Archives for January 2013

Dawn of the Arcana, Vol. 8

January 31, 2013 by Anna N

Dawn of the Arcana continues to be an entertaining fantasy series in a subtle and well-executed way. This volume has our adventurers in the desert kingdom of Lithuanel. Nakaba is caught up with a struggle between the princes Akhil and Azhal. They encounter a new type of ajin in the form of a group of terroristically inclined snake-people. Caesar has to prepare to return to his own country, and he attempts to push Nakaba away in an attempt to protect her from getting hurt. Nakaba has grown into a much more confident woman, and she’s not afraid to invoke her power when she needs to in order to help her friends.

One of the things I’m always wanting from this series is more Loki. Nakaba’s devoted dog-like ajin protector has always seemed to have hidden depths and motivations and Nakaba’s power shows her a series of visions that demonstrate just how far Loki is willing to go to to protect her. Nakaba gains a new appreciation for how much information he shielded her from when she was younger and more innocent. Eight volumes in, and I’m still appreciating the clarity of Toma’s art. The paneling had really developed well to showcase both action sequences and the inner feelings of the characters. Seeing a younger Nakaba in flashbacks makes the reader appreciate the bond between her and Loki, and appreciate how far she’s come since she became Caesar’s princess.

Introducing Drama Bookshelf

January 31, 2013 by MJ Leave a Comment

drama-bookshelf I’ve talked about this a bit on Twitter, but I think it’s time to officially point you all to our new drama-specific landing page, featuring all our regular columns in East Asian TV dramas, including It Came from the Sinosphere, Bringing the Drama, and the new Drama Diary.

For regular readers of the site, nothing is changing. These columns will show up on the main front page as always. But if you’ve got a special interest in Korean, Taiwanese, and other East Asian TV dramas, our new landing page will make it easy to see what’s new in dramas with just a glance. We’ll have more drama content to come!

If this new page seems to work well for people, I may be creating topic-specific landing pages for other things as well, so be sure to let me know what you think!

Check it out: Drama Bookshelf.

Manga the Week of 2/6

January 31, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 6 Comments

SEAN: I knew there would be a pile this week, and indeed there is a pile. I already talked about the Kodansha stuff last week, as I anticipated this, so to sum up: Fairy Tail 23, the third and final Genshiken omnibus, the last Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations, the penultimate Negima, and a new and fantastic Sailor Moon.

Meanwhile, that still leaves a lot. Dark Horse has Vol. 26 of Gantz, which no doubt is filled with latex, boobs, and blood-soaked gore. I like one of the author’s other works a whole lot, but this series just never grabbed me.

MICHELLE: I was kept away from this one by reviews, and will probably be staying away.

MJ: Same here. It’s sad, too, because I generally like to support Dark Horse manga. I wish I thought I could like it.

SEAN: Udon has a title that is not via Capcom (to my knowledge), but still seems to be video-game based: Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends Vol. 2. It’s like Son Goku, only with an e! And… probably not a lot like the shoujo manga Basara at all.

MICHELLE: Probably not.

MJ: Heh.

SEAN: Vertical has Vol. 7 of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, which is now in its last third. The twins arc may be wrapped up here, but that doesn’t mean things are back to normal. In fact, we may be getting even more serious than before.

MICHELLE: I am several volumes behind on this now. Bad me.

MJ: My eyes are filled with little hearts as I read this. Oh, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, how I love thee! Thankfully, my crush on Eikichi Onizuka is slightly less embarrassing than the one I had on Morimoto Rockstar.

SEAN: And the rest is GIANT PILE O’ VIZ. First off, Vol. 8 of Ai Ore!. The series apparently doesn’t end here, but as Mayu Shinjo is busy with many other projects, it’s on hold right now, so this will be the last for a while.

MICHELLE: Oh, really? Crap. I was hoping I could be finished with it once and for all.

MJ: Some nightmares never end.

ANNA: I feel like the lone apologist for Ai Ore!, but really the later volumes of the series that I’ve read have been pretty funny. And Demon Love Spell is a hoot. I seriously wish more Mayu Shinjo titles were translated over here. Oh! Maybe Viz will put Sensual Phrase on the iPad, that would be awesome.

SEAN: I generally like Ai Ore more the more that it comically abuses its hero. As for Sensual Phrase, I suspect it’d get M-rated off the tablet devices, unfortunately.

Bleach has an omnibus of Vols. 10-12, which if I recall are right in the middle of the Soul Society arc, so should be a lot of fun.

MJ: Oh, I really miss those days!

SEAN: Bleach also has Vol. 55 of its current run, which is the start of this current arc, I think. Kubo said a while back this would be the last arc, but that doesn’t mean he’s not taking his own sweet time about it as always.

Dawn of the Arcana hits Vol. 8, meaning I’m farther and farther behind. Ah well. At least digital manga doesn’t go out of print. (Yet – I don’t want that thrilling new trend anytime soon.)

MICHELLE: I’m planning to get caught up on Dawn of the Arcana this week, as a matter of fact.

MJ: I’ve suddenly gotten hooked on this series, so I’m quite happy about this!

ANNA: I like the way Dawn of the Arcana seems to be a bit more concerned with world building and geopolitics than romance, it makes it a little different from the average shoujo title.

SEAN: Devil and Her Love Song 7 its right in the exact middle of the series, and so things are clearly only going to get worse for our heroine. I do hope Anna sticks around, though, as I know there’s a good friendship with Maria buried somewhere deep deep DEEP down in there.

MJ: This is also a shoujo series I can’t seem to get enough of, though of course it’s very different.

ANNA: Always good to see another volume of this quirky series!

SEAN: Kamisama Kiss hits a dozen volumes, twice that of Karakuri Odette! This one’s still going strong, though, and apparently features cutie Himemiko, who finds dating is even harder when you’re a yokai.

MICHELLE: Here are a couple more shoujo series that I like but am behind on.

ANNA: Yay! Kamisama Kiss is one of my never-fail feel good shojo reads.

SEAN: Naruto also has a 3-in-1 with Vols. 10-12, which I’m sure I will catch up with ANY DAY NOW.

And as for Naruto 60, well, Sasuke’s back. That pretty much sums it up. Talk amongst yourselves.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan left a lot of things hanging last time, and this volume… at least gets a little closer to them. Don’t expect the arc to end here, though. Shiibashi is no Kubo, but he’s still slow.

One Piece is one omnibus ahead of its fellows, as we get Vol. 13-15, which is starting the Baroque Works arc. These volumes have Mr. 3 and Miss Golden Week, two of my favorites from that group of villains. As well as Vivi, of course.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Platinum has hit 7 volumes, and I still know nothing about it.

And Skip Beat! has hit Vol. 30! Does this make it the longest running shoujo series from Viz? Red River was only 28… In any case, the danger of method acting rears its ugly head again.

MICHELLE: Nope. Boys Over Flowers was 37 (including Jewelry Box).

MJ: I can’t believe I read the whole thing…

ANNA: I do not regret reading 37 volumes of Boys Over Flowers and I will not regret reading 30+ volumes of Skip Beat!

SEAN: Do you realize there are only 6 more volumes of Slam Dunk to go? How has this snuck up on us all?

MICHELLE: I am all too aware of it! I like to save the series up and read it in chunks, so when I finished volume 26 for last week’s briefs I realized that the next chunk would also likely be the last chunk! I’m already going through withdrawal.

SEAN: Stepping on Roses has come to a close with Vol. 9. One day I will get an awesome shoujo manga series about a girl who is forced to chose between two men and shogi, and chooses shogi. This is not that day.

MICHELLE: Oh, I forgot about this one! It’s pretty dumb, but I might as well finish it.

MJ: I gave this series up ages ago, and I don’t regret a thing! I am sad to hear, however, that it never turned into a shogi manga.

ANNA: I am sad that Stepping on Roses wasn’t as good as Tail of the Moon, because I love that series so much.

SEAN: Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee adds Volume 12 to its arsenal, and I add another shonen series I never really kept up with to my long, long list.

MICHELLE: I have a bunch of volumes I intend to read one of these days.

SEAN: Tenjo Tenge hits is final omnibus with Vol. 11, meaning it’s finally completely out uncensored. Though I suspect most of the guys who complained about CMX are merely clutching their scanlations to their bosoms and muttering “But the font wasn’t the right type! BOYCOTT!”

MJ: This seems certain.

SEAN: Lastly, Vol. 14 of Toriko introduces a new pretty boy into the cast – one who’s really good with knives! There’s something a bit strange about this pretty boy, though…

MICHELLE: …. aaaaand the same thing I said about Tegami Bachi applies to Toriko as well.

SEAN: Isn’t that a lot of manga? What’s in your pile?

Drama Diary 1-30-13: Guy #2

January 30, 2013 by MJ 17 Comments

If you’re a fan of romance, you know the guy I mean. He’s the primary rival of the story’s cold, brooding, and/or unreliable romantic hero—the guy who is kinder, more understanding, and who offers significantly more emotional security than Guy #1. He is also undeniably, irretrievably doomed to lose the girl. He is Shin Woo in You’re Beautiful or (for manga fans) Takeuchi in We Were There. And though sometimes his story may be more nuanced (Nobu/NANA) or perhaps even genuinely satisfying (Yuki/Fruits Basket), Guy #2’s lack of potential as leading man material is predetermined from the start.

As romance tropes go, I have a sort of hate/slightly-more-hate relationship with the fate of Guy #2. For one thing, I’ve never personally gone for the cold, brooding, and/or unreliable type, and not even a lifetime of devotion to romantic fiction has succeeded in changing that fact. Kindness, understanding, and emotional security ftw! Yet, with rare exception (sorry, I still root for Duckie every single time), a good storyteller can win me over to Guy #1, slowly but surely, right alongside the story’s heroine.

Then came Fated to Love You.

I was introduced to the Taiwanese drama Fated to Love You by the incomparable Sara K., whose post on the series promised me a smart, irreverent romantic comedy with a genuinely moving story—and indeed it has delivered on those promises in every way. But I’ll admit that, ten episodes in, I’m having some real difficulty with the heroine’s obvious romantic trajectory.

Meet Guy #1:

Cun Xi is the wealthy, young director of Magic Cleaner Enterprises, a corporation that makes soap and other cleaning products. He’s also the company’s sole heir. He lives with his overbearing grandmother and wears shiny suits. Though Cun Xi has at times been both kind and tender towards our adorable, selfless heroine, Xin Yi, he has also spent much of the series’ first ten episodes whining, throwing tantrums, yelling at women, taking calls on his cell phone at inappropriate moments, threatening layoffs, and playing golf.

And yes, he has the ability to look both handsome and mature, but this expression is not as rare as one might hope.

Meet Guy #2:

Dylan is renowned expert in Chinese ceramics whose unassuming personality (and one wacky misunderstanding) initially leads Xin Yi to believe he is a priest. Despite his self-made fortune, he spends most of his free time caring for children at the orphanage that raised him and teaching them how to paint. He is insightful and soft-spoken, while also being a total badass. He was last seen (as of episode ten) urging our heroine to believe that she could actually be a strong, whole person, independent of a man. He’s the only person in the entire series who has demonstrated that he values Xin Yi for something other than her future as a mother, wife, or perpetual doormat. And seriously, you guys, HE TAKES CARE OF ORPHANS.

Guy #1 who??

Though it’s absolutely clear, even less than halfway through, that Xin Yi’s heart belongs to shiny-suited Cun Xi, it’s going to take a herculean effort on the storytellers’ part to get me there with her. And at the moment, all I wish for is that Xin Yi would cast off her attachment to Cun Xi’s emotional torture (it’s a long, spoilery story and his position is not unsympathetic, but man does he torture her) and run off to Shanghai with Dylan. (Please do not tell me if this actually happens.)

Oh, Guy #2, I’m on Team You. If only you had a chance. Who’s with me?

Watch now at DramaFever!

Harlequin Manga: Angus’s Lost Lady and The Seduction Bid

January 30, 2013 by Anna N

Although I’ve read a bit of manga on the Kindle app for my iPad, I haven’t actually read any manga on my newest toy – a Kindle Paperwhite. When I discovered that there were actually several Harlequin manga for sale for .99 cents on amazon, I wasted no time in purchasing them. I was particularly interested in these two titles, because I’d previously read another title adapted by Kazuko Fujita, Sale or Return Bride. I tend to assume that the art for these Harlequin adaptations is going to be fairly rushed, but either Fujita’s art is among the best that I’ve seen in a Harlequin manga. Her character designs are attractive, and she manages to convey a great deal of nuance in their facial expressions, with the end result that she ends up elevating the stories in these volumes. Backgrounds are sparse, and if you read Fujita’s manga one after the other you will notice that she only draws one basic hero, but she does draw him very well.

Buying Harlequin manga on the Kindle is a bit confusing because there are multiple editions for each title, but I’m linking to the editions that I bought and read here.

Angus’s Lost Lady by Kazuko Fujita and Marie Ferraella

Angus’s Lost Lady is the story of a PI and single father named Angus who is surprised to see a woman with with a lost shoe and amnesia on his doorstep. The only clue to her identity is the fact that she’s clutching his business card, but she hasn’t met him before. She has a head injury as a result from being grazed by a bullet. Since this is a romance manga Angus promptly moves the lost woman into his apartment, introducing her to his daughter Vikki and trying to jog her memory by giving her a phonebook to read. The woman decides to adopt the name Rebecca. Rebecca and Angus investigate her accident and missing memories, and along the way struggle with their attraction for each other. The old “woman in danger with amnesia” is not a novel plot device, but Fujita does a good job portraying the chemistry between Angus and Rebecca, and Rebecca isn’t as simpering and weak as many Harlequin amnesia ladies usually are.

The Seduction Bid by Kazuko Fujita and Amanda Browning

Perhaps it is due to my own anger management issues, but I generally enjoy it when women in romance manga yell a lot. In this case, the heroine of The Seduction Bid barges into an office and starts to chew out an incredibly handsome man who she thinks is an unscrupulous reporter for a local tabloid. Carrie is determined to defend one of her friends from scandal. While she is momentarily distracted by the stormy grey eyes of the man she is yelling at, she ends up storming out of the office ranting about “garbage journalism”. The man with the mysterious grey eyes decides that he wants to be yelled at forever and vows to marry her. Later, as Carrie is hanging out at the house belonging to the parents of her late husband she is introduced to the object of her rant and he turns out to be Lance, cousin of the gutter journalist. Lance then proceeds to relentlessly pursue the reluctant Carrie, and his charm gradually begins to wear down her well developed defense mechanisms.

The attractive art makes these volumes a pleasure to read, and the stories are basically what you’d expect from Harlequin. Reading these on the Kindle was fine – the size of the manga to fit the Kindle screen is about what you’d see in a Japanese tankobon, and since the backgrounds of the manga weren’t particularly detailed, the smaller reading size for the manga didn’t make much of a difference. At only a dollar a pop, buying these is a no-brainer for anyone who enjoys Harlequin manga.

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: January 28, 2013

January 30, 2013 by Derek Bown 5 Comments

There’s a topic that I feel might need to be addressed, and while I do talk about it on this week’s episode of Manga^3, I think it wouldn’t be out of place to at least take a few lines to talk about it here. As you all know, Weekly Shonen Jump has started publishing chapters simultaneously with Japan. So, some may wonder why exactly scanlation sites seem to have the next set of chapters up just two days after WSJ is published. Some may think that we have been lied to—that in fact we are not actually simultaneous. After having to explain why this is not the case to a friend, I figured I should put this information out there where others can see it.

The fact of the matter is that scanlation sites get their hands on the chapters well before they are actually released in Japan. There is no way for VIZ, or anyone, to publish those chapters you see on the scanlation sites until next Monday because they have not been legally released.

I know the old excuse, “I read scanlations because how else am I going to get these chapters?” And I’m not about to pass a judgement call on whether one should or should not read scanlated manga. In my personal opinion the most important thing is that the creators get paid for their efforts.

Where this excuse stops working is when it morphs into, “I’m paying for WSJ, but those new chapters are right there, nobody will care if I read them now.” That becomes problematic because, well, people will care. Those chapters should not have been released yet. The paying Japanese audience has not even had a chance to read them yet. This goes beyond providing manga that has no other outlet, and goes straight into outright stealing intelectual property before it has been officially released.

I assume most of you would not watch a low quality leak of a movie before it has even hit theaters, so please, do the same for manga, and no matter how tempting it may be to read those scanlated chapters, please wait for the official release wherever such a release is possible. After all, the more success WSJ has in its digital format, the more likely other companies might be to attempt something similar. You want to read Fairy Tail day and date as it is released in Japan? Let the publishers know that you are willing to pay the money for an official digital magazine. And for those series that are being published in WSJ, please show your support by reading them only as they become officially available.

And that took a lot longer than I thought, but it’s an issue that needed to be addressed. There is literally no way for us to get chapters legally faster than they are being published in Japan. So please, have some patience, and enjoy your manga.

Toriko Ch. 219
While I would have preferred to see more of the cooking competition, after this chapter I find myself at least pleasantly resigned to seeing this war play out. The chapter sets up the standard one-on-one fights we’ve come to expect in shounen series, while managing to pull off several excellent scenes. I still question the motives behind this attack. While I can imagine that it’s the easiest place to kidnap cooks since they are all gathered in one place, it does seem like the hardest place to kidnap cooks since they are all gathered in one place and to a man they are all supreme badasses. I doubt this is the final battle, or even the lead in to said final battle, so I expect we can’t do much more than sit back and wait to see what the ultimate goal is here.

One Piece Ch. 696
I sometimes feel bad for how much praise I lather on One Piece. But then I remember that One Piece has done everything it can to deserve said praise. It’s not One Piece‘s fault that the other manga can’t keep up. That being said, while I know this series isn’t for everyone, I still stand by the assertion that even a slow chapter like this, with little to no action, is the crown jewel of WSJ. Anyone who hasn’t put the time into reading this series is doing themselves a serious disfavor.

There are plenty of entertaining moments throughout the chapter, and they are executed in such a way that I even forgive Oda once again for not actually killing off any of the characters he apparently killed during the arc. We get a great pair of scenes for Sanji and for Nami, with Sanji actually reminding us that people wasting food is one of his berserk buttons. And Nami’s scene where she is talking about Tashigi and reminiscing about her own mother is a great character piece in a cast that at times does run the risk of stagnating.

While I do love this series, it does constantly run the risk of Luffy’s crew becoming irrelevant. Especially in recent arcs the focus has been on new characters, rather than developing those that we have become comfortable with. Everything past the Shabaody arc has demonstrated that Oda may be growing tired of using the same cast constantly, as I can easily see him removing the crew from the story as him using a chance to play around with some new characters. I hope this is not the case, and that we get some deeper scenes with the crew, and not just a constant barrage of “Look how powerful they are now”.

See, I can be harsh even with my favorite series. And speaking of harsh…

Naruto Ch. 617
I’ve made no secret that Naruto is not exactly one of my favorite series. And it wasn’t until recently that I found out why this is. A friend and I were discussing overarching plots in manga, and whether it’s better for a series to just have them go on adventures, or if they need an overarching goal even if the resolution of said goal won’t happen for decades.

It was because of this discussion that I finally figured out why I haven’t been nearly as excited about Naruto as I once was. The simple matter of the fact is that when I started reading, Naruto had one goal, namely to become Hokage so that people would accept him. If you strip away the part about becoming Hokage, we are left with the desire for people to accept him. And the best parts of the series were Naruto fighting against the perception that he is a screwup. For me that was the driving force of the narrative.

Unfortunately that goal can’t be stretched out too long without becoming stale. And with the Invasion of Pein arc Naruto finally achieved his goal. He is not yet Hokage, but he has been accepted and admired by his entire village. For me that was the climax I had been waiting for.

And then the series kept going. Granted Naruto still needs to bring Sasuke back, but I neither care about that plot, nor do I think it would have been very out of place had it been addressed and concluded right after the Pein arc. The problem is that Kishimoto introduced many elements that need to be resolved. Without those elements the series could have been completed satisfactorily with the defeat of Pein. Since that point the series has felt like it has been meandering, and most of the events that I have not cared for have happened during the period after said arc. The last time I was really excited about Naruto was just before and during that arc. Since then the series has been lacking a clear goal that I’ve yet to care about, all because what I perceived as the ultimate goal has already been accomplished.

Oh yes, and why was Sakura missing from this chapter? I know a lot of people don’t like her, but I’ve actually liked her character arc through the series. If she’s been completely dropped from the series—and do remember that she used to be the female lead for the series—then I honestly can’t say that Naruto is still the series I once loved. I know a lot of people are enjoying the current arc, and while it is big and epic, it is still missing every single element that I ever loved about the series, leaving it feeling stale beyond belief and not nearly close to something that I would feel comfortable recommending to anyone with similar tastes to mine.

And here I started this part of the column, with the intention of being nicer this week. But I’m afraid that might not be possible until Naruto gives me a reason to start liking it again. And the chances of that are slim considering my complaints for the series.

Nisekoi Ch. 59
In the hands of a good writer, give me single chapter stories any day. And even when Nisekoi branches out into longer stories, there is still plenty for me to enjoy. I thought that when Chitoge realized her feelings for Rakku the series would start to go downhill, since my favorite part of the series was the uncertainty of who Rakku would be with. Even though Chitoge has almost certainly been decided as being the girl he will fall in love with, I still find myself entertained week by week.

Chitoge’s mother is the typical scary mother, but somehow Nisekoi manages to take common tropes in romantic comedies and make them feel fresh. While I do question Chitoge’s father, given how young his wife is, I find myself not thinking about potential squicky relationships by how terrified he is of her. Nisekoi always manages to put me in a good mood.

One Punch Man Ch. 2
I was a bit surprised that this series is going through from chapter one onward rather than skipping to the most recent. And I applaud the editorial staff for making this decision. One of the biggest weaknesses with publishing weekly series is that there is no feasible way to publish everything that has happened since the first chapter to the most recent. But since One Punch Man is a monthly series there is plenty of time to play catch up.

This was the chapter that had the biggest effect on me. If nothing else, the gruesome way in which Saitama dispatches the crustacean monster stands out as being both incredibly nasty and the most effective way to defeat a monster.

While we don’t get anything on Saitama’s training, I love the straightforward approach this manga is taking to telling its story. Rather than wasting time, everything important about his backstory is taken care of in a single chapter.

Bleach Ch. 524
Did anyone else get the image of Kenpachi pinning for Unohana throughout the rest of the series? I can’t help but imagine him thinking, “Please notice me, Senpai” and the image made me enjoy this chapter a lot more than I probably should have.

To be fair, this was a pretty good chapter. Bleach has always lacked a clear overarching goal, so I’ve grown used to the meandering feeling I get from series that don’t have a clear final goal. So it’s best to enjoy each arc on its own, and each chapter on its own. Which is why it’s a shame that not much happens chapter to chapter.

I enjoyed the fight, though I have to question how exactly just fighting is supposed to teach Kenpachi to use two hands. I suppose Unohana needs to beat it into him? Either way, Kenpachi and Unohana have been favorites of mine for a while, and even though I don’t quite like this development from Unohana I have to admit it is the most interesting thing she’s done in the entire manga.

Cross Manage Ch. 18
I think this chapter solidifies the idea that it isn’t about the sport. Cross Manage is entirely a shoujo manga disguised as a shounen manga. And I quite like it for that. Sure I would love to see some hot-blooded shounen sports action, but there’s a place for manga like this. The question is how long that place will remain open.

Hayami manages to be an endearing, entertaining character, despite being the rival love interest. it feels more real that she is perfectly likable, and not an antagonist at all, compared to series where all love rivals are scheming shrews. It certainly makes for a much more entertaining manga.

Kintoki
I like Dragonball Z, I really do. The anime version may be infamous in its execution, but the manga really was something special. I won’t say it’s my favorite of all time, but it’s pretty high up there. That being said, getting a new Toriyama manga, even if it is just a one-shot is special. Unfortunately I can’t say that it was necessarily anything groundbreaking. It was essentially more Toriyama, which works perfectly well for anyone who wanted nothing but to wax nostalgic, but for anyone looking for something as groundbreaking as Dragonball was, chances are this one-shot will come off as a bit of a disappointment.

Its biggest downside is the fact that a lot of Toriyama’s weaknesses shine through. The villain of the story, for example, emphasizes that Toriyama was not exactly one for nuanced villains. He created great characters, but his villains never really got beyond the “I have power so I will mess things up” stage. In such a short format we get that essence distilled so far that it exposes flaws in prior villains Toriyama has written.

Despite that major flaw in the story, I have to say that I would have most definitely read this had it been turned into a series. While ending a one-shot or a failed manga run by saying “there were more adventures but I won’t tell them to you” is a trope I’m not entirely fond of, I have to say that I believe Toriyama would have spun an interesting web out of the premise. On its own it’s more of the same, but it’s overall a good same, so I can’t complain about anything else.

If you want to hear more, check out Manga^3 at Burning Lizard Studios for old podcast episodes. For last week’s episode check out, Episode 032 – Shounen Hero Asexuality.

Bookshelf Briefs 1/30/13

January 30, 2013 by MJ, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

This week, MJ, Sean, and Michelle look at recent releases from VIZ Media, Yen Press, and Vertical, Inc.

Dawn of the Arcana, Vol. 6 | By Rei Toma | VIZ Media – I’m sadly behind on this series, but fortunately it’s turned out to be something that’s worth savoring. After a couple of relatively slow sections (perked up mainly by the introduction of more Ajin who are, frankly, damn cute), volume six begins with some real payoff, as Princess Nakaba finally learns why her ability to see the future is something likely to cause her tremendous grief and regret. This kind of internal struggle (by which I mean one that is finally more complex than just choosing between love interests) with its rather terrifyingly high stakes and potential for personal turmoil is exactly what Nakaba needed in order to become the best kind of shoujo heroine, and I’ll be forever grateful for it. What was once a casual read now moves to must-have status. Recommended. – MJ

Limit, Vol. 3 | By Keiko Suenobu | Vertical, Inc. – Despite being incredibly angsty and no doubt corpse-filled eventually, this series continues to keep my interest simply by being really well-written. I admit I’m not wild over the new guy showing up, mostly as he hasn’t really been developed beyond ‘he’s a nice cute guy in class everyone likes’. But I’m sure later volumes will show his inner turmoil too. Speaking of which, Morishige’s backstory is incredibly horrible, and definitely explains much of her behavior. The goal here seems to be about surviving while not losing whatever humanity you have, as well as re-evaluating what true friendships are (something I wouldn’t wish on teenagers). As for the cliffhanger ending, I was hideously unsurprised, but I wasn’t really meant to be, and it looks like after a volume with some hope, things are going to go bad fast in Vol. 4. Definitely recommended.-Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 30 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – I hope no one’s tired of me talking about new volumes of Skip Beat! as they come out, ‘cos here’s another one. And, actually, it’s quite a bit different than most. Kyoko and Ren are still acting as the Heel siblings, but when Ren ends up breaking character in a rehearsed fight against a co-star who used to be a thug himself, Kyoko starts really worrying. What’s worse is that Ren didn’t realize that he’d done it at first, and subsequently spends a lot of time worrying if Kuon is just going to take over (as if he’s a completely different personality). The tense and freaky atmosphere of “something’s really wrong with Ren” is riveting and how Kyoko handles the situation has got me positively antsy to have the next volume ASAP. I didn’t think I’d be surprised by the thirtieth volume of a series, but with Skip Beat! I guess I should’ve known better. – Michelle Smith

Slam Dunk, Vol. 26 | By Takehiko Inoue | VIZ Media – The Shohoku baseketball team has advanced to the second round of the national championships, where their opponent is last year’s victors. Although the opposing team is largely forgettable—seriously, I could not remember any of their names despite reading them over and over—the volume’s still a really satisfying one, since Coach Anzai’s strategy involves letting different players on the team have the spotlight for a time. It starts with Mitsui, who deserves some glory after toiling in the background for a while, but then Anzai makes the radical decision to let Sakuragi take the lead and Sakuragi doesn’t screw it up. No, he hasn’t suddenly gotten mature or anything, but he’s been working so hard that he surprises everyone with his skills. I’m just a sucker for these sorts of sports manga “progress moments,” I guess, and having Sakuragi as someone the team can truly depend on makes me feel kind of sniffly. – Michelle Smith

Soul Eater, Vol. 12 | By Atsushi Ohkubo | Yen Press – There’s not as much weird art and architecture in this volume, which ends up being good as it makes me focus on the plot and characters a bit more. And remember a few more names! (Hi, Kilik!) And it’s a good plot,k too, as our heroes finally start to storm Arachne’s fortress… with their new adviser, Medusa. Which is as screwed-up as it sounds, and no one remotely trusts her a bit. They even remind us that she’s still possessing the body of a 5-year-old with her mind-snake things. Grlk. I also appreciate that no matter how dark and creepy tings get, there’s always an amusing gag just a few pages along – even from the villains. Especially from the villains. Yen seems to be releasing this series a bit faster now, which is good, as I really am starting to get addicted to it.-Sean Gaffney

New Pokemon, Summer Wars licenses announced

January 30, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

Big change at Viz: Executive vice president Alvin Lu has moved on.

At The Comics Journal, Joe McCulloch has sort of a beginner’s guide to Shonen Jump, explaining how it differs from the Japanese magazine of the same name and offering some entry points for new readers. More SJ news: Viz will add the weekly Dragon Ball series, in color, to the lineup, starting next week, and SJ editor-in-chief Andy Nakitani guests on the most recent ANNCast podcast.

Meanwhile, Viz has confirmed reports that it will publish the Pokemon HeartGold SoulSilver manga. Viz also announced yesterday that it is releasing the classic shoujo series Please Save My Earth in digital form.

And Vertical announced its license of Iqura Sugimoto’s Summer Wars, based on Mamoru Hosoda’s film of the same name.

Lissa Pattillo talks to Yoko Tanigaki about Digital Manga’s Project H hentai imprint.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week.

Khursten Santos takes a look at this year’s Manga Taishou award nominees at Otaku Champloo.

Reviews: Carlo Santos reads the new releases so you don’t have to for his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown sums up a week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 8 of Case Closed (Blogcritics)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 6 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Chi’s Sweet Home (Blogcritics)
Jocelyne Allen on Coppers (by Natsume Ono) (Brain Vs. Book)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Demon Love Spell (ANN)
Carlo Santos on vol. 7 of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage (ANN)
Lori Henderson on The Drops of God: New World (Manga Xanadu)
Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of The Flowers of Evil (The Fandom Post)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 2 of Highschool of the Dead (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Erica Friedman on Kanojo to Camera to Kanojo no Kisetsu (Okazu)
Emily on Kimi ga Suki to ka Arienai! (Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Limit (Comics Worth Reading)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of Love Hina (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on vol. 6 of Manga no Tsukurikata (Okazu)
TSOTE on vol. 4 of Mardock Scramble (Three Steps Over Japan)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Missions of Love (Comics Worth Reading)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 12 of Nabari No Ou (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Pretty Face (Blogcritics)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Manga Village)
Drew McCabe on vol. 7 of Omamori Himari (Comic Attack)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 10 of Rin-ne (ANN)
Khursten Santos on Sukitte Ii Na Yo (Otaku Champloo)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Ultimo (The Comic Book Bin)

Love Hina Omnibus, Vol. 4

January 30, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I admit I put this volume on the back burner for a while. If ever there was a series that reminded me how much one can change and grow in 10-12 years, it’s Love Hina, which has lost a lot of the luster it originally had. This is an omnibus of three parts, appropriately since it covers three volumes. The first is the best, as Mutsumi helps to draw Naru closer to Keitaro and he heads off to America for a sabbatical. The second volume is all about introducing Kanako, Keitaro’s adopted sister and reader identification figure. Lastly, Keitaro returns and everything goes south for Naru, as the final volume is a chase of epic proportions to try to get Naru to admit her feelings or die. Die being what she’d prefer, really.

I tend to defend Naru a lot, mostly as the people who hate her tend to use sexist, horrible imagery in that hate, like many of the worst bashers in any fandom. Their hate is summed up by “she needs to be more nice to me… I mean him” and multiple uses of the word ‘bitch’. That said, Naru is certainly at her most frustrating here, dragging out the ‘do I really love him’ question to appalling lengths. Naru’s terrified of the future and things going wrong, and I completely identify with that. But add in Akamatsu’s comedic exaggeration and you want to cry at how much she can run away from her own problems. The end of this volume has her literally running away until there is no land mass left, to the northernmost tip of Japan.

Things are not helped at all by Kanako. I’ve mellowed a bit on Kanako over the years, and can see the appeal of a character who is designed to come in and call everyone out on the crap they’ve been giving Keitaro the last few years. Her naivete and hero-worship of her brother comes through quite well, and I liked the bond she forms with Naru (no surprise there, given Naru and Keitaro’s similarities). And given this was written in the late 90s rather than the early 10s, the incest subtext is meant to be creepy and wrong, for once. Kanako also gives us my favorite joke of the volume, where she dresses Mutsumi up as Keitaro to test everyone’s love… complete with ‘attachments’, so to speak. (“My brother’s would be at least that big.”)

I was reading this volume on public transport, which could be awkward at times. After a while, all the fanservice in Love Hina tends to mesh together so much you don’t notice it anymore, which is surprising given it’s everywhere. Characters are nude or near-nude through all three volumes of this, reminding me once more that Magazine skews much older than Jump or Sunday. And that’s not even counting the goth-loli Kanako, or everyone dressed as maids, or the Halloween costumes, or all the other service that’s here. Akamatsu works hard to please his audience, but you feel a little guilty about it all.

Honestly, any chance to read more Mutsumi is always welcome for me, but Love Hina is a classic example of what should have been a nine-volume manga dragged out to 14. Luckily, that means the next omnibus (only two volumes) is the last, and should wrap everything up for Naru and Seta. Oops, I mean Keitaro. Yeah, best save that little issue for Vol. 5’s review…

Please Save My Earth Goes Digital

January 29, 2013 by MJ 5 Comments

I hardly know what else to say.

As you know, I love Please Save My Earth with the fire of a thousand suns. Now VIZ is giving the series a second chance to show everyone why.

Enjoy, my friends, enjoy!

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Sword Stained with Royal Blood (2007)

January 29, 2013 by Sara K. 2 Comments

It’s a Jin Yong double whammy. Last week, I discussed a manhua adaptation of The Laughing Proud Wanderer, Jin Yong’s penultimate novel. Now, I’m discussing the 2007 TV adaptation of Sword Stained with Royal Blood, one of Jin Yong’s earliest novels.

The Story

Yuan Chonghuan was a patriotic general, and the emperor rewarded him with assassination (what a nice emperor). His son, Yuan Chengzhi, is rescued, and reared at Mount Hua, where he learns some martial arts. Yuan Chengzhi, as a young man, decides to leave Mount Hua to embark on adventure, and eventually finds the martial arts manual, “Golden Serpent Sword,” and bones of Xia Xueyi, a mysterious man who had incredible martial arts skills. By studying the manual, and wielding the Golden Serpent Sword, Yuan Chengzhi inherits Xia Xueyi’s awesome abilities.

Yuan Chengzhi wants to avenge his father’s death. That’s a tall order when the target of your revenge is the *emperor of China*. During his adventures, Yuan Chengzhi discovers that the world is not quite as simple as he thought.

Background

If you don’t know/remember who Jin Yong is, a search can help you.

This is a TV series produced by Zhang Jizhong, who is China’s star TV producer. He’s known for big-budget TV productions in which local governments often fund the construction of the lavish sets … but the local government gets its money back when tourism drastically rises after the TV series is aired (in some places, I’ve read, Zhang Jizhong’s TV productions have caused tourism to increase ten fold). He has taken much more control over artistic decisions than earlier Chinese TV producers, which is why his name is more strongly associated with the TV series than the director’s.

By Zhang Jizhong standards, this series is a bit modest.

The Songs

The opening song really grew on me. In particular, I love the lyrics – they have a nice, bold rhythm and punch to them (unfortunately, this is the kind of thing which is almost always lost in translation). I think the song’s baroque tone suits the story quite well.

Of course, people who prefer sappy wuxia tunes (and hey, I like some of them) can enjoy the ending song. However, one of my favorite wuxia TV theme songs for sappiness value is not this one, but the song for the 1985 version of Sword Stained with Royal Blood, “Passions Cold, Passions Hot”.

The Fighting

Overall, the fighting is excellent, particularly in the first half of the series.

There is a conscious effort to be specific with the moves, and to show them clearly so that the audience can follow the fights and notice how the balance between the fighters change (fights which cannot be easily followed are boring). There’s also variety – it’s not the same fight repeated over and over again.

The strange Xia Xueyi

Most importantly, the fighting styles – by which I mean the actually choreography – are tied to the characters. Most distinctive, of course, are the strange techniques of Xia Xueyi and his strange Golden Serpent Sword. When Yuan Chengzhi picks it up, we can see the resemblance. Meanwhile, Princess Changping’s style – with her incredible flexibility – is also distinctive.

A high kick from Princess Changping

And some of it is straight-out creative. For example, there’s a scene where characters fight over a bunch of treasure chests. Yuan Chengzhi first tries to defend the chests, then the chests get used as weapons, then Yuan Chengzhi knocks the chests into the air, creates a single-stacked column of chests, and then has a precarious duel on top.

The boy can keep his balance!

The Lighting and Colors

Look at these pictures:

Notice how it looks like all of the characters have a halo effect around their heads, in particular, their hair gets turned white by the backlight? The back-lighting forms a white silhouette of their bodies, particularly their heads.

I don’t know about your life, but in my life this type of lighting is very, very rare. So the fact that this type of lighting is the default in this TV series gives the entire show a feeling of being grander than life. Specifically, it makes the characters feel grander than life, since it is they who are highlighted by the white-silhouette effect.

Of course, by making this the default lighting scheme, deviations do stand out, which can be put to good artistic use (the best example of this I can think of is a spoiler, so I’m not going to point it out).

To get this particular lighting effect, you need to keep lots of stuff in the shadows, which explains why this series is more heavily weighted towards darkness.

Different kinds of scenes have different palettes – for example, the scenes at the palace tend to use a lot of yellow, orange, and red. However, when I look back on my impressions of the show, it seems to me that the palette was emeralds in the background, and lavender in the foreground. That palette feels just right for the story (then again, if somebody did a good job filming the story with a different palette, I might then feel that that other palette is just right for the story). These screen shots show what I mean:

I do notice a lot of the screen shots I’m using in the post are heavy on the electric blues.

A Note about Qingqing

Jin Yong’s early novels are full of tomboyish heroines who often try to pass as male. Li Yuanzhi in The Book and the Sword even asks a woman to marry her (albeit not seriously). However, I think Qingqing merits special mention because she is, if I recall correctly, the only Jin Yong female protagonist who hires (female) prostitutes to entertain her (actually, I can’t of any male protagonists who hire prostitutes either).

Yuan Chengzhi and Xia Qingqing in the red light district (Qingqing has a lot more fun).

And I love the way Qingqing is dressed in this TV series, but since I’ve already gotten into a digressions about the lighting, I don’t want to get into a digression about costumes too.

Beijing strikes back at Hollywood

Since I had read the novel, I knew that there were some minor Portuguese characters, but I was quite surprised when I watching the TV series and suddenly heard … English???

At first I thought that maybe they had changed the nationality of the European characters, but nope, they are still Portuguese. Then I was puzzled why Portuguese people in 17th century China would speak English.

However, I would have put this issue out of my mind quickly and gotten back into the story if the Portuguese characters’ acting was good. It was not. It was terrible.

Considering that one of the readers of this column is a fluent Portuguese speaker who has experience in the film industry and lived in China for years—not to mention that there are still thousands of Portuguese speakers living in Macao—I think it probably would not have been so hard to bring in native Portuguese speakers (if you are that reader, I am interested in your take on this). And there are white men who establish entire acting careers in China. However, if getting decent Portuguese-or-English-speaking actors really was not feasible, I would have preferred it if the TV series had just let the Portuguese characters speak Chinese, with their lines dubbed in by good actors. That would not have broken the flow of the story.

That said, this is less than nothing compared to what Hollywood does to Chinese/Chinese-American people and culture (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, this website offers some clues).

And finally, as far as the story is concerned, I think the treatment of the Portuguese characters is quite kind considering the history of China-Portugal relations.

The Xia-Wen Drama

I was surprised by how caught up I got in the opera between the Xia and the Wen families. Like other reviewers, I found this arc to be the most engaging in the series.

Wen Yi and Xia Xueyi on the swing

I think this is partially thanks to the beautiful way that the choreography, cinematography, and Vincent Jiao’s acting all come together. The images of Wen Yi and Xia Xueyi on the swing are particularly memorable. This music video shows much of the footage I’m talking about.

Now, why is this more engaging than the main story, which is about somebody who wants to get revenge on the emperor, and then wants to help the peasantry, but things keep getting more complicated? After all, that is definitely more epic than a mere family vendetta.

I think it might be because the pain of the Xia and Wen families is simply more visceral. For all that Yuan Chengzhi is determined to get revenge, we actually don’t get to experience much of his pain over the loss of his father. By contrast, Xia Xueyi blaming himself for the fact that a man from the Wen family raped and murdered his sister makes his pain very apparent.

The story of Yuan Chengzhi/the Chongzhen emperor/Princess Changping is still interesting and has its moving moments, and towards the end there is certainly pain … but perhaps not enough. Even though he experiences a lot of internal conflict, Yuan Chengzhi doesn’t get thrust deeply enough into the fire to have his world burn down.

Availability in English

This TV series is available on DVD with English subtitles. Click here to be notified when it becomes available at DramaFever.

Conclusion

I liked the original novel – as a Jin Yong fan. Many of the ideas developed in later novels, particularly the Condor Trilogy, are present here. For example, Yuan Chengzhi’s own personality is basically a combination of Guo Jing, a little Yang Guo, and more than a little Zhang Wuji. Yet Yuan Chengzhi is much more boring than any of those three, which to me is evidence that more specifically defined characters are generally much more engaging. If, however, I weren’t a Jin Yong fan, I probably would have gotten a lot less out of the novel.

I think this TV adaptation is more fun than the original novel. Some parts are extremely entertaining, which is the main reason I’m glad I watched this series. Some parts are less entertaining, which is the main reason I’m not enthusiastically recommending it.

This TV series is superior to A Deadly Secret in every way except one: the basic story. The story of A Deadly Secret haunts me. While Sword Stained with Royal Blood is more fun, it had not made nearly as deep an impression.

Next time: Hokkien Hollywood and Anime Amoy (fandom)

Sara K. has taken a lighting design class. It changed her understanding of the world, particularly visual art, much more than she expected. She had underestimated just how much light affects people’s feelings.

On a completely different note, can you match up the theme songs of the 80s versions of Jin Yong stories with the 90s versions (i.e. figure out which songs are for the same story)? It’s pretty easy if you know the stories and/or understand Chinese, but I wonder about people who don’t know Chinese/the stories.

Pick of the Week: Guardians, Schoolgirls, & Brides

January 28, 2013 by MJ, Michelle Smith, Sean Gaffney and Anna N Leave a Comment

MJ: Midtown’s list this week includes a mix of genuinely new releases and a few Yen Press titles that most stores received a while ago, and I’m going to use that as an excuse to once again take up the call for Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story, volume four of which is hitting Midtown’s shelves this week. This is a particularly fun volume, featuring two new characters who contribute considerable pep to this generally quiet series, without compromising any of its wistful charm. As a result, this is probably the series’ warmest volume so far—which is always a draw for me. And of course, it’s beautiful to look at as always.

MICHELLE: Because I am a terrible person and haven’t even started A Bride’s Story, I’m going to go off-list and note that Amazon lists volume nine of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon as coming out this week. And can I ever resist the chance to pick Sailor Moon? No, I cannot.

SEAN: Yeah, given that this and Vol. 10 are my favorite parts of the Sailor Moon manga entirely, there’s no way I’m not picking it. It has chapter focuses for each of the Inners, and tops it off with a chapter devoted to the Outers that is flawless and perfect (it was so perfect the anime had to put it in the Stars anime sort of retroactively as it was simply impossible to not adapt). And it has the Amazoness Quartet, some of my favorite mini-villains. It is simply fabulous, you will all buy it.

ANNA: I’ll just go with Limit #3. Since volume two ended on a bit of a cliffhanger I am particularly anxious to see what is going to happen next to the schoolgirl bush crash victims.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

New releases, new licenses, and more on Moyoco Anno

January 28, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

I took a peek at last week’s new releases, including Yoshitaka Amano’s novel Deva Zan, at MTV Geek.

The Manga Bookshelf team looks at this week’s new titles on JManga.

Lissa Pattillo highlights a new Digital license and notes that Viz has licensed the Pokemon Adventures: Heart Gold & Soul Silver manga as well.

Ash Brown wraps up the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast with the day three roundup and a final farewell. MJ post a Moyoco Anno-centric episode of My Week in Manga at Manga Bookshelf, and at All About Manga, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber looks at how Anno portrays feisty women.

Erica Friedman posts a fresh episode of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Michelle Smith and Karen Peck kick off their new column, The CMX Project, with a discussion Land of the Blindfolded at Soliloquy in Blue.

Matt Blind posts the 2012 quarterly best-seller lists, with considerable explanation and commentary.

Robot 6’s regular Shelf Porn feature highlights the collection of a 17-year-old manga fan.

Reviews

Marsha Reid on vol. 1 of Aron’s Absurd Armada (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 11 of Dengeki Daisy (I Reads You)
Sean Gaffney on Don’t Disturb Me and Him, Please (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Anna N on vols. 1-5 of Happy Mania (Manga Report)
Katherine Hanson on Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu (Yuri no Boke)
Helen on vol. 1 of Heroman (Narrative Investigations)
Ash Brown on Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (Experiments in Manga)
Sakura Eries on vol. 9 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (The Fandom Post)
A Library Girl on vol. 1 of Strobe Edge (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Sugar Sugar Rune (Experiments in Manga)

The CMX Project: Land of the Blindfolded

January 27, 2013 by Michelle Smith and Karen Peck

MICHELLE: Welcome to the first installment of a new feature called The CMX Project. Back in October, Karen Peck and I talked about the CMX series Canon for that month’s Manga Moveable Feast, and had such fun that we decided to start a recurring feature focusing on some of the other series they released during their all-too-brief time with us. For the most part these will be shoujo works, but not exclusively so.

Hi, Karen! Do you want to introduce our featured title for this month, or shall I?

KAREN: I’ll go!

Land of the Blindfolded, or Mekakushi no Kuni, is a nine-volume shoujo manga series by Sakura Tsukuba. It was one of CMX’s debut titles back in 2004, along with some classic titles like Swan and From Eroica with Love. Land of the Blindfolded originally ran in Hakusensha’s LaLa and LaLa DX magazines, and CMX would later go on to pick up another one of her series, Penguin Revolution. Besides these two works, her other series is the Christmas-themed Yoroshiku Master. The rest seems to have been mostly one-shots in different Hakusensha magazines—too bad I missed the two she did in Melody!

Kanade Outsuka sees a world full of people wearing “blindfolds.” But every once in a while, for her, that blindfold “slips” and she gets to see what others can’t—in her case, she can see a person’s future. Having a big heart and a determined spirit (as any good Hakusensha heroine should), Kanade will try to intervene if the future she sees will cause someone harm—even if the person she helps thinks that she’s just being weird. Two boys come into her life—Arou, who can see the past and carries around the heavy burden of his own past—and Namiki, who can also see the future but has a very different attitude about it than Kanade does. A sweet romance develops between Kanade and Arou… and I wouldn’t say “hijiinks ensue;” this title is entirely too gentle for much of that.

Michelle, what were your impressions?

MICHELLE: Initially, I was torn. There were certain elements of the story that I liked—the fact that Kanade and Arou become a couple with minimum fuss, Kanade’s spunky best friend (Eri), the neat side abilities that Arou’s power gives him…—but the first few volumes are very episodic and feature chapters with plots like “a plucky abandoned puppy is rescued from his doom during a rainstorm by an angsty boy affected by the protagonist’s shoujo heroine powers.”

The stories begin to take a more interesting turn in volume five, when Arou first uses his power in a new, freaky way to track Kanade after she’s swept away at the beach. And then shortly thereafter, he’s reunited with a classmate from junior high who wants him to use his powers to benefit society by helping to solve murders.

The rest of the volumes are all pretty good, though I’m most fond of volumes six and seven. I note, though, that Kanade really gets the short shrift after a while. She truly is the least interesting character of the bunch, and there is much more time devoted to the traumatic pasts suffered by Arou and Namiki than anything involving Kanade (excepting her decision to come clean to Eri about her ability).

KAREN: It is very episodic, and for me that’s what lead to my assessment of this as being very “gentle”—when stories wrap up each chapter, nothing really seems that dire. Instead, we get a series of ordinary events—the school festival. A clash with student government. The class trip. Hot springs hijinks (okay, so there is a little hijink-ing). The summer festival. And so on.

However, the banality of these events is contrasted with the very unordinary main characters. Here we have a girl who can see the future, but like any other girl her age, she worries about the very ordinary things—will people like the real me? Will I fit in? Can I tell my best friend all of my secrets? It’s this relatability that I think really speaks to the reader. Everyone has insecurities, even these “special” kids.

The “plot” really does pick up later on. I was kinda hoping that Arou’s uncle would be more of a revolutionary character—he seems to have some rather dark intentions—but that fizzled out. I’m not sure if that was a red herring or Tsukuba sending off signals that she didn’t mean to.

I do agree with you, Michelle—Kanade seems to downright disappear in some of the stories, and I wish she had more of a presence. I also like that the coupling happens without a lot of drama—and while the back cover tries to play up the triangle, Kanade and Arou only have eyes for each other. Poor Namiki. At least he got a puppy.

MICHELLE: And possibly the world’s most adorable turtle!

I did find it interesting that although Land of the Blindfolded does include some stock shoujo scenarios—in addition to the ones you named there’s a trip to the amusement park, a trip to the beach, Christmas—they didn’t really annoy me as much as they do in series like, say, Ai Ore! Probably the likeable characters are responsible for that.

And yes, it’s largely the disclosure of the leads’ insecurities that make later volumes more compelling. Learning about Arou’s painful past wherein he was feared and shunned for his abilities makes the present where he is warmly liked and trusted by his classmates that much more significant. Now we can see how much it really means to him. And, too, we learn how scarred Namiki was by his mother’s timidity, and how this contributed to his rather jaded attitude when we first meet him. My absolute favorite scene in the whole series occurs between Namiki and Kanade’s mother, in which she tells him he’s a good boy and he starts to cry. I’m getting a little sniffly just thinking about it, actually.

Yeah, the Sou thing did rather fizzle out, but it all played in to the warm and fuzzy “you are not alone” ending, so maybe that was all Tsukuba intended.

KAREN: That turtle was cute. And the pet-sitter bonus chapter was very cute.

I think it’s because Arou and Namiki had those much heavier pasts that Kanade gets lost. Well, she did see a vision of her grandfather’s death, but she’s from such a kind and accepting family that it becomes something to be overcome rather than something creepy that results in her ostracism. I agree with you, Michelle, about how affecting that one scene with Namiki and Kanade’s mother is—it’s really a moment when this story works. It’s a message that would work for any child that was rejected—that you are good. However, if every chapter/story in Land of the Blindfold was this emotionally wrenching, we wouldn’t be able to get through this review!

Of the secondary characters, I also liked Kaicho-san, the student council president. Her attraction to Arou was handled well, and I’m glad that it didn’t devolve into a Marmalade Boy-style Love Dodecahedron. I did like that it was hinting that Kaicho and Namiki might perhaps hook up, but it that was played well, and I think realistically. They would be good together, but for now they still have their hearts somewhere else. By not rushing them together, Tsukuba didn’t compromise their characters and what they had been about.

The other beta couple, Eri and Ezawa, were presented as the Doomed Couple, but turned into something else, and so much of it was done in the background, as their story would pop in and out, showing their evolution as a couple.

I did want to say one thing about CMX’s presentation—I remember comments at the time about the tightness of the bindings, and wow, the first three volumes were very hard to read. I’m glad that they worked that out for later volumes so I didn’t have to worry about ruining the book when I opened it. The art… works, if that’s a way of putting it. Sakura Tsukuba isn’t one of the great shoujo artists, but her work is expressive and the humorous moments were very cute.

MICHELLE: I liked Kaicho a lot, too (though we eventually learn her last name, we never learn her first one), and was totally bracing for an eventual pairing off with Namiki. I think she could’ve been the heroine of her own manga series, actually.

We don’t learn too much about the inner workings of Eri and Ezawa’s relationship, but I definitely like that he became more interested in her once she showed she wasn’t going to fawn over him mindlessly like everyone else. She basically learns quickly that attempting to change yourself for someone never works, and then they turn out to be a stable couple from then on. Also, Tsukuba makes a few suggestions that they’re doing more than kissing while still keeping the content within an “E for Everyone” rating.

And yes, those fiendish bindings! I actually have the first five in that style and was desperately sick of them and so relieved when volume six came around. I hadn’t realized it, but I guess I hadn’t read any of the really early CMX volumes before this, so I didn’t know how terrible they were.

I don’t seem to have too much to say about Tsukuba’s art, actually. There were a few sequences that I quite liked, but that was more about what was happening in the scene than her skills. She does mention repeatedly how much she loves drawing animals, and adorable critters did seem to be her strong suit.

KAREN: I caught that too with Eri and Ezawa. And how it totally flew over Kanade’s head.

Like most CMX series, Land of the Blindfolded is long out-of-print but easily and inexpensively obtainable on the secondary market. The infamous tight bindings vary—Michelle’s go up to volume five, mine only up to three, but they’re still readable. It’s a good title for the younger YA reader, because there’s nothing objectionable and it is such a sweet story—no questionable misogyny, for example. This is the sort of title that CMX did so well—and something that’s very much missed in the current market. (I’m sure there’s many YA librarians who agree!) Thankfully, though, they did manage to get so many titles out during their time—I’m looking forward to the next title we’re going to cover!

MICHELLE: Which is… drumroll please… Cipher, by Minako Narita! I’ve been meaning to read this for ages, so I’m really excited about next month’s column.

Thanks for joining us this month, and we hope you’ll be back next time!

Hope for NANA?

January 27, 2013 by MJ 1 Comment

holding-hands Yesterday evening, thanks to this comment from Kanda Kun over at The Hooded Utilitarian, I finally saw an ANN article from the day before, indicating that Ai Yazawa is drawing manga again. Though I hate to pile on expectations when an artist has been ill—or to get my own hopes up too high—I think we can all agree that there is reason to rejoice!

In related news, I was contacted recently for permission to reprint excerpts from my “Persuasion Post” Why you should read NANA in the upcoming NANA fanzine, Strawberry. I happily agreed, and I’m excited to see what else might be in store when the fanzine is completed!

Submissions for Strawberry are being accepted until February 28th (I believe the year is a misprint in the tumblr post). Check out the related tumblr for more information, and some clarifications on submission procedures. It’s a great time to be spreading the NANA love!

For more NANA discussion, it’s never too late to join us in comments at The NANA Project!