Manga Bookshelf

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Ash Brown

Manga the Week of 2/18

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SEAN: A fairly subdued third week, with a lot of recurring series and one decidedly odd debut.

On the Kodansha side, Cage of Eden has another fanservice-tastic cover for its 17th volume, but hopefully will work in some more giant extinct animals and brushes with death as well.

And we get the final volume of over-the-top manga comedy Manga Dogs with Vol. 3.

Seven Seas has a fourth volume of Black Butl—sorry, of Devils & Realist. (Their plots aren’t all that alike, but they seem to share the same aesthetic.)

And we get a 2nd volume of superhero manga Lucifer & The Biscuit Hammer, with vols. 3 & 4. The end of the first omnibus got dark pretty fast – will we get new heroes?

ASH: I had no idea what to expect from the first omnibus, and I’m not sure where the second one will be going, but I’m rather enjoying the series’ quirkiness.

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SEAN: Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary is a new Seven Seas series that looks to combine monsters from mythology and slapstick comedy. And given it runs in Comic Ryu, I expect a lot of fanservice as well.

Vertical has a 5th volume of shonen card-battle manga Cardfight!! Vanguard (the exclamation point placement is very important).

And a 3rd Witchcraft Works, with more witches and badass heroines.

ASH: Another delightfully quirky series that I’m enjoying. The artwork is quite nice, too.

SEAN: Lastly, Viz has a 5th volume of dystopian action series Gangsta.

ASH: I’m actually behind in reading Gangsta, but I’ll definitely be picking up the new volume.

ANNA: I think I missed the fourth volume! I do really enjoy this series and am looking forward to catching up.

SEAN: Are you watching out for something this week?

MICHELLE: I am sad to say that literally nothing on this list particularly appeals to me. But! All hope is not lost, for there is more Boys Over Flowers on the horizon and that makes me cautiously happy!

MJ: I am sad to say the same. And I’m probably more skeptical about the Boys Over Flowers than Michelle is, so even that fills me with “meh.”

SEAN: Boys Over Flowers… so much influence, so many volumes, so much “WHY?!?!”

MICHELLE: I admit it has many flaws, but I love it anyway. I’m afraid season two will really suck, but that won’t keep me from checking it out anyway.

ANNA: I am super excited for this!

Gauntlet

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GauntletAuthor: Ellery Prime
Illustrator: T2A
Publisher: Chromatic Press
ISBN: 9780993861123
Released: December 2014

Although Ellery Prime has been writing for years, Gauntlet, illustrated by the talented T2A, is her first original novel to have been published. Gauntlet is also the first novel to have both started and finished in Chromatic Press’ multi-media online magazine Sparkler Monthly before being released in print. Gauntlet began serialization in the very first issue of Sparkler Monthly in 2013 and was completed in 2014, after which it was revised and complied into a single volume. The finalized version of Gauntlet also includes additional material not found elsewhere: “Square One,” a short prequel to the main story, as well as a few amusing yonkoma-style bonus comics. Gauntlet has been very accurately described as a “survival horror romance novel” by the publisher. I’m actually kind of glad that I waited to read Gauntlet until it had been finished; the number of twists and cliffhangers would have made the wait between chapters torturous.

Twenty-two-year-old Clio has recently moved to the big city. Embarking on her new life as a responsible, independent adult, Clio is largely enjoying living on her own. After three months she has grown more and more comfortable as a resident of the city and with finding her way around its streets and alleyways, but that all changes when she makes a wrong turn and puts her trust into the wrong people. Suddenly Clio finds herself a reluctant participant in a game of survival, trapped inside the Gauntlet–an incredible and expansive system of interconnected buildings at the heart of the city. Clio doesn’t even know the rules she should be following, nor does she know who is responsible for the game or why she was chosen as a participant. Each person she encounters in the Gauntlet has their own reasons for being there, and many are playing by their own rules. Clio may be in even more danger than she realizes. The other players she meets are just as likely to manipulate or betray her as they are to help her.

Gauntlet -T2AOne of the things that makes Gauntlet particularly engaging and enthralling is its setting–the Gauntlet itself. The complex is logic-defying, a constantly changing labyrinth that presents very real survival concerns: finding food, clean water, and safe places to hide and rest, not to mention avoiding capture and falling into the hands or under the influence of people who, intentionally or not, mean harm. But the Gauntlet is also insidiously seductive. At first Clio desperately wants to find a way out and to escape, but there’s an underlying fear that she will lose her will to do so. Some people, perhaps most, never leave the Gauntlet after entering it even if they survive. Clio discovers many who are mindlessly shuffling through its halls and corridors as well as participants who have simply give up, content to be controlled by others. But most dangerous and terrifying are those people who have made deliberate, conscious decisions to remain within the Gauntlet’s depths.

The characters in Gauntlet are just as intriguing and complex as the novel’s setting. In the beginning Clio isn’t nearly as independent as she believes herself to be. Very early on she attaches herself to Britt, another young woman in the Gauntlet, which will have significant ramifications later on. Again and again Clio comes to rely on others and again and again she is taken advantage of by those very same people, all of whom have their own motivations and desires. But she grows and becomes stronger, impressively so. In some ways, Gauntlet feels like a dark homage to Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland–the Gauntlet and the people within it operate by their own logic with surprising, unexpected, and sometimes curious and peculiar results–and there are frequent nods to other stories and fairy tales as well. After finishing the novel, not only did I want more of Gauntlet, I also wanted to immediately read it again to see how all of its individual pieces fit together from the beginning. That, to me, is a sign of a great piece of fiction.

Pick of the Week: Magi & more

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potwMICHELLE: While I really do enjoy Say I Love You. and look forward to its sixth volume, I’ve been in a more shounen-y mood lately, and so must pick (again, and probably not for the last time) volume ten of Magi, which is, like, an adventure saga with heart.

SEAN: As for me, I only get to do it twice a year, so I will pick the 25th Hayate the Combat Butler, which still makes me laugh an awful lot, thus fulfilling its function as a comedy, and also makes me like a girl that the hero is never going to end up with, thus fulfilling its function as a harem comedy.

ANNA: I will have to go with Say I Love You. I do enjoy this series, but I’m a few volumes behind. Time to stock up!

ASH: There are several manga being released this week that I’m interested in, all the way from A to Z. (Seriously, from Ajin to Ze.) But I’m actually going to go off list for my pick and choose Netcomics. Over the last few weeks, Netcomics has been releasing much its back catalog digitally for the Kindle–including Let Dai and Black-Winged Love, some of my personal favorites–making it even easier to get into Netcomics’ comics.

MJ: I will copy Ash this week, because really, Let Dai on Kindle? Be still my heart! Netcomics has started releasing some print volumes again recently, too. More about that here soon!

What looks good to you this week?

My Week in Manga: February 2-February 8, 2015

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My News and Reviews

A small variety of posts went up at Experiments in Manga last week. First up, the Cinderalla manga giveaway winner was announced. The contest was a tie-in to the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival, so the post also includes a list of the featured creators’ manga available in English. The first in-depth manga review for February was Saki Nakagawa’s Attack on Titan: Junior High, a parody spinoff of the immensely popular Attack on Titan franchise. The series’ funniness can be somewhat uneven, but it can be absolutely hilarious at times. And posted over the weekend was January’s Bookshelf Overload, revealing the absurd amount of manga that came into my household last month.

Elsewhere online, Viz Media’s Shojo Beat announced two new licenses: QQ Sweeper by Kyousuke Motomi (the creator of Dengeki Daisy, which I rather enjoy) and Idol Dreams by Arina Tanemura. Organization Anti-Social Geniuses posted The Very Unofficial Guide to Discovering Manga in 2015, which is a nice overview of demographics, publishers, where to read and buy manga, and so on. Den of Geek has an interview with comics historian Graham Kolbeins, one of the editors behind Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It and The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of Gay Erotic Manga. Finally, Otaku USA interviews Patrick Macias about Hypersonic Music Club, his collaboration with artist Hiroyuki Takahashi and the first of Crunchyroll Manga’s original series.

Quick Takes

Sky LinkSky Link by Shiro Yamada. Like many boys’ love mangaka, before making her professional debut Yamada started by creating doujinshi (she seems to have been particularly fond of pairing Gintoki and Hijikata from Gin Tama together). Sky Link is Yamada’s first original manga and is currently the only work of hers available in English. The volume collects two unrelated boys’ love stories, the titular “Sky Link” and “You through a Kaleidoscope.” Unfortunately, neither of the short manga are particularly satisfying; while her artwork can at times be quite lovely (occasionally her characters’ eyes are unintentionally creepy), Yamada definitely has room to grow as a storyteller. “Sky Link” had too many disparate elements to it. It could have worked quite well as a longer series, but as a short story Yamada didn’t have enough time to effectively develop the plot or characters and everything is left frustratingly vague. Ritsuki is a first year college student with some sort of troubled past who has caught the attention and affections of one of his new professors who, it is later revealed, has a troubled past of his own. “You through a Kaleidoscope,” a fairly standard high school boys’ love romance, isn’t as ambitious but is more successful as a result.

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibus 1Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibuses 1-2 (equivalent to Volumes 1-6) by CLAMP. I originally read the first few volumes of Tsubasa back when it was being released by Del Rey. Because I was borrowing it from the library and people had a tendency to steal volumes Tsubasa and its sort-of crossover series xxxHolic, I never got very far with the series. I’m glad that Kodansha is bringing Tsubasa back into print, because it really is an immensely enjoyable adventure tale. And because the setting is constantly moving from one dimension to the next, CLAMP is able to have a lot of fun with the clothing designs and worldbuilding from one short story arc to the next. The drive of the series is the search for Princess Sakura’s memory, pieces of which have been scattered throughout space and time, but the remembrances of her and the other characters form an important part of the story as well. I do think I’m enjoying Tsubasa a little more my second time trying to read it. I’ve now been exposed to more of CLAMP’s work, so I can better appreciate the references being made and the alternate-dimension versions of characters from the group’s other manga. (Seeing couples originally from X actually have a chance at happiness is both touching and heart-wrenching.)

UQHolder3UQ Holder!, Volume 3 by Ken Akamatsu. I enjoyed the third volume of UQ Holder more than I did the first two, but the series has yet to win me over. It seems as though the manga is starting to focus a bit more, which it desperately needed to do, but that may simply be because Akamatsu spends very little time on trying to develop a coherent plot and primarily sticks with the action sequences. The third volume is almost entirely devoted to a sequence of fight scenes. Right now the battles in UQ Holder are probably my favorite thing about the series. They are entertaining, exciting, and extremely energetic. And because immortals are involved, they can be pretty epic, too. The damage inflicted on both persons and property is impressive. Many of the characters, even the non-immortals, have superhuman powers of some sort. Incredible strength, quick regeneration, shape-shifting, and magic—either alone or in combination—are only a few examples of the over-the-top abilities found in UQ Holder. But as entertaining as the battles can be, from time to time the action is unclear. Something will happen and it will be extremely difficult to understand exactly what or how. I’m not even going to try to attempt to explain why Yukihime suddenly loses her skirt for seemingly no reason.

Bookshelf Overload: January 2015

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Well, 2015 is off to a rather impressive start when it comes to the somewhat ridiculous amount of manga making its way into my household. Thanks to some gift cards, major sales at my local comic book shop (where I picked up a ton of out-of-print manga), and one of the biggest boxes of review copies that I’ve ever received, my wallet isn’t hurting nearly as much as it might initially appear. (Thankfully.) There were still quite a few preorders in January, though. I was particularly pleased to see the third volume of Black Rose Alice by Setona Mizushiro (which I believe was technically released in February and I just happened to end up with an early copy), as well as What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 6 by Fumi Yoshinaga and the debut of My Neighbor Seki by Takuma Morishige. Ken Niimura’s Henshin is another interesting, and rather delightful, release from January. (Review to come soon!) As for out-of-print finds, I was very lucky to come across a complete set of Museum of Terror, an anthology series from Dark Horse of some of Junji Ito’s horror manga. I was also able to fill in a couple of missing copies from my Tramps Like Us collection, which made me happy.

Manga!
Air Gear, Volume 32 by Oh!Great
Alice in the Country of Hearts, Omnibus 3 by Soumei Hoshino
Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit, Volumes 1-2 written by Owl Shinotsuki, illustrated by Delico Psyche
Apple and Honey: His Rose Colored Life by Hideyoshico
Attack on Titan, Volume 14 by Hajime Isayama
Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, Volume 3 written by Ryo Suzukaze, illustrated by Satoshi Shiki
Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 2 by Saki Nakagawa
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Omnibus 5 by Yukito Kishiro
Black Rose Alice, Volume 3 by Setona Mizushiro
Cage of Eden, Volume 16 by Yoshinobu Yamada
Does The Flower Blossom?, Volume 1 by Shoko Hidaka
Earthian, Volume 4 by Yun Kouga
Fairy Tail, Volumes 44-46 by Hiro Mashima
Finder, Volume 7: Desire in the Viewfinder by Ayano Yamane
Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 4 written by Yuto Tsukuda, illustrated by Shun Saeki
Hands Off!, Volumes 1-8 by Kasane Katsumoto
Hands Off!: Don’t Call Us Angels, Volumes 1-2 by Kasane Katsumoto
Henshin by Ken Niimura
The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 2 by Hiromu Arakawa
IC in a Sunflower by Mitsukazu Mihara
Lone Wolf and Cub, Omnibus 7 written by Kazuo Koike, illustrated by Goseki Kojima
Manga Dogs, Volume 2 by Ema Toyama
Missions of Love, Volume 10 by Ema Toyama
Museum of Terror, Volumes 1-3 by Junji Ito
My Little Monster, Volumes 5-6 by Robico
My Neighbor Seki, Volume 1 by Takuma Morishige
Noragami: Stray God, Volumes 2-3 by Adachitoka
Oishinbo, A la Carte: The Joy of Rice written by Tetsu Kariya, illustrated by Akira Hanasaki
Sankarea: Undying Love, Volume 10 by Mitsuru Hattori
Say I Love You, Volume 5 by Kanae Hazuki
R.I.P. : Requiem in Phonybrian by Mitsukazu Mihara
The Seven Deadly Sins, Volumes 5-6 by Nakaba Suzuki
Terra Formars, Volume 4 written by Yu Sasuga, illustrated by Ken-ichi Tachibana
Tramps Like Us, Volumes 11-12 by Yayoi Ogawa
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Omnibus 2 by CLAMP
UQ Holder, Volume 3 Ken Akamatsu
What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 6 by Fumi Yoshinaga
Whispered Words, Omnibus 3 by Takashi Ikeda
Will You Be My Cute Crossdresser? by Mitohi Matsumoto
Witchcraft by Yamatogawa
xxxHolic, Omnibus 4 by CLAMP
xxxHolic: Rei, Volume 2 by CLAMP

Manhwa!
Give to the Heart, Volume 2 by Wann
The Tarot Café, Volume 4 by Sang-sun Park

Comics!
Never Forgets by Yumi Sakugawa
Prince of Cats, Issue 6 by Kori Michele Handwerker
Starfighter, Chapter 3 by HamletMachine

Nonfiction!
Boys Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan edited by Mark McLelland, Kazumi Nagaike, Katsuhiko Suganuma, James Welker
Infamy: The shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II by Richard Reeves

Anime!
Ai no Kusabi: The Space Between directed by Katsuhito Akiyama

Film!
Ping Pong directed by Fumihiko Sori

Music!
Aku no Sanka (Flowers of Evil soundtrack) by Hideyuki Fukasawa

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Vol. 2

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Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 2Creator: Saki Nakagawa
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781612629186
Released: November 2014
Original release: 2013-2014

I was actually a little surprised by how much I ended up liking the first omnibus of Attack on Titan: Junior High. Created by Saki Nakagawa with input from Hajime Isayama (both of whom actually attended the same design school, though that fact is more of a coincidence than anything else), Attack on Titan: Junior High is specifically a parody spinoff of Isayama’s immensely popular manga series Attack on Titan. More generally, the series is also a parody of just about any manga with a school setting. Attack on Titan: Junior High is an odd mix of Attack on Titan and contemporary school life that actually manages to work much of the time. The second Attack on Titan: Junior High omnibus, released by Kodansha Comics in 2014, collects the third and fourth volumes of the series’ original Japanese edition, published in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Kodansha was kind enough to send me a review copy of Attack on Titan: Junior high, Omnibus 2 which, because I enjoyed the first omnibus, I was particularly happy to see.

Life isn’t easy for the human students of Attack Junior High. Not only do they have to worry about the normal sorts of challenges encountered at school–getting a passing grade in class, surviving the ire of upperclassmen, daring to ask another student on a date, ensuring their clubs aren’t suspended, and so on–they also have to worry about the rest of the student body, the Titans. It doesn’t help that Attack Junior High’s principal just so happens to be a Titan as well, meaning most of the administration looks the other way as the Titans terrorize the much smaller students, the victims of bullying and stolen lunches. But then there’s the beloved teacher Mr. Erwin Smith who on the surface seems to favor the Titans when in actuality he harbors a deep-seated hatred so intense that it rivals Eren’s. Considering Eren’s single-minded commitment to taking on and taking out all of the Titans, this is rather impressive.

There is no denying that Attack on Titan: Junior High is an utterly ridiculous manga series. In general, I think that overall I probably enjoyed the first omnibus slightly more. The novelty of the spinoff has worn off some, but the second omnibus still managed to make me laugh on multiple occasions. I do find that the series works best for me when it is directly riffing on the original Attack on Titan manga and its fandom rather than playing around with more generic story tropes. Granted, from time to time those parodies can be entertaining, as well. But ultimately Attack on Titan: Junior High tends to be rather uneven with its humor. Sometimes the manga can be absolutely hilarious, but just as often the attempts at comedy just aren’t very funny. Unsurprisingly, many of the jokes in the series require readers to already be very familiar with Attack on Titan to really appreciate them, but it’s those readers for whom the series is intended to begin with.

Attack on Titan: Junior High and its style of humor certainly will not appeal to everyone. It’s not particularly clever and much of the manga can only be enjoyed by readers who are already predisposed towards random, absurd, and frequently nonsensical comedy. The English translation and localization of Attack on Titan: Junior High is fairly loose in sections, adding a few jokes here and there and freely changing pop culture references to ones that will likely be more recognizable to Western audiences. I’m not sure how funny or effective some of the changes will be in a few years’ time since they often refer to recent events, but for now they are amusing. The best gags are those where Nakagawa takes the characters of Attack on Titan and emphasizes and distorts their personality quirks to extremes. One of the most appealing things about the original Attack on Titan is its ensemble cast, and that is true of Attack on Titan: Junior High as well. Fortunately, that’s something that doesn’t rely on timeliness.

Thank you to Kodansha for providing a copy of Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 1 for review.

Manga the Week of 2/11

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SEAN: It’s Velentine’s Day week at Manga the Week of, and I wonder how romantic these titles are?

Ze from 801 Media has hit double digits, and is still the most popular manga among titles with two letters in them. (Sorry, ES).

MICHELLE: Tezuka’s MW: *kicks a rock*.

SEAN: I feel ashamed for forgetting about MW. All right, sorry, Ze. I have no jokes to make about you at all. Hang your head.

ASH: I was actually just thinking about Eternal Sabbath the other day…

SEAN: Dark Horse gives us more manly manga with a 4th Samurai Executioner omnibus.

A 6th volume of Say “I Love You” from Kodansha gives us more shoujo angst.

MICHELLE: Woot!

ANNA: Yay!

SEAN: And there’s a 3rd Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle omnibus as well.

MJ: I think there’s a general feeling of “ho hum” regarding this omnibus release, but I’m really happy to see it. I read this series by way of library copies and volumes borrowed from friends, and I’ve been eyeing it as a way to finally collect it for myself. So, yay!

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SEAN: Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus & Liar’s Game has been my favorite Alice spinoff, and I am sad to see it come to an end with this 7th volume.

ASH: I recently finished reading Alice in the Country of Hearts and really enjoyed it; this might actually be the spinoff I tackle next.

ANNA: I liked the main series but have never been able to get more than a couple volumes into a spinoff.

MICHELLE: Same here.

SEAN: Dragonar Academy has a 5th volume.

And we get the final volume of I Am Alice: Bodyswap in Wonderland, making this a double-Alice week.

Vertical has the 3rd volume of Ajin, which has demi-humans (are there panhumans?).

ASH: Demi-humans, pan-humans, omni-humans, in-humans, etc., etc.

SEAN: And another gritty title from Vertical, the 2nd volume of Prophecy, which continues to not feature a giant mutated bear. I suppose that’s not technically a flaw.

ASH: No, no bears, but still one of the best manga series that I’ve read lately.

SEAN: Viz has a quartet of titles, beginning with the 7th volume of Deadman Wonderland.

I reviewed Hayate the Combat Butler 25 here. Can it follow up from its recent dramatic turn?

And Magi has Vol. 10 arrive, which I anticipate will be awesome. Just a guess.

MICHELLE: And woot again!

SEAN: Lastly, there’s a 6th volume of the Tiger & Bunny manga, which likely has far more BL fans than actual BL titles like Ze.

ASH: And you didn’t think you had any jokes about Ze to make!

MJ: Ha!

SEAN: That’s actually not that much romance. What looks good to you?

Manga Giveaway: Cinderalla Giveaway Winner

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CinderallaAnd the winner of the Cinderalla manga giveaway is…Olivia!

As the winner, Olivia will be receiving a copy of Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla as published by Viz Media. This giveaway was a tie-in to the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival which celebrated the work of Junko Mizuno as well as Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, and Asumiko Nakamura. I asked entrants to tell me a little about their experiences reading manga by any of the creators of that group. Be sure to check out the giveaway comments for everyone’s detailed responses. The responses were great, so thank you all for sharing! For those of you who are curious about which manga from these creators are (or were) available in English, here’s a handy list:

Kaoru Fujiwara
If You Wanna Destroy the World (through JManga and now unavailable)

Maki Kusumoto
Dolis

Mitsukazu Mihara
Beautiful People
Doll
The Embalmer
Haunted House
IC in a Sunflower
R.I.P.: Requiem in Phonybrian

Junko Mizuno
Cinderella
Hansel & Gretel
“The Life of Momongo” (collected in Secret Comics Japan)
Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu
Princess Mermaid
Pure Trance

Asumiko Nakamura
Chicken Club
Classmates
Double Mints
Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist

Pick of the Week: Variety

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potwSEAN: It’s a last volume, so what the heck: I’ll make Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan my pick for this week. When it started, it was all about ‘how can this quarter yokai boy who’s heir to the night parade of demons possibly hide his identity at school?’. That got thrown out after about half a volume, and progressed, as most Jump series to, to bigger and bigger battles. Still, it was surprisingly entertaining, I really loved watching Tsurara try to get her man (and mostly fail). I’ll miss it.

MICHELLE: My pick of the week, the fifth 3-in-1 omnibus of High School Debut is essentially my manga BFF. Cue internal montage of the two of us going on a shopping spree, trying on fancy hats at some snooty boutique, and then later laughing together over our salads. Possibly some frozen yogurt would figure in, as well.

ANNA: There is a ton of good manga coming out this week! I think I’m going to have to go with the second volume of Assassination Classroom. I wonder what murderous jokes about alien tentacles the second volume will serve up!

ASH: Okay, so I know Sean tried to convince us that we weren’t allowed to choose Black Rose Alice two weeks in a row, but I didn’t pick it last week and it really is the manga that I’m most excited for. So far the series has been marvelously creepy and disconcerting; I’m very curious to see where it goes.

MJ: I admit I don’t really have a real pick this week, so I’ll go off list and highlight a digital offering that is currently free to read online. That would be Kaiju’s The Ring of Saturn, which I reviewed here over the weekend. Intertwining the reality of emotional growing pains with the music of Gustav Holst, it’s a quick but satisfying read that leaves readers with a lot to think about. If you’re stuck home in the snow like a bunch of us are today, why not check out this digital goodness?

What looks good to you this week?

My Week in Manga: January 26-February 1, 2015

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My News and Reviews

The Female Goth Mangaka Carnival wrapped up last week. In addition to my recent Spotlight on Mitsukazu Mihara, I also contributed two other related posts. The first was Experiments in Manga’s latest giveaway. There’s still time to enter for a chance to win Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla. I also posted a review of Asumiko Nakamura’s manga Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist. It’s a dark and twisting tale, and one that I come to love a little more each time I read it. Completely unrelated to the Carnival, last week I also reviewed Yasunari Kawabata’s The Sound of the Mountain, a classic novel about growing older and family relationships.

Elsewhere online, Viz announced that it will be bringing Shotaro Ishinomori’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past back into print, which I’m looking forward to a great deal. Media scholar Henry Jenkins is posting lengthy, in-depth interview with Patrick W. Galbraith, “In Defense of Moe,” talking about manga, anime, and otaku studies (Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5|Part 6). Digital Manga has launched its next Tezuka Kickstarter to publish Osamu Tezuka’s two-volume Alabaster with a stretch goal to reprint Swallowing the Earth (again). A recent update for Digital Manga’s Finder Kickstarter includes a link to a list of boys’ love titles that are currently in stock. Perhaps most importantly, it indicates which manga are available in limited quantities.

Quick Takes

The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 2The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 2 by Hiromu Arakawa. The particular weakness of the second volume of The Heroic Legend of Arslan is that while the battles and sieges are proceeding at a good pace–and Arakawa’s fight and action sequences are excellent–there is a relative lack of character development. Unsurprisingly, considering that the manga takes place during a time of war, there are important, dramatic deaths, but emotionally they aren’t especially effective since readers hadn’t had the opportunity to really get to know those involved before their demise. At this point, many of the antagonists and even a fair number of the series’ protagonists are missing complexity and nuance. Thankfully Arslan himself does show a little growth by the end of the volume, but attention is mostly given to the war being fought and some of the political intrigue behind it all. Granted, those are very important aspects of the series since they are what Arslan must overcome. However, I am hoping that future volumes will spend more time examining the characters as people. Intense, bloody battles are all well and good, but I want to more completely understand the motivation and drive behind them.

My Neighbor Seki, Volume 1My Neighbor Seki, Volume 1 by Takuma Morishige. I was originally only vaguely curious about My Neighbor Seki, but after watching the absolutely delightful anime adaptation last year, I knew it was a series that I couldn’t miss. The premise is deceptively simple: Yokoi sits in the last row of seats in her classroom right next to Seki, a boy who is always goofing around at his desk. Yokoi finds this incredibly distracting, especially since the ways in which Seki amuses himself can be spectacularly elaborate. Often she’s astounded by Seki’s audacity, but on occasion she can’t help but to join in or interfere with what he’s doing. Of course this means she’s often the one in danger of getting into trouble with the teachers for not paying attention in class. The individual chapters in My Neighbor Seki may be short, but the sheer creativity displayed by Morishige, and in turn by Seki, is quite impressive. The original My Neighbor Seki manga is just as wonderful as the anime was; I’ll definitely be following the manga to its end. (In Japan the series is currently ongoing with six volumes having so far been released.) My Neighbor Seki is funny and charming and a marvelously entertaining read.

Secrecy of the Shivering NightSecrecy of the Shivering Night by Muku Ogura. After reading the first volume of the short boys’ love series Castle Mango, I decided to seek out more of the artist’s work. Currently the only other manga of her’s available in print in English is Secrecy of the Shivering Night. Unlike Castle Mango, Ogura wrote the stories collected in Secrecy of the Shivering Night in addition to illustrating them. The volume includes four short boys’ love manga which, other than tending towards the more sweet or romantic and having slightly peculiar lead characters, are all unrelated. The setup for the titular story is perhaps the most curious and seemingly far-fetched–a young man who is afraid of bright lights and another young man who is afraid of the dark end up as dorm roommates–but the resulting relationship dynamic is surprisingly satisfying. Their opposite phobias, but even more so their opposite personalities, make them an adorable couple. Secrecy of the Shivering Night isn’t an especially outstanding collection, but the stories are generally cute and a little bit quirky, which are characteristics I happen to particularly enjoy, and Ogura’s artwork has a pleasant softness to it.

Terra Formars, Volume 2Terra Formars, Volumes 2-4 written by Yu Sasuga and illustrated by Ken-ichi Tachibana. If the first volume of Terra Formars largely felt like a stand-alone prequel, that’s because it was. The second volume begins twenty years later. An exceptionally fatal disease is becoming more prevalent on Earth which requires a new mission to Mars in order to research a cure. Shokichi Komachi, one of the two survivors from the previous Mars mission, leads a crew of one hundred men and women genetically modified to survive the conditions and lifeforms found on the planet. Terra Formars continues to be extraordinarily violent with an incredibly high body count, though considering the first volume I was actually surprised by how many people are left alive by the end of the fourth. It seems as though there might be an actual plot to Terra Formars, but it’s mostly just an excuse to show epic, over-the-top hand-to-hand combat between opponents with astounding, superhuman abilities. I still dislike the visual design of the humanoid cockroaches immensely, but at least there’s an attempt in these volumes to better explain their appearance. The portrayal of women in the manga has slightly improved, as well.

Princess TutuPrincess Tutu directed by Junichi Sato. I picked up Princess Tutu more on a whim than anything else when I saw it on super sale. Although I vaguely remembered hearing good things about the anime, I honestly didn’t know much about the series. I’m very glad that I own it because Princess Tutu is marvelous. I do find it somewhat difficult to describe in a way that does the justice, though. The story follows a girl called Duck who really is a duck. She’s under an enchantment that allows her to not only take human form but to also become the magical Princess Tutu. Through the power of her dance she restores the shattered heart of a prince who had sacrificed himself to save others. That all might sound a little strange, and parts of the anime are admittedly weird, but the series is also very good. Stories are just as real as reality in Princess Tutu, and just as potent if not more so. Bits and pieces of classic ballets, operas, and plays can be found throughout the series all mixed together to form a unique work. I absolutely loved the anime’s use of orchestral works not just as background music but as meaningful additions to the story, emphasizing the significance of the characters and of their actions and, for those who are familiar with the pieces, even revealing some of the plot.

The Sound of the Mountain

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The Sound of the MountainAuthor: Yasunari Kawabata
Translator: Edward G. Seidensticker
U.S. publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 9780679762645
Released: May 1996
Original release: 1954
Awards: National Book Award

Prior to reading The Sound of the Mountain I had only read one other novel by the distinguished Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata–Thousand Cranes, one of the three works to have been cited when Kawabata became the first Japanese recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. I enjoyed Thousand Cranes and have been meaning to read more of Kawabata’s work for quite some time now. Although it probably isn’t his best known work to have been translated, The Sound of the Mountain does have the distinction of being one of Kawabata’s longest novels. The volume was completed in Japan in 1954 after having been serialized for five years. Also in 1954, the novel was adapted as a live-action film directed by Mikio Naruse. The Sound of the Mountain was first translated into English by Edward G. Seidensticker in 1970 for which he won the National Book Award for Translation.

Shingo Ogata is an aging businessman in postwar Japan. His memory has started to fail him, his hair turns whiter as each day passes, many of his friends and acquaintances have already died, and he begins to be plagued by peculiar dreams. There is nothing he can do to halt the steady decline of his mind and health, but what concerns him most is the decline of his family and the unraveling of his children’s marriages. The philandering ways of Shingo’s son Shuichi are an open secret but his son’s wife Kikuko remains devoted to him, although perhaps even more so to Shingo. Shingo’s daughter, too, is having marital problems. The situation may or may not be temporary, but she has left her husband and is currently living in her parent’s home along with her young children. The house is full, the family’s relationships are strained, and Shingo is conflicted over what he should be doing about it all and over his developing feelings for Kikuko.

The Sound of the Mountain is a relatively quiet novel. Shingo has his personal struggles and internal strife, and there is plenty of family drama, but the work largely consists of snippets of the everyday lives of the Ogata household. None of the characters in The Sound of the Mountain are particularly exceptional in any sort of way. Their lives and their troubles, while certainly having a great impact on those around them, are mundane. Kawabata’s characterization of the individual family members is often very subtle and nuanced, as is his portrayal of the intricacies of their interpersonal relationships. As much as The Sound of the Mountain is about Shingo growing older, it’s just as much about the transformation of his family. All things must inevitably come to an end. Shingo knows this, and knows that his life, too, will eventually end, but he still feels guilty about and responsible for the direction his family and his children are heading.

It’s been a few years since I’ve read it, but overall I think I probably prefer Thousand Cranes over The Sound of the Mountain. However, the two novels do share some similarities: a focus on people and how they interact, a sparse writing style laden with symbolism, and so on. In the case of Thousand Cranes it was the Japanese tea ceremony that provided an underlying framework for the narrative while in The Sound of the Mountain it’s Shingo’s dreams and the change of the seasons–the steady progression of time. The Sound of the Mountain has a resigned, melancholic air to it. The novel isn’t particularly uplifting, but in some ways it can be comforting to see a realistic depiction of a family trying to come to terms with the changes both in their lives as individuals and in their relationships to one another. The Sound of the Mountain captures those fleeting moments of joy and of unrest, revealing that in any stage of life people are at least partially defined by those closest to them.

Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist

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Utsubora: The Story of a NovelistCreator: Asumiko Nakamura
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654766
Released: June 2013
Original release: 2010-2012

Although several of Asumiko Nakamura’s manga have been licensed for digital release, Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist is currently her only work that has been translated into English and made available in print. I truly hope it isn’t the last to be seen from her; although I was already familiar with Nakamura’s distinctive art style, Utsubora was my introduction to her manga and I loved it, and with each rereading love it even more. With the arrival of the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival, I was inspired to take another, deeper look at the manga. In Japan, Utsubora was a short, two-volume series published between 2010 and 2012. The English-language edition of the manga was released in 2014 by Vertical and collects the entire series in a single volume. Due to its mature themes and its erotic content, Utsubora is one of Vertical’s relatively few manga specifically intended for an audience of adults who are at least eighteen years of age.

Although Shun Mizorogi is still considered to be a successful and respected author, it has been quite some time since he has written anything of note. As a result, he has become withdrawn and is tormented by his lack of ability. Finally, his most recent work Utsubora shows great promise. A return to his roots as an author, Mizorogi has given his fans and critics what they have been waiting for. But when a young woman plummets from the top of a building to her death, the apparent suicide somehow connect to Mizorogi, the authorship of Utsubora begins to be called into question. Both Mizorogi’s close friend and fellow author Yatabe and his newly appointed editor Tsuji suspect something. Even Mizorogi’s niece Koyomi, who lives with and adores him, is able to recognize that her uncle has been behaving out of the ordinary. Utsubora and a young woman named Sakura Miki are the only remaining connections Mizorogi has to the death of Aki Fujino, and they are consuming him.

Utsubora is a dark and twisting tale. Nakamura’s distinctive artwork is exceptionally effective in adding to the manga’s moody, erotically charged, and slightly disconcerting atmosphere. The lines of her illustrations are very thin, creating at the same time a sense of sharpness and focus as well as a feeling of softness as they cut and curve across the page. Nakamura’s art in Utsubora is undeniably sensual and arresting. The eyes of her characters are particularly expressive and draw attention to themselves. The artwork of Utsubora, much like the manga’s story, can simultaneously be vaguely ominous and oddly beautiful. It’s really quite stunning and Nakamura is incredibly skilled. Through her artwork and through the body language of her characters, she is able to convey their uncertainties and their desires, their inner turmoil as well as their outward actions. Overall, Utsubora is an intense and even compelling work.

The plot of Utsubora is complex, the relationships and connections between the characters forming a tangled knot that is drawn tighter and tighter. The manga can be confusing and there is quite a bit of ambiguity that is never completely resolved. The only person who really understands everything that is going on is Sakura, and she is deliberately manipulating the situation, mixing together both truths and lies in order to influence those around her. She can’t control everything, though, and some matters in Utsubora are only tangentially related to what she is trying to accomplish. Although sometimes obscured by layers formed by the other characters’ personal struggles and pasts, the core of Utsubora is the despair surrounding Aki, Sakura, and Mizorogi. Granted, most of the characters are reaching their breaking points and are in danger of losing themselves completely; Aki’s death was simply the catalyst that triggered a dramatic sequence of events from which very few will emerge unscathed.

Manga the Week of 2/4

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SEAN: Did you enjoy your quiet month? Good, cause February is back to business as usual, and every week has some chunky bites of manga. Let’s look at next week. FYI, Diamond Comics has every Viz title coming out 1-2 weeks earlier than usual, for some reason – I’m ignoring that. And JoJo’s was delayed.

ASH: Oh, no! JoJoooooo!

ANNA: I do not approve of this.

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SEAN: Dark Horse has the 7th Blood Blockade Battlefront, which I understand has an anime coming out soon.

Seven Seas gives us a 5th volume of oddball slice-of-A Centaur’s Life.

And the 10th volume of Haganai, whose cast still doesn’t have many friends.

The rest is all Viz. We have a new Assassination Classroom, filled with attempted death and heartwarming lessons.

ANNA: Bring it on!

SEAN: We have a 3rd volume of Black Rose Alice, and I’d like to remind the Manga Bookshelf team that they can’t pick it two weeks in a row. :)

MICHELLE: I won’t, but I am still super happy to see it!

ASH: I’m happy to see it, too!

ANNA: I might pick it again! You can’t stop me!

MJ: Heh. I didn’t pick it last time, so it’s up for grabs!

SEAN: Bleach 63 features, I’m guessing, fights.

Food Wars 4 also features fights, but of a culinary kind. Save the Megumi!

MICHELLE: I have developed a serious fondness for Food Wars.

ANNA: I do not yet have a serious fondness, but I like it much more than I expected to.

SEAN: The 10th and final volume of Happy Marriage?! wraps up next week. It’s been a very up and down series, but overall I’ve enjoyed it.

MICHELLE: It’s not something I can picture myself rereading, but it has been entertaining.

ANNA: Me too. I’m glad to have read it, but I don’t think I’ll be rereading it.

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SEAN: High School Debut has its 5th and final omnibus. The big news is that it has lots of material that never came out in print before – I believe Vols. 14 and 15 are unique to this volume! It’s also print-only, so go get it.

MICHELLE: !!!!!!!!!!!!1 (Heh, I swear that typing that 1 was legitimately an accident, but I’m leavin’ it!)

ANNA: Woah! I’ve got to pick this up!

MJ: Ooooooooooh.

SEAN: If you thought Honey Blood was over last time, well… it was. But Tale Zero is an epilogue, or prologue, or pilot. Or something? In any case, this is the last Honey Blood-related product.

MICHELLE: I have a vague memory of one of the author’s note sections during the series proper mentioning that this would contain the original oneshot. Not sure about that, though.

ANNA: I’d like to see more from this author eventually.

SEAN: We have the 25th and final volume of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. I enjoyed this a lot more than I’d expected, and probably more than it really deserved, but way to go, mid-range Shonen Jump title. You were licensed when many other 20-30 volume Jump series were not.

One Piece has its 11th omnibus. It’s in Water Seven now, one of its best arcs.

Spell of Desire hits Vol. 3, and I hope manages to resolve the rather icky cliffhanger Vol. 2 left us with.

Voice Over has its 9th volume, and seems to be slowly, very slowly, meandering towards its climax.

MICHELLE: Here’s another title I’ve grown to love unexpectedly.

MJ: I need to check back in with this series.

SEAN: World Trigger has Vol. 4, and is another on the list of ‘series I should know more about’.

Did you miss Yu-Gi-Oh! the first time around? Here’s an omnibus to catch up on.

And Yu-Go-Oh Zexal 6 gives you more Yu-Gi-Oh than human nature can possibly stand.

There’s a lot of ‘meat and potatoes’ shonen and shoujo here. What suits your fancy?

Manga Giveaway: Cinderalla Giveaway

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It’s the end of the month which means it’s time for another manga giveaway! Because the Female Goth Mangaka Carnival is currently underway (featuring the work of Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, Junko Mizuno, Asumiko Nakamura) I decided to do a tie-in giveaway. This month you all have a chance to win a copy of Junko Mizuno’s Cinderalla as published by Viz Media. And as always, the giveaway is open worldwide! (However, you must be at least eighteen years old to enter.)

Cinderalla

Way back in 2010, I had the opportunity to attend the Best Manga You’re Not Reading panel at the American Library Association’s annual conference. It was there that I was introduced to the work of Junko Mizuno, and specifically to her manga Cinderalla—a psychedelic retelling of the classic tale of Cinderella with zombies, yakitori, and pop idols added in for good measure. I had never seen anything like it before and I loved it. Mizuno’s brightly colored artwork in Cinderalla shows her mastery of a very distinctive and even beautifully stunning creepy-cute aesthetic. Quite a few of Mizuno’s manga have been released in English—and I’ve enjoyed many of them—but I will always remember Cinderalla as being my first.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Cinderalla?

1) Have you ever read anything by Kaoru Fujiwara, Maki Kusumoto, Mitsukazu Mihara, Junko Mizuno, or Asumiko Nakamura? If so, tell me what you thought in the comments below. (And if you haven’t, you can 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).

And there you have it. For this giveaway, each person can earn up to two entries and has one week to submit them. If needed or preferred, comments can also be sent directly to me via e-mail at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. I will then post them here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on February 4, 2015. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the Carnival!

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: Cinderalla Giveaway Winner

Pick of the Week: Third Volumes

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potwMJ: Okay, I’ll admit there’s not a lot calling to me this week, but I can express genuine enthusiasm for the third omnibus of Whispered Words, apparently shipping this week from One Peace. This is a really charming story, and I’m so happy to see it—and specifically happy to see it coming from One Peace, who tend to fly under the radar of a lot of fans. I’m hoping this release has made a decent splash for them. It certainly should have. This is a title that should not be missed.

MICHELLE: Since MJhas campaigned so ably for Whispered Words and because I already know what my pick is going to be next week (I’ve only been waiting for it for years!), I thought I would instead highlight something else coming out next week, which would be the third volume of Black Rose Alice. Combining a unique spin on vampires with adept storytelling and compelling characters, this series really isn’t to be missed!

ASH: I’m right there with MJthis week. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of Whispered Words and am very glad that the series was released in English! (And that the editing seems to have improved since the first omnibus.)

ANNA: I’ll have to go for the third volume of Black Rose Alice too. It really is one of the more unique shoujo titles currently coming out.

SEAN: Whispered Words all the way for me.

What looks good to you this week?