Archives for March 2013

Bookshelf Briefs 3/18/13

March 18, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, MJ and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

This week, Sean, Anna, MJ, and Michelle look at recent releases from Dark Horse Comics, VIZ Media, Kodansha Comics, and Vertical, Inc.

Blood-C, Vol. 1 | By Ranmaru Kotone, based on a concept by Production I.G. and CLAMP | Dark Horse Comics – I haven’t read any of the Blood the Last Vampire/Blood+ series that this one is supposedly part of, but I think I get the gist. A cute clumsy girl is revealed to be the last stand humanity has against demonfolk who are attacking innocents, which she then kills with her big sword. Most of this first volume focuses on her cute and sweet classmates (who will no doubt die horribly), except for one sullen guy who avoids her (who screams ‘love interest’) The battles are OK, and the character designs are sort of CLAMP-ish, but I won’t be trying any more of this for one big reason: I was bored to tears reading it. Every single page of this reeks of media tie-in, and not the good kind. Readers who like CLAMP are advised to get the Tokyo Babylon omnibus instead. – Sean Gaffney

Dawn of the Arcana, Vol 9 | By Rei Toma | VIZ Media – Nakaba’s powers of magical vision have revealed the depth of Loki’s feelings to her, and to her credit her reaction is to be very concerned about all that her faithful servant must have suffered, both due to his actions in shielding her from harm and Nakaba’s ignorance of his emotions. There isn’t much time to dwell on romance, as the political situation in Lithuanel grows even more tense, and Nakaba sees how scheming royalty use the life of an Ajin to bolster the succession. Nakaba and Caesar’s relationship is stronger than ever and I hope Loki is able eventually to find some sort of happiness. Dawn of the Arcana continues to be an entertaining fantasy manga, made more interesting by Nakaba’s use of her powers. – Anna N

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 7 | by Miyoshi Tomori | VIZ Media – A Devil and Her Love Song is unique in the way that emotions that tend to be buried in more typical shojo series are drawn out and discussed in detail. Here Maria is dealing with the fallout of her friendship with Anna, relying more on Yusuke (at his insistence) but still being drawn towards Shin despite his attempts to distance himself from her. The manipulations of a voice coach who seems to take a marked interest in Maria makes it seem like he will play a larger role in upcoming volumes. This series continues to be a go-to read when I want a manga packed full of drama, with a few sweet moments along the way. – Anna N

Fairy Tail, Vol. 24 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – We’ve finally come to the end of the Edolas arc, with Natsu resolving things with his usual straight-ahead heroics… or in this case, villain posing. The next arc will show the characters competing in a battle to be the next S-class wizard, which promises to shed some light at last on Cana, who’s mostly just been “the pretty alcoholic” till now. But most folks remember this volume for the BIG SPOILER. I have no issues with the spoiler itself – god knows I’ll do anything for my happy endings. That said, the premise behind it coming about does require a large amount of disbelief suspension in a series that already has issues with that sort of thing. As for how it affects future volumes, who knows? After all, the extras already hint that Mashima has rewritten his future outline to be quite different from his original plan. – Sean Gaffney

Limit, Vol. 3 | By Keiko Suenobu | Vertical, Inc. – Out of the three currently-available volumes of Keiko Suenobu’s Limit, the third is perhaps the cruelest (and certainly the best). Things begin on an unexpected upswing, as most of the group begins to recover their humanity in the wake of unstable Morishige’s fall from power, which is solidified further by the appearance of another surprise survivor. But as Morishige’s mental condition deteriorates, things eventually become more frightening than ever which, by Limit‘s standards, means quite a bit. I left this volume experiencing a hopeless, sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach that felt far more real than it should have. And isn’t that a shining example of the power of good fiction? This series continues to become more compelling and addictive with each new volume. Wholeheartedly recommended. – MJ

Strobe Edge, Vol. 3 | By Io Sakisaka | Published by VIZ Media – I am officially beginning to love Strobe Edge, by which I mean I’ve developed an affection that goes beyond simply being happy to see that a new volume has come out. Slowly, and whilst tip-toeing around some stock shoujo scenarios, Strobe Edge has grown more compelling with each volume. The love… shape between Ninako, Ren, Mayuka, and Ando grows more complicated and painful, and is so well done that any accusations of this being “generic” shoujo should be firmly squashed by this volume. Not only do I love that Ren’s friends are becoming concerned that maybe he does like Ninako, but I love that Mayuka is intimidated, too, and now we have two thoroughly likeable girls both in love with the same boy and feeling awkward about the presence of the other in his life. This is so much better than malicious rivals or wacky hijinks! Highly recommended. – Michelle Smith

Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 1

March 17, 2013 by Anna N

Knights of Sidonia, Vol 1 by Tsutomu Nihei

I was excited to see that Vertical was releasing Nihei’s Knights of Sidonia, because I greatly enjoyed Biomega. As I was reading this manga, I realized that there really is a dearth of giant mecha manga being published in English. One viewing of the Evangelion anime was enough for me, so I haven’t been following the various manga spinoffs. Most shonen seems to be more of the monster of the week/fantasy variety now, and it wasn’t until I was reading Knights of Sidonia that I realized how much I missed GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING IN SPACE!

Nihei’s manga centers on Nagate Tanikaze, a human on the seed spaceship Sidonia which is carrying humanity away from the destruction of the solar system by aliens called Guana. Nagate lives in an underground area, sharing his cramped apartment with his grandfather’s corpse and spending his time training in an alien combat simulation fighter. The human race has been split to an extent, with most opting for a procedure that allows them to photosynthesize. Nagate still needs regular human food and he is captured by others on the spaceship when he ventures out for rice. Nagate begins to assimilate into current human society, and he gets signed up to pilot a Garde – the mecha who fight the Guana that attack the Sidonia. Nagate is socially awkward but seems to have an odd ability to tolerate pain and heals up very quickly. Being a regular human might give him a bit of an edge over his modified compatriots?

As Nagate trains to fight he meets Izana, a human who can be both genders. He also meets a variety of photosynthesizing clones. Nagate’s isolation causes him to be several years behind with recent developments, but he throws himself into piloting the Tsugumori, the Guarde unit he is assigned to. There isn’t anything else going on with his life. The space battles are where a horror element comes in as the semi-sentient Guana can shift their shapes, even taking on the outward appearance of a human that they’ve killed. They’re blobby and somewhat fetus-like, if a fetus was a giant shifting alien.

One of the things I like about Nihei’s work is that he tells a compelling story without over-explaining everything. I’m getting to the point where having an origin spelled out in the first couple chapters of a manga starts making my eyes glaze over, but Knights of Sidonia manages to be intriguing without being frustrating. I’m interested to find out more about the human society on the Sidonia, the reasons for Nagate’s previous exile, and to learn more about his progress as a Guarde pilot. Knights of Sidonia doesn’t yet have some of the great desolate scenes of beauty that I enjoyed so much in Biomega, but one of the things I enjoy about Nihei’s art is his ability to convey scale and space in his backgrounds. When Nagate falls through a hole into an enormous rice storage bin, it is easy to get a sense of just how massive the Sidonia is.

Most importantly for fans of Biomega, there is a talking bear in Knights of Sidonia. She doesn’t have a machine gun yet, but she does have an artificial arm. Seriously, a talking bear in outer space with an artificial arm is reason enough to buy this manga, and all the great mecha/alien battle scenes and Nagate’s journey are really just a bonus.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Strobe Edge, Vol. 1

March 17, 2013 by Phillip Anthony Leave a Comment

Strobe Edge Vol.1 | By Io Sakisaka | Published by VIZ Media | Rated: Teen

Here is your basic relationship equation: Girl (Ninako Kinoshita) likes school friend (Daiki Korenaga) but develops feelings for other school boy (Ren Ichinose). After finding out she might love Ren, Ninako discovers Daiki has feelings for her. So, Boy + Boy / Girl = Story. Not the most original idea but Strobe Edge uses what it’s got and delivers a good slice of teenage angst with some aplomb. Some parts I liked in its execution, some I did not. Shall we begin?

Understanding love is one of the fundamental questions of humanity. What is it? Why is so good and bad at the same time for us? Why do we need it so much? What does it feel like? For teenager Ninako, the fact that she’s never been in love, never been loved (that she knows of) and doesn’t know how it feels is the smartest and dumbest thing about this manga. I would like to say that there’s more to it than that but I respect when authors can just explore a simple idea and run with it, warts and all.

On one hand you want to scream at the girl for being so naïve that she doesn’t know what love is, presumably because she must be loved at home. I mean, I haven’t seen her family yet but she gives no indication that things are bad. Plus she has her friends in school, so she must know what love is! Yes, I know, love for your friends is not the same as love for a significant other. But the basic feeling is the same. I don’t understand why Io Sakisaka tries to present Ninako as laughing with her friends in school and then have her go into automaton mode around Ren. It’s like “What is feeling I have? I … feel? What is feel?” (Sorry, I’m being really simplistic with that last sentence but you get the idea). It’s a set of mental tracks that doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. I don’t know if I have the fortitude to root for a character who is that emotionally stunted.

Yet, in the same way, it is fun to watch her as she tries to make sense of these two guys and their attempts (or non-attempts) at getting her to like them. If I had to choose, I would say that Ren is a better character than Daiki. Daiki comes across as a nice guy but there’s something off about a guy who wants the girl but when he finds out that somebody who is dating his sister is interested in the girl, he warns them off from the girl but not his sister. I dunno, but Ren for all of his aloof slightly bad boy angle is a better idea in action as everybody, and I mean everybody, reacts against him. He doesn’t need to do anything and people take notice of him or are aware of him. Ninako is aware of him but as she gets into the mystery of who Ren is as a person we see her change as she realizes that by studying him, she fell in love with him. This is done in a slowly unfolding manner rather than BOOM! I LOVE HIM. Which would cheese me off as that isn’t what Sakisaka is possibly going for here.

The best way of describing the three kids; relationship is this: imagine if they were part of a solar system, OK? Ninako is in the middle of the system and Daiki is the sun. The sun in Ninako’s world is bright, happy to have her around and has always been in her view. But one day a gas giant, Ren, which had always been there but did nothing, suddenly exerts an influence over the planet in the middle. Not enough to completely dislodge it from the sun’s view but once the gas giant has started, a critical change occurs on the planet in the middle. Daiki isn’t going to give up Ninako to someone like Ren but I don’t think it’s as simple for them as “I must possess her!” because Ninako is trying to sort out her own head at the same time. Speaking of Ren, I don’t know why the author chose to insert that final revelation about Ren and his relationship with Ninako at the point she did. I can’t go into specifics without spoiling certain things, but it felt like it was an attempt to promote the idea that Ren really was too good to be true. I am not saying that it is unwelcome but it could have been left until volume two and that would have been a better jumping point for the cast to deal with in the rest of volume two. It’s kind of happily maddening, that’s how I would describe it.

Is there a point in saying that the artwork in this is gorgeous? It’s not master craftsmanship levels at work but the story that it tells, the work on display suits it perfectly and I don’t have a problem with the amount of daydreaming the cast seem to engage in as long as the art looks like this.

I am a bit of a soap drama watcher and while I don’t need to obsess over every episode of the shows I watch, I would say that Strobe Edge has some of that going on here. This first volume presents a few problems for me, that much is certain, but there’s just enough in the way Sakisaka presents the cast and the setup that doesn’t allow me to dismiss it out of hand without giving it a proper whirl. Much like those soaps I am not supposed to like.

Trigun: Multiple Bullets

March 16, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Various Artists, series created by Yasuhiro Nightow. Released in Japan by Shonen Gahosha direct to tankobon. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

I am generally a manga person, though I have a lot of anime that I love. But if you were to ask me which I preferred, the manga or the anime, 90% of the time I would pick the former. Trigun is one of those exceptions, however. I saw the anime first, and was entertained and riveted by its over the top action and comedy slowly wending its way towards inevitable tragedy. It, like many other Shonen Gahosha series (including Hellsing and Excel Saga) was licensed for an anime very early on in its run, so had an ending that had many of the same beats the author wanted but was distinctly different. Unfortunately, Nightow’s action scenes tend to leave me hopelessly confused, as I simply can’t follow what he’s drawing half the time. His storytelling is also very oblique (typical to a Western). As such, I never really got into Trigun Maximum.

But I picked up this anthology anyway, as I was curious to see what other writers would do with Nightow’s vision. Of course, what most people might pick this up for is Nightow himself – it contains the 80-page story he wrote up to go with the release of the Trigun movie. The story, Badlands Rumble, is pretty much an encapsulation of the manga. Meryl and Milly are there but don’t do anything, Vash is really silly and then not so much, Wolfwood gets irritated but clearly is siding with Vash, and there are innocents and villains who are out of Bob’s Big Book of Western Cliches. If you liked Trigun, you’ll get a kick out of it.

Of the remaining stories, there were two that didn’t really work for me. Boichi’s story about a woman giving birth to an atomic bomb – sort of – and plays on Vash’s pledge to avoid killing. It is, however, filled with Boichi’s fanservice (he writes Sun-Ken Rock), something Trigun is usually blissfully free of. And the 4-koma with Meryl and Milly is really, really slight and not all that funny.

But there’s also some excellent storytelling here. The folks who worked on this anthology love to play around in Nightow’s world, rather than just writing character-based stories about Vash. Satoshi Mizukami, who does my pet favorite The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer, has a story about whether the various warring races (humans, plants, worms) can really come together, but it’s actually cuter than I make it sound. Yusuke Takeyama’s is dark and depressing, with another typical Western cliche: the bit of hope that is then brutally cut down. That said, it’s tense, gripping stuff. And Sagami Akira’s Vash/Meryl story about the impossibility that is Vash’s hair is really shippy in exactly the same way that the Trigun manga never is. (The anime was a bit better at it.)

And easily the gold standard in this collection is the storybook tale that retells Trigun as a fairy tale, written by Ark Performance (better known for their Gundam stuff). The art is fantastic, the style is gorgeous, and the reveal of who’s telling the story is the perfect sweet (and bittersweet) capper. The entire volume is worth getting just for this 16-page story.

I generally prefer character-driven works to world-building stories, and Trigun definitely falls into the latter category. That said, many writers love walking around in someone else’s world, and Nightow’s is probably one of the best to wade into. This anthology had more hits than misses, and is a good epilogue to the Trigun series.

Off the Shelf: Dark Horse Saves the Day

March 16, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 7 Comments

MICHELLE: Life’s a funny thing, you know. Within a span of two days, JManga calls it quits, but a Veronica Mars film becomes a (future) reality. Without the latter to buoy my spirits, I would’ve been much more crushed by the former.

MJ: Since I wasn’t a Veronica Mars fan (I know, I know, everyone says I should watch it), I admit I’m just kind of existing in a shell-shocked haze. Between JManga and Google Reader, I’m feeling pretty disoriented in my digital world right now.

MICHELLE: I’m sad about Google Reader, too! It seems like all the other alternatives are too fussy. I want a minimalist option. Anyway, was there anything in the world of manga to cheer you?

MJ: Fortunately, there was. Though this week became tragic in multiple ways, it began at least with the blissful knowledge that we’d finally be seeing Tokyo Babylon, my favorite CLAMP manga, back in print. Originally published by TOKYOPOP, the series was officially out of print (with a few volumes still easily available online) long before the company shut down its North American publishing operations. Fortunately, Dark Horse announced in 2011 that they’d be adding the series to their growing catalogue of CLAMP omnibus releases. It was originally slated for publication later that year, leading some of us to wonder whether we’d gotten our hopes up too soon, but the first volume finally hit some stores this week! I’m still waiting for my print copy to ship from Amazon, but I was able to preview a PDF of the book, which has temporarily tided me over.

So, it’s no secret that I love Tokyo Babylon. In fact, I once volunteered to host the CLAMP MMF purely out of a desire to make people talk about it. It’s a concise, fairly intimate series that somehow manages to feel genuinely epic (and genuinely tragic) over the course of just seven short volumes (Dark Horse is doing it in two). I’ve already written about the full series at length, both in my original review of it at Comics Should Be Good and in our roundtable discussion last year, so I won’t spend time repeating myself here. Instead, I’ll talk about what’s different in Dark Horse’s edition.

Unfortunately, since I haven’t yet received my print volume, I can’t personally confirm anything about paper quality or trim size, except to (happily) note that Dark Horse’s website lists it as 5 3/4″ x 8 1/4, which was the same size as their Cardcaptor Sakura volumes—and the ideal format for CLAMP’s gorgeous artwork, in my opinion. I’ll be absolutely thrilled, assuming this is the case. Volume one also boasts of “over a dozen” color pages—most of which are, I believe, the same color pages that TOKYOPOP’s editions contained, though there may be extras I’m not noticing as I read through the PDF preview.

What I can confirm is that Dark Horse’s English adaptation is noticeably different, presumably thanks to the hand of its new editor, Carl Horn. Carl has a gift for making English dialogue really come alive, and his influence is apparent immediately. For example, in the beginning of the first chapter, Subaru innocently describes a scene in which a spirit he exorcised turned out to be the ghost of a young girl who committed suicide after being cruelly dumped by the celebrity whose bed she was haunting every night.

In TOKYOPOP’s version, Subaru mentions that the girl’s strongest memories were not of the room itself, but just of the bed, at which point Hokuto laughs, “In other words, the only thing that guy showed her was the ceiling in his bedroom!” In Dark Horse’s new version, it’s Subaru who wonders at the fact that it was only the ceiling of the room that the girl remembered, giving Hokuto the response, “I guess that’s the only part the guy ever showed her!” It’s a small change, but moving the detail about the ceiling to Subaru just makes the joke work better. It’s somehow much, much funnier. And this kind of thing continues throughout the volume.

MICHELLE: I hadn’t really planned on buying the series over again, but if it’s got a better, more natural English adaptation, then perhaps I ought to reconsider. I believe Carl Horn’s also known for writing entertaining end notes—has he done that this time, too?

MJ: He hasn’t (at least not in the PDF I have), and in fact there are actually fewer notes than in TOKYOPOP’s version, as Dark Horse’s doesn’t include a glossary and doesn’t require endnote translations for the sound-effects, either (they are translated right alongside in Dark Horse’s edition). But I really do recommend the new adaptation. Plus, if the trim size is as promised, it’s going to be gorgeous. I’m hoping they’ve used really nice paper, too.

The one difference I haven’t mentioned so far is one that genuinely concerns me, though I hope to have that concern abated shortly. In the TOKYOPOP editions, Hokuto’s terrific side-story (you know, the one where she basically becomes awesomeness incarnate) is included at the end of volume two. But though Dark Horse’s first omnibus spans partway through volume four of TOKYOPOP’s edition, her side story is yet to be found. I’m hoping that it’s just been put into the second volume, and I have an e-mail out to Dark Horse to confirm this, but I’ve yet to receive a reply. Edited to add 3/18/13: Carl Horn says yes, the story will appear! Hokuto fans everywhere rejoice! (It all comes down to the tankobon vs. bunko editions—if you want more detail ask me in comments.)

MICHELLE: That is worrying, but I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t include it!

MJ: I’ll be sure to report back!

So, have you found any manga to ease your pain this week, Michelle?

MICHELLE: Sort of. My solo read for this week was the first volume of Durarara!! Saika Arc, which is a sequel series to the regular Durarara!! that I’ve talked about a few times before. I didn’t always like the original—sometimes it didn’t make sense, and I took issue with a couple of female characters happily falling in love with killers—but it remained intriguing, chiefly due to the fascinating headless “black rider,” Celty.

Perhaps I should backtrack a little. This series is set in Ikebukuro, where all manner of strange characters dwell. The first series was primarily the saga of Celty’s missing head, but now it’s a year later and something strange and new has begun. The area is being plagued by a slasher, whose non-fatal attacks have been increasing in frequency lately. The slasher links together some seemingly unconnected story elements—interrupting bullies as they gang up on a girl who feels disconnected from the world, attacking a reporter working on a feature about who’s the strongest in Ikebukuro—and ends up with Celty on his trail and Shizuo Heiwajima (a guy with massive brute strength that he can’t control) in his heart. Although there’s more to it than that. In, like, a supernatural way.

So far, this is shaping up to be a lot more linear than the original, and I’d say a definite improvement. Granted, I would probably be fascinated by just about anything Celty did. I suppose one could start here, as the story is so far very self-contained, but it would probably be disorienting to encounter so many characters at once. (Not unlike the beginning of the original, actually.)

MJ: I was going to ask about exactly that, actually. I could not get into the original no matter how hard I tried, and I thought I might have better luck with this. But I do wonder if I’d be able to figure out what was going on.

MICHELLE: I think you probably could. There are only a couple of references to what happened in the first series, and no real lingering plot threads. The real challenge would be all the “who the heck is this person?!” moments you’d encounter. Even for me, there are a still a couple of characters whose names I don’t know, but they barely appear. (Actually, why even bother including them? I do not know.)

Anyway, I like it well enough to continue with it.

Looks like it’s your turn to introduce our mutual read this time!

MJ: Indeed it is!

This week, we both read Emerald and Other Stories, a collection of short manga by Hiroaki Samura, creator of Blade of the Immortal. I’ll admit that I’ve actually not read any of Blade of the Immortal, but though this short manga collection is a little uneven (as all short manga collections seem to be), I found enough to like in it that I’m anxious now to read more of Samura-sensei’s work.

Samura comments at the end of the volume that this collection was originally called Sister Generator, because he’d noticed that nearly all of its main characters were women—and that is probably the biggest draw for me here. The stories start strong, beginning with a tale set in the American Old West, in which a woman hires a male “hero” (in this world, “heroes,” are often just really successful criminals) to save a young girl from a life of servitude to the owner of a brothel—not that the “hero” has any idea that this is what he’s being hired for. It’s a tense, well-told story with a fairly nuanced take on Old West morality and its challenges for women, and a seriously badass female lead, all of which is certainly the key to my heart.

As the volume continues, the content varies widely, from a somewhat uncomfortably erotic story about a teen girl’s final days with her dying father, to a semi-autobiographical story-within-a-sci-fi-story, to a series of humorous schoolgirl vignettes called, “The Uniforms Stay On.” And though I’ve described the collection as “uneven,” I should clarify to say that even in its weakest moments (a story written about a guy’s embarrassing rock-song confession probably worked the least well for me) there is always something brilliant or intriguing to latch on to.

The gag comics are unusually funny. The fantasy comics are surprisingly coherent. The erotic elements are genuinely erotic, even when they’re vaguely uncomfortable. And though some of that can be chalked up to Samura’s thoughtful, detailed artwork, he’s also just a really strong storyteller. So often, stories in short manga collections feel… experimental (read: unfinished) and that’s not at all the case here. Each short story reads as a real story, and that’s a rare find in this format. I was more than pleasantly surprised.

MICHELLE: Wow, I am so tempted to say “what she said,” because I think you touched on most of my own reactions, too.

“Emerald” is probably my favorite story of the bunch, simply because I love a clever female lead, and this one has two of them. I didn’t see where it was going at first, but it surprised me, and ended up being wholly satisfying, which is quite a rare thing for a short story. And, in fact, being surprised was somewhat of a theme here. I don’t necessarily mean plot events, either, but more in the line of a story not really being what you thought it was, like “Shizuru Cinema,” the story of the aspiring manga artist and his high-school aged girlfriend/muse. “Uniforms” was often genuinely amusingly random—the girls discuss things as various as religion, Korean influence, and pig-spinach hybrids—and I liked “Brigitte’s Dinner” quite a bit, too. That one had kind of a happy ending, actually, if the last few pages mean what I think they mean.

I’m with you regarding the love song story working the least well—it also has some final pages of murky meaning—and I was also completely baffled by the autobiographical tale of some mahjong game, and squicked by “The Kusein Family’s Grandest Show,” but on the whole this was a very strong collection. And I love Samura’s artwork, which is even more impressive in Blade of the Immortal (of which I have admittedly only read one volume).

MJ: I’m quite certain you’re reading the end of “Brigitte’s Dinner” as intended! I thought it was a happy ending of a sort, too. And actually, “of a sort” is key here, because one of the book’s greatest strengths is that nothing is really black and white. I don’t want to spoil that story for anyone, so I’ll refrain from explaining exactly what I mean, but it’s the kind of story that is both tragic and happy at the same time. Much like real life.

MICHELLE: I agree. Dark Horse’s back cover describes these stories as “seven powerful, short pieces” and that’s really true. Too often, short stories are forgettable. Or, maybe there will be one good one, and then a bunch of others that drift out of your brain a couple of hours after reading them. But here we have several strong ones that I think will stay with me a while.

MJ: Same here. So, after a rough week, I’ll thank Dark Horse manga for stepping up to save the day!

Mourning JManga

March 14, 2013 by MJ 28 Comments

Any manga fan who has peeked in on Twitter today will know that our community has been a-tweet over the sudden departure of JManga from the digital manga scene. Reactions have ranged from thoughtful analysis to indifference, from contempt to rage, and everything in between. Sean’s recent post, Some Thoughts on the End of JManga I think sums things up the best. My own reaction has been closest to plain ol’ heartbreak. So while others analyze, I’d like to take a moment to simply mourn.

I loved JManga. I loved the concept, a reasonable amount of the execution, and a whoooole lot of its manga titles. Not only did I name JManga as my “Pick of the Year” in 2012, but quite a number of its titles made their way onto my Best of 2012 lists, including my choices for Best BL and my Top Five Digital-Only Manga.

My greatest mourning is for the titles left unfinished, including my favorite BL manga of last year, Setona Mizushiro’s complex, awesome Dousei Ai, Takako Shimura’s exquisite (and just barely begun) Sweet Blue Flowers, Yukari Ichijo’s josei epic, Pride, and Haruko Kumota’s utterly adorable My Darling Kitten Hair.

I am genuinely heartbroken to know that I will not be able to finish reading these series. To the credit of JManga’s often-criticized catalogue, I loved each of these just as much as any of my print favorites. Despite their apparent lack of viability in the English-language market, they were far from B-list titles in my book. These titles are a real loss and I will miss them terribly.

I also sincerely mourn JManga as a company. I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with a number of its staff during October’s New York Comic Con, and they were as a whole some of the nicest, most genuine, and most enthusiastic folks I’ve met in the manga industry so far. They cared about user concerns and actively sought out criticism. They genuinely cared about how we used and experienced their product. I wish them all well and hope they will recover quickly from this loss. Losing a company you believe in is even harder than just losing a job, and my heart goes out to them.

I once told JManga’s business manager Robert Newman that if I could read all the manga I wanted to read in high quality on my iPad, I could essentially give up print manga forever. At the time, I thought JManga would be the company to make that happen. I’m earnestly sorry to see it go.

Goodbye, JManga, and thanks for trying so hard. You’ll be greatly missed.

Goodbye JManga

March 14, 2013 by Anna N

Well, I’ve been wondering why JManga seemed to be spinning its wheels a bit in terms of new releases, and I got my answer today when the notice was posted on the site that the service was going to be terminated. It is really too bad, because they were a unique outlet for niche manga, but as much as I would like to think that there are thousands upon thousands of North American manga fans wanting to read obscure josei manga and manga about train station bento boxes, maybe there are only about fifty or so people willing to pay for it.

Jmanga gave me review points, which I greatly appreciated. I did sign up and pay for the service at the beginning, but at launch time there wasn’t enough content on there to keep me busy. While I greatly enjoyed the few series from Jmanga I was able to read, it was only in more recent months that they started releasing more titles in the genres I enjoy from publishers like Ohzora and Shueisha. Some people have pointed to a lack of support for iPads as one reason why they didn’t subscribe more to JManga, and the titles I read on JManga I read because I was so interested in them that I was willing to read them in my browser, which isn’t really my preferred viewing methods for digital comics.

Jmanga was an ambitious effort, and it is unfortunate that it is shutting down. I imagine this will have a chilling effect on digital manga distribution in the future. I’ll always be delighted that JManga gave me a chance to read the last volume of a josei series that I thought I’d never get to finish, Walkin’ Butterfly. Jmanga had some fun Harlequin and romance manga, and it enabled me to read Est Em’s manga about Centaur Salarymen. Those were some great reading experiences, and I’ll miss Jmanga for what it was and what it had the potential to be. I’m going to be rereading some of my favorite titles before the site goes dark.

Manga the Week of 3/20

March 14, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ 1 Comment

SEAN: So yeah, remember me bragging I got Yen releases a week early? Not this month.

What does that mean?

It means Vagabond 34, that’s what it means. And that’s it. Luckily, Vagabond is pretty damn awesome. So for Vagabond fans, new volume!

ANNA: Vagabond is pretty great.

SEAN: For everyone else, catching up on the stacks of manga to read next to you, like me?

MICHELLE: And how! Seriously, there are literally stacks.

MJ: What she said!

Some Thoughts on the End of JManga

March 14, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

When I got up this morning and saw the news, I had a pretty emotional reaction. JManga was shutting down and taking its manga with it. I heard my friends who rail against Cloud in my head pointing at me and laughing, and I made a few tweets. You may have seen some of them. Now, of course, I’ve had a whole day to think about it, so let’s discuss what happened.

This is the sort of thing that everyone knows could happen with content stored on the “cloud” rather than as physical files, but for the most part it hadn’t really happened until today. What’s more, JManga’s digital-only format makes this especially hard for them. If Viz shuts down its digital manga site tomorrow, I’ll lose my digital Excel Sagas, but they’re still in print volumes somewhere, even if they’re out of print. EDIT: Viz has noted that since you have to download the mangas to your tablet/device, you would not lose them in a “cloud”-type way, and can read them till you remove them. Thanks for that correction of my error. Same with most Kindle purchases, or the Yen titles on the Nook. But come the end of May, the JManga titles I purchased will be gone. No print, no digital copies, nada. And that’s hard to take. Despite it being the current business practice for many companies, it’s hard to get shoved in your face.

We’re not really sure yet why this happened – the immediate gut feeling is to say “money”, but who knows? While I suspect scanlation had an effect on some of the more specific titles on the site – The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer, Sun-Ken Rock – I’d argue it did have an effect on the general feeling about online manga, which is “why should I pay for it?” And I do think that some tweets today may have been from folks saying “I knew this would happen, glad I never bought anything”, are from that scan crowd. But really, I do think that my enthusiasm for JManga – the plugging of their site, reviewing of their titles, and money I paid for the volumes – is part of why my reaction was so fierce this morning. It can be hard seeing something you love die so fast.

And so now I’m left with disappointment, and wondering what comes next. JManga always seemed to have an issue or two. They were web-only for the longest time, and never did hit Apple. Their mobile app continued to be a work in progress. There was the infamous launch that included dozens of “theoretical titles” – mostly from Kadokawa Shoten – none of which ever appeared. The points system – especially given that 1 point was clearly one cent – seemed highly confusing to most users. And they never did get that knockout title that would bring users to the site – there was no Naruto, or Soul Eater, or even a cute Evangelion 4-koma. The big draw for NYCC was the creator of SoreMachi, a slice-of-life manga few had heard of before the con. And, of course, everyone at NYCC seemed to sense this in the wind – not just for JManga. Everyone asked “How do we own this content?” at DC and Marvel panels as well.

And yet I loved so much about them as well. They were committed to showing North America – and lately other countries, a process that always seemed like pulling teeth with the Japanese licensors – titles that you’d never think to see over here. Not just obvious things but josei soap opera manga like Wonder!, seinen salaryman manga such as Ninja Papa, retranslated “rescue” titles such as High School Girls. There was manga with cats solving mysteries. There was erotic horror manga. There was dog training manga. There was fighting maid manga. There was educational science manga. There was… I’m not even sure WHAT Young-kun was. These creators now have a fanbase, however small, that they may never have had before.

I am saddened at JManga’s passing, and this is why. I will miss it. I had lots of stuff queued up to read that I likely will never get the chance to, which is depressing. And, of course, there’s the real-life fallout – a bunch of people just lost their jobs. They all did the best job they could, and I hope they bounce back as quickly as possible. And now I wonder what’s next. As Deb Aoki noted, is this going to scare people away? I sense if everyone waits for companies to give them downloadable PDF files, they’re going to be waiting a long time. Cloud is here to stay, whether we like it or not. That said, what’s the next company going to do? Because there will be others. Some smaller companies are already putting out their own titles, and Japan will likely try to find a way to do this again. Can they learn lessons from JManga, both the good and bad?

I have to admit, if a new JManga pops up, I’ll probably get stuff from it as well. I like supporting creators and their content, given the option. JManga gave it a good try at doing that. I can’t thank them enough for it.

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: March 11, 2013

March 14, 2013 by Derek Bown 7 Comments

The one downside of Weekly Shonen Jump Online is that not everyone wants to play along. Tumblr has become a cesspool of spoilers for me. Even deviant art is dangerous ground to tread. But where in the past I didn’t care, because I was reading scanlations when they came out, now I find myself caring very much. Has anyone else been having trouble with spoilers, now that you’ve been waiting for the chapters to be officially released?

Also, would anyone like me to give each chapter a grade? I know people like grades when reading reviews, so I’ve been wondering if that’s something I should adopt for this column, or if it wouldn’t work well. Leave your answers in the comments if you please.

Nisekoi Ch. 065
All I have to say about this week’s chapter is, what did they do to Raku!? Someone please tell me, otherwise it’s going to be left up to my imagination, and my imagination is a dark, scary place!

Either way, this was a great chapter. As I’ve said, I love me some comedy, so the more comedic Nisekoi gets the happier I get. And a chapter focusing on all the girls in the series getting drunk off liquor candies? All the better. Reviewing comedy is a bit tricky, because my gut instinct is to tell you all about the jokes, but I can’t possibly do them any justice, so please, if you haven’t yet, go read this chapter.

One Piece Ch. 701
Once again, every week I think to myself, “I should really give the number one spot this week to a different series. I ALWAYS give it to One Piece, people are going to start thinking I have inflexible taste.” And every week I read the chapter, and my first reaction is, “Well sonnuva…” I really, really don’t want anyone thinking I rate One Piece as high as I do just because it’s my favorite series, not because of the merits of the individual chapter. But when the individual chapters are just so good, what else can I do?

This week’s chapter is so good partly because we get our first look at Dressrosa, and partly because we get introduced to a character who was most likely first mentioned last week. Creative world building, well written comedy, and great action—this week has all of that, as One Piece usually does. If you aren’t reading this series yet, then you need to take the plunge and invest the necessary time to get caught up. It really is that good.

Naruto Ch. 623
I’ll say this about this week’s Naruto, it was better than last week. There was much less misplaced comedy and the confrontation begun at the end of this chapter looks like it will be a lot of fun, and was well set up. I’m finding myself enjoying this flashback a bit more, now that I’m a few weeks removed from remembering that it is awkwardly placed in the story as a whole. And I have to admit that I’ve been interested in this time period in Naruto history. So for now I’m looking forward to more.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 006
The big problem with Dragon Ball Z, for this column at least, is that because of how action-intense it is there will be weeks where I find myself with nothing to say but, “Well, there was punching.” Though I suppose that might be more than could be said for some episodes of the anime.

In this case I find that the action was of course well executed and, unlike the anime which more people are familiar with, the fights actually move at a good pace. Rather than ending the chapter at a stalemate, Goku and Picolo are both injured, with only one chance to take down Raditz. In my own opinion this version of the story is the superior version, and any fan of Dragon Ball Z who hasn’t read the manga yet should be using this chance to become familiar with where it all started.

Cross Manage Ch. 024
It’s strange how Cross Manage has been embedding itself in my heart. I can’t think of any clear, specific reason for why I like it so much, but with every new chapter I find myself thinking that I would hate to see it go. Perhaps it’s the absurd humor, it might even be the surprisingly frequent fanservice, but whatever it is, it’s an entertaining read even if it has little to do with the titular sport.

Really it’s all about the character humor. In this case, Namine Chihara, is such an odd duck that I can’t figure out what her personality is meant to be. Either way, it’s entertaining. Currently she’s the closest thing to an antagonist we have, but she doesn’t seem like she is actually evil. Which of course works much better for the real world setting Cross Manage is going for, where antagonism is generally less about all out evil and more about people with opposing goals coming into contact with each other. I really liked this chapter, and hope that we get many more in the future.

World Trigger Ch. 005
World Trigger, for its strong start, has been a bit lackluster these last four chapters. This week, however, we did get some answers about how the triggers work. But rather than have a character explain it, we pick up nuggets of information from Yuma behaving the way a proper character is supposed to. He doesn’t explain anything, but his dialogue still reveals important information. I can appreciate this level of writing, after reading many, many series where any and all exposition is imparted to the reader through clunky dialogue. I’m still wary about whether this series will go anywhere, but there is some real skill behind this writing. So we shall see.

One-Punch Man Ch. 008
If you want a quick explanation to share with people about what exactly One-Punch Man is, you’re welcome:

One-Punch Man is the story of a world where everyone is trying to have regular superhero fights, but one man refuses to play by the rules.

I had this revelation after seeing Saitama interact with more than just the villain of the week. And with the story eight chapters in, I think it’s safe to say that the one punch joke somehow just isn’t getting stale. I’ll let you find out for yourself why exactly, but the last page of this chapter was the funniest thing I read this entire issue.

Bleach Ch. 529
Ah, sweet, sweet answers. It’s been a while since I’ve been invested in Bleach. And while I refuse to ever get involved in the fandom again—once burned twice shy after all—I am slowly getting interested in the series again. After all, we’re finally getting Isshin’s story, something fans have been wanting forever. And so far it isn’t terribly written, so I think I can get properly invested. This chapter was nothing but answers. For one, we finally find out why Ichigo and Kaien were practically identical, and unlike the reveal of Ichigo’s mother, while there was a theory that Ichigo and Kaien were related, the reveal was handled properly this chapter, in that it didn’t act like the reveal was bigger than it was. So, kudos to Kubo.

Toriko Ch. 225
Ah, nothing like powerups out of nowhere. It takes a certain kind of clout to properly pull that off. And where before only One Piece was able to do that without annoying me, Toriko seems to be aiming for similar heights, because Sunny’s powerup may be out of nowhere, but it’s far too cool for me to care.

The majority of this chapter really was just Sunny and Tommyrod’s fight, but that was more than enough for me. I’m not sure exactly how using sensor attached to hair is meant to be culinarily themed, but I think I’ll give it a pass, just because it is unique from all the other methods of fighting this series provides. And the only way to keep multiple fights interesting is by having varied fighting styles. And Toriko never disappoints in that aspect.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to last week’s episode, Episode 038 – March 4, 2013 – What is Josei Manga? | Nanatsu no Taizai.

Breaking: JManga to shut down in May

March 14, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

Wow! An e-mail came in overnight from JManga, saying they are shutting down as of May 30. They have already stopped selling points, but users can buy manga with their existing points through March 26. Unused points will be refunded in the form of Amazon gift cards. Details are here, and I’ll be back with analysis later.

Daniella Orihuela-Gruber bought a big stack of manga at DMP’s Warehouse Sale, and she’s reading—and blogging about—one volume at a time, mixing her opinions of the books with commentary on the genre and common yaoi tropes. Here are her first four: All Nippon Air Lines, Ambiguous Relationship, Affair, and Secretary’s Job?

At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo opens up the swag bag and shows us her latest purchases.

News from Japan: Eiichiro Oda is taking a week off from One Piece due to illness. Highschool of the Dead will be back in the next issue of Dragon Age. Negima creator Ken Akamatsu has a new series in the works, as does Blade of the Immortal creator Hiroaki Samura. Boys Over Flowers manga-ka Yuko Kamio is starting a new series, Ibara no Kanmuri (Crown of Thorns), starting in the May issue of Bessatsu Margaret. Also coming to Bessatsu Margaret: Stand Up!, by Chocolate Underground manga-ka Aiji Yamakawa. With the release of volume 12, there are now 10 million copies of Yotsuba&! in print.

The strange saga of the Kuroko’s Basketball threats continues: Studio You, which organizes Kuroko’s Basketball doujinshi events, cancelled an event that was scheduled for April 7 in Osaka, but they have announced another one that will take place on April 21 in Shizuoka. Someone has been sending threatening letters to manga-ka Tadatoshi Fujimaki and venues associated with the manga, and at least one of them may have contained a potentially lethal chemical.

Reviews: Carlo Santos brings us up to date on recent releases in his Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Ash Brown takes us through the past week’s worth of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Katherine Hanson on vol. 1 of Ameiro Kochakan Kandan (Yuri no Boke)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 18 of Bakuman (Comics Worth Reading)
Ash Brown on vol. 11 of Death Note (Experiments in Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vols. 1 and 2 of Demon Love Spell (Comics Worth Reading)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 11 of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 21 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Psyren (The Comic Book Bin)
Helen on vols. 2-8 of Sailor Moon (Narrative Investigations)
Leroy Douresseaux on Three Wolves Mountain (I Reads You)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of Tokyo Babylon (Comics Worth Reading)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 2 of Triage X (The Fandom Post)

Barrage, Vol. 1

March 13, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Kouhei Horikoshi. Released in Japan as “Sensei no Barrage” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz Media.

It can be somewhat difficult when you advertise the popularity of your own series. Weekly Shonen Jump has made it a point to discuss the “popularity poll” table of contents they do every week, with the strong series in the front and the ones with fewer votes in the back. As well as their culling of the latter at a moment’s notice. That said, just because a series is unpopular doesn’t mean that it’s bad. When Shonen Jump Alpha started up, they grabbed a few new series to show off the web magazine, and North American readers quickly found that new series in Jump die far more often than they live. Barrage being the first casualty.

Barrage makes it a point to say it takes place somewhere out in space, on an alien world. And indeed we do see a few aliens here and there, mostly of the villainous lizard type. But for the most part this world is “fantasy-ish”, about as alien as Naruto or One Piece’s non-Japanese worlds are. Astro is this spunky teenager who takes odd jobs to take care of the heartwarming band of orphans he’s gathered… and seems to lose said jobs just as fast due to his loud mouth and sense of justice. Then he runs into a boy who looks his exact duplicate, says he’ll have to impersonate the prince for a while… and then promptly gets shot, leaving Astro to fend for himself. Luckily, this is Jump, so a strong sense of justice is pretty much all you need. Well, that and an evolving alien sword.

There’s an over-earnestness that grates on me a bit when reading this. The scrappy band of orphans in particular look straight out of the Our Gang playbook, and their farewell scenes with Astro as he goes off to fight enemies are meant to be overly sappy in a humorous way, but instead becomes mawkish. The art is OK but not great, and at one point there’s a roving band of female outlaws (sort of) who are mostly indistinguishable from each other. And the plot and feel of this book does not particularly feel original (if Astro doesn’t turn out to have been the real prince after all by the time this wraps up, I’ll eat my copy of Volume 2).

That said, there’s stuff to like here. Astro is a good hero, being straightforward and sticking to principles without coming off as stupid or moralistic. Tiamat, the grumpy knight who is forced to mentor Astro on his journey, is the perfect antidote to Astro, and gradually won over by the boy’s immense charm. It’s also nice to see a competent, benevolent king for a change. Still, at the end of the day, if this were a 30+-volume epic like Bleach or Gintama, this would be where I’d say “it starts off poorly, but gets better after the first few volumes.” Sadly, Vol. 2 of Barrage was the last, and I suspect that the ending will feel like a “you’re cancelled, wrap it up” ending. I hope I’m wrong.

Remembering Toren Smith

March 12, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

We lost one of the pioneers of the manga industry last week when Toren Smith passed away at the too-young age of 52. Smith was the founder of Studio Proteus and one of the first manga entrepreneurs in the U.S. Here’s a roundup of remembrances and obituaries from around the internet:

Jonathan Clements, Toren Smith, 1960-2013: Remembering one of the prime movers of modern manga (Manga UK)
Mike Toole, Mr. Smith Goes to Osaka (ANN)
Mike Hansen, Toren Smith (All Day Comics)
Chris Warner, A Tribute to Toren Smith (Dark Horse)
Ryan Sands, Toren Smith RIP (1960-2013) (awesome cover gallery) (Same Hat!)
Scott Green, Manga Translator Toren Smith Passes Away (Crunchyroll)
Andy Khouri, Pioneering Manga Translator Toren Smith Passes Away at 52 (Comics Alliance)
James Hudnall, Toren and I: 1987 (photos) (James Hudnall)
Toren’s Barnes & Noble author page

I’m playing a bit of catch-up with the news, after a busy week and an unexpectedly heavy snowstorm. (The bad part: I had to go to work on my day off. The cool part: I rode to work in a snowplow.) Here’s a quick roundup, and I’ll have more tomorrow.

The Manga Bookshelf team discuss their Pick of the Week in print manga and look over this week’s new releases in print and the latest batch at JManga. I made my picks from the past week’s new releases at MTV Geek, and Lissa Pattillo does the same in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Erica Friedman has the latest episode of Yuri Network News for us at Okazu.

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Beautiful Creatures: The Manga (Comics Worth Reading)
John Rose on vol. 12 of Black Butler (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on Danza (ANN)
Sakura Eries on vol. 11 of Dengeki Daisy (The Fandom Post)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 5 and 6 of A Devil and Her Love Song (ANN)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 8 of Dorohedoro (The Fandom Post)
Josh Begley on Emerald and Other Stories (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Girl Friends: The Complete Collection (Okazu)
Rebecca Silverman on Good-Bye Geist (ANN)
Michael Buntag on vol. 8 of Honey and Clover (NonSensical Words)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 2 and 3 of Jiu Jiu (ANN)
Rebecca Silverman on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (ANN)
Steve Bennett on The Misfortune of Kyon and Koizumi (ICv2)
Carlo Santos on vol. 12 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (ANN)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 9 of Omamori Himari (The Fandom Post)
Nicholas Smith on chapter 701 of One Piece (Kaleo)
Sakura Eries on vol. 9 of Oresama Teacher (The Fandom Post)
Chris Beveridge on vol. 13 of Pandora Hearts (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Pure Yuri Anthology, Hirari (Okazu)
Carlo Santos on vol. 8 of Psyren (ANN)
Mark Thomas on vol. 8 of Raiders (The Fandom Post)
Josh Begley on vol. 3 of Tale of the Waning Moon (The Fandom Post)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 3 of Until Death Do Us Part (The Fandom Post)

It Came from the Sinosphere: My Lucky Star, Part 2

March 12, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

Welcome back. You can find Part 1 here, and here is the opening song again (yes, I do like the song).

Background on the Actors

For an idol drama, this drama has remarkably few idols. It rose to popularity mainly on the strength of the story. The only actor who really qualifies as an idol is Jimmy Lin, who plays Zhong Tianqi. This role was pretty made for him, for in addition to being an actor, he is a real-life professional car racer. However, his most famous role as a actor was not in an idol drama, but in wuxia (specifically, he played Duan Yu in the 2003 version of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils).

Jimmy Lin as Duan Yu, Prince of Dali.

Arguably, Leon Jay Williams (who plays Zhong Tianjun) is also a quasi-idol, since he is a professional model, and quite easy on the eyes, even compared to most idol drama stars.

Interestingly, they cast a Korean actress, Yoo Ha-na, to play Xia Zhixing, which occasionally happens in Taiwanese television. It seems that her lines were dubbed, and I’m not sure who the dub artist (which I think is a pity, since the dub artist deserves as much credit as Yoo Ha-na). While I think their acting is okay, I think there are a number of Taiwanese actresses who could have played the role even better (I would have cast Barbie Hsu). There is a scene where Zhong Tianqi overhears some very soap-opera-ish dialogue, and Xia Zhixing claims “Oh, it’s just a K-drama.” I found that line doubly funny because the very character claiming that it was just a K-drama was being played by a Korean actress.

Location Location Location!

This drama features Ruifang, Wulai, and Pingxi, three of the top tourist attractions in the Taipei region.

However, rather than setting the story in Ruifang/Wulai/Pingxi, the story combines all three of them into the fictional village of “Mingde,” which is Xia Zhixing’s hometown. As someone who is familiar with Ruifang, Wulai, and Pingxi, this is a bit confusing, since sometimes the characters are in Ruifang one moment, and then they are in Pingxi the next moment.

However, I don’t think the drama shows the *really* beautiful parts of Pingxi, such as this spot, which just happens to be one of my favorite spots in all of Taiwan

Actually, Ruifang, Wulai, and Pingxi are more than just tourist attractions: they are important symbols of Taiwanese culture. Pingxi is often held up as being an idyllic Taiwanese rural town, which is why is it often featured in commercials, movies, etc (part of You Are the Apple of My Eye is set in Jingtong, which is in the Pingxi district). Wulai is the location of northern Taiwan’s highest waterfall.

The town of Wulai (I am resisting the urge to share even more photos of Wulai).

However, Ruifang in particular has an important place in Taiwanese culture. The towns of Jiufen, Jinguashi, and Shuinandong are all in the Ruifang district. Jiufen was once so prominent as a cultural center that it was called “little Shanghai.” As I’ve mentioned before, Jiufen and Jinguashi are the location of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s A City of Sadness, which not only a famous Taiwanese film, it’s often ranked as one of the best Chinese-language movies ever made. Furthermore, Jiufen inspired Hayao Miyazaki to make Spirited Away, which is why the town is almost always full of Japanese tourists.

My own photo of the Thirteen Levels

The “Thirteen Levels,” one of Taiwan’s most recognizable landmarks, is in Shuinandong, and it appears in this drama (it also appears in Fated to Love You). One of my favorite works of art in the Tapei Fine Arts Museum permanent collection depicts the Thirteen Levels, and it’s featured in many films, both professional and amateur. I have never been inside the Thirteen Levels since it’s technically forbidden to enter, but I know someone who has been inside, and he said that he saw other people inside too, so apparently a lot of people ignore the restrictions.

In other words, watching this drama is a bit like taking a tour of the most popular destinations in rural Taipei.

Okay, I can’t help it, here’s a picture I took in Shuinandong looking up at Chahushan, which is in Jinguashi (if you’re confused, just know that this is all in the Ruifang district).

Fashion

I mostly find the costuming choices in Taiwanese idol dramas uninteresting, but this drama is definitely the exception, which is what you would expect from a drama which deals a lot with jewelry. And the guys’ clothes are just as interesting as the girls’ clothes.

See Zhong Tianqi and Xia Zhixing together. They’re clothes are not boring. I think Zhong Tianqi’s checkered collar is a particularly nice touch.

See Xia Zhixing and Han Zhiyin together. Again, their clothes are not boring.

Xia Zhixing and Han Zhiyin together, again. You can’t tell from this picture, but this outfit makes Xia Zhixing look a little pregnant. I actually like that, since it emphasizes her motherly qualities.

The Silliness and the Sadness

Whereas Fated to Love You has tongue-in-cheek humor, this drama is straight-up silly. In fact, part of the appeal for me is seeing just how far the drama will go. Just as protagonists are fearlessly themselves, this drama is fearless in is silliness.

Xia Zhixing and Zhong Tianqi are sitting on a toilet, and it looks like they are having sex, even though they are actually not.

Zhong Tianqi and Xia Zhixing get into awkward positions.

(Tangent: in a world free of rape culture, I would think it is totally funny that certain things the characters happen to be doing seem to be sexual assault, even though that is not the character’s intent at all, just I would think it’s funny if the characters seemed to be murdering somebody when actually it’s just an innocent mistake. But victims of sexual assault are so often disbelieved and told that the assault was “just a misunderstanding,” in fact, I can tell you from personal experience that victims sometimes tell themselves that it’s just a misunderstanding so that they don’t have to face that they are victims of harassment/assault, that I’m not completely comfortable with laughing when it’s revealed what certain characters *reasonably* suspect is sexual assault really turns out to be a misunderstanding).

Some of it gets pretty corny, but that, weirdly, is part of the charm.

It’s also full of melodrama (this fan music video, featuring the theme song, offers a good taste of the melodrama). Many of the plot twists are awfully cliché, but, well, it’s boldly cliché. And considering that a five-year-old girl gets Xia Zhixing to spend 8 hours publicly handcuffed to the hot and handsome Han Zhiyin, I am willing to overlook a couple cliches.

And I think this drama just might have the saddest moment of any idol drama I’ve watched. Specifically, the scene where Ou Yaruo listens to the MP3 player.

Why is listening to the contents of an MP3 player sad? Part of me wants to explain the context, but I do hope that this drama will eventually get licensed in English, so I don’t want to spoil it.

Someone on Youtube claims that (spoiler warning, especially if you understand Mandarin) this is the most moving scene in My Lucky Star, but I found it too cliché. Okay, I’ll be honest, I got totally emotionally invested in that scene too, but at least I’m embarrassed that such cliché melodrama got to me.

However, the moment which really got my tears flowing was when Xia Zhixing falls down on the road between Jinguashi and Shuinandong (even though I know this is supposed to the fictional village Mingde, I still can’t help but think of these places as being Ruifang/Pingxi/Wulai). There is nothing original at all about this scene, but the story is so bold, and so sincere, in its melodrama, that I really could not help myself. Even if I forget everything else in this drama, I don’t think I’ll ever forget this particular moment.

Availability in English

Currently, there is no legal way to watch this drama in English. It would be really nice if someone changed this state of affairs.

Conclusion

When I first started watching idol dramas, I stuck with idol dramas adapted from Japanese manga, since the stories were familiar to me, and I didn’t have enough confidence in my Mandarin comprehension skills to delve into completely new territory (and how is it that I have yet to discuss a single idol drama adapted from manga?)

This is the first idol drama I watched which a) was not adapted from a manga and b) had a plot that was totally unknown to me. I was not just concerned about my language skills, I was also concerned about whether or not it would be a good story (if I had read the manga, at least I could reasonably predict whether or not I would like the drama). Not only was I totally capable of understanding this drama, I fell in love with it.

It definitely has its flaws, and overall, I have to say that Fated to Love You is a higher-quality production. Nonetheless, this is one of my top favorite idol dramas, and when I say that somebody should license this in English, I’m serious.

Next time: The Nine Provinces (novel)

An earthquake is happening right now as Sara K. is writing this. Many Taiwanese people expect Sara K. to be freaked out at every single earthquake. Sara K. then points out that she grew up in San Francisco. She does feel a lot less earthquakes in Taoyuan than in other parts of Taiwan (such as Taipei and Hualien), most likely because Taoyuan has more stable ground than Taipei, and the faults around Hualien are more active.

Bookshelf Briefs 3/11/13

March 11, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N Leave a Comment

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

Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz, Vol. 4 | By QuinRose and Mamenosuke Fujimaru | Seven Seas – One thing I recall about Bloody Twins is that Alice and the Twins got physical almost immediately, and it felt rushed. With Boris, we’ve waited 4 volumes for him to finally get together with Alice, and the waiting has made it much sweeter. There’s likely trouble on the horizon, though. The spectre of Alice’s sister which haunts every single one of these books is still around, and it’s noted that Alice is the sort who’s likely to destroy herself with guilt – is her love with Boris helping, just a distraction, or actively making things worse? Things are not helped by an ongoing mob war between the Hatter and another family, and Peter White’s attempts at doing his best for Alice while still being jealous and clinging. This series is really hitting its stride.– Sean Gaffney

Demon Love Spell, Vol. 2 | By Mayu Shinjo | VIZ Media – OK, Mayu Shinjo, you win. I’ll just put Ai Ore! down to being a clunker in and of itself and settle in with Demon Love Spell, which is far more to my taste. I like that she’s thinking carefully about what it would really be like for an incubus to be living with Miko… and how doing so is actually changing Kagura, making him more receptive to her less lustful feelings. And it certainly helps that life seems to be conspiring against him getting anywhere with her except in dreams. There’s also some touching storytelling here, with the fox subplot resolved in a very bittersweet yet satisfying way (her author’s notes on this are hilarious, by the way.) The balance between seduction and consent, always difficult to keep in many other shoujo manga (hi, Hot Gimmick!) is just right here, and it makes for a sexy, fun read.– Sean Gaffney

Demon Love Spell, Vol. 2 | By Mayu Shinjo | VIZ Media – I’m not as charmed as MJ by the second volume of Demon Love Spell, but I will grant that it’s probably the best volume of any Mayu Shinjo manga that I have read. It begins with the story of a seriously adorable fox (who is significantly less adorable in his human form) who confuses Miko with the girl he loves. The conclusion to this is genuinely touching, and along the way Kagura realizes that Miko’s feelings of love for him are superior sustenance to mere physical intimacy. Not that he’s given up on getting into her pants, of course, though she’s able to deflect and distract him easily enough in subsequent chapters that it doesn’t feel like there’s a serious power imbalance in their relationship. This will probably never be my favorite series, but it doesn’t piss me off, which is more than I can say for Ai Ore!. – Michelle Smith

Oresama Teacher, Vol. 13 | By Izumi Tsubaki | VIZ Media – For all that they’re enemies, Saeki and Miyabi’s groups both have a basic goal, whether it’s intended or not. Saeki takes the delinquent loner types and brings them closer together, and Miyabi takes the eccentric weirdos and gives them a purpose. This means that it’s quite hard to root against the Student Council, something lampshaded in the series itself. (“Wait, are we the enemy?”) This volume we meet Kanon, who has a chip on her shoulder against men but who warms up to Natsuo fairly quickly. That none of this is the least bit surprising isn’t an issue – no one reads Oresama Teacher for the plot. But if it’s lots of laughs and occasional heartwarming scenes, this is for you. Not to mention the final cliffhanger, which features a fantastic dynamic entry by… well, that would spoil it.– Sean Gaffney

Paradise Kiss, Vol. 3 | By Ai Yazaka | Vertical, Inc. – Volume three wraps up Vertical’s edition of Paradise Kiss, and oh what a wrap-up it is! I’d forgotten just how wonderfully complex this story becomes before its close and how brilliant Yazawa’s artwork is throughout. Her panel designs and page layouts are extraordinarily expressive—she’s able to put more raw emotion in just a pair of eyes than many artists can manage over the course of an entire work. Though this story revolves around high school students, its realistic focus on adult concerns like recognizing personal limitations and making hard career choices (and its refusal to romanticize its primary romantic pairing) reminds us why Paradise Kiss is a josei manga. Vertical’s new edition makes the most of all of this by both declining to gloss over the characters’ less mainstream idiosyncrasies and showing off Yazawa’s artwork to its best advantage. It’s a must-buy for any fan. – MJ

Slam Dunk, Vol. 27 | By Takehiko Inoue | VIZ Media – The game against Sannoh enters the second half and our heroes start to fall apart. In particular the normally solid center and captain Akagi has trouble managing the opposition. Sannoh goes on an unanswered scoring streak, making the gap almost impossible to close. The only people who still seem to have faith are Coach Anzai and Sakuragi, who is either going to become an offensive rebound machine or do something incredibly stupid. Perhaps both! This is another stellar volume of Slam Dunk. I would be happy if this basketball game lasted forever, but instead I will wait impatiently for the next volume to see if Sakuragi gets to play out his basketball hero fantasies. – Anna N

Strobe Edge, Vol. 3 | By Io Sakisaka | VIZ Media – Given that I originally began this series thinking, “I’m so bored,” it’s important to note that it has become one that I now rush to consume the moment it arrives at my doorstep. Everyone’s relationships take on new complications in this volume as Ninako and Ren stumble over a few mutual misunderstandings, Ando finally confesses his growing feelings for Ninako, and Ren and Mayuka (unsuccessfully) try to pretend that nothing at all is going wrong. What’s especially refreshing about the way this series is handling its romantic complications is that everyone is genuinely likable (even playboy Ando is turning into a stand-up guy), everyone’s feelings are equally relatable, and there’s no sign of a typical, overblown shoujo villain in sight. While this certainly complicates things for readers, it’s immensely satisfying. I’m on the edge of my seat and ready for heartbreak, one way or another. Definitely recommended. – MJ

Umineko: When They Cry Episode 1: Legend of the Golden Witch, Vol. 2 | By Ryukishi07 and Kei Natsumi | Yen Press – The only thing longer than the title of this volume is the book itself, which is truly enormous. Unfortunately, the vast majority of it is tedious. Battler utters his “flip over the chessboard” catchphrase approximately 31 times as he goes back and forth on whether the ritualistic murders happening on an isolated family island are the work of a human or supernatural culprit. The moment when he realizes his theories are all useless is played as a tremendous shock, but it was obvious to readers from the start. Ultimately, despite the body count and the relentlessly creepy/irritating little girl serving as the witch’s mouthpiece, Umineko is boring. It’s impossible to care about these characters or feel anything when they’re killed off, and even though there is more to this story after this volume, I think I am well and truly done now. – Michelle Smith

Vampire Knight, Vol. 16 | By Matsuri Hino | VIZ Media – Maybe I’m remembering it a little easier, or it just wasn’t as convoluted, but I found it easier to get back into the swing of Vampire Knight this time around. Things seem to be drawing closer to a crisis point – Kaname and the Headmaster’s battle is fraught with tension, and Sara continues to make a very Carmilla-esque villain. But really, this series is at its best when it’s examining the relationships between Yuki, Zero and Kaname, and we get a lot of that here. They’re both pushing Yuki away as far as they can, and to her credit she’s not really having it from either of them (though with Zero she acquiesces a bit more). This leads up to the cliffhanger, showing the three of them together once more. It’s still high shoujo soap opera, and I’m not sure who’s going to survive to a happy ending, but I’ll be sticking around.– Sean Gaffney