Blog

Bookshelf Briefs 5/19/14

May 19, 2014 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and Anna N Leave a Comment

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

Alice in the Country of Hearts: Love Labyrinth of Thorns | By QuinRose and Aoi Kurihara | Seven Seas – This is a standard Alice volume in many ways, but it also seems a bit… dialed down? Like it was supposed to run in Ichijinsha’s magazine for 7-year-olds, so they made it more kid-friendly? The at seems slightly more ‘cute’, there’s no sex like we’ve seen in several of the other series, Ace is being relatively nice and considerate (for Ace… he does almost kill Alice here, but we can’t have everything). Even Nightmare is acting in pure mentor mode, allowing Alice and Julius to recognize their feelings by way of manipulation and tricks. It’s Alice Lite, but in its own way it wouldn’t be a bad one-shot to get a newbie to the series. Even with the implied Julius/Ace shipping. – Sean Gaffney

Nisekoi, Vol. 3 | By Naoshi Komi | Viz Media – Most of this volume is, to be honest, harem-by-numbers. But it’s a decently written harem-by-numbers. There’s fanservice, but it’s not to the point that it gets disturbing. Our hero gets trapped in a women’s bath, but manages to avoid the comedy beating I was expecting. Tsugumi is having trouble dealing with both her gender and her unrecognized crush on Raku, but it’s mostly pretty cute. Where Nisekoi excels is in the way that it draws faces. A harem comedy tends to live and die by its expressions of embarrassment, terror and arousal, and all three of these get shown off here, particularly in the card game scene. All this plus Chitoge may be advancing the plot… next time around. This is fluffy fun. – Sean Gaffney

Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vol. 16 | By Yuki Midorikawa | Viz Media – I admit upfront that I am positively besotted by this series. It’s rare that an episodic series charms me so thoroughly, but I really do love everything about this one. The chapters in this volume find Natsume acting as an intermediary between his friends and yokai—in the first story, yokai are lost in his classmate’s home, and in the second, an sweet old lady in one’s friend’s past turns out to have been a yokai all along—and being asked to keep the yokai’s secret when full disclosure is feared to lead only to pain and rejection. As ever, the yokai are endearing, and I admire how the series can be consistently sweet but never sappy. With another series, I might be annoyed by the lack of purposeful plot direction, but I never tire of Natsume’s Book of Friends. – Michelle Smith

Otomen, Vol. 18 | By Aya Kanno | Viz Media – Oh, Otomen. Even to the end, you alternate delighting and frustrating me. The first hanfl of this is a wonderful conclusion to the series (I loved how Ryo’s face was hidden till the dramatic climax) and everyone got to be awesome. Then suddenly the publisher realized they had 100 more pages to go till the volume ended, so we insert a ridiculous amnesia arc that almost had me throw the book across the room, complete with derailing of the main villain of the series, Asuka’s mother. Sigh. Oh well, at least I got a nice wedding finale out of it. And they actually waited 10 years till they were both settled into their chosen careers. Despite aggravations, I did enjoy Otomen, Ryo especially. More of Ryo as the best cop ever. – Sean Gaffney

Psyren, Vol. 16 | By Toshiaki Iwashiro | Viz Media – I understand that Psyren ended suddenly, as many series in Shonen Jump are wont to do, and it does show a bit, as this volume seems a bit crammed and rushed. At the same time, I was just about ready for this series to end, so this is still a good stopping place, and no gaping plot holes seem to be unaddressed. I did wonder if they were going to torch that ‘fourth future’, as they seemed to imply they would, but in the end even that gets a happy ending. Things are good. Bad guys are defeated, many superpowers are shown off, our hero didn’t die of brain damage, and he gets the girl. To be continued in the Psyren novel, which I suspect will only come out in Japan, but this is a good stopping place anyway. – Sean Gaffney

Say I Love You., Vol. 1 | By Kanae Hazuki | Kodansha Comics – So, imagine a plot kind of like Kimi ni Todoke, except that the lead girl is pricklier and the lead guy more experienced with the ladies. Mei Tachibana has sworn off having friends after being betrayed, but ends up capturing the interest of Yamato Kurosawa, the most popular boy in school. She’s resistent to his overtures of friendship at first, but when he actually comes through for her in a scary situation, she decides that maybe it’s okay to trust him a little. The story moves swiftly from there, and not only have she and Yamato become a couple by the end of the volume, but she’s also made a good female friend and they independently challenge those who talk trash about the other. It’s kind of great. I do wonder how this concept has thus far been sustained over twelve volumes, but I am definitely curious to see where this goes. – Michelle Smith

Voice Over! Seiyu Academy, Vol. 4 | by Maki Minami | Viz Media – I thought the first volume of the series was more enjoyable than I expected, although it didn’t totally win me over. The fourth volume continues to be amusing, even if it isn’t laugh out loud funny. Hime, the cute girl with the “Princely” voice struggles with her first big professional gig, with even more to battle against as the entire cast and the director absolutely resents her. While she can now produce a lovely voice when she has a certain pair of spectacles as a prop, her next challenge is to combine her voice with building a character. She continues to drop in on the aloof Senri Kudo, and seeing his wordless and gruff overtures to her was quite entertaining. Reccomended if you need some light and fluffy shoujo. – Anna N

Pick of the Week: Shoujo & Seinen

May 19, 2014 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N, Ash Brown and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: My pick of the Week is definitely the 10th volume of DMP’s Itazura Na Kiss. I know it’s bad for me. I know I will spend half the volume asking why Kotoko can’t think before she acts or apply herself to any chosen path. And I will spend the other half wondering how Naoki plans to be a doctor when he has all the empathy of a rock, and has the complete inability to understand how people with emotions might function. I will get annoyed and frustrated. But I don’t care. It’s Shoujo Manga Classic time.

MICHELLE: I don’t know how I could possibly describe the joys and frustrations of Itazura na Kiss better than Sean has done, so please allow me to say “me too, all the way!”

ANNA: I’m really torn, because this is one of those weeks where a ton of great manga is coming out! I’m happy to see Itazura Na Kiss being released in print again! Gangsta is becoming slightly addictive for me whenever I want a seinen fix. But since Itazura Na Kiss seems to be getting plenty of love I’m going to have to go with Volume 2 of What Did You Eat Yesterday?.

ASH: I’m torn this week, too, but since Anna chose What Did You Eat Yesterday? (which I’m looking forward to a great deal) I’ll pick Gangsta to make sure it gets on the list. It’s not so often you get a manga with such a diverse cast in addition to interesting characters and plenty of action. I enjoyed the first volume immensely.

MJ: I’ll go with Anna this week, because though I’m interested in these other series, there is really no option for me that could eclipse the second volume Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday? I finally picked up a copy of the first volume a week or so ago, and I’ll never wait that long again (yes, I pre-ordered volume two). This series is an amalgamation of everything I love best about Yoshinaga’s work—lovingly-written dialogue, charmingly believable relationships, and FOOD. This is a book I will likely consume the second it hits my front porch. It’s absolutely my week’s must-buy manga.

What looks good to you this week?

My Week in Manga: May 12-May 18, 2014

May 19, 2014 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Well, it was my intention to review the first omnibus of Whispered Words by Takashi Ikeda last week, but then Sean reviewed it the day before I was planning to post my review. So, to avoid making the Manga Bookshelf front page look a little strange, I decided to bump my Whispered Words review to later this week. But never fear, I had other posts in reserve! First up was my Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2014 recap, which is very, very long. If you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, that’s fine, but I do want people to know that TCAF is an amazing festival. A month or so ago I had the opportunity to attend a presentation given by Natsuki Kikuya, a sake sommelier and from a centuries-old family of sake brewers in Tōhoku, about the brewing of sake, its history, and current trend in the industry, so I posted some random musings about that as well–Cultures of Japanese Sake. I was quite pleased to discover that I actually had already had a strong introduction to the subject from reading manga, specifically Oishinbo, A la Carte: Sake and Moyasimon.

Now, going back to TCAF for a moment: Heidi MacDonald has an excellent summary of the festival at Publishers Weekly; the Beat has audio for a selection of the panels available for listening; and Okazu’s Erica Friedman has a great recap of the est em panel, which she moderated. Unrelated to TCAF, but still worth reading: Marvel, Yen Caught in Amazon-Hachette Crossfire; an interview with Leyla Aker, the editor at Viz Media responsible for Kohske’s Gangsta series; and Tokyo Government Declares Imōto Paradise! 2 Manga Unhealthy. Also, Deb Aoki has started updating her site Manga Comics Manga with some interesting new material, including Japanese to Spanish Manga Translation: Readers Speak Out and What Would Make Manga More Appealing to Comics Fans? + 24 Manga for New Readers.

Quick Takes

Dictatorial Grimoire, Volume 3: Red Riding Hood by Ayumi Kanou. The first volume of Dictatorial Grimoire, as ridiculous as it was, entertained me. The second volume was no less ridiculous, and it had some great moments, but I was frustrated by how trope-based it was. Fortunately, the series’ originality largely returns in the third volume and Dictatorial Grimoire once again becomes a glorious mess. The plot actually starts to make a little more sense and even becomes somewhat interesting, but just as things start to really get going the story is quickly brought to an end. It feels very abrupt and truncated, as if the series was initially supposed to be much longer. Still, I think the third volume of Dictatorial Grimoire was actually my favorite in the series. The demon from which the story Red Riding Hood comes is thoroughly introduced and he’s pretty great–a mix of the Wolf, Hunter, and Red. (He’s actually a decent guy once he gets his werewolf problem under control.) I also get a kick out of Snow White’s animal companions. Instead of the cute woodland critters that might traditionally be expected, he always has some poisonous creatures hanging about. Dictatorial Grimoire is far from the best manga out there, but it can be fun in all of its ridiculousness.

Dorohedoro, Volumes 10-12 by Q Hayashida. I continue to enjoy Dorohedoro immensely. It’s a strange, weird manga, and one that I find difficult to coherently explain to people. Dorohedoro is bloody, violent, and grim and yet at the same time it is also incredibly endearing, charming, and funny. It can even be heartbreaking from time to time. Occasionally something feels a little bit off about Hayashida’s artwork in the series–body proportions don’t always seem to be quite right–but for the most part I really enjoy the gritty look and feel of Dorohedoro. I was particularly impressed by how effectively dizzying and disconcerting the artwork could be when Aikawa’s magic comes into play. There’s quite a bit of plot development in these volumes and several of the characters have their backstories filled out–more is learned about the pasts of Nikaido, Asu, and the various members of the Cross-Eyes. There’s plenty of action in this part of the series, too, including excellent fight sequences and brutal battles. There are some significant deaths, as well, though it’s never certain that someone will stay completely dead in Dorohedoro. There are seven more volumes to go in the series; I really hope that Viz will be able to stick with it through to the end.

Hotblood!: A Centaur in the Old West, Volume 1 by Toril Orlesky. While at TCAF, I made the point to pick up a few things that I hadn’t heard about before or was otherwise unfamiliar with. One of those random splurges was Orlesky’s Hotblood!, a webcomic that currently updates twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am absolutely loving it–the characters, the art, everything. The first print volume collects the series’ prologue and the entirety of its first chapter, as well as an exclusive appendix and other additional bonus material. Tremendous thought and care has been put into the worldbuilding of the comic–a sort of alternative history–especially in regards to the relationships and interactions between humans and centaurs and their cultures. The story begins in Wyoming in 1873 with James Rook, the titular centaur, and Asa Langley a steel magnate on the run as wanted men. It then jumps back two years in time to when they first met. In the prologue the two are obviously very close, but at the beginning of their relationship they didn’t get along much at all. Langley is a bit of a jerk, frequently making jokes in poor taste at Rook’s expense, but Rook needs a job so he puts up with it. He has been assigned to be Langley’s secretary; neither one of them is particularly happy about it, though.

No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, Volumes 2-3 by Nico Tanigawa. Overall, I do enjoy WataMote, but I will be the first to admit that it can be a harsh and uncomfortable read. (I get the feeling that the creators largely didn’t enjoy their high school years and that they don’t have many fond memories of that time in their lives.) WataMote can be very funny, but it’s not always very pleasant. So far the series has been fairly episodic, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage, but a few characters have been introduced in these volumes which may change that. I would like to see some actual character development in the series, though. Right now it seems as though Tomoko, her family, and classmates are stuck in a rut. This works in terms of the series’ premise–Tomoko is a misfit to put all other misfits to shame–but it’s a little painful and sad to not see her learn from her mistakes and experiences. Which, I suppose, is actually probably one of the points of the manga. Tomoko can be endearing in her extreme awkwardness, but that awkwardness can also be fairly alarming and embarrassing. WataMote is definitely not a series that everyone will be able to enjoy or even appreciate, but I do plan on following it further.

Anime update: Viz gets Sailor Moon, Disney grabs Doraemon

May 19, 2014 by Brigid Alverson

I’m back from a couple of crazy weeks that included travels to C2E2 and TCAF as well as a bunch of personal and day-job stuff, and I’m jumping back in with some big anime news: Disney has licensed the Doraemon anime for its Disney XD channel and Viz got the license for all the Sailor Moon anime—the original series, including the episodes that have never been licensed in North America, plus three movies and the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime that will debut in July. Since both these anime started as manga, we can expect some strong synergy. Kodansha Comics’ Sailor Moon manga was already a chart-topper, but perhaps we will see new readers picking it up; as for Doraemon, right now it’s available only digitally, via Amazon, but the time may have come for a print release.

Keeping with that anime theme, co-author Helen McCarthy announces the third edition of The Anime Encyclopedia.

OK, enough of that. Back to manga news. At Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin Stroman interviews Leyla Aker, the editor of Gangsta (and also Viz’s vice president of publishing), and he also talks to Eric Eberhardt, director of digital publishing marketing, about the new Viz Select imprint for digital-first releases.

Manga was prominently featured at this year’s Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF), with guest appearances by Moyoco Anno, est em, and the two-woman team of Akira Himekawa. Deb Aoki reports in on the “Future of Manga Publishing” panel she moderated, which featured manga editor and literary agent Yohei Sadoshima, and she also presents a Twitter conversation with fans about what would make manga more appealing.

Erica Friedman posts her con report on TCAF, along with a list of books she bought and why they are awesome. Ash Brown reports in as well. And here’s my take, at Robot 6.

Laura is back blogging again at Heart of Manga, after some harrowing health problems, and she has a look at the shoujo manga that will be coming out this month.

News from Japan: Drops of God will come to an end in the June 12 issue of Kodansha’s Morning magazine; three more volumes of tankoubon will be released, for a total of 44. Death Note and Bakuman writer Tsugumi Ohba is working on a new story, Skip Yamada-kun, a one-shot that will run in “Jump” meets “Girl” SPECIAL COMIC, a special issue of Shukan Young Jump. Robico, the creator of My Little Monster, will do the art.

Reviews

Joe Iglesias on vol. 5 of Battle Angel Alita (Eastern Standard)
Justin on vol. 1 of Gangsta (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on Insufficient Direction (Comic Attack)
Alice Vernon on Inu x Boku SS (Girls Like Comics)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 3 and 4 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on Showa 1939-1944: A History of Japan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Maggie on solanin (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Manjiorin on vols. 1 and 2 of Sweet Rein (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Kristin on vol. 2 of Sweet Rein (Comic Attack)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 17 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Lesley’s Musings… on Manga)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of xxxHoLIC: Rei (Comics Worth Reading)

Ranma 1/2, Vols. 3 & 4

May 18, 2014 by Sean Gaffney

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

(Warning: This is Ranma 1/2 For Experts, basically – I do refer to future volumes a bit here, mostly the next one.)

As we get deeper into the Ranma 1/2 story, it’s starting to separate itself more and more from its predecessor, Urusei Yatsura. This despite adding two characters who are very much ‘based on’ similar UY characters in these two volumes. But while UY ran on escalation – take a situation, put people in it, and watch it expand till it explodes in comedic chaos – Ranma 1/2 almost seems driven by delusion. So many of the characters have a fixed idea of who someone is, what their goal is, or how people feel about them, and that fixed idea drives the comedy. So we have Kuno’s love for the ‘Pig-Tailed Girl’, Kodachi’s similar obsession with Ranma (and inability to tell that he and his girl side are the same person), Mikado’s ladykiller instincts, and even Ryouga’s delusion that all he has to do is defeat Ranma once and suddenly he’ll get Akane and be happy. Everyone in Ranma is deluded for the sake of comedy.

We start off with Kodachi, who we already know likes to win her matches by disabling her opponent before they begin. Akane isn’t so easily dispatched (in fact, it’s her own misstep that forces her out of the match), so Kodachi resorts to her backup plan – cheating her way through the entire match. Throughout, she bears a strong resemblance to Ryouko Mendou from UY, something that is helped along when we find out that Tatewaki Kuno is in fact her older brother. (Yes, yes, mix and match the romanji. Leave me my bad habits.) Kodachi likewise has a flair for the overdramatic. She’ll stick around, but is probably the least important of the major Ranma harem girls – and the only one who never gets a ‘softer side’, even once we find out about her family situation (we’ve got a few more omnibuses to go there).

Martial Arts Gymnastics in the Kodachi story is followed by Martial Arts Ice Skating with Mikado and Azusa, and I advise the reader to get used to “Martial Arts _______” throughout the entire Ranma series. It’s a useful way to incorporate any silly situation Takahashi wants into the series, and it also serves as an obvious motivator for Ranma, who can’t resist a fight and whose ego says that he’ll always win in any martial arts situation – even if he can’t skate.

Mikado and Azusa are the first ‘arc villains’ we have who won’t be returning, though I think the anime adaptation brought them back a few times. They’re a lot of fun, but there’s not much you can really do with them, and neither of them have either the likeability or over the top madness that tends to bring back the best of Ranma’s recurring characters. I was quite pleased to see that, though they perform as a couple, they don’t actually seem to like each other at all. Azusa (who is Ran in UY with the anger replaced by more cute) also seems to get away with most of the antics she inspires here. Mikado, who sexually assaults Ranma by “stealing her lips”, is a Grade-A creep, however, and he gets the majority of the violence dealt out here.

Ryouga still features heavily here, and his anger remains, but we’re also starting to see his swirling pool of depression, something that will come to define his character for a long time to come. Ryouga is at his strongest when his mood is blackest, but this means that we rarely get to see him be happy. It’s probably not helped that, throughout both of these arcs, Ranma and Akane are still looking quite couple-y. Sure, they grump sat each other, but that seems almost friendly now, and Ranma is quick to whip out the ‘my fiancee’ card. It’s really quite cute.

…and then Shampoo hits the series, literally smashing through a wall and attempting to kill Ranma’s female half. My old memories of this point in the series made me think that it was Shampoo who was a catalyst for what Ranma and Akane will eventually become after this, but to be honest she doesn’t really play all that big a part. Akane’s hair-trigger temper and jealousy just seem to increase naturally, and we see Ranma having to restore her memories later by firing a volley of insults at her, as if all he’s been doing is calling her uncute for the past 3 1/2 volumes. Which isn’t true, as we’ve seen, but it’s another canon rewrite as we read. Ranma and Akane will have their moments from now on, certainly, but there’s a certain tension between them after this arc. Ranma turns to insults more swiftly and loses his ‘I will observe first, then act’ persona. And Akane will distrust Ranma unless proven otherwise… and sometimes even then.

Back to Shampoo, and I will bring up Urusei Yatsura again, sorry. She is clearly meant to be Lum, only here Ranma and Akane have had some time together to make the readers like them, and Shampoo gets a lot fewer ‘cute and likeable’ points. Many have seen this as Takahashi trying to ‘fix’ UY, where she originally wanted Ataru and Shinobu as the couple, but fans and editors made her change it to Lum. The thing is, fans and editors were correct, and I’m sure she realized that very fast. Ataru was the sort of person who worked much better with Lum. But as I’ve noted, Ataru and Ranma are NOT all that alike, and thus the Ranma/Shampoo pairing feels as out of place as Ataru/Shinobu did. He needs someone like Akane, who brings out who he really is – for good and ill.

I was going to discuss Shampoo’s accent, and how it’s dealt with both in the original Japanese and in the English release, but it may be better to save that till Cologne and Mousse show up.

Some random observations… Tofu has already become a one-gag character, and it’s an annoying gag. Kasumi and Nabiki barely appear, though notably when they do they’re trying to fix things up between Ranma and Akane – Nabiki still doesn’t quite have that aura of ‘only out for myself’ she’ll gain later. I quite liked Ranma trying to explain that the tribe’s ‘rule’ that Shampoo had to marry the man who defeated her was ‘from the Stone age’ – he’s absolutely correct, though it does also point out how steeped in ancient traditions Shampoo’s tribe is. And yes, Formula 911 was Formula 119 in the Japanese, but they basically are the same gag – it’s the phone # for emergencies.

By the way, for all that Shampoo is supposedly trying to kill Ranma, she never even gets close. And notably, when she gives the ‘kiss of death’ to Akane, who she’s clearly a superior fighter to, she just wipes Akane’s memories rather than, as Ranma fears, leaving her corpse on the outside of the school. In other words, she doesn’t really look like she’s able to go through with actually killing anyone. We see that again at the end, where Ranma leaves herself open and Shampoo can’t do it – she leaves in tears. It’s a rare serious moment in Ranma 1/2, and sad, because we know that this is the end, and we’ll never see Shampoo again – as she states, and the others imply.

Next time we’ll cover Volumes 5 and 6, where we see Shampoo again. We also get a few more introductions, two major – Cologne and Mousse from Shampoo’s Amazon village – and one minor, Gosunkugi, who is so sad the anime actually wrote him out for several seasons. In the meantime, this was a very enjoyable Ranma volume, and I look forward to gushing more words at you some July.

Viz Media Licenses Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal

May 16, 2014 by Sean Gaffney

We interrupt this manga blog to bring you important anime news.

Viz Media announced today at Anime Central that they have won everything ever and are our new gods, provided we pay them the appropriate tribute.

(cough)

What I meant was that viz Media announced at Anime Central that they have the license to the Sailor Moon anime, and will be releasing remastered Blu-Ray/DVD sets (season half-sets) starting this fall. It will also start streaming on Hulu Monday with the first four episodes subbed, with 2 per week to follow.

It is getting a new dub, cast to be announced.

It will be all 5 seasons, including Sailor Stars, as well as the 3 movies and assorted TV specials.

It is uncut.

It will come with various DVD extras.

They promise Haruka and Michiru will not be cousins.

Oh yes, they also announced… Sailor Moon Crystal, the reboot airing in Japan this summer. They have that as well.

So yes, as I said at the start, Viz Media announced today at Anime Central that they have won everything ever and are our new gods, provided we pay them the appropriate tribute. And by that I mean money. SPEND ALL THE MONEY ON SAILOR MOON.

Random Musings: Cultures of Japanese Sake

May 16, 2014 by Ash Brown

I enjoy sake. I don’t have the opportunity to drink it very often, and I don’t really know much about it, but I do enjoy it and have an interest in it. Fortunately, I recently had the opportunity to hear Natsuki Kikuya, the founder of Museum of Sake, give her presentation “World of Sake: How It’s Created, and Where It’s Going.” Kikuya is from a family of sake brewers which is part of a collective in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshū. She currently works with chefs in the United Kingdom as a sake sommelier and is in the process of developing a sake documentary; her personal mission is to introduce and promote sake across Europe and the rest of the world. The craft and culture surrounding sake and sake brewing is broad and deep. A comparison can easily be made with wine culture, but Kikuya has found that in the West a “translator” is often needed for sake. Whereas wine has an extensive vocabulary already established to describe it, traditionally sake has had only two descriptors: dry and sweet.

So, what is sake? In Japanese, “sake” is a word that simply means “alcoholic beverage.” However, when the term is used in English, generally it is specifically referring to what is known in Japan as nihonshu. Sake is a fermented and filtered alcoholic beverage that is no more than 22% alcohol by volume. Typically, sake is brewed using only four ingredients: rice, water, yeast, and koji. Approximately 1% of Japan’s total rice production is devoted specifically to the brewing of sake. Though still edible, the rice used in sake is very different from table rice meant for consumption. When making sake the outside of the grains of rice is polished away, leaving behind the starches. In the highest quality sake, more than half of the rice is polished away. (In one exceptional case, only 7% of the rice remained after polishing.) Water is a particularly important ingredient as sake is made up of around 80% water. Water from different sources can significantly change the taste of the sake; generally water with softer qualities is desired. Up until the 20th century, sake production primarily relied on wild yeast, however more than 90% of sake fermentation now uses cultivated yeast. Koji is sake’s “magical ingredient”–a type of mold spore that transforms the starches in the rice into sugars for the yeast to ferment. Sake is often described as being “grown in breweries”; its quality very much depends on the human techniques involved and there is less emphasis placed on vintage as a result.

During her talk, Kikuya outlined a brief history of sake and its development in Japan. Sake had its beginnings over 2,500 years ago, originating as the “drink of the gods” and was associated with Shinto shrines. Between the 7th and 12th centuries, sake came under control of the court. During that time there were thirteen different grades of sake appropriate for the different ranks of nobility. In the Middle Ages the center of sake production moved to Kōfuku-ji in Nara and other Buddhist temples. At this point in history distilled spirits from abroad began to be introduced to Japan as well. The Edo period saw the rise of brewing specialists and the center of sake production once again moved, this time to Itami and Edo. Previously sake had been made year-round, but as the brewing techniques were refined during the Edo period it became a winter-specific process. The Edo period also saw the establishment of izakaya and the culture of eating outside of the home; sake was no longer just for nobles. Homebrewing was prohibited in 1899, mostly for tax reasons, and so sake brewing became more of a corporate affair during the Meiji era.

Oishinbo, A la Carte: Sake

The 20th century brought the “era of synthetic sake.” When rice was not readily available (during times of war, for example), techniques were developed to compensate for this lack, such as the introduction of syrups. The quality of the results were not always particularly good. And then there is sake industry today, which is focusing on modernization, localization, and globalization. This includes the creation of “new gen” sake, such as sparkling sake and sake with low alcohol content, as well as the use of sake in mixed drinks. At one point there were over 4,000 breweries in Japan. Sadly, the industry is dying and only around 1,200 breweries currently remain. Of those, the top twenty account for 80% of the sake production in Japan, however local breweries are beginning to gain increased support. There are several theories as to why interest in sake is declining in Japan: the continued Westernization of the country, the aging and shrinking of the population, and the fact that younger generations simply don’t seem to be drinking sake. Although the sake industry is still dominated by men, Kikuya knows of at least ten women heads of breweries. Interestingly enough, in addition to Japan, the United States is also a leading producer of sake and currently has seven to eight breweries of its own.

Prior to the Kikuya’s talk, my knowledge of sake had primarily been gleaned from what I myself had tasted as well as from manga like Tetsu Kariya and Akira Hanasaki’s Oishinbo (especially the volume Oishinbo, A la Carte: Sake) and Masayuki Ishikawa’s Moyasimon. I was quite happy to discover that those series have actually provided me with a fairly strong introduction to and basic understanding of sake and the sake industry, including some of the more unusual and interesting historical tidbits. So, even if you don’t have the chance to take advantage of the knowledge of a sake expert, picking up a copy of Oishinbo, A la Carte: Sake and following it up with a bit of Moyasimon (the manga or the anime) is not a bad place to start. (Toko Kawai’s short boys’ love series The Scent of Apple Blossoms also features a sake brewer, though I haven’t read it yet to be able to say how educational the manga might be.) For those interested in learning more about sake, Kikuya’s Museum of Sake is also worth a look, as is Discovery UK’s series Discovering Sake. And sometimes the best way to learn about something is to simply experience it for yourself. Have a taste!

Manga the Week of 5/21

May 15, 2014 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, MJ, Michelle Smith and Ash Brown 3 Comments

SEAN: Some newer series, some old favorites, and some back from the dead in Week 3 of the month of May.

DMP is releasing print volumes again, including two of their old non-BL series. Takasugi-san’s Obento gets a 2nd volume, and continues to charm readers and make Bunny Drop fans stare at it warily.

ANNA: I liked the first volume a lot, and I really hope it doesn’t go into Bunny Drop territory.

MJ: Agreed!

SEAN: And we have at last the return of Itazura Na Kiss, everyone’s favorite bitter black coffee of the shoujo manga world. Will its leads ever stop being so… themselves? Probably not, but here’s more of it, and I can’t wait.

MICHELLE: Yay yay yay yay yay!

ASH: I’ve heard nothing but good things about Itazura Na Kiss; I really should get around to reading it one of these days!

ANNA: A classic! I’m so glad to see more print volumes coming out from DMP. I need to order this!

MJ: Nice to see this back!

SEAN: Kodansha has the 3rd Air Gear omnibus, with 3 more volumes of the roller blading superhero-ish manga for your perusal.

They also have the 5th volume of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which I should really try to catch up on.

ASH: It’s actually a pretty decent adaptation.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a pair of titles for their readers who prefer the more ecchi-oriented catalog of Seven Seas. Dragonar Academy has Vol. 2, and still reminds me of Zero’s Familiar too much – the annoying points of Zero’s Familiar.

Meanwhile, Kanokon has a 3rd omnibus, which ends the manga release. And thank goodness, as this is the last time I will have to avoid saying something about it.

MICHELLE: Nothing for me here.

SEAN: If I had to drop a series after Vol. 1 merely as I found the lead unlikeable, I’d never be reading a lot of series. Thus I will look forward to Vol. 2 of Vertical’s What Did You Eat Yesterday? and its very prickly lead guy – being a good cook only gets you so far with the reader, though.

MICHELLE: Yay yay yay yay yay!

ASH: I’m excited to see this one, too!

ANNA: My shopping list is growing this week! So excited for more great foodie manga!

MJ: MORE MORE MORE.

SEAN: Lastly, Vol. 2 of Gangsta drops, and I’m hoping it keeps to the high standard set by Vol. 1, as I enjoyed the debut volume quite a bit.

ASH: I really enjoyed the first volume of Gangsta and so look forward to reading more soon!

ANNA: I’ve read this already and enjoyed it! Gangsta is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite ongoing series.

SEAN: What manga are you rebelling against?

Showa 1939-1944: A History of Japan

May 15, 2014 by Sean Gaffney

By Shigeru Mizuki. Released in Japan as “Comic Shouwashi” by Kodansha. Released in North America by Drawn & Quarterly.

As you may have gathered from the dates, this volume covers the majority of World War II – referred to by Mizuki as “The Pacific War”, as it is in Japan. While we don’t neglect the average Japanese civilian back home, there is definitely more of an emphasis on battles, troop movements, and the machinations of war here, with so many Japanese general names flying past you will be grateful there are endnotes explaining who they all are. Interwoven into this is Mizuki’s own storyline, as he continues to fail at most everything he tries until the day he is drafted into the army… and manages to fail there as well, leading to a horrifying cliffhanger.

The narration of events continues to be done mostly by Nezumi Otoko, Mizuki’s filthy coward character from Gegege no Kitaro. He’s a bit less noticeable here, as the narration has to move so quickly it doesn’t allow time for anyone to make yokai jokes. Still, only Nezumi Otoko would stand behind Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo and wrap his arms around them in a ‘we’re buddies’ hug. This isn’t to say his narration is biased, though – Nezumi Otoko is quick to point out the lies and deceit that Japan uses to advance its own thirst for power. In addition, the fact that he is sort of ‘out of time’ means that he can have the occasional chat with Mizuki the artist, appearing as himself in a slightly less exaggerated version of the Mizuki we see living though his late teenage years.

General Yamamoto is mentioned early in the book, right around Pearl Harbor, that if he can turn the tide in 6-12 months, everything will go Japan’s way, but if it takes longer, America will end up winning. Most of the focus of this book is that extended narrative, as we see battle after battle where Japan marches in and takes over… and then the tide begins to turn, more men are lost, less land is gained, and the Japanese government decides to start lying to its people about what’s going on – the Battle of Midway’s true casualties weren’t known publicly till well after the war.

And then there’s Mizuki himself. As I said in my first review, I suspect that he is exaggerating his past self for comic relief, but there’s still a sense that this is a young man who cannot stop aimlessly drifting through his life, and is easily influenced by those around him. He’s also beaten, a lot – those who recall Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths will see a number of similar scenes here. The reward for the beatings seems to be rising in rank so that you can beat others in turn, but Mizuki never even gets that far. The most tragic part of the entire book for me when when, assigned to the bugle corps, he finds the job boring and demands a transfer. His superiors try to talk him out of this THREE TIMES, but to no avail. And so he’s sent to the front, and ends up fighting for his life as we get yet another amazing cliffhanger ending.

A whole lot of this book continues to be a history textbook of sorts. But then again, this is a manga written for Japanese people, telling them things that, at the time of its publication (and indeed to an extent today) the government was not comfortable with admitting. As a result, it can be a bit didactic. Mizuki is not entirely condemning Japan – he discusses the Bataan death march, and notes what little choice the Japanese military had there given the climate. But certainly this is more critical than we’re used to seeing, and the facts are so riveting that you’ll find you can’t stop turning the page. Add to this the art style, which continues to shift between photorealism and goofy sketches, and you’ve got a second volume that’s just as essential as the first.

Random Musings: Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2014

May 14, 2014 by Ash Brown

Last year I attended the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) for the very first time. It was an event that I had wanted to go to for years and I had such a fabulous time that I immediately began planning to return. TCAF is the only comics festival that I have ever been to so I can’t really compare it to others, but it is fantastic and I can’t recommend it enough. I certainly plan on going every that I possibly can at this point.

Last year I was only there for the main festival on Saturday and Sunday, but this year I pulled into Toronto on Thursday evening which gave me plenty of time to explore the city itself. After figuring out how to use Toronto’s streetcar system (I’ve never ridden a streetcar before) my “early” arrival allowed me to attend the opening reception of Toshio Saeki’s art exhibition at Narwhal Projects. Saeki is described as the “Godfather of Japanese Eroticism.” The gallery was a showing of a selection of his original drawings and silkscreen prints. They were beautiful, disconcerting, erotic, and surreal works. I’m very glad I had the opportunity to see them in person.

Friday was my “free” day in Toronto. While I was wandering all over the city, I made sure to make my way down to The Beguiling Books & Arts. Last year I got there a few minutes before it closed, so I was looking forward to spending a more reasonable amount of time exploring the store this year. The Beguiling is one of the best comic stores I’ve ever been to. It has a fantastic selection of materials and a marvelous staff. I highly recommend anyone visiting Toronto to check it out. The event that I was looking forward to on Friday was the Manga Mixer Night hosted by Sparkler Monthly at the TRANZAC Club. I sadly missed out on the gathering last year, and one of my TCAF goals for this year was to overcome some of my anxieties and to try to be a little more social, so to the mixer I went! And I’m glad that I did. I had a good time and Kuriousity‘s Lissa Pattillo and I were beautiful wallflowers together. We had a very nice conversation about manga, blogging, and TCAF.

Over the course of the festival I had the opportunity to briefly meet several other of my online friends in person: manga translator and all around awesome person Jocelyne Allen, my fellow Manga Bookshelf cohort Sean Gaffney, and the great A-run Chey who somehow managed to pick me out of a crowd. I certainly made some progress this year in the socialization department, but I still didn’t have the nerve to introduce myself to Deb Aoki and Erica Friedman, who were both kept very busy moderating various panels, or to Vertical’s Ed Chavez even though I was standing next to each of them at some point during the festival. Next time I’ll make it happen! I know there were at least a few other manga and comics bloggers at TCAF—like Brigid Alverson and Alexander Hoffman, among others—but I missed them, too.

“Ureshidaruma” by Toshio Saeki

Saturday was when the main festival actually began. Last year I didn’t get to spend as much time in the exhibitor area as I would have liked, so I got up bright and early on Saturday in order to visit as many artists and publishers as I could first thing in the morning. This turned out to be a good decision, because the exhibitor area seemed to only get busier and busier throughout the day. I couldn’t see everything before the Saturday panels started, but by the end of the day I managed to visit most of the tables that I wanted. Sadly, there were a few things that I was hoping to get that were sold out by the time I was able to make my way to the artists’ respective tables. But at least that meant that the creators were doing well, and I was very glad to see their success. While I went into TCAF knowing there were certain things that I wanted to pick up, I also allowed myself the opportunity to splurge on a few random items that I hadn’t even heard of before and discovered some great comics in the process. And of course, I also managed to compile a rather lengthy list of things that I wanted to check out later, too. I continue to be very impressed by both the quality and variety of creators and art at TCAF.

I attended four panels on Saturday. “What Do Women Want? Writing Comics for a Female Audience,” was moderated by Chromatic Press’ Lianne Sentar and featured Laura Lee Gulledge, Kate Leth, Joan Reilly, and Noelle Stevenson. It was an excellent panel looking at men and women and masculinity and femininity in comics and the North American comics industry. Generally, comics readers are assumed by the industry to be both male and straight and so that audience is the one that has traditionally been catered to. There have always been female readers but recently there have been more demands for a wider variety in comics, perhaps due in part to what the panelists called the “Sailor Moon Generation.” These are the women, and men, who were exposed to female-friendly Sailor Moon when they were younger and who are now old enough to create the types of comics that they want to see or are in the position to support and encourage other upcoming creators who want something more than the industry’s default. The key to the discussion was the importance of variety in comics and that great stories will attract all sorts of readers regardless of their intended audience.

“Comics Design and History” focused on the physical design, production, and presentation of graphic novels. The panel was moderated by Chris Randle and included designers Tracy Hurren from Drawn & Quarterly, Fawn Lau from Viz Media, and Chip Kidd, who has designed books for Vertical and PictureBox among many other publishers. They each chose three book designs to discuss and talked about some of the decisions that go into the design process. For example, one of the first steps when a comic is being translated into another language is to determine whether the original cover is suited for the new demographic. Unflipped manga has the potential to be accidentally displayed with the back cover as the front, so Kidd very deliberately created a design for Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan that was interesting and informative regardless of which direction the book was facing. One of the series that Lau discussed was Taiyo Matsumoto’s Sunny, talking about the choices that went into its deluxe presentation. One of the biggest challenges in book design is achieving a balance between production values and the budget, and then finding a printer that can actually produce it.

TCAF 2014 Queer Mixer presented by MASSIVE

Considering the fantastic lineup—Jess Fink, Michael DeForge, C. Spike Trotman, HamletMachine, Graham Kolbeins, Katie Skelly, Ryan Sands—I should have known that “Contemporary Erotic Comics” was going to be a popular panel. It was held in one of the smallest venues and was completely packed, but it was absolutely worth squeezing into the crowd. Chris Randle was the moderator for this panel as well. The panelists discussed their first experiences with erotic comics (manga and doujinshi were frequently cited), the challenges of working in and making a living off of pornography, and some of the current trends in sex comics as a genre. The panel’s emphasis on the need for variety and different perspectives dovetailed nicely with parts of the “What Do Women Want?” discussion. Kolbeins, who has been critical to the efforts to bring gay manga to English-reading audiences, was able to provide fascinating insights into some of the difference between Japanese and Western porn comics industries. In Japan, pornography is often meant to exclusively be pornography; adding any sort of message or social commentary can be seen as watering it down. On the other hand, in the West sex comics often allow creators to address issues other than sex; as long as certain plot requirements are met, they are more or less free to do whatever they want with their comics.

The last panel that I attended on Saturday, moderated by Deb Aoki, was “Women in Manga!” The panel included all of this year’s mangaka who were featured guests at TCAF: Moyoco Anno, est em, and Akira Himekawa (A. Honda and S. Nagano, a two-women team). All four of them admitted that they brought their work along with them on the trip; they may be traveling, but they still had deadlines to meet. Even though they are women, they said that they are largely treated the same as their male counterparts when working in seinen. (In many cases, readers don’t even realize that they are women!) However, working in shounen used to present more hurdles, though it’s not as difficult now as it once was. In the end, readers care more about the content than the mangaka’s gender. Regardless of the genre or demographic that they are working in, the panelists normally receive respect. The exception to this would be boys’ love which is somewhat looked down upon. est em felt this was because that instead of the more usual manga contests which award the creators with a series, boys’ love mangaka often become professionals through their doujinshi and this is seen as a sneaky, backdoor way of breaking into the manga industry.

One of the heartbreaking things about TCAF is that there is so much great programming that it’s impossible to attend it all and hard decisions must be made. Sadly, “Women in Manga!” conflicted with the “Queering Comics – LGBTQ identity in comics and graphic novels” panel which I really wanted to attend. Since I couldn’t make it to the queer comics panel, I decided to show up for the TCAF Queer Mixer at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre instead. Now, I don’t generally go to things like parties and mixers, but I was enticed by the promise of on-stage presentations and interviews. And I wasn’t disappointed. Anne Ishii of MASSIVE made a fabulously entertaining host and more than a dozen of the queer creators who were at TCAF this year were spotlighted as part of the event. I was already familiar with some of them and their work, but others were new to me. And I’ll admit, it was pretty awesome to just be in the same room with a bunch of other amazing queer folk. One of the best things about TCAF is how marvelously inclusive it is, and the annual Queer Mixer is representative of that.

My 2014 TCAF haul

Then came Sunday, the last day of the main festival. Also known as “Ash’s day of manga.” I made it to three events, each one focusing on the festival’s featured mangaka. First thing in the morning was Moyoco Anno’s Spotlight with Ed Chavez. Probably not too surprisingly, Vertical’s releases of Anno’s manga—Insufficient Direction, Sakuran, and the soon to be published In Clothes Called Fat—were used as a jumping off point for the discussion. Anno talked about her approach to writing seinen, choosing to focus on what she as a woman can bring to the demographic rather than trying to compete in the same areas where men could do just as well. As for shoujo, she doesn’t feel that it has changed much over the last twenty years; it still follows the same unrealistic tropes, especially in regards to love. She feels that the large gap between real relationships and how they are portrayed in manga can sometimes be problematic for readers. When asked, she sweetly replied that her favorite character to draw was Director-kun, her husband Hideaki Anno (who also happened to be in attendance).

Those who stayed for the entire Moyoco Anno Spotlight were at a slight disadvantage when it came to the signing that immediately followed. I was the first person put in the rush line for her signing, but sadly I still didn’t get the chance to personally meet Anno. However, this did mean that I had time to walk over to Toronto’s Japan Foundation in time for Akira Himekawa in Conversation. The two women, who are best known for their Zelda manga, are celebrating their thirtieth year of collaboration and were being interviewed by Deb Aoki. They were both incredibly engaging and enthusiastic about their work. I actually haven’t read very much of Himekawa’s manga, but I’ll certainly be making a point to now. And after seeing examples of some of their current series, I really hope that more of their manga will be licensed in English in the future. I love the Zelda franchise, but Himekawa’s recent work, much of it in full-color, simply looks gorgeous. While I was at the Japan Foundation, I was also able to see the Seiji Ozawa Photography Exhibition—a showcase of archival materials focusing on the young, Japanese music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1969—which was great.

The Japan Foundation also sponsored an interview with Yohei Sadoshima, whose literary agency represents Moyoco Anno among many other creators, about the future of the manga industry. Unfortunately this conflicted with the est em Spotlight. As a huge fan of est em, there was no way I was going to miss her panel. Erica Friedman was the moderator and it actually ended up being one of the best interviews that I attended at TCAF this year, making it a great way to end the festival. est em got her start as a professional mangaka through boys’ love after being approached by an editor who was intrigued by her doujinshi. Interestingly enough, she hadn’t actually read much mainstream boys’ love, which may partly explain why her manga tends to be somewhat unusual. Although est em is probably best know for her atypical boys love manga, her current series—Golondrina and Ippo—are both seinen manga. I think that Viz is probably my only hope, but someone please license Golondrina for a print release! est em explains that the reason her work is quirky is because it incorporates what she personally finds to be beautiful or interesting. She especially enjoys exploring and working with themes that address the spaces in between two opposing forces. (Over at Okazu, Erica recently posted an excellent and much more thorough write-up of the est em Panel at TCAF.)

So there you have it! And that’s just scratching the surface of this year’s festival experience. In short: TCAF 2014 was phenomenal. The guests were amazing. The programming was fantastic. I hope that I’ll be able to go again next year. That’s the plan, anyway!