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Real, Vol. 4

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Real, Volume 4Creator: Takehiko Inoue
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421519920
Released: April 2009
Original release: 2004
Awards: Japan Media Arts Award

I am a huge fan of Takehiko Inoue’s illustrations and manga. Everything that I have read by him has impressed me; his artistic skills and storytelling, as well as his complex characterizations, are fantastic. When I first began reading Inoue’s manga I fully expected to enjoy his series Vagabond the most. Vagabond is marvelous and I love it, but it was Inoue’s wheelchair basketball series Real that became my favorite. Real also happens to be the first manga by Inoue that I read. Since I don’t follow sports of any sort very closely, I was somewhat taken by surprise by how much I enjoyed Real. But the series is about so much more than basketball. Inoue adeptly portrays hard-hitting challenges and life-changing events in Real; basketball is just one part of the whole. The fourth volume of Real was published in Japan in 2004 while the English-language edition was released under Viz Media’s Signature imprint in 2009. Inoue received a Japan Media Arts Award Excellence Prize for Real in 2001, the same year the manga began serialisation.

After a violent falling-out with the captain of his wheelchair basketball team, Togawa has only recently returned to the game. There is still a fair amount of tension between the members of the Tigers, but with the Sunflower tournament coming up the team has started to pull together in a way that it hasn’t been able to in a long time. Togawa’s hard work and enthusiasm for basketball have served as an inspiration for some of his teammates. Unfortunately, some of the other players aren’t as appreciative of his attitude and the grueling practices that he leads. It is very likely that the Tigers forward momentum is only temporary and that the team will soon fall apart again. For Togawa, playing basketball and playing for the Tigers means everything to him. Having his right leg amputated as a middle school student because of bone cancer brought his dream of becoming a sprinter to an abrupt end. Togawa struggled immensely with this loss and it wasn’t until he discovered wheelchair basketball that he was able to find himself and his passion as an athlete again.

Just as the third volume of Real largely focused on the beginning of Takahashi’s rehabilitation, the fourth volume in the series delves more deeply into Togawa’s past, looking closely at the state of his life immediately following the amputation of his leg. It shows how the young track star, after having his ambitions crushed, came to play wheelchair basketball. The loss of his leg was devastating for Togawa. He became withdrawn, cutting himself off from his classmates and his friends, and his father unintentionally reinforced this isolation. Along with his leg, Togawa lost his sense of purpose, drive, and direction in his life. Even greater is the tremendous loneliness that he experiences. Togawa doesn’t want pity from others, he wants understanding. At the same time he is shunning contact and pushing people away, he is desperate to ease the loneliness that he feels. Togawa is extremely fortunate to meet a man by the name of Tora who helps drag Togawa back out of the shell he created for himself, serving as a much-needed role model–something that Takahashi has yet to find.

Despite all of the sweat and tears in Real, Volume 4, it tends to be slightly more ruminative and quiet than the volumes that precede it. One of the major themes that Inoue explores in the series–the meaning and purpose of a person’s life–becomes particularly prominent in the fourth volume. Both Togawa and Takahashi are faced with enormous challenges and changes in their lives which require them to completely reevaluate who they are as people. They are both struggling to rediscover and redefine their identities. Having lost something incredibly important to them, they anguish over the reasons why and what could have been done to prevent it. Ultimately, these are questions that don’t have an easy answer or solution. Over the course of the series, Takahashi frequently lashes out at those around him. In contrast, as seen in Real, Volume 4, Togawa tends to internalize his anger and despair. The similarities and differences in their situations and personalities are striking and an extraordinary effective part of the series. Real is a powerful and emotionally engaging work.

First Look at Comic Walker

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Last month, Kadokawa announced a new online comic portal, Comic Walker, that would debut this week. It has 116 titles in Japanese, of which 18 are also available in English. It also has an iPad and Android app, though I was only able to access the English titles on that, whereas on the website I can also see the Japanese titles. The content is downloaded to your device, similar to Viz’s app store, rather than in a Cloud setting, so you should be able to read it offline (though I didn’t test this.)

The site has a bit of fractured English when you sign up/log in and look at the Contact Info. The translations I checked, however, seem reasonably fine. So what have we got? We get the first chapters (mostly, some had 2 or 3) of 18 titles, 8 of have been released over here in North America in some print form or other – or will be soon. They are:

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin (Vertical)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (Viz)
High School D&D (Yen, in May 2014)
Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends (Seven Seas)
Kyo Kara Maoh! (Tokyopop)
Takasugi-san’s Obento (DMP)
Sgt. Frog (Tokyopop)
The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya (Yen)

As you’ll notice, some of these already have digital editions over here from their respective companies. I spot-checked some of the titles, and they seem to be using the same text/translation that we’ve seen before. Fans of the Tokyopop titles will be interested, as both of those are out of print here now.

So, what’s as yet unlicensed over here?

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Anime fans will be familiar with Log Horizon, which is just finishing up and has already had a 2nd season announced. This is the manga version, which runs in Enterbrain’s Comic Clear. The ‘sucked into an RPG’ plotline may seem a bit over-familiar to folks, but I know it has fans.

There are two other Gundam titles from Kadokawa’s Gundam Ace. Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin: Special Edition seem to take place after a lot of the current origin comic, and I’ll warm you, there’s a spoiler that I was unaware of, though I imagine most Gundam fans knew it already. (It involves a romantic pairing.) It seems to be in the style of the original, and takes place in Japan (so far – remember, all these are just brief chapters.)

And for the wackier side of Gundam, there’s Gundam-san, the superdeformed 4-koma version, similar to Haruhi-chan. This is for Gundam fanatics only – I admit I didn’t get a lot of the otaku humor. But it looks funny, so I will pretend I get it. LOL!

Kagerou Days comes from Media Factory’s Comic Gene, a magazine I expect to see more titles from in the future. This intriguing title deals with a social shut-in who stays on his computer, who meets a cyber-girl named Ene. Can she convince him to go outside? This is apparently based on a series of songs by the artist Jin.

Tokyo ESP is a Shonen Ace title, and if Tokyopop was still around it would surely have licensed it by now. It features a girl who develops psychic powers after seeing a flying fish, and how she adapts to being telekinetic, especially as it transpires she’s not the only one to gain superpowers. This seems like something X-Men fans would enjoy.

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The second-best title in terms of verbiage goes to New Sister Archfiend Testament, aka Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha. It is also a Shonen Ace title, and is based on a light novel. Indeed, the premise SCREAMS light novel. Average high school student ends up with two new sisters, who are a demon lord and a succubus, and he invariably ends up as the master of one of them. Ecchi shenanigans no doubt ensue.

Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya Drei! is the sequel to two other Fate/Kaleid titles, which are themselves part of the giant Fate/Stay Night multiverse. This runs in Comp Ace and is also, I suspect, quite ecchi. It’s a pseudo magical girl title.

Nobunaga the Fool is a brand new title running in Kadokawa’s Niconico A, and also had an anime coming out this past winter. I wonder if this fool is anything like The Irresponsible Captain Tylor? Probably not.

Non Non Biyori runs in Media Factory’s Comic Alive, a magazine that you never know when you’re going to get pure fanservice or something really worth your time. (Usually, it’s the former – its fellow magazine Comic Flapper has the same problem, but reversed.) It’s the slice of life seinen manga that you KNEW a rollout like this had to have, involving an elementary school girl who moves to the country from Tokyo, and has to adapt to rural life.

Lastly, and by far the longest title, goes to Archenemy And Hero – “Be Mine, Hero” “I Refuse!”, a Comp Ace title based around a franchise called Archenemy and Hero (Maoyuu Maou Yuusha). This seems to be an alternate telling of the basic premise, so hopefully won’t be too obscure for those who don’t know the series. Similar to Spice & Wolf, this seems to mesh together high fantasy and business economics.

That’s it for now. I briefly looked at some of the Japanese titles. A few I’d love to see. Bodacious Space Pirates has a manga there, as does Full Metal Panic!. There’s also Tonari no Seki-kun, which may show up after Vertical releases it here.

How will this do? No idea. Unlike JManga, it seems geared more to Japanese readers. That said, the titles they have are pretty good, and there’s some actual bestsellers, as opposed to the all new series approach of Manga Box. What do you think, plan to give it a try?

Random Musings: Spotlight on Kaita Murayama

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Kaita Murayama Self-Portrait, 1916Kaita Murayama, born in 1896, was a Japanese artist, poet, and author. He was best known for his work as an artist, and especially for the originality and vibrancy of his paintings. Although some of his writings were printed while he was alive, most of Murayama’s poetry and prose was collected and published by his friends after his death in 1919 of tuberculosis. Very little has actually be written about Murayama in English. Likewise, very little of his work has been translated. This is unfortunate because both Murayama and his writings are fascinating.

Writing the Love of BoysI had previously encountered a few of Murayama’s paintings, but it wasn’t until I read Jeffrey Angles’ academic work Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishōnen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (released by the University of Minnesota Press in 2011) that I discovered Murayama as an author. This isn’t terribly surprising as only two of Murayama’s short stories have so far been released in English in their entirety–“The Bust of the Beautiful Young Salaino” and “The Diabolical Tongue”–both of which are discussed at length in Writing the Love of Boys and both of which were translated by Angles. Writing the Love of Boys is a particularly interesting examination of the portrayal of male-male desire in Japanese literature during the early twentieth century with a specific focus on Kaita Murayama, Edogawa Rampo, and Taruho Inagaki. After reading Angles’ translated excerpts and analyses of Murayama’s work, and because I wasn’t previously aware of Murayama’s writing, my curiosity was piqued; I wanted to experience his stories for myself.

ModanizumuThe first short story by Murayama to be translated and published in English was “The Bust of the Beautiful Young Salaino,” which was included in Modanizumu: Modernist Fiction from Japan, 1913–1938. The volume, edited by William J. Tyler and released by the University of Hawai’i Press in 2008, is the first major anthology of Japanese modernist short stories to be translated and analyzed in English. “The Bust of the Beautiful Young Salaino” isn’t a well-known story in Japan. However, it is the first work included in Modanizumu and is noted as being representative of early, experimental modernist prose. It incorporates themes of same-sex desire and the spectacular, both of which were not at all uncommon in modernist Japanese literature. Murayama wrote “The Bust of the Beautiful Salaino” between 1913 and 1914, soon before making the decision to leave Kyoto to study art in Tokyo, but it wasn’t actually published until 1921. The story is short, barely over two pages long, but it leaves a strong impression. In it a young man is wandering through a city at night when he has a vision of the head of Salaino, a beautiful youth whom he loves, after which he is confronted by an apparition of Leonardo da Vinci. Murayama’s writing is highly visual and descriptive, almost hallucinatory, and intensely erotic. This atmospheric quality can be seen beginning with the very first line–“It was a night thick with yearning, a yearning so viscous that it was as if dark purple and precious black liqueurs had replaced the air and covered the earth.”–and continues through to the very end. “The Bust of the Beautiful Young Salaino” is a lush, surreal, and dreamlike tale, but it can also be read as an allegory challenging the dominance of Western art.

Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, Volume 3: Tales of the MetropolisThe second of Murayama’s stories to be translated into English was “The Diabolical Tongue.” It was included in Tales of the Metropolis, the third and final volume of Kurodahan Press’ series Kaiki: Uncanny Tales from Japan, released in 2012. Kaiki, which collects weird and supernatural Japanese short stories, is edited by Higashi Masao, who specializes in kaidan–tales of the strange and mysterious. “The Diabolical Tongue” was published in 1915 and was one of Murayama’s last works to overtly deal with male-male desire, though it is perhaps not as obviously homoerotic as “The Bust of the Beautiful Salaino.” It reminded me quite a bit of some of Edogawa Rampo’s stories, which makes sense as Murayama was one of Rampo’s direct inspirations. “The Diabolical Tongue” was a precursor of ero guro nonsense, a literary movement which came into prominence in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. The story incorporates themes which are frequently found in ero guro–decadence, eroticism, mystery–as well as archetypal elements of the bizarre, grotesque, and taboo. Like “The Bust of the Beautiful Salaino,” an important part of “The Diabolical Tongue” focuses on a young man who wanders a city at night in search of his desires. He satisfies his unusual appetite and cravings by eating stranger and stranger things until he is finally driven to cannibalism. He is particularly drawn towards beautiful young men and women, imaging how exquisite they will taste. Unlike “The Bust of the Beautiful Salaino,” which ends in ecstasy, “The Diabolical Tongue” is fundamentally a tragic and horrifying tale that begins and ends in death. It is deliciously disconcerting, very much in the same vein as the ero guro literature which would soon follow.

Personally, I would love to see more of Murayama’s work translated into English and to read more of his poetry (examples of which can be found in Writing the Love of Boys) as well as his prose. I am aware and do understand how unlikely that is to happen. Poetry is notoriously difficult to translate and the demand for century-old short stories, as much as I and others would be interested in reading them, is generally low. However, I am glad that “The Bust of the Beautiful Salaino” and “The Diabolical Tongue” have been translated. The two stories share some commonalities but are ultimately very different from each other, exhibiting the versatility and range of Murayama’s creative output.

One Punch Man, Vol 1

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I make no secret of my affection for shoujo manga, but occasionally even I want to read shonen manga featuring kicking or punching, preferably both. One Punch Man, as one might suspect, is centered on punching. This is available on the Viz Digital site for your various devices! One Punch Man provides an amusing twist on the typical shonen manga plot about a young protagonist who has to work hard to develop his extraordinary abilities. In this case the hero of the manga, formerly unemployed salaryman turned hero Saitama has already train to develop his powers with such intensity that all his hair has fallen out. He is called “One Punch Man” because he is so strong he can easily defeat any opponent with just one punch, and as a result is incredibly bored.

In One Punch Man, Saitama’s town seems to be an unfortunate focus of giant villains or monsters with satirical origin stories. One Punch Man punches Vaccine Man, who exists due to pollution, a crustacean made angry by graffiti, and a group of subterraneans. Throughout the manga, One Punch Man is vainly hoping for a non-boring battle, only to be disappointed every time. As drawn by Yusuke Murata, One Punch Man often resembles a slightly perturbed superhero with an egg-like head, which only serves to highlight the ridiculousness of his opponents. Towards the end of middle of the volume One Punch Man even takes on a sidekick Genos, “a lone cyborg fighting for justice.”

I found One Punch Man‘s send up of superhero conventions amusing, the art was well executed, and it perfectly fit in my desire to read goofy fighting shonen manga. The send-ups of villains and heroic origin stories mixed in with some spectacular punches made this manga fun to read, and I hope it does well for Viz as a digital first release. I’d buy the next volume, for sure.

Manga the Week of 3/26

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SEAN: Lots of things to enjoy in the very busy final week of the month, from a variety of publishers.

I’m not entirely certain who Kintaro is or why he’s so incredible, but 801 Media’s The Incredible Kintaro is here to preach the good word to BL fans everywhere.

ASH: I have it on very good authority that The Incredible Kintaro is one of the most ridiculous BL manga to have been recently released in English.

ANNA: I am looking forward to seeing someone review this! How ridiculous is most ridiculous? Inquiring minds want to know!

SEAN: I have to think that Castle Mango is a very unthreatening name for a castle, and hope it’s not a really sexy yaoi euphemism. Vol. 2 is being released from DMP.

MICHELLE: Thanks for consistently making me giggle with this column, Sean!

ASH: I don’t think it’s a euphemism, but it is the name of a love hotel…

ANNA: That seems logical, I suppose.

SEAN: When Kodansha says they’re doing a speedup, they don’t mess around. Fairy Tail has been coming out so fast it’s almost too hard to keep up, and here’s Vol. 36.

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There’s also a new shonen debut, the 4th one this month and the only one not connected with another Kodansha property. The Seven Deadly Sins is the new hot ticket in Japan, so it’s no surprise that it’s getting a release over here. A fantasy adventure manga with holy knights and fanservice, as you’d expect from Shonen Magazine, it should appeal to Fairy Tail fans.

ASH: I’ve heard good things about this one, so I’m interested in giving it a try.

SEAN: Readers may be surprised that I did not reserve the feature image for this post to Vertical’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, the new seinen manga about a gay couple and the meals that they eat. The reason I did not is I have a sneaking suspicion the Pick of the Week will be unanimous, and therefore the image should be saved for that. As evidence, see the comments below.

MICHELLE: (incoherent “eeeeeeeeeeeee” noise)

ASH: Eeeeeeeeexcitement!!!

ANNA: Sooooooo Eeeeeeeeeexcited!

MJ: I am down with the flu, but I must perk up just a little to join in on this little celebration. Woooooo! *cough* Woo.

SEAN: And there’s a giant pile of Yen, starting with Vol. 4 of fantasy headtwister Are You Alice?

For those who enjoy Blood Lad but wish it was more of a 4-koma series, we bring you the first volume of spinoff Bloody Brat.

MICHELLE: Normally, this wouldn’t be my sort of thing, but I enjoy the humor in Blood Lad so much that I’m gonna give Bloody Brat a try.

SEAN: And if that’s not enough blood for you, have some more with Bloody Cross 2, along with a plethora of religious imagery.

MICHELLE: I was moderately intrigued by volume one, so I’d say it merits checking out the second installment.

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SEAN: I keep forgetting about the Kingdom Hearts releases from Yen, so my apologies. This time around we have the 3rd volume of bafflingly named Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

The new Madoka Magica spinoff, A Different Story, seems to star Kyouko and Mami, and ties into the movie. We shall see how different the story really is.

Soul Eater 19 promises a battle between Black*Star and the corrupted Death The Kid, and if I recall correctly will finally give us an origin story for Liz and Patti.

Lastly, Yen debuts Sword Art Online, a fantasy about MMORPGs based on a light novel series (which debuts from Yen next month). The 2 volumes of the debut arc, Aincrad, seem to have been combined into one omnibus for North America.

MJ: I’ll also mention, I guess, that I’ve seen some of this anime, so I’m actually a little excited about both the light novel and the manga.

SEAN: What manga are you discussing over the dinner table?

UQ Holder!, Vol. 1

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By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

It’s pretty easy to tell that this is a sequel to Negima right off the bat – Evangeline appears on Page 1, talking about the difficulties inherent in immortality. It’s the following page that’s the gut-punch for all those who were hoping that this new series would see a lot of the Negima cast making cameos throughout – a metaphorical shot of Eva and the Negima cast slowly parting from one another as she continues on a solitary journey (not even Chachazero?), it’s also Ken Akamatsu telling us that this is 80 years after Negima proper, and most of the girls we loved are now dead. Is this the world that the shippers fought and died for in the “who is Negi’s wife?” wars?

uqholder

Luckily, this is not a grim ‘n gritty story of how the Negima cast dies over the years – at least not so far. No, it’s pure shonen adventure, a Akamatsu has resolved whatever the issues were with Kodansha that caused Negima to end so abruptly and has finally won what he’d been working towards for years – pure adventure, no harem comedy whatsoever. Now, this is not to say we won’t have a few love triangles or fanservice scenes down the road – there’s at least two bath scenes with naked people in this volume alone. But Negima was always held back, at least at first, by Kodansha demanding Akamatsu try to replicate Love Hina, and it’s good to see that this new series is not going to be doing the same.

By the way, I had mentioned Evangeline, and she is the exception to the dead cast list above, being an immortal vampire. Indeed, immortality is the point of this entire series, as our hero is a young man, Tota Konoe (note the last name), whose parents died in a war, who has no memories before he as twelve, and who Eva, under the guise of a schoolteacher, has been raising for the last two years. It’s quite a burden for a young man to bear, but luckily Tota is very much a traditional shonen hero, complete with nonsense about a man’s dreams. (I am pleased it’s immediately pointed out as the nonsense it is.) As for Eva, she goes by Yukihime now, and it’s striking how much she has mellowed out and gotten nicer. The Eva of Negima would never, ever have gotten as close to Tota as Yukihime has – or at least would keep up a facade of disinterest.

The other main character we meet here is Kuromaru, who is an intriguing Setsuna clone. Given this is a sequel to Negima, I’m not entirely sure how much of the character’s looks are down to the fact that Akamatsu can only draw a certain number of faces and how much of it is deliberate, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt here. Tota is not too far off from Kotaro, and earlier we met a young person who was a dead ringer for Shinobu from Love Hina (which took place in the same universe as Negima). Kuromaru not only looks exactly like what Setsuna and Asuna’s child would look like, but also appears to be from the Bird Tribe that Setsuna had so many difficulties with earlier… and Kuromaru is having similar difficulties. Possibly the most intriguing thing, however, is how Kuromaru’s gender is being withheld – not only from the cast but also the reader. It’s clearly being done on purpose, and I’m wondering what’s going on here. Is Kuromaru trans? Or genderless? If so, kudos to Ken, though I suspect that will just open up a lot more questions.

We wrap up UQ Holder with a statement of the premise, which is to find aliens, time travelers and espers… wait, wrong series. To find immortal being like Yukihime and Tota and make friends with them! Luckily Yukihime seems to have her own personal yakuza to help carry this off. UQ Holder is an excellent start for both Akamatsu fans and fans of shonen manga in general, and I have no doubt will be filled with adventure and heart.

(Also, my guess on Tota is that Konoka and Setsuna’s son (via Negi helping out, so to speak) and Kotaro and Natsumi’s daughter got married and had Tota. Because forget diamonds, ship wars are eternal.)

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Vol. 1

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Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 1Creator: Saki Nakagawa
U.S. publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781612629162
Released: March 2014
Original release: 2013

Attack on Titan: Junior High is one of several spin-off series inspired by Hajime Isayama’s hit manga Attack on Titan. Saki Nakagawa was selected to work on an Attack on Titan series after entering a manga contest. (Coincidentally, both Nakagawa and Isayama attended the same design school.) Although Nakagawa is the writer and artist for Attack on Titan: Junior High, Isayama has had some input into the series’ development. In fact, he was the one who suggested creating a manga along the lines of Tsutomu Nihei’s parody series Blame! Academy. And so Attack on Titan: Junior High was born–a comedy manga that somehow manages to combine Attack on Titan with contemporary Japanese school life. The manga began serialization in 2012 in Japan and the first two volumes were collected in 2013. Kodansha Comics is releasing Attack on Titan: Junior High in an omnibus edition. The first omnibus, collecting the first two Japanese volumes, was published in 2014 and Kodansha was kind enough to send me a review copy.

It has been five years since Eren was traumatized from an encounter with a Titan. Now that he’s in junior high he finally has the opportunity to seek revenge–both humans and titans are counted among the students and teachers of Attack Junior High. Of course Eren has other pressing matters to attend to even while his hatred of Titans remains at the forefront of his mind: making allies out of his classmates (which he’s not particularly good at), surviving epic games of dodgeball and choosing the perfect after-school club (which are both more dangerous than they might first appear), not to mention trying to stay on the upperclassmen’s good sides (which can actually be rather difficult). On top of all of that, Eren is a member of class four, a group of first years who all have their own quirks and issues to deal with. All together they’re a bunch of weirdos, but none of the other classes at Attack Junior High are much better. It’s really saying something when the Titans are the most normal ones at the school.

To really appreciate Attack on Titan: Junior High requires familiarity with the original Attack on Titan series and to some extent familiarity with Attack on Titan fandom as well. Some of Attack on Titan: Junior High will be funny, or at least amusing, even to those who haven’t read Attack on Titan, but the manga works best when it is directly parodying the original series and using it as its framework. All of Attack on Titan‘s most well-loved and reviled characters make an appearance in Attack on Titan: Junior High with some of their personality traits taken to a comedic extreme (although some were fairly over-the-top to begin with): Eren is a single-minded fanatic; Mikasa is overprotective of him to a fault; Sasha thinks about nothing but food; Jean is an arrogant ass; Hange succumbs to fits of ecstasy at the mere thought of Titans; Levi is obsessed with cleanliness, and so on. These characteristics were true of the original cast, too, but Nakagawa has stretched them to their limits in Attack on Titan: Junior High.

Nakagawa is clearly a fan of the original Attack on Titan series and is having a lot of fun with Attack on Titan: Junior High. In addition to using Isayama’s characters and taking them to their ludicrous yet logical conclusions, Nakagawa also uses pivotal and memorable scenes from Attack on Titan, giving them utterly ridiculous and absurd twists to emphasize their more comedic possibilities. The darkness, death, and destruction found in Attack on Titan is almost completely missing from Attack on Titan: Junior High. It can be just as frantic and frenetic, but as a parody the manga is much more lighthearted in tone. Even characters who have long been dead in the original series have an active role to play in Attack on Titan: Junior High; it seems as though no one really has to worry about dying in Nakagawa’s series. The worst thing that really happens in the first omnibus of Attack on Titan: Junior High is some stolen lunches. Granted, for students that can be an extremely tragic event, indeed.

Thank you to Kodansha for providing a copy of Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 1 for review.

Kuroko’s Basketball suspect speaks

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Hirofumi Watanabe, the suspect in the Kuroko’s Basketball case, admitted in court yesterday that he was the one who sent hundreds of threat letters to stores and convention centers and says the motive was jealousy of manga-ka Tadatoshi Fujimaki’s success. Watanabe said he was suicidal before he sent the letters and would attempt to kill himself once he was out of prison; “That way, society can rest assured that I won’t do anything stupid again.”

Crunchyroll has been adding a lot of new series to their digital manga service lately, including, most recently, Ajin Koe no Katachi, and Hiromu Arakawa’s adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan.

Sean Gaffney rounds up the latest license announcements, with commentary.

Justin Stroman asks seven manga translators to talk about the joys and challenges of their jobs.

The Manga Bookshelf team chat about this week’s new releases and discuss their Pick of the Week.

Erica Friedman updates us on the world of yuri in her latest Yuri Network News post at Okazu.

At Gagging on Sexism, Erin discusses some shonen manga written by women.

Lori Henderson looks at manga that feature fairies in her latest Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Moyoco Anno is coming to TCAF!

Reviews: Ash Brown chronicles another week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf team posts their short takes on new releases in the latest Bookshelf Briefs column.

Ken H on vol. 1 of Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (Comics Should Be Good)
Ash Brown on vol. 28 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Erica Friedman on Dare mo Korinai (Okazu)
Maggie on vol. 1 of Hitohira (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Joan Li on Honey and Clover (The Harvard Independent)
Matt Cycyk on Insufficient Direction (Matt Talks About Manga)
Matthew Warner on vol. 7 of Is This a Zombie? (The Fandom Post)
Matthew Alexander on vol. 10 of Itsuwaribito (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink (Experiments in Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 70 of One Piece (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lori Henderson on Phantom Thief Jeanne (Good Comics for Kids)
Anna N on vol. 1 of Phantom Thief Jeanne (Manga Report)
Kristin on vol. 1 of Ranma 1/2 (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1 and 2 of Ranma 1/2 (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 3 of Real (Experiments in Manga)
Derek Bown on the March 10 issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Bookshelf)
Lori Henderson on vols. 1 and 2 of Sickness Unto Death (Manga Xanadu)
Matt Cycyk on vol. 3 of Thermae Romae (Matt Talks About Manga)
Lori Henderson on vol. 2 of Until Death Do Us Part (Manga Xanadu)

Phantom Thief Jeanne, Vol. 1

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By Arina Tanemura. Released in Japan as “Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Ribon. Released in North America by Viz.

Having almost run out of Tanemura titles to release, Viz has gone back to the early days with this one and license rescued it from the clutches of CMX. And I’m very pleased that they did, because if you were to ask me to take only one Tanemura title with me to a desert island, this would be the one. Her first really big hit, Phantom Thief Jeanne is a magical girl manga that is not afraid to examine the core of darkness that lies at its heart – and yet still be a fun magical girl title for kids. Madoka Magica this is not.

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The phantom thief subgenre of magical girls should be familiar to everyone by now – not only through Jeanne, but also via Saint Tail, which uses very similar stylings, and CLAMP School Detectives/Man of Many Faces, where Akira is the male version of this. Naturally, given the thief is a young girl, they are stealing FOR GOOD. Indeed, Maron Kusakabe, our heroine, is a descendant of Joan of Arc (hence the title), and the plot is set up as quite religious – she is using God’s Power to extract the evil from paintings, evil that is being used by Satan to gain human hearts. (This is definitely the French Joan of Arc – Shakespeare would stare in sheer horror at the myth of Joan Puzel today.)

It’s not just the religious themes that give this manga extra depth. Maron has more going on in her background than the usual chirpy magical girl. She’s living alone, her parents having split up and separately decided to leave for another country (suspicious), her magical familiar Finn dashes off her origin story in less than a page (suspicious… though it could just be I live in a post-Kyubey world), and while she does quickly fall for the boy destined to be her love interest (who is also a rival thief with a rival familiar), she absolutely does not want to deal with these feelings, her parents having convinced her that falling in love in a horrible thing to happen to someone. There’s a depth and solidity to Maron’s life that I really enjoyed here.

Of course, it’s not all sadness and broken homes. This is still a Ribon title. There’s lots of fun and silliness, mostly in the form of Maron’s best friend Miyako, whose father is a police officer and who is dedicated to capturing the thief who keeps stealing paintings (as always, the world itself is unaware of the supernatural part of things). There’s lots of love triangle shenanigans as well, with the shy kid in love with Maron leveling up due to demon possession, but amazingly staying leveled up afterwards and trying to become strong enough to court Maron properly. (He clearly doesn’t know what genre he’s in.)

Essentially, this takes the basic beats of the Phantom Thief genre and simply writes them really well. It’s paced well, the characterization is doled out at the right moments, and I can even get used to Tanemura’s trademark GIANT EYES. Anyone wanting to read this will find a cornucopia of details to enjoy, and it has excellent rereadability. Definitely worth buying, even if you already own the CMX version.

And, most importantly, the lead guy is a blond and the runner-up is a brunet! Do you know how little that happens in shoujo? More blond leads!

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: March 10, 2014

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Introductions are the hardest part of writing this column. And since most people skip them I might even be forgiven for just omitting them completely. Then again, that would be lazy, and the last thing I would ever want to be accused of is being lazy (I really do wish there was an easy way to express irony in written form). But I thought of something that might be fun, if perhaps I spend a moment talking about the other manga I’ve been reading for the week.

At the moment I’ve been catching up on Attack on Titan, well, to tell the truth I watched the anime and then read the manga from there in Crunchyroll, but I’ve been going back and buying the volumes the anime covers so I can get the story as it was originally told. The question always comes back to what is better, the original or the adaptation, and having read and seen both I have to say that I do think the anime is probably the better way for someone to experience the story the first time. The music ads a lot to the overall experience, and seeing the characters in motion is particularly impressive. The story was rearranged a bit to help the viewer grow attached to the characters before they started kicking the bucket. But I do find that the manga is somewhat easier to digest simply because it tells the pure story, without adjusting the timing to meet a certain runtime. And waiting until after the first slaughter of characters to then go back and get to know them also has a certain charm to it.

Nisekoi, for those that haven’t read it from the beginning, already has two volumes out. Definitely worth checking out and I just read them again this week for the first time in a while. Other than that, those were the only two major series that I read. I did take the time to pick up the new printing of Ramna 1/2 so I’ll probably talk about that after I get around to reading it. That’s been the week so far, now let’s get into the latest Jump chapters.

Nisekoi
March 10, 2014 Cover

World Trigger Ch. 051
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate fake cliffhangers? You know the type, the ones that make it seem like something shocking has happened, but then turn out to be not at all what we thought? This chapter only gets away with it because Kitora was absolutely badass the entire chapter through. And it’s at the end of this chapter that we get the true “they are so screwed” cliffhanger.

Kitora has easily become one of my favorite characters for the whole series. It would have been so easy to have her been an antagonistic kind of character, and in some ways she can be, but she also backs up her attitude with action. And even though she had to be saved by Yuma during her first battle of the series, this week we see how she takes that moment and uses it as motivation to win against the strongest type of trion soldier we’ve seen this entire arc. Too bad it took so much out of her to defeat just one of them, now that she’s left facing several I don’t see this ending well for anyone involved. I can only hope someone has the presence of mind to force a bailout for all the C Rank agents before they get captured.

World Trigger

One Piece Ch. 740
For a moment, as I skimmed through this chapter again to think of what to say, I found myself at a loss. Stuff happens this chapter, but none of it really stands out. Though I did enjoy Baby 5’s interaction with Law as a bit of comedy. Then I got to the last two pages, saw that Robin had been turned into a toy, and remembered exactly what I wanted to talk about this week.

As any fan of One Piece knows, Usopp’s character arc has always been about overcoming his fear. In fact he’s done it several times before. And as with all long form media stretching out character arcs can become problematic. In most cases writers will move on to a new character arc for anyone they keep around after their original character arc has completed. Only the worst writers will regress a character to a point where their character arc starts from the beginning.

Usopp’s reaction to being mistaken for some great hero was funny and all, but in the past he’s reacted like that but he’s always come through for his friends when they need him. Which is why the last page of this chapter pisses me off to the point where I am barely able to keep my language at a level appropriate for an all ages audience. Usopp running away this chapter is quite possibly the worst thing he has ever done in the entire series. It’s not like he’s even running to draw the enemy away. He is literally running because he’s too chicken-sh…cowardly, to stand up to his opponents. He’s not making a strategic withdrawal, he fully intends to abandon the Tontatas, and Robin (though he doesn’t remember her anymore). What happened to “I can’t laugh with my friends if I’m not willing to fight like them”?

This is character regression pure and simple. Now perhaps Oda has a plan, he usually does. And I’m willing to wait and see how this goes. But if Oda intends to just laugh it off later on then I will have to call bull…crap…on this most boneheaded of moves. If this is meant to be taken at face value, without any twists in Usopp’s actions later on, then it’s nothing but Oda showing that he can’t think of anything else to do with Usopp. It’s already annoyed me how he continues to be a coward despite his progress throughout the series. I feel that we’re at a point where the cowardly Usopp character just does not work anymore. After all he’s gone through, he can’t bother to man up at all?

Again, like I said, maybe Oda is going somewhere with this. So until then I will reserve judgement. I will just simmer in frustration, waiting for the tipping point where I either calm down or explode in a rush of fury and fanboy indignation.

One Piece

Nisekoi Ch. 113
While Raku playing the fake boyfriend again is amusing, I kind of wish this chapter had just been about Ruri and Shu. Just imagine how much funnier it would have been had she been forced to pretend to be the girlfriend of the one guy in the cast she completely despises. But, I suppose that will have to wait for my eventual fanfic, the story as we got it was excellent.

Ruri has always been one of my favorite characters of the series, even though she doesn’t get much focus. I just can’t help but enjoy the deadpan snarky characters. And seeing young Ruri’s pictures were particularly funny. And her grandfather, while following the typical goofy grandpa archetype, has a certain charm to his design that I haven’t seen before in any of the other manga I’ve read.

The sudden tone shift at the end I could have done without, but the way the scene is set suggests that I might just get a stronger focus on Ruri and Shu without Raku next chapter. Which would be much appreciated.

Nisekoi 2

Naruto Ch. 667
It is my opinion that it is a sign of a weak, unimaginative mind to always go for the sexual reference. But I mean come on!

Naruto

The imagery in this page is so phallic even the cover art of the Little Mermaid VHS Tape is thinking Kishimoto has gone overboard. Sure it’s coming from his stomach, and not his crotch, but I dare ANYONE to look at that and not immediately think “Penis!”. I can just see Orochimaru thinking, “Damn, Kabuto beat me to it!”

From there we get a pretty strong focus on Kabuto being a changed person, and I don’t care because Kabuto was never my favorite character.

On the other hand, Gai’s half of the chapter was great. Methinks next week we’ll get to see him go out in a blaze of glory, though I really was hoping to see Rock Lee jump in and save the day. Just randomly he shows up, beats up Madara, and becomes the new hero of the series. I wouldn’t even be mad if that happened it would be such a troll move by Kishimoto.

I imagine we’ll be seeing Samui and her brother making a return next chapter, since apparently TenTen is playing around with the Sage’s artifacts, so I can only imagine this is Kishimoto’s way of getting those characters back.

Stealth Symphony Ch. 003
It’s refreshing to see the old trope inverted this time around. Rather than having Jig automaticaly join V&V Security it turns out he’s actually not qualified. I imagine he’ll eventually join them, because one cannot escape tropes forever, but for now it shows a level of awareness on the part of the writer that will serve the series well.

Souya also appears to be an interesting character that I imagine will be around for quite a lot of the series, and the way the assassins guild operates in the city is in its own way quite intriguing. While we are only three chapters in I like how the story has been handled. Nothing groundbreaking yet, but in its own way it is shaping up to be a competent little story. Whether it can keep it up or will lose steam has yet to be determined.

Stealth Symphony

Bleach Ch. 571
Now this was the first chapter of Bleach in a long time that I can legitimately say I really enjoyed. Bleach has been in the limbo of not being terrible yet not being great either. It barely manages to be good most of the time instead opting for being dull and confusing. This time around it feels like Kubo is back to his old form. The power Gwenael Lee (whose name I refuse to remember, much like the names of any of the other Stern Ritter) is quite imaginative. Though it does have the problem a lot of the other Stern Ritter powers have in that I keep asking myself how exactly they still Qualify as Quincy.

But seeing Yachiru kick ass is entirely worth it. And her shikai release feels so nostalgic for Pre Hueco Mundo Bleach that I can’t help but enjoy this chapter entirely. I can only hope that we get to see the releases for all the other Soul Reapers that we haven’t seen yet.

Bleach

One-Punch Man Ch. 034
After seeing Saitama defeat so many enemies easily, I’m looking forward to what Boros can do. It’s pretty ridiculous, though that’s the joke, that nobody but Saitama can reach invincible status. But as the series has grown more and more serious it would have been a bit of a stretch to have every enemy be easily defeated by Saitama. I can only wait and see what happens next chapter, as One-Punch Man moves into what I can only describe as a new era. Can it keep up the quality even as it becomes a more generic battle series?

One-Punch Man

Toriko Ch. 269
Methinks Shimabukuro has been in a shippy mood, now with Komatsu interacting with Nono for the first time, though we’ve seen her express interest in him in the past. While personally the image of Komatsu hooking up with Melk the Second is more entertaining (I don’t know why, but for some reason short guys with tall women amuses me. Must be why I still like Tom Cruise despite his crazier antics in the past). And I find it odd that they are going back to the Gourmet World so soon. And while I don’t mean to focus so much on the relationship aspects of this series, I can’t help but wonder whether Toriko and Rin plan to get married before he goes to the Gourmet World, or if she’s planning to wait until they return which would make no sense since they don’t know if they’ll be back. Or maybe she’ll go with them, I don’t know. I’d prefer the latter, it would be more entertaining.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 055
And here I thought we weren’t going the Zombie route, since walking corpses were already a thing in this series. But I guess we’re playing the Fantasy Semantics game by having similar creatures that are actually quite different. I like to play the Fantasy Semantics game myself so I look forward to some more Zombie action.

Still, I wish for this arc to be over with. I’ve had more creepy pedo scientist than I can stand. And the more I see Shima playing the traitor the more I don’t buy it.

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