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7 January 2013 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: December 31, 2012-January 6, 2013

My News and Reviews

Probably the most important thing to take away from Experiments in Manga last week is the fact that I will be hosting January’s Manga Moveable Feast! This month, from January 20 through January 26, we will be focusing on the work of Moyoco Anno. I’d love to have as many people contribute to the Feast as possible, so please do check out the Call for Participation and the Archive.

Also announced at Experiments in Manga last week was the Shoujo Science Fiction giveaway winner. The post also includes a list of shoujo manga with science fiction elements that have been licensed in English. I revealed the ridiculous amounts of manga and anime I managed to acquire last month in December 2012’s Bookshelf Overload. Finally, I posted the first in-depth manga review of 2013! The honor goes to Ryo Hanada’s Good-bye Geist from Gen Manga. Even though some of the storytelling is a little awkward, I’m actually quite fond of Good-bye Geist as a whole.

Robot 6 posted quite a few previews and exclusives over this past week, including Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro from Drawn and Quarterly (which I’m looking forward to and already have preordered), Inio Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph from Fantagraphics (which looks amazing; I’ll definitely be ordering it), and the Western comics adaptation of Cyborg 009 from Archaia (which could either be great or go horribly wrong).

Elsewhere online, Noah Berlatsky of The Hooded Utilitarian wrote a great article on Moto Hagio’s The Heart of Thomas for The Atlantic—The Gay Teen-Boy Romance Comic Beloved by Women in Japan (Noah didn’t get to choose the article title). This led me back to an article I had forgotten about at The Hooded Utilitatraoin from a few years ago by J. R. Brown—1000 Years of Pretty Boys. Last week’s Jason Thompson’s House of 1000 Manga was particularly interesting, looking at The Greatest Manga Censorship Fails. Finally, I was recently reminded that The Golden Ani-Versary of Anime project has started. A group of anime bloggers are tackling anime’s timeline and devoting at least one post to each year beginning with 1963.

Quick Takes

Bad Teacher’s Equation, Volume 1 by Kazuma Kodaka. After reading the first volume of Bad Teacher’s Equation, I’m not entirely convinced that Kodaka knew what she was doing with the series at first. It also feels a bit dated, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bad Teacher’s Equation is boys’ love with shounen influences. There’s a lot going on that doesn’t quite mesh yet—delinquents, basketball, car chases, cross-dressers, host/ess clubs, fujoshi, awkward relationships, etc. But despite it’s random goofiness, or maybe because of it, I actually really enjoyed the first volume of Bad Teacher’s Equation. I’ve heard that the manga gets much better from here, so I’ll definitely be checking out more of the series.

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Volumes 1-4 by Tohru Fujisawa. It’s been a few years since I read Fujisawa’s original Great Teacher Onizuka manga, but I do remember enjoying it. Fujisawa isn’t really doing anything new or different with 14 Days in Shonan. The artwork might be a bit more polished and the supporting characters and location have changed, but Onizuka is still Onizuka. There are plenty of other parallels to the original series, too. 14 Days in Shonan takes place in the middle of Great Teacher Onizuka, during the summer vacation after Onizuka was shot by fellow teacher Teshigawara. 14 Days in Shonan is fairly easy to jump into even if you haven’t read the original manga. The story and characters are still outrageous, over-the-top, and highly entertaining.

Please Save My Earth, Volumes 8-14 by Saki Hiwatari. I am still loving this series. These few volumes spend quite a bit of time delving into Shion’s backstory. He’s an extremely tragic character. His past has twisted him so much as a person that, while it is easy to feel sympathy for him, it’s difficult to actually like him. As fascinating as Rin and the rest of the characters’ past live are, it’s how they are dealing with those memories and leftover feelings in their current lives that I find particularly engaging. Their past lives are causing more and more trouble for them. The story of Please Save My Earth has become increasingly complicated and involved; I’m very curious to see how Hiwatari will bring things to a close.

Uzomuzo edited by Adam Pasion. Uzomuzo is a comics collective based in Nagoya, Japan made up of a group of international creators. The Uzomuzo book came about as a result of a Kickstarter project. Included in the collection are twelve hour comics, short stories, jam comics, and Kickstarter commissions. Most of the book is in English, but there is some untranslated Japanese as well. The contributors to Uzomuzo originally hail from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Uzomuzo is an interesting and somewhat curious collection of alternative and experimental comics and manga. I was particularly intrigued by the improvisational jam comics in which a different artist was responsible for each panel, riffing off of whatever came before.

King of Thorn directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama. Although I quite enjoyed Yuji Iwahara’s King of Thorn manga series, I do remember it being somewhat convoluted. The animated film adaptation is no less bewildering. In fact, it may even be more so. The film and the manga start out very similarly, but by the end they’ve gone in different directions. The pacing of the film seemed a little awkward. In the beginning, it’s almost tortuously slow, so the ending ends up having to be rushed in order to fit all of the plot twists in. Ultimately, I wasn’t always entirely sure what was going on, but there were some nice action sequences and the animation was pretty good, too. I do prefer the manga, though.

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10 January 2011 2 Comments

My Week in Manga: January 3-January 9, 2011

My News and Reviews

Not much news from me this week, but I did post my first in-depth manga review for January—Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Volume 2. I enjoyed the first volume of the series, but the second volume is even better. I also posted the Bookshelf Overload for December 2010 which features my New Year’s resolution in addition to the absurd amount of manga I’ve recently managed to acquire. Finally, I’m getting ready for next week’s Manga Moveable Feast hosted by Anna at Manga Report and featuring Karakuri Odette by Julietta Suzuki. I plan on writing an in-depth review for the first volume as well as posting some random musings about androids because, well, I like androids. I’m looking forward to seeing what others have to say about the series, too.

Quick Takes

Cat Paradise, Volumes 3-5 by Yuji Iwahara. So, the plot might get a little convoluted and difficult to follow, and there are plenty of info dumps, but Cat Paradise is still great fun and I really enjoyed it. One of the greatest things about the manga are the cats. Each one is an individual and has their own unique look and personality. Their owners/partners, too, have some great character designs. Most of the pairs have some interesting backstories that are at least hinted at if not fully explored, but the plot gets caught up pretty quickly in the action and fighting. I did see some of the plot twists coming long before they were revealed, but there were some nice surprises as well.

From Up Above by Sakuya Kurekoshi. From Up Above was originally intended to be an ongoing series, but as far as I can tell only this first volume was ever published. It’s a nice setup, but unfortunately it doesn’t work very well on its own; many of the story elements introduced simply don’t have enough time to be thoroughly developed. I found that I was filling in a lot of the plot on my own rather than strictly depending on the information Kurekoshi was providing. I like the supernatural components of the story and I’ve always been fond of human incarnations of natural forces, but From Up Above isn’t quite able to pull it off in one volume.

Old Boy, Volumes 1-8 written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi. I watched the film adaptation of Old Boy before I even knew it was based on a manga series. I was very excited when Dark Horse licensed the series which then went on to win an Eisner Award in 2007. Very little violence is actually seen, instead the intense mood comes from the psychological anguish the characters experience. Minegishi’s art fits the tone of the story fantastically well. Much of the story is the characters internally confronting and searching their minds, so panel after panel may pass by without even a hint of dialogue but the art is engaging and up to the task. 

Planetes, Volumes 1-4 by Makoto Yukimura. While technically a four volume series, the fourth collection was actually split into two books for the English edition. The realism and research put into the writing of Planetes is fantastic and it extends beyond technology to the human elements of living and working in space as well. I’m a big fan of science fiction to begin with, but I particularly enjoyed Yukimura’s approach in presenting a feasible near future. I did find the storytelling to be a bit disjointed moving from chapter to chapter but I really liked the characters even if their development was a bit bumpy. Although Planetes is hard science fiction, the family and interpersonal relationships are critical to the story.

You and Harujion by Keiko Kinoshita. There’s a sort of melancholy feel to most of the story and the light, scratchy artwork captures the mood well. However, the ending seems forced to me and the sudden change in the characters’ relationship was abrupt, almost as if Kinoshita suddenly remembered that it was supposed to be a boys’ love work after all. But before that, Senoh working through his thoughts a feelings regarding Harujion was actually handled quite well. He wants to be an important person in the teen’s life and is honestly and genuinely concerned for the boy’s well-being. Harujion, who has lost both of his parents and is faced with his father’s debts after his death, needs someone close.

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, Episodes 35-43 directed by Noriyuki Abe and Naoyasu Hanyu. I have now read through the GTO manga series once and watched the anime twice. While I ultimately probably prefer the manga, I really enjoy the anime as well. Some stories are unique to the anime and others have been modified from the original, but they all exhibit the spirit of GTO. Granted, some of the more extreme antics from the manga have been toned down for the anime. The final two episodes of the series seem to come out of nowhere but they tie up everything pretty nicely. The story ends in an entirely different way than the manga but it works even if it is a bit sudden.

Oldboy directed by Park Chan-wook. While Oldboy isn’t my favorite of Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy, it is still a fantastic film. I had seen the movie once before, so I wasn’t taken by surprise by some of the major plot twists that are thrown in. However, I was still able to thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the work. The basic premise is the same as that of the manga, although the ultimate reason behind the protagonist’s imprisonment is different. Despite the amount of action and violence involved in the film adaptation, the story is still primarily one huge mind game that is slowly and methodically revealed.

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3 January 2011 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: December 27, 2010-January 2, 2011

My News and Reviews

My new glasses finally came in! I can see and read again! And since I was still on winter break this past week, I did just that, finishing off the second half of Berserk (which I’m still obsessed with) among other things.  This past week also saw the announcement of the Strawberry Panic Starter Pack Winner and I managed to post my second in-depth manga review for December on the last day of the year—Oishinbo, A la Carte: Japanese Cuisine. That means I have successfully met my goal for in-depth manga reviews for two months in a row. I think I can do this!

Oh, and a happy and healthy new year to you all!

Quick Takes

Apothecarius Argentum, Volumes 1-4 by Tomomi Yamashita. Even though I loved the characters and story of Apothecarius Argentum, for some reason the manga and I never really clicked. The emotional turmoil and romantic tension between Argent and the princess just didn’t seem to be there. But by the fourth volume the series seems to have found its stride, ramping up the court politics and intrigue; I’ll probably pick up the following volumes. What first attracted me to Apothecarius Argentum was the importance of poison in the plot and Argent’s backstory. Forced to eat poison from a young age he is now immune to most but his body has become toxic to the living things around him.

Berserk, Volumes 18-34 by Kentaro Miura. Guts is steadily becoming a more sympathetic character Berserk progresses. The action and fight sequences can be a bit difficult to follow from time to time, but the resulting carnage is readily apparent. This is not a manga series for the faint of heart with plenty of violence and gore. And when it gets dark, it gets very, very dark. Fortunately, with characters like Puck and Isidro around, things are prevented from being too overwhelmingly heavy. In fact, all of the characters are great, having complex personalities and complicated histories. Berserk is still ongoing and I’ll definitely be following it as future volumes are released.

Bunny Drop, Volumes 1-2 by Yumi Unita. I’ve heard so many good things about Bunny Drop that I figured I should give it a try. I was actually quite surprised by how much I liked the series, but it really is a great manga. Daikichi is simply a marvelous character and a great guy. Despite taking Rin in without really thinking it through, he genuinely cares for her and her well-being. It’s really a delight to see their relationship develop and unfold. I can’t help but think he’s lucky she’s so quiet and well behaved—he’s enough out of his depth as it is. In addition to struggling to make things work as an inexperienced, single parent, he also has the mystery of Rin’s past to look into and figure out.

La Esperança, Volumes 1-7 by Chigusa Kawai. Although La Esperança can read a bit like a soap opera at times, the emotional intensity as the characters deal with painful events in their lives is incredibly authentic. Unfortunately, the manga is hindered by its terribly inconsistent artwork. Occasionally the manga exhibits some stunning panels, but most of the art is fairly weak although the style does establish itself nicely by the end of the series. The first and last volumes were probably my favorite and I was impressed by how Kawai was able to pull everything together. And as a musician, I was particularly fond of the incorporation of music into the plot.

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, Episodes 10-34 directed by Noriyuki Abe and Naoyasu Hanyu. The animation can leave something to be desired, and the voice acting for the English dub takes a while to settle in, but I do really enjoy the Great Teacher Onizuka anime. The anime is very similar to the manga—the basic plot is the same although liberties are taken with chronology and some of the story details. As ridiculous, inappropriate, and amusing as GTO can be, it also has some brilliant things to say about what it takes and means to be a teacher and the state of the education system. But even when it has something important to say, it never takes itself too seriously.

One Piece, Season One: Second Voyage directed by Kōnosuke Uda. I still haven’t been able to figure out exactly what it is about the One Piece anime, but I can seriously and happily sit down and watch it without stop for hours on end. I enjoy the longer, more involved story arcs better than the one-shot episodes, but even those are highly entertaining. The second season one DVD set finishes up Usopp’s story and recruitment and introduces the incomparable Sanji—cook and fighter extraordinaire—who Luffy is determined to make part of his crew. One Piece is fun and rambunctious and Funimation’s English dub is just about perfect.

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27 December 2010 2 Comments

My Week in Manga: December 20-December 26, 2010

My News and Reviews

You would think that I would get a substantial amount of manga reading done since my winter break started last week, but I didn’t read quite as much as I expected I would (although, I have become obsessed with Berserk). Part of this is because my new glasses still haven’t come in. It’s also due to the fact that it’s the holidays and I had quite a bit of traveling to do. That, and I also received poi as a gift and have been spending many, many hours giving myself bruises and hitting myself in the head instead of reading. Anyway.

I’m currently running a manga and light novel giveaway for a Strawberry Panic Starter Pack. The winner will be picked on Wednesday, so you still have a couple of days to tell me about a yuri/girls’ love manga that you’ve read for a chance to win. I also posted the sixth part in my Library Love series which takes a quick look at manga that I’ve borrowed and read from my local library.

Quick Takes

Berserk, Volumes 1-17 by Kentaro Miura. It’s obvious from the very start that something terrible has happened to Guts, a brutal, one armed swordsman to make him the way he is. He isn’t really a very sympathetic character at the beginning. Most of the first half of the series explores his backstory and explains exactly how he got to be the way he is—savage, inhuman, and frequently more frightening than the demons he hunts. Berserk is incredibly violent and graphic, but I wouldn’t say it is gratuitous. It is however very intense, dark, and emotionally taxing to read. Occasionally the more comedic elements feel out of place, but I can confidently say that this has become one of my favorite series.

Gorgeous Carat, Volume 1 by You Higuri. I’ve read Higuri’s Cantarella before and so I already knew I enjoy her art style which features men with beautiful character designs and attention to details (especially with clothing and backgrounds). Gorgeous Carat is a historical fantasy adventure story that takes place in Paris during the turn of the century. I still like Higuri’s artwork, but the story of Gorgeous Carat really didn’t capture my attention except for the frequent use of whips. There’s a bit of jumping around in the plot that can be difficult to follow at times and some developments are hardly believable. So far, Gorgeous Carat mostly seems like an excuse to have pretty men in period clothing.

Happy Mania, Volumes 6-11 by Moyoco Anno. I wasn’t laughing as hysterically during the second half of Happy Mania as I did at the first half, but there were still plenty of moments that I found myself laughing out loud. Some of the story elements are frankly ridiculous, but they’re meant to be. It is this self aware humor, in addition to Shigeta’s general and constant insanity, that I like best about the series. This is probably also why I enjoyed the first half of the series more, since the second half is a bit more heavy and serious. But still, Happy Mania is a great series and I enjoyed it immensely. Anno frequently includes entertaining tributes to other mangaka and series (and I know I didn’t catch them all).

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, Episodes 1-9 directed by Noriyuki Abe and Naoyasu Hanyu. I’ve previously watched the GTO anime adaptation and more recently read the manga. One of my biggest complaints about the anime is that the consistency in character design is virtually nonexistent. You can always tell who someone is supposed to be, but they can look significantly different even in the same episode (and I’m not talking about the intentional art style changes used for dramatic effect). However, I do enjoy the anime and think it’s hilarious even though some of the situations can be a bit uncomfortable to watch, but this was also the case for the manga.

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15 November 2010 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: November 8-November 14, 2010

My News and Reviews

I stayed home sick from work for two days this past week. I ended up sleeping for most of the time, but I also got some manga reading in and finished watching Moribito when I could sit up again. I was also able to get a couple reviews written. One, Tourism in Japan: An Ethno-Semiotic Analysis, was written as part of the 2010 Green Books Campaign. I had the chance to participate in this event last year, too. The second review (and my first in-depth manga review for November) was for Yumiko Shirai’s Tenken, which won the 2007 Japan Media Arts Award Encouragement Prize—it’s a gorgeous manga if nothing else.

I also made a few updates to the Resources page. Two publisher pages have been added: Manga University and DrMaster. In the “News and Reviews” section I’ve included MangaCast, run by Ed Chavez and Khursten Santos; Manga Views, which includes a nice aggregator feed among other things; Manga Report, the manga specific site of fellow librarian Anna from TangognaT (who also runs Manga Views); and Slightly Biased Manga which has a lot of great manga reviews.

Quick Takes

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories by Moto Hagio. I wasn’t originally going to pick up this collection, but then a lot of people whose opinions I respect started raving about it. I’m very glad I bought a copy. There’s a lot of depth to these short stories, sometimes more than what first appears. It’s a great selection spanning Hagio’s entire career so far. I’ve not previously read any of Hagio’s works, but after reading this collection and the included interview I really want to. Not much is available in English by this influential mangaka yet, but I hope that changes. I’m particularly interested in reading her science fiction and boys’ love pieces.

The Embalmer, Volumes 1-2 by Mitsukazu Mihara. I came across this manga mostly by accident, but I’m glad I gave it a shot. The second volume is even better than the first, so I’d definitely like to read the rest of the series as well. Shinjyurou is an enigmatic and charismatic character and I want to know more about him. At first he seems only to be a good looking playboy, but it’s soon apparent he’s deeper and more complex than that. He faces a fair amount of discrimination as an embalmer in Japan but believes in his chosen profession and the peace it can bring to the living. So far, the manga seems to be fairly episodic although there’s an underlying story and romance.

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, Volumes 21-25 by Tohru Fujisawa. It’s outrageous, over the top, and completely unbelievable, but I do love this series and was very happy when I was able to find the last few volumes. By this point some of the plot elements seem a bit repetitive, some purposefully so, but Fujisawa never fails to surprise me. He also found a way to end the series that works and I’m not sure that it could have been sustained for much longer. Onizuka is a great character, granted a bit of a lecherous bastard, but he’s honest with himself and others and forces others to be honest with themselves. He gets into all sorts of trouble in the process, but always manages to pull through for his students.

Loveless, Volumes 1-8 by Yun Kouga. This series goes to some really dark places and the characters are twisted and damaged, but I care immensely about them. The loneliness, betrayal, and rejection that they have to deal with is heartbreaking.There is a lot that is left to be explained and a lot that I don’t understand about the world-building, but at this point I don’t care, hoping all will eventually be revealed. It’s a complex story with great art and I want to see where Kouga goes. I really hope that Tokyopop or another publisher is able to bring over the rest of the series (it’s up to at least nine volumes in Japan) because I am completely engrossed in this manga.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, Episodes 13-26 directed by Kenji Kamiyama. What a wonderful adaptation! I loved the original story and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this series, either. There were a few episodes that felt like filler to me, but for the most part the anime is marvelously done and the animation is beautiful. The second half of the series includes Balsa’s backstory which is just as tragic if not more so than Chagum’s. Chagum really grows throughout the series, from a spoiled child prince into a fine young man. It’s definitely a show that needs to be watched in order to get the full impact and you don’t want to skip any episodes, but it’s great.

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