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19 October 2015 2 Comments

My Week in Manga: October 12-October 18, 2015

My News and Reviews

It was a two-review week at Experiments in Manga last week. First off, I reviewed the third and final volume of Hide and Seek by Yaya Sakuragi, which I enjoyed immensely. In general, I tend to like Sakuragi’s boys’ love manga, but I think that Hide and Seek has probably become my favorite. It’s a bit more serious and realistic than some of her other manga, but it still has a great sense of humor. The second review from last week, and the most recent addition to my ongoing monthly horror manga review project, was After School Nightmare, Volume 6 by Setona Mizushiro. The series continues to be both disconcerting and compelling; I’m looking forward to seeing how it continues to develop.

Elsewhere online: The Shojo Beat tumblr posted a short interview with Kyousuke Motomi. Tofugu presents Japanese Onomatopoeia: The Definitive Guide, which is pretty great. The BBC has a brief spot on Hajime Isayama. Coming out of the New York Comic Con, Women Write About Comics had a chat with Kodansha executives Hiroaki Morita, Kohei Furukawa, and Yasumasa Shimizu. Brigid Alverson reports on Kodansha’s panels at New York Comic-Con, which included Yohei Takami, the editor of Noragami, as a special guest. Masashi Kishimoto was in New York for NYCC as well. Deb Aoki covered Masashi Kishimoto’s NYCC visit for Anime News Network. Brigid Alverson reports on Kishimoto’s main panel. Weekly Shonen Jump Blog has some Kishimoto NYCC videos to share, including interviews and panels. Also, the recording from Kishimoto’s SoHo Apple Store visit is now available.

Quick Takes

Aron's Absurd Armada, Omnibus 2Aron’s Absurd Armada, Omnibuses 2-3 (equivalent to Volumes 3-5) by MiSun Kim. I read the first Aron’s Absurd Armada omnibus quite a while ago. I largely enjoyed the full-color manhwa, which I believe had its start as a webtoon, and have been meaning to get around to reading the rest of the series. I’m not sure that binge-reading Aron’s Absurd Armada was really the way to go for optimal enjoyment, though. I still find the series to be consistently or at least vaguely amusing, and it even managed to make me laugh out loud a few times, but it’s a little hard to take in large doses. The humor isn’t particularly clever, mostly relying on the fact that almost every single character in the manhwa is incredibly shallow or dimwitted. As such, there’s not much depth to the story or characters. Surprisingly enough, Aron’s Absurd Armada actually does have a plot, granted it’s very meandering and almost stream-of-conscious. There are pirates and treasure, kingdoms and political intrigue, and a whole mess of other complicating factors. Aron’s Absurd Armada is indeed absurd.

Citrus, Volume 2Citrus, Volumes 2-3 by Saburouta. Although I didn’t find some of the first volume of Citrus to be particularly realistic, I did find the intense emotions and drama to be engaging enough to be interested in continuing the series. The next two volumes follow in a similar vein—unbelievable in parts but still having the potential to become addictive. The series has begun to introduce prominent new characters as well. Not only is there another girl who has her eye on Mei, there’s also a young woman with designs for Yuzu. Mei’s father finally makes an appearance in the manga as well, albeit rather briefly. I’m not really entirely sure what to make of the man yet. Mei continues to be something of a mystery, too. One thing is for certain, though, a fair amount of Mei’s emotional issues, which have a huge effect on her interactions with other people, are tied up in her poor relationship with her father. As for the artwork, for the most part Citrus is drawn quite nicely in an overall attractive style that I like, but every so often there’s some weird anatomy going on which can be distracting.

Kiss Him, Not Me!, Volume 1Kiss Him, Not Me!, Volume 1 by Junko. Serinuma is on fairly good terms with many of the hottest boys at her school, but what most people don’t know is that in her spare time she enjoys fantasizing about them in relationships with each other. She’s also a huge fan of the anime Mirage Saga and she’s devastated when her favorite character dies. Locking herself in her room for more than a week, she wastes away. Nearly unrecognizable (on the outside), she begins turning the boys’ heads when she returns to school. Personally, I would have preferred another gimmick than sudden weight loss to bring Serinuma to the attention of her schoolmates, but at least it’s not at all played seriously. In fact, there is very little that is serious about Kiss Him, Not Me!. Its ridiculousness is what makes the manga work. And it is funny. The humor primarily revolves around Serinuma being a hopeless otaku, specifically a fujoshi. Junko herself, who is also a boys’ love mangaka (I believe Mr. Mini Mart is currently her only other work released in English), is a fujoshi as well, so happily the jokes never feel mean-spirited.

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16 October 2015 2 Comments

After School Nightmare, Volume 6

After School Nightmare, Volume 6Creator: Setona Mizushiro
U.S. publisher: Go! Comi
ISBN: 9781933617480
Released: January 2008
Original release: 2006

The sixth volume of the manga series After School Nightmare, an intense and dark psychological drama by Setona Mizushiro, was originally published in Japan in 2006. The English-language edition of After School Nightmare, Volume 6 was released by Go! Comi in 2008. Go! Comi is no more, so the entire series has gone out-of-print, but the manga still seems to be relatively easy to find. After School Nightmare is a series that honestly disturbs me, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since in part it’s a horror manga. But while I find After School Nightmare to be disconcerting, I also find it to be oddly compelling. Mizushiro deals with some heavy issues in the series, including emotional, psychological, and physical abuse, trauma, and violence. The search for personal identity and the roles that gender and sexuality play in defining who a person is are major themes as well. In fact, it was those themes that first drew After School Nightmare to my attention.

Despite some lingering doubts, Mashiro made the decision to give up on his feelings for Sou in favor of his feelings for Kureha. Sadly for him, things aren’t turning out how he would have liked at all. Tying his masculinity to her insecurities, Mashiro wanted to feel needed by Kureha, to become her white knight and protector. But now Kureha is beginning to feel more confident in herself and trying to rely less on Mashiro. Suddenly finding himself without an acceptable role to play in their relationship, and no longer being able to meet the established though self-imposed requirements of what it means to be a man, Mashiro is thrown into turmoil. In the past he presented himself as a prince who would rescue those who were weaker than him, but it’s help that is no longer wanted nor needed. Just when he thought that he had everything finally figured out, Mashiro finds his relationships falling apart because they were built on his own insecurities and fears. He is desperate to be seen as a man by others and at the same time is terrified by the fact that he also yearns to express his femininity.

After School Nightmare, Volume 6, page 184Most of After School Nightmare takes place in one of three settings: the school grounds, the dormitories associated with the school, and the shared nightmares of the students participating in the special after school class required for their graduation. Granted, it’s not graduation in the usual sense. The students who successfully complete the course completely disappear from the campus and from the memories of those left behind, almost as if they never existed at all. The mysteries surrounding what it really means to graduate combined with the story’s limited settings create a marvelously ominous and claustrophobic atmosphere. As a result, when the series breaks from that narrow focus, it can be especially unsettling. In the sixth volume, for what I believe is the first time in After School Nightmare, a truly significant scene occurs away from the school entirely, which serves to emphasize Mashiro’s reluctance to deal with his issues head on. But it’s a moment of false freedom; he won’t be able to run away from his problems indefinitely without there being negative consequences.

The nightmares in After School Nightmare are intended to be an environment in which the students can work through their personal traumas and fears, but the participants are simultaneously stripped of many of their defenses and left incredibly vulnerable within the dreams as well. In theory, what happens in the dreams is meant to remain private and not to carry over into the waking world, but in practice that is rarely ever the case. Even so, most of Mashiro’s growth and maturation is thanks to those nightmares. It’s not until After School Nightmare, Volume 6 that he’s forced to really begin to recognize outside of them how selfish and self-centered his relationships with other people have been, how he’s using them to make himself feel better about himself, and how his actions affect others. In many ways, Mashiro’s waking life is just as much of a fantasy as the dreams he is made to share with his classmates, and both reality and nightmares can be troubling and traumatic. However, it’s the nightmares that are the more truthful and honest even though they can also be highly symbolic and strange. In the end, as horrifying as the dreams are, the denial and insidious falsehoods of reality may ultimately be the more damaging.

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14 October 2015 4 Comments

Hide and Seek, Volume 3

Hide and Seek, Volume 3Creator: Yaya Sakuragi
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421579689
Released: March 2015
Original release: 2014

Yaya Sakuragi has had quite a few of her boys’ love manga translated and released in English: Tea for Two; Hey, Sensei?; Stay Close to Me; Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love; and, most recently, Hide and Seek. Hey, Sensei? was actually my introduction to boys’ love, and I tend to enjoy Sakuragi’s work, so I’ve made a point to read and collect it all. As for Hide and Seek, the third and final volume was originally published in Japan in 2014. The English-language edition was released in 2015 by Sublime Manga, the boys’ love imprint associated with Viz Media. Hide and Seek is technically a spinoff of Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, but it stands completely on its own. However, readers familiar with Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love will likely appreciate the references made to the earlier series. Tea for Two is even more distantly related to Hide and Seek, the connection between the two being made indirectly through Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love. It’s not at all necessary to have read Tea for Two or Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love to enjoy Hide and Seek, but I do like how all three series are linked together.

It has been years since Shuji has been in a serious relationship. Although he’s still on good terms with his ex-wife, his marriage was a failure and he hasn’t done much more than casually play around since the divorce. But now, somewhat unexpectedly, Shuji finds himself in what may very well become something more long-term, and with another man no less. The relationship between Shuji and the young doctor Saji has had a few bumps along the way, and both of the men still occasionally feel insecure, but for the most part they’ve been able to move past the major drama. That doesn’t mean everything has been completely worked out, though. As grown adults, Shuji and Saji each have their own family responsibilities and careers to take into consideration. Shuji has his daughter Chii to look after and the business at his candy store isn’t as good as it once was while Saji is having a difficult time convincing his grandfather to allow him to take over the family’s local clinic. So, there are still a few matters that Shuji and Saji will need to address before their relationship can go much further.

Hide and Seek, Volume 3, page 68Although Hide and Seek tends to be more serious, mature, and realistic, especially when compared to its immediate predecessor Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, at the same time there is still plenty of humor and lightheartedness to the series. For example, the major dilemma in the first chapter of Hide and Seek, Volume 3 revolves around Shuji “manning up” in order to cuddle, with delightful results. Shuji’s love of costume and roleplay comes up again, too, which has been something of a running joke in both Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love and Hide and Seek. I’ve really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Shuji and Saji develop as the series has progressed; they’re adorable and surprisingly sweet together, even considering (or perhaps even because of) their drastically different personalities. It’s obvious that they each care tremendously for other person. What makes their relationship work, and one of the things that I particularly love about Hide and Seek, is their willingness to push through their initial fear and embarrassment over expressing themselves and actually communicate with each other.

Seeing as I had enjoyed Sakuragi’s earlier works, I was fairly confident that I would like Hide and Seek, too. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much the series would end up appealing to me; I think it may now even be my favorite Sakuragi manga. I find this to be a little surprising because, although Saji is a type of character that I’m usually fond of, in general Shuji wasn’t. But over the course of Hide and Seek I came to really like and care about him. He has evolved from simply being supporting comic relief in Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love into a fully fledged, well-developed character in his own right. Much of Hide and Seek, Volume 3 is devoted to his family circumstances, which are revealed to be a little different than readers (and Saji, for that matter) were initially led to believe. Chii’s mother and her current boyfriend play a greater role, but the series implies and is open-ended enough that there is room for Saji, Shuji, and Chii to form a trio as well. Perhaps it’s optimism and wishful thinking on my part, but it makes me extremely happy that by the end of Hide and Seek, Chii may very well have gained two caring families.

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12 October 2015 Leave a Comment

My Week in Manga: October 5-October 11, 2015

My News and Reviews

Last week was a slower week at Experiments in Manga, but I am steadily coming to terms with the fact that I’m leading an increasingly busy life and that it’s okay to have slow blogging weeks. (Though I still wish I had the time to read and write more.) Anyway, last week I announced the Devils and Realist Giveaway Winner. The post also includes a list of some of the manga available in English that feature demons and devils. I also reviewed Project Itoh’s debut novel Genocidal Organ which is an excellent, intelligent work of near future science fiction. I’ve now read almost everything of Itoh’s that has been translated (I still need to pick up his Metal Gear Solid novel) which makes me a little sad since it’s all so good and I want more.

New York Comic Con was last week and there were some exciting license announcements to come out of that. Kodansha Comics will be releasing an Attack on Titan anthology collecting Western creator’s takes on the franchise (considering some of the artists and writers involved, this should be great) and has licensed Hounori’s Spoof on Titan and Hiroki Katsumata’s I Am Space Dandy. Viz Media announced a slew of new print titles: Mitsu Izumi’s 7th Garden, Yūki Tabata’s Black Clover, Izumi Miyazono’s Everyone’s Getting Married, Haruichi Furudate’s Haikyu!!, Tadatoshi Fujimaki’s Kuroko’s Basketball, Keiichi Hikami and Shin Yamamoto’s Monster Hunter, and Mizuho Kusanagi’s Yona of the Dawn. (I was very happy to see more sports manga and josei in that mix!) And Yen Press will be releasing Mikoto Yamaguchi’s Scumbag Loser, Makoto Kedōin and Toshimi Shinomiya’s Corpse Party: Blood Covered, Masafumi Harada, Sung-woo Park, and Red Ice’s Space Dandy, Yuji Iwahara’s Dimension W, and Cotoji’s Unhappy Go Lucky! as well as several new light novels.

Unrelated to NYCC (but still very interesting), manga-translator and yokai expert Zack Davisson was a guest on That Girl with the Curls podcast talking about all sort of things Japan-related. Actually, Davisson has been making the podcast rounds and was recently interviewed at Kaijucast, too, which happens to be featuring yokai all this month. Also of note, Connie at Slightly Biased Manga has posted a nice introduction/guide to all the various Alice in the Country of manga and light novels for anyone who may be intimidated the sheer number of titles involved.

Quick Takes

Devil Survivor, Volume 1Devil Survivor, Volume 1by Satoru Matsuba. Shin Megami Tensei is a huge and popular franchise of video games spanning multiple series and spinoffs which has spawned numerous anime and manga adaptations. Matsuba’s Devil Survivor is one of those, based on a 2009 tactical RPG for the Nintendo DS system. I’m always a little wary of manga adaptations of video games but was still interested in Devil Survivor. Unfortunately, it’s painfully obvious that the manga originated from a game. Although the story has some great mystery and action elements, as well as religious cults, demons, and so on, the original game mechanics are blatant in the story, made even more obvious by the characters’ use of handheld consoles. I’m not completely writing off the Devil Survivor manga, but honestly, I was disappointed with the first volume. I’m hoping that in the future the series will focus more on the story and characters, which have some great potential, and develop into something that takes advantage of the manga medium and feels less like watching someone else play a video game.

No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, Volume 4No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, Volumes 4-6 by Nico Tanigawa. In general Watamote tends to be fairly episodic, but time does slowly pass; the rhythm of school life drives the series along even if there isn’t much plot or character development per se. However, more and more recurring characters and running jokes are introduced and smaller story arcs form. The basic premise of Watamote is unchanging—Tomoko is an extremely awkward young woman whose social skills (or really the lack thereof) are entirely informed by the video games and manga that she’s interested in, many of which are rather raunchy. Occasionally she makes an effort to fit in with her classmates, but more often than not it backfires in terribly embarrassing ways. Watamote can be very funny in a painful and incredibly crass sort of way. Some but not all of the humor requires the reader to be at least vaguely familiar with Japanese pop culture, especially anime, manga, and video games. But there are copious translation notes available and the manga is usually fairly successful in conveying the basic gist of any given joke.

The Sky Over My SpectaclesThe Sky Over My Spectacles by Mio Tennohji. I will readily admit that I have a thing for glasses; in addition to having to wear them myself, I really like how they look on other people. One of the leads in titular story of The Sky Over My Spectacles has a similar fetish, which is what initially drew the collection of boys’ love manga to my attention. (The Sky Over My Spectacles was actually one of the first boys’ love manga that I ever read.) The four main manga collected in the volume—”The Sky Over My Spectacles,” “Let’s Fall in Love,” “Let’s Meet at 1 p.m.,” and “Tell Me You Love Me with Earnest Eyes”—all tend to be fairly upbeat and even surprisingly cute and sweet. Although there’s a bit of drama to be found, nothing ends in tragedy, which I appreciate. I also enjoy the light sense of humor present throughout the stories in the collection. The titular, and longest, manga is probably my favorite, though. In it, Azuma, whose glasses fetish is infamous, has developed a crush on one of his male, glasses-wearing classmates but then discovers that his feelings remain unchanged even when the glasses come off.

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7 October 2015 2 Comments

Manga Giveaway: Devils and Realist Giveaway Winner

Devils and Realist, Volume 1And the winner of the Devils and Realist Giveaway is… Hanna!

As the winner, Hanna will be receiving the first volume of Madoka Takadono and Utako Yukihiro’s Devils and Realist as published by Seven Seas. For this giveaway, I asked that participants tell me a little about their favorite manga that featured devils or demons. Black Butler by Yana Toboso was mentioned quite frequently, but there were some others named, too. Check out the giveaway comments for all of the responses!

Some of the manga in English featuring devils or demons:
Angel Sanctuary by Kaori Yuki
Berserk by Kentaro Miura
Black Butler by Yana Toboso
Blood Blockade Battlefront by Yasuhiro Nightow
Blood Lad by Yuuki Kodama
Bloody Cross by Shiwo Komeyama
Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato
Cat Eyed Boy by Kazuo Umezu
The Demon Ororon by Mizuki Hakase
Demon from Afar by Kaori Yuki
Demon Love Spell by Mayu Shinjo
The Devil Is a Part-Timer by Akio Hiiragi
Devil Survivor by Satoru Matsuba
Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida
From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa
Gaba Kawa by Rie Takada
High-School DxD by Hiroji Mishima
Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi
Jiu Jiu by Touya Tobina
The Monkey King by Katsuya Terada
Love in Hell by Reiji Suzumaru
Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan by Hiroshi Shibashi
The Sacred Blacksmith written by Isao Miura, illustrated by Kotaro Yamada
Seraph of the End written by Takaya Kagami, illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto
Seimaden by You Higuri
Stray Little Devil by Kotaro Mori
Wish by CLAMP

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but it does provide a wide range of manga for anyone looking for a devilish or demonic read. Seinen, shoujo, shounen; comedy, drama, horror, romance… all sorts of variations on the theme! As always, thank you to everyone who took time to share your favorites with me. Hope to see you again for the next giveaway!

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