Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Picks & anti-Picks

February 27, 2012 by Sean Gaffney, Brigid Alverson, MJ, Michelle Smith and Katherine Dacey 5 Comments

This week’s haul at Midtown Comics inspires both some enthusiastic picks (and a couple of emphatic anti-picks) from the Battle Robot. Check them out below!

SEAN: Can I make xxxHOLIC my anti-Pick of the Week? :) Seriously, though, even though Midtown isn’t listing it, my store is getting in the 13th volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. Over the last several volumes, the manga has found its way, almost ceasing to be about any of the characters at all. I can’t even recall the last time Nozomu tried to kill himself. Instead, it devotes itself to a typical cliched behavior every chapter, and then picks it apart until it explodes. And if that means less attention to character development, well, the characters are exaggerations to begin with, so it’s less about deepening them and more about honing them into sharp, cutting blades. Which is why, in this volume, they proceed to butcher an entire prison full of guards. Want to learn why? Read the book!

BRIGID: Although GTO tempts me, I’m going with vol. 2 of Gate 7 as my first choice. Although the first volume had its flaws—storytelling that managed to be both unclear and repetitive, to be specific—the art is beautiful, and by the end of the book CLAMP had me firmly in their grip with the promise of a historical/supernatural story set in old Kyoto. CLAMP can be really terrible or really good, and I’m hoping that after a stuttering start, this book will fall into the latter group.

MJ: Well, Sean, I’m going to cancel out your anti-Pick by picking it! Yes, I’ve heard the same disheartening things about the ending of xxxHolic as everyone else has (well, without explicit spoilers—so please don’t spoil me now!) but I’ve loved this series for 18 volumes, and I’m longing to read its conclusion for myself. Unlike many readers, I’ve actually quite enjoyed the series’ post-Young coda (see my thoughts on volume 18 here). Watanuki was my reason for reading from the very beginning, and he remains so to this day. I just have to see how his story ends, for better or worse.

MICHELLE: Don’t spoil me on xxxHOLiC, either! I still need to finish Tsubasa! Anyway, I’ve probably picked this series before, and I’ll probably pick it again, but I must cast my vote this week for the seventh volume of Itazura Na Kiss. This series has its ups and downs, with moments both delightful and infuriating, but I still look forward to each double-sized volume. I’m especially keen to see whether Naoki gets any nicer or Kotoko any more competent, but somehow I doubt that will happen any time soon.

KATE: My pick is Tenjo Tenge…. NOT! (I chalk up that feeble joke to the lingering effects of Vicks Vapo-Rub and cough syrup.) While I second Michelle’s enthusiastic endorsement of Itazura na Kiss, I’m casting my vote for volume three of Border. Technically speaking, Border is yaoi, but it reads more like The A-Team than Bad Teacher’s Equation — well, if Murdock occasionally made out with Mr. T. I guess that doesn’t make Border seem very entertaining, but I really enjoyed the first two volumes’ mixture of melodrama, suspense, and teamwork. This is yaoi for readers who like a big dose of plot with their smut. Oh, and lots of handsome men in camouflage.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Osamu Tezuka’s Lost World

February 23, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 6 Comments

Reading Osamu Tezuka’s Lost World (1948) reminded me a formative graduate school experience. I was researching George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1935), when I stumbled across a blistering review of a composition I’d never heard: Blue Monday (1922), a one-act “jazz opera” that Gershwin composed for Paul Whiteman’s Scandals of 1922. After attending its premiere, Charles Darnton, critic for the New York Tribune, pronounced the project a disaster, an ill-advised attempt to transplant the conventions of verismo opera to a Harlem setting. Blue Monday, he opined, was “the most dismal, stupid, and incredible blackface sketch that has probably ever been perpetrated. In it a dusky soprano finally killed her gambling man. She should have shot all her associates the moment they appeared and then turned the pistol on herself.” (Darnton, 11)

Ouch.

The review piqued my interest, however, prompting me to track down a recording of Blue Monday. Judged against Porgy and Bess, it was an inferior work; as Gershwin biographer Charles Schwartz observed, the music was several degrees removed from jazz and ragtime, drawing its cues from Alexander’s Ragtime Band and not The Maple Leaf Rag. (Schwartz, 61) The dramaturgy, too, was weak, conveying little of the Harlem setting. Yet in this early experiment, I could hear glimmerings of Gershwin’s mature style, a conscious effort to bring African-American music to the opera stage. And that excited me.

I had a similar reaction to Lost World, an early, problematic work in the Tezuka canon. First published in 1948, Lost World focuses on a scientific expedition to the fictional planet Mamango, a large, egg-shaped rock that, five million years earlier, had been a part of the Earth. When the scientists arrive on Mamango, they discover a Jurassic landscape carpeted in monstrous ferns, populated by hungry dinosaurs, and littered with powerful “energy stones.” The financial and scientific value of their discoveries, however, soon cause a deadly rift within the expedition party.

The execution of Lost World will come as a shock to readers familiar with Tezuka’s mature style. The profusion of subplots, minor characters, and doppelgangers makes the story hard to follow on a moment-to-moment basis; without frequent narrative interventions from the characters, large stretches of Lost World would be incomprehensible. More frustrating still is Tezuka’s over-reliance on dialogue to resolve plot points and reveal motive, even when that information is readily conveyed by the pictures. (“This is payback for you throwing me into the gorge! You get me?!” one character yells as he pummels the person who pushed him off a cliff in the previous scene.) The biggest disappointment, however, is the artwork; most of the panels consist of talking heads, with a handful of dramatic, but disjointed, action scenes interrupting the steady stream of chatter.

Writing about Lost World in the 1980s, Tezuka conceded Lost World‘s shortcomings, attributing them to his age (he was 20) and the circumstances of its publication. As he explained, the work originally ran in an Osaka newspaper, Kansai Yoron, where the target audience was young adults. The two-volume version published by Fuji Shobo, however, was aimed at the children’s market, necessitating substantial changes to the the script. What had been a romance in the original version, for example, was recast as a brother-sister relationship in the Fuji Shobo edition; anything more explicit would have been “absolutely taboo in children’s comics” of the period. (Tezuka, 248)

At the same time, Tezuka touted Lost World as an important milestone in his artistic development. “I thought that at the very least, there was no other comic book like mine, which was like a novel (albeit a very crude one), and had an unhappy ending,” Tezuka explained. (Tezuka 247) A careful inspection of Lost World supports Tezuka’s claim for its significance; whatever its shortcomings, many of the characters and themes of his mature works appear in embryonic form in Lost World.

On the most basic level, Tezuka employs several of his best-known “stars” in Lost World, arranging them in contrasting pairs. Acetylene Lamp, for example, plays an unscrupulous journalist who stows away aboard the expedition’s spaceship so that he can get an exclusive scoop on Mamango — and profit from the mysterious “energy stones” scattered across its surface. Another Tezuka favorite, Shunsaku Ban (a.k.a. Higeoyaji), plays yang to Lamp’s yin; as in many of his other incarnations, Ban is a middle-aged detective whose blustery demeanor camouflages his basic decency. Both characters are motivated by curiosity, but their curiosity compels them in opposite directions: Lamp towards profit, Ban towards truth.

From left to right: Acetylene Lamp, Shunsaku Ban/Hygeoyaji, Kenichi Shikishima

The story’s two scientists are likewise played by major “stars” from the Tezuka troupe. Kenichi Shikishima, hero of New Treasure Island, leads the Mamango expedition. Dr. Shikishima’s youthful spirit, resolve, and courage are contrasted with that of Dr. Butaru Makeru, a mustachioed villain whose cowardice and opportunism precipitate the disaster on Mamango. While Shikishima resolves to visit Mamango “for the sake of world science,” Makeru hints at his selfish motives for participating in the expedition: “If by some chance we meet with something unexpected on that planet, don’t blame me. Heh, heh, heh!” That contrast is also underscored by their terrestrial research as well: while Shikishima’s experiments are intended to help animals achieve human consciousness, Makeru’s experiments are designed for his own personal benefit, with little regard for their greater social or scientific good.

In later works, Tezuka was less schematic in his representations of good and evil, allowing characters to simultaneously embody both. Father Garai, anti-hero of MW, is a good example of this later tendency: Garai is a good man tormented by dark sexual desires, seeking grace even as he sins repeatedly. Black Jack is another, a character whose misanthropy and greed are counterbalanced by a strong reverence for life. As Helen McCarthy observes in The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga, Black Jack is “sometimes a gentle and compassionate savior, sometimes a cold and unforgiving avenger,” two opposite yet equally human responses to “the inevitability of death.” (McCarthy, 199)

Ayame

Mimio

Lost World also introduces a recurring character type found throughout Tezuka’s work: the artificial life-form. Early in the story, Tezuka introduces us to Mimio, a talking rabbit, and Ayame, a “veggie girl.” Both are the result of scientific experiments: Dr. Shikishima surgically enhanced Mimio’s brain to grant him human intelligence, while Dr. Butamo cultivated Ayame in a laboratory. (Note that Shikishima’s motives seem benevolent; he wants to help animals achieve equal status with humans, whereas Butamo is more interested in making a wife for himself.)

Mimio and Ayame’s quest for humanity is rather baldly presented. In an early chapter, for example, Mimio visits Shikishima’s lab, where a new group of surgically enhanced animals are learning how to think and act like humans. Though the animals’ struggles with language and manners are played for laughs — “Boy, all humans sure do look alike!” exclaims a dog — there’s a definite sense that these creatures’ own desires are being subordinated to Shikishima’s grander mission of animal-human detente. “You’re very being is unique,” one of Shikishima’s colleagues tells his subjects. “Therefore, you should help humans and be a guide to other animals in perpetuum.”

Unlike Mimio, Ayame looks human, even though she is composed entirely of plant material — and that makes her situation more precarious than the rabbit’s. On the one hand, Dr. Butamo wants her to become his wife, threatening to kill her if she refuses to honor his marriage proposal. On the other, some of the characters view Ayame as nothing more than a walking, talking cabbage — and thus a potential food source when the crew’s rations run out. Ayame remains committed to exploring her humanity nonetheless; late in the manga, she and Shikishima have this pointed exchange:

Shikishima: Miss Ayame, surely, you must be surprised to be having so many adventures.You see? The world of humans is full of adventure and wonder!

Ayame: I feel as if I finally understand what things bring the most pleasure and happiness to the hearts of humans!

Shikishima: Well, then, when you return to the laboratory, you should have Mr. Butamo teach you even more, shouldn’t you?

In Mimio and Ayame, it’s not hard to see the inspiration for later characters such as Dororo‘s Hyakkimaru and Black Jack‘s Pinoko, both of whom struggle to reconcile the circumstances of their “birth” with their desire to be fully human.

Perhaps the most striking thing about Lost World is the final act, in which an accident permanently strands Ayame and Shikishima on Mamango. In Tezuka’s original version, Ayame and Shikishima embrace their fate as lovers, but in the Fuji Shobo edition, Tezuka portrayed them as brother and sister. Nonetheless, Tezuka left the final words of the original intact, speculating that in five million years, “when Mamango once again approaches the Earth,” mankind might find a new race of “plant animal people” descended from Ayame and Shikishima.

Similar Adam-and-Eve motifs recur throughout Tezuka’s oeuvre, finding a more sexual and spiritual expression in such mature works as Apollo’s Song and Phoenix: Nostalgia. Nostalgia is a particularly odd and fascinating variation on the theme, as the Adam figure dies early in the story, leaving his pregnant wife alone on a remote space colony. His wife then mates with her own offspring who, in turn, mate with an extraterrestrial life form whose DNA proves essential to rescuing humanity from the brink of extinction. In short, Nostalgia — like Lost World — dares to a imagine a new future for mankind in which other forms of life — terrestrial and extraterrestrial — play an important role in our evolution.

Whether these observations will make Lost World more palatable to a casual reader is debatable; I fully admit that I struggled through its 246 pages, backtracking frequently in a futile effort to understand what was happening. But if you approach Lost World in the same spirit I approached Gershwin’s Blue Monday — as a window into a major artist’s early development — you may find, as I did, a work of astonishing vibrancy, contradiction, and interest.

Works Cited
“Bet Lost on First Opera.” New York Times. 21 July 1935: II1. Print.
Darnton, Charles. “George White’s Scandals’ Lively and Gorgeous.” New York World 29 Aug. 1922: 11. Print.
McCarthy, Helen, and Osamu Tezuka. The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga. New York: Abrams ComicArts, 2009. Print.
Schwartz, Charles. Gershwin: His Life and Music. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1973. Print.
Tezuka, Osamu, and Kumar Sivasubramanian. Lost World. Milwaukee, OR: Dark Horse, 2003. Print.

Manga Artifacts: Osamu Tezuka’s Lost World

February 23, 2012 by Katherine Dacey

MMF: An Introduction to Osamu Tezuka

February 19, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 15 Comments

February 9, 2012 marked the twenty-third anniversary of Osamu Tezuka’s death. His career in the manga industry spanned five decades, from the early days of the akahon market to the industry’s zenith, when comics accounted for nearly 40% of all books sold in Japan. Over the course of his life, Tezuka produced more than 150,000 pages of manga; created such iconic characters as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, and Black Jack; launched a manga magazine and an animation studio; and mentored such artists as Hiroshi Fujimoto and Shotaro Ishimonori. The extent of Tezuka’s influence on Japanese visual culture is hard to understate; few modern creators have had such a profound impact on the medium in which they worked.

In Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (1996), Frederik L. Schodt argues that Tezuka’s most important legacy was the story comic, “an intricate novelistic format” that anticipated the long-running stories in Weekly Shonen Jump, Morning, and Nakayoshi (234). Tezuka’s first story comics — New Treasure Island (1947), Jungle Emperor (1950-54), Astro Boy (1952-68), Princess Knight (1953-56) — were aimed at children, but his later work demonstrated that the format was well-suited to exploring adult themes, too.

Tezuka also pioneered a new way of drawing stories. As Schodt explains, Tezuka borrowed techniques from Walt Disney films “to create a sense of motion with his page layouts” — in essence, to bring the movie-going experience to the printed page (235). Tezuka’s example proved exceptionally powerful; the dynamic, visually-driven storytelling of Astro Boy and New Treasure Island continue to influence contemporary artists, especially in the world of shonen manga.

Tezuka would have been pleased, I think, to see how widely his stories are being read today, both in Japan and throughout Asia, the Americas, and Europe. In the United States alone, eighteen of Tezuka’s manga have been adapted for English-speaking audiences, Astro Boy, Black Jack (1973-83), and Phoenix (1956-89) among them.

Through these translations, I’ve developed a complicated relationship with Tezuka’s work. I love his art: his fluid layouts, his brilliant caricatures, his tripped-out dream sequences, and Freudian sex scenes. I also love his ambition: many of his stories — especially from the later stages of his career — have the sweep and social conscience of a Tolstoy novel, but the lurid, trashy soul of a Brian DePalma thriller.

Whenever I read one of Tezuka’s books, however, I’m reminded of the social, cultural, and temporal distance between his world and mine, even when I’m engrossed in the story and invested in the characters. Reading Swallowing the Earth (1968), for example, I was confronted by images that upset me. As a feminist, I winced at Tezuka’s depiction of Polynesian women as Hottentot Venuses, libidinous monsters with enormous lips and grotesquely rounded bodies. As an American, I struggled through Earth‘s racial warfare subplot with a mixture of dismay and horror: how could someone as fundamentally humane as Tezuka unwittingly tap into white supremacist fantasy when dramatizing the injustice of segregation?

Even when it infuriates me — as passages in Apollo’s Song (1970), Ayako (1972-73), and The Book of Human Insects (1970) have done — I’m still irresistibly drawn to his work. I admire Tezuka’s willingness to wrestle with the dark side of human nature, to create heroes and villains of genuine moral complexity. I also admire Tezuka’s playful side: his tendency to break the fourth wall, write himself into stories, bestow Dickensian names on his characters, and draw elaborate crowd scenes that would have made Busby Berkeley green with envy.

In the last ten years, there’s been an explosion of English-language articles and books aimed at readers like me, fans who recognize Tezuka’s important role in shaping the modern anime and manga industries, but want to learn more about his life, career, and artistic process. Helen McCarthy’s The Art of Osamu Tezuka: God of Manga (2009) is an excellent example of this trend; though she meticulously explains Tezuka’s star system and elucidates recurring themes in his work, she argues that Tezuka was “first and foremost a maker of popular entertainment,” and should be understood as such.

The complexity and size of Tezuka’s oeuvre has inspired American scholars to write about him as well. Flip through a volume of Mechademia, or browse the Asian Studies aisle at your local bookstore, and you’ll find scholars writing about Tezuka’s artistic legacy from a variety of perspectives. Some of these works — such as Natsu Onoda Power’s God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-WWII Manga (2009) — make a conscious effort to bridge the gap between Ivory Tower and fandom, while others are clearly intended for academic audiences.

The goal of this month’s Manga Movable Feast is to create a space where all of Tezuka’s admirers — fans, critics, and scholars — can interact, sharing their reactions to his work, assessing his artistic legacy, reviewing titles new and old, and engaging with the messier, more problematic aspects of his work. Anyone can contribute: all you need to do is send me a link to a Tezuka-themed essay, podcast, or review, and I’ll feature it in one of my daily round-ups. (Email or Twitter are the best way to submit links; Twitter submissions should be directed to @manga_critic.) Note that the feast runs from today (Sunday, February 19th) through Saturday, February 25th. For more information, please visit the Osamu Tezuka MMF archive.

This is an expanded version of an essay that appeared at The Manga Critic on 12/14/10.

An Introduction to Osamu Tezuka

February 19, 2012 by Katherine Dacey

Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 1

February 18, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 17 Comments

Soulless is saucy in the best possible sense of the word: it’s bold and smart, with a heroine so irrepressible you can see why author Gail Carriger couldn’t tell Alexia Tarabotti’s story in just one book.

As fans of Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate novels know, Alexia is a sharp-tongued woman living in Victorian London — or rather, a steampunk version of Victorian London in which vampires and werewolves co-exist with the “daylight” (read: “human”) world. As she would in the real nineteenth-century England, Alexia faces pressure to marry, a prospect complicated by her age — she’s twenty-six — her ethnicity — her father was Italian — and her prodigious intellect. Alexia has one additional strike against her, albeit one that doesn’t affect her marriageability: she’s soulless, a “preternatural” being who can neutralize the vampires and werewolves’ power, temporarily reducing them to mortal form.

Plot-wise, Soulless is an agreeable mishmash of Young Sherlock Holmes, Underworld, and Mansfield Park, with a dash of Jules Verne for good measure. The basic storyline is a whodunnit: Alexia becomes the prime suspect in a string of supernatural disappearances around London, and must collaborate with Lord Collan Maccon, a belligerent werewolf detective, to clear her name. What they discover in the course of their investigation is a grand conspiracy worthy of an Indiana Jones movie, complete with evil scientists, vampire “hives,” sinister-looking laboratories, and a golem; all that’s missing is the Ark of the Covenant and a few Nazi generals.

At the same time, Soulless is a romance. Alexia would make a swell Austen heroine, as she faces the kind of obstacles to marriage that would elicit sympathy from the Dashwood girls and Fanny Price. The greatest of these hurdles isn’t her name or her age, however; it’s Alexia’s firm conviction that marriage should not be a socially or financially expedient union, but a true partnership. Paging Elizabeth Bennett!

Given how many genres are present in the text — it’s a crime procedural, a thriller, an urban fantasy, a comedy of manners, and a bodice ripper — it’s astonishing how well all the tropes mesh. Some of that success can be attributed to the dialogue. The characters’ peppery exchanges are an affectionate parody of British costume dramas; substitute “soulless” for “penniless,” and Alexia could easily be a character in Sense and Sensibility. A few passages strain too hard for effect — would anyone have really chosen “comestibles” over “food” when complaining about a party? — but for the most part, Carriger finds a convincing tone that’s neither faux-archaic nor casually contemporary.

Soulless’ other great strength is its appealing cast of characters. Alexia and Maccon are clearly the stars of this imaginary universe; anyone who’s read Middlemarch or Emma will immediately recognize that Alexia and Maccon are The Main Couple, as they spend most of volume one denying their mutual attraction and trading zingers. (“I may be a werewolf and Scottish, but despite what you may have read about both, we are not cads!” Maccon declares in a fit of Darcy-esque pique.) In the spirit of the best nineteenth-century novels, however, Carriger situates her lovebirds inside a vibrant community, albeit one inhabited by grumpy werewolves and flamboyant vampires in lieu of parsons, baronets, and virtuous maidens. Though these supporting characters don’t always get the screen time they deserve, Lord Akeldama, Professor Lyall, and Ivy Hisselpenny enliven the narrative with sharp observations and sound advice for Alexia and Maccon.

Manga artist Rem, best-known for her work on Vampire Kisses, does a fine job of translating Carriger’s prose into pictures. Though Rem’s attention to period detail is evident in the characters’ sumptuous costumes and lavishly furnished parlors, her meticulousness extends to the action sequences as well. An early fight between Alexia and a vampire is expertly staged, making effective use of dramatic camera angles and overturned furniture to capture the intensity of their struggle. Rem also manages to fold many of Carriger’s steampunk flourishes — zeppelins, steam-powered carriages, “glassicals” — into the story without overwhelming the eye; if anything, I found the subtlety of the steampunk elements an improvement on the novel, where the object descriptions sometimes felt like tangents.

The only drawback to the artwork is Alexia herself. In the novels, Carriger describes her as plain and full-figured; in the manga, however, Rem depicts Alexia as a buxom, wasp-waisted babe with a pouty mouth and a pretty face. That transformation is certainly in keeping with manga aesthetics — even the plainest young characters are usually pleasing to the eye — but not with the source material; as a reader, one of the real pleasures of Soulless is watching the heroine triumph on the strength of her character and brains, not the size of her bust.

On the whole, however, Rem has succeeded in taking a justifiably popular novel and making it work in a different medium on its own terms; readers new to Carriger’s work will be as enchanted with this cheeky, fun adaptation as her hardcore fans. Recommended.

Review copy provided by Yen Press. Volume one of Soulless: The Manga will be released in March 2012.

SOULLESS: THE MANGA, VOL. 1 • STORY BY GAIL CARRIGER, ART AND ADAPTATION BY REM • YEN PRESS • 208 pp. • RATING: OLDER TEEN (VIOLENCE, SEXUAL SITUATIONS, NUDITY)

Soulless: The Manga, Vol. 1

February 18, 2012 by Katherine Dacey

Show Us Your Stuff: Safetygirl’s Otaku Room

February 17, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 14 Comments

Apologies for the late posting this week! Today’s featured collector is Safetygirl, a self-described Shinsengumi fan and avid manga collector who owns over 2,000 volumes. As you’ll see from her drool-worthy photos, her tastes run the gamut from Kaze Hikaru to Golgo 13 to Arata: The Legend. She’s so dedicated to anime and manga, in fact, that she custom designed a room in her house just to hold all her swag — and what a space it is! If anyone from Bravo or TLC is watching, I think Safetygirl’s organizational and decorating skills would make a swell basis for a reality show.

One quick programming note: since I will be hosting the Osamu Tezuka Manga Movable Feast next week, Show Us Your Stuff will be on hiatus until Thursday, March 1st. –Katherine Dacey

Hi, I’m Safetygirl! Welcome to my office, or, as a friend dubbed it, “the otaku room.” When I bought this house, I wanted a room for my computer and small manga collection, and it’s really expanded since then! Besides manga, this room is for my anime, cels, character goods, and doujinshi collections. I also LOVE the Shinsengumi, and collect anything with any version of the guys in baby blue.

Behold the Great Wall of Manga!

How long have you been collecting manga?
I was briefly into manga in the mid-’90s, mostly the stuff available in the old floppies, like Ranma ½, Maison Ikokku and Oh! My Goddess, but at that time I was all Marvel/DC/American superheros. Then I went to college and gave up on comics entirely, due to finances and being annoyed by the frequent rebootings and retconning of American comics.

That changed in 2003. That was when a friend let me borrow the first volumes of Kare Kano and Kindaichi Case Files, and I avoided reading them for a while. Then I finally read them… and I was hooked. I had just gotten a promotion at work and had extra disposable income, so a new hobby came just at the right time.

What was the first manga you bought?
I can’t remember what it was back in the ’90s—that was a long time ago! In more recent times, it was Kare Kano volume two. I was annoyed that the manga cows had been handling it and the spine was dinged, but I bought it anyway—I had to know what happened! It’s still in my collection now, even though my feelings towards the series has cooled appreciably since that time.

Close-ups of Safetygirl’s enormous (and drool-worthy) manga collection.

How big is your collection?
Over 2,100 volumes. Even though I cull and sell pretty aggressively, I’m running out of room! When I bought my house in 2004, I designed the custom-built shelves in my office to fit 1,300-1,400 books, which seemed like a lot—I had maybe 500 at the time, plus some character goods I wanted to display. As you can see, I’ve had to be pretty creative; I’ve found that manga can serve as great cord-hiders on the entertainment center. I bought a shelf at a Borders fixture sale, and it holds my Shinsengumi manga on one side while the other has my Yuu Watase titles (and a great place to display my Watase pin collection!). Recently I had to add another shelving unit; this one has my CLAMP collection (with a little room for expansion!) and Yumi Tamura. In the past couple of years, I’ve started stacking things vertically—I don’t like doing that, but the shelves aren’t deep enough for double rows.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
I wish I could say those super-expensive middle volumes of Basara, but I don’t have those yet. The French copies were an affordable placeholder, and it’ll be a good test of my French when I get there.

Beyond my manga, I also collect cels, and being one-of-a-kind, those are rare. The focus of that collection is Millennium Actress.

Safetygirl’s anime shrine. Bow before it and be humbled!

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
The original run of Golgo 13, as published by LEED here in the US in the mid ’80s. It’s flipped! Featuring strange coloring on the first chapters, where flesh tones are rendered in an Oompa-Loompa-ish orange! I’m not sure if it’s really weird, but it’s certainly early in the history of manga in the US.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
I think I was like a lot of people: I went on what my friends were reading, and things related to the anime I was watching on TV. I didn’t find the manga blogging/tweeting community until much later, and they’ve been an influence. But these days, I don’t do Jump titles like I used to—I’ve not liked one enough in a while to justify the investment of dozens and dozens of volumes. I’d like to say that I’m pickier now, and I use the manga community to help guide me towards things I might have either overlooked or dismissed. But what attracted me to manga was shojo, and that’s still what I love the most. I’ve also discovered that the rest of the world has manga, too, so I’ve been able to improve my rusty high school French AND finish Walkin’ Butterfly at the same time!

Kaze Hikaru artwork.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
Taeko Watanabe (Kaze Hikaru), Shigeru Takao (Teru Teru x Shonen), Yuu Watase, Miyuki Yamaguchi, Kaoru Mori, and my newest favorite is Yumi Tamura. I really wish I knew how to bribe the folks at Viz—brownies, maybe?—so they’d license 7SEEDS. For American comics, the only titles I still have left from my once-extensive collection are the trade paperbacks of Sandman and Astro City.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
I try to keep up to date—I fell behind a bit 2007-2008, which sent me scrambling during the CMX/GoComi shutdown era. Currently: Kaze Hikaru, Twin Spica, Black Bird, Dengeki Daisy, Kimi no Todoke, Oresama Teacher, xxxHolic, Arata, House of Five Leaves, Sayonara Zetsubo-Sensei, Bakuman, Kamisama Kiss, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vampire Knight, Chi’s Sweet Home, Afterschool Charisma, Kingyo Used Books, Story of Saiunkoku, Ouran, Goong, Bunny Drop, Bride’s Story, Yotsuba, Black Butler, Arisa, Otomen, The Betrayal Knows my Name, Drops of God, Sailor Moon, Dawn of Arcana, A Devil and Her Love Song. There’s a lot of other series I would be buying, if they still were being printed. Looking forward to: The Earl and the Fairy, Sakuran.

I buy stuff from France and Germany, but since I tend to order in bunches on a quarterly basis, I wouldn’t say that I’m following anything. From Japan I buy Kaze Hikaru, and whatever Yamaguchi Miyuki and Shigeru Takao are putting out, and other things as needed. I have a weakness for anything from Hakusensha with a pretty cover. If I lived near a Book-Off, I would need another room. I subscribe to Flowers and Melody.

Manga, anime, and Hello Kitty! swag.

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)?
Catalog it, somewhere. I used to use Collectorz, but it no longer met my needs. Now I’m fairly happy on LibraryThing, though I still use Collectorz as my back-up. I once was a big fan of ListerX, but it suddenly closed and ALL of my work was lost. So no matter how much I trust LibraryThing, I *have* to have an offline record of my collection. However, one advantage to an online catalogue—it’s easy to access if you’re out book shopping! I also keep spreadsheets on my pre-orders and things I will pre-order, once RightStuf has a sale!

Manga about the Shinsengumi.

Organize it in a way that makes sense to you. I do alphabetical, but I do keep series together (sometimes there’s a name change, like how GoComi’s Ultimate Venus is Big Bang Venus in French), or file by common name. (Both Codename: Sailor V and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon are under “Sailor.”)

Deals and rarities—I scour comic book stores. Some bought into manga heavily during the boom, and have a lot of stock from that era. Good if you’re looking for Emma, not so much for something more recent. For new things, I wait for RightStuf studio sales, and I’m a member of their GotAnime? discount club. I buy a lot of manga; getting it 40% off helps a lot!

To see more of Safetygirl’s awesome otaku room, 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.

How to Draw Shojo Manga

February 14, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 1 Comment

This slim how-to manual caters to the manga fan who wants to become an artist, but finds the technical aspects of comic creation daunting. “If you’ve ever flipped through a How to Draw Manga book in a bookstore, looked at the pages that explain character design and perspective and thought, ‘I have to learn all this hard stuff to be a manga artist?’ then you are exactly the person who we want to read this book,” the authors cheerfully assert.

The introduction is a little disingenuous, however, as the book assumes a level of artistic fluency on the part of the reader that isn’t reflected in that warmly inviting statement. No novice could use the passages on anatomy or perspective to learn either of these essential drafting skills; the authors don’t break down the process of sketching a body or a three-dimensional space into enough discrete steps for a newcomer to recreate the examples in the book. The same is true for their advice on tools; though the authors provide a detailed catalog of pens, nibs, erasers, templates, blades, and brushes favored by professional artists, the information about how to use these tools presumes that the reader has worked with similar implements.

What How to Draw Shojo Manga does well, however, is introduce novices to the concepts associated with creating sequential art. The authors review the basics, explaining the various types of camera angles and shots, and when they’re most effective; discussing the underlying philosophy behind character designs; and showing how an artist takes a script from words to storyboards to finished product. The book also includes an appendix with practical information about submitting work to contests — obviously less applicable to American readers — as well as strategies for handling criticism; in a thoughtful touch, the authors critique a short story (included in full in the book) so that readers can better appreciate the substance of the editorial comments. Whenever possible, the authors use examples from actual manga to underscore points about character design and layouts; sharp-eyed fans will recognize works from such Hakusensha magazines as Lala, Melody, and Hana to Yume.

The bottom line: How to Draw Shojo Manga won’t turn a greenhorn into Arina Tanemura, but it will help her identify areas of weakness (e.g. poor drafting skills) and provide her with the vocabulary to discuss — and learn more about — the creative process.

Editor’s note: This review was originally included in a Short Takes column from November 2010. When I reorganized my site in January 2012, I created a category for instruction manuals (How to Draw Manga) and decided that this review would be better suited as a stand-alone piece. Look for more how-to reviews in the coming months!

HOW TO DRAW SHOJO MANGA • WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF HANA TO YUME, BESSATSU HANE TO YUME, LALA, AND MELODY MAGAZINES • TOKYOPOP • 176 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

How to Draw Shojo Manga

February 14, 2012 by Katherine Dacey

Drifters, Vol. 1

February 14, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 12 Comments

Back in the 1980s — the heyday of Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone — Hollywood cranked out a stream of mediocre but massively entertaining B-movies in which a man with a freakishly muscular physique and a granite jaw battled the Forces of Evil, dispatching villains with a catch-phrase and a lethal weapon. I don’t know if Kohta Hirano ever watched Predator or Red Scorpion, but Drifters reads like the first draft of a truly awesome eighties movie, complete with a trademark phrase — “Say farewell to your head!” — and a simple but effective premise that promises lots of silly, over-the-top fight scenes.

The Dolph Lundgren character — if I might be allowed to call him that — is Shimazu Toyohisa, a Satsuma warrior facing long odds at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). Just as Shimazu’s death seems imminent, he finds himself transported to an alternate dimension, one in which mankind’s greatest warriors — Hannibal, Nobunaga Oda, Joan of Arc — have been assembled for an elaborate game. The purpose and rules of the game remain elusive, but the primary objective seems to be mass destruction: the game’s organizer unleashes hordes of ghouls and dragons on Shimazu and his allies, in the process laying waste to cities, forts, and crops.

Like all good Schwarzenegger or Stallone vehicles, Drifters makes a few token gestures towards subplot and world-building. Shimazu helps a group of elves resist their oppressors, for example, teaching them the manly art of standing up for themselves. Hirano provides so little explanation for the elves’ marginalized status, however, that the entire episode registers as a stalling tactic for the climatic battle at volume one’s end, a half-hearted effort to show us that however unhinged or deadly Shimazu may be, he knows injustice when he sees it.

Drifters’ other shortcoming is the artwork. Hirano’s clumsy character designs make the entire cast look like Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, with huge, sunken eyes, large, triangular noses, and blocky torsos. Though one might reasonably argue that Picasso’s bodily distortions were a deliberate aesthetic choice, it’s harder to make the same case for Hirano’s work; his characters’ mitt-like hands and poorly executed profiles suggest a poor command of perspective, rather than an artistic challenge to it.

Hirano’s action scenes suffer from an entirely different problem: they’re riotously busy, bursting at the seams with too many figures, monsters, and weapons, overwhelming the eye with visual information. One could be forgiven for thinking that Hirano was trying to out-do Peter Jackson; not since Sauron flattened the forces of Middle Earth have so many warriors and monsters been assembled in one scene to less effect. Looking at the opening chapter, however, it’s clear than Hirano can stage a credible battle scene when he wants to: he depicts the Battle of Sekigahara as a churning mass of horses, samurai, and swords, effectively capturing the confusion and claustrophobia of medieval combat. Once dragons and orcs enter the picture, however, the action scenes begin to lose their urgency and coherence, substituting the terrible immediacy of hand-to-hand fighting for larger, noisier air battles where the stakes are less clearly defined.

It’s a pity that Drifters is so relentless, as the story certainly has the potential to be a guilty pleasure; what’s not to like about a manga in which Japan’s greatest feudal warriors fight alongside Hannibal, Joan of Arc, and elves? What Hirano needs is a little restraint: when the story is cranked up to eleven from the very beginning, the cumulative effective is deafening, making it difficult for the reader to hear the endearingly cheesy dialogue above the clank of swords and explosions. And if there’s anything I learned from watching old chestnuts like Commando, it’s that even the most testosterone-fueled script needs to pause long enough for the hero to utter his catch phrase.

DRIFTERS, VOL. 1 • BY KOHTA HIRANO • DARK HORSE • 208 pp. RATING: OLDER TEEN

Drifters, Vol. 1

February 14, 2012 by Katherine Dacey

Pick of the Week: Longshots

February 13, 2012 by MJ, Katherine Dacey, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

Shipping slows down a bit this week at Midtown Comics, but the Battle Robot finds ways to spend their money, as always.

KATE: Though two of my all-time favorite shonen series appear on this week’s shipping list — those would be InuYasha and Kekkaishi, by the way — I’ll let another Battle Robot blogger sing their praises. My vote goes to The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty, a lovely coffee-table book featuring concept sketches, movie stills, and interviews with the creative team behind the Studio Ghibli film. Though the text is not as informative as it could be, the images are flat-out gorgeous; anyone who read Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, the book that inspired Arrietty, will be pleased at the way Studio Ghibli has brought her tiny characters to life. You’ll never look at a button or a thimble the same way again!

SEAN: This week seems to contain a lot of series that I’ve either never read or am so far behind on that a recommendation would be ridiculous. However, my own comic shop is getting a title that Midtown isn’t, the 3rd volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun. The second volume took a turn for the serious, which was greatly to its benefit, and I’m hoping that it will continue to keep up the pace. I’m also hoping for fewer tedious groping gags with the “lesbian” in the cast, but I’m fairly certain that I’ll be out of luck there. Still, give this Seven Seas series a try.

MICHELLE: I’m in a similar position to Sean this week: while I’ve been collecting Kekkaishi and 20th Century Boys, I am dreadfully far behind, and there’s no power on this earth that could induce me to read Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time. But there is one title on the list that I’ve read and loved, and that’s InuYasha. I can’t really comment on the VIZBIG editions themselves, having bought each volume of the series singly, but I love the warm, ensemble sitcom feeling of the series overall, and envy those who get to experience it through these editions for the first time, since the art is printed in its original orientation, which didn’t happen with the single-volume releases until some time in the late thirties. Notorious for meandering reptition, sure, but for me, InuYasha is manga comfort food at its finest.

MJ: I’m going to go off-list and into the digital only realm this week, to recommend volume one of Keiko Kinoshita’s You and Tonight, due out soon at eManga from the Digital Manga Guild. I was a big fan of Kiss Blue, a two-volume series from the same creator that was released on DMP’s Juné imprint, and I’m actually working on editing another of her short series for my reporter’s stint at the DMG. I’m consistently impressed by Kinoshita’s subtle humor and delicate touch (she’s even won me over to the dreaded BL Anthology), so when I saw that another group was working on You and Tonight, it immediately jumped to the top of my list of must-buy BL. I’ve always been a fan of the best-friends-turned-lovers trope, and given that this was also the premise for Kiss Blue, I’m gathering that it’s a favorite of Kinoshita’s as well. The first volume is already available for the Nook and Kindle, so I expect it’ll go live on eManga in just a day or two. Now the question is, will I be able to hold off until it appears for sale on the iPad? Only time will tell.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 2/13/12

February 13, 2012 by MJ, Katherine Dacey, Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

This week, Kate, MJ, Sean, & Michelle take a look at recent releases from Kodansha Comics, Vertical, Inc., VIZ Media, Yen Press, Digital Manga Publishing, and JManga.

Bloody Monday, Vol. 3 | Story by Ryou Ryumon, Art by Kouji Megumi | Kodansha Comics – I can see why Bloody Monday appeals to teenage boys: not only do its adolescent heroes get to kick ass and match wits with evil adults, they also get to ogle beautiful villains and work alongside cute classmates. For an adult reader, however, the plot mechanics are too creaky to overlook the obvious wish-fulfillment angle. Too many scenes bog down in obvious explanation, as characters repeatedly tell each other things that one would hope world-class crime solvers would know — even if they’re only sixteen. The action scenes remain the series’ strength, as they’re the only time the exposition-dense chatter and obvious voice-overs are silenced in favor of good old-fashioned chases and shoot-outs. It’s a shame that Bloody Monday is such a mixed bag, as its paranoid, the Russians-are-out-to-get-us plot could be the basis of a terrific, globe-trotting thriller. – Katherine Dacey

Chi’s Sweet Home, Vols. 7-8 | By Konata Konami | Vertical, Inc. – Now that I own a cat, I’ve developed an even deeper appreciation for the genius of Konata Konami. So many of the details in Chi are beautifully observed, whether Chi is stalking new “prey” (a goldfish, a feather duster) or calculating the distance between two high perches. Konami also depicts new pet ownership with accuracy and warmth: like the Yamadas, I’ve spent a lot of time reading cat books in an effort to decode Francesca’s behavior, feed her the right food, and interpret symptoms of illness. I can’t speak to Chi’s relationship with Cocchi — my cat’s only animal companion is a frustrated herding dog — but even that feels right to me. A must for cat fanciers. – Katherine Dacey

Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 8 | By Kyousuke Motomi | VIZ Media – Make no mistake, this is easily the best volume of Dengeki Daisy yet. Okay, yes, part of the cliffhanger from last volume just sort of fizzles out, but it leads to Teru finally getting the full story (through flashbacks) about Kurosaki’s past as a dangerous hacker and his relationship with Soichiro and the various former coworkers with whom he still associates. Although mangaka Kyousuke Motomi can’t quite manage to write a compelling mystery plot—any attempts to hint at some vast conspiracy are generally vague and uninteresting, though we do get a little direction on who’s orchestrating the attacks on Teru—there’s still some good stuff here for fans of these characters, especially in the way Soichiro draws a young, heartbroken Kurosaki out of his shell. I do have to wonder, though, whether returning to the present day will feel like a let down after this. – Michelle Smith

Fairy Tail, Vol. 17 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – I have to admit, Mashima is starting to lose me here. There’s a lot going on in this volume provided you like fights – but if you’re not a big shonen fight fan, the only thing to grab a hold of is the big plot revelation, which brings back someone who I’m not really sure we all wanted to see back. Yeah, I know ‘no one dies in shonen comics’ has become somewhat of a cliche, but this just felt very underwhelming. It doesn’t help that I still have trouble holding the new characters in my head, be they heroes or villains. On the plus side, Erza being out of the action for most of the volume gives Gray a chance to shine. And the cliffhanger, involving Loke, makes me really want to know what happens next. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to save a substandard volume of this series.-Sean Gaffney

I Love You, Chief Clerk! | By Keiko Kinoshita | JManga – BL anthologies are probably my least favorite type of manga to review. With a handful of exceptions (est em, for example), BL mangaka, at least those currently published in English, seem to be especially inept at the admittedly difficult art of telling a satisfying, well-developed story in just one or two chapters. Happily, Keiko Kinoshita proves herself to be one of the exceptions. Despite its simplistic title, I Love You, Chief Clerk! is a charming collection of short romance manga that manage to get right to the heart of their stories without feeling rushed or skimpy. Kinoshita deftly introduces her characters and defines their relationships, past and present, with just a few sure strokes. She’s not concerned so much with resolution as she is with creating a few truly genuine moments, and that’s all it takes to bring her adorable short stories to life. Gratefully recommended. – MJ

Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 7 | By Kiiro Yumi and Hiro Arikawa | VIZ Media – While readers have been reading about the not-quite-romance between Kasahara and Dojo, the plot has been slowly building up, and this is the volume where a lot of the plot cannons are fired. Following up on last volume, Tezuka gets a lot of development here, and I was also pleased to see Shibazaki’s lunch dates continue. But the real meat of this is the plot with our heroine, as a conspiracy tries to frame her and she has to lay low while her friends figure out who’s behind it. Seeing the social and normally upbeat Kasahara being so beaten down and downtrodden is quite heartbreaking, and more so when we know she’s “trying to be strong” – exactly what Dojo *doesn’t* want. For those who wanted more library wars in this manga, this is the volume to get.-Sean Gaffney

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol. 11 | Art by Haku Tsugano, Story by Nagaru Tanigawa, Characters by Noizi Ito | Yen Press – The eleventh volume of Haruhi Suzumiya irresistibly reminded me of a classic Star Trek plot line, in which a rift in time, a strange illness, or an amnesia-inducing event causes the crew to act out of character. For Harhui and her friends, the sudden rash of odd behavior begins when they’re banished to an alternate dimension; only by solving a math puzzle can they return to their normal lives. Newcomers will find this volume a difficult place to begin exploring this unique series, as the story relies too heavily on the reader’s prior knowledge of the characters. Die-hards, however, will find more of what they like: humorous interplay between characters, off-beat mysteries, and occasional bits of fanservice. -Katherine Dacey

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 11 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – I know this is a monthly manga, but at times the author really seems to plot her arcs out to the individual volumes. The first half shows Natsume bonding even more with Tanuma and Taki (OT3!!!… sorry), and finding that he can rely on them to be there for him no matter what. Then in the 2nd half, we see that as much as he may want to open up, it’s simply not that easy given what he goes through every day… and what he went through as a child. We are our upbringing, after all. There’s also some nice yokai examination here – even the “nice” ones are still distrustful and uncomprehending about humanity. This even applies to Nyanko-sensei, who’s still saying he’s only hanging around to get the Book of Friends after all this time. Rather than admitting the deep bond he and Natsume have forged. Terrific stuff.-Sean Gaffney

No Longer Human, Vol. 3 | By Usamaru Furuya, Based on the novel by Osamu Dazai | Vertical, Inc. – In the afterword to volume three, Usamaru Furuya admits that as a teenager, he “found beauty” in the hero’s “ruinous lifestyle.” That admission is key to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Furuya’s adaptation of No Longer Human. On the one hand, it’s immediate and visceral, depicting a young man’s fall from grace in symbolically rich imagery; Furuya has succeeded in translating an ambiguous text into a feverish nightmare of father-hate and drunken debauchery. On the other, many of the nuances of Dazai’s text have been filed away, making Yozo’s transformation seem more pedestrian than it did in the novel; it’s a Lifetime movie about addiction, minus a third-act redemption. Still, for readers new to Dazai’s work, Furuya’s adaptation provides a sturdy bridge between the original novel and the present day, showing readers that No Longer Human is as relevant now as it was in 1948. – Katherine Dacey

Only Serious About You, Vol. 2 | By Kai Asou | Digital Manga Publishing – Though I know of a few gay men who read and enjoy BL manga, the fact remains that it’s a genre written by women for women. Reading this second volume of Only Serious About You, however, made me think that here is a series I would recommend to any gay man, pre-existing manga fan or not. The evolution of the relationship between single dad Oosawa and his former customer, Yoshioka, is handled with sensitivity and realism, and the bond they share caring for Oosawa’s daughter, Chizu, is seriously touching. Yoshioka had a tough childhood, and helping to raise Chizu is like a healing experience for him, and when reserved Oosawa finally decides to accept all that Yoshioka’s willing to give, it’s sniffle time. The sense of family among these three is palpable, and a great example of the loving home two men can provide a child. A lovely, lovely story. More by Kai Asou, please! – Michelle Smith

Show Us Your Stuff: The Loch Ness Manga

February 9, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 9 Comments

Welcome to another installment of Show Us Your Stuff, a weekly column in which manga lovers share pictures of their libraries. This week’s featured collector is Ellie, who hails from across the pond. When she isn’t baking or drawing, Ellie documents her efforts to learn Japanese at the site 5kanjiaday.wordpress.com. Her taste in manga cants more heavily towards shojo than other demographics, though as you’ll see, her collection is pleasingly eclectic, encompassing everything from Keiko Nishi to Hiromu Arakawa to Katsuhiro Otomo. So without further ado, here’s Ellie in her own words! – Katherine Dacey

I’m another international contributor, as I live in Scotland. I became interested in manga through some friends I made when I started high school. As well as manga and anime, I’m also interested in music, cooking, baking, drawing, and trying to learn Japanese. I’m working at the moment, but I’m hoping to go to university next year to study music.

How long have you been collecting manga?
Since shortly after I started high school, so about 7-8 years now.

What was the first manga you bought?
Volume one of Chobits. It was one of about four manga volumes in the only bookshop in the small town I grew up in, and I bought it on a school friend’s recommendation. I still have it and I’ve never looked back since…

How big is your collection?
As at January 17th, 688 English volumes, including some artbooks, novels and guide books, and omnibuses (which I count as one volume, regardless of how many original volumes they contain). I have three Japanese volumes. I swear it doesn’t look like that much on the shelves, but when I sat down and counted one day, I gave myself a shock!

What is the rarest item in your collection?
Probably a Japanese Okane ga Nai doujinshi that a friend got me from a con. (Not pictured, as it’s still at my parents’ house.) There are several other things I own which seem to be rare — judging by new and used prices on Amazon — including some older BL published by June and BLU; Love Song, which is an early anthology of one-shots by Keiko Nishi and released by Viz in the 1990’s; and a first edition of Legal Drug, Vol. 1, which has the lovely acetates and colour pages.

I also have the complete run of After School Nightmare and Tenshi ja Nai!!, published by Go! Comi. This isn’t manga per se, but I have all but one of the Gothic and Lolita Bibles that Tokyopop published. I also have the first two Strawberry Panic light novel volumes that Seven Seas published before ditching the series years ago. I was so annoyed when the omnibus came out!

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
In terms of pure weird story content, probably Guru Guru Pon-chan and everything I own by Mitsukazu Mihara and Kaori Yuki . I’d say the series that deviate most from the rest of the collection in terms of story content are probably Tegami Bachi, Black Butler and Blue Exorcist, as the vast majority of my collection is shojo and romance, whereas those three are decidedly not…

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
When I first got into manga, I would buy literally everything I saw that even vaguely caught my eye, even if I ended up not really liking it that much. I’ve sold quite a lot of stuff because of that. My tastes have matured somewhat now, and I’m a lot more picky about what I buy, and I buy more stuff online (partly due to moving out and having to pay rent and bills!), and I’ll tend to check out reviews before I buy if I’m unsure about something.

I’ve also come to appreciate more mature works as I’ve gotten older, like Honey and Clover and Akira (which would have bored me a few years ago). Recently, I also seem to have got back into shounen series. I gave up on Bleach a few years ago (as you can see, the vast majority of my collection is shoujo) but within the last year I started buying Tegami Bachi, Blue Exorcist, Bakuman, Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Butler. When I’m caught up with a few more things, I want to buy the Rurouni Kenshin and Inuyasha VIZBIG editions, and possibly Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. I tend to prefer shojo because it (most of the time) doesn’t drag on as long as shonen series. I’ll give anything a chance though.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
My favorite manga artists, in no particular order, are: CLAMP, Yuu Watase, Kaori Yuki, Arina Tanemura, Natsumi Ando, Mitsukazu Mihara, Ai Yazawa, Hiromu Arakawa and Masami Tsuda.This list is purely based on entertainment value, rather than me trying to be objective about quality… I don’t really read Western comics so I don’t have any favorite comic artists.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Again, in no particular order, Bunny Drop (although I’m not sure whether I will keep buying any more volumes, given what I know of the ending), the Haruhi Suzumiya novels, Sakura Hime Kaden, Kamisama Kiss, Tegami Bachi, Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden (as actively as anyone can collect that), The Story of Saiunkoku, Blue Exorcist, Arisa, Black Butler, Library Wars, Bakuman, Otomen, Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, Dawn of the Arcana, Honey and Clover, Loveless, Bad Teacher’s Equation, Border, Kare Kano, Ouran High School Host Club, the Love Hina and Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus rereleases, Sailor Moon, Kobato, Full Metal Alchemist, My Girlfriend’s A Geek, Dengeki Daisy, Black Bird, Lovephobia, Vampire Knight, Nana, Kimi ni Todoke, Natsume Yuujinchou, Sensual Phrase, Ai Ore!, and We Were There. If they ever get picked up in English again: Nodame Cantabile, Maid-sama, the Zaregoto novels, and the Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko. I’d say the ones I’m giving the highest priority to are Kamisama Kiss, Story of Saiunkoku, Bakuman, Arisa, Otomen, Black Butler, Sailor Moon, Blue Exorcist, Black Bird, Library Wars, Sakura Hime, Kimi ni Todoke, Vampire Knight, Black Bird, Dengeki Daisy, Ai Ore, Dawn of the Arcana and Natsume Yuujinchou. I also have quite a lot of series which I want to buy but just don’t have the money for at the moment!

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)?
Ikea is your friend when it comes to cheap shelves, and a well-organized collection takes up far less space than a messy one. Your books will stay in better condition that way as well. I organize my collection by complete and incomplete series, but if I know how many volumes are left in a series, I create space for it on the “complete” shelves. Once your collection gets above about 100 volumes, keeping a spreadsheet is definitely a good way of keeping track of it. I use it to make sure I don’t end up buying the same things twice etc.

Check the bargain bin of your local comic shop for rare gems; I found two copies of Basara volume 20 for significantly less than RRP each, which I then sold on for a reasonable price to people on the internet who were missing them. I couldn’t bear to see them disposed of when so many people on the Internet were clamouring for them. I ended up sending them both to the US from the UK. If they’d had volume 19 as well, I would’ve started collecting it myself…

Chain bookshops can occasionally unearth gems as well, just keep checking, but I’ve found most of my gems in comic shops all around the country when I’ve been visiting friends, so go and visit friends in other places and see what you can find! Second hand bookshops can occasionally unearth gems; I found two flopped volumes of Sailor Moon in one local to me for 3 pounds each (just before Kodansha announced it) so give your local second hand bookseller a visit sometimes.

As for buying new series, my local comic shop has a perpetual three-for-the-price-of-two deal on all manga, regardless of the publisher or price, so I’m quite lucky in that regard. Being in the UK, I don’t know anything about US based online stores like Right Stuf, but Amazon and eBay can be your friends as well, particularly for earlier volumes in a series. With eBay especially, watch out for the shipping charges though!

Also, don’t be afraid to have a prune once in a while. If you’ve not read something more than once or twice, and you don’t think you’ll miss it, let it go. That gives you more space, and more money to go and buy stuff you’re more interested in. Free listing weekends on eBay are wonderful for listing multiple volumes as a set. If you’re unsure about a series, see if your local library/a friend/ a local anime and manga club has it or see if the publisher has a preview online, so you can check it out before you buy. Read some reviews as well; see if you can find a reviewer who shares similar tastes to you and see what they thought of a series. If it has an anime, see if the anime is available on Crunchyroll or Netflix etc, then you’ll at least be able to see if you like the overall idea of the series. Plus the manga is (almost) always better than the anime (in my opinion) so if you like the anime, you’ll like the manga more!

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 send me an email.