Manga Bookshelf

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Katherine Dacey

The Apartments of Calle Feliz

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The Apartments of Calle Feliz begins with a scene cribbed from an Audrey Tatou flick. Luca, a struggling writer, has a terrible day: he breaks up with his boyfriend, then fights with his editor, who chastises him for writing “dark” endings. (“Nobody wants to read your sad story during a recession,” he tells Luca.) Desperate for a new place to live, Luca answers an ad in the paper for an apartment on — irony alert! — Calle Feliz (a.k.a. Happy Street), in a building affectionately known as “Final Feliz,” or “Happy End.” Javi, the landlord, offers Luca a couch, rent-free, until Luca can get back on his feet. At Javi’s urging, Luca decides to pen a novel about the other tenants.

Somewhere in the middle of the prologue, my Geiger counter began registering dangerous levels of whimsy: impossible coincidences! unnatural and impulsive behavior! a character who wants to fix other people’s lives! It’s a measure of just how much I like est em that I continued reading; she’s one of a handful of authors I trust to turn such a cutesy premise into a compelling story.

What follows is a series of vignettes about Luca’s new neighbors. In the first story, for example, we meet Dino, a designer, and Salvador, his boyfriend, who are slowly drifting apart, thanks to Salvador’s eccentric behavior: he declines all social invitations, preferring instead to wander around their apartment in the nude. Though they have maintained an uneasy truce for years, an upcoming business trip threatens to destroy their relationship. Dino and Salvador’s inevitable confrontation is heartbreaking; as silly as the plot may be — doesn’t Salvador ever get cold? what about crumbs? — Salvador’s pain is real, as is Dino’s inability to understand Salvador’s unusual strategy for coping with fear of loss and change.

Other stories illustrate similar themes of loss and estrangement. In chapter four, for example, Pepe, a dollmaker, befriends Matias, a lonely teen. Matias has become painfully self-conscious about his voice; once a source of pride, the onset of puberty has lowered and coarsened it, making him ashamed to sing in public. Only his visits to Pepe give him a sense of purpose, as Pepe’s dolls provide Matias an outlet for ventriloquizing his feelings about his mother’s recent death, and about the changes to his voice.

These stories succeed in spite of their art-movie preciousness largely on the strength of est em’s artwork. Like many boys’ love artists, she draws characters with sharp features and lean, angular bodies. est em softens those shapes with energetic, scribbly linework that helps individualize her characters, whether she’s adding a bump to a long nose or deepening the circles under an older man’s eyes. These subtle imperfections help make the characters’ interior states more accessible to the reader, helping us understand how each character inhabits his skin; when Pepe or Dino stares into the distance, we can practically see what they’re thinking. Even when we’re asked to accept an outlandish premise — a man who falls in love with identical twins, a transvestite who lives with a troupe of noisy circus musicians — the characters’ reactions to one another register as true to life; we appreciate the degree to which routine, silence, and complacency erode human connection and exact a toll on the body and spirit.

est em demonstrates a similar talent for resolving her stories in a nuanced fashion. Some endings are sad, some funny; some are surprising, while others seem inevitable. Whatever happens at the end of each story feels right for the characters and their situations, however; there’s never a moment of sitcom cuteness or sentimentality.

So if you can tolerate a bit of forced whimsy, The Apartments of Calle Feliz offers bountiful rewards: elegant artwork, memorable characters, and happy endings that are neither predictable nor pat. Recommended.

THE APARTMENTS OF CALLE FELIZ • EST EM • CITRON COMICS/JMANGA • 190 pp. • NO RATING (BEST FOR MATURE READERS)

Pick of the Week: Dorohedoro, Durarara!!, X

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There’s quite a bit to choose from this week at Midtown Comics. What will the Battle Robot be buying this week? See below!

SEAN: There are many, many worthy titles this week, which is why I’m glad we have multiple folks picking them out. For myself, I will go with the 6th volume of Dorohedoro, Viz’s comedic fantasy action mystery manga thing. As you might guess by that description, this is an Ikki title. This volume promises to finally give us some answers regarding Nikaido and her sorcery, as well as more insight on En. And of course I’m expecting more of what I love about Dorohedoro: complicated artwork that I love to revisit; crackling dialogue with lots of Pulp Fiction-esque conversations. And Shin and Noi, who would merit a fantastic manga if it was only them, but here are merely part of a cast of great characters. Also, this volume has all new never-before-on-the-web chapters! (OK, that’s because SigIkki seems to be dead, but hey…)

KATE: I only have eyes for one title this week: X. Of all CLAMP’s early works, X has held up the best, even if the artwork is pure 1990s, with cascades of feathers and shoulder pads worthy of Crystal Carrington. One of the things I like best about X is its moral ambiguity; I’m never entirely certain who I’m supposed to be rooting for: Kamui? Fuma? The Earth? The other thing I like about X is the elegant way in which CLAMP uses the visual language of shojo manga to tell a story that could just as easily be at home in a shonen or seinen magazine. The new VIZ edition is a marked improvement over the last; the oversized trim and full-color plates give CLAMP’s elaborate battle scenes more room to breathe.

MJ: Though I’m not quite with Kate on CLAMP’s early works (I’m still a much bigger fan of Tokyo Babylon, and likely always will be), I’m completely with her on X as this week’s must-buy manga. As I mentioned back in November, though Viz’s new-and-improved omnibus release hasn’t quite yet made me *love* X, it’s definitely given me a deeper appreciation for it, in a way that suggests that true love could be on the horizon. In any case, I’m determined to find out. This week, it’s X all the way.

MICHELLE: I’m going with the second volume of Durarara!!, from Yen Press. “Weird but intriguing” was my verdict for the first volume, which managed to convey a lot of information without overwhelming the reader. I still feel like I know next to nothing about the series, and am really looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 4/16/12

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This week, MJ, Michelle, Kate, & Sean look at new releases from Viz Media, Kodansha Comics, and Seven Seas.

Bakuman, Vol. 10 | By Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi Obata | VIZ Media – Tension is high as this volume begins, with Mashiro and Takagi’s career on the line—or at least their future with Weekly Shonen Jump. Developing their latest series for a win-or-die serialization meeting dominates the bulk of this volume, and the overwhelming intensity Ohba and Obata are able to bring to this process is a prime example of Bakuman at its best. Volume ten is irresistibly compelling, in exactly the way its protagonists are struggling to achieve with their own work, making it pretty much the perfect meta-manga. Even its personal relationships—usually the series’ weak point—hold up fairly well in this volume, especially those between the two protagonists and their rivaling editors, Miura and Hattori. I’ve had some shaky moments with this series, but even I couldn’t put this volume down. Rock on, Bakuman, rock on. – MJ

Itsuwaribito, Vol. 5 | By Yuuki Iinuma | VIZ Media – Oh, Itsuwaribito, you had such promise! Your hero travels in appealing company. He tangles with villains of every stripe, using verbal acrobatics to defeat them. And he has a compelling reason for using his unique verbal gifts. Unfortunately, Utsuho’s story has proved oddly unengaging; as the fifth volume of Itsuwaribito demonstrates, author Yuuki Iinuma has a tin ear and terrible sense of pacing. These tendencies come to the fore whenever he introduces a new character: Iinuma can’t resist giving every villain, hero, and traveling companion a Tragic Past that needs to be explained in excruciating detail. The result is a story that’s fitfully engaging, roaring to life only when Utsuho and his companions stumble into a new situation. – Katherine Dacey

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 13 | By Karuho Shiina | VIZ Media – As much as it has been truly wonderful to see Sawako and Kazehaya finally become a couple, I’ve lately become fascinated by Sawako’s friend, Ayane Yano, and wanted to know more about her. I seem to be getting my wish, as volume thirteen finds Ayane agreeing to date a boy she wasn’t even previously aware of, partly to have fun on the school trip to Okinawa and partly, perhaps, in hopes of making a connection that isn’t as easy for her to make as it is for others. Her reaction when Sawako assumes she must’ve liked the boy for a long time is priceless and highlights how different she is from her friends and many shoujo heroines. Ayane isn’t openly emotional and pure-hearted. Instead, she’s private and considers herself to be calculating, even though she acts in her friends’ best interests time and time again. You’ve got to love a series with such a complicated secondary character! – Michelle Smith

Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus, Vol. 4 | By Ken Akamatsu | Kodansha Comics – These three volumes of Negima – Vols. 10-12 – are when fandom really began to explode in North America, and it’s not hard to see why. The school festival is where everything starts to come together – the tournament shows off Akamatsu’s desire for shonen fighting, there’s still plenty of cute girls being nearly naked all the time for his old-school fans, and the plot kicks into overdrive with Asuna’s past, the appearance of “Ku:nel Sanders”, and most of all the revelation of Chao as this arc’s big villain. Plus it has the return of Chisame, who is my second favorite character, doing what she does best – boggling in disbelief that everyone is accepting this. A terrific read, provided as always you don’t mind Akamatsu getting his “fanservice” chapters in every once in a while. –Sean Gaffney

Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Vol. 9 | By Hiroyuki Asada | VIZ Media – I stand by initial assessment of Tegami Bachi: it’s one of the best-looking titles in the Shonen Jump line, even if the story isn’t on par with, say, One Piece. The latest volume introduces a conspiracy theory that adds a badly needed element of complexity to the central narrative. As Lag is dismayed to learn, his old hero Gauche Suede has become an outlaw and adopted a new name. Lag rescues Gauche, only to discover that the government is intent on removing Gauche from Letter Bee headquarters. The battle scenes that follow are beautifully staged, striking a fine balance between action and reflection; only Niche’s aversion to underpants spoils the mood. After several ho-hum volumes, volume nine reaffirms the promise of the very first chapters — a fancy way of saying that I’m officially hooked on Tegami Bachi again. -Katherine Dacey

Toradora!, Vol. 4 | By Yuyuko Takemiya and Zekkyo | Seven Seas – I have to hand it to the authors, they really know how to take Taiga’s frustratoin and ramp it up to eleven. Everything that she’s dealing with goes wrong here – her issues with her small, undeveloped body; her growing feelings for Ryuuji (“RYUUJI IS MINE!”) and jealousy of Ami wanting to ‘take him’; and of course her ability to be angry at everything, whether deserved or not. It’s a miracle that she’s sympathetic, but of course she is, and that’s what gives this manga its heart. There’s less Minori this time around (except for a priceless final gag regarding underwear choice), but I can deal with that. The only downside continues to be Ryuuji’s mother, who is meant to be a stereotypical ‘blonde bimbo’, but is so utterly stereotypical that she gets on your nerves – and not in the good way that Taiga does. –Sean Gaffney

Toriko, Vol. 9 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | VIZ Media – In terms of plot, this is an entire volume of shonen battle. Of course, this being Toriko, half of the ‘battle’ is against thee environment – it’s rather startling how many deaths we see here just form the cold conditions. Of course, that’s not to say there’s no fighting at all. Tommyrod and Bogie are possibly the creepiest villains we’ve seen yet, and the artist is determined to make you squirm, especially if body horror is not your thing. Of course, this is still a Jump title, so there’s plenty of humor as well – the new guy, whoever he may be, is a stitch when talking to himself – and even a cute mascot of sorts as Komatsu bonds with a baby penguin. Still, overall this volume was very much ‘get closer to goal while stopping to fight people who want to stop us getting to goal’, like many well-done shonen manga. I wonder if we’ll reach the goal next time? –Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Cross Game & More

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There’s plenty to choose from at Midtown Comics this week. Check out the Battle Robot’s picks below!

MICHELLE: Decisions, decisions. I will definitely be picking up the latest volumes of Arisa and Itazura Na Kiss, and I’m tempted by the second volume of Countdown 7 Days, as well. But really, the one absolutely can’t miss release for next week is volume seven of Cross Game. This, the penultimate volume of VIZ two-in-one release, contains volumes fourteen and fifteen of the original series, and is sure to be chock full of baseball and slice-of-life relationship goodness. I shamelessly implore everyone to buy Cross Game so that we may see more Adachi released here in future!

SEAN: For those of you who might have been living in a cave for the past couple of years, I will tell you that my pick this week is Volume 23 of Rikdo Koshi’s bubble economy sentai satire Excel Saga. It only comes out once a year now (and the liner notes indicates that isn’t going to change even now that it’s done in Japan, as it says “see you in 2013”), but that just makes it an event, and in the past few volumes we’ve seen the author pull out all the stops and keep developing the actual plot he’s had going. (Yes, anime fans, the manga has a plot. I realize that may be off-putting to you.) An incredibly underrated series, buy it today and make Carl Horn smile. You want to see Carl smile, right?

KATE: I heartily second all of Michelle’s selections, but ultimately cast my vote for Rohan at the Louvre. Like Glacial Period, Sky Over the Louvre, and On the Odd Hours, this manga takes the famous museum’s immense collection as its starting point, building a story around a mysterious, 200-year-old painting. The author is Hirohiko Araki — he of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure — and the lead character a minor character from the JoJo universe. From the summary at the NBM site, I don’t think prior knowledge of JoJo is a prerequisite for enjoying the story, which makes this a great, commitment-free way to get acquainted with Araki’s work.

MJ: I’ll admit that my top choice this week is probably the same as Kate’s, Rohan at the Louvre, and my second is Michelle’s, Cross Game (and yes, I do want to see Carl Horn smile), but since these have already been praised, I have the chance to throw my vote elsewhere. So with that in mind, I’ll name volume two of Dark Horse’s omnibus edition of Magic Knight Rayearth. Though I’m certainly a CLAMP fan, I’ll admit this is one series I’ve never actually read, and with the CLAMP MMF looming up in July, it’s time for me to study up! The fact that Kate chose this edition as a runner-up in her Best Manga of 2011 gives me a lot of confidence that catching up with Magic Knight Rayearth will be worth my while. I look forward to discussing it in July!

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 4/9/12

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This week, Sean, Michelle, and Kate look at recent releases from JManga, Viz Media, Dark Horse, and Vertical, Inc.

Ekiben Hitoritabi, Vol. 2 | By Jun Hayase | JManga – If you read volume one of Ekiben Hitoritabi, then you know what to expect from volume two. In this volume, middle-aged bento shop proprietor Daisuke Nakahara continues to travel around Japan by rail, acquiring two new companions who are initially reserved but eventually succumb to his relentless enthusiasm for railway facts and train station bentos. It’s fairly formulaic, but the panoramic vistas and detailed food drawings are still enjoyable, and dialogue like, “This whole shrimp is pretty lavish! It’s large and filling” inspires indulgent amusement rather than mean-spirited snickering. I even got a little verklempt during the chapters where Daisuke takes a boy on the train journey promised by his now-deceased father. It may not be the most exciting manga ever published, but it’s certainly got its own unique, leisurely charm. Thank you, JManga! – Michelle Smith

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 2 | By Toru Fujisawa | Vertical, Inc. – After unexpectedly enjoying the first volume of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, I was really looking forward to the second. Happily, it did not disappoint. In fact, I liked it even better than the first as, aside from a gag wherein our protagonist’s nether-regions are the target of a swarm of ants, it’s more serious, focusing on Onizuka’s attempts to not only rescue Miki Katsuragi, the rebellious teen who’s caused him so much trouble, from a kidnapper but to get her police chief dad to realize that she’s been acting out in a desperate bid for his attention. Because we are privy to Onizuka’s more bumbling moments, his clear-eyed, rule-defying pursuit seems even more impressive and heroic by comparison. Okay, maybe there’s a little blatant heartstring-pulling here, with the whole “all of us worked as one” search party, but you know what? I don’t care. It’s effective. Bring on volume three! – Michelle Smith

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 2 | By Toru Fujisawa | Vertical, Inc. – For all that GTO can be moralistic in its “life isn’t as bad as you think it is” ways, there’s no denying that it shows life can be pretty damn bad. These kids aren’t just cynical teenagers with no worries – they deal with abuse, gang culture, and as we see here, kidnappers drugging them into online prostitution. That said, the basic theme of “children act up as the adults have abandoned them” reappears here, and we see how “The Girl Who Cried Wolf” isn’t as much fun when taken seriously. Luckily we have Onizuka, who can be a complete idiot much of the time but has the strength to back it up, both physically and mentally. Gang culture is so omnipresent in Onizuka’s world as it’s the closest thing to family for most of these kids, and seeing that family rally to save one of their own is heartwarming. Plus, car chases! –Sean Gaffney

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 8 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – The beauty of Karakuri Odette was twofold: it was a medium length series of six volumes, and its romantic focus was small. These end up being a weakness, unfortunately in her new series. Much of the recent volumes of Kamisama Kiss have been taken up with wondering how long we can drag out the on-again, off-again romance/servant relationship between Nanami and Tomoe. It can be frustrating. On the up side, we do see Nanami’s cleverness here in escaping the World of the Dead, and she has improved greatly as a God. The big emotional drama in this volume, though, is saved for the end, where Nanami meets Mikage once more, who shows us why Tomoe has gaps in his memory – and why he wants Nanami to fill them. If you accept this is taking forever, it’s a good fantasy romance series.-Sean Gaffney

Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol. 12 | Story by Eiji Otsuka, Art by Housui Yamazaki | Dark Horse – In the latest volume of KCDS, the Embalming Gang — as I like to call them — enter Second Life in search of a corpse, match wits with a girl who can leave her own body, and help a dollmaker say good-bye to the sister he lost during the 1945 Tokyo Fire Raids. The first story is the weakest of the three. Though Eiji Otsuka makes a game effort to explain how the gang’s powers work in virtual reality, the material never gels; the story feels like an grab bag of plot points from The Matrix, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and a furry snuff film. The other two, however, are more successful, offering just the right mixture of morbid jokes, spooky surprises, and poignant moments between the living and the dead. As always, Carl Horn’s exhaustive editorial notes are a boon to the curious reader, explaining cultural references, in-jokes, and sound effects in detail. –Katherine Dacey

The Story of Saiunkoku, Vol. 6 | By Kairi Yura and Sai Yukino | Viz Media – As you would expect, just because Shurei has passed the exam to become a civil servant (which she does, in a quickly elided few pages) doesn’t mean that she gets accepted by one and all. Resented for being female, she is quickly assigned to the worst tasks in the ministry go to her (we’re talking cleaning the toilets here), and those who were bullied in school may find this volume disquieting. Like most Japanese manga dealing with bullying, it rides a fine line between “she must get stronger on her own” and “why aren’t we stopping this?”. On the bright side, I like the relationship between her and the Emperor more and more, and his sneaking off to ‘be her bodyguard’ is very clever – especially since it’s becoming harder and harder to see her otherwise. With this series, the long, drawn-out romance is justified by history and events.-Sean Gaffney

Show Us Your Stuff: Morgan’s Reading Rainbow

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Apologies for the late posting — yesterday was very hectic! This week’s featured collector is Morgan, a.k.a. ZepysGirl, a manga lover whose tastes run the gamut from CLAMP to Akira Toriyama. She attributes the size of her impressive library to her nose for deals; as she explains below, she rarely spends more than $5.40 on a volume of manga, even though she usually buys her books new or slightly used. Read on for her excellent shopping and organizational tips! – Katherine Dacey

Hi! I’m Morgan, aka ZepysGirl, and this is my manga collection. I’m a senior in college, planning to graduate soon and enter the industry. I’m kind of “in it” already: I work as a typesetter for the Digital Manga Guild group Purple Prose Killers. I would really love to spend all of my days surrounded by manga, and that’s reflected in my room. When we moved into this house, I declared that I would have a “Manga Wall” — and now I have two! My favorite genres are definitely fantasy and comedy, and I tend to skew more toward shojo than anything else.

How long have you been collecting manga?
I’ve been collecting since near the end of my freshman year in high school, so that would make it spring of 2005. So, about seven years! And everyone thought I would grow out of it…

What was the first manga you bought?
I was somewhere online when I came across a picture of the main characters from DN Angel. I couldn’t get the picture or the name out of my head, so I went on the hunt. At that point in time, I had no idea what manga or even anime was (I knew I liked Digimon, but had no idea it came from Japan. The search for DN Angel led me to a Waldenbooks, where I found a whole wall of manga! I bought up everything of DN Angel that was out at the time, then started moving through other series. I was so cute in those days; for a while, I honestly believed the only place you could buy manga was Waldenbooks!

There’s something ironic about the first series I ever started being one of the ones least likely to actually finish here any time soon…

How big is your collection?
I’m over 2,000 volumes; I’m edging into the territory where I just say “a lot” whenever people ask me.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
I tend to avoid looking up my out-of-print series on Amazon, but it’s probably a volume from one of those. I’d rather not know how expensive a book is on the secondary market, because I have no intention of selling any of them. The ones I like, I want to keep. Oh, and it’s not manga, but the “rarest” item is probably an art book I have for RG Veda. It’s a really nice hardcover book — complete with obi! — and it’s all in Japanese. I looked it up on Amazon once and it was going for $80. I bought it at a Half Price Books for $20!

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
Probably my German edition of Wild Rock. I honestly didn’t know it was German when I ordered it (you have to watch out for that with The Book Depository), and so the first time I opened it was quite a shock. A hilarious shock. I can’t even be annoyed with myself, it’s so entertaining.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
Not much. The series that I loved when I was younger are still some of my favorites now. One thing I have noticed, though, is that I tend to be more discriminating when deciding whether or not to continue/pick up a series (I know it might not seem like it, but it’s true!). A big factor of this is that I know my own tastes better now, and I’ve broken myself of the “But I already have the first volume… maybe it gets better!” mindset. Back in the beginning, I was buying almost at random because I was in love with the medium. Nowadays, I know the difference between “I like it” and “it’s okay” and adjust my buying habits accordingly.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
So many! So first, the people with their own shelves: Fumi Yoshinaga (love her stories!), You Higuri (love her art!), and CLAMP (love the stories AND art!).

There’s also Matsuri Hino, Yoshihiro Togashi, Sakura Tsukuba, Julietta Suzuki, Mizuho Kusanagi, Kaori Yuki (who really should have her own shelf), Karakara Kemuri, Matsuri Akino, Natsuki Takaya, Nari Kusakawa, Bisco Hatori, Yun Koga, Kyousuke Motomi, Svetlana Chmakova, Wann, Arina Tanemura, Usamaru Furuya, and Kazuya Minekura!

Okay! I… I think that’s all of them? You can see why I end up with so much manga, when I have so many manga-ka that I like…

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Ah heck, this is going to be even longer than the last list. Get ready, y’all: 13th Boy, Air Gear, Alice in the Country of Hearts/Clover, Arata: The Legend, Arisa, Black Butler, Blue Exorcist, Bride of the Water God, Countdown 7 Days, D.Gray-man, Dawn of the Arcana, Dengeki Daisy, The Drops of God, Fairy Tail, Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden, Gate 7, Goong, Hunter x Hunter, the InuYasha VIZBIGs, Itsuwaribito, Jack Frost, Kamisama Kiss, Kekkaishi, Kimi ni Todoke, La Corda d’Oro, Loveless, Maoh: Juvenile Remix, Mardock Scramble, the Maximum Ride manga, Naruto, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Oresama Teacher, Ouran High School Host Club, Pandora Hearts, Psyren, Replica, Sailor Moon, Sakura Hime, Shugo Chara Chan, Skip Beat!, Soul Eater, Tegami Bachi, Tenjo Tenge, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, The Story of Saiunkoku, Vampire Knight, and The Wallflower.

So… around 50 series? And that’s not counting the new series I’m most likely going to start (A Devil & Her Love Song, Durarara!!, etc…) or the older ones I’m finishing up (The Antique Gift Shop, Gimmick!). See, this is the main reason why I have this many manga: I like too many series!

Out of all that I’m collecting at the moment, my favorites are Skip Beat, Dengeki Daisy, and Oresama Teacher! I read new volumes of those as soon as I get them, which is unusual for me; normally I wait until I have a big chunk before diving back in. My favorite “new” series (well, new to ME) is Gimmick! — and no, that’s not Hot Gimmick. Gimmick! is the type of series that I want to throw at anyone and everyone! It’s rare that I get this in love with a series, but I am definitely in the honeymoon stage with Gimmick! I can’t even think about it critically because my brain just keeps stuttering “WOW. I did not even KNOW I wanted this!” Yes, boys and girls, read Gimmick!: it will reduce you to a blathering fangirl/fanboy in the best possible way. I dare you not to squee.

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
Oh gosh, I could talk forever about how to find the cheap stuff!

Finding good deals on manga is what I live for. It’s almost to the point where I’ve been thinking about asking to guest-blog somewhere about how to shop for manga. More people should know the tricks to getting $2 manga, I say! Seriously, though: I only have so many manga because I’m very good at shopping for them. My average price per volume is $4.50, so it’s no joke when I say I’d only have half of what I do if I’d paid full price. Sales and coupons are very important, young Manga Padawan.

This is entirely too abbreviated, but:

  • General Organization & Deals: Amazon.com
  • Used Manga: GoHastings.com (sometimes Amazon as well)
  • New Manga: Right Stuf & Midtown Comics (and GoHastings, but only if there’s a book I have to have RIGHT THIS SECOND!)
  • Yaoi: Akadot Retail
  • Honorable Mentions: PaperbackSwap.com, The Book Depository

As far as rare books go, I’ve actually had some success finding them in physical stores, so check out your local half-price bookstore or comic shop. The comic shops ESPECIALLY because those guys never seem to realize what they have! As far as online shops go, I’ve had some luck finding OOP books at both The Book Depository and Midtown Comics.

And for organizing… there are many ways to organize, so just choose what works best for you. My manga are currently alpha-by-title, with a few exceptions. CLAMP is separate to ease lending those books out to other people. I’ve met a lot of people who have only read the popular CLAMP series and haven’t even heard of some of the shorter stuff. The yaoi is off by itself because most of them are one-shots and would get lost in the library otherwise. Oversized books get their own shelf because they simply don’t fit on half of the shelves (the wall-shelves are custom designed for normal manga size). And Fumi Yoshinaga and You Higuri only got their own space because I am severely lacking room in the over-sized bookshelf. I kind of have a shelf of what I need to read next, but that gets oft neglected and I end up reading something completely different. Also: rainbow-order looks really awesome, but you can’t find anything that way. It was short-lived.

To view Morgan’s entire album of pictures, click here.

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please follow the directions on this page.

The Earl & The Fairy, Vol. 1

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Meet Lydia Carlton: she’s a so-called “fairy doctor,” a healer who acts as an intermediary between the spirit and human worlds. The rapid advance of technology in Victorian England has made Lydia’s job obsolete; most people no longer seek magical remedies for their ailments, and view Lydia as a relic of a less enlightened time, someone who steadfastly clings to the belief that she can see and talk to these mischievous folk. Lydia knows better: not only are fairies real, but they continue to wreak havoc with humans, even in an age of railroads, telegraphs, and steam-powered ships.

Lydia’s predicament would make a swell basis for a manga, but her abilities are more a plot contrivance than a central element of the drama — at least in volume one of The Earl & The Fairy. The initial chapters focus on Lydia’s fraught relationship with Edgar Ashenbert, a dashing young man who claims to be descended from the Blue Knight, a legendary warrior. Edgar enlists kidnaps Lydia because he needs someone to help him find the Blue Knight’s sword, the location of which is inscribed on a coin that can only be read by a fairy doctor.

If you’ve read more than five or six shojo manga — or, for that matter, five or six Harlequin romances — you can guess what sort of chap Edgar is: he’s handsome, possessive, and smug, with a tender side that the heroine’s beauty and decency helps reveal. Lydia is a similarly predictable character: she’s feisty and conflicted, simultaneously drawn to and repelled by her captor. Lydia also happens to be one of the duller knives in the Shojo Beat drawer, placing her trust in anyone who approaches her; she’s kidnapped not once but twice in the very first chapter of the story.

For a grumpy old lady like me, stale, silly lead characters would usually be a deal-breaker. The lively supporting cast and lovely artwork, however, drew me into the story, even when Edgar and Lydia’s conversations inspired eyeball rolling and hair pulling. (In later chapters, Edgar narrates his tortured personal history in comic detail — it’s courtship by information dump.)

The best character in The Earl & The Fairy — so far, at least — is Nico, a magical being who assumes the form of a fussy talking cat. On one level, Nico is a standard animal sidekick, providing much-needed comic relief: in one running joke, for example, he bristles with indignation every time he’s served a bowl of milk. (He prefers wine.) On another level, however, Nico is a reader stand-in, giving voice to our frustration with Lydia’s naivete; in essence, it’s like watching a horror movie in which one of the characters says, “Don’t open that door, dude, the killer’s in there.” You don’t say.

Ermine and Raven, a sister-brother duo in Edgar’s employ, also add depth to the cast. Their backstory is pure manga: both were enslaved by a wicked “prince” working out of the sewers of an unnamed American city. After Edgar rescued them, Ermine and Raven became his most devoted servants, waiting on him hand and foot, defending him against enemies, and wooing Lydia on his behalf. To be sure, henchmen/servants are a standard manga type, but Ermine and Raven have enough idiosyncrasies to make them interesting; Ermine, in particular, is an unusual figure, a melancholy cross-dresser who seems caught between the male and female worlds.

The Earl & The Fairy‘s other saving grace is the artwork. The character designs are crisply executed; though none of the characters are especially distinguished looking, artist Ayuko draws elegant, well-proportioned figures that are pleasing to the eye. The settings are rendered with even greater care, capturing the technology and landscapes of mid-nineteenth century England in convincing detail. (Well, minus the ships: when viewed from a distance, they appear to be eighteenth-century sailing vessels, while their interiors suggest a Cunard ocean liner.) Ayuko pays similar attention to lighting; in several nocturnal scenes, she does a fine job of suggesting the meager, irregular quality of candlelight, using delicate crosshatching to mark the boundary between light and shadow.

If the parts of Earl are greater than the whole, it’s still an entertaining series. I don’t know if moody landscapes and talking cats are enough to justify my investment in all four volumes, but I’m certainly willing to read another before declaring this nice-looking romance a dud.

THE EARL & THE FAIRY, VOL. 1 • STORY AND ART BY AYUKO, ORIGINAL CONCEPT BY MIZUE TANI • VIZ MEDIA • 186 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

The Earl & The Fairy, Vol. 1

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Meet Lydia Carlton: she’s a so-called “fairy doctor,” a healer who acts as an intermediary between the spirit and human worlds. The rapid advance of technology in Victorian England has made Lydia’s job obsolete; most people no longer seek magical remedies for their ailments, and view Lydia as a relic of a less enlightened time, someone who steadfastly clings to the belief that she can see and talk to these mischievous folk. Lydia knows better: not only are fairies real, but they continue to wreak havoc with humans, even in an age of railroads, telegraphs, and steam-powered ships.

Lydia’s predicament would make a swell basis for a manga, but her abilities are more a plot contrivance than a central element of the drama — at least in volume one of The Earl & The Fairy. The initial chapters focus on Lydia’s fraught relationship with Edgar Ashenbert, a dashing young man who claims to be descended from the Blue Knight, a legendary warrior. Edgar enlists kidnaps Lydia because he needs someone to help him find the Blue Knight’s sword, the location of which is inscribed on a coin that can only be read by a fairy doctor.

If you’ve read more than five or six shojo manga — or, for that matter, five or six Harlequin romances — you can guess what sort of chap Edgar is: he’s handsome, possessive, and smug, with a tender side that the heroine’s beauty and decency helps reveal. Lydia is a similarly predictable character: she’s feisty and conflicted, simultaneously drawn to and repelled by her captor. Lydia also happens to be one of the duller knives in the Shojo Beat drawer, placing her trust in anyone who approaches her; she’s kidnapped not once but twice in the very first chapter of the story.

For a grumpy old lady like me, stale, silly lead characters would usually be a deal-breaker. The lively supporting cast and lovely artwork, however, drew me into the story, even when Edgar and Lydia’s conversations inspired eyeball rolling and hair pulling. (In later chapters, Edgar narrates his tortured personal history in comic detail — it’s courtship by information dump.)

The best character in The Earl & The Fairy — so far, at least — is Nico, a magical being who assumes the form of a fussy talking cat. On one level, Nico is a standard animal sidekick, providing much-needed comic relief: in one running joke, for example, he bristles with indignation every time he’s served a bowl of milk. (He prefers wine.) On another level, however, Nico is a reader stand-in, giving voice to our frustration with Lydia’s naivete; in essence, it’s like watching a horror movie in which one of the characters says, “Don’t open that door, dude, the killer’s in there.” You don’t say.

Ermine and Raven, a sister-brother duo in Edgar’s employ, also add depth to the cast. Their backstory is pure manga: both were enslaved by a wicked “prince” working out of the sewers of an unnamed American city. After Edgar rescued them, Ermine and Raven became his most devoted servants, waiting on him hand and foot, defending him against enemies, and wooing Lydia on his behalf. To be sure, henchmen/servants are a standard manga type, but Ermine and Raven have enough idiosyncrasies to make them interesting; Ermine, in particular, is an unusual figure, a melancholy cross-dresser who seems caught between the male and female worlds.

The Earl & The Fairy‘s other saving grace is the artwork. The character designs are crisply executed; though none of the characters are especially distinguished looking, artist Ayuko draws elegant, well-proportioned figures that are pleasing to the eye. The settings are rendered with even greater care, capturing the technology and landscapes of mid-nineteenth century England in convincing detail. (Well, minus the ships: when viewed from a distance, they appear to be eighteenth-century sailing vessels, while their interiors suggest a Cunard ocean liner.) Ayuko pays similar attention to lighting; in several nocturnal scenes, she does a fine job of suggesting the meager, irregular quality of candlelight, using delicate crosshatching to mark the boundary between light and shadow.

If the parts of Earl are greater than the whole, it’s still an entertaining series. I don’t know if moody landscapes and talking cats are enough to justify my investment in all four volumes, but I’m certainly willing to read another before declaring this nice-looking romance a dud.

THE EARL & THE FAIRY, VOL. 1 • STORY AND ART BY AYUKO, ORIGINAL CONCEPT BY MIZUE TANI • VIZ MEDIA • 186 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

Pick of the Week: Drops, Devil, & more

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The selection of new manga is wide at Midtown Comics this week. See the Battle Robot’s picks below!

KATE: My liver and I agree: this week’s must-read manga is volume three of The Drops of God. The genius of Drops is that it reads like a shonen tournament manga but has the soul of a Food Network show. Each volume manages to impart information about the world’s finest and rarest wines while delivering plenty of drama and adventure; it’s as if someone crossed Naruto with Oishinbo, and the results are totally, utterly entertaining, even if the characters spend a lot of time waxing rhapsodic about terroir and vintage. Really, what’s not to like about a series that dares to compare a 2001 Chateau Mont-Perac with Freddie Mercury’s singing?

SEAN: My pick this time is the 2nd volume of A Devil And Her Love Song, Viz’s new shoujo series for those of us who like our heroines with bite. However, leaving Maria aside, I’m also enjoying the way that the manga is giving us the traditional shoujo cliche of the happy blond guy and his more serious brunet friend. Maria manages to deconstruct the two of them almost right out of the box, and I look forward to seeing whether they plan to develop beyond the cliche. (I do expect the cliche to stay the same in one, way – serious guy is going to win the girl.) And, as ever with series where the girl is hated by her female classmates but surrounded by hot guy friends, there’s a hope for other sympathetic females.

MICHELLE: Oh man, this is a difficult week! I am definitely eager to read both Drops of God volume three and A Devil and Her Love Song volume two, but Kate and Sean advocated for them so eloquently that I’ve nothing left to add! I think, therefore, that I’ll go for volume two of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan. I knew nothing about the series going in, yet found it easy to follow and though it does have a little too much gross-out humor for my taste, it’s also got a lot of heart. It’s nice reading about a generally goofy protagonist who is also legitimately good at something. Recommended.

MJ: I’m anxious to read both the second volume of A Devil And Her Love Song and The Drops of God (I’m behind on GTO), but since these have already been mentioned, I’ll give my nod to the third volume of Rei Toma’s Dawn of the Arcana. Though at its core, it is a pretty typical shoujo love triangle, volume three finally manages to make the heroine’s supernatural ability interesting and introduces a new, fairly intriguing character as well. Even the political angles of the story are finally taking on some real heft. Though my enthusiasm for this series is still in-progress, this is beginning to look like a series I’ll enjoy following to completion. If you haven’t already, I’d say now is the right time to pick it up!

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Show Us Your Stuff: Sara Christina Barcelona

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Hola, manga lovers! As you might guess from my salutation, this week’s featured contributor hails from Spain — Barcelona, to be exact — and she has a collection that will make American readers green with envy. Sara owns a little bit of everything: Riyoko Ikeda’s The Window of Orpheus, Sanpei Shirato’s The Legend of Kamui, Asao Takamori and Tetsuya Chiba’s Ashita no Joe, Naoko Takeuchi’s Codename: Sailor V, and Takashi Murakami’s Stargazing Dog are just a few of the manga gracing her bookshelves. Like our previous European contributors, Sara is multilingual, collecting manga in Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian, and English. – Katherine Dacey

Hi, everybody! I’m a girl from Barcelona and a passionate manga fan. I also love singing, having promenades, and speaking with friends. If possible, I buy manga in Catalan, but if the volumes I want aren’t available in this language, I don’t mind buying them in Spanish, English, French, or Italian (or other languages I haven’t had the opportunity to learn yet). I also own some Japanese editions, just to collect them, because I can’t understand them.

How long have you been collecting manga?
Eight and a half years, more or less. I think my parents have already assumed that I’ll be a manga fan for the rest of my life!

What was the first manga you bought?
Technically speaking, I have three “first” mangas:

  • Sailor Moon, Vol. 16: This was the very first manga volume I bought. I didn’t like it at all because translation was horrible. I had watched the anime, so for me it wasn’t a problem to follow the story.
  • Fushigi Yugi, Vol. 1: My first unflipped manga!
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: Although I now hate this series, it was the first one I collected seriously.

How big is your collection?
Right now, my collection is between 300 and 400 volumes. It’s quite small considering the number of years I have been collecting manga, but I can’t afford to buy more volumes and I don’t count mangas I’m trying to sell.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
Let me see… I own the French edition of Devilman Vol. 1, many volumes of the Catalan edition of Doraemon, Spanish editions of The Legend of Kamui: The Island of Sugaru and Baoh, and some older Spanish editions of Kaikisen, Barefoot Gen, and Promise. I have many other OOP Spanish editions, but they aren’t particularly rare. Finally, I don’t know if it’s rare, but I own the animal encyclopedia of the Nod·d·a·ringniche Island, which is magnificent, even if I can’t read it.

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
This one is easy: DDT and New National Kid. Both of them are quite similar: short stories by Suehiro Maruo, as weird as they are disgusting.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
As I started collecting Tsubasa, I became curious about CLAMPS’s work. Most of the manga I bought then was by CLAMP since I loved their style; when I tried something that wasn’t by CLAMP, I usually didn’t like it. (Shop assistants didn’t give me good advice!) I enjoyed Shin Shun Kaden’s story even if it wasn’t complete, I laughed like a mad with Miyuki-chan in the Wonderland, I was nostalgic with Shirahime-Syo and was traumatized by RG Veda.

When I passed volume 22 of Tsubasa, I started to dislike it and I didn’t find other mangas that satisfied me. This was my crisis manga period. Then one day I randomly borrowed the first volume of Rose of Versailles from a library… and it was so fascinating I couldn’t stop reading. I had to return to the library and take the other volumes the sooner the better. My manga crisis was over.

I’m still angry with CLAMP – so angry, in fact, that I didn’t try Kobato or Gate7 and didn’t finish xxxHolic. I think they have evolved, in both art and scripts. That said, I still like their ’90 mangas such as Tokyo Babylon and X.

Right now, I like well-constructed stories and dramas but I also enjoy good comedies. Even if the genres I read the most are shôjo, seinen and josei, I try to taste a bit of all (except from lolicon and shotacon, which I consider aberrations). Ah! And I love older mangas, especially the ones from the seventies, a decade when many masterpieces were conceived.



Who are your favorite comic artists?
Nowadays, my favorite one is Riyoko Ikeda: I love her dramas and the way her stories develop. Even though the Rose of Versailles Gaiden is horrible and I would have preferred that she hadn’t drawn it.

My favorite slice-of-life mangaka is Fumiyo Kôno: her drawings and scripts are so lovely. When I read her works I feel like floating. My favorite artist is Macoto Takahashi: his fairy tales landscapes are just breathtaking.

What is your favorite series?
This one is pretty difficult. I have many and I can’t just choose one. I’ll try not to name more than one manga per author: Oniisama e… (Riyoko Ikeda), Nagai Michi (Fumiyo Kôno), Coo no Sekai plus its sequel A Patch of Dreams (Hideji Oda), Tokyo Babylon (CLAMP), Fruits Basket (Natsuki Takaya), Ikkyû (Hisashi Sakaguchi), Sand Chronicles (Hinako Ashihara), The Willow Tree (Moto Hagio), Blue (Kiriko Nananan), Red Colored Elegy (Seiichi Hayashi), Calling You (Otsuichi & Hiro Kiyohara), Lovely Complex (Aya Nakahara), Gakuen Alice (Tachibana Higuchi), Uzumaki (Junji Ito) and Stargazing Dog (Takashi Murakami). Of course, they may change in the future as my own tastes evolve and I discover new works.

I suppose that I can’t choose because I haven’t found yet a manga I feel it’s been created just for me. Maybe someday I will.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Just Gakuen Alice. In fact, I would like to collect actively more series, but I can’t afford it, so I just try to buy second hand books or special offers. There are a few series that I would like to finish/continue; if I can’t find someone selling them at a good price, I’ll buy them at comic shop. They are Ashita no Joe, Last Quarter and Lovely Complex.

I would buy more first-hand comics if the prices were lower. However, Spanish people prefer better-quality editions, and are willing to pay more for manga, even if translation is abominable.

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
Organization. I organize my manga collection by themed shelves, drawers, and boxes which can change as my collection grows. I also build my own manga boxes. It requires some time but I enjoy making them.

Bargain hunting. I buy a lot of second-hand manga and take advantage of special offers from shops. This is great way to find rare, OOP comics (and sometimes not so expensive, if you’re lucky) and to save money.

For second-hand books, I visit Spanish forums with a second-hand market section. I also visit Barcelona’s Newton shop and Barcelona’s Mercat de Sant Antoni, an old book, comic and videogame market which takes place every Sunday. I also try to find good second hand-offers in big manga/comic conventions, such as the Saló del Manga de Barcelona and Saló Internacional del Còmic de Barcelona.

For special offers, I often visit comic shops and check their promotional displays.

Collection purging. Sell items you don’t like! The best option is through forums or sites such as eBay, because if you try to sell them in a comic shop they’ll pay you nearly nothing. Sometimes, if I bought something really, really cheap I could even earn some money.

Mangas published in other countries. Sites such as Book Depository and Deastore are quite useful for people who know foreign languages but don’t plan to buy a lot of products. (The shipping costs are always free.) If you buy in bulk, you should compare the prices with Amazon, then, because the shipping costs are free if you spend meet a certain minimum. (Editor’s note: That minimum varies by country; in the United States, orders over $25.00 qualify for the free shipping promotion.)

Sara prepared a comprehensive list of her collection; you can view that list by clicking here to download a PDF version.

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please follow the directions on this page.

March madness

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It’s almost time for the second annual Aniblog Tourney, in which dozens of anime blogs face off, March Madness style, for the honor of Best Anime Blog. This year, tournament organizers have widened the scope of the contest to include manga blogs as well, explaining that “The anime and manga spheres seem to be very disconnected from each other, so hopefully we can spread some of the readers of anime blogs into reading some manga blogs.”

Over at Manga Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore interviews Fanfare/Ponent Mon publisher Stephen Robson. As Ed notes, Fanfare is responsible for publishing almost 70% of the Jiro Taniguchi titles available in English.

Also at Manga Worth Reading: Ed Sizemore explores Jiro Taniguchi’s artistic influences.

VIZ Media announced that it would be producing an original graphic novel series based on the popular Redakai television series, currently airing on Cartoon Network. Look for the first full-color book in October 2012.

Connie has a licensing request: Setona Mitzushiro’s Heartbroken Chocolatier.

The Manga Bookshelf gang declare Dororo and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service this week’s must-buy manga.

News from Japan: In a recent interview with Geijutsu Shincho, Katsuhiro Otomo revealed that he is working on his first long series since AKIRA. Otomo was stingy with details, saying only that the story would appear in a shonen magazine.

Reviews: In their latest Going Digital column, MJ and Sean Gaffney review both manga apps and online manga. Over at Experiments in Manga, Ash Brown shares his thoughts on A A’, King of Thorn, and Mister Mistress.

Connie on vol. 3 of Dawn of the Arcana (Slightly Biased Manga)
Connie on Golgo 13: Ice Lake Hit (Slightly Biased Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1-3 of Hana-Kimi (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Rob McMonigal on vol. 8 of Jormungand (Panel Patter)
Sakura Eries on vol. 7 of Oresama Teacher (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Warner on vol. 3 of Psyren (The Fandom Post)
Lori Henderson on The Quest for the Missing Girl (Manga Xanadu)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 5-6 of Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura (Anime News Network)
Lori Henderson on Samurai Legend (Manga Xanadu)
Anna on vol. 7 of Stepping on Roses (Manga Report)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 2 of Summit of the Gods (Manga Worth Reading)
Anna on Tenka Ichi!! (Manga Report)
Sean Gaffney on Young Miss Holmes, Casebooks 1-2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

On the meaning of fan fic

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Greetings, MangaBlog readers! Brigid is away on a top-secret mission at the moment, so she’s asked me to fill in for her until next week. As always, I’ll do my best to bring you the latest manga news and reviews, but please don’t be shy about pointing me towards articles I’ve missed. The next round-up will be on Monday morning.

New Manga Bookshelf columnist Aja Romano debunks three myths about fan fiction.

Continuing this week’s discussion about where fans buy manga, Matt Blind examines manga lovers’ online shopping habits. His conclusion: Naruto, Bleach, Black Bird, and Sailor Moon are just as popular online as they are in brick-and-mortar stores.

Jason Thompson dedicates his latest House of 1000 Manga column to Kouta Hirano’s Hellsing.

Erica Friedman discusses Monthly Comic Beam, “the magazine for the comic freaks.” (That’s the magazine’s tagline, not Erica’s assessment of it, BTW.)

Say it isn’t so: Vertical, Inc. revealed that the English-language edition of Twin Spica is likely to go out of print due to poor sales.

Self-proclaimed otaku Night Rose shows off her growing manga collection at The Manga Critic.

Over at Manga Worth Reading, Ed Sizemore rounds up the latest contributions to the Jiro Taniguchi Manga Movable Feast. Among the highlights is a thought-provoking essay by Craig Fischer on The Walking Man. “Taniguchi’s art is the antithesis of expressionism: he represents the world with as much objectivity as he can, and the results are both breathtaking (in its cascade of details) and a little abstract, a little detached, not unlike the Walking Man himself,” Fischer explains. “Taniguchi’s art is cool, more like mapmaking than passionate storytelling.”

News from Japan: Hiromu Arakawa has won the fifth annual Taisho Award for Silver Spoon, a shonen manga set an an agricultural school. After a one-year hiatus, Kariko Koyama will resume work on Sheryl: Kiss in the Galaxy, a spin-off of Macross Frontier than ran in Bessatsu Friend.

Reviews: For their latest BL Bookrack column, MJ and Michelle Smith cast a critical eye over four recent releases, including Tweeting Love Birds and You and Tonight.

Carlo Santos on vol. 19 of 20th Century Boys (Anime News Network)
Connie on vol. 4 of Afterschool Charisma (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin Bomba on vol. 7 of Butterflies, Flowers (Comic Attack!)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (Sequential Tart)
Ed Sizemore on Koduko no Gourmet (Manga Worth Reading)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 15 of La Corda d’Oro (Anime News Network)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 7 of Rosario + Vampire Season II (Sequential Tart)
Connie on A Single Match (Slightly Biased Manga)
Wolfen Moondaughter on vol. 7 of Stepping on Roses (Sequential Tart)
Connie on Tired of Waiting for Love (Slightly Biased Manga)

Show Us Your Stuff: Night Rose’s Manga Shrine

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It’s Thursday, which means that it’s time for another installment of Show Us Your Stuff. Our featured otaku is NightRose, who’s been collecting manga since 2008. She counts Arina Tanemura, Svetlana Chmakova, and Natsuki Takaya among her favorite artists, though she reads all kinds of manga: shojo, shonen, seinen, josei. Among the more unusual items in her collection is an art book for Alice in the Country of Hearts. Here’s what she has to say for herself, and her growing manga library. -Katherine Dacey

Hi, I’m NightRose, or Night, or Rose, or Chibi-chan, or Mili-chan, or… you get the point. I’m your typical shy girl with a love for manga and anything related to Japanese shtuff. I live in the USA currently and am a senior in high school, where I lead my school’s anime club. I’ve tried cosplaying, I’ve been to anime conventions (if you’ve been to ACen, I’m the girl with the big “Free Hugs” sign), and I’m trying to improve my drawing skills. Oh, and I like gaming and all that fun stuff. I also read anything that’s everything — I’m not that picky.

What first got me started into anime/manga was anime on TV. When I was little I was addicted to Cartoon Network (and some other cartoon channels I forgot the names of); I loved Cartoon Network with a passion. (Now I don’t have cable and Cartoon Network sucks anyway.) Then going into grade eight, my library had a “read 5 books get one free” program. I looked at the free books they had and I found Fruits Basket. I thought, “What the hell, why not?” I read it and loved it. I went back the next day to get more of the series and other manga. After a while I wanted to collect manga for myself, and here I am today with a mom nagging me about my collection.

How long have you been collecting manga?
I started to collect manga in 2008. When I almost finished all the manga series in the library (over 40+), I started to seriously collect in 2009.

What was the first manga you bought?
The first one I owned was Fruits Basket, but that was free from the library. The first one I bought… I think it was either Full Moon,  Naruto, or Cherry Juice. I’m pretty positive it was Full Moon, though.

How big is your collection?
404 volumes at the moment.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
I’m not sure what you mean by “rare”. But what I think of it, it would be my Alice in the Country of Hearts art/guide book. My then-boyfriend got it for me when he went to Japan. I also have several volumes of Kingdom Hearts manga that are hard to find. Another rare item I have is my Final Fantasy VII PS1 Video Game. That game is what made me start collecting all the Final Fantasy games for the PS1.

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
My maid dress! My ex-boyfriend got it for me as a joke. In terms of manga, I have The Otaku Encyclopedia. Sadly enough, it helped me with a lot of terms I didn’t know.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
When I first started to collect, I would just get anything I found at the store. I didn’t care what it was; I just wanted a lot of manga and to read more in different genres. When I discovered Half Price Books, I started to get different series that you don’t really see in stores. After I’d been collecting for a while, I started to get picky with what I bought. That said, I’m open to any genre besides yaoi, yuri, hentai, or anything in those categories.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
I don’t really have one per se… I like Arina Tanemura’s art but not her story lines, and I also love Svetlana Chmakova’s plots but not her art. Dramacon is amazing; if you haven’t read it then go read it now!

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Anything that’s not completed yet in my collection. I don’t follow what just came out. If I see a volume in a store that I need and I have money, I’ll get it.For example, I’d get Shugo Chara volume 3 if it’s available.

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
When you’re first getting into manga, I suggest reading a few different genres to know what you like.

If you don’t care about the condition of your books, find a used bookstore near you and see if they have any manga. Some of them are pretty good, like Half Price Books. Manga costs $2.00 – $5.00 there! Prices vary from store to store, however. I went to a used bookstore and was disappointed to see that not-so-new-looking manga was only $2.00 off the retail price. I would recommend going to used bookstores if you can’t find something you want, especially Tokyopop or CMX titles, older series that aren’t published anymore, etc.

If you want something newer, go to the bookstore (Barnes and Nobles) and get it. You can also get some deals like 10% off or the buy four get one free. You can also try eBay; people sell manga in bulk and sometimes it’s dead cheap.

Last but not least, when you get a bookshelf, make sure there are multiple holes on the sides so that you can add more shelves or make some of the spaces smaller/bigger.

I hope these tips help! Have fun collecting.

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please follow the directions on this page.

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Benkei in New York

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I’ve always thought that I had something in common with Warren Ellis — besides a sailor’s fondness for colorful language, that is — and reading Benkei in New York confirmed my suspicions: we both like Jiro Taniguchi. Flip to the back cover of the VIZ Pulp edition, and you’ll see Ellis declaring that “Benkei is better than 96% of the crime fiction coming out of America right now.” I have no idea how he arrived at that figure, but eleven years after Benkei’s initial US release, I’m still inclined to agree with him.

Originally serialized in Big Comic Original, Benkei in New York (1991-96) is a collaboration between Taniguchi and writer Jinpachi Mori, best known in Japan for Kasai no Hito, a long-running manga about an eccentric but wise judge. The seven Benkei stories focus on a Japanese ex-pat living in New York. Like many New Yorkers, Benkei’s career is best characterized by slashes and hyphens: he’s a bartender-art forger-hitman who can paint a Millet from memory or assassinate a thug using a swordfish. (Let’s just say they call it “swordfish” for a reason.)

Benkei’s primary job, however, is seeking poetic justice for murder victims’ families. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if Benkei simply used a gun; part of the series’ allure is watching him set elaborate traps for his prey, whether he’s borrowing a page from the Titus Andronicus playbook or using a grappling hook to wound an unscrupulous dockworker. In “Haggis,” for example, Benkei uses a draft-dodger’s memories of a 1968 trip to Scotland to win the man’s confidence, persuading him to visit an out-of-the-way bar where a gruesome dish awaits him. “Throw Back,” another stand-out, culminates in an elaborate showdown in the American Music of Natural History that gives new meaning to the phrase “interactive exhibits”; Benkei and his victim plunder display cases for weapons, dueling their way through the Hall of Human Origins.

As the scene in the Natural History Museum suggests, New York City is as much a “character” as Benkei himself. Taniguchi clearly spent hours poring over photographs of the city: his rendition of Coney Island, for example, doesn’t just show the Cyclone — an easy symbol for this iconic stretch of New York coastline — but all the bathhouses, apartment buildings, and other structures that line the boardwalk, including the distinctive facade of the New York Aquarium. Moreover, he captures the feeling of Coney Island in the off-season — the dark grey color of the ocean, the empty expanses of boardwalk, the absence of people — imbuing the scene with a melancholy authenticity.

Taniguchi’s eye for detail is evident in his busier scenes as well. In the opening pages of “Throw Back,” Benkei pursues his mark through the 42nd Street subway station. A series of narrow, horizontal panels convey the bustling energy of the platform, cross-cutting between a busker pounding on plastic drums (a subway fixture in the 1990s) and Benkei threading his way through the commuters. Taniguchi swiftly pulls back from extreme close-ups of the the drummer and Benkei to crowd scenes, in so doing helping us see this claustrophobic, noisy space as Benkei does: camouflage for the urban hunter.

Like many VIZ manga from the 1990s and early 2000s, Benkei in New York boasts a stylish translation. (Yuji Oniki is credited as the adapter.) The script crackles with wit and energy, as Benkei trades one-liners with clients and targets alike. One of my favorite exchanges occurs early in the volume, as Benkei talks business with the leader of an art forgery ring:

Forger: Timing is of crucial importance. Once we agree on a deal, it’s our responsibility to deliver the product to the client while they’re still drooling.
Benkei: You sound like you run a pizza joint.
Forger: What’s wrong with that? Selling pizzas is how I learned everything about New York.

Hokey as that conversation may be, it wouldn’t be out of place in a gangster flick; one could almost imagine a character in Goodfellas or The Godfather reminiscing about his past in a similar fashion.

If Benkei’s motives and methods are sometimes inscrutable — or downright illogical — the stories still work beautifully, with crack pacing and memorable denouements that can be as deeply unsettling as they are emotionally satisfying — or, in Warren Ellis’ words, Benkei in New York is “diabolically well-told.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

BENKEI IN NEW YORK • STORY BY JINPACHI MORI AND ART BY JIRO TANIGUCHI • VIZ • 224 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Benkei in New York

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I’ve always thought that I had something in common with Warren Ellis — besides a sailor’s fondness for colorful language, that is — and reading Benkei in New York confirmed my suspicions: we both like Jiro Taniguchi. Flip to the back cover of the VIZ Pulp edition, and you’ll see Ellis declaring that “Benkei is better than 96% of the crime fiction coming out of America right now.” I have no idea how he arrived at that figure, but eleven years after Benkei’s initial US release, I’m still inclined to agree with him.

Originally serialized in Big Comic Original, Benkei in New York (1991-96) is a collaboration between Taniguchi and writer Jinpachi Mori, best known in Japan for Kasai no Hito, a long-running manga about an eccentric but wise judge. The seven Benkei stories focus on a Japanese ex-pat living in New York. Like many New Yorkers, Benkei’s career is best characterized by slashes and hyphens: he’s a bartender-art forger-hitman who can paint a Millet from memory or assassinate a thug using a swordfish. (Let’s just say they call it “swordfish” for a reason.)

Benkei’s primary job, however, is seeking poetic justice for murder victims’ families. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if Benkei simply used a gun; part of the series’ allure is watching him set elaborate traps for his prey, whether he’s borrowing a page from the Titus Andronicus playbook or using a grappling hook to wound an unscrupulous dockworker. In “Haggis,” for example, Benkei uses a draft-dodger’s memories of a 1968 trip to Scotland to win the man’s confidence, persuading him to visit an out-of-the-way bar where a gruesome dish awaits him. “Throw Back,” another stand-out, culminates in an elaborate showdown in the American Music of Natural History that gives new meaning to the phrase “interactive exhibits”; Benkei and his victim plunder display cases for weapons, dueling their way through the Hall of Human Origins.

As the scene in the Natural History Museum suggests, New York City is as much a “character” as Benkei himself. Taniguchi clearly spent hours poring over photographs of the city: his rendition of Coney Island, for example, doesn’t just show the Cyclone — an easy symbol for this iconic stretch of New York coastline — but all the bathhouses, apartment buildings, and other structures that line the boardwalk, including the distinctive facade of the New York Aquarium. Moreover, he captures the feeling of Coney Island in the off-season — the dark grey color of the ocean, the empty expanses of boardwalk, the absence of people — imbuing the scene with a melancholy authenticity.

Taniguchi’s eye for detail is evident in his busier scenes as well. In the opening pages of “Throw Back,” Benkei pursues his mark through the 42nd Street subway station. A series of narrow, horizontal panels convey the bustling energy of the platform, cross-cutting between a busker pounding on plastic drums (a subway fixture in the 1990s) and Benkei threading his way through the commuters. Taniguchi swiftly pulls back from extreme close-ups of the the drummer and Benkei to crowd scenes, in so doing helping us see this claustrophobic, noisy space as Benkei does: camouflage for the urban hunter.

Like many VIZ manga from the 1990s and early 2000s, Benkei in New York boasts a stylish translation. (Yuji Oniki is credited as the adapter.) The script crackles with wit and energy, as Benkei trades one-liners with clients and targets alike. One of my favorite exchanges occurs early in the volume, as Benkei talks business with the leader of an art forgery ring:

Forger: Timing is of crucial importance. Once we agree on a deal, it’s our responsibility to deliver the product to the client while they’re still drooling.
Benkei: You sound like you run a pizza joint.
Forger: What’s wrong with that? Selling pizzas is how I learned everything about New York.

Hokey as that conversation may be, it wouldn’t be out of place in a gangster flick; one could almost imagine a character in Goodfellas or The Godfather reminiscing about his past in a similar fashion.

If Benkei’s motives and methods are sometimes inscrutable — or downright illogical — the stories still work beautifully, with crack pacing and memorable denouements that can be as deeply unsettling as they are emotionally satisfying — or, in Warren Ellis’ words, Benkei in New York is “diabolically well-told.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

BENKEI IN NEW YORK • STORY BY JINPACHI MORI AND ART BY JIRO TANIGUCHI • VIZ • 224 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)