Ash Brown

Gyo: The Death-Stench Creeps

July 8, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Junji Ito
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421579153
Released: April 2015
Original run: 2002

Gyo: The Death-Stench Creeps is a short, two-volume horror manga series created by Junji Ito. Originally published in Japan in 2002, Gyo has had several English-language releases by Viz Media. It was first translated between 2003 and 2004, a slightly updated second edition was released between 2007 and 2008, and most recently, published in 2015, was the deluxe hardcover omnibus. In addition to Gyo, the omnibus also collects two of Ito’s short horror manga: “The Sad Tale of the Principal Post” and “The Enigma of Amigara Fault.” The deluxe edition of Gyo is very similar in design to the recent omnibus of Ito’s manga Uzumaki; the two volumes look great on the shelf together. Uzumaki was actually my introduction to Ito’s work, and I consider it to be one of the best horror manga that I’ve read. Despite Gyo having been released in English three times, and despite the fact that I’ve been meaning to read more of Ito’s manga, the series’ deluxe omnibus is actually the first that I’ve read since Uzumaki.

While vacationing in Okinawa, Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori witness the harbinger of what will eventually become a plague overrunning the entirety of Japan—a small, rotting fish walking on land with what appear to be mechanical legs. Accompanying it is an overwhelming and nauseating stench. Soon, countless fish and other sea creatures begin streaming out of the ocean. The only things that they have in common are the bizarre appendages and the sickening smell. Kaori and Tadashi cut their vacation short and return to Tokyo, but Kaori in particular is traumatized by the events in Okinawa and soon the creatures begin to be found in the city as well. No one knows where the walking fish originated or how they evolved; of much greater concern is the death and disease caused by their presence on land. And things are only getting worse with the passage of time.

The back cover of the omnibus describes Gyo as Ito’s “creepiest masterpiece of horror manga ever.” Admittedly, some of the artwork in Gyo is fantastically creepy, not to mention gruesome and grotesque. Ito is an extremely skilled illustrator, creating images that are horrifying and nightmare-inducing. And as a whole, Gyo can be exceptionally gross. However, the manga’s story ends up being so utterly ridiculous that I would be hard pressed to call it a masterpiece, especially when compared to his earlier work Uzumaki. Whereas Uzumaki is surreal and bizarre, Gyo is so absurd as to be ludicrous, and only increasingly so as the manga progresses. I simply can’t take Gyo seriously; I can only read the series as a comedy, whether or not it is actually intended as such. The manga is perhaps closer to being a cult classic, which I suppose might make it a masterpiece of a different sort, but that’s something that could be argued either way. If nothing else, though, Gyo is a brilliantly outrageous spectacle.

Gyo is certainly not a manga that will appeal to every reader, even those who are already fans of horror manga. Though disconcerting and disgusting, especially the illustrations, the plot of Gyo is too silly to be truly terrifying. Taken alone, the art is superb, but the ridiculous nature of the story creates a weird disconnect. However, I can’t deny that I was entertained by the progressively over-the-top, illogical, and random developments in the manga: sentient gas, a circus out of the middle of nowhere, characters who are oddly oblivious or overly accepting of what is going on around them, and so on. (Though, it is rather sweet how Tadashi sticks beside Kaori through to the very end.) Assuming that one can find it palatable to begin with, Gyo is a very strange manga that is difficult to look away from as Ito presses further and further into territory that is beyond believing. I kept turning the pages to see just how far he would be able to take things. Gyo may very well be one of those manga that’s so good simply because it’s so bad; whether that’s deliberate or not, I’m not sure.

My Week in Manga: June 29-July 5, 2015

July 6, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Once again, I was actually away for most of the week last week. The taiko ensemble I that primarily play with had a series of performances, a mini taiko tour of sorts, so I was traveling. We had a great time; I only wish I that could make my living in music! (Who knows, maybe in the future I’ll be able to make it work. You know, once the mountain of student loans has been paid back.) Although I fell behind in my reading and writing, I did have a few things in queue to post at Experiments in Manga. First, the Assassination Classroom Giveaway Winner was announced. The post also includes a list of manga available in English that feature teachers. I’m a couple of volumes behind in my reviews for the series, but the honor of the first in-depth manga review for July goes to Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 7. Kenji finally has the chance to meet Shiro’s parents and it’s great. Finally, over the weekend, I posted June’s Bookshelf Overload. Most notably, I found an entire set of the tragically out-of-print Banana Fish that I didn’t have to trade a kidney to obtain!

Because I was away from the Internet for so many days, I didn’t really stumble across any articles that I found particularly interesting. However, Anime Expo was held last week, and there were a ton of licensing announcements. (Manga Bookshelf cohort Sean has a nice roundup.) Kodansha has Akiko Higashimura’s Princess Jellyfish (I’m thrilled!), Shizumu Watanabe and Okushō’s Real Account, and Hoshino Taguchi’s Magatsuki. Haikasoru has the first three novels of Yoshiki Tanaka’s Legend of the Galactic Heroes (hooray!), and Sentai licensed the anime series. Shojo Beat picked up Matsuri Hino’s Shuriken and Pleats and Bisco Hatori’s Behind the Scenes. Seven Seas licensed Angel Beats!: Heaven’s Door. Tokyopop returns to manga publishing in 2016, but no specific titles have yet been mentioned. Vertical will be releasing Keiichi Arawi’s Nichijō, and Kanata Konami’s FukuFuku: Kitten Tales among other things. Yen Press announced a slew of manga and light novel acquisitions, too, including the mahjong manga Saki! (Sadly, it’s currently only a digital release.) I’m sure I’ve missed something, so please let me know what exciting news or reading I should be aware of!

Quick Takes

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Volume 1 by Kore Yamazaki. Apparently, The Ancient Magus’ Bride started as a one-shot doujin before catching the eye of an editor. It’s a curious and atmospheric manga, mostly set in current-day England, albeit it’s a world in which magic and alchemy take their place alongside science. Although magic use seems to be fading away, fae are still very real and a few humans show rare talent for the craft. Chise is one of those humans. Sold into slavery, she is purchased and perhaps rescued by a Elias, a powerful mage who wants her to become his apprentice. He also mentions something about Chise becoming his bride, too, though she can’t quite tell if he’s being serious or not. Granted, it’s a little difficult to read a person with an animal skull for a head. Yokai exist in The Ancient Magus’ Bride as well (they can be seen in the background of some of Chise’s memories), but so far it appears as though the manga will be focusing on Europe’s fantastical and legendary creatures. I enjoyed the first volume of The Anceint Magus’ Bride a great deal and look forward to reading more of the series.

An Entity Observes All Things by Box Brown. I was already curious about An Entity Observes All Things, but after briefly meeting Brown at TCAF I knew that I wanted to read it. The volume includes nine of Brown’s short, alternative comics, three of which were previously published elsewhere while I believe the other six are new for the collection. Though for the most part the comics are unrelated to each other—they don’t really share characters, plots, or settings and even their color palettes are different—in general, the short works fall into the category of science fiction and deal with themes of exploration, specifically of the world and of the self. They all tend to be fairly quirky, too, and can often be rather humorous without necessarily being comedies. I enjoyed An Entity Observes All Things quite a bit. As with most collections, some of the individual comics worked for me more than others, but overall I found the selections to be engaging. Sometimes funny and sometimes sad, the comics are all somewhat strange, and that’s something that I particularly appreciate about An Entity Observes All Things.

Man of Many Faces, Volumes 1-2 by CLAMP. I largely enjoy manga by CLAMP, but if I’m going to be honest, I was primarily interested in Man of Many Faces due to its loose connection to the works of Edogawa Rampo. For the most part, the Rampo references are limited to the characters’ names and roles. There’s the titular “Twenty Faces,” a skilled thief in both Rampo and CLAMP’s creations, a young man by the name of Kobayashi who chases after him, and even Akechi-sensei, although he’s a school doctor rather than a detective in the manga. Man of Many Faces is one of CLAMP’s earliest professional works and it is very, very silly, the more absurd elements being lampshaded and intentionally left unexplained. However, the manga ends up being rather sweet and charming, too. Twenty Faces is a third grader who has taken on the role of the gentleman thief in the absence of his father. Akira steals things according to the whims of his two eccentric mothers in addition to doing all of the cooking and housework. Although the story at first focuses on the various heists, ultimately Man of Many Faces is about romantic love.

Bookshelf Overload: June 2015

July 5, 2015 by Ash Brown

After the ridiculousness that was May, I was able to rein in my purchases somewhat for June. Somewhat. There were a few releases that I was particularly looking forward to, like Fragments of Horror, a new collection of short horror manga by Junji Ito, Taiyo Fujii’s debut novel Gene Mapper, which I recently reviewed, and Ping Pong: The Animation. And I’m happy to see Netcomics continue to release new series, such as Hyekyung Baek’s Chiro: The Star Project and Seyoung Kim’s Sweet Blood. But what I was really excited about in June was the fact that I was able to find a complete set of Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish for less than some of the individual volumes are going for these days. I’ve been wanting to reread the series, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to track down. Another out-of-print find was Shiho Inada’s Ghost Hunt, a manga based on a light novel series Fuyumi Ono who, among other things, is the creator of The Twelve Kingdoms, which I love.

Manga!
Ajin: Demi-Human, Volume 5 by Gamon Sakurai
Banana Fish, Volumes 1-19 by Akimi Yoshida
Duck Prince, Volumes 1-3 by Ai Morinaga
Eden, Volume 1 by Bash
Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito
Ghost Hunt, Volumes 1-11 by Shiho Inada
Master Keaton, Volume 3 written by Hokusei Katsushika, Takashi Nagasaki, illustrated by Naoki Urasawa
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 10: Solomon by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
New Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 5 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Hideki Mori
Nyotai-ka!, Volume 4 by Ru-en Rouga
Passion, Volumes 2-3 written by Shinobu Goto, illustrated by Shoko Takaku
Servamp, Volume 2 by Strike Tanaka
Tokyo Ghoul, Volume 1 by Sui Ishida
Twittering Birds Never Fly, Volume 2 by Kou Yoneda
La Vie en Rose by Sakurako Yamada
Ze, Volume 10 by Yuki Shimizu
Zipang, Volumes 1-2 by Kaiji Kawaguchi

Manhwa!
Chiro: The Star Project, Volume 1 by Hyekyung Baek
Sweet Blood, Volume 1 by Seyoung Kim

Comics!
Bessatsu Rose Tear by Nozmo and Saicoink
Curvy, Volume 1 by M. Magdalene
Demon, Issues 1-14 by Jason Shiga
The Hues, Volume 1: Spectrum by Alex Heberling
In These Words, Chpater 13 by Guilt|Pleasure
Last Man, Volume 2: The Royal Cup by Bastien Vivès, Michael Sanlaville, and Balak
Shirtlifter #5 edited by Steve MacIsaac
The Usagi Yojimbo Saga, Omnibus 3 by Stan Sakai

Light Novels!
Attack on Titan: Kuklo Unbound by Ryo Suzukaze
The Doll by Guilt|Pleasure
Passion: Forbidden Lovers by Shinobu Gotoh

Novels!
Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii
The Sign of the Chrysanthemum by Katherine Paterson

Anthologies!
Drawn & Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels edited by Tom Devlin
A String of Flowers, Untied… : Love Poems from the Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
The Voice and Other Stories by Seicho Matsumoto

Nonfiction!
Tales from the Western Generation: Untold Stories and Firsthand History from Karate’s Golden Age by Matthew Apsokardu
A Year in Japan by Kate T. Williamson

Anime!
Ping Pong: The Animation directed by Masaaki Yuasa

Film!
The Mystery of Rampo directed by Rintaro Mayuzumi and Kazuyoshi Okuyama
Rampo Noir directed by Akio Jissoji, Atsushi Kaneko, Hisayasu Satō, Suguru Takeuchi

What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Vol. 7

July 3, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Fumi Yoshinaga
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781941220221
Released: March 2015
Original release: 2012

What Did You Eat Yesterday? incorporates so many things that I love—the work of Fumi Yoshinaga, food, queer life, and so on—that it’s really not too much of a surprise that I enjoy the manga series. Yoshinaga has had many of her manga released in English. I have always been particularly impressed by the subtle complexities of her characterizations. Her skill at writing people is especially important for a series like What Did You Eat Yesterday? in which a tremendous amount of focus is given to the characters themselves rather than to an intricate, overarching plot, at least when the manga’s not focusing on food. The characters in What Did You Eat Yesterday?, likeable or not, are all very realistically portrayed, which is one of the things that I appreciate most about the series. What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 7 was originally published in Japan in 2012. The English-language edition, released by Vertical, was published in 2015.

Shiro and Kenji have been living together for years, but it’s only recently that Shiro has managed to get up the courage to actually introduce his long-term boyfriend to his parents. It’s a momentous albeit awkward occasion, but Kenji at least is thrilled by the prospect. Shiro’s family has known he was gay for quite some time, however they are still coming to terms with exactly what that means. Happily, sharing a good meal can go a long way to help acceptance and understanding grow. Food has helped to improve and stabilize Kenji and Shiro’s relationship as well—Shiro enjoys cooking and Kenji is usually more than happy to accommodate his boyfriend, not to mention eat the fruits of his efforts—which is why when work interferes with their dinner dates at home it’s particularly vexing. The salon that Kenji works at is undergoing renovations and staffing changes while the law office where Shiro is employed is inundated with bankruptcy cases. Both men have been very busy of late, but they are still ready to support each other both inside the kitchen and outside of it.

Food, and the preparation and consumption of said food, is a major component of What Did You Eat Yesterday?. A majority of the seventh volume, if not the entire series, is spent either cooking in a kitchen or eating around a table. While other aspects of Yoshinaga’s artwork are rather simple, she puts a tremendous amount of detail into the various dishes that are featured in the manga—the food in What Did You Eat Yesterday? is beautifully illustrated. The recipes in the series tend to be fairly detailed as well. It is entirely possible for an experienced cook to successfully recreate many of the courses. I’ve even been tempted to try a few myself. (The tea sorbet from the seventh volume sounds especially appealing to me.) Occasionally, the focus on food in What Did You Eat Yesterday? can get in the way of the stories being told, but sometimes it’s expertly integrated.

As much as I enjoy all of the food and eating What Did You Eat Yesterday? (and I certainly do), what really makes the series work for me are its characters and the realistic portrayal of their lives. I have come to love and care for the characters in the series a great deal in spite of, or maybe because of, their very human flaws. They all come across as real people with both good traits and bad. I enjoy seeing their relationships evolve and change, and I enjoy seeing them continue to grow as people well into their adulthood. The individual chapters of What Did You Eat Yesterday? provide small snapshots of the characters’ everyday lives. Sometimes the events shown are fairly ordinary or mundane, such as grocery shopping followed by a quick stop at a cafe, while others are more momentous, like meeting the parents of an established partner for the first time. But even the seemingly small and quiet moments in What Did You Eat Yesterday? are important, carrying signficant meaning and impact, and showing just how skilled a writer Yoshinaga can be.

Manga the Week of 7/8

July 2, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 5 Comments

SEAN: It’s a new fiscal year, and that brings a new pile of books, mostly from Viz. What have we got?

DMP print release dates give me a migraine. Twittering Birds Never Fly 2? I guess?

ASH: I can never tell when something will actually be released by DMP anymore.

MICHELLE: Me, neither. I’ll perk up when Itazura Na Kiss 11 gets here.

SEAN: Kodansha gives us a 5th volume of Ken Akamatsu’s immortals fighting each other manga UQ Holder.

Seven Seas has a trio of books. The second volume of 12 Beast is minimally interesting to me, but may interest those who like fantasy and harems.

ASH: It should at least hopefully be a hit with the Monster Musume crowd.

SEAN: Oddball slice-of-fantasy-life manga A Centaur’s Life is up to Volume 6.

Pandora in the Crimson Shell combines one of my favorite authors with one of my favorite artists, but I have heard the result is… well. We shall see. I expect I will not love this as much as Excel Saga.

MJ: I dunno, the title just makes me feel like I should be reading something by Jun Mochizuki.

SEAN: The ninth volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday? will, I suspect, have far less fanservice than Pandora in the Crimson Shell, unless you count food as fanservice.

ASH: The food definitely counts as fanservice.

MICHELLE: Oh, I had forgotten this was coming out so soon! Yay!

ANNA: Woo hoo!

MJ: This, this, this this, THIS.

SEAN: The rest is Viz, starting with Vol. 64 of Bleach. Bleach has gone from one of the big 3 shonen series to a series where even fans are screaming “Just die already!”, but it seems to still sell well.

ANNA: That is certainly many, many volumes. I did enjoy the first 13 volumes of Bleach.

MJ: Every once in a while I think it might be fun to check out what’s happening in Bleach these days. And then I don’t.

SEAN: So well that we are getting another giant Bleach box set, with Vol. 22 through Vol. 48. Use it as a very short pole vault!

D.Gray-Man has its 7th 3-in-1 omnibus as well.

As if two series weren’t enough, there’s more Aya Shouoto starting next week, with The Demon Prince of Momochi House. Like Kiss of the Rose Princess, this ran in Kadokawa’s Asuka magazine.

ASH: The cover is pretty, and there are yokai!

MICHELLE: That looks like Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss!

ANNA: Is there a shoujo series featuring yokai? SIGN ME UP!

MJ: Okay, yes.

SEAN: And Kiss of the Rose Princess is exactly like Kiss of the Rose Princess, unsurprisingly. Here’s the 5th volume.

ANNA: I like it. I will not claim it is profound, but it is a good manga to read when I do not feel like thinking very hard.

SEAN: My Love Story!! has shot up in popularity thanks to its anime, and the 5th volume hopefully translates into even more manga sales.

ASH: It wasn’t popular before?! It should be. Still loving this series.

MICHELLE: Yay, again! I had no idea there was an anime.

ANNA: Such a great series! I hope the anime inspires more people to check out the manga.

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: Naruto also has a giant box out next week, with Vol. 28-48.

Nisekoi, one of my favorite modern harem comedies, hits double digits.

And with the 11th 3-in-1 of Skip Beat!, I think we’ve caught up with the single volumes.

MICHELLE: Just about. Volume 34 came out in April.

SEAN: We’ve just heard that Sunny will be ending in Japan soon, but in the meantime, enjoy its 5th volume. (Lotta 5th volumes next week.)

ASH: Viz has been doing a really lovely job with this series.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on Sunny.

ANNA: I’m glad VIz still breaks out the impressive packaging and design for series like this that totally deserve it.

MJ: This is such a beautiful series.

SEAN: Twin Star Exorcists is the newest Jump Square series, from the author of popular yet unlicensed Binbougami-ga!. I’ll let you guess what it’s about.

World Trigger is up to Volume 6, meaning it’s passed the 2-3 volume ‘culling’ stage of many Jump series.

Lastly, get in touch with your past life with the 3rd Yukarism.

MICHELLE: Yay, yet again. I wasn’t sold on this series after the first volume, but enjoyed the second a great deal.

ANNA: I like anything by Chika Shiomi and this series is no exception.

MJ: I’m with Anna here.

SEAN: Do you have manga for your summer vacation?

Pick of the Week: Light week

July 1, 2015 by Ash Brown, Sean Gaffney and MJ 2 Comments

ASH: Although there are certainly some interesting releases, this week is a relatively light one for manga. While I’ve been very happy with the new edition of Lone Wolf & Cub, the release I’m most curious about this week isn’t actually manga but The Science of Attack on Titan. I hope it talks about three-dimensional maneuvering gear because, let’s be honest, that’s one of the coolest things to come out of the franchise.

MJ: I actually don’t have a manga pick this week, which normally I’d feel pretty sad about. But instead, it looks like a great week to back the Kickstarter for Sparkler Monthly’s Year 3. I haven’t read everything in this magazine, but every time I *do*, I regret not reading more. This is a project I believe in wholeheartedly, and I really want to see it continue. So that’s where I’ll be putting my money this week!

SEAN: It’s a Seven Seas week for me. I should pick the new series debut, which I’m quite looking forward to. But no, I only get to pick Toradora! once every 16 months, so I want to make the most of it. And this volume has some really awesome sequences. Worth the wait.

What looks good to you this week?

Manga Giveaway: Assassination Classroom Giveaway Winner

July 1, 2015 by Ash Brown

And the winner of the Assassination Classroom manga giveaway is… wandering-dreamer!

As the winner, wandering-dreamer (whose review blog Narrative Investigations I happen to really enjoy) will be receiving Assassination Classroom, Volume 1 by Yusei Matsui as published by Viz Media. Since Assassination Classroom features a rather unusual teacher, I was curious to hear about some of the other great teachers that other people have encountered while reading manga. Be sure to check out the giveaway comments for everyone’s detailed responses!

Some of the manga available in English featuring teachers:
Anything and Something by Kaoru Mori
Aqua by Kozue Amano
Aria by Kozue Amano
Assassination Classroom by Yusei Matsui
Blue Exorcist by Kazue Kato
Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP
Dr. Slump by Akira Toriyama
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa
Future Lovers by Saika Kunieda
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka by Toru Fujisawa
GTO: 14 Days in Shonan by Toru Fujisawa
Hana-Kimi by Hisaya Nakajo
Hikaru no Go written by Yumi Hotta, illustrated by Takeshi Obata
Kobato by CLAMP
Moon and Sandals by Fumi Yoshinaga
Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto
Negima! by Ken Akamatsu
Oresama Teacher by Izumi Tsubaki
The Royal Tutor by Higasa Akai
S.S. Astro: Asashio Sogo Teachers’ Room by Negi Banno
Sunshine Sketch by Ume Aoki
Ultras by est em

There are some really great teachers included in the manga listed above, but I’m sure that there are plenty more. Thank you to everybody who participated in the giveaway and shared your personal favorites with me. I hope to see you again for the next giveaway!

My Week in Manga: June 22-June 28, 2015

June 29, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week, the most recent manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga was posted. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, so there are still a couple of days left to enter for a chance to win the first volume of Assassination Classroom. All you have to do is tell me about your favorite teacher from a manga. I also posted two reviews last week. The first review was of Yaya Sakuragi’s boys’ love manga Hide and Seek, Volume 2. The series continues to be one of her strongest; I’m really enjoying it. The second review was of Taiyo Fujii’s novel Gene Mapper, the most recent release from the Haikasoru. Gene Mapper is a great example of realistic near future science featuring thought-provoking information and bio-technologies.

Organization Anti-Social Geniuses has been posting some great manga-related content recently, including a conversation with manga translator Amanda Haley about Book Walker and the translation field. A new manga feature at OASG was announced for the summer as well: Shoujo You Should Know, the first column focusing on CLAMP’s short series Wish. And speaking of shoujo manga, Shojo Beat is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Among other thing, the imprint is posting brief interviews with some of its creators. First up was Maki Minami followed by Yun Kouga. Over at Things We Lost at Dusk, Alicia posted and interesting essay about gender, identity, and language, specifically in regards to Moto Hagio’s manga They Were Eleven.

Last but not least, I would like to draw everyone’s attention to Chromatic Press’ Kickstarter project to help support and fund Sparkler Monthly‘s third year. I am a huge fan of Sparkler Monthly and everything else that Chromatic Press is doing. (Experiments in Manga’s Chromatic Press tag is filled with my love, reviews, and features.) The content, creators, and everyone else involved are all fantastic. So, please check out Sparkler Monthly. Most of the comics, prose, and audio, is currently available for free online. And if you like what you see, please consider pledging to the Sparkler Monthly Kickstarter project if you can. Every little bit helps. The work being done at Chromatic Press is spectacular; I sincerely hope that Sparkler Monthly and the publisher’s other efforts are able to continue.

Quick Takes

Awkward Silence, Volume 4 by Hinako Takanaga. Some of the very first boys’ love manga that I ever read we’re by Takanaga. I soon began counting her among my favorite creators working in the genre and so was quite pleased when Sublime licensed Awkward Silence. The fourth volume in the series was actually released in English quite a while ago, but I only recently realized that I hadn’t actually read it yet, probably because Awkward Silence isn’t particularly memorable. It’s not a bad manga, and there are plenty of things that I like about it—Takanaga’s artwork is great, for one, as are some of the characters—but overall, Awkward Silence somehow manages to come across as generic. For the most part it’s enjoyable and sometimes even sweet, but the series just doesn’t stand out. Initially, I was under the impression that the fourth volume was the end, but apparently it’s an ongoing series. Being something of a Takanaga completist I’ll likely read any subsequent volumes, but otherwise I don’t know that I would feel compelled to seek the series out.

Just So Happens by Fumio Obata. Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2014, Just So Happens was recently released in North America. Yumiko is a designer who left Japan to study and work in London. From time to time she returns to Japan to visit her family, but she is largely satisfied with her life in England. But Yumiko’s most recent trip to Japan is different. Her father unexpectedly died in a mountain climbing accident and she wants and needs to be there for his funeral. In part drawing inspiration from the imagery and symbolism of Noh theater, Just So Happens is a beautiful and subtle work about family, grief, identity, and coming to terms with past decisions. Obata’s watercolor illustrations are absolutely lovely and very effective in conveying the work’s quiet, introspective atmosphere. The story itself is fairly simple and is emotionally resonant without being overly dramatic. Much like Yumiko, Obata is himself a Japanese artist who has made England his home, so while the graphic novel isn’t necessarily autobiographical, Just So Happens still feels very personal.

Servamp, Volumes 1-2 by Strike Tanaka. From my admittedly limited exposure, my impression of manga originating from Comic Gene is that they tend to have a lot of style without necessarily making a lot of sense. So far, that seems to be the case with Servamp as well. The first two volumes are entertaining, even enjoyable, but I’d be hard pressed to actually explain everything that is going on in the manga. Granted, Mahiru, the series protagonist, doesn’t really know what’s going on either, and the characters who do aren’t being particularly forthcoming. Mahiru likes to keep things simple, which basically means that he ends up doing up anything and everything himself rather than involving other people. And so he’s more or less taken on the responsibility of saving the world, or at least saving humans from the vampires who would kill them all. Mahiru does have some help though, namely an exceptionally lazy but supposedly extremely powerful vampire known as Sleepy Ash, as well as a few other allies. Though it has yet to be seen just how far those allies can really be trusted.

Übel Blatt, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 2-3) by Etorouji Shiono. Although there was a fair amount that bothered me about the initial omnibus of Übel Blatt, the series still showed some potential and I was curious to see where it might go. I am happy to be able to say that the most recent omnibus is an improvement. There’s still gratuitous nudity and sexual content, but it doesn’t seem nearly as out-of-place as it was at the beginning of the series. The fact that many of women are dressed in ridiculously revealing and impractical clothing is even lampshaded at one point when Peepi celebrates the fact that she gets to wear “normal clothes.” In general, the female characters actually are treated a little better and are slightly more developed as individuals in Übel Blatt, Omnibus 1, but sadly not to the extent that I really want to see. To be fair, though, most of the characters seem to lack depth. The action sequences and artwork remain fairly strong, and I do largely like the lead, but for the most part Übel Blatt just isn’t connecting with me. This does surprise me somewhat as I usually really enjoy dark fantasy and tales of revenge.

Gene Mapper

June 27, 2015 by Ash Brown

Author: Taiyo Fujii
Translator: Jim Hubbert
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421580272
Released: June 2015
Original release: 2013

Gene Mapper is Taiyo Fujii’s debut work as an author. Originally, he was employed in design and software development, a background that to some extent informs Gene Mapper. In 2012, he self-published the novel as an ebook and it became a bestseller, catching the attention of Hayakawa Publishing, a major Japanese publisher of science fiction. Fujii subsequently expanded and revised Gene Mapper for release by Hayakawa in 2013. It was this edition of Gene Mapper that became the basis for Jim Hubbert’s English translation of the novel released by Viz Media’s speculative fiction imprint Haikasoru in 2015. In addition to being a bestseller, Gene Mapper has also been critically well-received. Although ultimately the novel didn’t win, Gene Mapper was nominated for both a Seiun Award and a Nihon SF Taisho Award (which Fujii would later earn for his second novel Orbital Cloud). I was thus very happy to have the opportunity to read an early review copy of Gene Mapper.

Mamoru Hayashida is a gene mapper specializing in style sheets for color expression and design. Although he works as a freelancer, many of his recent projects have been for L&B, one of the leaders in distilled crops, a science in which plants have been designed from their DNA up to produce bountiful harvests with high nutritional value that are resistant to disease and pests. The problem of world hunger has been solved because of distilled crops, but there continue to be people who are skeptical of these synthetic creations, believing them to be unnatural, unethical, and unsafe. When SR06, an advanced strain of Super Rice that Hayashida helped to design, begins to inexplicably mutate, it seems as though those criticisms may be justified. In order to investigate and hopefully put a stop to the impending crisis before the media and the rest of the world finds out about it, Hayashida is first sent to Ho Chi Minh City to hire Yagodo, an expert Internet salvager, and then to the SR06 fields in Cambodia along with his agent Kurokawa. It’s only after they are there that they discover just how dire, and dangerous, the situation really is.

Gene Mapper falls into the category of realistic near future science fiction and it is an excellent example of that subgenre. A few elements initially drew me to the novel, specifically the developments and applications of new agricultural and biotechnologies, but the more I read the more I found to capture my interest, such as the implications of the collapse of the Internet (an event that occurred before the beginning of the story proper) and the prevalent use of augmented realities of varying types. Some of those new technologies and systems are unnecessarily over-explained towards the beginning of the novel, bogging down the story, but soon the details become better integrated into the narrative and Gene Mapper begins moving along quite quickly. Although human society in Gene Mapper is still believably imperfect, Fujii’s vision of the future and the role of technology in it is largely a positive and optimistic one. While the potential for technological developments to be used for great harm is a recognized concern in the novel, those same advancements are also shown have the potential to be used to greatly benefit humanity. The tension between those two possibilities is one of the driving forces behind the novel.

What makes Gene Mapper such a thought-provoking and engaging work is the importance placed by Fujii on technology and science and how people interact with them. The novel’s exploration of the tremendous potential presented by new technologies as well as it’s examination of related concerns and fears is extremely relevant to issues being discussed even today. I grew up in a farming community and so am well aware of the debates and controversies surrounding the use of genetically modified crops and other advanced agricultural technologies. Gene Mapper presents one plausible future based on logical extensions of current genetic, agricultural, and information technologies without ignoring the dangers that they present or how they impact society in both positive and negative ways. Just as in reality, scientific advances in Gene Mapper don’t exist in a vacuum. There are personal and societal interests as well as business and commercial interests at work in the direction that the future will take. Missteps have been and will be made, but innovations will continue as long as humanity is able to survive them. Gene Mapper argues that in time solutions will be found to old problems and new challenges will arise as a result.

Thank you to Viz Media for providing a copy of Gene Mapper for review.

Hide and Seek, Vol. 2

June 26, 2015 by Ash Brown

Creator: Yaya Sakuragi
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421558585
Released: March 2014
Original release: 2013

Hide and Seek is a three-volume boys’ love manga series by Yaya Sakuragi. The manga is a direct spinoff of another of Sakuragi’s boys’ love series, Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, which is itself tangentially related to her series Tea for Two. All three series can be read and enjoyed separately from one another, but there are some shared characters and references. Both Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love and Hide and Seek were licensed and released in English by Sublime Manga, the boys’ love imprint associated with Viz Media. (Tea for Two was published by Tokyopop’s Blu Manga imprint back in the day.) Hide and Seek, Volume 2 was originally released in Japan in 2013 while the English-language edition was released in 2014. I began following Sakuragi’s work in translation after encountering her boys’ love one-shot Hey, Sensei?. I’ve continued to enjoy and read her manga, but I find Hide and Seek to be particularly good.

It was supposed to be a simple fling, an uncomplicated relationship to enjoyably pass the time with no expectations that it would develop into something more serious. Except that Shuji, who generally isn’t interested in other men, is falling more and more for the young neighborhood doctor Saji. Though he’s slow to admit that he’s in love, Shuji can’t deny the jealously he experiences when he sees another man kiss Saji. Those feelings intensify when he discovers that the man, Yuki, used to date Saji and due to various unfortunate circumstances is currently staying at the doctors’ home. Saji picks up on some of that jealousy, but he has already resigned himself to a fleeting relationship with Shuji. He would certainly be interested in a more devoted partnership, but he’s been burned so many times in the past that he’s trying no to get his hopes up. And with neither man being completely honest with the other about his feelings, any sort of relationship will be difficult to maintain.

While Hide and Seek definitely has its humorous moments, overall it tends to be a much more serious, and to some extent much more realistic, manga than its immediate predecessor Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love ever was. Likewise, Shuji, the main connecting character between the two series, is significantly more developed and complex in Hide and Seek. Although at heart he hasn’t really changed much from who he was in Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, in part due to the tone of Hide and Seek his character has now become convincingly believable instead of being intentionally comedic and shallow. Shuji amused me greatly in Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, but I really like Hide and Seek‘s more nuanced version of him. He is much more considerate and much less self-centered than his outward demeanor would initially lead one to assume (as well a more responsible and mature), and he’s honestly concerned for the well-being of those he cares most about, including Saji.

Overall, the characterization in Hide and Seek is excellent, particularly that of Shuji, but Saji is also a realistically complicated individual. I’ve enjoyed watching their relationship evolve and develop over the course of Hide and Seek and look forward to seeing how things turn out for them in the final volume. Shuji and Saji’s relationship isn’t in danger because they’re incompatible. In fact, the two men are surprisingly well-suited for each other. It’s actually because they care so much for each other and are trying not to force their feelings on, take advantage of, or hurt the other person that their relationship has the potential to dissolve. Although they do misinterpret the meaning and motivations behind some of each others’ words and actions, and make some inaccurate assumptions as a result, Shuji and Saji do communicate with each other, something that is absolutely critical for any relationship to succeed. Granted, they still need to learn to open up to each other a little more if they’re going to make things work in the long-term.

Manga the Week of 7/1

June 26, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, Anna N and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: Since next week is a light week (despite being July 1st, it doesn’t count as a first week of July), I thought I’d do the manga in reverse order. And hey, coincidentally, that makes the image line up properly, too! Funny, that.

So we start with Vertical, who have the 5th volume of fanservice and ladies being awesome fantasy Witchcraft Works.

ASH: I’m a bit behind in this series, but I did enjoy the first few volumes.

SEAN: Seven Seas finally have a 7th volume of Toradora! for us (blame Japan, the series comes out very slowly over there), which resolves the horrible cliffhanger from… February 2014. Ah, the joys of monthly series that are caught up. I’ve reviewed it here.

The Seven Seas debut this week is Non Non Biyori, a sweet city-girl meets countryside story that I’ve heard described as Higurashi without all the murder and conspiracy, and seemingly light on fanservice. I’m looking forward to this a great deal.

MICHELLE: Hmm.

ASH: I know quite a few people looking forward to this manga.

ANNA: I don’t know. I will wait and see what the early reviewers say about this one.

MJ: Also “Hmm.”

SEAN: And there can’t be a month going by without an Alice in the Country of Hearts, this one a short story collection called Junk Box.

ANNA: I really liked the first Alice series and have just resigned myself to the fact that the spin-offs are not going to be as good as the main series.

SEAN: Attack on Titan is such a big seller for Kodansha that even the non-fiction books are getting licensed (almost unheard of after a few character guides bombed over here). This one is The Science of Attack on Titan. The author apparently specializes in looking at fantasy worlds and figuring out how they would work. Also, vampi—I mean, Titans!

ASH: Attack on Titan is the only series that has been able to convince Kodansha to break its “manga only” rule.

SEAN: And we have the third and final volume of Maria the Virgin Witch. There’s a one-shot collection of side stories in Japan, but I’m not sure Kodansha has picked that up.

ASH: Kodansha has! Exhibition is currently scheduled to be released in August.

SEAN: Finally, there’s the 9th Lone Wolf & Cub omnibus from Dark Horse, who curse the fact that I’m not starting with them as always.

Did reversing this make something stand out more for you?

MICHELLE: Alas, no. Just one thing to anticipate your review of!

ASH: Reversing the order made me realize that there was an actual order…

ANNA: I’m happy that this week is so light, because maybe I can catch up on my stacks and stacks of unread manga.

MJ: I can do nothing but be miffed on Lone Wolf and Cub’s behalf.

Manga Giveaway: Assassination Classroom Giveaway

June 24, 2015 by Ash Brown

The end of June draws near, which means the end of the first half of the year is quickly approaching, too. It also means that it’s time for another giveaway at Experiments in Manga! Most schools are now out for the summer (at least in the United States), but we mustn’t forget all of those hardworking teachers. And so, this month’s giveaway is for Yusei Matsui’s Assassination Classroom, Volume 1 as published in English by Viz Media. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!

Considering the sheer number of manga translated into English that are based in a school setting, relatively few seem to grant more than a passing acknowledgement of the teachers. Sometimes they aren’t even included in the story at all or barely make an appearance beyond the background. But occasionally teachers are actually given a prominent role. Assassination Classroom is a series that stands out for that very reason (among many other reasons). Great Teacher Onizuka, the first series that I read in which a teacher was a lead character, is another manga that immediately leaps to mind. There’s S.S. Astro: Asashio Sogo Teachers’ Room, too, but I can’t think of very many other examples off the top of my head that are available in English.

(Okay, I will admit right now that there are plenty of hentai and boys’ love manga that feature teachers, but those particular stories really weren’t the ones that I had in mind…)

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Assassination Classroom, Volume 1

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite teacher from a manga. (Never noticed a teacher in your reading? Simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

There you have it! Each person can earn up to two entries for this giveaway. You have one week to submit comments. If you have trouble with the comment form, or if you prefer, entries can also be sent to me via email at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. The comments will then be posted here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on July 1, 2015. Best of luck to you all!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: Assassination Classroom Giveaway Winner

Pick of the Week: Vampires, Corpses, Gundam oh my!

June 23, 2015 by Anna N, Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

SEAN: There’s so much coming out this week that I’m sure I won’t be able to easily choose what I’ll be… yeah, OK, it’s Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. I hate being predictable, but come on, of COURSE it is.

MICHELLE: Aya Shouoto’s He’s My Only Vampire was a pleasant surprise for me, as it’s quite a lot better than her other title currently being released (Kiss of the Rose Princess). I look forward to seeing what volume three brings.

ASH: Hmmm, there really are quite a few manga that I’m interested in that are being released this week, but I’m with Sean in picking Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. It’s a great series, and who knows when we’ll actually be able to pick it again?

ANNA: I feel like any appearance of Gundam: The Origin deserves a celebration, so that is my pick!

Which manga featuring Char Aznable is your favorite for the week?

My Week in Manga: June 15-June 21, 2015

June 22, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

I was on vacation last week, much of which was spent in the middle of the woods in the middle of Ohio camping with my family. This meant I had very little Internet access. But even so, I did manage to post two reviews last week. My monthly horror manga review project continued with a review of After School Nightmare, Volume 4 by Setona Mizushiro. This was the first volume in the series that I hadn’t previously read before embarking on the review project. The second review was of Satoshi Wagahara’s prize-winning light novel The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Volume 1 which is very amusing and silly. But, having watched the anime series last year, I already knew that.

As previously mentioned, I was occupied with other things last week, so I probably missed out on all sorts of interesting reading, news, and announcements. However, there were a few things that came across my radar before I left for Ohio. Kathryn Hemmann at Contemporary Japanese Literature wrote about The Cultural Cross Pollination of Shōjo Manga. And speaking of shōjo manga, Digital Manga’s most recent Tezuka Kickstarter is aiming to publish Storm Fairy. (The project also aims to reprint Unico with better image and color quality, which makes me wonder why Digital Manga didn’t do that for the first printing, but I’ve given up trying to understand Digital Manga’s decision making.) Finally, Udon Entertainment announced a new manga license: Shuji Sogabe’s adaptation of Persona 4.

Quick Takes

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 3 (equivalent to Volumes 5-6) by Saki Nakagawa. Out of all the various Attack on Titan spinoffs, Junior High is the one that probably has the smallest audience overall and is the one that is the most uneven for me specifically. Sometimes the manga can be a slog to get through, but sometimes it’s absolutely hilarious. At its best, Junior High can actually make me laugh out loud; I keep reading the series for those moments because when Junior High is funny, it is very funny. The manga continues to be a very weird mix of Attack on Titan and a generic school setting with all of the standard tropes that that entails. Sometimes the combination works better than others. This particular omnibus features the school culture festival, a battle of the bands, eating contests and cooking competitions, club activities, lots of cleaning, and school rivalries among other things. I was very pleased to see that characters and storylines from other Attack on Titan spinoffs like No Regrets are now being incorporated into Junior High as well.

Lies Are a Gentleman’s Manners by Marta Matsuo. Since for whatever reason Digital Manga often seems to be hesitant to include “Volume 1” in the title of a new manga, I didn’t initially realize that Lies Are a Gentleman’s Manners is actually an ongoing series in Japan. The first volume stands well enough on its own, but I do hope that any subsequent volumes will be licensed as well. Despite the fact that neither of the leads in this boys’ love manga are particularly likeable—Jonathan, an unscrupulous medical student selling drugs to his fellow classmates, and Paul, his equally unscrupulous (and married) college professor who uses that fact to blackmail him into a relationship—I actually do want to read more. Though some of the situations are unquestionably unsavory, the manga can also be very funny and even sexy on occasion. One of the most interesting things about Lies Are a Gentleman’s Manners is its setting. The manga takes place on America’s modern East Coast among the country’s wealthy, aristocratic upper class. While certainly a fictional representation, some of the social dynamics ring true.

Towerkind by Kat Verhoeven. Originally self-published as a series of mini-comics, Towerkind was recently collected and released by Conundrum Press in a single volume. I was not previously familiar with Verhoeven’s work; Towerkind was a TCAF-inspired impulse buy. I’m very glad that I picked it up though because I’m loving this comic to pieces. Towerkind certainly won’t be to everyone’s liking, but there’s just something about the comic that I find oddly compelling. It’s surreal, strange, chilling, and ominous. Verhoeven effectively uses a small format to create a claustrophobic atmosphere that emphasizes the feeling of impending doom experienced by the characters. The volume opens with a foreword by Georgia Webber explaining the importance of the backdrop of Towerkind—Toronto’s first vertical neighborhood of high-rise apartments St. James Town—which helps to set the stage and tone for the comic itself. Towerkind follows a group of children gifted with unexplainable supernatural abilities who live in the towers of St. James Town while what may be the end of the world approaches.

Welcome to the N.H.K., Volumes 5-8 by Kendi Oiwa. Having already read the original Welcome to the N.H.K. novel by Tatsuhiko Takimoto and having already seen the Welcome to the N.H.K. anime series (which, it turns out, was based on both the novel and Oiwa’s manga adaptation), I am already quite familiar with the story and characters Welcome to the N.H.K., but I somehow managed to forget just how dark and hard-hitting it can be. Ostensibly Welcome to the N.H.K. is a comedy, and it can be quite funny in a painful sort of way, but it deals with some pretty heavy subject matter including (but not limited to) drug use, self-harm, suicide, and mental illness. The second half of the series, while at times outrageous, tends to fall on the more serious side of things. Although I’ve always considered Welcome to the N.H.K. to be Satou’s story, the manga also places particular emphasis on Misaki’s story. It’s been a while since I’ve read or watched them, but I believe the manga actually has a unique ending that’s different from both the novel and the anime. All three version of Welcome to the N.H.K. are very good.

The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Vol. 1

June 19, 2015 by Ash Brown

Author: Satoshi Wagahara
Illustrator: 029
Translator: Kevin Gifford
U.S. publisher: Yen Press
ISBN: 9780316383127
Released: April 2015
Original release: 2011
Awards: Dengeki Novel Prize

The Devil Is a Part-Timer! began in 2011 as a light novel series written by Satoshi Wagahara with illustrations by 029, but it has since expanded to include an anime adaptation and multiple manga series as well. I was actually introduced to The Devil Is a Part-Timer! through the 2013 anime series directed by Naoto Hosoda. I rather enjoyed it and so when Yen Press licensed not only the manga but the orignal light novel series of The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, it caught my attention. I was particularly interested in reading the anime’s source material, currently an ongoing series of novels at fourteen volumes in Japan. The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Volume 1, which earned Wagahara a Silver Dengeki Novel Prize, was released in English in 2015 under Yen Press’ new light novel imprint Yen On with a translation by Kevin Gifford. The volume also includes color pages and an end-of-book bonus—character files in the form of a collection of resumes.

Satan, the Devil King, had one simple goal: to conquer Ente Isla and subjugate the humans there who manage to survive the invasion of his forces. All was going well until the Hero made her appearance on the battlefield. Emilia throws the Devil King’s plans into disarray and Satan is forced to make a hasty retreat along with Alciel, his strategist and one of the Four Great Demon Generals. Unintentionally, they end up in the parallel world of modern-day Japan with no immediate way back to Ente Isla. Emilia isn’t far behind them, which only causes another set of problems to deal with. Until they can return to their own world, Satan, now known as Maou, and Alciel, now known as Ashiya, must survive in this one as humans with very little access to their demonic powers. But then Maou secures a job as a part-timer at a fast food joint. He’s convinced that this will be the first step in conquering Japan, the world, and (assuming they can figure out how to get home) Ente Isla.

The first volume of The Devil Is a Part-Timer! and at least some if not all of the second were adapted as part of the anime series, so there were no real surprises for me plot-wise reading it. The novel does include a few more worldbuilding and character details, but for the most part the anime was a very straightforward, routine interpretation of Wagahara’s orignal story. The writing in The Devil Is a Part-Timer! isn’t particularly flashy, stylish, or clever—it’s more functional than anything else—but all of the characters have their own ways of speaking and expressing themselves. It’s immediately apparent who’s responsible for any given line of dialogue because they each have a unique, individual voice. As for the plot, it’s intentionally ridiculous and absurd, which to some extent is what makes The Devil Is a Part-Timer! entertaining. Admittedly, it sometimes doesn’t make a whole lot of logical sense, and there seem to be a few potential plot holes left for Wagahara to address as well, but the novel can still be legitimately fun. High literature it certainly isn’t, though, something that both Wagahara and the characters are well-aware of; the story developments in The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Volume 1 are repeatedly compared to those of a B movie.

Very little of The Devil Is a Part Timer!, Volume 1 has much to do with magic or mayhem. Eventually Wagahara builds up to it for the volume’s finale, but for the most part the novel is surprisingly mundane. In the end, the crises that Maou is most concerned about is the possibility of being late for work. It seems likely that Maou and Ashiya’s personalities have significantly changed along with the changes in their physical forms. But then the humor in The Devil Is a Part-Timer! is largely derived from the characters being not at all who one would assume them to be and behaving in ways that are stunningly ordinary, especially considering their epic origins. Occasionally they do recall their quests—the demons’ goal to take over Ente Isla and Emilia’s desire to destroy Satan and his cohorts—but overall Maou appears to be content in his new-found work, Ashiya has come to accept his role of househusband, and even Emi has made a nice life for herself in Japan. Ultimately that’s what makes The Devil Is a Part-Timer so amusing, the complete mismatch between the characters as they are and the expectations of who they should be.