and but also learns its limitations. This is a rather silly manga series but I found it to be amusing. It’s short and sweet and I think it ended up being just the right length at three volumes.

How to Control a Sidecar by Makoto Tateno. How to Control a Sidecar is the sort-of sequel to Tateno’s How to Capture a Martini. This time, the focus is on straight and oblivious but brilliant bartender Kousaka, who didn’t even realize he was working at a gay bar for quite a while. It was only a matter of time before someone started hitting on him and he’s caught the eye of the not quite couple of Fumi and Kanashiro who used to share a boyfriend. I was happy to see Tateno deal with rape in a realistic way for the first half of the book, although unfortunately she doesn’t carry it through to the end. I’ll admit, I was also a little disappointed there weren’t any threesomes involved—the story’s premise was just asking for it.

Iron Wok Jan!, Volumes 1-4 by Shinji Saijyo. I love manga, I love food, and so yes, I love manga about food. Jan Akiyama has undergone the fiercest training since a young age, his grandfather molding him to become the best chef in Japan of Chinese cuisine. After his grandfather’s death he’s hired at the Gobancho restaurant. Jan is a cocky, arrogant bastard and doesn’t really get along with anyone. Everyone is extremely serious about their cooking and Jan’s competitive nature brings out the best and worst in people. Who would think cooking could be this intense?

Suggestive Eyes by Momoko Tenzen. This one-shot yaoi manga actually features two main couples—graduate student Megumu and his younger classmate Kina, and two of their professors, Shibata and Kikugawa. Kina reminds Megumu of his ex and after a night of drunkenness, the two end up sleeping together. Kina’s feelings are authentic, but Megumu doesn’t love him in return and wants to call off the affair. But Megumu’s feelings for Kina end up being more complicated than he expected. Elsewere on campus, Shibata and Kikugawa have been together for fifteen years; it’s nice to see an established and successful couple.

Filed Under: My Week in Manga Tagged: , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »