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

January 27, 2014 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week I declared it to be Usamaru Furuya Week here at Experiments in Manga. Ostensibly, it was to celebrate Furuya-sensei’s birthday, but mostly it was just an excuse for me to finally get around to reviewing more of his manga. I have now written an in-depth review of all of Furuya’s manga currently available in English. As for last week’s Furuya reviews, I have for your reading pleasure Short Cuts, Volume 2 (the final volume of one of my favorite gag manga), the second and third volumes of Genkaku Picasso (probably the most accessible entry into Furuya’s English manga), and the second and third volumes of No Longer Human (an excellent adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s novel No Longer Human). I’d love to see more of Furuya’s work translated. Although there are no immediate plans, I know that Vertical has expressed interest, so I am hopeful that someday we’ll see more.

Elsewhere online, manga translator and scholar Matt Thorn has an excellent piece Regarding Inio Asano’s gender identity. (He also talks a bit about his own gender identity.) And speaking of the complexities of gender, sexuality, and translation, a few months back I attended the lecture “Out Gays” or “Shameless Gays”? What Gets Lost, and What is Gained, when U.S. Queer Theory is Translated into Japanese? and posted some random musings about queer theory, Japanese literature, and translation. Well, the video of the lecture was posted earlier this month and is freely available to view. The most recent ANNCast, Vertical Vortex, features Ed Chavez from Vertical and included a license announcement for Takuma Morishige’s comedy manga My Neighbor Seki. In other licensing news, Seven Seas has acquired Kentarō Satō’s horror manga Magical Girl Apocalypse. Also, Seven Seas will soon be announcing licenses for a new yuri manga and a doujinshi (which is very unusual in English). Finally, Shawne Kleckner, the president of Right Stuf (one of my favorite places to find manga), recently participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything.

Quick Takes

The Drifting Classroom, Volumes 1-3 by Kazuo Umezu. An award-winning horror manga from the early 1970s, The Drifting Classroom is a series that I’ve been meaning to read. After a bizarre earthquake, Yamato Elementary School along with more than 860 students and staff disappear, leaving behind an enormous hole in the ground and very few clues as to what has happened. From the students’ perspective, everything outside the school has been turned into a wasteland. The situation they find themselves in may be extreme and unbelievable, but the consequences that follow are terrifyingly probable. The series’ setup allows Umezu to freely explore humanity’s darkness. The Drifting Classroom isn’t frightening because of the unknown; the true horror comes from how people react out of fear to the unexplainable. There are immediate concerns for survival, such as the lack of food and water, but even more problematic is the violence the erupts among the school’s survivors. The Drifting Classroom is an intense horror and survival manga with extremely dark psychological elements. I’ll definitely be reading more.

Missions of Love, Volume 6 by Ema Toyama. I started reading Missions of Love in the middle of the series. Although there is some background information that I am missing, I was still able to pick up on the major plot points fairly quickly. I really should go back and read the earlier volumes, though, as I’m enjoying the series much more than I anticipated. None of the characters are particularly nice people; their relationships are a twisted and tangled mess because of how they are all manipulating one another. And in the process, they’re confusing their own personal feelings as well. Missions of Love is intentionally scandalous and deliberately suggestive. However, it’s not exactly what I would call fanservice since it is meant more for the story and characters’ sakes rather than for the readers’. There are intimate moments and scenes of extreme vulnerability that challenge appropriateness but never quite cross the line, although Toyama frequently pushes the limits. I’m just waiting for something really terrible to happen. At this point, I can’t imagine that any of the characters in Missions of Love will be able to make it through the series unscathed.

Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi. Another manga from the early 1970s, originally serialized in the alternative manga magazine Garo, Red Colored Elegy is only one of two volumes of Hayashi’s work available in English. The story follows Ichiro and Sachiko, two young animators in love and living together, but who are struggling to make ends meet as life slowly drives them apart. Hayashi’s artwork is deceptively simple and often free of backgrounds, placing the emphasis on the characters and their tumultuous lives and relationships. He conveys a tremendous amount of emotion through a minimalist, almost stream-of-conscious approach. Hayashi’s style in Red Colored Elegy can make it feel a bit disjointed from page to page, as though it were a collection of closely related vignettes rather than a single continuing story, but the overall melancholic mood created by the manga is consistent. Red Colored Elegy is about falling into and out of love and about pushing through life’s tragedies, both small and large. Emotionally compelling and beautifully crafted, Red Colored Elegy stands up to multiple readings.

Yowamushi Pedal, Episodes 1-14 directed by Osamu Nabeshima. The Yowamushi Pedal anime series is based on an ongoing manga by Wataru Watanabe. Sakamichi Onoda is an otaku trying to revive the anime club at his new high school, but he quite unexpectedly finds himself caught up in the bicycle racing club instead. He has some natural talent at cycling–his frequent 90 km trips by bike to Akihabara probably didn’t hurt–but he has had no formal training. That’s about to change, though. The series so far has mostly focused on Onoda and the Sohoku High School racing club. The other teams that they will be facing have only been shown briefly. However, now that Onoda has started to get the basics of cycling down, the other cyclists are becoming more prominent in the story. I particularly like Yowamushi Pedal‘s casting; all of the characters have very distinctive speech patterns and voices which are very entertaining. I’m enjoying the series a great deal. Although I never was a racer and I don’t cycle as much as I used to (once upon a time, it was my primary mode of transportation), Yowamushi Pedal makes me want to get my bike out again.

No Longer Human, Vol. 3

January 25, 2014 by Ash Brown

Creator: Usamaru Furuya
Original story: Osamu Dazai
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654377
Released: February 2012
Original release: 2011

Osamu Dazai’s semi-autobiographical novel No Longer Human, originally published in Japan in 1948, has had a least three manga adaptations. Of those, only one is currently available in English–a three-volume series by Usamaru Furuya. I have been interested in Furuya’s work ever since I read Lychee Light Club, and so I was very happy when Vertical licensed his No Longer Human manga series. No Longer Human, Volume 3 was first published in Japan in 2011 while the English-language edition was released in 2012. The original novel was a fairly dark work. While Furuya has taken some liberties with his version of the story–using himself as a framing character and updating the setting to contemporary Japan, among other changes–the No Longer Human manga is also quite dark. Furuya argues in the afterword that his ending is somewhat more uplifting than Dazai’s, but it is still severe. Vertical describes the third volume as “the devastating finale” which is incredibly apt.

Disowned by his family and the survivor of a double suicide, Yozo Oba’s life was falling apart. Getting by on his good looks, he lived for a time as a kept man until he ran away from that situation, too. But then he met and fell in love with Yoshino, a young woman working at the cigarette shop that he frequented. Yoshino and Yozo elope and have now been married for a year. For the first time in his life Yozo is genuinely happy. He has a wonderful trusting wife who loves and accepts him for who he is, the only person with whom he can be completely open and honest. He’s gainfully employed, his manga for children is popular and selling well and with the extra income from his side job drawing erotic illustrations, he and Yoshino are able to live quite comfortably. Yozo still carries some guilt over his past, something that his supposed friend Horiki never lets him forget, but he’s now starting to look forward to his future. And then it all comes crashing down. Yozo’s perfect fantasy life is destroyed and he is destroyed along with it.

Having previously read Dazai’s orignal novel (several times, actually), I was all too aware the direction that Furuya’s No Longer Human was heading. Actually, from the beginning of the manga series alone it is known that Yozo’s story is not a happy one. But knowing what’s in store does not necessarily make it any easier to witness it happen. There is nothing that the reader can do but to watch the events unfold. Yozo is doomed from the very start. Something happens to this young man, seemingly loved by all, to cause his life to completely shatter. He should be in the prime of his youth but becomes so broken that most assume him to be more than twice his age. The third volume of Furuya’s No Longer Human outlines his final and ultimate downfall, the one from which he is never to recover. It’s made even more tragic because he has finally experienced true happiness and contentment only to have it torn from his grasp.

Throughout the No Longer Human manga the tremendous disconnect between how Yozo views himself and how others perceive him has been shown. It’s one of the driving forces behind the story. Up until the very end people insist that Yozo is a good person, but to him it has all been an act. He holds a pessimistic view of the world and recoils from humanity. What many people would consider to be a source of hope and salvation only guarantees Yozo’s undoing. Eventually he becomes a drug addict which only amplifies his fears and anxieties and further damages his precarious state of mind. His increasingly twisted and tormented psyche is reflected quite clearly in Furuya’s artwork. No Longer Human is an unrelenting and even terrifying tale. Even at his worst I can still see a little bit of myself in Yozo. It’s perhaps because of this that I find the series to be so effectively gut-wrenching. Furuya’s adaptation of Dazai’s novel is excellent, bringing his own interpretation to the story while staying true to the dark heart of the original.

Genkaku Picasso, Vol. 3

January 24, 2014 by Ash Brown

Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421539201
Released: May 2011
Original release: 2010

The third and final volume of Usamaru Furuya’s short manga series Genkaku Picasso was originally published in Japan in 2010. Viz Media released the English-language edition of the volume in 2011 under its Shonen Jump imprint. Genkaku Picasso was initially serialized in the manga magazine Jump SQ. Furuya mentions in the series’ afterword that he was somewhat surprised to have been approached to create a manga by one of the Jump SQ editors since he didn’t consider his previous work to have had much popular, mass appeal. (Furuya made his debut in the alternative manga magazine Garo and is particularly well-known for some of his more avant-garde work.) Genkaku Picasso was originally intended to be only two volumes long. Happily, Furuya was able to expand the series to three volumes, which allowed him to tie everything together in the way that he wanted. Although I enjoyed the first volume of Genkaku Picasso the manga starts out a little unsteady. But by the end, Furuya has created a fantastic series.

For most of his life, Hikari Hamura has been content to keep to himself and concentrate on his drawing. He’s earned himself the nickname of Picasso from his classmates (much to his dismay as he greatly prefers the work of Leonardo da Vinci), but up until recently they have mostly ignored him. Picasso is as strange and gloomy as he ever was, if not more so, but many of his classmates are beginning to feel drawn to him for some unknown reason. What they don’t realize is that Picasso has been helping to solve their personal problems. After nearly dying in a bizarre accident Picasso has gained a strange ability that allows him to see and draw the darkness that exists in another person’s heart. He can enter into those sketches, and by changing them he influences his classmates lives, hopefully for the better. This power is something that Picasso has tried to keep hidden from the others but it becomes difficult for them to disregard his increasingly odd behaviour, especially when he seems to know things that they would never reveal to someone else.

Genkaku Picasso starts out as a fairly episodic series. Generally, I found the longer stories–those lasting several chapters–to be more successful than the shorter ones as they feel less rushed and more thoroughly developed. It’s only really during the second volume that it becomes clear that there is also an overarching plot. The details of that larger story are completely reveled in the third volume of Genkaku Picasso. With a little bit of a lead in, “Hikari’s Story” takes up nearly half of Genkaku Picasso, Volume 3. It’s the longest story in Genkaku Picasso and is what pulls together the entire series. Up until this point in the manga, while Picasso has certainly been the protagonist, the stories have largely focused on his classmates and the issues that they are struggling with. But in “Hikari’s Story” their roles are reversed and it’s Picasso who needs help. It’s an extremely effective turn of events that brings the series full circle quite nicely.

The ending of Genkaku Picasso is actually a little heart-wrenching. Picasso starts the series almost a complete loner. Except for Chiaki, who hung out with him despite his protests, most of his classmates simply took no notice of him. Picasso was perfectly fine with this, or at least that’s what he told himself. As Genkaku Picasso progresses, Picasso slowly gathers people around him as he helps them with their problems. But it’s not until the third volume that he actually admits that he has friends and that he actually wants friends. Picasso has to be completely honest with himself and with the others, which in reality is a very terrifying thing to have to do. With “Hikari’s Story” the entire series becomes about Picasso and shows the tremendous amount of growth that he has gone through. I’m very glad that Furuya was able to extend Genkaku Picasso and give it a marvelous conclusion. Even considering its somewhat awkward start, Genkaku Picasso is a wonderful series. I thoroughly enjoyed its quirky humor and characters, its engaging artwork, and its somewhat peculiar but ultimately heartfelt story.

Manga the Week of 1/29

January 23, 2014 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown and MJ 1 Comment

SEAN: Next week is the last week of the month, and as ever this means few titles arrive (unless you get stuff from Diamond – all this week’s missing stuff is arriving next week). But not without worthy things to discuss.

Dark Horse really hit on a winner when they licensed Gantz from Shueisha (leaving aside the amazing fact that they licensed something from Shueisha and were not named Viz). It’s been a consistent seller for them, particularly among the ‘comic shop buyer’ fan. And now it’s hit Vol. 30.

MICHELLE: Wow, I had no idea Gantz went on for so long.

ASH: Yup, it ended last year in Japan with thirty-seven volumes. It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually read any of the series, though.

SEAN: DMP’s Deflower the Boss seems like one of those BL titles that I’d expect to do quite well simply due to the title alone. Also, just by giving you the title, you can likely guess the plot. I’m hoping it’s at least fun and silly.

MICHELLE: …

MJ: What she said.

SEAN: Lastly, Kodansha’s Attack on Titan finishes its speed-up with Vol. 11. It now lines up with Japan, meaning we’ll see Vol. 12 in April. That said, get a Crunchyroll subscription and you can read right up to this month’s magazine chapter.

ASH: I’ve gotten so used to new volumes of Attack on Titan coming out every month that April now seems to be very far away.

SEAN: What manga are you deflowering this week?

MICHELLE: *snerk*

Short Cuts, Vol. 2

January 23, 2014 by Ash Brown

Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781591160694
Released: August 2003
Original release: 1999

Originally serialized in Young Sunday, Short Cuts was Usamaru Furuya’s first manga created for a major, mainstream publication. It was also his first manga to be completely released in English. His debut work, Palepoli, was serialized in the alternative manga magazine Garo and has only partially been made available in English. (Select excerpts from Palepoli are available in Japan Edge: The Insider’s Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture and Secret Comics Japan: Underground Comics Now.) Short Cuts began its serialization in 1996, two years after Furuya made his manga debut. The second collected volume of Short Cuts was initially published in Japan in 1999. The English-language edition of the volume was released by Viz Media in 2003. This was after Pulp, the magazine in which Short Cuts was being serialized in English, was canceled. I very much enjoyed the first volume of Short Cuts and so am happy that both volumes, though sadly now out of print, were released.

Short Cuts is a darkly comedic and vaguely surreal gag manga and satire. Each cut–there are exactly one hundred of them in the second volume–is a short manga only a page or two in length. As in the first volume, there are some recurring jokes, characters, and setups, but even the related cuts can generally be read on their own. Any sort of overarching plot is nearly nonexistent. Kogals and the kogal subculture, which were particularly prominent in Japan while Short Cuts was initially being serialized, remain the most common topics in the manga. However, there are plenty of other subjects that Furuya uses for his material, often the stranger the better. He draws inspiration from Japanese pop culture and celebrities, other manga creators (frequently mimicking their individual styles in the process), and even history and contemporary politics.

In the afterword to the series, Furuya mentions that Short Cuts was initially intended to be “light, pop, and sexy” but as the series progressed it became a bit stranger until “old people and weirdos stood out.” I’m pretty sure Furuya includes himself when he is talking about weirdos. Increasingly, the gags in Short Cuts refer to the trials and tribulations of manga artists and illustrators. Furuya has several personal avatars in Short Cuts who either break the fourth wall to interact with the cuts or are the stars of their very own. With the second volume the humor in Short Cuts has become even more self-aware. Furuya is not afraid to make fun of himself or his manga. Another recurring character is a kogal named Mai. (The frequency of her appearances actually becomes a joke in and of itself.) She’s a delightfully peculiar young woman with an even odder family. In some ways, Mai and Furuya together are representative of the series as a whole and the relationship between creation and creator. The ending of Short Cuts–if a series without much of a plot can be said to have an “ending”–is actually rather touching because of this.

Short Cuts is a very strange manga, which is probably one of the major reasons that I like it so well. I enjoy Furuya’s chameleon-like artwork in the series as well as his absurd, dark, and surreal humor, all of which can admittedly be rather raunchy and vulgar from time to time. Many but certainly not all of the gags in Short Cuts rely on the reader having at least passing familiarity with Japanese culture and society, but there are plenty of notes from the translator included for those who might need a bit of extra help. Overall, I think I slightly preferred the first volume of Short Cuts over the second, though I can’t seem to identify exactly why that is. I was still consistently amused by Short Cuts, Volume 2 and Furuya can still make me laugh out loud. Short Cuts remains one of my favorite gag manga, but its peculiar sense of humor and sharp social commentary definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste.

No Longer Human, Vol. 2

January 22, 2014 by Ash Brown

Creator: Usamaru Furuya
Original story: Osamu Dazai
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781935654223
Released: December 2011
Original release: 2010

Usamaru Furuya’s manga series No Longer Human is an adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s 1948 semi-autobiographical novel No Longer Human. Furuya’s manga adaptation began serialization in Weekly Comic Bunch in 2009. The second volume of the series was published in Japan in 2010 while the English-language edition was released in 2011 by Vertical. No Longer Human was the second manga by Furuya that was published by Vertical, the first being the one-volume Lychee Light Club. Although Furuya’s No Longer Human is based on Dazai’s novel, he has taken a few liberties with his rendition, one of the most notable changes being that the story is now set in the 2000s instead of the 1920s and ’30s. Furuya has also inserted himself into the manga as a framing character. These changes, as well as others, are actually quite effective. It is not at all necessary to have read the original No Longer Human to appreciate Furuya’s interpretation of the story.

Yozo Oba attempted a double suicide with a club hostess named Ageha, but only she drowned while he survived. He’s come to the realization that although he doesn’t want to die, he doesn’t want to live, either. Yozo has long since been disowned by his family and the one person for whom he held any sort of honest feelings is now gone. He spends his days directionless and in despair, slowly recovering from a torturous situation partly of his one making. He desperately wants some meaning to his life, but has failed to discover what that might be. At one point he thinks he’s found it, only to have it snatched away from him. Yozo was once adored by all and even in his current pitiful state people are drawn to him and dare to care about him. He uses this to his advantage, putting on airs to get what he wants and needs, recognizing all the while how distasteful it is. Yozo uses people and he knows it. To him, life is still an act.

No Longer Human is a dark and troubling manga series. Yozo doesn’t treat himself well and treats those around him even worse. He is extremely manipulative and frankly can be a terrible person. And yet at the same time Yozo is a tragic figure; No Longer Human is heart-wrenching. While I don’t find his portrayal in the manga to be as sympathetic as it is in the novel, there are still points with which I can empathize. Yozo has a fear of people and their expectations of him that prevents him from being authentic. He’s repeatedly told that he is a good, sweet, and kind person, but this is the last thing he wants to hear. Yozo’s extraordinarily anxiety-ridden and conflicted over it because he see the life he is living as one big lie. He is very aware of his dishonesty and how he misleads people, but continues to do so because he is so desperate to be liked and accepted. Occasionally he manages to express some feelings of legitimate remorse and genuine caring, but more often than that it is already too late to undo any of the damage done.

No Longer Human, Volume 2 follow Yozo from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness and back again. Those glimmers of hope that Yozo will be able to turn his life around make his failure to do so even more anguished as he lets chance after chance to slip through his fingers. Furuya’s artwork in No Longer Human suits the story well, capturing Yozo’s internal and emotional turmoil and dragging the readers along for the ride. Furuya provides disconcerting glimpses into Yozo’s psyche, visually expressing his suffering through imagery of suffocation (harkening back to his near-drowning) and showing the ugliness he sees in the world. No Longer Human isn’t necessarily an easy read and it can be emotionally exhausting, but I find it to be incredibly compelling and difficult to turn away from as well. Yozo may not often be particularly likeable, but as with so many of the other characters in the series I can’t help but wish the best for him no matter how doomed he seems.

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: January 6, 2014

January 22, 2014 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

Sometimes life gets the better of us and despite our beset intentions we may find ourselves falling behind in obligations. Whether those obligations be self-imposed or involuntary doesn’t really matter, what matters is that once you say you’ll do something, you’d better do it.

Towards the end of 2013 I found myself struggling to keep up with some of my own obligations, and the more they piled up the harder it was to even do the things I wanted to do. Sometimes all we can do is just throw our past failures to the wind and start fresh. Speaking of which, you may have noticed that there were no reviews of weekly shonen jump posted in December. Suffice to say a busy year kept me from really spending any time actually thinking about manga. And rather than write about something old I’ve decided to start fresh this year and post brand new content every week as soon as the chapters are released. After all, what’s the fun in discussing manga if I wait for a month to even think about writing down my opinions. With that said, I look forward to discussing the latest Shonen Jump chapters every week with all of you.

So let’s get started with this week.

One Piece Ch. 733
The battle to take Dressrosa back continues as the Toy Soldier and Usopp’s teams begin their assault. Meanwhile Rebecca continues to stick it through in her fight but an unknown force seems to have taken control over the match. One Piece has had some pretty amazing chapters the past several weeks, and while this specific chapter doesn’t have anything particularly ground breaking being revealed, it’s still an excellent chapter. The plot is in full motion, and it looks like the arc is moving towards a conclusion. It won’t be any time soon, but we’ll be getting some one on one battles not too soon I imagine. It turns out that the toy soldier is actually very strong, despite being in a fragile toy body. I like the idea that he’ll be limited based on his durability, any kind of handicap given to characters is more than appreciated and helps ratched the tension up. Overall this was a great chapter, even if it didn’t have any ground breaking revelations.

Naruto Ch. 660
The majority of this chapter focuses on giving Shukakuu a back-story where before he was just a pure evil monster that drove Gaara to become a homicidal maniac. As such it is a bit difficult to take the more positive direction Kishimoto has been driving the tailed beasts, especially when applied to a character who we only knew as a force of destruction. In fact, I find it hard to remember that this is the same Naruto that I once enjoyed reading. I’m not saying I don’t like the tailed beasts becoming good, but when the entire development over the course of the series with one exception, was to show how evil and destructive these monsters are, then I have a hard time taking this sudden turn to good seriously. I still remember how out of left field Kurama becoming a good guy was, and I’m not about to accept the same of Shukakuu without proper development. And I can’t really say this chapter does much to add to that development. I can accept someone hating humanity because of how horrible they are, because frankly we have our terrible moments. But this is also the same character that terrorized a little child, an innocent I might add, by saying that he would kill everyone if Gaara ever fell asleep. I will say, in this chapter’s favor, that seeing Naruto apparently lose the nine tails’ chakra makes for a pretty great cliffhanger.

Toriko Ch. 263
Sentimentality is not Toriko‘s strong point. In theory I really love the idea of Toriko being confronted by all of his success and how much his discoveries have meant to people. It’s actually really easy to forget that Toriko was actually an accomplished gourmet hunter, considering how throughout the course of the series he keeps coming across foods that he doesn’t know that other people do know about. Kind of hard to remember that there are foods he was the first person ever to discover. It might have helped if we’d actually seen him discover some new foods, without being directed there by someone else. My one problem with this chapter is I have no idea how all those random people knew that Toriko needed a pep talk? And am I really supposed to believe that someone in this series was allergic to all kinds of food except for one? Is that even possible? The montage of all the powerful beasts of the gourmet world was a lot of fun, even though by now the power levels are completely meaningless. And while we’ll be having a month long break, I’m hopeful that this series will come back more insane than before.

Seraph of the End Ch. 008
There really isn’t that much I can say about this chapter. I enjoy seeing the characters in their uniforms, but nothing has changed beyond the dress code. Well, that’s not entirely true, we can finally drop the facade of this being a school series, but all the characters I hated are still annoying, and we get another character who promises to be just as annoying as the rest of the cast. And please keep in mind, I normally tolerate most characters that other manga fans hate. But this series is just comprised of nothing but annoyances. And on top of that the comedy isn’t even any good. There are multiple attempts to make me laugh, but they are all just too painful to do anything but give a sarcastic little laugh.

Nisekoi Extra Chapter!
The nice thing about Nisekoi is that even when on the surface a chapter is nothing but shameless fanservice, and this special chapter is so very much that, there is still something to enjoy for people that aren’t complete degenerates. In this case it’s a twist on the old “guy being trapped in the girl’s hot springs”. Rakku is in fact not only completely innocent, but he’s exactly where he is meant to be and it’s the girls encroaching on him. Of course this doesn’t stop him from being pummelled. And the reason for having the girls in such an embarrassing situation actually kind of works. Having to get their clothes back makes perfect sense, since those are kind of important. Though methinks it would have been easier for them to just ask Rakku to get their clothes out of the tree and put them somewhere they can get to them without him catching a glimpse. But if everyone in comedies acted rationally there would be no story. Overall, a fun chapter if somewhat awkward to read at work.

One-Punch Man Ch. 031.2
Saitama fights off the alien barrage, while the knight confronting the alien monster finds himself in a bad spot. I think that One-Punch Man is surprisingly good at action despite having a hero who can do something ridiculous like punch giant bullets out of the air. But beyond saying that the designs in this chapter are really cool I don’t have much else to say.

Bleach Ch. 563
I love Mask de Masculine. It feels like Kubo just stopped caring and drew whatever nonsense came to mind, and what we got was glorious. Mask refuses to go down, coming back with even more insane abilities. Renji is clear to win this battle, but it’s stretched out in a way I can’t help but love. Content wise this chapter was kind of sparse, but it was glorious nonetheless.

World Trigger Ch. 045
The invasion seems to be a lot more serious than I’d thought it would be. World Trigger has avoided serious fatalities by having its characters never really be in harm’s way. This chapter actually felt tense, despite the heroes being able to bail out. I actually look forward to this war even more now. I’d had high hopes, but by this point I think my faith has been rewarded and we will get some pretty amazing action.

Nisekoi Ch. 105
Fortunately we got a Nisekoi chapter this week that wasn’t entirely fanservice. And one of my favorite characters gets some focus again. I really love how Nisekoi can take some standard character tropes and yet still make them interesting. Onodera may be the standard nice girl, but she was hysterical this chapter. I was laughing the entire way through, even during the minor lulls in the story. That’s not an easy thing to do.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 053
Well then, this chapter was just a little bit dark. I’m still annoyed at Kato introducing the professor character. Can we please not have blatant pedophile characters please? I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of the direction this story is going, I don’t mind dark, but there are times that I’d rather not put up with an excessively dark story. But really my problem right now is that I don’t know what to think of this chapter. It certainly explains why Izumo is the way she is.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 046
Vegeta is defeated by being crushed under a giant child. I’m surprised he had any dignity left in this series after that. But at least the arc is wrapping up, with Vegeta declaring that he needs to escape, finally he is defeated. And so ends one of the better arcs of the Dragonball manga.

This was a pretty great week overall. If you had any favorite chapters this week let me know, also, has anyone tried out the crunchyroll manga section? It’s pretty great and I highly recommend it, beyond a few teething problems they seem to be having with getting the new chapters out.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Princess Knight, Vol. 1

January 22, 2014 by Phillip Anthony Leave a Comment

Princess Knight Vol.1 | By Osamu Tezuka | Published by Vertical Inc. | Rated: Unknown
“The Prince is here!”

Looking at Osamu Tezuka’s work, I would be hard pressed to pick one thing the man was most famous for. 150,000 individual pieces of artwork, dozens of works in manga and anime, almost single handedly popularising manga as we know it in Japan plus innovations in genre and work ethic. The last point is interesting as it pertains to my review. Shoujo is a genre that had existed before Tezuka came along but he is indelibly linked to it. Princess Knight is a title that many creators of manga in Japan cite as an influence and it’s not hard to see why. A magical fairytale setting, a prince/princess to root for, a cast of evil villains to hate and a wonderful Wagnerian background. So does the book have it’s share of problems? Yes, but I’m not that annoyed by them. Let’s begin, shall we?

I imagine that Princess Knight volume 1 starts much like the 1959 Walt Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. Don’t ask me why, the two art styles are miles apart, the tempo is all wrong and the movie came out three years after the first version of the book finished in Shojo Club. But two things stay true in both cases: the sweeping nature of the story (Princess Sapphire is carried through her adventure by the people conspiring against her, Aurora is carried along by the plotting of Maleficent, dragons, witches, sword fights) and the fact that both stories deserve epic, classical scores. Shame only Sleeping Beauty has that score.

In creating Princess Knight, Tezuka seeks to both subvert and add to the Happily Ever After idea by having the Princess take on the attributes of the Prince arch type. Sharing two hearts, the Prince is daring and brave while being graceful and light (the story goes a bit overboard with some of these traits but I’ll save that for later). It’s hard to decide where Sapphire wants to go as a character from the start of the book. She fulfills all her roles as Prince because she has to but then, in her off time, she likes to be a princess and wear dresses and do all the things that Princess’ are supposed to want to do (need to find that particular rule book and beat up its author) in these tales. But she’s constantly having to walk a tightrope between what she wants and what’s demanded of her. If she slips for an instant, the Duke will strike and that will be the end of the fairy tale. You get the sense from the first five or so pages that Sapphire is screwed no matter what she does. Tink (or Choppy depending on what version you’re reading) is a nice enough character but he reminds me a little too much of Dororo from the title of the same name but with a little more reserve. The characters Tezuka has on display are varied and I do like them but it’s frustrating for me to have to read this as I’m not and was never supposed to be the target audience. You could argue that Tezuka was primarily creating the story for young girls exclusively but since that time the title has taken on a life of it’s own with people of all ages enjoying it. I have read commentary on the story in regards to how Sapphire reacts to danger in both of her guises, male and female. I will get into that in a minute.

But for now let us talk about how the book looks at times to veer into silly country and how it always seems to pull out at the last second. Tezuka is famous for his gags in the middle of high drama and Princess Knight is no exception. In our modern times, this sort of pop culture reference assembly line might seem trite but Tezuka was doing stuff like this years before it was expected. Like calling for the villains to photograph the Princess in a compromising position only to be told cameras haven’t been invented yet. Or the fact that the good and true characters all have named after natural minerals (Silverland, Sapphire) versus the synthetic names of the villains (Nylon, Duralumin). Couple that with Tezuka having characters like Madame Hell (Madame Hell!!!) being entirely superfluous and then Tezuka will draw a whole page panel scene with her bringing the elements of nature down on someone. It’s always hard to gauge whether or not to laugh at what he’s trying to say. What can’t be argued with is the fact Tezuka really keeps the pace going. The use of Looney Tunes-esque sword fighting is quirky, I must admit. It really looks like “Take this! And That! Touché!!! Ha! I meant to lose my sword like that!” in sequentially paced panels. Sapphire doesn’t get a chance to herself and goes from one adventure to another, one life or death moment to another. While Prince Franz goes from wandering pretty boy to foil for Sapphire’s male persona and onto love interest. All while the evil elements conspire against the Princess and her family. Tezuka takes a Disney approach to pacing. In fact, early Disney movies might be the best way of describing the tone and pace of the whole endeavour. Films like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are reflected in this story with a European style of storytelling (good always triumphs, animals are your friend and yes, there’s magic involved). For me, I like the whole tone and would have liked to see more from Tezuka in this genre.

The tricky thing about this story is two-fold: does the story still hold up against other shoujo works and secondly does the dual-gender identity story have weight today? For my money, it doesn’t really hold up as a shoujo story as the whole genre has moved on from what Tezuka helped to pioneer. It sits more as the story that started it all in a manner of speaking to borrow one of Disney’s taglines. When put against a franchise monster like Sailor Moon, Princess Knight feels quaint but I give it a pass because of the time it was made in and the fact that the story still works as a fairy tail. As a gender identity story, I must say it has things to say in today’s world. I would preface the next statement by saying that it is my opinion that Tezuka didn’t foresee how the manga’s unique twist would be interpreted. How could he as the things that today’s youth and people in general face as personal difficulties couldn’t have been imagined in 1953? Sapphire’s want to be a boy AND a girl goes to the heart what people of all walks of life must go through in the name of love. Who do I love and how does their gender make a difference to me? How does my gender make a difference to them? You don’t have to be one specific gender to know that crosses like these are hard to bear. The fact that Tezuka wrapped it up in a fairy tail makes the transmission of the story’s heart to modern times amazing to see.

When we leave the volume, Sapphire gets involved with the Prince Franz, finds her mother turned to stone and facing enemies both real and supernatural. So where could Tezuka go at the end? Have Sapphire board a pirate ship, of course! I wasn’t expecting that. We’ve gone from Disney to Burt Lancaster high adventure. Where will we and Tezuka goes from here? I am looking forward to find out.

More Princess Knight at Manga Bookshelf: Manga Artifacts: Princess Knight (Katherine Dacey) | Off the Shelf: Princess Knight (MJ & Michelle Smith)

Genkaku Picasso, Vol. 2

January 21, 2014 by Ash Brown

Creator: Usamaru Furuya
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421537542
Released: February 2011
Original release: 2009

Genkaku Picasso was the second multi-volume manga series by Usamaru Furuya to be released in English. The first was a seinen gag manga called Short Cuts which, like Genkaku Picasso, was published by Viz Media. Genkaku Picasso is very different from Short Cuts. It’s an example of one of Furuya’s few shōnen manga and is currently his only shōnen series available in English. Furuya is an extremely versatile artist, changing styles, genres, and demographics to suit his needs. He had his start in alternative manga, but Genkaku Picasso, while quirky, is a more mainstream title. Initially serialized in Jump SQ, the second volume of Genkaku Picasso was released in Japan in 2009. Viz Media published Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 under its Shonen Jump imprint in 2011. I found the first volume of Genkaku Picasso to be intriguing, but more uneven and less compelling than some of the other manga by Furuya that I had read. But with the second volume, the series finds its footing.

After a bizarre near-death experience, Hikari Hamura, given the nickname Picasso by his classmates, finds himself in an even stranger predicament. Chiaki Yamamoto, a victim of the same accident that nearly killed Picasso, is now small enough to fit in his pocket and is sporting angel wings. Picasso himself has gained the ability to see into people’s hearts and minds. Compelled to draw what he sees, he can literally enter into the psyches of others through his illustrations. Using this newfound power, Picasso is able to help his fellow classmates. Not that he really wants to go to all that effort. In fact, he’d much rather be left alone to concentrate on his artwork. But unless he wants to let his arm rot away–another peculiar consequence of his accident–Picasso must do what he can to help those around him. With Chiaki’s assistance and prodding he has successfully resolved some of his classmates problems and has even gained a few friends in the process, but Picasso is still incredibly reluctant to get involved.

Although there has always been an ongoing story in the series, the beginning of Genkaku Picasso felt fairly episodic. However, with the second volume the series starts to become a bit more cohesive. The stories in the first volume seemed to be resolved a little too simply and cleanly, but as Genkaku Picasso progresses it becomes apparent that it’s not really that easy. Picasso has helped some of his classmates (though they are only aware of that subconsciously) but they continue to have problems; he hasn’t solved everything for them. The first volume’s stories had a “one and done” sort of feel to them while the issues in the second volume, even after they are initially resolved, are long-lasting challenges. They are things that the characters may very well struggle with for the rest of their lives. I much prefer this approach since realistically matters of the heart and mind are not so easily mended. I think Genkaku Picasso becomes a stronger, better series with the inclusion of these more complicated and nuanced narratives.

From the very beginning one of Genkaku Picasso‘s strengths has been its artwork, something that continues to be a highlight in the second volume. Furuya uses a variety of art styles in the series. Picasso enters the drawings he creates of other people’s hearts. They are filled with beautiful, surreal, and even disturbing imagery, allowing Furuya to creatively illustrate and explore the characters’ internal states of mind. But probably the greatest reason that I find the second volume of Genkaku Picasso to be more effective than the first is that the problems that Picasso must help to try to solve happen to be more relevant to me personally. For me, many of the stories in the first volume were little far-fetched while those in the second volume are a bit more realistic and universal. Most of them focus on love, romance, gender, or sexuality which are themes that I have a particular interest in. I could personally identify with the characters in Genkaku Picasso, Volume 2 in ways that I previously couldn’t. I did enjoy the first volume of Genkaku Picasso, but I was able to appreciate the second volume even more.

Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game, Vol. 2

January 20, 2014 by Anna N

I enjoyed the first Alice in the Country of Hearts series much more than I expected to. I’ve since tried out some of the sequels here and there, and I think this series is one that I’ve enjoyed the most, just because the storyline seems to echo back to the first series in both theme and tone. While most of the other Alice series that I’ve read tend to focus more on what I think of as the core cast of characters, Alice in the Country of Joker introduces the Circus as a new place and the mysterious Joker accompanies the Circus. It is April season, which is a different and unsettling time for the inhabitants of Wonderland.

The second volume of the series continues with many of the things I enjoyed about the first. There are flashbacks to Alice’s previous life that hint at the psychological issues that might cause her to take refuge in Wonderland. Alice is reminded of her sister as she spends time with the obsessive white rabbit, Peter White. Blood Dupre continues his flirting campaign, but the influence of the Circus and the barrier that Nightmare placed in Alice’s mind are in conflict. There seems to be a cyclical conflict between the Circus and the rest of Wonderland, and Alice is trapped in the middle of it. The unsettling tone and hints of suspense were more of what I tend to look for in one of these many Alice stories. So far, this is the main spinoff series I would make a point of recommending to fans of the first Alice in the Country of Hearts. I still miss the art from Soumei Hoshino in the original series. There isn’t anything really wrong with the illustrations of the adapter here, but Hoshino’s art was more delicate and surreal, adding another dimension to the Wonderland portrayed in these stories.