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Manga the Week of 5/1

April 25, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and MJ 2 Comments

SEAN: Given that most companies regard 5/1 as 4/31, it’s no surprise that there’s not a lot of stuff this week. Trust me, that giant pile of Viz will be waiting for you on 5/8. In the meantime, let’s turn our attention to other offerings.

It has to be said, the most anticipated book for this week is definitely not for the kids. That said, the buzz for The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: The Master of ‘Bara’ Manga is really high. This is not cute BL with pretty androgynous boys manga. This is MANLY gay manga, with lots of MANLY bondage and discipline. In fact, it’s quite violent and filled with sadism, I hear. But if you want a taste of something different, and don’t mind explicit stories, Picturebox has the collection for you.

MICHELLE: Sometimes one can be glad something exists without really wanting to check it out for themselves. This is one of those times.

MJ: I might check this out, though my threshold for sadism is relatively low.

SEAN: Vertical’s lone print offering this week is Vol. 4 of the Stan Lee penned Heroman, which is a must for manga fans who also love Stan Lee.

MICHELLE: I do have to wonder how many such fans exist.

MJ: I wish I could like this, just for Vertical’s sake. I really do. Does that count for anything?

SEAN: The big news from Vertical is digital, though, as three of their series are available on Kindle and Nook as of April 30th. 7 Billion Needles is gripping sci-fi horror, Drops of God is a wine lover’s dream, but the big news for me is the now out-of-print series Twin Spica getting its first two volumes out. Twin Spica is the brilliant and heartwarming epic about a girl who yearns to be in space, and it never did as well here as I’d hoped. Here’s hoping that a digital release will give it new fans!

MICHELLE: That’s a hope I can share!

MJ: Now, this is something to cheer about. It makes the whole week, really!

SEAN: So what’s your kink this week?

Guest Post: The Infernal Devices Vol 1: Clockwork Angel: Manga Review

April 25, 2013 by Ash Brown

Not too long ago I reviewed The Infernal Devices, Volume 1: Clockwork Angel, HyeKyung Baek’s graphic novel adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s novel by the same name. While I am familiar with The Infernal Devices, I haven’t actually read any of the original trilogy. I do, however, know people who have and thought it might be interesting to get another perspective on the work. And so I decided to bribe my good friend Traci with manga in exchange for her thoughts on the adaptation. The video below (a first for Experiments in Manga) is the result. I’m extremely excited that she agreed and am very pleased to welcome Traci to Experiments in Manga!

Hello, all. My name is Traci and I am the mastermind behind the alwynuu channel and Traci Reads vlog on YouTube. I am a photographer by passion and trade and a wanderer, philosopher, and reader by desire and happenstance. I enjoy most things geeky and nerdy, odd literary adaptations, and any genre that includes some form of magic or supernatural business. Don’t be shy. Drop in on occasion and see what I’ve gotten up to and where I’ve wandered.

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Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble

April 25, 2013 by Anna N

Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble by QuinRose and Hazuki Futaba

I have a weakness for romance titles with ridiculously long titles in either manga or prose format. There’s something about the inherent ridiculousness of a title like “The Sicilian’s Ruthless Marriage Revenge” that makes me want to read it! If a romance title has five words or more, I’m usually entertained if I’m in the mood for some light reading. My decision to pick up Crimson Empire was largely due to the title, combined with the fact that it is another Quinrose title. I enjoyed the first Alice in the Country of Hearts manga adaptation well enough, so I was curious to see if I’d also like a different manga title from the brand without the literary connection.

Crimson Empire has a potentially amusing protagonist in Sheila the former assassin turned royal bodyguard and head maid, but the story in the first volume isn’t all that compelling as it mostly involves Sheila meeting an endless progression of handsome men. This is only what one could expect in a manga based on an otome game, but there were enough interesting elements that I would probably check out the second volume. This manga opens in a very dark way as one of the turning points of Sheila’s childhood is portrayed when her assassin trainers tell her to kill a random man. She does fulfill her duty, but not without a lot of trepidation. Years later Sheila is ready to accept her first official assignment, and she ends up as a bodyguard to the royal Prince, instead of joining the assassin league that has served as her foster family.

Prince Edvard is blond, charming, and the target of frequent assassination attempts which Sheila foils. He also might be a bit of a sociopath, as his outward personality masks an inner emptiness and pathological self-regard. Edvard’s older brother Justin is the tall, dark, handsome, and tsundere hero of many a female protagonist’s dreams. His outward hostility towards Sheila leads her to wonder if he’s behind all the attacks on his brother, but Justin always seems to be in the right place at the right time if Sheila needs a bit of help. There’s an almost too-large cast of supporting characters that Sheila meets as she goes about her duties. While the art is capably executed, it doesn’t have much of a distinct style. Fortunately the character designs are all very good, which helps the reader distinguish a little bit between the Brainy One, the Mischievous One, the Sorcerers One, the Demonic One, the Well-Dressed One, and the always essential Guy Wearing Glasses.I’m being a bit snarky, but overall I did like reading this manga, and I would follow the series if the next volume shows signs of a more interesting plot. If any more characters are introduced I might give up on the series because I can barely remember everybody! Fans of reverse harem manga would likely enjoy Crimson Empire, Vol 1: Circumstances to Serve a Noble, and at least Sheila’s bodyguarding duties give her a more interesting background than many of the heroines of the genre.

Dorohedoro, Vol. 9

April 25, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Q Hayashida. Released in Japan by Shogakukan, serialization ongoing in the magazine Ikki. Released in North America by Viz.

This bright pink volume of Dorohedoro feels very much like the calm before the storm, or the sort of thing that ends with the tag ‘End of Part One’. There’s not as much pulse-pounding action here, and the revelations are still mostly hinted rather than stated outright. But we’ve almost got Caiman’s past, and we’re starting to learn Nikaido’s, and it’s going to turn out SO BADLY for both of them, isn’t it?

I especially feel as if I may have seem the last of Caiman, at least as Caiman, and that’s a shame, as he’s such a big, lovable doof. With a lizard head. But he’s always wanted to retrieve his memories, and is now starting to see the downside to all of that. Unfortunately, it’s not really something he can stop doing, either. Hayashida, by the way, does a terrific job of showing just how agonizing Caiman’s ongoing headaches are – including giving us an x-ray of his brain to drive it home!

Meanwhile, Shin and Noi are also hot on the trail of the cross-eyes’ boss, despite him possibly being dead. This leads us to the funniest moment of the series, where we meet the boss’ grandfather, and react to his appearance. Even in the most horrible moments, Dorohedoro still finds a way to be completely ridiculous, and it’s a big reason why I love it as much as I do. If this series didn’t have a high level of comedy and weirdness, it would simply be too bleak to function.

Meanwhile, I can’t really feel bad for Chota – who brought it all on himself, and makes things even worse towards the end. What we do get via his character, however, is the start of Nikaido’s backstory, as she began to keep a diary while at En’s so that she didn’t lose herself. (I’ll be honest, at first I thought the diary would be a giant fakeout, but the flashbacks do seem to make it genuine.) Little Nikaido is absolutely adorable, and you know her backstory is going to be amazingly wretched, so I’m just enjoying the tiny kid messing around with time magic while I can.

And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the omake chapter at the end. Shin and Noi are my favorite characters in the series, and I also tend to ship them. So far, though, any in-series romance has been just tease. It’s clear that Noi has a crush on Shin, but his feelings for her have been more ambiguous. Now we get a flashback to Shin from ten years ago, forced to attend a masquerade ball by En where he has to dance or get poked by devils with a pitchfork. (This sounds like most of the junior high dances I attended, only everyone usually chose the pitchfork over dancing with girls.) Shin looks adorably cute here, and his dance partner even more so. I love seeing side stories like this.

All in all, another solid volume of Dorohedoro. I see in addition to Scott Pilgrim’s creator giving a blurb, the man behind King City is also praising the series. Viz should be happy. It may not generate Naruto sales, but Dorohedoro has become one of their prestige series, and needs more love. And gyoza. It always needs more gyoza.

Comic Conversion: The City of Ember

April 24, 2013 by Angela Eastman 3 Comments

The City of Ember | Novel: Jeanne DuPrau / Yearling | Graphic Novel: Dallas Middaugh & Niklas Asker / Random House Children’s Books

Over 200 years ago, the City of Ember was created by the Builders, and now the citizens exist in a perpetual darkness only broken by the electric lights in their homes and lining the streets. But the lights keep going out, and the city’s power source, an ancient generator that no one understands, is constantly failing. Twelve-year-old Doon is determined to find the solution and save the city, but keeps hitting dead ends until his friend Lina finds a strange paper inside a lock box. Thanks to her baby sister, the words—written with the strange, typed script of the Builders—are only half-legible, but she can make out one: Instructions. Certain these are instructions for an exit, Lina and Doon set to deciphering the words so they can follow the directions out of Ember. But with everyone so certain that there is no escape, they find more resistance than they bargained for.

Released in 2003, Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember gave us a teen dystopian novel before The Hunger Games was even a thing. There have since been three sequels and a 2008 movie adaptation, but it wasn’t until September, 2012 that Random House published a graphic novel adaptation. Adapted by Dallas Middaugh and illustrated by Niklas Asker, the comic takes DuPrau’s deeply shadowed world and attempts to bring it to life.

The City of Ember has an immediately interesting premise: two children in a city with perpetually depleting supplies who together find a way to save their people. The characters don’t know why they are there, and they don’t even know why it is always so dark (though readers will probably make their own accurate guess about that). The characters are also much more layered than expected. Doon wants to figure out the answer and save everyone, but it’s partly because he wants the glory of being Ember’s hero so his father, a kind man, can be proud of him. He’s also plagued with a volatile temper that often hinders him. Lina has fewer of these problems—too busy taking care of her sister, a toddler, and her ill grandmother. But she is sometimes overcome with desires—the best job, a pack of colored pencils (rare), a can of pineapple (rarer)—that she momentarily loses sight of important things, like Doon’s concern or her sister. These all add up to make Doon and Lina more sympathetic, as we see pieces of ourselves in them, and even increase our anxiety and investment, as we see how they’ve gotten in their own way before they even realize.

The big problem I had with the novel was the pacing. While the opening gets us right into the story with the choosing of jobs and Doon’s concern over the power and food supply, it’s mostly a slow buildup of information until about a third of the way through the book, when Lina finally finds the Instructions. And after that things move slowly as Lina struggles over each word and tries to get others to help her, like the mayor or her flighty friend Lizzie, who obviously don’t care about her discovery. Things do pick up once Doon gets involved and they start to solve the puzzle. Also, the anxiety does build up at the end as we see how Doon and Lina messed up in their decision to wait on revealing their discovery, and find themselves on the run.

Asker did a decent job portraying the darkness of this world in the graphic novel, even filling the gutters with black, and his detailed sketchings of rooms and buildings display the drabness of everything: the cluttered rooms, and clothing and items drained of color from their multiple uses. Asker also understands the importance of silence as he draws out moments like Doon’s exploration of the Pipeworks, and seems to know that narration is entirely unnecessary if his art and panel order are clear, such as when Lina discovers her grandmother has died in the darkness of night.

Dallas Middaugh must have noticed similar issues with the pacing when he adapted the story. Very quickly we see that he cut things out to keep the story from coming too much to a pause, like Lina’s friend Clary (whose important actions are performed by Mrs. Murdo) and even Lina’s failed attempts to show the Instructions to people other than Doon. Trimming the plot helps the pace of the story, but it also alters the emotional effect many of the novel’s scenes had. One big example, which seems very small, is when Lina goes to buy colored pencils from the shop. First, because we missed the prior scene of her aching to just go look at them, we don’t get Lina’s experience of coveting something that others don’t have, which becomes important when Lizzie and then the mayor are discovered to be hoarding rare food. This also diminishes our perception of Lina’s guilt when she loses her sister, Poppy, because she’s too busy debating on whether or not to buy the pencils. So while Asker does an excellent job of showing us a stricken Lina as she watches Poppy sleep later that night, we don’t have as clear of a sense that this is her fear combining with her own extreme guilt.

Jeanne DuPrau’s original novel has a fascinating premise that is riddled with anxiety from the first pages. Its slow trek towards the point keeps it from being as immediately exciting as something like The Hunger Games, but DuPrau starts to make up for this in the faster-paced climax. Middaugh and Asker’s adaptation moves the plot along more quickly and manages to convey enough background information through invented dialogue. But certain things are lost—Lina’s guilt, Doon’s temper, and the panic of other citizens that causes some to run out into the the darkness in hope of finding light—that diminish the characters, flatten them, and turn them into people we’re just not quite that invested in. So while The City of Ember graphic novel effectively gets the story across, it just doesn’t have enough feeling to put it on par with the novel.

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: April 22, 2013

April 23, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

April 22 Cover Page Bit of a short issue this week, or at least it feels like that for me since I stopped trying to decipher Yugioh! Zexal. It may be lax of me as a reviewer to ignore that series, but the only way for me to give it a fair shake in any kind of review would be to actually do my research and read the series. But, let’s face it, I could already tell you from chapter one it wouldn’t be interesting—and I haven’t seen anything since then to change my mind.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 012
Dragon Ball Z (I refuse to call it Dragon Ball since saying “Dragon Ball Ch. 012″ would be inaccurate) really is at its best during chapters that would be nothing but talking heads, were Toriyama not so good at utilizing panel layout and camera angles to make even the talkiest of scenes dynamic. Again, it’s impossible to comment on these chapters without letting my prior knowledge of the series color my perspective, so I’ll limit it to saying that I’m amused by how Gohan actually goes through with his plans to become a scholar, despite everyone saying it’s such a waste. Follow your own dreams, not those others inflict on you. Even if you’re talented at something, it doesn’t mean you are required to pursue it. Sure people that want to do what you’re good at will think it a waste of talent, but that’s not what matters. It’s really a good lesson for all of us.

One Piece Ch. 706
There aren’t many creators who could take a character who was beaten down like a putz and have him come back as a legitimate threat. Not only did Bellamy come across as a threat, but he actually is one of the two characters I predict to win Block B. Oda set up the fights to take advantage of the fact that we all expect Luffy to win, and managed to introduce doubt in the other two blocks by focusing on four characters in the two blocks, either of which could win their respective blocks. So it’s certainly suspenseful when normally it would not be.

Also, Nami is going to be furious if she finds out Bellamy stole the golden pillar that was supposed to be theirs.

One Piece

One-Punch Man Ch. 014
Oh Hammerhead, I’m so glad you didn’t die. He makes a great final punch line because he is the opposite of the usual. Instead of someone dying, it’s someone living when they shouldn’t. Sonic’s expression is also the scariest thing I’ve seen all week. That is all.

One-Punch Man

Bleach Ch. 534
While this chapter was not as engaging as the past few chapters have been, I quite liked it compared to the chapters before this flashback. I think it’s because this is a story I’ve been waiting for a long time, but also because it eschews the baggage Bleach has accumulated in the past years. I think Kubo is capable of telling good stories, but he’s overburdened himself with years of continuity. Sometimes you just need a fresh start, and this story is as close to a fresh start as we’re going to be getting for a while.

Nisekoi Ch. 071
When I found myself rating One Piece as the best chapter this week, I realized that I was doing what I had sworn I would not. I was ranking it number one because I always rank it number one. But this week that honor goes to Nisekoi. The setups for the final punchline were all wonderful, and the punchline itself was just hilarious. Every chapter I think I have a new favorite character, and every time I find myself proven wrong yet again. That’s it—just give this series a harem ending, I won’t mind. I can’t pick which girl to root for anymore.

Nisekoi

Toriko Ch. 230
This chapter of Toriko was the embodiment of “But wait, there’s more!” in manga. There are so many unexpected reveals and awesome cliffhangers that I can’t focus on one. Nor do I want to give anything away. Let’s just say that an unimportant character from early on in the manga comes back in a big way, and another fairly important character who only showed up once changes sides. And then Zebra. Just Zebra. You think he’s peaked in awesomeness, but then you find out you are once again wrong.

Toriko

World Trigger Ch. 011
What could have been a pretty major threat, and has been the main threat for the series’ run, turns out to handled in a montage. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out there are more gates opening in strange places, because nobody functioning as a writer in any kind of professional capacity could ever possibly make such a basic writing blunder in such a high stakes game. Could they?

We’ll have to wait to see what happens. But hopes are not high. A shame, truly, considering how much I enjoyed the first chapter.

Cross Manage Ch. 030
How does this series keep getting better!? Last week I thought it would be disastrous if Kaito skipped the match. And either he has the most common sense of any writer, or he’s reading my mind. If the latter, please pay attention, Kaito-sensei, I have a few ideas for some omake material. This chapter really showed how good Cross Manage could be as a straight up sports manga. Which just doubles my enjoyment because I already was enjoying it as a character piece. Considering possible upcoming cancellations and series ending their runs I wouldn’t be surprised if Cross Manage lives to fight another day. It better, it’s survived this long and gotten this good that canceling it now would be an abject shame.

Cross Manage

Despite being a short issue, this week’s Weekly Shonen Jump was very strong. Perhaps the lack of Naruto skewed the overall quality. One more week, and then we’re off for Golden Week. I’ll be craving new manga chapters all week, but at least I get to take a break just like the manga authors do that week.

If you want to hear more, check out the Manga^3 Podcast Archives. Or go directly to last week’s episode, Episode 044 – April 15, 2013 – The Naruto Conundrum: Why Do We Hate Sasuke? | Mutant Turtles Gaiden and Super Turtles.

It Came from the Sinosphere: Yanyu Mengmeng (TV Drama) Part 2

April 23, 2013 by Sara K. 1 Comment

Pouring Sugar on Stakes Thrust through the Heart, or TV Drama vs. Novel

The plot between the novel and this TV adaptation is mostly the same, aside from the addition of new characters (the Li family, Keyun, Du Fei, Ji Yao), and expanded roles for Erhao, Mengping, and Fangyu.

However, the feeling is significantly different. The TV drama does a lot of sugar-coating. For example…

[HUGE SPOILER WARNING + TRIGGER WARNING FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE / SUICIDE, skip to “End Trigger/Spoiler Warning” if you want to avoid spoilers and/or triggers]

In the novel, Mengping is gang-raped and gets pregnant. When she can’t identify the father, her father stop treating her as his daughter, or even as a human being. After a back-alley abortion gone wrong, Mengping spends most of the novel in the hospital, out of sight. By the time she gets out of the hospital, her mother is in prison, her father and sister are dead, her younger brother is in an orphanage, and she has to live with her older brother, who is penniless.

She is also gang-raped, emotionally discarded by her father, and gets injured in an abortion in the TV Drama. But in the TV drama, her loving sister cares for her after the rape, and her boyfriend agrees to marry her even after he knows what happened. Furthermore, her boyfriend tracks down the rapist and personally punishes them, with some help from Mengping’s father, who starts treating her as his daughter again once a man (her boyfriend) agreed to marry her. Mengping and her boyfriend (later, husband) live happily ever after.

Then there is Ruping.

Mengping and Ruping

In the TV drama, Ruping commits suicide. After the suicide, all of the characters are heartbroken, blame each other for her suicide, blame themselves, and pour out all of the love they felt for Ruping but didn’t express properly while she was alive.

In the novel, when Ruping commits suicide, the characters either a) hardly notice or b) are upset because her death inconveniences them. None of the characters are depicted being sincerely sad that she is dead (well, maybe He Shuhuan is sincerely sad … to some extent).

In the TV drama, Ruping is mistaken to think that nobody loves and cares about her. In the novel … she is mostly correct.

[END TRIGGER/SPOILER WARNING]

Though the plot is mostly the same, these little differences add up to a very different message. In the novel, the message is “What goes around, comes around.” Since what goes around is pain and abuse, what comes around is not pretty. By contrast, the message in the TV drama is that, deep down, everybody loves each other, they just don’t know it, and that love can get you through everything. That is a VERY different message.

Why Was the Message Changed

So … why does the TV Drama sugar-coat the story?

I have some ideas.

First, the novel was written in the 1960s. Many people in Taiwan, including most of the characters and Chiung Yao herself, had been in China during the Chinese Civil War, and were still recovering from the aftermath. The rest of the population had experienced WWII under Japanese rule and the 2/28 Incident, which was also very traumatic. The novel was also published during the height of the “White Terror,” when Taiwan’s authoritarian government practised strict censorship and imprisoned anybody who was inconvenient to the people in power.

By contrast, the 1980s was a much more forgiving era. The economy was booming and standards of living had risen. Taiwan was already moving towards democracy, and in 1987, just a year after this drama aired, martial law was lifted. things didn’t seem so bad.

Then there is Chiung Yao’s own personal circumstances. At the time she wrote the novel, she was a young mother, and had either just ended her first marriage or was about to end it (I couldn’t find a timeline to double-check the order of events), but in any case, ending a marriage while caring for a young child is stressful. She relied on the money she made by writing to make ends meet, so if she had stopped writing, or if her writing hadn’t sold well, she would have been in trouble.

By contrast, in the 1980s, she was financially secure and independent, had well-established and extremely successful writing career, and had been happily married to her second husband for years. Chiung Yao herself says that she couldn’t have written the novels she wrote as a young woman at a later age because she had stopped experiencing such sharp, forceful feelings.

It’s entirely possible that a TV drama faithful to the spirit of the novel would not have been allowed to air in the 1980s. I think that Taiwanese TV nowadays wouldn’t produce a TV show with even the 80s drama adaptation’s level of emotional harshness. Audiences would not receive it well.

In fact, based on the reviews I’ve read, the 2000 adaptation of Yanyu Mengmeng is even sappier than the 80s version.

Why I Hate This Story

For starters, I hate most of the characters … Yiping, Ruping, He Shuhuan, Lu Zhenhua, Xueqin, etc. In the novel, just about the only significant characters I didn’t hate were Fu Wenpei (Yiping’s mother) and Fang Yu. I don’t hate any of the new characters (Keyun, Du Fei, etc.) who were added to the story in the TV adaptation.

Yiping has ulterior motives for going out with Erjie.

Okay, I did feel more sympathetic to Yiping in the TV drama, so I suppose I don’t hate TV!Yiping, but that’s mainly because I felt everybody else was treating her unfairly. Everybody was telling her that she should set aside her hatred for the Lu family, that she was their daughter, and that she should learn to love them. I, on the other hand, felt that not only was Yiping entitled to resent the Lu Family, but I was advising her to cut off contact with them as soon as feasible. Her father abused and neglected her for more than ten years, and her siblings either contributed to the abuse/neglect, or refused to offer any help to Yiping … and never ONCE in the entire drama do they apologize to Yiping and admit to her that they were wrong (his father quasi-apologizes to her mother). If any reconciliation is to happen, I think the Lu family (particularly his father) is responsible for the first move, and before there is a clear and sincere apology, nobody should tell Yiping to let go of her bad feelings about the family.

That’s not to say that I approve of Yiping’s actions – on the contrary, I advised her (in my head) to forget revenge so she can get the Lu family as much out of her life as possible. I also advised her to dump He Shuhuan, particularly considering how inclined he is to use physical force to control her in the drama (at least in the novel he’s not physically abusive). Yiping needs a sassy gay-friend, not a self-centered borderline-abusive boyfriend like He Shuhuan (I personally think Yiping was doing Ruping a favor when she ‘stole’ He Shuhuan, but I know Ruping disagrees with me).

When Yiping wants to get away from Shuhuan, he grabs her, carries her as she’s kicking and screaming, and pins her to a fence. What a charming boyfriend.

And how could I hate Ruping? Mainly because she seems very passive-aggressive to me. She repeatedly claims that she loves Yiping like a sister but … well, it never translates into her actions. When Yiping needs help, Ruping does nothing (and I don’t buy that Ruping doesn’t have enough courage, because she certainly has enough courage when her other siblings get in trouble). And when Yiping is going through some really terrible things, Ruping is caught up in her own selfish concerns. Yiping, at least, is honest about the fact that she is not looking out for Ruping, and even tells Ruping so.

Ruping needs a cool-old-lady friend.

What’s worse, Yiping, Shuhuan, and Ruping are all bookworms. To Yiping, novels are like water, and reading is one of her main mechanisms for getting through the day. Shuhuan has a large library. Yiping loves 19th century European novels – Tolstoy, Bronte sisters, etc., while Shuhuan enjoys contemporary foreign literature. Ruping is a fan of popular Chinese-language literature, particularly romance and wuxia (I find it intriguing that she is an wuxia fan, considering that she’s a total doormat who wouldn’t hurt a fly). I also identify as a bookworm, and I suspect most people who read the novel are bookworms to some extent, so this makes the characters more like the readers.

In Shuhuan’s library.

And that brings me to the crux of why I hate the story – I can see myself in the characters, and it’s an awful part of myself. My family is much more functional than the Lu family – but even I know something about the resentment which builds up between family members, and how it can drive people (myself included) to do terrible things. You could say that I am Yiping’s daughter (my mother as a young woman had some things in common with Yiping). In the TV show, and especially in the novel, I could feel that a) what the characters were doing was wrong and b) understand why they were doing it because, under similar circumstances, I would have the same impulses.

I hate being shown that I can be an awful person.

I seriously considered not watching the TV drama because I hate the novel that much.

My Reaction to the Drama

This is hands down the most addictive TV drama I’ve seen in Chinese, and one of the most addictive things I’ve watched in my life. Even though I already knew the story, I simply had to keep going. As soon as one train-wreck has happened, it’s possible to see the next train coming to pile on the damage.

In some ways, the TV drama is much better written than the novel – many supporting characters are much more fully realized, and the suspenseful elements are more deftly crafted.

And the tears. Oh the tears. In my mind, I’ve re-titled the drama “River of Tears” because of the effect it had on me.

But towards the end of the TV drama, I stopped engaging with it because it started to seem a little false to me. The story wants to go to awful places, but somebody puts on the brakes, assuring the audience, ‘no, it’s not really that awful’.

The ending of novel feels profoundly sad because it feels true. The more optimistic ending of the TV drama does not feel true to me.

Availability in English

Currently, this is not available in English, and since it’s a Taiwanese drama from the 1980s, I am not going to hold my breath. Still, if any Taiwanese drama from the 1980s has a chance of being licensed by a streaming service with English subtitles, it’s this one, or another one of the 80s Chiung Yao dramas.

Conclusion

Nowadays, before I pick up a Chiung Yao novel, I have to ask myself whether I am ready to tear out my heart and put it through the washing machine for cycle. I’ve read that Yanyu Mengmeng is the rawest of them all, but based on some of the summaries I’ve seen, I suspect some of Chiung Yao’s other novels might wrench me even more. She is a genius of pressing emotional buttons.

For a heart-warming Chiung Yao story, read Princess Pearl. Otherwise, beware!

Next Time: Datang Shuanglong Zhuan (novel)

Why is it that Sara K. only found out that the Takarazuka Revue was coming to Taiwan AFTER the tour was over????? Now she’ll actually have to go to Japan to see them perform live. Oh well, if she ever has the chance to see them in Japan, it will probably be better than seeing them in Taiwan.

Angel Sanctuary, Vol. 1

April 23, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Kaori Yuki. Released in Japan as “Tenshi Kinryouku” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz Media.

It’s worth noting that this came out in the mid-to-late 90s in Hana to Yume, which these days is better known as the home of series like Oresama Teacher and Skip Beat!. It evolved rapidly in the early years of the 21st century, because back in the late 80s-early 90s there was a lot more darkness and a lot more androgyny in the magazine. And one of the best examples of this is Kaori Yuki’s Angel Sanctuary, a 20-volume series about angels, demons, impossible relationships, and above all strange things happening so fast the cast cannot get proper time to angst (but they manage to work it in anyway).

First of all, yes, as my Manga Bookshelf colleagues have noted, this first volume is a bit tedious at times. There’s a lot of setup, a lot of putting pieces in place, and a lot of backstory that really doesn’t make much sense. We also don’t get enough time to like Sara’s friend as herself before she’s immediately possessed/killed/whatever. That said, I think that the volume manages to succeed anyway, almost entirely on mood. Everything is tense here as we wait for horrible things to happen to our lead, Setsuna, who is a typical troubled teenager with an atypical love for his sister, Sara. He’s having enough trouble trying to shut out his own lustful desires, he really does not need folks coming down and saying he’s the reincarnation of an angel. In fact, his hotheaded and impulsive personality is very reminiscent of a shonen protagonist. But boy, is he in the wrong series.

I mentioned the incest elements, and it’s worth noting how they’re handled. Given that here in 2013 there is an overabundance of incest in almost every manga or anime designed for the otaku, you’d think it would lose its thrill. But this is not here to titillate. Setsuna’s feelings are powerful and deep, and they horrify him. I loved that the first thing he did was check the family register to make sure that one of them wasn’t secretly adopted – he’s read other shoujo manga, I see! But no, he doesn’t get an out that way. And of course Sara feels the same way, though I don’t think either of them is quite aware of the depths of their love just yet. It helps that, familial relationship aside, they make the cutest couple in the book – which, to be fair, is not about romance. Well, not shoujo schoolgirl romance anyway.

The art is another strong point here – at times, it’s the only humor in the series, and I love some of Setsuna’s facial expressions and asides. Given that the series is about angels and demons, there’s also a lot of androgyny on display here, and I guessed wrong about the gender of two of the characters TWICE before nailing it down. (Kurai and Arachne also provide much needed humor here, I should note.) But overall, if I was to use a word to describe this series, it would be overdramatic. And I don’t necessarily mean that just in a bad way. It’s a great series for teenagers – particularly, I think teenage girls would eat this up – as everyone is pretty and your forbidden love is, literally, the end of the world.

Tania Del Rio interviewed; Kaori Yuki MMF launches

April 22, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

Sorry about the radio silence—I live just north of Boston, so it has been a very strange week. I’m looking forward to things getting back to normal and to heading out to Chicago later this week for C2E2.

Back in the heyday of global manga, Tania Del Rio was one of its more articulate practitioners, and I was happy to have the chance to interview her for MTV Geek about Archie’s re-release of her manga-style Sabrina comics in a black-and-white tankoubon format.

The Manga Bookshelf team looks over this week’s new releases and discusses their Pick of the Week. And in her 3 Things Thursday column, MJ names three series she wishes she could like—but doesn’t.

This month’s Manga Moveable Feast, featuring Kaori Yuki, kicks off at host blog The Beautiful World; Katan writes about Yuki’s art, and at Manga Bookshelf, MJ and Michelle Smith devote their Off the Shelf column to Angel Sanctuary.

Erica Friedman has a new edition of Yuri Network News at Okazu.

Lori Henderson looks at manga that is available digitally and reviews the first volume of Knights of Sidonia in her Manga Dome podcast at Manga Xanadu.

Tony Yao looks at critical thinking in Naruto at Manga Therapy.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team kicks off the week with some short reviews of recent releases in their Bookshelf Briefs column. Ash Brown looks at another week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga.

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 2 of 21st Century Boys (I Reads You)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game (ANN)
Carlo Santos on vol. 55 of Bleach (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 56 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 7 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Erica Friedman on Dolce Due (Okazu)
Rebecca Silverman on Hiroaki Samura’s Emerald and Other Stories (ANN)
Victoria K. Martin on vols. 2 and 3 of Is This a Zombie? (Kuriousity)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Itsuwaribito (The Comic Book Bin)
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber on vols. 1 and 2 of I’ve Seen It All (All About Manga)
Sean Gaffney on vols. 1 and 2 of Kanokon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Daniella Orihuela-Gruber on Love Circumstances (All About Manga)
Connie on Picnic (Slightly Biased Manga)
Matthew Warner on vol. 9 of Psyren (The Fandom Post)
Philip Anthony on vol. 7 of Sailor Moon (Manga Bookshelf)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 10 of Sailor Moon (Blogcritics)
Derek Bown on the April 15 issue of Shonen Jump (Manga Bookshelf)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of The Story of Saiunkoku (The Comic Book Bin)
Anna N. on vol. 9 of The Story of Saiunkoku (Manga Report)
Matthew Warner on vol. 2 of Strobe Edge (The Fandom Post)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Umesato the Third! (Okazu)
Sean Gaffney on Unico (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Pick of the Week: Pandora Hearts, Doubt, Negima!

April 22, 2013 by MJ, Michelle Smith and Sean Gaffney 2 Comments

MJ: The shipping list this week is formidable, and while I expect Tezuka’s Unico will get a lot of the manga blogosphere’s attention, there are also new volumes forthcoming of favorites like Bunny Drop and even an intriguing debut series, Doubt. But given my personal excitement over the latest volume of Jun Mochizuki’s epic fantasy series, Pandora Hearts, I’ve got to do the predictable thing and give that series another boost. I got a chance to read volume fifteen this weekend, and I have to say that it’s even more dramatic than I expected; Even as a consistent fan of the series, I’ll admit I’m blown away but several of the volume’s major revelations, and… yeah, wow. That’s all I can really say. Despite the fact that most of my favorite characters barely register in this volume, it’s got me firmly in its thrall. And I may have new favorite characters. This remains to be seen. Oh, Pandora Hearts, you intrigue me so!

MICHELLE: Gah, I don’t even know what my pick is this week. I’m a few volumes behind on Pandora Hearts and I’m feeling a little trepidatious about Bunny Drop these days. So I guess I’m going with Doubt, a series that I know virtually nothing about except that it involves a deadly survival game of some sort.

SEAN: Despite my many issues with its abrupt, inconclusive ending, my pick of the week is going to be the 38th and final volume of Negima!, mostly as I enjoyed the series for so long and it produced so many awesome characters to root for. A series that started as merely “Harem Potter” turned into a very emotional, action-oriented battle manga, even if it never quite abandoned what Kodansha wanted Akamatsu to write: more nude girls. I hope that someday he revisits it to answer a few of the questions the audience still has after this volume.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?