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My Week in Manga: Moyoco Anno Edition

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This week’s episode is a special edition created for this month’s Manga Moveable Feast, the subject of which is mangaka Moyoco Anno. MJ discusses Anno’s work, including a review of the first two volumes of “Sugar Sugar Rune.”

This week’s manga:

Flowers & Bees (VIZ Media)
Happy Mania (Tokyopop)
Sakuran (Vertical, Inc.)
Sugar Sugar Rune, Vols. 1-2 (Del Rey Manga)

Links:

Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast archive
MJ’s interview with Moyoco Anno at New York Comic Con 2012 (The Beat)
Off the Shelf: Sakuran

Edited by MJ
Music (“Stickybee,” “20/20,” “Insomnia,” & “Swansong”) by Josh Woodward

A Variation and Diversion on the 2012 Bestseller Charts

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sailormoon3For those who must know, compiling my data for all of 2012, Sailor Moon volume 3 barely edged out the other Sailor Moon books to be the #1 ranked title. Volumes 1-4 are close enough that they are statistically tied for the top spot, followed by Sailor Moon volume 5, then Maximum Ride volume 5. The next books of note would be Black Butler volume 1 (ranked at #12 for the year), some of Viz’s box sets (Death Note, Zelda, and Fullmetal Alchemist), and Naruto, which starting at #17 and very closely grouped, managed to put vols 53, 54, 55, and 56 all into the top 25.

Why am I posting the 2012 Combined Bestseller List this way? Several reasons: First, many readers have asked me for context, not just the long, long lists. Second, my “bestsellers” are relative and my sources kind of iffy: The paragraph above gives you the flavor of the chart without devolving into arguments over why one book beat another. And finally: I hate the arbitrary year-end chart anyway. But I’ll get into all of that.

Out of convenience and for the sake of simplicity, I’ve always called the list a “bestseller” chart — which is perhaps what misleads some people. If you have access to sales numbers, the top 10 books on any given list should always be the same: after all, if Magical Romance Kingdom sells 1200 copies and Ecchi Omnimanga Robot only sells 1100, then the one will always outrank the other.

If we’re both compiling ‘bestseller’ lists, why are my results always different from The New York Times?

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There is a lot of data available to the right people, but much of it is never released as both publishers and retailers consider the data proprietary. Neilsen BookScan is the gold standard, and with the recent addition of sales data from Wal-Mart BookScan tracks 80% of all retail book sales, including sales through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Obviously this would be great data to know, but subscriptions are so expensive you won’t even see prices listed on their website. If you have to ask: you can’t afford it.

Coming from the other side, in 2011 the Association of American Publishers and the Book Industry Study Group combined their respective efforts on tracking publishers’ data and established BookStats. The BookStats reports are industry overviews, though, tracking performance by subject, genre, and format, as opposed to weekly sales of any one given book. It makes a nice complement to the Neilsen data, or so I assume as both sets are well outside of my price range.

The New York Times and the numerous variations of their ubiquitous bestseller lists [they’re up to 20 different lists at the moment] don’t use reports from either: the Times conducts a survey of some small sub-set of retailers and then weights their survey results by a secret arcane formula and then they post the results as a ranking without ever telling us a number. How many more books did Patterson sell over Grisham? No telling.

I can’t say I hate the NYT Bestseller list, or that it’s ‘wrong’ as my methodology is essentially the same as theirs — I’m just much more open as to what my sources are and I always include the weighted score in my rankings. (Not that anyone has really expressed an interest but it’s there for folks to check if they want — When Sailor Moon is ranked higher than Naruto on my list, we can all see why, and proportionally by how much, to the limits of my methods)

Since I don’t have the point-of-sale retail numbers or even a second-hand version like the Times, just what am I tracking?

Simply put: it’s the web.

With so much under lockdown and behind paywalls, I turned to the one source of manga sales data that is readily available to everyone: online sales sites. Load up Amazon and click just a couple of links and you’ll soon see for yourself, as in the course of their normal business Amazon gives you a list of manga. They’ve moved away from calling this a bestseller list at the category level (current terminology is “new and popular”) but they certainly use their own sales history data to determine what to push to the top.

However, we can’t treat sources like Amazon (or any sales site) as an impartial, authoritative source for even a comparative ranking: does Amazon have a legitimate financial interest in making sure folks searching for Death Note see a 13 volume box set [list price $99.99, selling for about $58 at the moment] before the customer sees the more affordable ‘black’ omnibus editions, or even the single volumes for sale, used, starting at prices as low as a dollar each? Of course they want to make the most off of a sale.

“While the Amazon Best Sellers list is a good indicator of how well a product is selling overall, it doesn’t always indicate how well an item is selling among other similar items. Category and subcategory best seller lists were created to highlight an item’s rank in the categories or subcategories where it really stands out.” … “For competitive reasons, Amazon.com generally does not publish this [Actual Sales] information to the public.” Straight from the source: Amazon’s help page for Best Seller Rank

Does Amazon have any obligation — expressed, implicit, or as part of their retail mission — to be an objective source for either journalistic reporting or literary criticism? Of course the answer is no.

Further reading, for the interested:

Inside the Amazon Sales Rank : Rampant TechPress, undated article.
How Amazon.com Sales Rank is Calculated : Timothy Fish, 30 March 2007
What You Need to Know about Amazon’s Sales Rank System : Bill Stephens, 7 July 2008
It Doesn’t Take Many E-Book Sales to Make a Kindle Bestseller : Sarah Weinman, 30 December 2009
Amazon Sales Rank Explained : Lindsay Buroker, 1 March 2011
Bestseller Lists and Other Thoughts : Kristine Kathryn Rusch, 18 January 2012
Just How Do Those $&%*# Amazon Algos Work Anyway? : Phoenix Sullivan, 6 August 2012
A Rare Glimpse Into What It Takes To Be An Amazon.com Best Seller : Paulo Santos, SeekingAlpha, 27 August 2012

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What does one do when presented with an unreliable source that may be lying for its own benefit?

Get more sources. Also, whenever possible, “re-interrogate” the source to see if it comes up with different versions of the same story (trying to catch it out in a lie, metaphorically speaking).

I do both. My core data is a version of Amazon’s list that takes into account their “ranking” but also samples heavily from parallel data pulled from numerous Hourly Bestseller lists, set alongside a similar data pull from Barnes & Noble, and for my “third source” I combine data from Buy.Com, Chapters, Books-a-Million, and Powell’s — each of which, separately, are idiosyncratic to say the least. However, when 3-out-of-4 agree on a number one, I feel fairly confident about the choice. By combining the smaller sites I reinforce what I like to think is ‘good’ data and discount any high-ranking outliers that might otherwise crop up.

Outliers creep into the data anyway, because I don’t have the sales numbers. I can only see what the online retailers Are Trying To Sell To Me: you could consider my chart a list of online sales efforts rather than tracking actual completed sales.

After choosing sources and procuring data and (where applicable) assigning weights to data based either on assumed veracity or assumed sales volume: at that point it’s simple arithmetic. Add up the scores and award first place. In practice, I call this a best seller list, though if you’ve seen the posts, you know this is almost always followed by the sub-title, “Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales”. And while some might want to see clarity and truth in such a list, as someone who mucks around in the data on a weekly basis, I know the limits of the method as-well-or-better than anyone.

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There has been a disconnect:

I like data. I do independent research, look for original sources, always question any cited statistic, and would rather ‘drink from the firehose’ if that option is available.

My readers don’t want to drink from the firehose. Stretching the metaphor: most casual manga enthusiasts would like a nice cup of tea, maybe with a scone.

Even the most wonkish of industry insiders don’t want the full treatment either. If I turn the firehose on them, rather than being cautiously curious and willing to look through it all, or enthusiastic about being given access, or being grateful that I’m willing to share so much with everyone, the feedback I get is that the manga bestseller lists are ‘unclear’, ‘confusing’, and ‘overwhelming’.

I get it. It’s not that the list is confusing (a numbered list, starting with #1…) but rather: readers lack the deep background to see the lists the same way I see them. Hell, I live in spreadsheets half the week, and my ‘free time’ is spent working a 40+hr-a-week job – front-line retail selling books and running a big-box bookstore. My viewpoint is skewed and my approach to sales figures is, unique.

My first attempt to translate from spreadsheet-to-English is “successful” in its own way, but it only gets us a third of the way there. Or less.

The lesson everyone should take from the amazing success Nate Silver enjoyed in 2012 is *not* that Nate was right. It is no longer enough to merely be correct: you have to sell it. You have to be able to put data into a narrative, you have to tell the story.

This takes longer. It takes a lot longer. And I was initially hesitant to do so because I don’t want to be accused of pre-digesting and ‘skewing’ the reported result to serve my own bias. But, in order to reach more readers and make it clear why I spend so much time compiling these reports, I’ll make the effort.

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If it seems like I’m giving you too many numbers on a weekly basis, things get even worse at the end of the year.

First: The calendar is arbitrary. New manga volumes come out each week. They’re ‘new’ for a few months, and depending on the life-cycle and release schedule of the series, they’ll be in demand for six-months-to-a-year and then they descend into the forgotten basement of both bookstores and fan consciousness. A single snap-shot might catch a title at the very beginning, or the very end of its arc. Volume seven of a seven volume series will be considered very differently than volume seven of Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece. Merely looking at the bright, shiny “#1 Manga For 2012!” will blind you to what is actually going on underneath.

Quarterly charts that track each season are not only more accurate, they get closer to the actual ‘heartbeat’ of our beloved manga industry than a single, massive annual bestseller list ever will. In addition, a series of charts allows us to track titles over time rather than burying the data in a single year-end midden.

We all like year-end “Best of” lists, but that should really be the province of the critics, not of data. Good and Popular are not synonyms, after all, though there is often (but not always!) a strong correlation

I do have the consolidated 2012 data; I have plans to do quite a bit with that, including graphs and pie charts (we all like pie charts) over the next month. I’m also working on changes to the weekly reports – for once the posts aren’t late because I fell behind, but rather because I’m working on analysis. The weekly bestsellers are complete, but not ready to be unveiled yet.

Anyway, You’ve survived my thousand-word lecture so I suppose I should just get on with the posting of the lists, and the links.

2012 Q1 Winter

1. ↑7 (8) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [6,693.2] ::
2. ↓-1 (1) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [6,355.3] ::
3. ↓-1 (2) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [6,347.6] ::
4. ↑12 (16) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [5,648.2] ::
5. ↑13 (18) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [5,502.3] ::
6. ↓-3 (3) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [5,378.3] ::
7. ↑15 (22) : Naruto 53 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [5,250.3] ::
8. ↓-3 (5) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [4,952.7] ::
9. ↑38 (47) : Fullmetal Alchemist 27 – Viz, Dec 2011 [4,781.8] ::
10. ↑126 (136) : Naruto 54 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [4,528.7] ::

[more]

[Publishers’ Scorecard]
[Top Series/Properties]
[New Releases]
[Preorders]
[Manhwa]
[BL/Yaoi]
[Ebooks]

2012 Q2 Spring

1. ↑4 (5) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [6,601.7] ::
2. ↓-1 (1) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [6,405.8] ::
3. ↑9 (12) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [6,222.2] ::
4. ↓-2 (2) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [5,893.0] ::
5. ↓-2 (3) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [5,855.9] ::
6. ↑20 (26) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [5,081.5] ::
7. ↓-3 (4) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [4,480.8] ::
8. ↑163 (171) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [4,317.0] ::
9. ↓-3 (6) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [4,265.9] ::
10. ↓-2 (8) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [4,147.5] ::

[more]

[Publishers’ Scorecard]
[Top Series/Properties]
[New Releases]
[Preorders]
[Manhwa]
[BL/Yaoi]
[Ebooks]

2012 Q3 Summer

1. ↑1 (2) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [5,900.0] ::
2. ↓-1 (1) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [5,872.2] ::
3. ↑1 (4) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [5,727.4] ::
4. ↑1 (5) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [5,656.9] ::
5. ↑61 (66) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [4,636.8] ::
6. ↑7 (13) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [4,603.0] ::
7. ↑10 (17) : Death Note vols 1-13 box set – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2008 [4,487.9] ::
8. ↓-5 (3) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [4,220.0] ::
9. ↑147 (156) : Vampire Knight 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [4,219.7] ::
10. ↑4 (14) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [4,191.4] ::

[more]

[Publishers’ Scorecard]
[Top Series/Properties]
[New Releases]
[Preorders]
[Manhwa]
[BL/Yaoi]
[Ebooks]

2012 Q4 Autumn

1. ↑12 (13) : Sailor Moon 8 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [5,599.1] ::
2. ↓-1 (1) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [5,086.3] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [5,045.2] ::
4. ↑3 (7) : Death Note vols 1-13 box set – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2008 [4,985.9] ::
5. ↓-3 (2) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [4,863.6] ::
6. ↓-2 (4) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [4,591.7] ::
7. ↑35 (42) : Naruto 58 – Viz Shonen Jump, Sep 2012 [4,389.7] ::
8. ↑2 (10) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [4,208.6] ::
9. ↑21 (30) : Yotsuba&! 11 – Yen Press, Sep 2012 [4,110.0] ::
10. ↑200 (210) : Naruto 59 – Viz Shonen Jump, Nov 2012 [3,947.0] ::

[more]

[Publishers’ Scorecard]
[Top Series/Properties]
[New Releases]
[Preorders]
[Manhwa]
[BL/Yaoi]
[Ebooks]

Don’t Disturb Me and Him, Please

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By Asuka Katsura. Released in Japan as “Soko Wa Bokura No Mondai Desu Kara” by Ohta Shuppan, serialized in the magazine Manga Erotics F. Released in North America by JManga.

I… am not sure where even to begin. What the heck was this? Not since Sasameke have I been left with such a feeling of vague confusion and disgust. This one didn’t have quite the kick in the balls ending that Sasameke did, but it certainly matches it for weird gag humor out of nowhere and appalling over-the-top grotesqueries being presented as comedic. Which, to be fair, works at first, but as the manga goes on and tries to also have a real plot, the flaws inherent in the entire work become more apparent.

disturb

Given that the manga actually tries to have a plot, I suppose I should sum it up. Yaeko is a high school girl who reacts cutely whenever she’s tormented (or, more accurately, reacts in a highly amusing way), and thus has always been prey for perverts who want to dress her up, strip her, seduce her, or just rape her. Including her family. And her best friend, who in fact rapes her at knifepoint in the first chapter. While escaping said best friend by running nude through the streets at night, she’s helped by Rokuro, a gorgeous man carrying a teddy bear… who happens to match the description of a guy who’s been propositioning little kids around the neighborhood. After a series of misunderstandings, she injures his right hand, only to discover he has a high-stress job that absolutely needs doing. And so she moves in with him to be his right hand while it heals.

The reader, honestly, is meant to identify with the perverts here, as Yaeko’s reactions to everything are the best part of the manga. They are so over the top it goes beyond comedy into farce, and she frequently will be dressed as, say, a soldier or a Greek Statue for one panel only. She’s obsessed with proving that Rokuro is a lolicon, to the extent that she tries to frame him by going to a park and telling kids to pose for photos (realizing, a bit late, that this makes her a pervert – she’s even wearing the standard manga pervert outfit). Her complete lack of common sense is what drives the humor, along with her need to scream almost every line.

Sadly, Rokuro is not nearly as interesting – or indeed interesting at all. In the final chapter, we get an attempt at a backstory that explains his retiring personality and his tendency to chat up little kids, but for most of the story he’s a non-entity who exists to make Yaeko panicked and insane. He has a faux-girlfriend who (naturally) has a shotacon complex, who mostly seems to inhabit the manga so that the two of them have a third character to bounce stress off of. (Yaeko’s best friend, for obvious reasons, doesn’t fit this description. Which is a shame, as she was easily the most appalling (and therefore funny) part of this whole manga.)

I suspect this worked better serialized, but even them I think I’d be exhausted by the end of 20 pages or so. The author is better known for Blood+ and La Portrait de Petite Cosette, neither of which I believe are anything whatsoever like this. It has little to no internal logic, tries to tack on a heartwarming ending that is then ruined by both its heroine and hero, and is amazingly offensive at times (and by at times, I mean most of the volume). I will admit that I laughed at first at many of the situations, but by the time the final chapter rolled around, I was exhausted. (There were also several typos and misspellings, more than usual for a JManga release.)

I can’t possibly recommend this, as it’s bad, but if you’re in the mood to stare at your screen with your mouth open, you may want to try Chapter 1. If nothing else, it’s very different from anything else JManga has put out, and indeed any other Manga Erotics F titles I’ve seen.

JManga the Week of 1/31

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SEAN: No new series on the last day of January, but we do get a new volume of a series I adore, even if I am seeing it for a 2nd time.

joshikousei5

Joshi Kosei, aka High School Girls, hits Vol. 5. Given that I’m reading more and more manga digitally these days, I am very pleased to see this series come out in that format. It’s big doofy fun, always prepared to sacrifice what little dignity the characters have for comedy, and reveling in female friendships.

MJ: I really should check this out, shouldn’t I?

SEAN: Yes. :)

Elemental Gelade hits Vol. 3 on JManga, which reminds me that Elemental Gelade has also hit Vol. 12 on Comixology. I guess they’re digitalizing the Tokyopop license? Different translations, I assume, but it’s quite weird to see the first digital vs. digital competition.

MJ: The Digital Manga Guild also has this, and I’m not sure if they’re all the same or not!

SEAN: Madame Joker, another in a long line of ‘Manga JManga is putting out that I should read as I’d love it but don’t have the freaking time as they’re putting out piles’, has hit Vol. 4. Madame Joker, AIALLO’MJMIPOTISRAILIBIDHTFTATPOP’ for short.

MICHELLE: I have benevolent feelings towards Madame Joker but I too haven’t found the time to read it. I feel bad having such a lackluster response to next week’s offerings, when I found so much this week to be grateful for, but that’s how it is, I’m afraid.

SEAN: And we also have Vol. 4 of Recorder and Ransell, which I’m sure is adorable and cute and moe, but I simply can’t get past the fact that its premise creeps me out.

So what’ll you have? (Pabst Blue Ribbon: The Manga.)

The History of Shonen Jump, told by one who was there

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Jason Thompson devotes this week’s House of 1000 Manga column to the first part of a look at the evolution of Shonen Jump in America—and as Jason was the magazine’s first editor, he has a unique perspective.

Lissa Pattillo looks over this week’s new releases for her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Meanwhile, the Manga Bookshelf bloggers look forward to next week’s new releases.

Ash Brown posts the second roundup of posts for this week’s Manga Moveable Feast, featuring Moyoco Anno. And MJ interviews Anno for The Beat.

The winners of the Shogakukan Manga Awards have been announced, and the winner in the General Category is Kengo Hanazawa’s I Am a Hero. Silver Spoon, by Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa, took the prize in the Boys Category.

Geoff Pevere reviews the film Tatsumi for the Toronto Globe and Mail

License requests: Marian Moore has a list of five manga she’d love to see licensed in English at the Inside AX blog.

Reviews

Connie on Case Closed, Lupin III, and The Kindaichi Case Files (Comics Should Be Good)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 5 of A Certain Scientific Railgun (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Anna N. on vol. 1 of Clair Voyance (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on the January issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Justin on chapters 15, 16, and 17 of Cross Manage (Organization ASG)
Ng Suat Tong on The Heart of Thomas (The Hooded Utilitarian)
David Gromer on vol. 3 of Higurashi When They Cry: The Atonement Arc (Graphic Novel Reporter)
David Gromer on vol. 1 of Is This a Zombie? (Graphic Novel Reporter)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Kamisama Kiss (Blogcritics)
TSOTE on vol. 3 of Mardock Scramble (Three Steps Over Japan)
Angela Eastman on vol. 10 of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (The Fandom Post)
Ash Brown on Sakuran (Experiments in Manga)
David Gromer on vol. 1 of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Legends (Graphic Novel Reporter)

Manga the Week of 1/30

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SEAN: Let’s see if I can sort out this week, given my recent habit of taking Midtown’s list and then ignoring it horribly.

First of all, they’re finally getting in the Yen Press books that most of us got last week or this week. I’ve gone over those already, but FYI they are Black Butler 12, Black God 18, Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower, A Bride’s Story 4, The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan 3, and Soul Eater 12.

Udon has a Super Street Fighter series debuting, with what seems to be Korean artists and American writers. Um… a must for Street Fighter fans? I dunno, I got nothing. How Do I Capcom?

MICHELLE: Yeah, sorry Udon, but this just doesn’t appeal to me.

MJ: I always want to like things with Korean artists, just on principle, but… meh.

limit3SEAN: Vertical has the 3rd volume of Limit, their shoujo experiment that is not selling all that hot so MORE PEOPLE should buy it as it’s excellent. Come on, doesn’t that cute young thing on the cover scream adorable shoujo? I bet there are some wacky misunderstandings in this volume!

MICHELLE: And probably it is Valentine’s Day!

ANNA: I like to think of Limit as a lovely violently cynical sorbet that cleanses the palate of manga readers who have been reading too much shoujo with wacky misunderstandings.

MJ: Mostly I’m just entertained here by all your commentary, but I’ll also note that I’m really looking forward to volume three of Limit.

SEAN: Meanwhile, Kodansha is releasing a lot of stuff next week via Amazon that’s not hitting comic shops till February or later. Given next week also has a pile of Viz, why don’t we run down Kodansha now? If nothing else, it will broaden the Pick of the Week a bit.

First off, Bloody Monday was out this week. It’s up to Volume 9 of about 11, which wraps up the ‘First Season’. I think, when asked about the Second and Third Seasons of the series, Kodansha made ‘well, buy more’ noises. So buy more if you want to read more of ’24: Japan’.

MICHELLE: I really do mean to read this one of these days.

MJ: I enjoyed the first volume, but I guess not enough to propel me further on. Should I feel regretful?

SEAN: Fairy Tail is starting to get ready to speed up, which means more volumes online on its digital Apple-only thing that I don’t use as I don’t have Apple (this grump brought to you by Android), but also print volumes about once a month or so. It hadn’t sped up quite yet, though. In the meantime, we’re still in Edolas, though we may be about to wrap that arc up.

MICHELLE: I occasionally forget that Fairy Tail exists, even though I’ve read 14 volumes of it.

MJ: I’ve never had any interest in Fairy Tail, yet I’d really like to develop some, if only because Hiro Mashima was so incredibly charming at NYCC a couple of years ago. Convince me?

SEAN: Um… it’s good solid shonen, and has finally, I think, stopped trying to be One Piece only for Kodansha. It has a few good female characters, though it waffles quite a bit on how strong they get to be (but that’s typical for most Japanese shonen). It’s quite funny at times, and not in a “boobs!” way. (That said, there are many, many stacked girls here.)

Mostly, though, I think it’s the sort of title that you start of hoping gets better and really improves by the time you’re 16 volumes in and invested in the world. It rewards long-term investment. Which can be a pain, I know.

MJ: Actually, that’s pretty persuasive. Thank you!

SEAN: Genshiken finishes off its Omnibus Releases with the 3rd, covering Vol. 7-9. Nice timing, as I suspect the new anime of Genshiken 2nd Season coming up may spark interest in the first again.

Another series bites the dust, as Vol. 4 wraps up Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations. Barring the appearance of an Apollo Justice manga (don’t hold your breath), this may be it for this franchise for the time being – at least in manga form.

Speaking of series almost being finished, 37 is the 2nd to last volume of Negima. I’ll have a lot to say about this volume and the next. A whole lot. That said, if you like an overabundance of fanservice in the best old-fashioned Akamatsu ways, this is the volume for you.

sailormoon9MICHELLE: Pass!

MJ: Thank goodness we have Sean to care about Akamatsu on our behalf.

SEAN: Aheh. Let’s just say that my comment that Negima should have ended with Vol. 36 will be followed up on. My *least* favorite part of Negima is the naked antics.

SEAN: Lastly, Pluto graces the cover of Sailor Moon Vol. 9, and I think she actually even shows up in this, though not till the end. In the meantime, we’re really delving into the Super S arc now, which means dreams, and mirrors, and unicorns, and lots of Chibi-Usa (though less than you’d expect).

MICHELLE: Yay, Sailor Moon! I might’ve said this last time—probably I did—but the manga version of Super S differs from the anime in that the outer senshi are in it, so it’s worth reading even if that season of the anime wasn’t your favorite. The next volume of the series also includes something nifty that was missing from the anime.

ANNA: More volumes of Sailor Moon are always a thing to celebrate!

MJ: Agreed!

SEAN: There you go, that’s plenty of manga to chew over. What’ve you got?

Moyoco Anno interview at The Beat!

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As you know, back in October I attended New York Comic Con. On the second day of the convention, the inimitable Heidi MacDonald was called away for a family emergency, and asked me to fill in for her on a couple of manga-related interviews. The first of these was with Moyoco Anno, author of Flowers and Bees, Happy Mania, Sugar, Sugar Rune, and Sakuran. It was an incredible opportunity for me, especially as my first-ever live interview. And though I am regretful that Heidi was not able to conduct it herself—she’d expressed just the day before how much she was looking forward to it—I’m grateful to have had the chance to speak with Anno-sensei about her extraordinary work. I only wish we could have talked longer.

Though NYCC is long past, Heidi’s post is fortuitously timed to coincide with this month’s Manga Moveable Feast! I’ll be talking more about Moyoco Anno in this week’s installment of My Week in Manga. In the meantime, read the interview here!

Clair Voyance, Vol. 1

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clair

Clair Voyance Vol 1 by FSc
Available from jmanga.com

This is one of those unique non-commercial titles that makes me feel glad that jmanga.com exists in the current manga market. I decided to take a look at this title solely because of the cover image. I thought the art looked whimsical and quirky, and the inside of the volume matched with my initial impression of the cover. Clair Voyance doesn’t have much of a detailed plot, as it mostly deals with a relentless, classic science fiction novel quoting girl named Pi who fixates on a mysterious classmate named RueRune who goes around wearing a sarong and styles his hair in a bun anchored by random botanical specimens. Pi stalks RueRune, and sees him wander about, talking to the air, buying food, and getting violently ill. Eventually she realizes that his odd behavior is due to the fact that he’s talking to invisible creatures.

Where this title stands out from other monster of the week manga is the art and slice of life approach to the material. This title is published by Ohta Publishing Company, which I believe is the publisher of the magazine Manga Erotics F, home of beloved to manga bloggers authors like Natsume Ono, Usamaru Furuya, and Inio Asano. Fsc’s art reminds me a bit of a Natsume Ono, if Natsume Ono was inclined to draw spirits that look like odd hybrids between botanical illustrations and Where the Wild Things Are. Each chapter is basically a short episode where Pi indulges in her curiosity over RueRune by following him around and pestering him, and while RueRune is able to relate much easier to the creatures that surround him, Pi represents the potential for his first true human friend.

There were a few typos here and there in the translation for this book. Fans of Natsume Ono would likely appreciate the gentle atmosphere of Clair Voyance, and if you enjoy monster of the week manga but would like to try a title with a laid-back, unconventional sensibility, this is the manga for you.

Electronic access provided by the publisher.

Drama Diary 1-24-13: Love Rain

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With cold weather stubbornly setting in here in western Massachusetts, most of my daily outdoor activity has been grudgingly moved indoors. For the most part, I consider this a negative (the seat on my exercise bike is seriously unforgiving), but on the plus side, it’s given me a great excuse to indulge myself in an exclusively indoor addiction: Korean television dramas.

I haven’t watched any dramas for a while, and it was our recent discussion of the Korean manhwa series Chocolat for Off the Shelf in which Michelle inadvertently got me in the mood by bringing up Jang Keun Suk’s character in You’re Beautiful. With that on my mind, I decided to try out another drama featuring him as the romantic lead, Love Rain.

Love Rain opens at a university in Seoul in the 1970s, where art student In Ha falls in love at first sight (in exactly three seconds) with Yoon Hee, a quiet family health major who is known as the “madonna” of her class. In Ha is painfully shy, but after accidentally coming into possession of Yoon Hee’s diary, he learns enough about her to realize that they are very much alike, which gives him the nerve to pursue her.

In Ha awkwardly shares a broken umbrella with Yoon Hee.


In Ha awkwardly shares a broken umbrella with Yoon Hee.

Unfortunately, his best friend, Dong Wook, has also fallen for Yoon Hee, and being a much more confident guy, is way ahead of In Ha. Though it’s obvious throughout that it’s In Ha whom Yoon Hee really likes, In Ha’s deference to his friend’s needs causes him to push Yoon Hee away, until things are finally so far out of whack that there’s no way to rectify the situation without alienating all their friends, including Hye Jung (who loves In Ha) and Chang Mo (who loves Hye Jung). It’s a big mess, and through a series of unexpected events, Yoon Hee leaves for America and In Ha for the army, unlikely to see each other ever again.

In Ha and Yoon Hee’s story spans the first four of the series’ twenty episodes, and it’s actually rather stunningly well done. The time period is captured beautifully, down to the soundtrack and color palette, and social/political issues of the time are used to great advantage. My first thought about these episodes is that they were feature film quality in pretty much every way. And it doesn’t hurt that we get to see Jang Keun Suk looking natural and radiant in a way that could never have been granted to his character in You’re Beautiful.

I mean, just look at that smile.


I mean, just look at that smile.

Episode five opens with a time-jump to the present, in which we meet Joon, a young Korean photographer traveling in Japan for a shoot. As Joon gets off the train in Sapporo, he collides with a Korean college student, Ha Na, whose phone falls into his pocket. Joon is a cynical, arrogant guy, with a reputation of being able to pick up any girl in three seconds, and he makes Ha Na’s life hell as she desperately tries to retrieve her phone. She’s self-possessed and feisty, and not about to take any of Joon’s crap, but she needs the phone in order to make contact with her mother’s long-lost first love, who is visiting the school in Sapporo where she studies gardening. Jerkiness and misunderstandings ensue, ultimately leading Joon and Ha Na to a location famous for “Diamond Snow,” which supposedly has the power to make two people fall in love. Oh, and in case you haven’t figured it out, Joon and Ha Na are the children of In Ha and Yoon Hee, respectively, set up to relive (or not?) their parents’ doomed love story.

This setup sounds hokey, but it actually really works extremely well… for about five episodes. To begin with, Joon and Ha Na are played by the same actors who played their parents earlier on, and honestly, their range is vastly more impressive than I expected. There’s not a moment where they actually seem like the same actors, and though obviously their characters are written very differently, much credit must be given to the actors themselves.

This change in character is also an interesting relief. Though In Ha and Yoon Hee’s story is beautifully melancholy, it’s a genuine relief to be able to throw off the restrained tone of the first four episodes and see this new couple rage openly at each other. Of course, what really works so well for the story here, is that it’s made obvious that while the older, more restrictive social norms that helped keep In Ha and Yoon Hee from expressing themselves freely are no longer in place, people are just as capable as ever of getting in their own way.

Doomed love: The next generation?


Doomed love: The next generation?

The look of the series changes drastically as well—not only in the necessary ways, such as clothing styles and so on, but the entire tone is suddenly modern, visually and otherwise. Colors are cooler and less muted—as though we’ve gone from matte to glossy in moving video. This extends, of course, to the soundtrack as well.

Oh, and if Jang Keun Suk was radiant in the first section of the series, that role now falls to Yoona (of K-pop group Girls’ Generation), whose portrayal of Ha Na is glorious to behold.

True radiance, no?


Who wouldn’t fall in love with this face?

Other highlights include Kim Shi Hoo who, in dual roles as Dong Wook and his son Sun Ho, is like a breath of fresh air every time he hits the screen, and Kim Young-kwang, whose portrayal of Ha Na’s unfortunate college almost-boyfriend is surprisingly nuanced throughout.

After the first seven or eight episodes of this series, I was ready to cry out to the world about its sweet, quirky loveliness! Unfortunately, somewhere around episode ten or so, things just begin to drag, in just about every way possible. Complications arise, as they must, of course, but the re-emergence of In Ha and Yoon Hee’s original romance, which sounds romantic on the face of it, ends up just dragging the plot into an endless, soap-opera spiral of doom, from which there ultimately is no escape. Not only does it feel like the writers of the series had to deliberately drag things out in order to reach twenty episodes (seriously, there are several episodes which almost feel like repeats of each other, so little changes as they go), but all the life is sucked out of the main characters, despite the actors’ best efforts.

That said, I watched feverishly until the end (okay, I skipped episode 12 and went straight for the recaps at K-POP! rage, because I just couldn’t take it), desperately seeking a happy ending, and honestly, I’d recommend it despite its weak second half, just for the beauty and craft of its beginning. In fact, I may just go and re-watch the first ten episodes right away. They’re that good.

Watch it now at DramaFever.

Now that I’ve finished Love Rain, I need new fodder for my hours on the exercise bike. Any recommendations?

PictureBox launches Ten Cent Manga Line; Shonen Jump is busting out all over

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I interviewed Shonen Jump editor Andy Nakatani at MTV Geek, and there’s a preview of One Punch Man there as well. Deb Aoki also had a Q&A with Andy at About.com. And the January 28 issue of Shonen Jump will include Akira Toriyama’s one-shot Kintoki. Derek Bown takes us through the contents of the January 21 issue at Manga Bookshelf, and Drew McCabe has some thoughts as well.

PictureBox, which published Yoichi Yokoyama’s Travel, has some big news this week: They are launching a line of vintage manga, called Ten Cent Manga, edited by manga scholar Ryan Holmberg and featuring manga that shows outside influences; they are kicking it off with Shigeru Sugiura’s Last of the Mohicans.

Ash Brown posts the first roundup of Moyoco Anno MMF links at Experiments in Manga.

At Okazu, Erica Friedman has some thoughts on digital manga that are well worth reading, including an important point about the decoupling of ownership from possession. And she has the latest episode of Yuri Network News.

Lissa Pattillo discusses some recent acquisitions in her latest Swag Bag feature at Kuriousity.

Bruce DeMara reviews the movie Tatsumi, about manga-ka Yoshihiro Tatsumi (The Push Man), for The Star.

Reviews

Sean Gaffney on vol. 4 of A Bride’s Story (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Flowers and Bees (Experiments in Manga)
Erica Friedman on vol. 2 of Hana to Hoshi (Okazu)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Happy Mania (Experiments in Manga)
Brian Gardes on vol. 1 of Heroman (Stumptown Trade Review)
Anna N. on vols. 10-15 of Kekkaishi (Manga Report)
TSOTE on vol. 2 of Mardock Scramble (Three Steps Over Japan)
Ken H on vol. 2 of Planet Ladder (Comics Should Be Good)
Erica Friedman on Prism (Okazu)
Shannon Fay on Sky Link (Kuriousity)