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Haikyu!!, Vol. 1

July 14, 2016 by Michelle Smith

By Haruichi Furudate | Published by VIZ Media

haikyu1

It’s been a good year so far for sports manga! Competitive cycling is represented in Yen’s Yowamushi Pedal, August brings the first two-in-one omnibus edition of Kuroko’s Basketball, and volleyball-centric Haikyu!! is on shelves now. I am just about in heaven! (If someone would just license Mitsuru Adachi’s Rough, that would seal the deal.)

At first glance, Haikyu!! looks a little bit like Slam Dunk. Tobio Kageyama is the dark-haired character with talent and experience, and Shoyo Hinata is the enthusiastic redhead with a lot of potential but who lacks many basic skills. They join their high school’s volleyball team in their first year and clash instantly, fueled by a previous encounter where Kageyama’s team trounced Hinata’s in a middle-school tournament, but must put this aside and learn to function as teammates. What’s different is that Kageyama has more obviously negative qualities than Slam Dunk’s Rukawa had, including a perpetual snarl and dismissive attitude, while Hinata has more positive qualities than Sakuragi possessed, like discipline and team spirit.

I really liked watching their relationship develop, as it eventually becomes apparent (as they practice for then participate in a match against a couple other new members) that each is what the other has been waiting for. Kageyama’s previous team turned their backs on his demanding leadership and wound up losing the aforementioned tournament. None of them could keep up with the pace he was attempting to set. Hinata can, though, and he’s so grateful to finally have teammates and someone to “set” the ball for him, that he is positively eager to get in position to execute the plays that Kageyama’s old team grumbled about.

Their rivalry is far from over, but as the first volume draws to a close, it’s clear they’ve begun to appreciate the other more and are warming to the idea that, if they used to be the greatest enemies, then now they could be the greatest teammates. Inevitably, their journey will take them to Nationals, for that’s the goal of seemingly all sports manga series. I’ll be looking forward to it!

Haikyu!! is ongoing in Japan, where the 22nd volume has just been released. VIZ will be releasing a new volume each month through at least January 2017, which is as far as their Amazon listings presently go.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Adaptation Adventures: Mushishi

July 14, 2016 by Ash Brown

After revisiting and reviewing each volume of Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi for my horror manga review project, by now it’s probably readily clear that I greatly enjoy the series. I love the influence of traditional Japanese folklore on the stories. I love the manga’s subtle creepinesss. I love the exploration of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature. I love how the series delves into the connections that exist between people. I love the importance placed on the search for knowledge. The storytelling in Mushishi is atmospheric, beautiful, and frequently unsettling as individuals struggle with themselves and with the unknown. There is darkness and tragedy in Mushishi but there is also hope—one of the major themes in the manga is that for better or for worse, life will ultimately persevere.

Mushishi is a largely episodic series following Ginko, a mushishi, who travels the Japanese countryside studying mushi and trying to help people who have fallen under their influence. Mushi are described as creatures which are very close to the original form of life. Their presence is fundamental and necessary to the living world, but depending on the circumstances they may either be beneficial to or negatively impact humans. Mushi are frequently at the heart of unusual natural phenomenon or may cause otherwise unexplainable illnesses. Within the context of the series mushi can be taken literally, but they can also be read as metaphors for many conditions experienced in reality.

Urushibara’s ten-volume Mushishi, originally serialized in Japan between 1999 and 2008, was first released in print in English by Del Rey Manga between 2007 and 2010. Soon after, Del Rey’s manga imprint was closed and Mushishi subsequently went out of print. Unsurprisingly, the print edition of Mushishi has become increasingly difficult to find over time, but in 2014 Kodansha Comics released the entire series digitally. In addition to earning multiple awards and honors over the course of its publication, Mushishi was also the basis for multiple anime adaptations and a live-action film (most of which are available digitally if not physically in North America), as well as a variety of other media.

The first Mushishi anime series, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama, aired in Japan in 2005 and 2006. At twenty-six episodes, it only adapted a portion of the original manga. (Granted, the manga hadn’t yet been completed at that point.) Since I love the Mushishi manga, it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that I love the anime as well. Although the first Mushishi anime adaptation isn’t necessarily my favorite series, or even the anime that means the most to me personally, it is the series that I’ve seen the most number of times; I return to it frequently. Eventually, nearly a decade after the first Mushishi anime series, an animated television special was released which was followed a few months later by a second anime series. This twenty-episode series, also directed Nagahama, aired in Japan between 2014 and 2015 and adapted most of the remaining stories found in the manga. (A second animated television special was released during this time as well.) Despite the number of years that passed between the first and the second anime series, they are both very similar in tone and style. Nagahama also directed the Mushishi animated film released in 2015 which adapted the manga’s final story arc. Since I loved both the original manga and the first anime series, I was very happy to see so much more Mushishi anime produced.

The various Mushishi anime are very faithful adaptations of the manga. Frequently the scenes in the anime follow the scenes in the manga frame by frame and panel by panel, though occasionally the order that events appear in the narrative is slightly altered. Where the anime distinguish themselves is in their color and sound, especially in the establishment of the backgrounds and settings. Urushibara’s color artwork is lovely, but except for the covers of the individual manga volumes, very few examples of it officially appeared in North America. (I imported Urushibara’s 2015 Mushishi artbook which is filled with color illustrations and I adore it.) The anime bring the world of Mushishi to life. While the actual animation can at times be fairly simple and limited, the environments are always absolutely gorgeous and beautiful in their detail. The sound design in the anime adaptations is great, too, adding spectacularly to the overall atmosphere. The music by Toshio Masuda (which I’m constantly listening to) makes extensive use of bells, chimes, and other percussion along with unobtrusive synthesized and acoustic instruments, creating a beautiful soundtrack that is in turns ethereal and dramatic. Much like the original, the Mushishi anime creates an experience that can be calming and soothing as well as unsettling and disturbing.

Urushibara’s manga series was also the inspiration for Katsuhiro Otomo’s award-winning 2006 live-action film Mushishi. For the most part the film was received very well both inside and outside of Japan. Though overall it’s palette tends to be darker and more subdued than the anime adaptations, the visuals can be quite stunning; the special effects hold up surprisingly well even a decade after it was first released. I actually only very recently watched Otomo’s Mushishi for the first time. From the standpoint of someone who is very familiar with the original manga and its anime adaptations, the live-action movie is somewhat disorienting and perhaps even shocking. Though it begins much as one would expect, it ultimately deviates a fair amount from its source material even to the point of changing some of the underpinning mythologies and characterizations of the original. It’s clear that Urushibara’s manga provides the basis for the movie, but many details have been reimagined or remixed in some way. The narrative is still interesting, though. Otomo successfully weaves together several stories from the manga series and makes references to many others before taking the film in an entirely new and different direction. While the original Mushishi tends to be episodic, Otomo’s film is self-contained and provides a single cohesive story. In part this is accomplished placing a significant focus on Ginko’s past and what it means for his present and future, providing a framework for the film as a whole. Instead of simply wandering the countryside helping other people, Ginko has the additional motivation of trying to solve the mystery of who he really is and to reclaim his missing memories.

While I would consider the Mushishi manga and anime to be horror, albeit fairly subtle and subdued horror, the film is much more obviously so. Many of the underlying elements are the same, but the film focuses more directly on the aspects of traditional, supernatural horror. However, this does mean some of the more nuanced themes found in the manga and anime are missing. Otomo’s film is a much darker incarnation of Mushishi. The movie, especially towards its end, is incredibly creepy and extraordinarily disconcerting in both imagery and story. It’s so different in tone and narrative that it might actually be better described as a portrayal of an alternate universe of Mushishi rather than being a strict adaptation. It certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste, especially if viewers are expecting something more akin to the gentler (though still disquieting) anime adaptations, but I actually quite liked the movie. For me though, it’s really more of a horror film before it’s a Mushishi film. Still, I feel that the live-action film, the anime adaptations, and the original manga are all well worth checking out and are all fascinating in their own rights. And of course, although unlikely, I’d love to see more Mushishi media and merchandise released in North America.

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Ranma 1/2, Vols. 29-30

July 14, 2016 by Sean Gaffney

By Rumiko Takahashi. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialized in the magazine Shonen Sunday. Released in North America by Viz.

There’s a lot I could discuss with this omnibus of Ranma 1/2, which is a strong one. There’s Nabiki’s 2nd and final focus story, where she meets her match in a man dedicated to making others spend money on him. It’s nice to see Nabiki actually tricked once or twice during this arc, and Ranma and Akane watching the debt rack up are hilarious. There’s also the story with Pink and Link, where Shampoo once again doesn’t seem to realize that the whole thing could be solved by her not being a violent jerk (to be fair to her, this applies to most of the cast as well). There’s also an amusing story that quickly turns bittersweet, as Ranma tries to turn a cold that temporarily stops his curse into an excuse to finally meet his mother at last. It’s a strong book.

But a lot of these reviews have been about my own experience with Ranma back in the 1990s (this is why I still use the old-fashioned romanization), and therefore it would feel wrong if I didn’t talk the rest of this review about Akari Unryuu. I was never a big watcher of the Ranma 1/2 anime, preferring the manga and fanfiction. And in any case, the Ranma anime had ground to a halt right about Vol. 26’s material, meaning that the last 12 or so volumes weren’t animated. And I never really got the popularity of the Ryouga/Ukyou pairing in fandom either, because I hadn’t seen the anime do a much bigger job of putting them together. And, given I liked Ryouga and wanted him to be happy, I always hoped something would come along.

Now it has, as we meet a young girl and her farm of sumo wrestling pigs. Make no mistake about it, Akari’s introductory story is as ridiculous as all the other Ranma stories, and I admit if she’d never showed up again it wouldn’t be all that different from, say, the story earlier in the book with Pink and Link (who indeed never show up again). Akari is looking for a husband strong enough to defeat her champion sumo pig, and has been massacring the males of Nerima as a result. Ryouga, naturally, flips the pig into the air with his umbrella. It’s love at first sight… if only Akari wasn’t so devoted to pigs. Every time she mentions them Ryouga twitches, to Akane’s confusion (a reminder that she never, ever does figure out Ryouga is P-chan) and Ranma’s frustration.

Ranma asks here, and the fandom asked constantly, whether Akari would simply fall in love with anyone who beat her pig. But Akari really does seem to have fallen for Ryouga himself, to the point where, when she mistakenly thinks he hates pigs, she has her sumo pig beat her up till she can hate them herself and solve the problem. (This does not solve the problem. But then, if you’ve been reading Ranma 1/2, you’d have guessed this.) And tellingly, at the end of this short arc Ranma decides to solve the problem by exposing Akari to Ryouga’s curse – something that, as I’ve said above, never happens with Akane. So now Akari has the best of both worlds – she loves Ryouga, AND he turns into a pig.

I won’t deny, 20 years on, that Akari as a love interest is a bit flat. but then again, most Ranma characters are more two-dimensional than Fandom makes them out to be. She’s also introduced towards the end of the series, clearly as a love interest – go see ‘Pair the Spares’ on TV Tropes to see how this upsets people. But I still don’t really care, and Takahashi clearly didn’t either. Akari was popular enough that she gets a cameo at the end of this book, writing Ryouga a letter (which promptly gets destroyed, because that’s the kind of series this is, but hey). And she’ll show up again next time. In any case, this volume of Ranma 1/2 is excellent, and even if you don’t like Akari as much as I do (few do), you should still pick it up.

Pick of the Week: Nostalgia Factors

July 12, 2016 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and Anna N Leave a Comment

SEAN: For sentimental, nostalgic reasons, my pick of the week is the 15th omnibus of Ranma 1/2, which introduces a Last Minute Hookup girl who is one of my absolute favorites. It’s been 20 years since I first got into Ranma, and I’m happy to find I can still be enthusiastic about it.

MICHELLE: I’m not terribly excited about anything this week, so I’ll pick Ranma, too, for making Sean happy.

ASH: The manga I’m most curious about this week is The Osamu Tezuka Story, a biographical manga about one of the most influential creators of manga. It’s also huge, and one of the very few comics to have been released by Stone Bridge Press.

ANNA: I’m also not super excited about much this week, so I’ll throw in with Ash and pick The Osamu Tezuka Story, because I’m sure more info about Tezuka is a good thing!

Bookshelf Briefs 7/11/16

July 11, 2016 by Sean Gaffney and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

Behind the Scenes!!, Vol. 2 | By Bisco Hatori | VIZ Media – I was pretty disappointed by volume one of Behind the Scenes!!, but while the series remains far from great, the second volume is an improvement overall. Some parts of it I found excruciating, though, like the dumb gag where the props a girl stayed up all night making get destroyed because someone literally slips on a banana peel. But while I was groaning, the same girl would make a speech about refusing to repress her passions just to nab a boyfriend, and I’d have to begrudgingly approve. It’s only at the very end, when Ranmaru learns a bit more about mysterious Izumi, who heedlessly plunges his hand into boiling water to save a classmate’s cell phone and seemingly has no regard for his own welfare, that I actually found a character I could possibly care about. I’m willing to keep going with this for a little while, at least. – Michelle Smith

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 9 | By Kei Murayama | Seven Seas – Once again, this is a tale of two halves. On the one half, we have the typical slice-of-monster-life we’re used to, with more ‘is it yuri or just akogare’ chapters, another examination of how monster bodies and human-style clothing works, and a bizarre omake where a political argument in class is resolved by the teacher transforming into a magical girl and mind controlling everyone. The other half has Hime and Shino accidentally transported to a fantasy dimension where she’s thought to be a god, and has to defend a fortress against various enemies with her archery and tactics. It doesn’t so much end as stop. I sense this series has become ‘whatever the author feels like writing that month.’ – Sean Gaffney

Honey So Sweet, Vol. 3 | By Amu Meguro | Viz Media – I talked about the new guy who arrived at the end of the last volume, and in the end he turns out to be a friend, enemy, AND love interest. Futami has the looks and personality that Onise doesn’t, and is quick to help him to open up and gain more support from his classmates. In fact, they get along so well Kogure worries that maybe she’s the one in the way (no, not in that way). But Futami is also falling for Kogure, and he’s determined to do something about it, even as Onise has mixed feelings. The whole subplot is handled quite well, and while there’s a bit more drama and angst to it, this still reminds me a lot of My Love Story!!—you read it for the sweetness. – Sean Gaffney

Nichijou: My Ordinary Life, Vol. 3 | By Keiichi Arawi | Vertical Comics – Nichijou is a surreal comedy, and so you don’t really go looking for character development here. That said, the third volume had a surprising number of heartwarming scenes mixed in among the hilarity. The Professor deals with the hazards of still being a young child, despite her genius, and bonds with Nano a bit. Mio and Yukko get into a huge argument that goes on for pages until it eventually circles back around and turns into the two of them praising each other. And Yukko goes to visit Nao and the Professor, and reassures her that, even if everyone knows she’s a robot, Nano is still just Nano to them. These scenes give the series a heart that helps it to earn the laughs and strange “huh?’ reactions it also gives us. – Sean Gaffney

One-Punch Man, Vol. 7 | By ONE and Yusuke Marata | Viz Media – Yes, we are here. It finally takes more than one punch for Saitama to take out an enemy, though he’s still not really breaking a sweat or showing much emotion. The main reason to get this volume is the artwork, which is simply amazing. This volume may have more two-page spreads than any other shonen manga I’ve seen, as the final battle is a huge monumental “serious punch” from Saitama that words cannot really describe. (And note he’s able to do this even after being hit TO THE MOON and having to jump back to Earth.) I suspect we’ll see more of Tornado, who has a giant chip on her tiny shoulder. And some other heroes get shown off here as well. But this is still The Saitama Story, and what a story it is. – Sean Gaffney

Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn, Vol. 5 | By Shirow Masamune and Rikudou Koushi | Seven Seas – There’s no Excel Saga cameos here, beyond the appearance of the Excel-ish Vlind, so I am once again forced to talk about the actual manga itself. Fortunately, the first 3/4 of this volume is relatively mild, and even interesting. Nene wishes for happy fun uneventful days, but Clarion knows that the world they live in is filled with evil organizations and killer robots. So she proceeds to go to town on said robots, as well as the local army. It’s almost worth recommending, except at the end they have to power up the Pandora, which is done via the wretched “not really vaginal fingering, but close” method we know and loathe. In the end, this is still Pandora, alas. – Sean Gaffney

Persona 4, Vol. 3 | By Shuji Sogabe and ATLUS | Udon Entertainment – Most of this volume is dedicated to a new young man trapped in the killer TV program, and again it shows us hidden sides, this time dealing with traditional gender roles and how shameful it can be for a young Japanese boy to be good at traditionally feminine tasks. Naturally, this has led him to overcompensate and become a giant thug, hence the obvious choice of him going to TV Bear land. That said, it’s resolved fairly simply, and our heroes didn’t even need to do much besides stand around and comment. Of course, it’s not all psychological horror and battles, there’s also the worst curry in the world, as we discover that of the two main heroines, neither one can cook worth a damn. Pretty good. – Sean Gaffney

Princess Jellyfish, Vol. 2 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics – Kuranosuke and the residents of Amamizu-kan have declared their intention to buy the place to save it from redevelopment, but they lack the funds to actually do so. Kuranosuke rallies them into action, especially after being inspired by one of Tsukimi’s drawings to create jellyfish-inspired fashions. I love how all the various story elements service the series’ predominant theme. Meeting Kuranosuke has introduced Tsukimi to the passion of creating something she loves, but it has also brought her pain, as she is confronted with “evidence” that Shu has slept with the scheming Inari. It’s too much stimulation for her, and she retreats to the familiar territory of avoiding her emotions, and believing she’s not the kind of girl who could fall in love. Funny, poignant, addictive… I’m sad we must wait ’til October for more! – Michelle Smith

My Week in Manga: July 4-July 10, 2016

July 11, 2016 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Okay! A couple of different although expected things were posted last week at Experiments in Manga in addition to the usual My Week in Manga feature. First up was the announcement of the Complex Age Giveaway Winner which also includes a list of manga which incorporates cosplay in one way or another. I also posted the Bookshelf Overload for June last week for those of you interested in what manga and such I’ve recently acquired.

Other interesting things found online: As Anime Expo wrapped up early last week, a few more licensing announcements were made. Viz Media announced that it plans on publishing the fourth part of Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as well as Araki’s How to Create Manga. Yen Press will release Erased by Kei Sanbe and Bungo Stray Dogs written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated Sango Harukawa. Also announced last week was SuBLime’s partnership with Libre, outlining their plans to release Ayano Yamane’s Finder series as well as other titles in English. Ani-gamers posted an interview with Rei Hiroe from AnimeNext 2016. And over at the Lobster Dance, the sixth installment of “The Sparkling World of 1970s Shojo Manga” takes a look at the Rose of Versailles franchise.

Quick Takes

As Many As There Are Stars by Miecohouse Matsumoto. As Many As There Are Stars starts as one thing but by the end of volume the manga has turned into something else entirely. Matsumoto may very well have had this planned out in advance—hints about Kousuke’s tragic past and proclivities are present from very early on—but the shift in tone is still a bit jarring. As Many As There Are Stars is a boys’ love one-shot about seven young men who are all in the same club at college. Supposedly it’s an astronomy club of some sort, but it might as well be a club for sexual tension as most of the members have feelings for one or more of the others. The notable exception is the first year who, despite being an important plot point in the first chapter, is largely forgotten for the rest of the volume. Initially, the manga is fairly sweet and lighthearted if somewhat cliché as it explores the relationships between the club members. Eventually As Many As There Are Stars turns its focus onto Kousuke, an art student who is both desperate to be and terrified of being loved. What starts as a somewhat goofy manga develops into something more melancholic, a story about an unfortunate young man confronted by friendship and love.

Inuyashiki, Volumes 2-3 by Hiroya Oku. After reading the first volume of Inuyashiki, I was curious to see what direction Oku would take the series. At this point, I’m not entirely convinced that Oku actually has a cohesive overarching narrative in mind. Instead, the basic premise of the series creates a platform for Oku to tell some legitimately disturbing stories; I’m just not sure that there’s much of a point to them beyond their violence and depravity. Inuyashiki often feels like it’s being distasteful just to be distasteful in order to see just how far Oku can push the boundaries of acceptability. However, I will admit that it can be can oddly satisfying to see someone who looks like an elderly man protect others by beating the crap out of obvious wrongdoers. (Oku seems to go out of the way to make the bad guys as over-the-top and awful as possible, which is fitting for the series as a whole.) Inuyashiki—the previously mentioned old man—is starkly contrasted by Shishigami, the manga’s other, much younger, lead. Like Inuyashiki, Shishigami has been reborn as a cyborg. Unlike Inuyashiki, he has been using his newly-gained powers to cause death a mayhem at will. He is unyielding in his deliberate cruelty and absolutely terrifying.

Noragami: Stray God, Volumes 8-14 by Adachitoka. I have been enjoying Noragami more and more as the series progresses, but I still managed to fall behind on the manga. I was actually intending to only read a few volumes this past week, but once I started I found myself devouring my entire backlog; Noragami continues to get better and better. More of Yato’s backstory has been revealed at this point and his past has become central to the plot. The narrative flow can be somewhat odd, though. In between the intensely dramatic and serious story arcs, Adachitoka has the tendency to introduce several chapters (or more) of what feels like playful filler material. However, I’m really enjoying Adachitoka’s modernized take on Japanese deities and mythologies. (I also appreciate the thorough translation and cultural notes included in the volumes.) The interplay between the gods, shinki, ayakashi, and humans is fascinating and the relationships and power dynamics between them all are marvelously complex and nuanced even if the characters’ actions aren’t always the most subtle. Adachitoka also isn’t afraid of killing off major characters, which heightens the tension of the series’ conflicts and it’s unlikely anyone will remain unscathed.

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Haikyu!!, Vol. 1

July 10, 2016 by Sean Gaffney

By Haruichi Furudate. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. Released in North America by Viz.

For a genre that has a reputation for not succeeding in North America, there have been quite a few sports manga released over here, most of them connected in some way or another with Weekly Shonen Jump. There’s been Slam Dunk, and Whistle, and Eyeshield 21. It’s a classic and established genre in Japan, with its own cliches and foibles, and I’ve read enough of them to know what to look for and to be surprised when something I expected didn’t happen. The type of sport shown doesn’t really matter – basketball and soccer are always popular, though not baseball – Jump avoids that, possibly as Sunday and Magazine are so well known for baseball titles. And now we have Haikyu!!, which tells us about a down-on-its luck high school volleyball team trying to make it back to the finals with some promising but troublesome rookies.

Our two heroes are on the cover, although it’s possible that the dark-haired guy is more of an anti-hero. Hinata is a very typical Jump hero – short, overenthusiastic, filled with amazing athletic abilities that no one has ever been able to hone, but also prone to overconfidence and lack of experience. Kageyama, at first glance, appears to be the classic polar opposite to that sort of character – stoic, always frowning, experienced and unlikely to make the sort of rash decisions that Hinata would. But, as it turns out, this is just a fakeout, and was possibly my favorite part of the book. For Kageyama is actually an arrogant guy with a very hot temper, who expects to be the star and is rather frustrated that this is actually a team sport. Seething ball of rage Kageyama is a very interesting character, and I look forward to seeing more of him.

If you don’t know volleyball, no worries – Hinata barely knows the basics as well, so we get a lot of explanations. We also get a whole lot of characters, typical for a series like this – a team needs players, after all. There’s 2 third years who play good cop/bad cop, and an overzealous 2nd year who matches the rookies’ enthusiasm. There’s a tall, arrogant first-year whose face every reader will want to punch, and I can’t wait to find out what kind of situations he’ll have to go through before he stops being a complete jerk (he’s on the same team as our heroes, so will no doubt have to stop at some point). Oh yes, and the female manager is cool rather than cute.

There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking here, though as I said I was surprised and pleased by a few of the character choices. It’s just a sports manga, well-told. It’s 20+ volumes in Japan, which means that Viz is going to be releasing it every month for a while, so get used to these guys. And it’s the start, hopefully, of a sports manga renaissance, as now that Slam Dunk has finally finished, Viz is also picking up Kuroko’s Basketball as well. Can Touch or Major be far behind? (Well, yes, they can. Far, far behind.) In any case, Haikyu!! is a fun and energetic sports manga in the classic Jump tradition. You’ll enjoy it.

Bookshelf Overload: June 2016

July 8, 2016 by Ash Brown

After the ridiculousness that was May’s Bookshelf Overload (thanks, TCAF!), the number of manga and other books that I acquired in June seems entirely reasonable. Last month I took advantage of a few good sales combined with gift cards to fill in some gaps in a few of my manga series. As I mentioned previously, Kazuo Umezu’s Drifting Classroom looks like it may be going out of print, so I made a point to complete my set. I also supplemented my recent haul of review copies from Kodansha. As for June’s preorders that I was particularly excited for (and dreading in some ways because they’re so emotionally intense) at the top of the list sits Goodnight Punpun, Omnibus 2 by Inio Asano and Orange, Omnibus 2 by Ichigo Takano. (I’d actually like to post some Random Musings about Orange, but it will probably be a while before I can get around to it.) June was also a good month for me for shoujo science fiction. I discovered Wrecked Hearts by Mathilde Kitteh and Luca Oliveri and imported Moto Hagio’s SF Art Works collection, both of which are great. (As a side note, if you’re interested in Wrecked Hearts and ordering directly from PEOW! Studio in Sweden is difficult, I recently discovered that it can also be ordered from Retrofit Comics in the United States.)

Manga!
Drifting Classroom, Volumes 9-10 by Kazuo Umezu
Emma, Omnibus 3 by Kaoru Mori
Everyone’s Getting Married, Volume 1 by Izumi Miyazono
Franken Fran, Omnibus 2 by Katsuhisa Kigitsu
Genshiken: Second Season, Volume 7 by Shimoku Kio
Goodnight Punpun, Omnibus 2 by Inio Asano
Inuyashiki, Volume 2 by Hiroya Oku
Kaze Hikaru, Volume 14 by Taeko Watanabe
My Little Monster, Volumes 11-12 by Robico
Noragami: Stray God, Volumes 8-9 by Adachitoka
Orange, Omnibus 2 by Ichigo Takano
Red Red Rock and Other Stories by Seiichi Hayashi
Say I Love You, Volumes 10-11 by Kanae Hazuki
Vagabond, Omnibus 6 by Takehiko Inoue
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volumes 5-6 by Miki Yoshikawa
Your Lie in April, Volumes 3-4 by Naoshi Arakawa

Comics!
Elf Cat in Love by James Kochalka
Hellbound Lifestyle by Kaeleigh Forsyth
I.D. by Emma Ríos
New World edited by C. Spike Trotman
Shadoweyes, Volume 1 by Sophie Campbell, colors by Erin Watson
Wrecked Hearts by Mathilde Kitteh and Luca Oliveri

Artbooks!
Seconda by Yeehun
SF Art Works by Moto Hagio

Nonfiction!
Bubishi: The Classic Manual of Combat translated by Patrick McCarthy
Shed & Frontlawn Zine by Graeme McNee, Ryan Cecil Smith, and An Nguyen

Manga the Week of 7/13

July 7, 2016 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith and Anna N Leave a Comment

SEAN: For a 2nd week of the month, there sure is a lot of stuff coming out. What have we got here?

Dark horse has a 6th and final volume of the Oreimo spinoff Kuroneko. Is it a slightly less incestuous ending? (Actually, I think, unlike many harem spinoffs, it’s not an AU at all.)

If you recall Spirit of Wonder coming out from Dark Horse, a) you are very very old, and b) you will be delighted with the release of Wandering Island by the same author.

ASH: I missed out on Spirit of Wonder, but I’m looking forward to giving this series a try.

SEAN: Fairy Tail Zero from Kodansha is, as the title might suggest, a prequel focusing on Fairy Tail’s founder, Mavis.

Forget Me Not has a 3rd volume. Note this isn’t the Forget Me Not which the author of Wandering Island wrote back in the 1990s.

ASH: Ha! I hadn’t made that non-connection yet.

SEAN: And The Seven Deadly Sins gives us Vol. 15, and has surely run out of sins by now, just as I have run out of jokes to use about this title.

Seven Seas has an 8th volume of Magical Girl Apocalypse, because grim and gritty refuses to go away no matter how many wishes I use.

And the Monster Musume spinoff I Heart Monster Girls gives you some 4-koma gag monsters.

Pandora in the Crimson Shell’s 5th volume has less Excel Saga knockoffs, but does have a fair amount of exciting action, and of course the awful service is there too.

The big release this week is The Osamu Tezuka Story, a biography from Stone Bridge Press that is over 900 pages (and print only, so I will let someone else read it – Ash, I suspect).

ASH: Yup! It might take me a while to get through, though. My copy just arrived, and it is ENORMOUS.

SEAN: SubLime has the 2nd and final volume of Midnight Stranger, who is no doubt friends with the Midnight Cowboy and Midnight Rambler.

ASH: The first volume of Midnight Stranger was, well, strange, but the clueless goat spirit was rather endearing.

SEAN: Viz gives us the 59th volume of Case Closed. I don’t read it, but it’s always great to see non-Jump series reach this many volumes – in fact, I think Case Closed may be the ONLY non-Jump series to reach this many volumes here.

Ranma 1/2’s 15th omnibus volume has the introduction of my favorite Ranma character. I am alone in this, and have been since 1996, but I don’t care. It’s been 20 years, I won’t back down now.

ASH: I’m still glad this series is getting a re-release.

MICHELLE: Me, too.

SEAN: Lastly, Rin-Ne has a 21st volume. My guess is that ghosts will feature in some way. Also, Rinne will be poor. And Sakura will continue to not have any emotions at all.

What’s your wallet paying for?

MICHELLE: Nothing this time, actually.

ANNA: My wallet is paying for nothing! It is a good thing so much great manga came out in the previous week!

Princess Jellyfish, Vol. 2

July 7, 2016 by Sean Gaffney

By Akiko Higashimura. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Kuragehime” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Kiss. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Princess Jellyfish is turning out to be a difficult but worthy read for me. I spent much of this omnibus being irritated by the majority of the characters, either for making stupid decisions, being horrible people, or having the self-awareness of a gnat. And of course, that’s what the whole point is. It’s where the majority of the comedy comes from, and also the character development. Without Tsukimi’s introvertedness and low self-esteem, without Inari’s blackmail and vampishness, and without Kuranosuke’s amazing unself-awareness (though he’s above the majority of Amars, to be sure), we wouldn’t have anything to read about. And all of these aspects are in this volume in abundance.

Tsukimi is our heroine, of course, and so she gains the most depth here, even as she takes a few steps back as well. I’m still not particularly happy with Kuranosuke’s constant attempts to get her to do things and be more outgoing, but it does lead to a few nice moments, particularly when they’re designing dresses based on types of jellyfish and Tsukimi unleashes her inner fashion designer. (I also appreciates the fact that, while she does have untapped talent, things weren’t perfect right off the bat and the first attempt was totally wrong.) Sadly, she alsp sees the guy she has a crush on with another woman, and has no idea how to deal with it, even as she’s unsure what her feelings are. She equates love as something that makes her a ‘normal girl’, something to be truly feared.

And while the residents of Amars may not be normal girls (though they show surprisingly more aptitude at attempting it than Tsukimi does), Kuranosuke and his family prove to be just as screwed up. Inari is trying to tempt Shu using sex as a weapon, but he’s repressed (as we discover here, he seems to have been traumatized by walking in on his father as a young boy) to a point where she’s actually thrown off her game. Inari is at her most interesting when she’s like this – the idea of Shu being a genuine innocent virgin almost horrifies her a bit – but I’m unsure how long the manga can keep this plot going. She certainly has staying power, I’ll grant you. As for Kuranosuke, he may be the most interesting character so far, even if I keep waffling between liking and disliking him. He’s amazingly selfish most of the time, and, just like Tsukimi, seems horrified at the idea of falling in love like a normal guy.

It’s the tension that keeps me going as a reader, seeing how far the author can take all these plot points – Kuranosuke’s secret that he’s actually a man, Inari being terrible, etc. – and actually have them collapse. And, of coruse, there’s the fashion design, which I suspect is going to take up more and more of this manga’s time. It’s not perfect, but it’s the flaws that make Princess Jellyfish so fascinating.