Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Katherine Dacey

The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty

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Among the many books I read as a child, few left as indelible an impression as Mary Norton’s The Borrowers (1952). The book featured the Clocks, a family of mouse-sized people who lived unseen in the floorboards and walls of an old English house, stealing small objects and transforming them into furniture, cookware, and decorations. Norton’s rapturous descriptions of the Borrowers’ home so enchanted me that I still view thimbles and buttons not as human tools, but as tea-cozies and dinner plates for tiny folk.

The Borrowers made a similarly powerful impression on legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, who saw in the Clocks’ resourceful gathering a metaphor for the way ordinary people were living through “chaotic, unsure times.” In 2007, he teamed up with Keiko Niwa to adapt Norton’s story into a screenplay. He then hired Hiromasa Yonebayashi to direct the film version, The Borrower Arrietty, which took nearly three years to complete. (N.B. For the North American release, the film has been re-titled The Secret World of Arrietty.)

Through concept sketches, movie stills, and interviews with Yonebayashi, The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty walks readers through the three-year process of making the movie. We see numerous sketches of Arrietty — sometimes as fierce warrior figure, other times as a round, soft-faced girl — as well as Miyazaki’s first sketches of the Clocks’ tiny home. In every chapter, these rough sketches are juxtaposed with finished images, allowing the reader to appreciate the important role that art directors Noboru Yoshida and Yoji Takeshige played in translating Miyazaki’s ideas into animated sequences. No where is this more evident than in their rendering of the Borrowers’ habitat: the rich color saturation, palpable textures, and intricate patterns make the Borrowers’ world seem utterly real.

Readers should note that the book covers the entire movie, revealing several important plot points. The book also reproduces the complete script — again, something that spoiler-phobes should consider in timing their purchase of The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty. (The film arrives in North American theaters on February 17.) For anyone who’s been impatient to see the film since it was first announced in 2009, or who read and loved Mary Norton’s novel, however, the lush, lovely images in Arrietty are the perfect “trailer” for this much-anticipated film. Recommended.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media LLC. The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty will be released on February 7, 2012.

THE ART OF THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY • BY HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp.

Hyakusho Kizoku, Vol. 1

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Drawn in a loose, improvisational style, Hiromu Arakawa’s Hyakusho Kizuko may remind readers of the gag strips that round out every volume of her wildly successful Fullmetal Alchemist. That’s not a knock on Hyakusho, by the way; like her fellow sister-in-shonen Yellow Tanabe, Arakawa’s omake are every bit as entertaining as her more polished stories, offering her a chance to riff on favorite characters, complain about her job, and reflect on her previous career as a dairy farmer.

In Hyakusho Kizuko, however, the focus is squarely on the joys and hardships of farm life, rather than the pressures of bringing a popular comic to press. Arakawa shares humorous anecdotes about her ongoing war with the Hokkaido squirrel, a skilled crop thief, as well as her family’s penchant for using animal medicines to cure their own ailments. She also waxes poetic about the temperament of cows — apparently, they make great pets — and celebrates Hokkaido’s important role in feeding the rest of Japan. (As she notes in chapter seven, Japan’s dependence on imported food would rise from 50% to 80% if Hokkaido stopped supplying the other islands with its agricultural products.)

Arakawa doesn’t neglect her life as an artist; throughout the stories, we see her interact with her editor, who’s decidedly skeptical about the marketability of agricultural manga. “How come you’ve written about poop two chapters in a row?” her exasperated editor asks. “In a farmer’s story, poop is your friend,” Arakawa cheerfully counters. Besides, Arakawa notes, her manga explores other topics: “I also mention cow teats,” she declares.

As these matter-of-fact exchanges suggest, Arakawa is eager to educate Japanese readers about where their food comes from. She drops facts about food consumption, discusses cow bloodlines, decries government interference in dairy production, and describes what happens to animals that don’t contribute to a farm’s bottom line. She does so with a light hand, however, interspersing the more serious discussions about sustainability with sight gags involving wild bears, foolish tourists, and barn cats.

None of these passages would be entertaining (or edifying) were it not for a solid adaptation. I’ve complained in the past about other JManga titles, which sometimes suffered from overly literal translations; witness Otaku-Type Delusional Girl, better known in English as Fujoshi Rumi. Hyakusho Kizuko, however, is a pleasant surprise; the translator has done an excellent job of rendering the text in fluid, conversational English that’s a genuine pleasure to read. In fact, the best compliment I could pay the translator is to note that I actually laughed out loud reading several passages.

I’d be the first to admit that Hyakusho Kizuko won’t be every FMA fan’s idea of a good read; folks who like Arakawa best when she’s staging magical combat may find the information-dense passages too didactic for their tastes. For curious city dwellers, however, Hyakusho Kizuko will be a revelation, offering them an entertaining look at the day-to-day operations of a working farm. Highly recommended.

HYAKUSHO KIZOKU, VOL. 1 • BY HIROMU ARAKAWA • SHINSOKAN PUBLISHING CO., LTD. • 139 pp. • NO RATING

Hyakusho Kizoku, Vol. 1

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Drawn in a loose, improvisational style, Hiromu Arakawa’s Hyakusho Kizuko may remind readers of the gag strips that round out every volume of her wildly successful Fullmetal Alchemist. That’s not a knock on Hyakusho, by the way; like her fellow sister-in-shonen Yellow Tanabe, Arakawa’s omake are every bit as entertaining as her more polished stories, offering her a chance to riff on favorite characters, complain about her job, and reflect on her previous career as a dairy farmer.

In Hyakusho Kizuko, however, the focus is squarely on the joys and hardships of farm life, rather than the pressures of bringing a popular comic to press. Arakawa shares humorous anecdotes about her ongoing war with the Hokkaido squirrel, a skilled crop thief, as well as her family’s penchant for using animal medicines to cure their own ailments. She also waxes poetic about the temperament of cows — apparently, they make great pets — and celebrates Hokkaido’s important role in feeding the rest of Japan. (As she notes in chapter seven, Japan’s dependence on imported food would rise from 50% to 80% if Hokkaido stopped supplying the other islands with its agricultural products.)

Arakawa doesn’t neglect her life as an artist; throughout the stories, we see her interact with her editor, who’s decidedly skeptical about the marketability of agricultural manga. “How come you’ve written about poop two chapters in a row?” her exasperated editor asks. “In a farmer’s story, poop is your friend,” Arakawa cheerfully counters. Besides, Arakawa notes, her manga explores other topics: “I also mention cow teats,” she declares.

As these matter-of-fact exchanges suggest, Arakawa is eager to educate Japanese readers about where their food comes from. She drops facts about food consumption, discusses cow bloodlines, decries government interference in dairy production, and describes what happens to animals that don’t contribute to a farm’s bottom line. She does so with a light hand, however, interspersing the more serious discussions about sustainability with sight gags involving wild bears, foolish tourists, and barn cats.

None of these passages would be entertaining (or edifying) were it not for a solid adaptation. I’ve complained in the past about other JManga titles, which sometimes suffered from overly literal translations; witness Otaku-Type Delusional Girl, better known in English as Fujoshi Rumi. Hyakusho Kizuko, however, is a pleasant surprise; the translator has done an excellent job of rendering the text in fluid, conversational English that’s a genuine pleasure to read. In fact, the best compliment I could pay the translator is to note that I actually laughed out loud reading several passages.

I’d be the first to admit that Hyakusho Kizuko won’t be every FMA fan’s idea of a good read; folks who like Arakawa best when she’s staging magical combat may find the information-dense passages too didactic for their tastes. For curious city dwellers, however, Hyakusho Kizuko will be a revelation, offering them an entertaining look at the day-to-day operations of a working farm. Highly recommended.

HYAKUSHO KIZOKU, VOL. 1 • BY HIROMU ARAKAWA • SHINSOKAN PUBLISHING CO., LTD. • 139 pp. • NO RATING

Pick of the Week: Expect the Unexpected

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There’s plenty of good manga coming in to Midtown Comics this week. Check out picks from the Battle Robot below!

KATE: I think I was the only person in the mangasphere who liked Nao Yazawa’s Moon and Blood, so I was happy to see the second volume on Midtown Comics’ shipping list this week. What charmed me the most about this jokey horror-romance was its retro vibe: Yazawa’s characters seem to have stepped out of a shojo manga from the late 1980s/early 1990s. There’s an imperious, handsome boy who’s an ace at everything (and looks like the lead in Itazura na Kiss); a ditzy but energetic heroine with long, curly hair; a dumb but kind thug who’s loved the heroine since childhood; and a child-vampire who looks like a refugee from an early Rumiko Takahashi story. The script won’t win any prizes for originality, but it’s brisk, funny, and — most importantly — never takes itself too seriously. For folks who have OD’ed on angstful horror-romances — and I count myself among that number — Moon and Blood is a great palate cleanser.

MICHELLE: There’s actually quite a bit on this list that I can see myself picking up at some point in time. Perhaps the most obvious pick is the third volume of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, but I think I’ll choose volume six of Arisa this time, for a little variety. Even though I’m not entirely convinced that mangaka Natsumi Ando knows where her story is going, it is nevertheless the fast-paced and suspenseful tale of a girl masquerading as her twin sister to find out what made her attempt suicide. I don’t know a lot about Nakayoshi, the magazine in which this is serialized, but it’s darker fare than I’d generally expect to find there, all while looking as stereotypically shoujo as can be. An interesting mix, to be sure!

BRIGID: I’m going to go with Michelle’s choice and pick up vol. 6 of Arisa. I find Natusme Ando’s manga strangely addictive, despite her wholesale embrace of shoujo manga cliches. I think it’s because she throws in a twist now and then to keep me guessing. I’m really enjoying Arisa, even more than Kitchen Princess, so this week’s choice is an easy one for me.

SEAN: It’s tough for me as well, as this week features volumes of two of the most essential shoujo series available in English. Tempted as I am to pick Sailor Moon – which is awesome – I’m going to make my pick the third omnibus of Cardcaptor Sakura. Back in the days when CLAMP didn’t need to confuse its audience, this is still one of their best and most heartfelt series, and Sakura is still one of the quintessential shoujo heroines. This omnibus begins the second half of the series, where the reader wonders where the manga can go now that she’s collected all the cards (answer: quite a long way), and also begins to move forward her cute romance with Syaoran. Great stuff, and Dark Horse’s package is wonderful.

MJ: It’s not too often that I choose a BL title for this column, but I admit I’m pretty psyched to see the second volume of Kai Asou’s Only Serious About You finally making its way to Midtown Comics. I enjoyed volume one immensely, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating its continuation. Good romance is so difficult to write, and in a genre where shoddy writing is so widely-tolerated, it’s no wonder few writers really make the effort. Fortunately, Asou is one of the few. She’s the kind of skilled writer who is able to make standard genre tropes feel fresh again, and perhaps even reminds us why they became”standard” to begin with. Though this was officially released in December, Midtown and I are equally behind the times, as I hadn’t realized it was already available. It’s just become this week’s must-buy manga! My only regret is that it isn’t yet available by way of DMP’s iPad app.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 1/23/12

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This week, Kate, Michelle, & Sean look at new releases from Kodansha Comics, Viz Media, and Yen Press.

Animal Land, Vol. 3 | By Makoto Raiku | Kodansha Comics – What a difference a volume makes! Now that Taroza can walk, talk, and kick butt, Animal Land has taken a turn for the better. The action sequences are imaginatively staged, allowing Taroza to display a wider range of abilities and fight more formidable opponents. Volume three is also noteworthy for the introduction of the series’ second human character, a feisty blond girl who’s allied herself with a pride of hungry lions. While the interactions between her and Taroza are predictable (Capri is puzzled by her attraction to Taroza), Makoto Raiku manages to eke some fresh laughs out of their awkward courtship. A good choice for the middle-school crowd, in spite of the 13+ rating. – Katherine Dacey

Bokurano: Ours, Vol. 5 | By Mohiro Kitoh | Viz Media – I hadn’t originally planned on reading this right away, figuring it might be nice to have several volumes of this series to consume sequentially. But then I read that there’s a major revelation in this volume, and I just couldn’t resist. Actually, for a series about children who are conscripted into piloting a giant mecha with their life force, this is what passes for an upbeat volume, in that one boy successfully completes his mission then donates his heart to a very ill friend and one of the girls is able to catch a glimpse of her newborn baby brother before passing away. I thought the “major revelation” was telegraphed a bit too strongly beforehand, so it wasn’t as shocking as it could’ve been, but it’s certainly an intriguing twist. Kitoh’s sketchy, minimalist, and distinctive art style is growing on me, as well. Definitely still recommended. – Michelle Smith

Gon, Vol. 3 | By Masashi Tanaka | Kodansha Comics – If you dutifully purchased all seven volumes of Gon in late 2000s, fear not: the new Kodansha version is nearly identical to the old CMX Manga edition, save for the trade dress. If you missed out on Gon, however, now is a perfect time to explore this delightful series. As you’ve probably heard, Gon features a small orange t-rex who has a ten-year-old boy’s penchant for causing mischief. In volume three, for example, Gon floats down the Amazon, accidentally ingests some hallucinogenic mushrooms, and goes mano-a-mano with a tiger. All of Gon’s escapades are rendered in breathtaking detail; Masashi Tanaka’s linework is impeccable, capable of suggesting the texture of a reptile’s skin or a pine tree’s bark. Tanaka also has great comic chops; only Chuck Jones is his peer when it comes to drawing funny animals. Highly recommended. – Katherine Dacey

Kimi Ni Todoke, Vol. 12 | By Karuho Shiina | Viz Media. – We continue to focus on Sawako and Kazehaya’s new relationship, and how neither of them are quite sure what to do now. Sure, they’re dating and all, but how do two basically shy people go about holding hands, or even *gulp* kissing? To add to Kazehaya’s nervousness, Sawako’s parents now know they’re together. Luckily Kazehaya is a sweetie pie – indeed, her father is irritated that he can’t forbid Sawako to date him as he’s basically swell. There’s also a fantastic chapter showing how Chizu and Ayane met – Chizu, who always speaks before she thinks, makes a wonderful contrast to Ayane’s calculated speech and cognizance of the way others think. One could argue very little really happens in this volume, but who cares? Still fantastic.-Sean Gaffney

Pandora Hearts, Vol. 8 | By Jun Mochizuki | Yen Press – As we approach a volume count in the double digits, we’re starting to get plenty of information about the past, including some significant revelations about Alice. My reactions to this material can best be summed up by one of the characters, who says, “Hrm… ‘twould all seem to make sense, but not quite.” Here’s another applicable quote: “It’s been one crazy story after another, so my head’s still working on catching up.” After demonstrating some sympathy for her readers with this dialogue, Mochizuki gets back to the present, sending Oz to a local festival while suggesting that Gilbert’s about to go all crazypants. Rounding out the volume is the original one-shot concept for the series which is, I am sorry to say, both confusing and dull, but offers some entertainment in the form of familiar characters in unfamiliar situations. – Michelle Smith

Psyren, Vol. 2 | By Toshiaki Iwashiro | Viz Media. – I always find these mid-range Jump series difficult. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Psyren – the hero is fun in a Jump way, he contrasts nicely with his more competent friend, and the heroine is cute and more sensible than her other two friends. Still, there’s nothing here that demands I go out and get the next volume IMMEDIATELY, as I always feel with One Piece. It’s not a great series, it’s merely pretty good. Still, pretty good isn’t that bad. Matsuri is a fun addition to the cast, and there’s some great humor here with Ageha completely failing to use his psychic powers… then overdoing it when he finally gets it. The fighting scenes aren’t really as interesting yet, though. Given it’s a Jump manga, I hope that gets sorted out soon. Again, recommended if you like the Jump style.-Sean Gaffney

Show Us Your Stuff: Benny B’s Old-School Manga Library

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This week’s contributor is Benny B, a DJ and real estate mogul-in-training. I won’t embarrass myself by using an old lady’s idea of cool slang to describe his collection, but I will say he has excellent taste in manga: what’s not to like about Barefoot Gen, Buddha, Bug Boy, or Sanctuary, I ask? – Katherine Dacey

I am a DJ living in New York City. I also work as an office manager for a real estate company that has a TV show. My number one interest is manga. I read it at least twice a day, in the subway to and from work, and before I go to bed. My favorite kinds of manga are seinen and classic. I recently got the iPad2 and I love it – it’s perfect for reading manga. Other than that, I like to go out to eat, collect music, and get new DJ gigs. Get in touch:

benny@djbennyb.com
djbennyb.com
soundcloud.com/thatdjbennyb/
Twitter: @djbennyb
Instagram: @djbennyb

How long have you been collecting manga?
I have been buying a very small amount since the late 80’s. I really got into it in the last five years, though. I wasn’t a true collector before then. At first I was just re-buying the stuff I had as a kid, but now I’m really into current stuff, too.

What was the first manga you bought?
I first started buying manga in the late 80’s and early 90’s. As a kid, I used to sell candy and work at a fruit stand, so I blew all my earnings on comics and records. My first manga was probably Akira, Legend of Kamui (still have some of these) or Ranma – I don’t remember.

My parents first bought me an X-Men comic when I was 8 years old and after that I was hooked on comics for good. My favorites were X-Men and Batman. At first I would buy them in hardware stores and bodegas, which had these revolving wire racks. (Comics were really popular in America then – this was before Nintendo.) After a while, I discovered comics shops, and I saw alternative stuff from Dark Horse, Epic and Viz. A lot of American comic creators were being influenced by manga at that time and I didn’t know the difference between something like Usagi Yojimbo or Ronin and something like Orion or Akira. I started buying manga in comic book form; unfortunately, I lost most of them.

There was one called Memories that was a one-shot about a giant rose in outer space — I think it was by Otomo. Anyway, I should see if I can get that again because it was a favorite of mine. – Editor’s note: Memories is indeed by Katsuhiro Otomo and was originally published by Epic in 1992. Click here for more information.

How big is your collection?
I guess it’s pretty small – you tell me? All the other manga collections that have been posted look great.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
I guess it would be Kosaku Shima. Kosaku Shima is a fantastic manga in the “salary man” genre which is pretty much unrepresented in English translation. It’s a genre about office workers and corporate stuff. Shima is a James Bond-type figure except he’s just a regular office executive. The stories consist of him climbing the corporate ladder and include romance and adventure. The only ones available in the US are actually bilingual books that were published to help Japanese speakers learn English, so these are pretty rare. I have a few other bilingual editions, and I was about to start dropping a few bills on the Princess Knight editions, but Vertical came through with the translations.

Although some companies are doing great work, there are so few translated manga for grown folks that tracking down rare stuff like Kosaku Shima is really important to me.

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
The weirdest item would be Bug Boy or another horror comic. Bug Boy is about a nice boy who turns into a bug and watches his life turn into misery. Other weird ones I own and love are Parasyte, Cat-Eyed Boy, Berserk, Mu Shi Shi and I’ll Give It My All Tomorrow.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
I still like a lot of the same stuff I did when I first got into manga, actually. About 5 years ago, I started making a little more loot and, for nostalgic reasons, decided to buy up a lot of stuff I read as a kid. After I had re-bought all my X-Men comics, I realized that the manga holds up a lot better and I still enjoy it, whereas I don’t really enjoy superhero comics anymore.

I mostly read seinen. My favorite genres are crime, cooking, slice-of-life, horror — really everything that doesn’t have long, drawn-out fighting scenes. Also as you can see, I am a Tezuka freak. My favorite comic of all time is Barefoot Gen.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
Naoki Urasawa is just amazing to me. All of his stories are fantastic. They are vast and intricate and don’t rely on long fighting scenes to fill up the stories. I love One Piece like everybody else, but half of it is fighting scenes. Sometimes I’ll skip right over the fighting scenes and feel like I didn’t miss anything. But with Urasawa, you have this master storyteller who creates incredible novels and on top of that he is drawing everything as well! He’s an incredible artist and is just as good as any American comic artist, if not better. I mean, is there anything on Earth that really competes with that?

Favorite artists currently working: Naoki Urasawa, Takehiko Inoue, Hitoshi Iwaaki, Yamamoto Hideo, Makoto Yukimura and Jiro Taniguchi.

Favorite artists from the past: Osamu Tezuka, Keiji Nakazawa, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Buronson, Ryoichi Ikegami

As far as Tezuka goes, here are my 5 favorite Tezukas translated into English:

  • Buddha
  • Phoenix
  • Adolf
  • Apollo’s Song
  • Black Jack

Astro Boy is cool and everything, but it’s really just for kids. I felt this way about Dororo the first 2 or 3 times I read it, but now I think it’s pretty good.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
It’s hard for me to answer this question because I read manga so quickly that I don’t remember! My subway ride is about 30-40 minutes and sometimes I’ll knock down 100-200 pages in that time, which makes it an expensive habit. That’s why my collection is mostly used books. But right now, I’m reading Real, 20th Century Boys, Black Jack and any old stuff I pick up. Real is so awesome and Inoue is pretty close to Urasawa’s level, although Vagabond has too much fighting for me. I also read Shonen Jump and many different ones online.

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)?
I can’t help anyone with organizing besides telling you to get a cool bookcase or a cool girlfriend who will help you organize it (my strategy).

The best place to find rare books is either online (Amazon or eBay) or at a used bookstore. The Book-Off store in New York City is the best place I know of for rare used books, and this is where I get most of my manga. I personally don’t care what the book looks like, I just want to read it. I will buy an old, beat-up copy or a book with a library sticker on it, so in that way I’m a lousy collector I suppose.

New manga I would buy from Amazon. Amazon is really great.

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.

PotW: 13th Boy, Twin Spica, Book Girl, Durarara!!

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Midtown Comics has a lot to offer this week, from Pokemon to Twlight. MJ, Kate, Sean, and Michelle make their picks below!

MJ: It’s nearly impossible for me to choose just one title, with new volumes of several favorites arriving at Midtown Comics this week. This week’s list runs the gamut when it comes to my personal tastes as well, with series as different as, say, Twin Spica and Pandora Hearts tempting me with pretty much equal power. But in the end, I’ll do the predictable thing, and throw my vote to volume ten of SangEun Lee’s supernatural sunjeong manhwa, 13th Boy. I know I keep raving about this series, but seriously, it’s just that enjoyable. With only two more volumes to go, the drama really ramps up here in volume ten, and we begin to understand more clearly just what the connection is between weirdly gifted Whie-Young and the boy-cactus he gave life to, Beatrice. It’s all kind of heartbreaking, really, and as a reader, I’m torn over even what I want to happen. This is a great thing. If you’ve never gotten around to trying this series, keep your eyes open, as I’ll be doing a giveaway later this week.

KATE: My vote goes to volume eleven of Twin Spica. Writing about Twin Spica in 2010, when I named it one my best manga of the year, I noted that Twin Spica is “an all-too-rare example of a direct, heartfelt story that’s neither saccharine nor mawkish.” Asumi, the story’s heroine, is painfully sincere, but she isn’t the least bit annoying; if anything, she may be one of the strongest, most resilient female characters I’ve encountered in a comic, in spite of her small size. The supporting characters are just as memorable as Asumi. Kei, Asumi’s hot-headed friend, is a great example: she means well, but has a tendency to fire from the hip, unwittingly insulting people she cares about. We’ve all known someone just like Kei — perhaps when we were in high school — giving her scenes with Asumi, Marika, and the other students an extra charge of realism. These true-to-life characters prevent Twin Spica from becoming too precious, even when it flirts with magical realism. (See Mr. Lion.) A lovely coming-of-age story that works for stargazers of all ages.

MICHELLE: With MJso eloquently advocating for 13th Boy, a series I also feel strong affection for, I’m going to branch out a bit and recommend the first volume of Durarara!!. I just read it this week, and found it to be “weird but intriguing.” Frequently, I am daunted by series that introduce this many characters and ideas right up front—this is why it took me a while to get back into Pandora Hearts, after all—but that didn’t happen with Durarara!!. I think it’s the hints of interconnectedness between the subplots that really pulled me in, not to mention the incredibly cool Ikebukuro urban legend: the Black Rider. I have no idea how the manga compares to the novels or the anime, but I really enjoyed this volume and look forward to the next.

SEAN: And since Michelle was kind enough to mention Durarara!!, it falls to me to plug another volume of my favorite light novel series coming out over here to date. Book Girl and the Corrupted Angel is the 4th in the Book Girl series, each of which I have greatly enjoyed. The books aren’t perfect, but they’re fast reads and really good at getting inside the teen psyche. They can also be quite creepy when they want to be, and not just because the titular book girl is a ‘goblin’. Each volume has turned out to focus on a different member of Tohko and Konoha’s social circle, and judging by the description this new volume will finally focus on Nanase Kotobuki. I’ve found her a bit of a cliched tsundere in the previous books, but have no doubt that we’ll see different facets of her here. Highly recommended.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 1/16/12

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This week, MJ, Michelle, Kate, and Sean take a look at recent releases from Yen Press, Viz Media, and Kodansha Comics.

13th Boy, Vol. 10 | By SangEun Lee | Yen Press – I swear, this series just keeps getting better and better. About the only thing keeping it from a perfect score in my book is the occasional obnoxious behavior from protagonist Hee-So, but the well-executed story and character growth more than make up for that. In this volume, Beatrice the erstwhile cactus strives to establish independence (and learns the price Whie-Young pays for using his power), Hee-So does her best to see Beatrice as an ordinary boy with legitimate feelings for her, Whie-Young is given the chance for a normal lifespan if he meets a specific condition, and one of the aspects of that condition falls in to place. This last is a great twist that leaves me honestly rather terrified about what’s in store for these characters in the final two volumes—which I need right now, please—but I wouldn’t have it any other way. – Michelle Smith

Afterschool Charisma, Vol. 5 | By Kumiko Suekane | Viz Media – For most of the series, Kai, St. Kleio’s only “ordinary” student, has remained an enigma. Volume five at last sheds light on Kai’s origins with a lengthy flashback in which he discovers that he, too, is a clone. These scenes bristle with tension; one can feel Kai’s frustration as he struggles to assert his unique identity, in spite of the fact his clone looks and acts just like him. Kai’s backstory serves another important purpose as well, offering several important clues about St. Kleio’s true purpose. Though volume five is one of the most information-dense installments of Afterschool Charisma to date, crack pacing, surprise twists, and a cliffhanger ending make it a swift and engaging read. – Katherine Dacey

Bamboo Blade, Vol. 11 | By Masahiro Totsuka and Aguri Igarashi | Yen Press – The start and end of this volume focuses on the self-doubts and backstory of Saya, the large tsukkomi of our little group of kendoists, and makes you think that this volume will be about the main cast. But just like Vol. 10 focused its attention on Ura and her backstory, here we get introduced to more participants in the television show that Kojiro’s team is going to be doing. There’s not much new here – the jealous actress who realizes that her co-star can outshine her in any athletic event has been seen in manga before this – but it’s still a good mine for humor, especially watching her flip moods and beat the hell out of her manager (and later yell at him for sexism, probably the manga’s best moment). Still, as enjoyable as this has been, and as much fun as Totsuka-san can make things, I’m really ready for the TV show to actually happen. I hope we see it in Vol. 12.-Sean Gaffney

Bleach, Vols. 36-37 | By Tite Kubo | Viz Media – Volume 36 is the best volume of Bleach since the conclusion of the Soul Society arc, as it takes us away from the interminable battle to rescue Orihime from Hueco Mundo and focuses instead on the history of enigmatic Kisuke Urahara and the first, secret betrayal by certain villainous Soul Reapers. Though it would’ve been cooler to have this information ten or fifteen volumes ago, it’s plenty engrossing as it is and even seems to reinvigorate the action when we return to present day. Volume 37 offers more awesome interaction between Orihime and her de-facto warden, and though I still don’t care much about Ichigo, I welcome the chance to see bishounen like Yumichika and Hisagi again, and actually find myself somewhat eager to continue the series. I haven’t felt that way about Bleach in a long time. – Michelle Smith

Dawn of the Arcana, Vol. 2 | By Rei Toma | Viz Media – The tension ramps up in this series’ second volume, as Princess Nakaba becomes more aware of her growing feelings for her new husband, as well as just how deeply those feelings conflict with her loyalty to long-time servant Loki. While this series is shaping up more and more to be another shoujo love triangle, it does have enough genuine intrigue to set it apart from the crowd. This volume also delves further into Nakaba’s preternatural abilities, which are perhaps more interesting than they first appeared. But what really makes this volume work is Nakaba’s inner conflict. Though there’s nothing really new going on there, it’s written from a place of real emotional truth, and that makes this series well worth reading. Toma’s expressive artwork is a highlight as well. Tentatively recommended. – MJ

Dengeki Daisy, Vol. 8 | By Kyousuke Motomi | Viz Media – Well, if you thought things would be easily resolved after last volume’s cliffhanger, think again. Kurosaki is quite aware that the message sent to Daisy was a fake – he says so on Page 21. But it doesn’t take much to make a broken soul shatter again, and Kurosaki is determined to remove himself from Teru’s life forever. Teru, after a brief chapter of self-pity and moping, isn’t having any of this, and asks everybody else to explain exactly what happened with Kurosaki and her brother. The explanation is the rest of the volume, and it’s by turns uplifting and crushing, as with most tragic backstories in shoujo. The drawback, of course, is that if you read this manga for the fun romance and humor between its two leads, there is precisely nothing here for you. Read it anyway, it’ll make the eventual reunion, presumably in Vol. 9 or 10, that much sweeter.-Sean Gaffney

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Vol. 3 | By Kenji Kuroda and Kazuo Maekawa | Kodansha Comics – The main reason for Phoenix Wright fans to pick up this third volume is featured prominently on the front cover – Franziska Von Karma is the prosecutor this time around, and that means a lot of foolish fools and a lot of whip jokes – none better than at the start, where her side job is revealed. In fact, that seems to be a problem with most of these Ace Attorney mangas – the setup is invariably more interesting than the trial. Anyone reading this for the mystery will be disappointed – it’s obvious. Those who read it to see more Phoenix adventures should be pleased – there’s even a few shoutouts to the Apollo Justice game, as Phoenix gets an eerily accurate fortune given to him. There’s also some nice art here, showcasing the dramatic poses and plot revelations in ways the writing can’t quite match up to.-Sean Gaffney

Toriko, Vol. 8 | By Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro | Viz Media – The eighth volume of Toriko offers readers an entertaining respite from hand-to-hand combat, as Toriko and Komatsu visit Chef Setsuno, one of four “gourmet living legends” in the world. Setsuno is a hoot: she’s a demon in the kitchen, dispatching a chicken with ferocious precision, slicing vegetables mid-air, and preparing a broth of such purity that it’s invisible to the eye. Lest anyone confuse Toriko for Oishinbo, however, this pleasant interlude is swiftly followed by an action-packed trip to the Antarctic, where Toriko wrestles sharks, serpents, and evil gourmands for the chance to taste century soup, a dish that only materializes once every hundred years. Subtle it isn’t, but the characters’ goofy antics and goofy powers (“Flying fork!” and “Long-range bazooka breath!” were my personal favorites) mitigate against macho excess. – Katherine Dacey

And the nominees are…

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The nominees for this year’s Manga Taisho Award were just unveiled. Of the fifteen titles on the list, two — Flowers of Evil and Drifters — have been licensed in English. The nominees also include Hiromu Arakawa’s latest series Silver Spoon, Kengo Hanazawa’s previously nominated I Am a Hero, and Katsumasa Enokiya’s Hibi Rock.

Mark your calendars: the next Manga Movable Feast begins on January 22nd, and focuses on Usamaru Furuya. Ash Brown will host.

Deb Aoki updates her list of 15 Ways to Enjoy Manga (Without Going Broke).

The internet is still abuzz over DMP’s recent Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $8,700 towards the licensing and publication of Osamu Tezuka’s Barbara. Alex Hoffman and Lissa Patillo offer their thoughts, pro- and contra-, about DMP’s use of Kickstarter. Over at Manga Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson adds her two cents to the conversation.

And speaking of Tezuka, what classic manga would you like to see licensed next? Inquiring manga critics want to know!

Reviews: Ash Brown posts an assortment of brief manga, movie, and book reviews at Experiments in Manga. Here at Manga Bookshelf, the Battle Robot assembles to review a variety of titles, including the latest volumes of 13th Boy, Bamboo Blade, Dawn of the Arcana, and Toriko.

Kristin Bomba on vol. 3 of Ai Ore! Love Me (Comic Attack)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 2-3 of Animal Land (Anime News Network)
Connie on The Art of Hideshi Hino (Slightly Biased Manga)
Kristin Bomba on vols. 7-9 of Bakuman (Comic Attack!)
Jenny on vols. 2-6 of Dengeki Daisy (No Flying No Tights)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 7 of Dengeki Daisy (Anime News Network)
Katherine Dacey on vol. 1 of A Devil and Her Love Song (The Manga Critic)
Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Girly (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Love Hina Omnibus (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on vol. 3 of Oresama Teacher (Manga Xanadu)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 6 of Oresama Teacher (Anime News Network)
Nic on vols. 1-2 of Pokemon: Black and White (No Flying No Tights)

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1

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Maria Kawai, heroine of A Devil and Her Love Song, is a cool customer. Not only is she beautiful, talented, and smart, she’s also tough — so tough, in fact, that she was expelled from a hoity-toity Catholic school for beating up a teacher. Her blunt demeanor further cements her bad-girl impression; within minutes of enrolling at a new high school, she antagonizes all the girls in her class with a few sharp observations about their behavior. Only two boys — Yusuke, a cheerful, popular student who avoids conflict at all costs, and Shin, a moody outsider — try defending Maria from her peers’ nasty comments and pranks.

So far, so good: Maria is spiky and complicated, a truth-teller who lacks the ability to censor herself, even though she’s aware of the potential consequences of speaking her mind. Throughout volume one, there are some wonderful comic moments as Maria struggles to put a “lovely spin” — Yusuke’s term — on her acid comments. Alas, Maria’s sideways head-tilt and doe-eyed gaze look more sinister than cute; not since Kazuo Umezu’s Scary Book has a manga-ka made a doll-like character look so thoroughly menacing, even when superimposed atop a backdrop of flowers and sparkles.

Having created such a vivid character, however, Miyoshi Tomori isn’t sure where to go with the story. In several scenes, Maria does things that contradict what we know about her: would someone as perceptive as Maria willingly attend a party hosted by the class mean girls, especially after they’d harassed her on a daily basis? And why would someone as outspoken as Maria refrain from pointing out her teacher’s judgmental behavior — especially when it’s plainly obvious to both the characters in the story and the reader? These kind of abrupt reversals might make sense if we knew more about Maria’s past, but at this stage in the story, they feel more like authorial floundering than a conscious revelation of character.

From time to time, however, Tomori convincingly hints at Maria’s softer side. Midway through volume one, for example, Maria makes tentative overtures towards Tomoya “Nippachi” Kohsaka, a fellow bullying victim. (“Nippachi” means “twenty-eight,” and is a mean-spirited reference to Tomoya’s poor academic performance.) That scene is both sad and real; anyone who’s ever seen two ostracized kids turn their classmates’ scorn on one another will immediately appreciate the dynamic between Maria and Nippachi. Maria’s exchanges with Shin, too, reveal a different side of her personality; though the pair frequently engage in the kind of rapid, antagonistic banter that’s de rigeur for romantic comedies, their quieter conversations suggest a grudging mutual respect.

Maria’s interactions with Nippachi and Shin fill me with hope that A Devil and Her Love Song will find its footing in later chapters. If Tomori can find a way to reveal Maria’s fundamental decency without compromising her heroine’s tart, outspoken personality, A Devil and Her Love Song will be a welcome addition to the Shojo Beat catalog, an all-too-rare example of a story in which the heroine isn’t the least bit concerned with being nice or popular. If Tomori can’t, Devil runs the risk of devolving into a YA Taming of the Shrew, with Shin (or, perhaps, Yosuke) playing Petruchio to Maria’s Katherina.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC. Volume one will be released February 7, 2011.

A DEVIL AND HER LOVE SONG, VOL. 1 • BY MIYOSHI TOMORI • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 1

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Maria Kawai, heroine of A Devil and Her Love Song, is a cool customer. Not only is she beautiful, talented, and smart, she’s also tough — so tough, in fact, that she was expelled from a hoity-toity Catholic school for beating up a teacher. Her blunt demeanor further cements her bad-girl impression; within minutes of enrolling at a new high school, she antagonizes all the girls in her class with a few sharp observations about their behavior. Only two boys — Yusuke, a cheerful, popular student who avoids conflict at all costs, and Shin, a moody outsider — try defending Maria from her peers’ nasty comments and pranks.

So far, so good: Maria is spiky and complicated, a truth-teller who lacks the ability to censor herself, even though she’s aware of the potential consequences of speaking her mind. Throughout volume one, there are some wonderful comic moments as Maria struggles to put a “lovely spin” — Yusuke’s term — on her acid comments. Alas, Maria’s sideways head-tilt and doe-eyed gaze look more sinister than cute; not since Kazuo Umezu’s Scary Book has a manga-ka made a doll-like character look so thoroughly menacing, even when superimposed atop a backdrop of flowers and sparkles.

Having created such a vivid character, however, Miyoshi Tomori isn’t sure where to go with the story. In several scenes, Maria does things that contradict what we know about her: would someone as perceptive as Maria willingly attend a party hosted by the class mean girls, especially after they’d harassed her on a daily basis? And why would someone as outspoken as Maria refrain from pointing out her teacher’s judgmental behavior — especially when it’s plainly obvious to both the characters in the story and the reader? These kind of abrupt reversals might make sense if we knew more about Maria’s past, but at this stage in the story, they feel more like authorial floundering than a conscious revelation of character.

From time to time, however, Tomori convincingly hints at Maria’s softer side. Midway through volume one, for example, Maria makes tentative overtures towards Tomoya “Nippachi” Kohsaka, a fellow bullying victim. (“Nippachi” means “twenty-eight,” and is a mean-spirited reference to Tomoya’s poor academic performance.) That scene is both sad and real; anyone who’s ever seen two ostracized kids turn their classmates’ scorn on one another will immediately appreciate the dynamic between Maria and Nippachi. Maria’s exchanges with Shin, too, reveal a different side of her personality; though the pair frequently engage in the kind of rapid, antagonistic banter that’s de rigeur for romantic comedies, their quieter conversations suggest a grudging mutual respect.

Maria’s interactions with Nippachi and Shin fill me with hope that A Devil and Her Love Song will find its footing in later chapters. If Tomori can find a way to reveal Maria’s fundamental decency without compromising her heroine’s tart, outspoken personality, A Devil and Her Love Song will be a welcome addition to the Shojo Beat catalog, an all-too-rare example of a story in which the heroine isn’t the least bit concerned with being nice or popular. If Tomori can’t, Devil runs the risk of devolving into a YA Taming of the Shrew, with Shin (or, perhaps, Yosuke) playing Petruchio to Maria’s Katherina.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC. Volume one will be released February 7, 2011.

A DEVIL AND HER LOVE SONG, VOL. 1 • BY MIYOSHI TOMORI • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

Show Us Your Stuff: Bonjour, Gemini!

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After a lengthy (and unintentional) hiatus, I’m pleased to report that Show Us Your Stuff is back with our first-ever international guest. Please help me welcome Gemini, who hails from the French city of Lyon. Though American readers may own many of the same manga as Gemini, they’ll also spot a few titles that have yet to be licensed for English-speaking audiences such as Ashita no Joe and Saint Young Men. His advice to frustrated otaku like me? Learn French! — Katherine Dacey

My name is Gemini, and I’m a French guy living in Lyon. When I was little, there was a lot of anime broadcast in France on a TV show named Le Club Dorothée; I think that the popularity of manga in my country is due to Dorothée, and I discovered manga thanks to that show. I read a lot of manga, but I’m also into French and American comic books, and I spend most of my remaining spare time watching movies. In fact, I couldn’t focus on only one of these activities; I need to read and to see different things.

How long have you been collecting manga? What was the first manga you bought?
I’ve read comic books since the age of 4. Only French ones at the beginning, but I started reading American ones when I was 10. Somebody offered me a manga in the nineties, but I can’t remember who or when exactly; I do remember that it was a volume of Dragon Ball, however. I really started collecting manga in 2001, when I bought my first volume of Saint Seiya, which was my favorite anime in Le Club Dorothée.

How big is your collection?
Today, I have 1,891 volumes of manga, including my art books. I buy only the series I like, and I always want to read my volumes again, so I rarely sell my manga. As a result, it’s very complicated to store all my books…

What is the rarest item in your collection?
Since I’ve been buying manga for a long time, I have a lot of volumes that are out-of-print. Some of them were second-hand when I bought them, so they were already a little bit rare. (I don’t buy used books if I can find the same ones new.)

The rarest items in my collection? I’d have to say Tsukasa Hojo‘s series, which are quite rare in France because they were published by different companies. Ten years ago, the rights to his manga were purchased by a new company. Though the company released such well-known series like Angel Heart and Cat’s Eye, they haven’t released shorter titles such as Rash!! or Komorebi no Moto de. Tsukasa Hojo has a lot of fans in France, so the few titles that were published are now very rare, and are quite expensive. But I managed to find them all, so I think that they’re the rarest manga I own. Editor’s note: Tsukasa Hojo is best known to English-speaking readers as the author of City Hunter, which was licensed by Gutsoon Entertainment but never completed.

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
I bought Tokyo Mew Mew a La Mode. I’m a boy, so that’s obviously weird!

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
I don’t think that it’s evolved, it’s just that I know my own taste better every day. For example, I really like manga from the seventies or the eighties; that was just natural when I started reading manga, because they were readily available, but now they don’t sell well and become rarer and rarer. It wasn’t until I had difficulty finding older titles that I realized just how important they were to me.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
My favorite one is Osamu Tezuka. He was a true genius. But I have a lot of “favorite” artists: Leiji Matsumoto, Wataru Yoshizumi, Go Nagai, Riyoko Ikeda, and Tsukasa Hojo. As you can see, I’m really into “old” manga.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
You know, France is the country — just after Japan, of course — where manga sells the most. In 2011, 1,520 new volumes of manga were published. So there are a lot of series available, and I collect many of them, including Afterschool Charisma, Ame nochi Hare, Ashita no Joe, Bleach, Break Blade, Captain Tsubasa, Dr. Slump, Drifters, Highschool of the Dead, Hikari no Densetsu, Hokuto no Ken, Hunter x Hunter, K-On!, Ouran High School Host Club, Sabu to Ichi, Saint Seiya G, Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas, Saint Young Men, Shi Ki, The Legend of Kamui, Vinland Saga, and Yotsuba&!.

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)?
You should learn French, it’s easier than Japanese and we have a lot of different manga!

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.

Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a Gangster’s Daughter

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In the popular imagination, the yakuza are modern-day samurai, observing a rigid code of honor, decorating their bodies with elaborate tattoos, and meting out swift punishments to anyone who encroaches on their territory. When women appear in yakuza stories, they are usually unwitting victims of clan warfare or temptresses whose sexual allure threatens the established order; they are seldom leaders or soldiers in their own right.

Small wonder, then, that Shoko Tendo’s Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster’s Daughter (2007) caused a mild sensation in Japan when it was first published, as Tendo gave a voice to all the women who had been relegated to the margins of yakuza stories. In direct, unembellished prose, she described the devastating impact of her father’s criminal activities on his family. She cataloged her father’s drunken rages and dalliances with hostesses; recounted his subordinates’ unwanted sexual advances; and recalled the taunts and gossip that swirled around her family after her father’s incarceration.

Tendo turned an equally unsparing eye on herself, documenting her increasingly self-destructive behavior. At twelve, she joined a gang and skipped school; by her sixteenth birthday, she’d been arrested and imprisoned for fighting, and by her nineteenth birthday, she’d become addicted to speed and enmeshed in several violent relationships with married men. Only after a string of near-death experiences was Tendo able to break the cycle of abuse and addiction that had reduced her to a eighty-seven pound skeleton with scars and false teeth.

From this blunt, vivid narrative, Sean Michael Wilson and Michiru Morikawa have fashioned a curiously flat graphic memoir, Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a Gangster’s Daughter. Wilson, the script writer, hews closely to the structure of Tendo’s book, preserving the chapters and the major events of Tendo’s narrative. Yet for all his fidelity to the original, the results are uneven. Most of Tendo’s siblings and lovers, for example, are reduced from major characters to walk-on roles. To judge from Wilson and Morikawa’s adaptation, for example, Tendo’s older sister Maki was a casual acquaintance, yet in Tendo’s memoir, Maki occupied an important place in her sister’s life: first as an idol, someone Tendo emulated, then as a cautionary tale, someone Tendo feared becoming. Tendo’s other family members fare worse than Maki; readers could be excused for wondering how many siblings Tendo has, as her older brother and younger sister are mentioned only in passing late in the book, with little discussion of how their father’s lifestyle affected them.

Equally frustrating are the layouts: Yakuza Moon looks more like an illustrated novel than comics, with words carrying the burden of the storytelling and pictures playing an ancillary role. Only in Tendo’s sexual encounters does the artwork take a more prominent role; through nuanced facial expressions and body language, Morikawa speaks volumes about Tendo’s complicated relationships with men. We immediately sense which partners were bullies, and which were kind; which used physical intimidation to control Tendo, and which used emotional manipulation; and which she feared, and which she loved. There’s a frankness to these scenes that’s missing elsewhere in the book; Morikawa never shies away from depicting ugly or uncomfortable moments, but shows us what’s happening from Tendo’s point of view, rather than her partner’s.

And that, perhaps, is this graphic novel’s greatest strength: whatever compromises Wilson and Morikawa made in translating Tendo’s prose into images, the focus of the story remains squarely on Tendo. Yakuza activities — drug dealing, loansharking, beatings — take place off camera; we only see the terrible consequences, reminding us that no matter how elaborate the yakuza code of conduct may be, there’s no real honor among thieves.

YAKUZA MOON: THE TRUE STORY OF A GANGSTER’S DAUGHTER • BASED ON THE BOOK BY SHOKO TENDO, ADAPTED BY SEAN MICHAEL WILSON, ILLUSTRATED BY MICHIRO MORIKAWA • KODANSHA USA • 192 pp. • RATING: MATURE

Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a Gangster’s Daughter

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In the popular imagination, the yakuza are modern-day samurai, observing a rigid code of honor, decorating their bodies with elaborate tattoos, and meting out swift punishments to anyone who encroaches on their territory. When women appear in yakuza stories, they are usually unwitting victims of clan warfare or temptresses whose sexual allure threatens the established order; they are seldom leaders or soldiers in their own right.

Small wonder, then, that Shoko Tendo’s Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster’s Daughter (2007) caused a mild sensation in Japan when it was first published, as Tendo gave a voice to all the women who had been relegated to the margins of yakuza stories. In direct, unembellished prose, she described the devastating impact of her father’s criminal activities on his family. She cataloged her father’s drunken rages and dalliances with hostesses; recounted his subordinates’ unwanted sexual advances; and recalled the taunts and gossip that swirled around her family after her father’s incarceration.

Tendo turned an equally unsparing eye on herself, documenting her increasingly self-destructive behavior. At twelve, she joined a gang and skipped school; by her sixteenth birthday, she’d been arrested and imprisoned for fighting, and by her nineteenth birthday, she’d become addicted to speed and enmeshed in several violent relationships with married men. Only after a string of near-death experiences was Tendo able to break the cycle of abuse and addiction that had reduced her to a eighty-seven pound skeleton with scars and false teeth.

From this blunt, vivid narrative, Sean Michael Wilson and Michiru Morikawa have fashioned a curiously flat graphic memoir, Yakuza Moon: The True Story of a Gangster’s Daughter. Wilson, the script writer, hews closely to the structure of Tendo’s book, preserving the chapters and the major events of Tendo’s narrative. Yet for all his fidelity to the original, the results are uneven. Most of Tendo’s siblings and lovers, for example, are reduced from major characters to walk-on roles. To judge from Wilson and Morikawa’s adaptation, for example, Tendo’s older sister Maki was a casual acquaintance, yet in Tendo’s memoir, Maki occupied an important place in her sister’s life: first as an idol, someone Tendo emulated, then as a cautionary tale, someone Tendo feared becoming. Tendo’s other family members fare worse than Maki; readers could be excused for wondering how many siblings Tendo has, as her older brother and younger sister are mentioned only in passing late in the book, with little discussion of how their father’s lifestyle affected them.

Equally frustrating are the layouts: Yakuza Moon looks more like an illustrated novel than comics, with words carrying the burden of the storytelling and pictures playing an ancillary role. Only in Tendo’s sexual encounters does the artwork take a more prominent role; through nuanced facial expressions and body language, Morikawa speaks volumes about Tendo’s complicated relationships with men. We immediately sense which partners were bullies, and which were kind; which used physical intimidation to control Tendo, and which used emotional manipulation; and which she feared, and which she loved. There’s a frankness to these scenes that’s missing elsewhere in the book; Morikawa never shies away from depicting ugly or uncomfortable moments, but shows us what’s happening from Tendo’s point of view, rather than her partner’s.

And that, perhaps, is this graphic novel’s greatest strength: whatever compromises Wilson and Morikawa made in translating Tendo’s prose into images, the focus of the story remains squarely on Tendo. Yakuza activities — drug dealing, loansharking, beatings — take place off camera; we only see the terrible consequences, reminding us that no matter how elaborate the yakuza code of conduct may be, there’s no real honor among thieves.

YAKUZA MOON: THE TRUE STORY OF A GANGSTER’S DAUGHTER • BASED ON THE BOOK BY SHOKO TENDO, ADAPTED BY SEAN MICHAEL WILSON, ILLUSTRATED BY MICHIRO MORIKAWA • KODANSHA USA • 192 pp. • RATING: MATURE

Pick of the Week: Farewell, Bandai

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The pickin’s are somewhat slim this week at Midtown Comics, but the Battle Robot is able to find a few comics worth buying.

SEAN: … I’ll be honest, nothing thrills me from this week’s manga list. Instead, my vote goes to Vol. 3 of IDW’s Best of Dan DeCarlo, another in their line of Archie Comics series devoted to classic authors. Admittedly, it would have been nice to see the fine folks at Archie show love to these artists while they were still alive, but we can’t have everything. The first collection of Dan’s work focused almost entirely on his Betty and Veronica classics, and that makes sense: Dan is most famous for the way he drew the female form, and those comics best show that off. Now that we’re three volumes in, I’m wondering if we’ll see some more variety. Plus this collection likely means even more scripts by Frank Doyle, who was simply the best writer Archie ever had in its classic years.

BRIGID: I probably wouldn’t do this if there were a stronger selection to choose from, but my pick is vol. 3 of Kannagi, both because it’s a nice series and as a tribute to the publisher, Bandai Entertainment, which is closing up shop next month. That means there will be no new volumes of Kannagi. That might be a good thing. The first volume was a pleasant surprise, the second volume a bit weaker. Still, I enjoy Eri Takenashi’s elegantly simple art, and Bandai did a nice job with production on these books. I’ll miss Kannagi.

MJ: I’m going to follow Brigid’s example here, and throw my vote to Kannagi. I enjoyed the series’ first volume quite a bit, and was disappointed by the second, but I’ve held out hope that the third might steer the story back to its original trajectory. I’m sorry to see Kannagi and Bandai go. Manga was never the compay’s focus, but they worked hard to do well by it and learned from their mistakes. It’s a shame this series won’t be completed in English.

KATE: My choice is the final volume of Hyde & Closer. At seven volumes, the series never overstays its welcome, offering readers an enjoyable mixture of comedy and horror, with a sprinkling of life lessons. The crisp, imaginative artwork is another plus; Haro Aso had a talent for transforming seemingly benign toys — a kokeshi doll, a teddy bear — into lethal weapons. (Do I really need to say more than “teddy bears with chainsaws” to sell you on the concept?) It’s a pity the series was saddled with an Older Teen rating, as it’s a perfect choice for younger teens who’ve outgrown material like BakeGyamon: Backwards Game but aren’t quite ready for the more mature shonen titles in VIZ, Yen Press, and Kodansha’s catalogs.

MICHELLE: Ordinarily, I’d cast my vote for volume five of Bokurano: Ours, but as I’ve done so at least once already, I’ll focus instead on volume 41 of Case Closed, which I talked about in a recent Off the Shelf column. I realize it’s unlikely that anyone new to a series would decide to start with volume 41, but Case Closed is the rare example of a manga where one could legitimately do this, not be lost, and enjoy it. All it takes is being in the mood for a mystery that features gadget-assisted sleuthing and convoluted murder puzzles. If this were seinen, no doubt the series would be more grim and realistic. Because it’s shounen, though, readers are in for uncomplicated fun.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?