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23 January 2013 Leave a Comment

Flowers & Bees, Volume 1

Creator: Moyoco Anno
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781569319789
Released: October 2003
Original release: 2000

Flowers & Bees was the second manga series by Moyoco Anno to be released in English. Viz Media published the first volume of the series in 2003, six months after Tokyopop published the first volume of the English-language edition of Happy Mania. In Japan the first volume of Flowers & Bees was released in 2000. Flowers & Bees was Anno’s first foray into a series aimed at a predominantly adult male audience. Prior to Flowers & Bees, Anno was primarily known for her work as a josei artist. I’ve heard Flowers & Bees described as a male version of Happy Mania. Having read both manga, I’d have to say it’s actually not a bad comparison; the two series share many themes and other similarities. Even though I had previously read Flowers & Bees, I was looking forward to reading it again for the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast.

Masao Komatsu is desperate. He’s convinced that the reason he’s unpopular is his unattractiveness. All he really wants is a little respect and for Noriko, a girl from another high school who he’s developed a huge crush on, to give him the time of day. That’s when he stumbles into the World of Beautiful Men, a men’s beauty salon filled with people who delight in tormenting Komatsu just as much as they do in helping him to develop something at least resembling style. What starts out as a simple eyebrow job soon spirals out of control as Komatsu will do anything and everything he possible can in order to look cool. And it seems to be working. Sort of. The attention that he starts to draw isn’t exactly what he had in mind, but at least women are starting to notice him.

I’m rather fond of Komatsu as pitiful as he can be. I can’t help but feel some sympathy for the poor guy. He’s not nearly as big of a loser as he thinks he is. He just hasn’t realized quite yet that he needs to work on his confidence and self-esteem more than he needs to work on his hair. (Granted, a decent haircut certainly doesn’t hurt, either.) But Komatsu tries. He really, really tries. His earnestness and obsession with becoming attractive is impressive. It is also highly amusing. As self-conscious as he is as a person, he is also incredibly self-absorbed. Anno doesn’t go easy on Komatsu. He’s the subject of some pretty cruel treatment. Admittedly, Flowers & Bees can be a little mean, but it can also be hilarious.

As harsh as Flowers & Bees is on occasion, Anno actually does incorporate some legitimate fashion and relationship tips into the manga. At times they’re a little difficult to discern as Komatsu is put through all sorts of overly dramatic, not to mention traumatic, experience. Komatsu is desperate and highly impressionable, grasping at even the smallest piece of advice. He doesn’t always quite get it, but there’s still hope for him. I think that’s one of the reasons Flowers & Bees works for me. Komatsu has plenty of room to grow and develop as a character. Many of the changes in the first volume are merely physical, but the foundation for his metamorphosis as a person as a whole is also established. I really do enjoy Flowers & Bees.

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22 January 2013 Leave a Comment

Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast: Roundup One

© Moyoco Anno

Welcome to the first Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast roundup!

Here at Experiments in Manga, I kicked things off with an introduction to Moyoco Anno and the Feast. I followed this up with my usual My Week in Manga column, featuring quick takes of all of Anno’s manga currently available in English.

I was also thrilled to host an excellent guest post written by Erica Friedman of Okazu (among other places)—How a Non-Manga Fan Got Me Into Sakuran:

It was [Kiyoha’s] anger that appealed to me most. That white-hot rage against the universe and all the people in it. Recently I was involved in a discussion about how tediously psychopaths were written these days in fan media. Kiyoha’s genuine hatred for every single person around her read more realistically to me than anything I’d seen in ages.

Over at Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson also took a look at Sakuran. I was particularly happy to see Lori’s comments on the relationship between Kiyoha and Seiji; it’s an important relationship that is often left out of the reviews of Sakuran that I’ve read:

But beyond the usual lover/client relationships, Kiyoha has a deeper one with Seiji, a clerk who has worked at Tamagiku since she first arrived as a child. He has watched her grow, and seen her through all of her trials. There was never anything actually said between the two of them, other than Kiyoha’s sniping and Seiji’s retorts, but just through expressions and actions, a strong connection can be seen between Seiji and Kiyoha.

And that’s what we have so far! If I’ve missed your or someone else’s contribution, please let me know so that I can add it to the archive. I’ll also make sure to mention it on Thursday during the next roundup. Until then, please continue to enjoy the Feast!

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21 January 2013 Leave a Comment

Guest Post: How a Non-Manga Fan Got Me Into Sakuran

As host of the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast, I am delighted to welcome Erica Friedman to Experiments in Manga as a guest writer. Thank you, Erica, for your contribution to the Feast!

Erica Friedman is the founder of Yuricon and ALC Publishing—she is devoted to bringing fans of yuri together. Erica reviews yuri and shoujo-ai manga and anime as well as other comics with lesbian themes at her blog Okazu. She can also be found on Twitter @OkazuYuri.

* * *

“In your wanderings, can you look for this for me?”

That was the message I received on Facebook from a friend. She’s asked for me to look for random things in Japan before this message, but when I looked at the “this” I was shocked – she wanted me to look for a manga? She has no interest in manga. None whatsoever.

“I like the art,” was her reply to my question. Oh well, now *that* made sense. My friend is an artist – an exceptionally talented one, I might add. Okay, no problem, I’ll look for the book. It was clearly Anno Moyocco’s art, but I otherwise knew nothing about it. I missed out on the Happy Mania! mania when Tokyopop printed it, and although I’d certainly encountered her work in some of the Josei manga magazines I read, I’d never been a fan.

The manga, as it turned out, was well out of print. I never expected to find it for her. One day I wandered into a used manga store, turned the corner and there it was, one of the Kodansha deluxe editions, old, but still with gorgeous paper, with colored edges. I flipped through it, bought it and gave it to her without anymore thought to the contents. Anno’s art was not for me.

And then, out of the blue, Vertical licensed Sakuran. So I contacted my friend with the news, expecting her to say she wasn’t interested in the book in English. I guess I just expected her interest to end with the art, loopy as it appeared to be. But, to my surprise, she said she was interested, so I got her volume 1. And with her permission, I read it before I gave to her.

I loved it. The character was amazing, the story harsh and unsympathetic (all things I had come to expect from Anno.) But about halfway into the book there’s a series of color pages, in which the color washes away leaving only blues. It was, for me, a moment of blinding recognition of Anno’s mastery.

A few years ago, I did a lecture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art about the Ghost in the Shell: Innocence movie. At that time they were running an exhibit of Utagawa art. It was at this exhibit I learned about Prussian Blue and Ultramarine, two colors that completely changed Japanese art forever. (Incidentally, these colors helped inform my understanding of Murakami Haruki’s art which was also on exhibit at the BMA, and of Nakamura Ching’s GUNJO, the title of which means “ultramarine.”)

So there, as the color leeches out of the color pages, we are left staring at a what has to be seen as shockingly good late 19th century print. In a flash, Anno’s style made perfect sense to me. As I read the cold, calculating instructions on how to perform successful oral sex on a man, I became a fan.

I’m having a hard time summing up my feelings about Sakuran, so I turned to my friend who is completely responsible for this review. She nailed it.

“I enjoyed her nonstop and often inexplicable anger and her near-sociopathic disregard for everyone around her. On the other hand, I often wondered why she didn’t just walk out of there and go out on a world-conquering spree on her own. She certainly seemed to have enough bad-assery and blind force of will to make such a move, but I guess traditional Japanese class distinctions were too overwhelming. I also really, really liked her appalling table manners; particularly in that oh-so-proper Japanese setting.”

Yes, that was it. It was her anger that appealed to me most. That white-hot rage against the universe and all the people in it. Recently I was involved in a discussion about how tediously psychopaths were written these days in fan media. Kiyoha’s genuine hatred for every single person around her read more realistically to me than anything I’d seen in ages.

Skilled execution, combined with ferocious misanthropy. No wonder I love this book. Thanks, Meryl, for turning me into an Anno fan.

Filed Under: Guest Posts Tagged: , ,
20 January 2013 Leave a Comment

Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast: An Introduction

© Moyoco Anno

Welcome, everyone, to the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast!

The first Manga Moveable Feast of the year begins today, January 20, and will end on Saturday, January 26. The Feast gives the manga blogging community an opportunity to examine together a particular creator. This month we will be focusing on the mangaka Moyoco Anno and her work. Experiments in Manga will be hosting this Feast.

Who is Moyoco Anno? 
Moyoco Anno was born in Tokyo, Japan on March 26, 1971. Her uncle who lived with her family was a mangaka, and so Anno became familiar with the industry at a young age. Anno herself began submitting manga to magazines at the age of fifteen before making her professional debut in 1989 with her work “Totally Funky Guys.” For a time Anno was an assistant to the influential mangaka Kyoko Okazaki, but she has since become a successful mangaka in her own right. Several of her works have been adapted into film, anime, and television dramas. In 2002 she married Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame.

Anno took a long hiatus from story manga due to health reasons in 2008. However, she continued to create essay manga and manga for newspaper serialization. Happily, Anno returned to story manga again in 2011. Anno is a versatile creator, but her works often share some similarities: they explore themes of love (but not always romance), they feature strong characterizations (and frequently feisty women), and they have an appeal that extends beyond their primary audiences. Anno is also a fashion writer and fashion is an important element in her manga as well.

Website: Moyoco Anno Official Site
Twitter: @anno_moyoco

Anno’s Manga in English
Moyoco Anno was introduced to English-reading audiences ten years ago in 2003 when Tokyopop released the first volume of her eleven-volume series Happy Mania. The eleventh volume of Happy Mania was released in 2004. Happy Mania was one of the first, if not the first, josei manga—manga created with an adult female audience in mind—to have ever been published in English.

Later in 2003, Viz Media released the first of seven volumes of Anno’s first seinen series—manga for a primarily male audience—Flowers & Bees. Viz would finish releasing the series in 2005. Also in 2005, the now defunct Del Rey Manga began publishing Sugar Sugar Rune, the shoujo series that earned Anno the Kodansha Manga Award for best children’s manga that same year. The eighth and final volume of Sugar Sugar Rune was released in 2008. Anno’s work was featured in the exhibition “KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Manga + Video Games” at the Vancouver Art Gallery, also in 2008.

After six years of non-stop Anno, it was four long years until any more of her works were released in English. Vertical thankfully ended the drought by publishing Sakuran: Blossoms Wild in 2012. Anno was also a spotlight guest at the New York Comic Con in 2012. And here we all are in 2013, ten years after Anno was first published in English, examining and celebrating her and her work for the Manga Moveable Feast.

At the time of this Feast, only two of Anno’s works are currently in print in English: Flowers & Bees and Sakuran. (Three, if you count the anthology Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators which includes Anno’s short work “The Song of the Crickets.”) Happy Mania is still fairly easy to find, but some of the later volumes of Sugar Sugar Rune getting to be a little pricey. Fortunately, there’s promise that we’ll be seeing more Anno from Vertical in the future, although no details have yet been released. Regardless, I’m very excited.

Feasting at Experiments in Manga
If you were around last year for the Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast, you should already have a pretty good idea how I’ll be running things. There will be new content relating to the Feast every day at Experiments in Manga. Once again, my focus will be on in-depth reviews—I’ll be writing about Sakuran and the first volume of each of Anno’s series available in English, as well as the anthology Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators. And, like last year, I also have at least one guest post lined up!

There will be three roundup posts during the Feast (one on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.) The Feast ends on Saturday, but I’ll be writing a final sendoff post on Sunday. The roundups will highlight other participants’ contributions to the Feast. Throughout the Feast I will also be updating the archive page (which has already been populated with pre-Feast content.)

It will be a very lonely and boring Feast if I’m the only person posting content, so I encourage you all to take part. I would love to see as many people participate as possible. Please notify me of any contributions by e-mail at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com or via my Twitter account (@PhoenixTerran). I’ll will include any posts that I know about in the roundups as well as in the archive. And, if you’re on Twitter, I’m encouraging the use of the #AnnoMMF hashtag for this Feast.

All right everyone, that’s enough from me for now. Please dig in and enjoy the Feast!

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1 January 2013 4 Comments

Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast: Call for Participation

© Moyoco Anno

I am very pleased to announce that Experiments in Manga will once again be hosting the first Manga Moveable Feast of the year. What exactly is the Manga Moveable Feast? Every month or so, the manga blogging community gathers to celebrate, discuss, and examine a particular manga, creator, genre, or theme. Anyone and everyone is invited and encouraged to participate.

January 2013’s Manga Moveable Feast will be held from January 20 through January 26. This month’s Feast will feature mangaka Moyoco Anno and her work (Flowers & Bees, Happy Mania, Sakuran, Sugar Sugar Rune, etc.) If you would like to join in the Feast and need somewhere to post your contribution, I would be delighted to host it here at Experiments in Manga. Please contact me by e-mail at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com to coordinate a guest post.

During the Feast, you can notify me of contributions by e-mail or via Twitter (@PhoenixTerran). For those of you on Twitter, I am encouraging the use of the #AnnoMMF hashtag for this Feast. If you have previous articles or reviews that you would like to be included on the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast Archive page, please just let me know; I will happily add the links.

I am very excited to be hosting the Manga Moveable Feast again here at Experiments in Manga. I hope you will join us!

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