Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Josei and the Street Punk Cats

by , , , and Leave a Comment

MICHELLE: It’s 100% My Lovesick Life as a ’90s Otaku for me. So much josei nowadays!

SEAN: I’ll pick the other josei title, then. Not only do I always want to support anything that comes from Flowers, but Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom looks cute and compact as well.

ANNA: Can I pick both? Why not both!?

ASH: Both it is! I love that josei is becoming more common in translation. (Though I must admit that I’m pretty excited for Stone Ocean, too.)

KATE: At the risk of being the most predictable member of the Battle Robot, I’m going to recommend the 30th edition of Tekkonkinkreet, a weird, glorious, head-trippy manga from Taiyo Matsumoto that’s a little more coherent than No. 5, and a lot less depressing than Sunny. If you’re never read anything by Matsumoto, it’s a great introduction to his unique visual style.

Pick of the Week: An Innocent Manga

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: There’s a clear 100% pick for me. Dark Horse’s release of Innocent is something I’ve been waiting for since it was announced. That it’s coming in three massive 650-age omnibuses makes it even better. The story of Charles-Henri Sanson is masterfully adapted in this, and the art is amazing.

KATE: I’m curious about Innocent, though the preview I read at The Comics Journal made me wonder if the exposition-heavy dialogue would drive me bananas. (Show don’t tell, people!) My vote goes for Team Phoenix instead; when Sean described it as “a Bessatsu Shonen Champion series that asks the question “what if the most iconic characters in Tezuka’s manga became space pirates?” I immediately pre-ordered a copy.

MICHELLE: I’m intrigued by the space pirates, no doubt, but yes: Innocent all the way.

ASH: Innocent is my pick this week, too. I’ve actually been waiting for it even before it was announced. It was one of those series that regularly popped up on my radar; I would invariably be left wishing that it would be licensed. And now its release is nigh!

The Manga Review: We Got The Beat

by Leave a Comment

Thanks to Deb Aoki’s stellar recruitment efforts, The Beat has recently expanded its coverage of manga, manhwa, anime, and webtoons. This week, she introduced readers to the site’s newest contributors and announced that she’s currently serving as The Beat’s Manga/Anime/Webtoons Editor. If this week’s output is any indication, expect more in-depth coverage of licensing news and industry trends, as well as well reviews.

Also of note: ABLAZE just launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish Gannibal, a 13-volume horror series about a remote village with a gory secret… Brigid Alverson has the deets on Manga Plus Max, Shueisha’s brand-new subscription service… the Miami Film Festival will screen The Boy and the Heron in November, one month before its official American release… Twitter suspended Glacier Bay Books’ account with no explanation… Yoshihiro Togashi has hinted that he’s back at work on Hunter X Hunter… and Netflix just unveiled the trailer for Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka.

AROUND THE WEB

If you’re interested in stories about “passionate athletes” and “thrilling competitions with unpredictable outcomes,” I highly recommend the newly launched Sports Baka website (formerly a Substack). Recent articles have focused on series such as All Out!!, Birdie Wing, and Yama o Wataru (Crossing Mountains). [Sports Baka]

Which Shonen Jump titles made the best first impression on readers? Matias De la Piedra crunches the numbers. [The Beat]

Kara Dennison recommends three supernatural manga for readers in a Halloween state of mind. [Otaku USA]

Bill Curtis compiles a helpful list of October’s new manga and light novels. [Yatta-Tachi]

Francine Yulo interviews Ryan Holmberg about two recent translation projects: Nejishiki and My Picture Diary. [Drawn & Quarterly]

For a thoughtful conversation about Shuna’s Journey, check out the latest episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe. [Cartoonist Kayfabe]

Danica Davidson interviews Patrick Macias and Samuel Sattin about their collaboration on two forthcoming books: The Essential Anime Guide: 50 Iconic Films, Standout Series, and Cult Masterpieces and  A Kid’s Guide to Anime & Manga: Exploring the History of Japanese Animation and Comics, both of which will arrive in stores this November. [Otaku USA]

REVIEWS

Megan D. takes The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions for a test drive… Demelza reviews the Collector’s Edition of A Girl on the Shore… Sara Smith recommends Alice in Kyoto Forest for readers in grades 5-8… and Danica Davidson praises My Picture Diary for “giving a voice to countless women who feel stifled and trapped by roles pushed on them by society.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

From the Vault: Mitsukazu Mihara’s The Embalmer

by

This month, I’m reaching into the PopCultureShock vault for a review of Mitsukazu Mihara’s The Embalmer, one of those offbeat titles that Tokyopop published back in the aughts. It’s not hard to see why Tokyopop thought there was an audience for Mihara’s work, as she played an important role in defining the Gothic Lolita aesthetic, both through her contributions to the Gothic & Lolita Bible, and through her manga. Tokyopop licensed five of her works—Doll, Haunted House, IC in a Sunflower, Requiem in Phonybrian, and The Embalmer—but they didn’t really catch on with North American readers. That’s a pity, as titles such as The Embalmer, Doll, and IC in a Sunflower were anything but cookie cutter, tackling difficult subjects with sensitivity and style. (Well, most of the time; some of the stories in Sunflower haven’t aged particularly well.) Readers interested in tracking down The Embalmer should note that Tokyopop only translated four of the seven volumes before canceling the series; used copies are relatively easy to obtain through Amazon and eBay, however. A quick search of WorldCat indicates that there are public libraries around the US that still have copies as well.

Mitsukazu Mihara’s The Embalmer, Vols. 1-4
Story and Art by Mitsukazu Mihara
Published by Tokyopop

Let’s face it: even in a medium known for exploring a diverse array of topics—cooking, Viagra, Linux, vampires—embalming doesn’t sound like a promising subject. Morbid, yes. Uplifting, no. Yet Mitsukazu Mihara’s gripping manga is less an examination of death and decay than a meditation on how coping with loss gives meaning to life.

The series focuses on embalmer Shinjyurou Mamiya. At first glance, he looks like the quintessential bad boy with his skate punk wardrobe, rock star ‘do, sloppy digs, and fondness for the ladies. That’s certainly how Atzuki Natsui, his housekeeper and love interest, views him. Shinjyurou, however, proves more substantial than his casual demeanor might suggest. In a country where Buddhist custom dictates that bodies be cremated, his profession inspires hostility and suspicion from grieving families and medical professionals alike. Shinjyurou, however, reaches out to skeptics with the argument that embalming is a service for the living, not the dead. By preserving (and sterilizing) the body of a tuberculosis victim, for example, Shinjyurou allows the man’s young son to hug his father goodbye—something that would have been impossible during the man’s final days in quarantine—while Shinjyurou’s reconstruction of a badly mangled ballerina helps her grieving fiance imagine the wedding and professional debut she was denied by a deadly car crash.

Each volume of The Embalmer has a slightly different rhythm; some read like anthologies of thematically related stories, while others contain more conventional, multi-chapter story arcs involving the lead characters. Volumes one and two, for example, consist primarily of vignettes about Shinjyurou’s clients with a sprinkling of chapters exploring his personal life. In volume three, Mihara shifts gears, delving into Shinjyurou’s past to explain how an aspiring medical student from Okinawa ended up studying mortuary science in Pittsburgh. Volume four returns to the same format as volumes one and two, offering both glimpses of the embalming profession and scenes from Shinjyurou’s muddled courtship of Atsuki.

Volume four also includes an afterword from Mihara explaining her interest in embalming. Contrary to what one might expect from a manga-ka best known for her goth-loli motifs and dark themes, Mihara’s curiosity about the practice stemmed from personal experience, not a general fascination with death:

The inspiration for this book came from the death of my friend. Because of the funeral schedule, I didn’t feel like I was able to properly say goodbye. I think embalming is a technique well suited to Japan, where we often have very little time. So the circumstances led me to investigate embalming…

It’s this personal investment in the material, I think, that prevents The Embalmer from shading into ghoulishness or sentimentality. Mihara did her homework on the subject. Each volume includes extras explaining the practice—origins, tools, training—and the difficulties faced by Japanese professionals in a country where cremation is the norm. At the same time, however, each volume contains vivid, poignant scenarios that dramatize the very human need for closure when a loved one dies unexpectedly, showing us how personal tragedy leads to catharsis. Mihara’s highly stylized figures—often rendered with slender, angular frames, coal-black eyes, and dark shocks of hair—and empty backgrounds amplify her characters’ shifting moods from despair to peaceful acceptance.

Tokyopop has done Mihara’s work justice with a smooth, idiomatic translation, helpful notes explaining pop culture references, and a distinctive cover design in a muted palette of green, gray and black. It’s a worthwhile addition to every serious manga fan’s collection, and a fine introduction to the unique art and storytelling of Mitsukazu Mihara.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on September 18, 2007 at http://www.popcultureshock.com/manga-review-mitsukazu-miharas-the-embalmer-vols-1-4/42616/.

The Manga Review: September in the Rain

by Leave a Comment

When Crunchyroll purchased retailer Right Stuf in 2022, the streaming giant posted a notice at its site reassuring consumers that this “acquisition aims to serve anime fans and collectors an even wider array of merchandise for online purchase including manga, home video, figures, games, music and everything in between.” The full impact of this decision, however, didn’t hit customers until last week, when Crunchyroll announced that it would be closing down Right Stuf and folding it into the new Crunchyroll Store, prompting fans to express concern about unfulfilled orders, and lament the end of Right Stuf’s discount programs. Over at ANN, Nicholas Dupree and Steve Jones rounded up reactions and offered their own two cents on what this decision means for anime and manga fans. I can’t say that I’ll miss Right Stuf—it was never my go-to site for manga—but this kind of retail consolidation seldom bodes well for consumers.

Elsewhere, Brigid Alverson has the details on a new partnership between Penguin Random House and Tappytoon as well licensing news from Seven Seas and Dark Horse… the Vincent Van Gogh Museum is using a Pokémon exhibit to introduce kids to the Starry Night artist… Manga Planet just revamped its subscription service… the first volume of Haruki Murakami Manga Stories will be released on October 24th… the first ten volumes of George Morikawa’s Hajime no Ippo are now available through the KMANGA app… the first volume of Inio Asano’s Mujina Into the Deep has a nifty-looking trailer… and the final volume of Kentaro Yabuki’s Ayakashi Triangle will arrive in Japanese bookstores around Christmas.

AROUND THE WEB

In this week’s must-read essay, Deshan Tennekoon explains what makes Yotsuba&! such a joy to read. “The premise of the series is simple: it’s about a bubbly, inquisitive five-year-old girl named Yotsuba and her daily adventures in the small Japanese town to which she’s recently moved,” he explains. “Yotsuba’s sunny disposition is her defining trait and Azuma makes it natural and endearing. This is not to suggest she is always chirpy – she has her bad days and her tantrums, too. However she’s doing on any given day, Azuma’s portrayal of her has an honesty to it, and the series is never saccharine.” [SOLRAD]

Justin Guerrero offers a sneak peek at Blood Blade, a new vampire series from Oma Sei. [The Beat]

The Manga Machinations gang convene a roundtable on Susume Higa’s Okinawa. [Manga Machinations]

On the latest episode of Manga in Your Ears, Kory, Apryll and Helen discuss My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders. [Taiiku Podcast]

Will Fabricant 100 flop with David and Jordan? Tune in to find out! [Shonen Flop]

David Brothers leads a lively discussion about Yashuhiro Nightow’s *other* manga, Blood Blockade Battlefront. [Mangasplaining]

Elliot and Andy look at two series by non-binary authors: X-Gender and Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist. [ScreenTone Club]

Over at Dad Needs to Talk, Rob offers his thoughts on a brand-new series from Kodansha, That Time the Manga Editor Started a New Life in the Countryside. [Dad Needs to Talk]

REVIEWS

In a thoughtful review of River’s Edge, Scott Cederlund praises Kyoko Okazaki for being “honest and raw in her storytelling”… Nubia Jade Brice gives high marks to #DRCL Midnight Children… Renee Scott reviews the first two volumes of My Girlfriend’s Child… and Megan D. declares Psychic Academy “one of the ripest, most ridiculous pieces of garbage I’ve reviewed on this site in a good long while.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing 

Pick of the Week: It’s 2009 at Manga Bookshelf

by , , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: Can we pick something that came out over 10 years ago? Because honestly it’s the new digital edition of Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka that’s most interesting to me this week.

ANNA: Same! Glad that this title is more accessible.

MICHELLE: I am always willing to endorse Pluto!

ASH: Pluto is such an important touchstone series for me and is absolutely my top choice this week, too. (Plus, I didn’t have the opportunity to pick it the first time around…)

KATE: I’m making a plug for volume six of Go with the Clouds, North by Northwest, a shambolic, gorgeous, and sometimes suspenseful mystery set in Iceland. New volumes come out about as frequently as new installments of A Bride’s Story, but the wait is always worth it.

The Manga Review: Didn’t It Rain

by Leave a Comment

Congratulations to Lianne Sentar, who was just promoted to a new position at Seven Seas Entertainment: publisher! She’s done a little bit of everything in the manga industry—writing Sailor Moon novels for Tokyopop, freelancing as an editor, starting her own publishing company—and seems like a perfect fit for the job. In other news, Scholastic will be launching its Graphix Manga line with an adaptation of Unico… Studio Ghibli has been acquired by Nippon TV… and a Delaware parent took a public stand on behalf of her kids’ after-school manga club. At issue was the principal’s decision to limit members’ access to manga rated “T” or older, which he felt were inappropriate for middle-school readers. Jennifer Antonik disagreed, and started a petition at Change.org to pressure the school to reverse course.

AROUND THE WEB

If you’re a fan of I’m in Love with the Villainess in any of its incarnations—light novel, manga, anime—you’ll want to check out Erica Friedman’s conversation with inori.-sensei; Mari Morimoto translates. [Okazu]

Toni Sun interviews Kyoko Aiba, author of I Love You Enough to Tie You Up, Derail, and Invisible Me. [ANN]

Muraktama Rodrigues explains why you should check out Rooster Fighter. [How to Love Comics]

In her latest Pubwatch, Masha Zhdanova pans Like a Butterfly, praises DRCL#, and rounds up the latest news from VIZ. [WWAC]

Joe McCulloch, Katie Skelly, and Sally Madden delve into the complexities of Kazuo Umezz’s Cat-Eyed Boy, which has just been reissued in a “perfect edition.” [Thick Lines]

Party like it’s 1985! The Mangasplainers tackle the ultimate 80s cat manga: Makoto Kobayashi’s wonderful, weird, and oh-so-slightly dated What’s Michael? [Mangasplaining]

REVIEWS

SKJAM! reviews Blade of the Moon Princess, an early series from the creator of Spy X Family… Adam Symchuk praises Suzuki Just Wants a Quiet Life, a new mystery series from Hirohisa Satou… and Jon Holt and Teppei Fukuda translate Natsume Fusanosuke’s review of Otomo: The Complete Works.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

Pick of the Week: Modern Dracula

by , , and Leave a Comment

MICHELLE: It’s absolutely Glitch for me this week. Siblings investigating a weird town would be enough on its own even without the goodwill Lost Lad London engendered, honestly, but the fact that it’s by the same creator is extra enticing.

ASH: Generally when selecting my pick, I look towards debut or one-off volumes, but I do have to at least mention two ongoing series I’m particularly glad to see new volumes of this week: Emanon and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. But my official pick goes to #DRCL midnight children which, if nothing else, should have phenomenal artwork.

SEAN: It will probably be a bit too dark for me, but I have to go with #DRCL midnight children as well, because art.

KATE: What everyone else said: bloodsuckers and mystery manga for me, too!

The Manga Review: Cliff Notes Edition

by Leave a Comment

It’s been a slow week news- and reviews-wise, so this installment of the Manga Review is short ‘n’ sweet.

Netflix announced earlier this week that it would be renewing One Piece for a second season. The live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s hit series is currently Netflix’s top-ranked show in 73 countries around the world… the Blue Giant film is coming to North American theaters in October… Ablaze just licensed Choi Gyu-Seok’s award-winning series The Awl… Brigid Alverson breaks down the August Circana Bookscan numbers… and the Mangasplainers unveiled their latest projects: Search and Destroy, a “fresh take” on Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, and Wandering Cat’s Cage, a new series from the creator of Sensei’s Pious Lie.

AROUND THE WEB

Over at ANN, James Beckett reassures One Piece fans that Netflix’s adaptation is “really good.” “For all of the (rightly deserved) praise that has been heaped onto the series’ pitch-perfect set designs and costume work—which perfectly evoke Oda’s original vision while still feeling at least mostly plausible when applied to living human beings—One Piece is a story that lives and dies on the strengths of its characters, and if we didn’t immediately fall in love with this iteration of the Straw Hat Crew, things would have been very dire indeed,” he notes. “Somehow, though, the show managed to exceed expectations by finding performers that fit so well into their respective roles that it is virtually impossible not to fall in love with them” [ANN]

Kara Dennison explains why you should be reading MamaYuyu, which just debuted on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]

Vrai Kaiser interviews artist Aiba Kyoko about the evolution of the BL market over the last ten years. [Anime Feminist]

Letterer Aidan Clark joins the Manga Machinations gang for a celebration of Naoki Urasawa’s work. [Manga Machinations]

The latest installment of Manga in Your Ears focuses on The Gay Who Turned Kaiju and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. [Taiiku Podcast]

Let the Mangasplainers convince you to read Not All Girls Are Stupid, “a blistering look at the difficulties of being a woman in your late teens and early 20s.” [Mangasplaining]

Should you add the KMANGA app to your phone? Justin lists the pros and cons of Kodansha’s digital manga platform, praising it for the selection and good image quality, and panning it for its point system: “There’s no getting around the fact that the points structure is an obstacle to really enjoying the service, especially if you’re not a fan of playing games to get points.” [The OASG]

REVIEWS

To honor the start of the academic year, Megan D. has a review of Zero’s Familiar, a high school harem comedy. “Honestly, I debated whether to even bother with a plot summary for Zero’s Familiar because if you’ve read a single magic school harem series before, then you know pretty much all the story beats you’re going to see and all the character types you’re going to meet,” she notes. “You’ve got the everyman Potato-kun protagonist, whose only distinct quality he possesses is his annoyance with his status as a servant and the social class system in general.  You’ve got the primary love interest whose personality begins and ends with ‘tsundere,’ and because this work came out in the mid 2000s she’s also comically tiny… She in turn is surrounded by a horny girl with big boobs, a stoic girl, a comic relief playboy, a perfectly ordinary maid/secondary love interest who is possibly even more boring than Saito, a handful of teachers, and the occasional disposable villain.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

Pick of the Week: Sweet Picks

by , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: I’ve been enjoying the Dahlia in Bloom series since it began, and Lucia has been an excellent recent addition to the cast. As such, I’m making Lucia and the Loom my pick this week.

KATE: I’ll cop to being curious about The Darwin Incident, though I may have to check out DoesTheDogDie.com just to make sure I’m not going to be an emotional train wreck if I read it!

MICHELLE: I haven’t yet managed to read Old-Fashioned Cupcake, but it seems to be sweet slice-of-life, which is my favorite sort of BL, so I’ll cast my vote for the sequel, Old-Fashioned Cupcake with Cappuccino, this week.

ASH: I am also curious about The Darwin Incident, but this week I’m going to join Michelle in picking Old-Fashioned Cupcake with Cappuccino… even though I likewise haven’t read the original volume. I’m in the mood for some vaguely food-themed BL manga, though.

The Manga Review: Going Merry

by Leave a Comment

The reviews are in, and One Piece is certified fresh, with an 85% approval rating from critics and a 96% approval rating from audiences. Just about every major media outlet weighed in on the series, from the Hollywood Reporter to CNN, New York Magazine, Rolling Stone, and USA Today. Though many critics applauded the show’s fidelity to the manga, a few—most notably Mike Hale and Alison Herman—felt the show lacked a reason to exist. Writing for the New York Times, for example, Hale argued that One Piece was a bigger misfire than Netflix’s much-derided Cowboy Bebop, while Herman, writing for Variety, asked: “If the best result one can hope for is an approximation of the original, close or far, what does this version of ‘One Piece’ provide that the original can’t?” Other critics were more enthusiastic, praising the performances, costuming, and fight choreography. In a thoughtful, in-depth essay for Geek Girl Riot, Sherin Nicole reassured long-time fans that Netflix stuck the landing: “This series gets it. It’s about found family and freedom; it seeks to dismantle systems of subjugation and its surrogates; it’s goofy and heartfelt.”

AROUND THE WEB

If you ever wondered why your local library doesn’t own a complete run of One Piece, or doesn’t offer free electronic access to manga, I strongly encourage you to read Priya Sridhar’s excellent, in-depth article about the unique challenges libraries face when acquiring longer series. [Anime Herald]

Gab Hernandez explains why Stop!! Hibari-Kun! is “so progressive yet so paradoxically backward.” [Anime Feminist]

Alexis Sara explores the complexities of transgender representation in yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Wondering what to read after Fabricant 100? Kara Dennison offers three suggestions, all of which debut this month on the Shonen Jump app. [Otaku USA]

Bill Curtis compiles a complete list of September’s new manga and light novel releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

The Reverse Thieves name She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat their manga of the month. [Reverse Thieves]

That Manga Hunter delves into the history of shojo manga imprints, from Shojo Beat to Steamship. [That Manga Hunter]

Join comic pros Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg for a lively tour through Katsuhiro Otomo’s earliest work. [Cartoonist Kayfabe!]

Over at The Comics Journal, Austin Price revisits a favorite series—Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seiya)—and discovers that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. “I realized what I would find there was only disappointment,” he observes. “Not the true extent of that disappointment, you understand; as I said before, no one can know how wide is the disparity between their idyllic memories and their mundane present until confronted with it.” [TCJ]

REVIEWS

This week’s must-read review comes from Erica Friedman, who praises The Moon on a Rainy Night for resisting the most common tropes around disability. “What we get in Moon on a Rainy Night is the coming together of two people who help one another to become their best selves,” she observes. “It is a fantastic tale of what ‘accommodation’ ought to look like in a perfect world.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing

The Manga Review: Deep in the Heart of Texas

by Leave a Comment

A television station in Houston reports that the Klein Independent School District (ISD) has been bypassing the usual administrative procedure for removing controversial books from its shelves, instead treating those titles as old or out-of-date materials that need to be purged. The majority of books on its list will be familiar to anyone who’s been following the conversation around race, gender, and “age appropriate” works for younger readers—The Bluest Eye, Fun Home—but the list also includes volumes of popular manga such as Assassination Classroom, Black Butler, and Soul Eater. The Texas chapter of the ACLU is currently investigating.

In other news, Brigid Alverson reports that a Texas judge has blocked the implementation of the READER Act, which “would require booksellers to assign ratings to all books they sell to schools and recall any ‘sexually explicit’ books that had already been sold”… Brigid Alverson also has the scoop on Burst Angel, which was rescued from licensing purgatory, as well as four new additions to the Yen Press catalog… Cutie Honey will celebrate her 50th birthday this November… The Witch and the Knight Will Survive will be complete in three volumes… Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction is coming to the big screen next year… the United Workers of Seven Seas just voted to ratify their first contract… and The Beat posted a generous preview of Issaka Galadima’s Clock Striker, “which follows a young Black girl in her quest to become an elite engineer warrior.”

AROUND THE WEB

Matt Alt explains how some of Japan’s most time-honored methods for cooling off in the summer are disappearing in the face of modernization and global warming. [The New Yorker]

Eiichiro Oda sat down with the New York Times to talk about Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of One Piece, and why he thinks his series will be a hit with international viewers. [New York Times]

Shelby Tozier examines the legacy of Arina Tanemura, author of such shojo classics as Phantom Thief Jeanne and Full Moon o Sagashite. [Anime Feminist]

Also at Anime Feminist: Sarah Guinevere Smit uses Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou to explain “what many transgender people went through during the pandemic.” She explains: “In the solitude and desolation of COVID-19, cut off from the pressures and expectations of society, there was a silent wave of transgender people coming to the realization that they no longer needed to pretend to be someone they were not, beginning their transitions in the midst of death, despair, and loneliness.” [Anime Feminist]

To mark the tenth anniversary of Radiant‘s debut, Dark Aether offers an in-depth look at the series. [AniTAY]

Wondering what to watch this fall? Kara Denison has prepared a helpful list of anime whose source material is already available in English. [Otaku USA]

Jocelyne Allen sings the praises of Hokago no Etude, a BL manga about a ballet troupe. “For a BL manga, it has a real shojo vibe to it at times,” she notes. “Dance scenes get room to breathe, while the sexy times have closely packed panels, loads of dialogue and sound effects, for an overall intensity that makes those scenes even more effective.”  [Brain vs. Book]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman argues that Otherside Picnic is “one of the most extraordinary explorations of physical, emotional and psychic boundaries that I have ever read”… librarian Ashley Hawkins has a brief but excellent review of Susumu Higa’s Okinawa… Adam Symchuk explains how Yokohama Station SF finds its footing in volume two… Megan D. reads Corrector Yui so you don’t have to… Sarah gives two thumbs up to After We Gazed at the Starry Sky… and the gang at Beneath the Tangles post a fresh batch of short reviews.

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series

My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files, Vol. 1

by

Have you seen The Law According to Lidia Poët? It’s a period drama that’s loosely based on a real-life woman who was the first in Italy to pass the bar exam. Though the series explores the real-life Poët’s long, lonely battle for professional recognition, it also makes plenty of room for romance and adventure, portraying her as a free spirit who solves mysteries with the aid of a handsome male journalist. The show’s breezy tone is more Remington Steele than Masterpiece Theater, but it never shies away from acknowledging that nineteenth-century Italy was truly a man’s, man’s world.

If Lidia Poët sounds like something you’d watch, you might like My Dear Detective, which also features a plucky heroine in a male-dominated field. The setting is Taisho-era Japan, where twenty-something Mitsuko Hoshino works for the Ginza Detective Agency as an investigator. Though Mitsuko is a natural, she faces skepticism and condescension in her day-to-day work that sometimes shades into outright hostility; early in volume one, for example, local hooligans vandalize the agency with slogans accusing her of “stealing men’s jobs.” Her boss is unfazed, however, and remains quietly but kindly supportive of her desire to be, in her words, “a working woman.”

Through one of those only-in-manga contrivances, Mitsuko crosses paths with Satou Yoshida, a handsome young man who turns out to be the scion of a prominent family. (The Yoshidas own one of the poshest department stores in Tokyo.) He soon joins the agency as Mitsuko’s assistant, chauffeur, and bodyguard, dropping the Yoshida name whenever it expedites their investigation, and swooping in to save Mitsuko whenever she’s in danger. Mitsuko—ever the consummate professional—won’t admit to herself that she likes Satou, and puts up a blustery front any time he flirts with her.

Though the script is lively and the pacing brisk, the artwork is a little plain. The costumes, hairstyles, and props are just detailed enough to give a sense of the period, but the backgrounds are a little too sterile and generic to really evoke Tokyo in the 1920s. More appealing are the character designs: Natsumi Ito does an effective job of conveying each cast member’s age, social standing, and personality through small but meaningful details. Mitsuko, for example, sports a sleek, modern bob and knee-length skirts, while the older women she interacts with favor Nihongami and kimono, evoking the transitional spirit of the Taisho era.

Taken as a whole, however, My Dear Detective is the manga equivalent of The Law According to Lidia Poët. One the one hand, it’s a fizzy, fun series that offers solid mysteries with interesting twists solved by impossibly good-looking people. On the other hand, My Dear Detective gently reminds the reader how many practical barriers professional women faced a century ago, acknowledging the degree to which misogyny made it all but impossible for smart, ambitious women to chart a course for themselves outside of traditional gender roles. These two sensibilities don’t always mesh harmoniously, but most of the time My Dear Detective toes the line between escapism and didacticism in a highly entertaining fashion. Lidia Poët would undoubtedly approve. Recommended.

MY DEAR DETECTIVE: MITSUKO’S CASE FILES, VOL. 1 • BY NATSUMI ITO • TRANSLATED BY SAMUEL R. MESSNER • LETTERING BY BARRI SHRAGER • COVER DESIGN BY GLEN ISIP • AZUKI • 183 pp. • NO RATING

Pick of the Week: Guardian and Others

by , , , and Leave a Comment

SEAN: I have been hearing about the amazingness that is Guardian: Zhen Hun for years now, so it will be nice to finally see what the fuss is all about. This is my danmei of the week. My manga of the week is Nichijou, though.

MICHELLE: Frankly, I don’t see how I could pick anything other than Guardian: Zhen Hun this week!

ASH: Out of all of the releases coming out this week, Guardian: Zhen Hun has definitely captured most of my attention, so that’ll be my pick, too!

ANNA: I’m also pretty excited for Guardian: Zhen Hun, but also stoked for Don’t Call It a Mystery volume 2!

KATE: I’m joining Anna in picking volume two of Don’t Call It Mystery. It’s a little weird and talky, but also incredibly entertaining–think Columbo with fabulous hair and hot guys!

The Manga Review: The Dog Days of August

by Leave a Comment

Pour one out for Comic Book Resources: on Wednesday, a staff member hijacked CBR’s official Twitter feed to decry parent company Valnet for firing editorial staff and abandoning the site’s commitment to in-depth reporting and thoughtful criticism. Heidi MacDonald has the details. In other news, Kadakowa’s recent efforts to remove pirate manga apps from Apple and Google went unheeded, so the publisher is taking steps to find out who created those apps… the production of Susumu Higa’s Okinawa was delayed after the original printer demanded editorial changes to the book… the live-action version of Rohan at the Louvre arrives on Amazon Prime next month… Titan Manga has rescued Speed Grapher from publishing limbo… ABLAZE announced its fall 2023 publishing plans… Harta will publish the final chapter of Delicious in Dungeon next month… Yuki Kaku has collaborated with Givenchy on a one-shot story for UOMO magazine… and Nami Sano, the creator of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto passed away at age 36.

AROUND THE WEB

Marion Pena sits down with former NBA player Johnny O’Bryant to discuss his latest venture: Noir Caesar. The company just released two news series, XOGENASYS and Primus7, and has several other projects in development, including an adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Alabaster and a live-action version of Me and the Devil Blues. [The Beat]

In the latest installment of My Fave Is Problematic, Rebecca Fleeman puts JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure under the microscope, noting the degree to which the series often conflates queerness with villainy. [Anime Feminist]

Anime Feminist polls its readers for the best beginner yuri manga. [Anime Feminist]

Jon Holt and Saki Hirozane translate manga scholar’s Hiroshi Miyamoto’s essay on Happy Mania. [The Comics Journal]

Job alert: VIZ Media is hiring two manga editors. N.B. to prospective job seekers: you must be willing to relocate to the Bay Area. [VIZ MEDIA]

Cat nip for translators—that’s how Jocelyne Allen describes Smoke Blue, a “a bewildering and yet entirely satisfying mix of translation tips and hot guys getting hot and heavy.” [Brain vs. Book]

Masha Zhdanova weighs in on three recent VIZ releases: My Special One, Akane-banashi, and Cat-Eyed Boy. [WWAC]

Kara Dennison offers a helpful list of swoon-worthy shojo manga you can read on the VIZ app. [Otaku USA]

Trevor Van As explains what why Junji Ito is a “master of the genre,” capable of producing “imaginative, visceral” stories filled with “shocking concepts” that stay with you long after you finish reading. [How to Love Comics]

That Manga Hunter sifts through the VIZ Signature catalog in search of good manga for older readers. “If you’re looking for alternative manga, mature non-smut manga, and manga intended for adults, then Viz Signature isn’t a bad place to start,” they opine. “The imprint contains series from a wide range of manga of various art styles and genres. If you’re coming from American comics and graphic novels, of superhero origin or otherwise, this is also the imprint for you.” [That Manga Hunter]

LISTENING IN

Join the Mangasplainers for an in-depth conversation about Pluto: Urasawa X Tezuka, Naoki Urasawa’s re-telling of the classic Astro Boy story “The Greatest Robot on Earth.” [Mangasplaining]

The Manga Machinations gang just finished a three-part series on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s breakthrough series Fire Punch. [Manga Machinations]

For spoiler-free commentary on Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge, tune in to the Spiraken Review. [Spiraken Review Podcast]

Alain and Kate highlight Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand in their first-ever Manga of the Month podcast. [Reverse Thieves]

Gee and Ray unpack Moto Hagio’s groundbreaking boys’ love saga The Heart of Thomas. [Read Right to Left]

Which manga did Andy and Elliot dub “Salaryman Cardcaptor Sakura“? Find out on the most recent episode of Screentone Club! [Screentone Club]

In the latest installment of Manga In Your Ears, Kory, Apryll, and Helen compare notes on Mizuno and Chayama and What Did You Eat Yesterday? [Taiiku Podcast]

REVIEWS

Paging Mushishi fans! This week’s must-read review comes from OASG contributor Helen, who shines a light on When a Cat Faces West, an overlooked gem from Yuki Urushibara. “When a Cat Faces West is a lovely, quiet series about supernatural happenings and the myriad ways that they can be both harmless and deeply unsettling,” Helen notes. “I never felt like the series crossed the line into soft horror but it’s definitely ‘softly unsettling’ at points… a difficult mood to pull off well but it does so splendidly.”

Shall we gather at the river? TCJ posts two reviews of Kyoko Okazaki’s River’s Edge: one by Helen Chazan, and one by Brian Nicholson, while WWAC contributor Kathryn Hemmann offers their own insight into the story’s “gritty millennial malaise”… Johanna Draper Carlson sings the praises of Why I Adopted My Husband… Megan D. revisits Kia Asamiya’sSilent Möbius… and Rebecca Silverman reviews Nazuna Saito’s Offshore Lightning, calling it “one of those books that you find yourself thinking about long after you’ve finished reading it.”

New and Noteworthy

Complete, OOP, and Ongoing Series