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Manga Giveaway: Sherlock Bones Giveaway

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The end of October is fast approaching, which means it’s time for another manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga! I’m not entirely sure why, but my review of the first volume of Yuma Ando and Yuki Sato’s manga series Sherlock Bones is by far one of the most frequently visited posts at Experiments in Manga. It’s been more than a year since Kodansha Comics published the volume in English, but the review still gets plenty of page hits. And so, for this month’s giveaway, I decided that I would give people the chance to read the actual manga. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!

Sherlock Bones, Volume 1

I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed Sherlock Bones. The premise is inherently silly–Sherlock Holmes reincarnated as a puppy–but perhaps in part because of that, the series can be a lot of fun. Sherdog is tremendously smart, despite occasionally being distracted by his more canine tendencies, and he’s cute, too. But probably most important for a detective and mystery series like Sherlock Bones, the crimes and how they are solved are consistently interesting. Additionally, readers who want to have a more interactive reading experience can actually search for and find the clues needed to solve the crimes within the pages of the manga.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Sherlock Bones, Volume 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite or the most unusual detective/crime-solver that you’ve encountered reading manga. (If you don’t have one, simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

There it is! Each person can earn up to two entries and has one week to submit comments for this giveaway. If preferred, entries can also be sent via e-mail to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. Your comments will then be posted in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on November 5, 2014. Best of luck!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: Sherlock Bones Giveaway Winner

Morning Manga Spotlight: Paradise Kiss

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I pondered for a blatantly ridiculous amount of time over this week’s manga recommendation for my teen students. I considered another classic epic (Please Save My Earth), a couple of overlooked romances (Rasetsu, Crown of Love), or perhaps something for my pre-teens (Shugo Chara!). My most serious consideration, however, went to Ai Yazawa’s yet-unfinished (but totally glorious) romance/friendship epic NANA. As the subject of my first, and still most famous, “persuasion post,” Why You Should Read NANA, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a long-time fan, and recommending it seems like a no-brainer—at least for my older teens. But the more I thought about it, the more I found myself thinking about the things it lacks. NANA has a great deal to offer of interest to my teens… beautifully written characters (many of whom are pursuing an artistic field), complicated relationships, career angst, epic friendship, and (of course) gorgeous, gorgeous artwork. Things it doesn’t have, however, include genuine interaction/conflict with parental figures, anxiety over education, or queer characters of any kind—stuff that is important and relevant, particularly to my older teens.

parakiss2-vertFortunately, I don’t even have to stray outside the same artist’s catalogue to find all that, and more. Which brings us to Yazawa’s much-celebrated (at least here at Manga Bookshelf) josei series, Paradise Kiss. Originally serialized in the women’s fashion magazine Zipper, Paradise Kiss tells the story of a high school senior named Yukari, who finds herself recruited by a a group of college fashion design students to model for their senior project. The encounter is life-altering for Yukari, as it not only forces her to face some hard truths about her own future and academic prospects, but also sweeps her into a tumultuous romance with George, the group’s charismatic, mercurial designer.

With all that in place, if you’re expecting a standard romance, you’d be gravely mistaken. While Yukari and George’s relationship is certainly central to the story, its essential disfunction is really the point. And though it manages to heat up the pages pretty intensely at times, the story’s real stars are, to my mind, its supporting characters, particularly diminutive seamstress Miwako and trans pattern-maker Isabella, who regularly battle it out in my heart for the position of “favorite character.” I’ll admit that Isabella usually wins. From our Off the Shelf column on the series:

Isabella is my favorite character in the series by far. In fact, I even joked when this title was first chosen for the MMF that my contribution would be an essay entitled, “Why I love Isabella” (or something along those lines). Not only is she a wonderfully warm and nurturing character, as you mention here, but she’s also the one who is best able to see the truth about everyone else, unhindered by insecurity or personal bias.

Additionally, she’s just about 100% responsible for my ability to like George, which took a hell of a long time to develop, to be honest. It took me several times through the series to get over my deep intolerance of George’s refusal to take responsibility for his role in the lives of others, and it was only Isabella who was able to convince me that George’s unquestioning, immediate acceptance of her true self made him worth reconsidering.

You can read the rest of that article or my original review of the full series for more on my complicated feelings about George, but perhaps the better idea is simply to read the series yourself!

Originally published in North America by Tokyopop, the series was recently rescued by Vertical, who gave it a beautiful new visual treatment (larger trim size, high-quality paper, gorgeous new covers) and a new translation, which has some ups and downs. On the upside, Vertical’s translation removes some of Tokyopop’s mild censorship (particularly in terms of George’s sexual preferences and other similar topics). On the downside, the prose is noticeably more awkward in some spots, one of which I detailed in my review of the first volume. In any case, I own both versions of the series, so local students who are borrowing can consider these issues and choose their poison.

The truth is, no matter which print version you’re able to pick up, you’re in for a beautifully-drawn, emotionally complex story, told in a remarkably concise fashion. To quote myself, “I feel that I could go on forever and still fail to do justice to the sheer exquisiteness of this series, so I’ll wind things up here. Suffice it to say that Paradise Kiss, with its complex look at beauty, longing, and personal discovery, truly is a bit of manga paradise.”

Alice in the Country of Diamonds: Bet on My Heart

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By Sana Shirakawa, Quin Rose, and Nana Fumitsuki, based on the game by Quin Rose. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

The Alice spinoffs, which is to say everything but the 6 main books that Tokyopop/Yen Press put out, have always had an issue to deal with which is to say that they’re made for readers in Japan who have played the original games that the series is based on. North America hasn’t really had that luxury, even though we do now have a somewhat machine-translated tablet version of the Hearts game. So there’s always a risk that you read something that requires, if not prior knowledge, at least passing familiarity with the game world you’re in. Or, as in the case of this light novel, you have a product that lots of times seems to read like an advertisement for a game you can’t get over here.

diamonds

That isn’t to say this isn’t a good novel, it’s quite well-written. The prose flows well (excellent translation by William Flanagan), and Alice and Blood, the main stars, sound like themselves. The premise, as you may have guessed, has Alice dropped in another world, a la Clover or Joker. But whereas Hearts had Alice looking for a passionate love, and Clover had Alice develop a relationship based on friendship turning to love, here she’s further in the past of Wonderland, no one knows who she is, and everyone starts out disliking her intensely. (Hence “Diamonds”.) Alice has her hands full trying to deal with this, and it’s not helped by ending up at Hatter Mansion with a Blood Dupre who’s far less adept at being aloof yet teasing than she remembers.

This book is drenched in the Blood/Alice ship, and fans of other ships won’t get much here. Eliot fans should particularly stay away, as he’s abused and beaten by Blood throughout, usually when he’s trying to shoot Alice. As for new characters, the White Queen and her Black Rabbit barely get a look, so most of what we get is Jericho Bermuda, the Gravekeeper, who seems to be based on Carroll’s dodo bird. He’s Alice’s oasis of calm in the excitement of dealing with Hatter mobster wars, and it’s frustrating that most of the hints we get about him being a “walking dead man” are not answered here.

There aren’t the sharp edges I like in some of the other Alice spinoffs – Alice doesn’t think of Lorina once, and most of her worries once she’s fallen in love come from a fear that she’ll switch countries again. The Hatter family are more battle ready and drenched in blood than the earlier games, as they’re still gaining power. But mostly I think this is a good book that makes a reader yearn to play the game. We want to see what’s up with the White Queen switching between child and adult form, like the Twins used to do. (They’re just adults here.) We’d like to see why the Black Rabbit seems to hate Alice (inverse of Peter, I expect.) Joker was mentioned to be here as well, but remains unseen. Jericho looks to be the author rewriting Mary Gowland to be less irritating, but who knows?

So this is a very good novel for Alice fans who want to dip into prose, or Alice/Blood shippers. But it also frustrated me, as it offers many questions without answers as well.

Off the Shelf: The Return

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MJ: *tap* *tap* Is this thing on?

MICHELLE: What’s this strange noise?

MJ: It seems to be the sound of… AWESOMENESS. Or, y’know, typing. One of the two.

MICHELLE: Oh, it’s starting to come back to me now. You’re Belinda, right?

MJ: Yes, and you’re… Michael?

MICHELLE: More or less! And I’m feeling the strongest desire to tell a really stupid joke, for some reason…

MJ: And I feel the unexpected desire to listen to one. So, shoot!

MICHELLE: Let’s see…. how about… What did one lawyer say to the other lawyer?

MJ: I don’t know, what?

MICHELLE: “We are both lawyers.”

MJ: That was… actually kind of funny. Wow. And now I’m feeling the strange urge to ask you a question. Is it okay, Michael, if I ask you a question?

Wait, that was a question. Um. Er. Another question?

MICHELLE: Go right ahead, Belinda!

MJ: Okay, here goes: Have you been reading any manga lately?

MICHELLE: What a timely query! As a matter of fact, I have!

MJ: Do tell!

natsume17MICHELLE: Well, one of the things I read was the latest volume (17) of a much-beloved series, Natsume’s Book of Friends by Yuki Midorikawa. This has really become one of the few series where I have to read the new volume as soon as it comes out. It’s episodic, which is not normally my thing, but with this series, it’s just got such a languid fairy-tale feeling to it that I honestly hope it never ends. I am perfectly okay with the lack of urgency.

Possibly I have made the series sound dull, but it really isn’t. Natsume is eager to learn about yokai and their ways, so it’s more a tone of… respectful discovery? Something like that. Anyway, the first two chapters here involve a yokai who looks like a teenage human and the girl who loves him. It’s a classic case of immortal-guy-teen-girl love wherein the guy knows that it’s not going to end happily, but the girl is insistent upon pursuing it anyway. And Natsume can’t help but cheer them on. A third chapter finds Natsume drafted to join a yokai game of hide and seek while Nyanko-sensei is off getting drunk.

I was a little disappointed at first that there were only three chapters about Natsume and that other two delved into the past of Shuichi Natori, famous actor and exorcist, but I should’ve trusted Midorikawa more, because I ended up liking them quite a lot. It turns out that Natori originally became an exorcist to help assuage humans’ fear, so his intentions were good, but at the same time we know that Natsume will later have cause to question the practice of exorcism.

Sorry for rambling on there, Belinda. In short: I continue to love this series.

MJ: Despite the fact that I let this series go a while back, I find that I’m genuinely happy to hear that it is still lovely in the ways that it was always lovely. And maybe a little regretful that I did let it go… but maybe with its episodic nature, it would be possible to still peek in every once in a while. You make that sound very tempting.

MICHELLE: Oh, I’m really sad to hear you let it go. You probably could pop in without missing too much, though Natsume has slowly been growing more confident and social, interacting with his classmates a little more and seeming at peace with his new living situation. Other than that, things are pretty much the same.

What’ve you been reading, if not Natsume?

pandorahearts21MJ: Well, I’ve also been spending time with the latest volume of a beloved series, though in my case, the series is Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts. I’ve loved Pandora Hearts for a long time, for various reasons, particularly its endearing characters and its pretty, pretty artwork. Plotting, as you know, has had its ups and downs, at least in terms of coherence, but the tension has always been there. This has escalated dramatically in the past few volumes, and given everything that ultimately happens in volume 21, it’s kind of hilarious to note that it almost feels like a bit of a rest, at least to start.

After numerous betrayals, revelations, and deadly battles, this volume opens with most of the original gang (Oz, Alice, Gil) regrouping in a relatively secure location without much idea as to how to proceed. This state of affairs doesn’t last long, but it feels oddly peaceful, just for a moment, and even Oz, who has been through so much, seems rather like his childish self again, if irreversibly tinged with sadness.

This sense of quiet is short-lived, and soon the tension and new revelations start piling up again, but it’s to Mochizuki’s credit that this continues to feel fresh and exciting. The story’s many twists at this point read mainly as well-plotted and perfectly paced—and thank goodness, considering how quickly and frequently things change now in this series. Every time it feels like things are finally about to come clear, we discover that everything we thought we knew was wrong.

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I haven’t even mentioned my favorite character, Xerxes Break. He features heavily in this volume as well, but I think there’s almost nothing I can say that isn’t incredibly spoilerful, so I’ll leave it there for now. Needless to say, his fate holds my heart cruelly in its grip, and that grip is only getting tighter.

You know, I often find myself disoriented when I first start reading a new volume of Pandora Hearts, but even picking up this volume several months late, I was able to just right in, and now I can’t wait for more. Fortunately, the next volume is due out soon!

MICHELLE: I’m a few volume behind with Pandora Hearts, but I do know what you’re talking about with those calm-before-the-storm moments that Mochizuki sprinkles in there. I left off with a very Loveless-style cliffhanger involving Gil’s allegiance, and I thought he was my favorite character, but now you’ve got me worried about Break, so perhaps I was wrong about that. I clearly need to get caught up!

MJ: You have so much heartbreak and renewal (rinse, repeat) to come, my dear Michael. So much. And I suspect I do, still, as well.

So what else have you pulled off the shelf of late?

MICHELLE: Hey…. ‘Off the Shelf’… That’s got a nice ring to it.

MJ: I thought so!

bloodybrat2MICHELLE: Well, I seem to recall that we both found Yuuki Kodama’s Blood Lad to be an unexpected delight. I’ve also been reading the related Bloody Brat, in which Kanata Yoshino replicates Kodama’s art style with eerie accuracy and basically offers up a series of four-koma comics and silly short stories starring the characters. The second volume has just been released.

I’ve gotta say, these are not fabulous jokes. You’re really not missing anything if you don’t read it, even if you’re a Blood Lad devotee. However, after initially thinking to myself how I wasn’t even being moved to smile, this volume really grew on me. It was just so unrelentingly doofy that I found myself enjoying it somewhat despite myself.

There are no deep themes here. There is absolutely no plot here. There are lots of jokes about crotches and wolfboys who can’t help but fetch sticks and catdudes experiencing the flehmen response in reaction to natto. I probably cannot stress enough how silly it is, but on the whole, it’s actually kind of charming.

MJ: You’ve left me feeling rather conflicted here, I admit. I do love Blood Lad with the fire of a thousand suns. But I’m not entirely sure my life is empty without four-koma silliness (which tends not to do well with me, in general). The crotch jokes aren’t helping to convince me. Should I be convinced? Will I actually find it charming?

MICHELLE: I find I cannot answer you with assurance either positively or negatively. I think this is probably one of those things where you just have to see for yourself. For me, it’s worth it to get another nugget of Blood Lad, especially since it’ll be a long time before we get another installment of the main series.

Read anything else this week?

spellofdesireMJ: I did indeed! Finally, this week, I caught up with the first two volumes of Tomu Ohmi’s Spell of Desire, the latest in Viz’s line of semi-trashy josei manga rebranded as shoujo for North American readers. To be clear, despite the description I just gave, there’s definitely a level on which I enjoy these series, but with the frequency of these newer releases I’ll admit that the standard tropes are beginning to wear.

In terms of these standard tropes, Spell of Desire is nearly indistinguishable from Ohmi’s earlier series, Midnight Secretary, which just finished its run with Viz earlier this fall. In both series, a supposedly plain, sexually inexperienced heroine is compelled by unexpected supernatural circumstances into a decidedly erotic but nominally utilitarian relationship with a handsome, mysterious, and emotionally unavailable man, whose obvious romantic feelings are apparently invisible to the heroine, who feels she must squash her own growing affection so as not to cause trouble for anyone. Add some varying details (the particulars of the supernatural circumstances, workplace, and clothing preferences) and this is pretty literally the premise of both series.

I can’t deny that I’m tired of this premise. I’m tired of the contrived supernatural relationship, the heroine’s persistent self-denial and low self-esteem, and the level of reverence given to mysterious, controlling men. I really could not be more tired of these things.

Fortunately, there’s still something about Spell of Desire that is keeping me interested. Maybe it’s the morally ambiguous animal familiars. Maybe it’s the ongoing mystery surrounding the heroine, Kaoruko’s, mother. Whatever it is, I’m grateful for it, and I expect I’ll keep going with this series, at least for the time being.

MICHELLE: Whenever mysterious, controlling men are deemed sexy, I always think about Kate Beaton’s Dude Watchin’ with the Brontes.

I haven’t yet read the second volume of Spell of Desire, but I too found something about the first volume that compelled me to recommend it. I especially appreciated that the lead male was at least kind to ailing kittens.

One of the things I liked about Midnight Secretary was that the heroine was extremely proud of her professional competence as a secretary and doesn’t relinquish that, so I have hope that Kaoruko will have a bit more spine than one expects, too.

MJ: I have such hopes as well. And as much as I cringe at certain popular josei tropes, I can’t help but be grateful when anything intended for adult female readers is released over here. Even when there are vampires. Or witches. Or anxious virgins in their twenties. (Wow are there a lot of those in josei manga.)

So, Michael… now that we’re wrapping up this column, how does it feel to be back together again? I, for one, am feeling kinda giddy.

MICHELLE: It feels pretty good! We should do it again sometime!

MJ: I agree! Until then…

Bookshelf Briefs 10/27/14

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This week, Sean and Michelle look at recent releases from Viz Media, Seven Seas, and Kodansha Comics.

foodwars2Food Wars!, Vol. 2 | By Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki | Viz Media – As I expected the fanservice that completely appalls me and causes my jaw to drop seems to be limited to one or two per volume. It just so happens that in Vol. 1 it was on Page 5. This means that most of this 2nd volume can show off its strengths, which are typical Jump: a collection of eccentrics who will become close friends, ridiculous food battles, and villains who will be humbled and no doubt end up siding with the heroes eventually. One of those villains gets the ‘I am having an exquisite orgasm’ art that’s de rigeur here, but as it’s at the end, I was prepared. I would like to see more of the supposed villain of the piece, who so far exists to be arrogant and not much else. But I’m sure that’s to come. – Sean Gaffney

haganai9Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, Vol. 9 | By Yomi Hirasaki and Itachi | Seven Seas – The big gender reveal that’s in this volume is not likely to be a surprise to readers who have been paying attention, and is a nice double subversion. The main surprise is that everyone is ignorant of it – usually in series like this it’s just our harem hero who is blissfully unaware of such things. But then Kodaka has always been a bit more with it. More interesting than this, however, is Yozora’s reaction to all this, as she almost has a temper tantrum. I do think Kodaka has the most natural chemistry with Sena, but that rarely wins the harem game, and Yozora’s emotional issues may end up being more interesting in the long run. Oh yes, and there’s fanservice here too, but at least it serves the plot. – Sean Gaffney

happymarriage8Happy Marriage?!, Vol. 8 | By Maki Enjoji | Viz Media – There’s a definite feeling of “moving toward the endgame” in this volume, as various obstacles to Chiwa and Hokuto’s relationship begin to fall away. First, Hokuto addresses the presumption that their marriage is a sham by resigning from the CEO position that the arrangement secured him. Next, Chiwa’s coworker finally gives up on her—not because of anything she says about the validity of her marriage, but because Hokuto firmly stakes his claim. (Grr!) Lastly, Hokuto achieves a measure of peace with his estranged dad. And though each new chapter introduces drama, it’s resolved warmly by the final page. The final obstacle is Shitara, a meddling ex of Hokuto’s who apparently has set some kind of stalker after Chiwa because she’s unworthy of Hokuto’s love. Honestly, it’s all pretty sudsy and melodramatic, but it’s a fun read and I plan to finish out the series. – Michelle Smith

kamisama16Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 16 | By Julietta Suzuki | Viz Media – There are quite a few balls in the air here, as the ‘trip to the past’ arc continues beyond what I was expecting, and it’s to Suzuki’s credit that she keeps everything interesting. The swap we knew had to be coming in order to keep Tomoe and Nanami in their OTP status comes off without a hitch, and if Tomoe is a bit excessively violent towards Nanami, well, he’s meant to be reformed by this, after all, and we are reminded how much he’s mellowed in the present. Nanami has always spent this series being a god, but here she goes way beyond what you’d expect in order to preserve what’s precious to her – even if it means creating precious hairpin time paradoxes. Still an excellent fantasy romance. – Sean Gaffney

missions9Missions of Love, Vol. 9 | By Ema Toyama | Kodansha Comics – Toyama’s Manga Dogs series, which ran concurrently with this one for a period, has a lot of comedy, so it makes sense that it’s Missions of Love that gets to bring the melodrama. There’s lots of tortuous, heartfelt scenes here: the revelation of what drove Kirishima-sensei to say what he did to Yukina; Mami’s confession, the inevitable response, and her heartbroken aftermath. That said, the main pairing is ALMOST resolved here, Akira aside, and it would not take too much of a stretch to end it with Vol. 10. It’s 15+ volumes, though, so I’m pretty sure that the glasses-wearing villain we briefly see here will throw a giant monkey wrench into everything. Gotta keep the soap opera full of soap. – Sean Gaffney

Pick of the Week: Old & New

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potwASH: So many great manga are being released this week that it’s difficult to choose just one. There are debuting series, like Barakamon, that I’m intensely curious about. There are continuing series, like A Bride’s Story, that I will definitely be picking up. But if I have to choose just one manga this week, I must go with the penultimate volume of Blade of the Immortal. The series has been one heck of a ride, and there’s no way I’m going to miss finishing it.

MICHELLE: Although I had fun reading the latest volume of Bloody Brat, it kind of feels too insubstantial to be a pick of the week. Instead, I’ll go for Barakamon. I don’t know much about it, but it seems like it has potential to be my sort of thing.

ANNA: I’m a bit torn between A Bride’s Story and Barakamon, and I think I’ll have to go with Barakamon because new series are always exciting! The idea of a manga focusing on a fish out of water calligrapher sounds interesting to me.

SEAN: I’m getting far too much this week, but as for the pick, let’s make it one of my old favorites, Umineko When They Cry. These omnibuses are good value for money, and the story is getting clearer even as it also gets much darker. Always an excellent read, provided you don’t mind the omnipresent bullying and child abuse the title is throwing a light on.

MJ: I’m pretty much equal parts excited about Barakamon and the latest A Bride’s Story, but to satisfy my love of all things Makoto Shinkai, I’ll go for the manga adaptation of The Garden of Words, out this week from Vertical. I’ve enjoyed the manga adaptations of both Voices of a Distant Star and (especially) 5 Centimeters Per Second, so this release is a no-brainer for me. There is something about Shinkai’s inner world that always, always draws me in, and so far, I’ve had the same experience with manga adaptations of his work. Let’s hope my luck holds this time around!

What looks good to you this week?

My Week in Manga: October 20-October 26, 2014

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My News and Reviews

I posted two reviews at Experiments in Manga last week. First up was my review of Baku Yumemakura and Jiro Taniguchi’s The Summit of the Gods, Volume 4. It’s the penultimate volume in one of my favorite manga series. It was also a particularly intense volume. The fifth and final book should be available sometime next year; I’m really looking forward to it. My second review last week was of Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator, Part 1, the second volume in Kouhei Kadono’s Boogiepop light novel series. I didn’t find it to be quite as dark as the first novel, but it still had an interesting mix of science fiction, horror, mystery, and even a bit of romance. I discovered Boogiepop late (the four novels and the four volumes of manga that were translated into English are now out of print) but I’m really enjoying the franchise so far. At this point I definitely plan on checking out the rest of the Boogiepop novels, manga, music, anime series, and live-action film.

On to other things online! Digital Manga has launched its most recent Tezuka Kickstarter project and it is…ambitious. At Manga Comics Manga, Deb Aoki has a nice roundup of some the concerns and criticisms fans have been expressing about the project. Justin has been busy posting more New York Comic Con content at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, including interviews with Viz Media’s Andy Nakatani (editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump) and Leyla Aker (Vice President of Publishing). Also, in case you missed it (like I did), Brigid Alverson posted her NYCC interview of Takeshi Obata at Comic Book Resources a couple Fridays back. Ryan Holmberg’s most recent What Was Alternative Manga? column focuses on the proto-gekiga work of Masahiko Matsumoto. The post has great (and probably deliberate) timing–Matsumoto’s The Man Next Door is now available to order from Breakdown Press. Over at Manga Connection, Manjiorin is embarking on a new review project focusing on Crunchyroll’s digital manga. And speaking of manga reviews, Manga Blog’s inagural Bookmarked! feature was posted. I’m very happy to see Manga Blog so active again. Be sure to check it out for its link-blogging, too!

Quick Takes

The Dawn of LoveThe Dawn of Love by Kazuho Hirokawa. Masahiro is infatuated with his fellow law student Takane and so is very happy to discover that Takane, like him, is also gay. Takane has multiple partners which doesn’t bother Masahiro at first, but eventually he decides that he wants Takane to exclusively date him. My biggest issue with The Dawn of Love is that Masahiro uses sex to manipulate Takane, basically forcing Takane to choose monogamy regardless of his own feelings about the matter; it’s really not a good basis for a healthy, long-lasting relationship. I think Hirokawa was trying to going for a sort of “true love conquers all” take with the manga, but The Dawn of Love isn’t successful in achieving that, mostly because I was never convinced that Masahiro and Takane were actually in love to begin with. Even Masahiro doesn’t bother to ask himself why he loves Takane until well into the story, and he never really answers that question. It’s obvious that the two of them enjoy having sex with each other (and there’s a lot of sex in The Dawn of Love), but sexual desire isn’t the same thing as romantic love. The Dawn of Love had great potential and was even rather funny in places, but overall I didn’t end up enjoying it much at all.

Magical Girl Apocalypse, Volume 1Magical Girl Apocalypse, Volume 1 by Kentaro Sato. I can’t tell for certain yet, but by the end of the first volume of Magical Girl Apocalypse it seems as though the series might actually be a parody. If that’s true, it makes the manga a little more interesting to me. If not, Sato is going to need to do something else to keep my attention. I’m more frightened that Yoruka will have a horrifying back injury due to her ridiculously large breasts than I am of the series’ “zombies.” Despite the inclusion of the creepy-cute magical girls instead of more traditional zombie-like monsters, the manga doesn’t really set itself apart yet. At this point, it somehow feels like a pretty generic zombie story. There’s plenty of disturbing scenes and well-drawn gore, and I appreciate that Sato isn’t afraid to kill off characters who in other series would actually manage to live for more than one chapter, but otherwise I found Magical Girl Apocalypse to be a fairly typical zombie survival manga. The series should be an entertaining read for those fond of the subgenre, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but personally I find myself a little zombied-out these days and prefer my horror to have a little more substance.

Say I Love You, Volume 3Say I Love You, Volume 3 by Kanae Hazuki. One of the things that really impresses me about Say I Love You is Hazuki’s forthright portrayal of teenage sexuality. The characters exhibit both maturity and immaturity in their relationships; they can be surprisingly levelheaded, but they can also let their feelings get the best of them. There’s conflict and selfishness in addition to the beginnings of new love and developing respect for others. The characters and their relationships are believable and have depth to them. The more I read of Say I Love You the more and more like Mei. She, like so many of the other characters, has been hurt in the past, but despite her nervousness and anxiety she’s at a point in her life that she’s able to stand up for herself and for others. (Bullying and dealing with bullies is a recurring theme in Say I Love You.) Though Mei tends not to take crap from other people, she is still vulnerable and she still experiences pain, especially now that she is beginning to open herself up to others again. She’s learning to trust, but it doesn’t always come easily for her. It’s this sort of realistic and layered characterization that Say I Love You does particularly well.

YU+ME: Dream, Omnibus 1YU+ME: Dream, Omnibuses 1-2 by Megan Rose Gedris. I only recently discovered YU+ME, a webcomic that was originally released online between 2004 and 2010. The comic is still freely available to read online, but the series has also now been collected into two omnibuses which include additional content. The first part of YU+ME comes across as a fairly standard girl-meets-girl high school love story. It’s certainly enjoyable, but not an exceptional story on its own. (Although it is noteworthy that the series may have been one of the earliest queer-focused webcomics.) What really makes the YU+ME outstanding is its second part, which places the first half within an entirely new context. Gedris wanted to turn the “but it was all a dream” trope on its head and she does so magnificently. Both the artwork and the storytelling are a bit rough in the beginning, but Gedris steadily improves and by the end the series has turned into something truly spectacular. The first part of YU+ME primarily uses a single art style while the second half explodes into a brilliant variety of design, color, and texture. YU+ME is an epic and surreal lesbian love story with a grand mythos to go along with it and a plot that is much more complex than it first appears.

Margaret Turns 50; Alt-Manga Pioneers

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news_large_margaret01To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Margaret and Bessatsu Margaret magazines, Shueisha helped organize an exhibit featuring its most popular series, from Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles to Io Sakisaka‘s Blue Spring Ride. Erica Friedman files a report from Tokyo.

Pour yourself a cup of coffee and block off an hour for manga scholar Ryan Holmberg’s essay on  the development of gekiga.

Over at the Hooded Utilitarian, Josselin Moneyron profiles Breakdown Press, a London-based company that specializes in alt-manga artists such as Sasaki Maki.

After DMP announced a Kickstarter campaign to fund six previously unlicensed manga by Osamu Tezuka, fans took to social media to voice concerns about the cost. DMP responded with a video explaining why this campaign was more ambitious than previous ones, but reaction was mixed. Alexander Hoffmann offers his own cost analysis.

Scholar Kathryn Hemmann examines the unconscious bias against female manga artists in Helen McCarthy’s A Brief History of Manga.

Tony Yao explores the connection between teen employment and the American manga market.

Aussie otaku take note: the University of Wollongong will be hosting Manga Futures: Institutional & Fan Approaches in Japan and Beyond, a three-day conference focusing on the current state of manga scholarship.

News from Japan: If you just can’t get enough Durarara!!, you’ll be pleased to hear that Sylph magazine will be launching a new spin-off series Durarara!! Relay in November. Also debuting next month: a new installment of Akiko Higashimura’s Princess Jellyfish, and a new Gakuen Heaven series penned by You Higuri.

Reviews: Jason Thompson embraces his inner guitar god with an in-depth essay on Detroit Metal City, while Seth Hahne reviews The Flowers of Evil.

Sakura Eries on vol. 6 of A Bride’s Story (The Fandom Post)
Anna N. on vols. 1-2 of The Clockwork Sky (Manga Report)
Kamen on The Flowers of Evil (trenchkamen)
James on vols. 1-10 of Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit (Kotaku)
Rebecca Silverman on In Clothes Called Fat (Anime News Network)
Mad Manga on vols. 2-8 of Knights of Sidonia (Cartoon Geek Corner)
Laura on vols. 1-7 of Midnight Secretary (Heart of Manga)
Khursten Santos on The Night Beyond the Tri-Cornered Window (Otaku Champloo)
Khrusten Santos on Nino no Mori (Otaku Champloo)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of No Game, No Life (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Danica Davidson on vol. 1 of Raqiya (Otaku USA)
Megan R. on vols. 1-6 of Reiko the Zombie Shop (Manga Test Drive)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 7 of Triage X (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Voice Over (Comic Book Bin)

No Game No Life, Vol. 1

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By Yuu Kamiya and Mashiro Hiiragi. Released in Japan by Media Factory, serialized in the magazine Comic Alive. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

Ah, Comic Alive, my old nemesis. We meet again. I see this time you’ve brought a title that I would probably find quite interesting were it not for the grotesque fanservice that is sprinkled throughout and unavoidable. Again. In fact, that seems to be your only weapon, really, though I was pleased by your one victory in the ‘yuri’ genre. Can’t we have more like Whispered Words and less like this? And so as ever, I’m left to figure out if there’s enough remaining in the title to pull me in, or if I’m going to be driven off by an excess of panty flashing, underage nudity, and boob groping. All of which No Game No Life has plenty of.

ngnl1

This is another in the increasingly popular genre of ‘gamers suddenly find themselves in a game world’, but with a slight twist. Our brother/sister heroes don’t find themselves in the game they were playing (and crushing everyone – they’re master gamers), but in a fantasy world where war has been replaced by games – any games, and the stakes can be quite high. As they struggle to figure out the history and rules of this new world, they meet the story’s designated victim, Princess Stephanie, who has just lost her kingdom due to being too naive, honest, and tsundere. Luckily for her, they’re not only master gamers, but total savants – with a few minor quirks.

Let’s break down the quirks, which are really the best and worst reasons to pick up this title. Sora is another overly perverse virgin whose first thought on winning a ‘ask anything of the pretty girl’ game is to ask the girl to fall in love with him. Shiro, while occasionally playing the jealous sister card, seems OK with him groping and assaulting said girl as long as it goes through her first. They are supposedly siblings (I will be very unsurprised if this turns out not to be true later on) but Sora professes he has no sexual desire towards Shiro… but that doesn’t stop them being all over each other anyway, thus gaining the best of both worlds for those who like that fetish.

So where’s the good? For all their smug confidence, much of which is justified, Sora and Shiro are two very broken teens (Shiro is 11, but whatever). If they’re apart from each other at all, they both have crippling breakdowns – we saw at the start they were a NEET (him) and a truant (her). Indeed, Shiro may actually have some sort of disorder – I’m not sure if her broken speech is meant to be a cute affectation or something more basic. And Ias I said earlier, they really do seem to be as good as they say they are – Shiro memorized a book almost instantly, and Sora, while not as good as that, is still said to be able to pick it up in a few hours.

So the question remains, what will the story do with these two? If it develops as a tale of how they deal with this world and its inhabitants while working to get over their social phobias, that’s quite a good possibility. That said, I expect the service is not going away and may even get worse. There is a light novel coming this spring, too. In the end, I suppose if you read Comic Alive stuff, you’ll enjoy this. If not, it might be interesting for the siblings, but I’d wait a few volumes to see if that pans out.

The Clockwork Sky, Vols 1 and 2

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The Clockwork Sky Volumes 1 and 2 by Madeline Rosca

I haven’t read Rosca’s series for Seven Seas, The Hollow Fields, but I remember being aware of it as one of the more positively reviewed English language manga series. So I was curious to check out Rosca’s recent series The Clockwork Sky.

The first volume establishes the world of Ember, along with a plucky heroine who has a habit of getting in trouble for being improper due to her need for speed. Sally has been sent to live with her Uncle Croach, who is a evil steampunk industrialist. His line of household robots is transforming the city, but where is he getting all the parts for his creatures from? Sally is basically locked up in her room and told to concentrate on being a proper lady, but she’s got plenty of ingenuity and manages to sneak out of her uncle’s house and comes across a race, which she promptly enters.

The other young protagonist of the story is Sky, a young mechanical police aide who resembles an adolescent Atro Boy a bit in his character design and powers. He’s assigned to track Sally down, but soon finds himself a bit sympathetic towards her. This conflicts with his orders. As Sally and Sky soon begin to discover, her Uncle’s scrapyard contains secrets and unexpected dangers.

While the first volume introduces the characters and world of The Clockwork Sky, the second volume is almost non-stop action as Sally and Sky learn that the missing children of the city are being recycled in unexpected ways. Croach makes an unconventional presentation to some powerful people in a desperate attempt at getting the raw materials needed to keep his factory going, while Sky begins to chafe at his programming and manifests even more self-awareness and independent thought. There are plenty of dynamic action sequences in Croach’s factory, and when Sky is able to bring in the authorities, Sally is able to build a new life for herself.

I appreciated the varied character designs and the clarity of Rosca’s art. In the second volume I sometimes wished for a bit more detail, as so many of the characters were yelling while being drawn in a slightly super deformed mode. Rosca touches on class issues with the clockwork underclass but there’s plenty of adventure and world building to keep a reader engaged. The story and art were well in synch, which made The Clockwork Sky easy to read. This would be a great comic for the upper range of elementary school, and a two volume series isn’t too much of a space commitment for most libraries. I’d definitely recommend this series for younger readers.