Japan Edge: The Insider’s Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture

Editor: Annette Roman
Publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781569313459
Released: July 1999

Originally published by Viz Media’s Cadence Books in 1999, Japan Edge: The Insider’s Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture is now out of print. I made a point of tracking it down because I knew it contained a few excerpts from Usamaru Furuya’s debut manga Palepoli. (They happily turned out to be different selections than the excerpts included in the manga anthology Secret Comics Japan.) But, Furuya’s work is not the focus of Japan Edge. Edited by Annette Roman, Japan Edge features four writers who have specialized in different areas of Japanese pop culture: Patrick Macias, Carl Gustav Horn, Yuji Oniki, and Mason Jones. (I was pleased to discover that Jones and Oniki both have connections to Ann Arbor since I live in the area; the city even comes up a few times in the book.) Matt Thorn and Satoru Fujii also make contributions to Japan Edge. I was already familiar with some of the contributors and their work and looked forward to seeing what they had to say in Japan Edge.

Japan Edge is divide into six chapters: “Anime,” “Film,” “Noise,” “Music,” “Manga Views,” and “Roundtable.” Interspersed between the chapters are the previously mentioned excerpts from Palepoli and brief “Tokyo Diary” entries by Oniki. The first four chapters in Japan Edge follow a similar pattern. They start with a general overview of the subject which is then followed by a personal essay by one of the contributors—Horn writing for “Anime,” Macias for “Film,” Jones for “Noise,” and Oniki for “Music.” The chapters conclude with commentary on future trends, collection suggestions, and a short biography and question and answer section with the respective writer. The “Manga Views” and “Roundtable” chapters are more of a joint, collaborative effort in which each contributor provides material.

The presentation and layout of Japan Edge is inspired by that of Japanese magazines. Overall, I really like the design of the book, but some of the text sizes and font choices make reading a bit of a strain on the eyes. The collection pages in particular are difficult to completely discern without significant effort. Japan Edge will probably appeal most to readers who are already interested in Japanese pop culture, especially since the book actually deals with Japanese pop subculture, as the subtitle indicates. In “Anime,” Horn primarily examines Studio Ghibli and Gainax, both of which were quite revolutionary in their time. Macias choose to focus on two subgenres of cult film—kaiju and yakuza. Noise is already its own subculture, as Mason points out, but in “Music” Oniki looks at a wider selection of alternative and indie sound. “Manga Views” covers everything from yaoi and dōjinshi to underground and ultra-violent manga and beyond. “Roundtable” goes on to briefly address other subcultures in Japanese literature, fashion, and photography.

Since it was published in 1999, over ten years ago, portions of Japan Edge come across as dated, particularly the future trends and collection sections. They still make for interesting reading, though. While the overviews of the various media only cover up to the late nineties, they do provide valuable historic information. When this is kept in mind they make nice, general introductions to the subject areas since they do address pivotal series and creators. The majority of Japan Edge holds up perfectly fine despite the book’s age. Large parts of the volume are devoted to the contributor’s own personal experience with Japanese pop culture. Their passion and intense interest is abundantly clear. I was even convinced to search out some of the materials mentioned in Japan Edge on the basis of the writers’ enthusiasm alone.

Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast: Call for Participation

© Usamaru Furuya

A happy new year to you all!

I am very pleased (and very nervous) to officially announce that Experiments in Manga will be hosting the first Manga Moveable Feast of the year. What exactly is the Manga Moveable Feast? Each month, 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 2012’s Manga Moveable Feast (which will be held January 22-January 29) will feature mangaka Usamaru Furuya and his work. If you would like to join in the Feast and need somewhere to post your contribution, as the host I would be happy to coordinate with you. You can reach me by e-mail at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com.

During the Feast, you can notify me of contributions by e-mail or via Twitter. Simply include @PhoenixTerran (that’s me!) and the #MMF or #MangaMoveableFeast hashtag. If you have previous articles or reviews that you would like to be included on the Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast archive page, please just let me know and I will add the links.

I am both terrified and excited to be hosting the Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast. Please be kind to me; I will do my best!

Usamaru Furuya Manga Moveable Feast: Archive

© Usamaru Furuya

The January 2012 Manga Moveable Feast (January 22-January 29), hosted right here at Experiments in Manga, features Usamaru Furuya and his works. This page serves as the Feast’s archive and will link to posts contributed to the Feast.

Call for Participation
An Introduction
Roundup One
Roundup Two
Roundup Three
An Epilogue
A Final Farewell

Reviews:
The Children’s Crusade, Volumes 1-2 (Completely Futile)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Experiments in Manga)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Manga Xanadu)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 2-3 (BookDragon)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Otaku Ohana)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Experiments in Manga)
No Longer Human, Volume 2 (Comic Attack)
No Longer Human, Volume 2 (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
No Longer Human, Volume 2 (Slightly Biased Manga)
No Longer Human, Volumes 1-2 (Manga Bookshelf)
No Longer Human, Volumes 1-2 (Manga Connection)
No Longer Human, Volumes 1-2 (Manga Xanadu)
Secret Comics Japan (Experiments in Manga)
Short Cuts, Volume 1 (Experiments in Manga)
Short Cuts, Volumes 1-2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Other contributions:
English, Please!: Palepoli (Slightly Biased Manga)
An Examination and Appreciation of the Works of Usamaru Furuya (Experiments in Manga)
Manga Giveaway: Genkaku Picasso Giveaway (Experiments in Manga)
My Limited Exposure with Usamaru Furuya (Animemiz’s Scribblings)
My Week in Manga (Experiments in Manga)
Usamaru Furuya’s Genkaku Picasso & Why It’s Currently the Only Shounen Manga on My Shelves (All About Manga)

From the archives (pre-Feast content):
Interview with Usamaru Furuya (Shonen Jump Magazine)
Met Usamaru Furuya in Toronto! (Same Hat!)
A Short Appreciation of Manga-ka Usamaru Furuya (Comics 212)
TCAF 2011: Spotlight on Usamaru Furuya (Kuriousity)
This Genius’s Horror Edition of MMF: Usamaru Fuyura (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Usamaru Furuya TCAF 2011 Autograph Signing Session (Flash Frame Omake)

Flowers
Flowers (Completely Futile)

Garden
Garden (Completely Futile)

Genkaku Picasso
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (About.com: Manga)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Anime News Network)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (BookDragon)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Burning Lizard Studios)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Comic Attack)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Hooded Utilitarian)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (The Manga Critic)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Mania.com)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Read About Comics)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 1 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 (Comic Attack)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 (The Manga Critic)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3 (Comic Attack)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3 (The Fandom Post)
Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Good Comics for Kids)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Mama Reads Manga)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Manga Report)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Manga Worth Reading)
Genkaku Picasso, Volumes 1-3 (Reading Is Delicious)

Lychee Light Club
Lychee Light Club (Ani-Gamers)
Lychee Light Club (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lychee Light Club (Comics-and-More)
Lychee Light Club (Experiments in Manga)
Lychee Light Club (The Fandom Post)
Lychee Light Club (Genji Press)
Lychee Light Club (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Lychee Light Club (Kimi-chan Experience)
Lychee Light Club (The Manga Curmudgeon)
Lychee Light Club (Manga Worth Reading)
Lychee Light Club (Manga Village)
Lychee Light Club (Manga Widget)
Lychee Light Club (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lychee Light Club (Otaku USA)
Lychee Light Club (Slightly Biased Manga)

The Music of Marie
The Music of Marie, Volumes 1-2 (Completely Futile)
The Music of Marie, Volumes 1-2 (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
The Music of Marie, Volumes 1-2 (Ryu’s Dreams)

No Longer Human
Dehumanizer Dept. (Genji Press)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Comic Attack)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Comics-and-More)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (The Fandom Post)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Genji Press)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Kuriousity)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (The Manga Critic)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Manga Maniac Cafe)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Otaku Champloo)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Otaku USA)
No Longer Human, Volume 1 (Slightly Biased Manga)
No Longer Human, Volume 2 (Genji Press)
No Longer Human, Volume 2 (Otaku USA)
No Longer Human, Volumes 1-2 (BookDragon)

Love Exposure
Love Exposure (Animemiz’s Scribblings)

Plastic Girl
Plastic Girl (Completely Futile)

Secret Comics Japan
Looking Back at Secret Comics Japan (Same Hat!)
Secret Comics Japan (Comics-and-More)
Secret Comics Japan (Slightly Biased Manga)

Short Cuts
Short Cuts, Volume 1 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Short Cuts, Volume 2 (Slightly Biased Manga)
Short Cuts, Volumes 1-2 (The Manga Critic)

Suicide Club
Suicide Club (Completely Futile)
Suicide Club (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)

Other Feast Archives

Lychee Light Club

Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654063
Released: April 2011
Original release: 2006

While Lychee Light Club is not the first Usamaru Furuya manga to be made available in English it is the first of his works that I have had the opportunity to read. I became interested in the title when Vertical first licensed it but it was the stunning cover that completely sold me, even before I knew what I was really getting myself into. Lychee Light Club, originally published in Japan in 2006, is based on a 1985 Tokyo Grand Guignol play of the same name. Knowing this origination is enough to expect the story to be of a dramatic, horrifying, sensational, and probably bloody nature. Apparently, and interestingly enough, Furuya’s version of Lychee Light Club has been adapted back into a stage play. Furuya has also written a prequel called Our Light Club. I really hope that Vertical, which published Lychee Light Club in 2011, will be able to license the prequel as well.

In an abandoned factory in the run-down industrial town of Keikoh meets a group of nine junior high students from an all boys school who call themselves the Light Club. They gather in secret to build a living machine fueled by lychee fruit to carry out their plan to abduct beautiful girls. The intensely charismatic and terrifying Zera, who holds the most power and control over the group, is obsessed with obtaining the ideal of eternal youth and beauty. The Light Club intends to literally idolize the captured girls. But after Lychee’s completion and eventual success, things quickly fall apart as the Light Club is utterly consumed by paranoia and jealousy. Violence erupts as the boys are turned against one another, incited by Zera’s increasingly pronounced mania. Lychee, the machine meant to make the Light Club invincible, instead brings about their downfall.

Lychee Light Club is a dark tale and the art is appropriately dark as well with plenty use of black. At the same time, Furuya’s artwork is also disconcertingly beautiful and stylish. Even the very graphic depictions of blood and gore, of which there are plenty, are strangely seductive. It certainly isn’t something that everyone will be able to appreciate and Furuya is not at all subtle about it. Another interesting approach used in Lychee Light Club‘s artwork has to do with the panels shown from Lychee’s perspective. When the machine is first initialized, it can only see in strict black and white; only after it has been programmed with the concept “I am human” can it begin to perceive different shades of grey. It is a symbolic and significant change that has serious consequences.

Ultimately, I was enthralled by Lychee Light Club in all its disturbing glory. Granted, it’s not a manga that I would recommend to just anyone; but for an audience prepared for uninhibited violence with highly sexually charged connotations, I wouldn’t hesitate. The theatrical influence of Lychee Light Club is readily clear. For one, almost the entire story takes place in a single room. In addition to this, the staging of various scenes and the characters’ placements in them are reminiscent of a stage production. To some extent because of this, the Light Club seems to out of context with the rest of their world. Instead of rebelling against a specific society, it feels as though the boys are struggling with and fighting against vague concepts. The story is admittedly strange and incredibly perverse, but neither does it claim to be anything else. Lychee Light Club is horrifying, and it should be.