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Viz Licenses One Punch-Man

January 14, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

One of the most word-of-mouth popular manga of 2012 is now getting an official release in Viz’s online Shonen Jump Alpha. Technically, One Punch-Man is seinen – it runs in Young Jump’s online magazine. But I suspect that’s only for convenience’s sake, and there’s nothing in this title that isn’t hilariously shonen.

That’s our hero on the cover, who is pretty much what the title says he is. But this doesn’t make him happy. Victory Is Boring. Of course, what One Punch-Man really is is a fun doofy parody/satire of superhero, kaijuu and monster comics in the Dragon Ball mode, while also having lots of genuinely cool action scenes. The writer, ONE, originally started it as an online webcomic. When Shueisha picked it up, they had the art redone by Eyeshield 21 artist Yuusuke Murata. The hero’s face when not posing manfully on the cover… simply makes me happy. I can’t wait to see this coming out over here. Luckily, I only have to wait a week!

Tokyopop returns

January 14, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

The slow return of Tokyopop continues with the relaunch of their website. A much calmer version than the previous iterations, it puts the books front and center, with a selection of print manga (Hetalia and OEL titles) that are available via RightStuf, some e-books from Graphicly, and some merch from CafePress. I took a look at what’s going on at MTV Geek, and Mike liveblogged their Anime LA panel, at which they discussed what’s going on, at Anime Diet. And at Robot 6, I picked six of their OEL manga that rate a second look.

Diamond lists the top-selling manga in comics shops. Spoiler alert: Sailor Moon and Naruto dominate.

The Manga Bookshelf team takes a look at this week’s new manga, both in print and coming up from JManga. Lissa Pattillo looks at the past week’s new releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Back at Kuriousity, Lissa opens up the swag bag and discusses her latest purchases, and Victoria Martin concludes her countdown of her favorite manga of 2012 with parts 3 and 4.

Justin lists his top ten manga of 2012 at Organization ASG.

Derek Bown kicks off a new column at Manga Bookshelf: A weekly Shonen Jump Alpha recap.

Erica Friedman posts a new episode of Yuri Network News at Okazu, and she also announced a new yuri manga from ALC and JManga, Ameiro Kouchakan Kandan, by Fujieda Miyabi.

In his latest House of 1000 Manga column, Jason Thompson takes a long, thoughtful look at Barefoot Gen, whose creator, Keiji Nakazawa, passed away last month.

Molly McIsaac lists the ten manga she is most looking forward to in 2013.

Justin and Manjiorin discuss Attack on Titan at Organization ASG.

Khursten Santos introduces Blush, a BL fan anthology, which is up on the web for free, although you’ll have to log in to Issuu to read it.

Starsamaria discusses beta couples—second bananas—in shoujo manga at Shoujo Corner.

Anna is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of 07-Ghost at Manga Report; hit the link to find out what you have to do to enter.

News from Japan: Two manga magazines, Manga Sunday and Comic Cawaii, have ceased publication. A Touhou Project doujinshi event scheduled for late February has been cancelled after the management of the Sapporo Teisen Hall, where the event was to take place, received a threatening letter. The incident follows a string of threats to people and venues involved with Kuroko’s Basketball, but there doesn’t appear to be any connection between the two other than the venue—a Kuroko’s Basketball event was scheduled to take place in the same hall on February 10. A manga series based on the film A Certain Magical Index will begin running in Shonen Gangan in March. Btoom manga-ka Junya Inoue is working on a new series, La Vie en Doll, which will begin running in Monthly Jump X this spring. The March issue will also include a one-shot by Saturn Apartments creator Hisae Iwaoka. And Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is coming to an end.

Reviews

Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of 07-Ghost (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of 21st Century Boys (I Reads You)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Angel Heart (Comics Worth Reading)
Sakura Eries on vol. 17 of Bakuman (The Fandom Post)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 54 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Sweetpea on Bride of the Water God (Organization ASG)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 7 of Bunny Drop (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Angela Eastman on Danza (The Fandom Post)
Lesley Aeschliman on Emerald and Other Stories (Blogcritics)
Kate O’Neil on vol. 24 of Excel Saga (The Fandom Post)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Girl Friends (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Helen on vol. 1 of The Good Witch of the West (Narrative Investigations)
Victoria Erica on vol. 1 of Gossip Girl (Inside AX)
Connie C. on Jyu-Oh-Sei, Paradise Kiss, and X (Comics Should Be Good)
Lori Henderson on Kaoru Mori: Anything and Something (Manga Village)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 1 of Mayo Chiki! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Oh My Goddess (Blogcritics)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Paradise Kiss (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 8 of Psyren (The Comic Book Bin)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Blogcritics)
Erica Friedman on Wagamama Millefeuille (Okazu)

07-Ghost, Vol. 1

January 14, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara. Released in Japan by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Zero-Sum. Released in North America by Viz.

One of the side-effects of reviewing manga and trying to hit most of the new Vol. 1s is that I get exposed to series that I wouldn’t otherwise pay much attention to. And this one definitely falls squarely into that wheelhouse. Epic fantasy isn’t really my thing, and this is overwrought epic fantasy of the finest order. That said, it’s quite good at what it does, especially since it’s apparently the debut work of both creators (who are female – I’m used to male manga creators collaborating, so this is nice to see).

Teito Klein is your average fantasy bishonen, and indeed there’s more than a touch of the CLAMP influence here. He’s seen as cold by his military academy classmates, who don’t know how much he really feels. He has, however, managed to open up to one kid there, who has become just like family to him. That kid’s name is Doomed. Wait, sorry, no. It’s Mikage. They spend about 40 pages bonding and showing off that they’re skilled fighters, then Teito accidentally hears something he shouldn’t, and suddenly this military school becomes a lot more sinister and evil. Clearly the only thing to do is to run away and end up at a church filled with hot bishops, who are taking out evil wherever they may find it.

Given the authors’ past works (which consist of about 59 million Naruto yaoi doujinshi), I was rather surprised that this didn’t have quite as many BL overtones as I expected. Oh sure, Teito and Mikage have that close bond of friendship, but it actually feels like that. And Frau’s attentiveness towards Teito is somewhat undercut by his constant flirting with everyone and his porn collection. In general, this is about as gay as K-On is lesbian, which is to say that the main cast lacks any real females, so you ship what you can.

There’s a lot of religious symbolism here, with eyes given the names of archangels and discussion of heaven and hell (complete with reincarnation – as always, never let it be said that Japan settles on one religion when it can have them all). I liked the legend talking about the three dreams, which is both suitably epic and nicely sweet. I do note that I feel things went a bit too fast in this first volume. I’d have liked to see more at the military academy before Teito was captured, and we also get precious little of our main antagonist (who seems pretty ambiguous), Ayanami, who appears to have stepped out of the pages of Weiss Kreuz.

There’s a lot of goofy humor here, which helps to relive the tension caused by the apocalyptic events going on with Teito. Clearly he is a messiah figure here, and I imagine things are only going to get worse for him before they get better, which is somewhat sad given that this volume ends with his possessed best friend trying to kill him. Still, if you like CLAMP’s more fantastic titles, such as RG Veda, This should be a good read, and is a nice change of pace from Viz. (I always like seeing series in their plain old ‘Viz Media’ imprint, as opposed to Jump/Beat/Signature.)

Girl Friends The Complete Collection, Vol. 2

January 12, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Milk Morinaga. Released in Japan by Futabasha, serialized in the magazine Comic High!. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

When we last left our heroines, Mari had decided that her love was never going to be requited, and had decided to move on – sort of – and tell Akko that she’d gotten a boyfriend and had gone all the way. This leads us to the first half of this omnibus, which is Akko trying to figure out why this makes her jealous, and dealing with her own newly discovered feelings for her friend. The focus shifting to Akko is very welcome, as though she’s the outgoing one of the pair she is not necessarily more worldly or mature. We see flashbacks to her childhood that show her being very much a solitary person, and even when she made friends (via discussion of fashion and makeup) they didn’t seem to be lasting friendships. This is when she latched onto Mari.

It’s interesting how Mari and Akko both have misunderstandings about the nature of their relationship, but in ways that are true to their characters. Mari is basically negative, with a “no girl could possibly like me in that way” sort of attitude. While Akko’s problem is that, after kissing Mari impulsively at karaoke, she assumes that all is now well and they *are* together, not realizing that actually discussion of such feelings is needed. This is not helped by Mari’s naivete – one of the best lines in the book is Akko’s exasperated “You don’t usually slip a friend the *tongue*, got it?” That said, this makes it all the more satisfying when they do finally connect and get together as a couple.

Of course, what does that entail? Since they’re both girls, going out together, texting each other late at night… they’ve done that before as just friends. So what’s different? Sexual attraction, of course, and unlike many a mainstream yuri (or faux-yuri) manga the author does spend a fair amount of time dwelling on this. Given both girls lied to each other about their sexual experience, each worries that they’ll screw things up somehow. (This leads to Akko looking at German Porn sites to see how girls do it, which made me laugh out loud). Eventually the two do take things to the next level, in a scene that sort of rides the edge of the OT rating that Seven Seas gave the book.

There is talk of the future, but it’s mostly the same sort of talk you’d find in books with a het romance – Akko’s going to a different school than Mari, leading to stress, but you know their love will see it through, etc. There’s a brief discussion of telling their friends and family about their relationship, but that’s not something that happens in the manga itself, nor do we see any of the fallout that might arise from being a lesbian couple in Japan. This is a seinen yuri fantasy for men that ran in Comic High!, after all. Reality is not welcome in its hallowed halls.

With all that said, I don’t think the manga suffers all that much from avoiding the harsher aspects of Mari and Akko’s relationship. This is meant to be adorable moe romantic fluff, and it succeeds admirably. The emphasis is more on romance here in this 2nd omnibus, but I was pleased to see that friendship is still given a huge spotlight – Sugi gets to be the ‘mature adviser’ type of friend, Tama-min the eccentric cutie, and we even get more development from Kuno and Taguchi, the other two girls in the main circle of friends. I was pleased to see that there was no effort made to pair up the other girls with each other… even though this isn’t overly realistic, having what’s called a “cast Full Of Gay” might have strained my credulity a bit.

It goes without saying that this is a great series that fans of yuri (and moe) will adore. That said, I do have one more very important complaint. If Akko is cosplaying Lum, then Mari should be Ataru… but she just doesn’t have the personality for it. Tama-min seems to have her cosplaying as Ryuunosuke, which she’s also unlikely to pull off, but I can see it if I squint. But if she’s doing Ryu, Akko needs to be Nagisa… which leads to even more problems. Tama-min needs to think these things through! Geez!

(Also, two of those omakes make me think that Milk Morinaga has watched too many 80s American sex comedies… Getting Lucky specifically.)

JManga the Week of 1/17

January 11, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and MJ 1 Comment

SEAN: There are only 3 manga series next week from JManga, but one of them is a biggie. Let’s get the other two out of the way first.

A 6th volume of PoyoPoyo’s Observation Diary means a 6th volume of adorable and funny 4-koma slice-of-life cat manga. I approve. (I may not *read*, but I approve…)

JManga has a 4th volume of Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance out incredibly fast, meaning I haven’t even had time to come up with a witticism for it. Bah.

And now for one I’ve really wanted to see. Miyabi Fujieda is one of the most popular yuri artists in the West, and his Iono-sama the Fanatics had half of its two volumes released by Infinity Studios before they folded. (It also had a character romanized as Fletch, something I bring up to Erica ALL THE TIME. It is unclear if her name was actually Irwin Fletcher. Somehow I doubt it. Also, Iono-sama really needed a female Irish cop…) Anyway! Ame-iro Kochakan Kandan may be better known here as Chatting at the Amber Teahouse, and it is absolutely adorable. I cannot wait to see it come out in English!

MICHELLE: That was definitely the only one on the list that excited me at all, so I’m glad to hear it’s absolutely adorable! I’d rather read adorable yuri than any other kind.

MJ: I’m with Michelle. As I so often am.

Manga the Week of 1/16

January 10, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 2 Comments

SEAN: I’ve noted before that Midtown doesn’t always (or even often) use Diamond Distribution to get their orders. As a result, sometimes you get weeks like this. The titles on Midtown’s list for next week arrived most places today. While Diamond is shipping Yen’s stuff to most stores (including mine) next week, but not Midtown. (Again, a reminder that I use Midtown’s list mostly as it’s first, rather than most accurate.)

With that in mind, here’s a fusion of both lists.

Kodansha has the second volume of Missions of Love, which continues to feature a hero and heroine who really aren’t very likeable, and a love rival who is headed that way. It’s fun seeing the reader having to work harder at identifying with everyone. Fun stuff.

MJ: Yeah. Fun…

MICHELLE: Sometimes my need to like characters prohibits me from enjoying shows/books that other people swear are great. This might be one of those times.

ANNA: I really have had no urge to check this out, and I suspect those feelings will continue.

SEAN: I did mean fun in a genuine and non-sarcastic sense, by the way. I quite enjoy this series.

Seven Seas has a slew of titles (most of which, as I noted, arrived today everywhere else). The one I like the best is the 2nd and final omnibus of Girl Friends, which I already praised in my Pick of the Week. Cute yuri fluff/angst.

MJ: I also adore Girl Friends, though I’ve only read it at JManga.

MICHELLE: Same here.

SEAN: Gunslinger Girl is almost finished with its run, which must mean it’s running out of people to kill off. Expect more of that in this omnibus, which contains the Japanese Vol. 13-14.

I Don’t Like You At All, Big Brother!! has an omnibus out as well. with Vols. 3-4. I can’t think of anything funny to say here that isn’t slanderous. Moving on…

MJ: Heh.

SEAN: I know nothing about Jack The Ripper: Hell Blade, a manwha series also from Seven Seas, but the covers to Vol. 1 through 3 (which is out next week) at least reassures me that it isn’t moe. Yay! (Is there a moe Jack the Ripper 4-koma series? Maybe with his sister Jill the Ripper having a tsundere crush on him? Sounds like a winner to me.)

SubLime has Vol. 3 of Punch Up!, whose cover art is complete and total win. Don’t care if it’s horribly offensive within. I can’t decide if it’s the cat with the ‘yay!’ face, or the glasses-wearing guy’s befuddled “now what was I doing again?… oh right, him” expression. It’s probably both. I do wish that SubLime provided bigger cover images, though…

MJ: From what I understand, Punch Up! is win all around! I gotta start reading this manga.

MICHELLE: I need to continue it! Loving the kitty footprint on the face, too.

SEAN: Yen Press, meanwhile, has a bevy of January releases. Black Butler has hit an even dozen, and continues to apparently be filled with supernatural antics and almost-but-not-quite-BL. But damn, it looks cool.

MJ: I think I am one of maybe three people who really can’t stand Black Butler. Sad, but true.

MICHELLE: I think it’s okay. It falls on the “worth reading” side of the scale for me, but doesn’t manage the heights of “worth rereading.”

ANNA: I did read the first volume of this and decided that was enough.

SEAN: Black God is up to Vol. 18. I know absolutely zilch about it, but now at least I have a group of people I can tag to gush about it for me. Michelle, MJ, gush away!

MJ: Well, hm. Collecting full series without reading them is usually Michelle’s MO, but I have to admit with shame that though I have the entire available run of Black God sitting in my shelf, I have yet to read any of it. This just change!

MICHELLE: Hey now, are you calling me out on my hoarding tendencies?! :) Actually, I’m doing far less of that these days, though I regret nothing when it comes to stuff from ten years ago that I’m very thankful to have snagged. Anyway, I too must admit that I have never read Black God. I do not have a good excuse. Sorry we have failed to provide the gushing you requested!

SEAN: A Bride’s Story is up to Vol. 4, and no doubt will continue to look lush and gorgeous, and feature a heroine that every other blogger in the world except me seems to connect with.

MJ: Though I do connect with the heroine, one thing I appreciated about volumes three and four, is that they are focused heavily on other characters. This is particularly poignant in volume three, but it doesn’t hurt volume four either. You might find more in it for you now?

MICHELLE: I haven’t started this one yet, though I was pondering doing so soon as there’s a new volume to discuss. So far, the only Mori I’ve read has been the first two volumes of Emma and her recent short story collection.

ANNA: I haven’t read volume 3 yet! But I did love Emma and will be catching up on this series eventually. I do love the fact that the editions are so nice.

SEAN: The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan continues to struggle with its slow start, something that is allowed in Japan but not North America, which is far more unforgiving to manga that take a while to get there. We’ve got one volume to go till the good stuff. Till then, enjoy the sweet fluff.

Soul Eater has reached a point where I can’t really divide it into arcs anymore. Disasters just pile one upon another until they seem to reach the sky. I presume the same thing will happen here. But it will look cool, the characterization will be magnificent, and the abstract art style will amaze me. (This is just a prediction, but I’m usually right.)

MICHELLE: This is the first description that’s ever made me want to read Soul Eater.

SEAN: Lastly, in the “not manga” category, Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore A Moonflower is out, the 6th in the series and the final stand-alone novel before the two-part finale. The title may be a mouthful, but this is probably the best light novel series I’ve seen brought over here to date. And for those who missed Maki in the last book, the ojou with a thing for our Book Girl heroine, she apparently features prominently in this one.

MJ: I haven’t read these either, and I really should, given that both you and Erica are fans.

MICHELLE: Now, here is an instance of a series where I’ve collected all the volumes so far without reading them. I swear I’ve got good intentions!

ANNA: I am slightly ashamed that I have not tried out any volumes of this series because usually as a librarian I would be all over any series with the phrase “Book Girl” in the title. One day I will read it!

SEAN: So what are you combining 3 different release lists to get?

Paradise Kiss, Vol. 2

January 10, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Ai Yazawa. Released in Japan by Shodensha, serialized in the magazine Zipper. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc.

The second volume of Paradise Kiss continues Yukari’s journey into the glamorous world of modeling, even though it’s also about finding that you can’t simply drop everything and start a new career with nothing to fall back on. It’s also about her growing feelings for George, and realizing that a relationship with him is likely going to be far more difficult than becoming a top model. And of course it’s also a josei manga by Ai Yazawa, even within its pages. George is put out that the plot changed in between chapters, he’s chided for reading the manga and seeing Yukari’s inner monologues, and Yukari even gets in on the act, noting that she’s the heroine and can control who the hero is by who she falls for. It does seem a bit odd having her break the fourth wall along with the others. Yukari is the one that’s supposed to be the grounded girl among these flighty artists.

But Yukari’s image of herself is changing. Miwako helps her land a modeling gig that her sister is designing for (more Neighborhood Story cameos, as fans once again whine that this never got licensed), and she pulls it off quite well. She then uses that contact to get in touch with an agency that wants to promote her. Yukari’s upbringing has basically stomped her self-image into the ground, so there’s a constant feeling from her of waiting for the other shoe to drop. But no, she is really good at this. The words of praise and encouragement from everyone but George help as well, and set up the emotional climax of this volume, where she reconciles with her mother and agrees to return to school (but still model). It’s great stuff.

The problem, of course, is that she’s also fallen for George, hard. And while he clearly has a desire to see her succeed, mature, and become strong, he also does not given her any sort of support or encouragement – at least not explicitly. Yukari has a tendency to overthink everything, so pairing her with a man who’s almost impossible to read is frustrating enough. But you get the feeling that, unlike the rest of the cast, if Yukari were to fail or not measure up to George’s ideals, he would simply move on. He doesn’t emotionally connect, unlike the rest of the cast. We do get more scenes here of Arashi and Miwako’s relationship troubles, and the fact that he’s still jealous and fearful of Hiro. They are both easy to relate to. George is not.

(Poor Arashi is also the only straight man in a cast filled with outlandish characters, and you can see that it exhausts him. This is why he needs to make up with Hiro – he’d finally have someone to take the pressure off.)

George is an incredibly popular character. He’s handsome, dashing, trying to be a good lover (physically, at least – and he’s not the best at that either, as is lampshaded in a conversation between him and Isabella). But he has no interest in the give of a give-and-take relationship, and thus is the sort of guy you like to read about but would hate to deal with in real life. The one time in the volume that he really seems to open up to Yukari is when he’s talking about the clothing that he’s designed. Which is great for a manga that runs in a fashion magazine, but, like Yukari, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. In the meantime, though, no one can deny that this is a glorious soap opera, well-told.

Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha Recap: January 7, 2013

January 9, 2013 by Derek Bown 3 Comments

There’s no real cure for a lazy writer than a topical issue that is updated every week. Thus, here we are, with a brand new column dedicated to celebrating the spearhead of digital and simultaneous manga publishing in the West: Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha.

The basic idea of this column is to provide my opinion of the most recent issue of WSJA, and to provide a forum for fans to share their own opinions on the latest Jump chapters. For those who hate reading but love listening to people talk about manga, fear not, just check out my podcast, new episodes posted the weekend after each issue comes out. You can find it at: Burning Lizard Studios

Without further ado, let’s see how the chapters this week fared. And yes, ye have been warned, there will be possible spoilers in these columns. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, but when talking about a story you kind of need to talk about the story. So I can’t make any promises.

One Piece Ch. 693
The thing about One Piece is that depending on who you’re talking to it’s the most satisfying manga to read on a weekly basis, or it’s complete gobbledegook. Well, if you’ve paid attention to what I’ve written in the past then you know I love One Piece more than any other shounen manga. And this week was as good as ever. Some would say that Oda’s artwork is cramped, and I can’t quite deny that, seeing as how I had that same reaction the first time I ever saw the manga. But the advantage of this is that we get a chunky bit of story every week. And with how large the cast of One Piece is, that’s an absolute requirement.

The majority of this chapter was setting up the finale of this arc. Caesar Clown looks like he’s about to get away scott free, if Baby Five manages to get past Franky. With the island possibly exploding it looks like we’re in for a close escape.

Naruto Ch. 614
Speaking of series with giant casts, Naruto is one of those series that could either use a little more content with each chapter, or at the very least spend a little more time focusing on the side characters. And even when it does focus on side characters, it’s never the ones that actually need the focus.

Case in point: A certain character is mortally wounded this chapter, and apparently dies. I’m not one to downplay tragedy, even when it’s fiction, but this really would have meant more if the certain character had actually done something in the past three hundred chapters.

It’s not like it’s impossible for an underused character’s death to be tragic; after all, Asuma’s death back in the early days of the time skip was actually well written and tragic. This is because right before killing Asuma, Kishimoto took the time to show us why him dying was tragic. His relationship with Kurenai was confirmed, and we get the revelation that they were about to have a child together. Coupled with the impact this has on his students it’s a pretty tragic moment. Granted I wasn’t entirely convinced because I personally would have preferred to see more of him before he was offed, but at the very least Kishimoto took the effort to make his death meaningful.

With the death in this chapter I have to admit that there’s still a chance that it will become more meaningful in later chapters. It just doesn’t help that I haven’t read anything substantial about this character in the past four years or more. The flashbacks to his scenes with Naruto early on in the manga don’t help much either. Rather they feel more like Kishimoto is waving them in our face, saying, “Remember how meaningful he was back when I bothered to do anything with characters other than Naruto and Sasuke? Feel bad!!!”

Nisekoi Ch. 56
It takes some serious writing chops to take a character like Marika Tachibana and actually make her interesting. We’ve seen her likes before. She’s the one everyone hates in the harem show—the arrogant one, the clingy one, the Shampoo, the Ayeka. The characters hate her, and the readers hate her. And yet, that really isn’t the case with Marika. Sure, her outer character is blatantly one-note, but those moments with her are actually entertaining, and there are just enough hints that there is more to her character—that she’s playing a part to keep us interested.

It also helps that Komi Naoshi is a genius at comedic facial expressions. I rarely get through a chapter of Nisekoi without finding an expression I love. This week the prize goes to Ruri, for her look of utter disgust at being ranked right under Shu.

Toriko Ch. 216
I love Toriko far more than I should, considering I haven’t even read all of it. I’ve read the first nine volumes, and everything that’s been published in WSJA. This one is a victim of Viz’s inability to provide the chapters leading up to the most recent in a way that is actually economically feasible. Thus I find myself stuck in a position where I can either read the most recent volumes and wait for those to catch up with the chapters first published in WSJA, or I can find alternative ways to catch up. At the moment I’m holding strong with just reading the volumes, so here’s hoping we catch up soon.

I love cooking, and I love shounen fighters, so this is a match made in heaven. Especially with the most recent arc being a cooking festival. This is where I’ve truly fallen in love with the series. All the colorful characters, the way something as simple as food and cooking can fascinate an entire world. All of it together is just wonderful, and the introduction of Brunch these past chapters has been a great addition. This chapter itself is a bit on the weaker side, since it skims over most of the competition to introduce the final matches. Personally I would have loved to see more of the preliminaries, but considering how many chefs were involved I’m thinking this was probably for the best.

Cross Manage Ch. 15
I don’t particularly care for sports manga, nor am I making the mistake of getting too attached to brand new Jump series. Experience has taught me that new series have to be phenomenally lucky to actually survive to the point where they really become entertaining.

A lot of Cross Manage has been focusing more on the development of the main characters than the actual sport of lacrosse. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, considering that lacrosse is presented more as a setting rather than the driving force of the story. But I really would like to spend some more time with the extended cast. I like series like this, where superficially it’s about a sport, but really it’s about the large cast of characters. So I find myself at a loss for what to do with a series that promises shounen manga, but then gives me a shoujo manga.

Not to say a shounen with shoujo tendencies is a bad thing, I actually find it hilarious that Cross Manage is potentially fooling people into believing it’s a shounen manga, when it so clearly isn’t.

At the very least we’ll get to see some more lacrosse, with perhaps some more focus on the ancillary characters during this tournament arc. I’d love to see this manga continue, but considering the fates of Barrage and Takama-ga-hara, I’m not too optimistic about Cross Manage‘s chances.

Bleach Ch. 521
Is it just me, or would Kubo be happier if he replaced his entire cast with big breasted women? Or just women in general. It seems to me that there is nothing he loves more than expanding a story that should take a fourth of the time it takes, and that’s drawing attractive women. Now, as a straight male I have absolutely no problem with this whatsoever. However, as a fan of manga, and fiction in general, I would appreciate if a bit more care went into the story. I’ve mentioned One Piece as an example of a manga that has a lot of material every week; well Bleach is the exact opposite. Kubo’s biggest problem, and there are some doubts that this is entirely his fault, is that he just doesn’t have enough material per chapter. A chapter of One Piece may take me a quarter of an hour to read. I can get through a chapter of Bleach in about five to eight minutes. There just isn’t enough to sink your teeth into on a weekly basis.

To be fair to this chapter, I’ve always liked Kubo’s sense of comedy. It’s not necessarily what he does best, but in my opinion he does it pretty well. The overall comedic sense of this chapter might throw some people off, but I for one at least enjoyed it. I look forward to next week’s chapter where we get to find out about the origin of Zanpakuto.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Ch. 25
Just this first column alone has taught me something important about being a manga reviewer. Sometimes you have to read something you don’t want to read. Sometimes you have to read a chapter based on an anime, based on a card game, based on a manga that by all accounts was pretty decent but has since turned into a monster of a franchise.

I’ve only ever watched the first Yu-Gi-Oh! series. And not even all of that. I’ve never read the manga. Nor have I ever read the manga (besides a few chapters) of the spin-off series. The problem with a manga like this is that it’s a tie-in media for the anime, and in my personal experience that tends to be a code phrase for, “Not very good at all.” There’s an element of laziness that creeps through in the adaptation from a different media to the graphic novel media.

But, let us not allow my bias to cloud my vision of this chapter of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. What do I really think of the chapter? To be honest I don’t have a clue. Like Toriko, this series has the disadvantage of having several chapters published before it made its way into WSJA. But unlike Toriko I refuse to spend money to catch up on this series.

Superficially this is the most Yu-Gi-Oh! of all the series. The hair alone would put any glam rock band to shame. At least with the original series all the crazy hair looked fairly anime standard. With this one it looks like all the characters are Yugi poser wannabes. How many different shades of color can one head of hair have!?

This series even goes so far as to introduce technology that would be a lot more effective at resolving the conflict than a bunch of cards. Someone kidnaps your little brother? Forget the cards, you’ve got a jetpack! Fly up there and save the kid!

I will admit that a lot of my complaints stem from never really getting into this franchise. So at the very least I can say that were I invested in the series I might be more positive about this. But since I am not, I have gone from the original series to this, which is a bit of a jarring transition to say the least. As an outsider I can say that what I’m looking at is pretty ludicrous, but as an outsider I readily accept the fact that I just might be missing something.

That wraps up this week’s recap, join me next week as we continue our journey towards legally reading Jump chapters at the same time as Japan. If you want to know my opinion on last week’s chapters, check out my podcast, Manga^3 for the latest in manga news and commentary: http://www.mediafire.com/?09m5dfpi5lx92tf

07 Ghost Vol 1 Giveaway

January 9, 2013 by Anna N

I have an extra copy of 07 Ghost #1, so I thought I would start off the new year with a giveaway!

To win, just comment on this post with your favorite manga or reading related gift you got (or got yourself) for the holidays!

One of my favorite self-gifted manga was the Nausicaa Box Set from Viz, it is a real treat. It isn’t often that manga feels like a luxury item, but this is a definite “treat yourself” type of item.

I also treated myself during the Viz Digital Sale and bought myself a large portion of the middle volumes of Kekkaishi, which is an excellent series that I’ve always meant to read more of.

I got a kindle paperwhite for Hanukkah, and I have been enjoying reading ebooks on it! I have a first generation iPad and the contrast in weight between the two devices is really quite staggering.

Giveaway will be open for one week!

This giveaway is now closed.

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Eleventh Son

January 8, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

It is high time that I actually write a post about Gu Long, so here it is.

But First, the Story

Xiao has a reputation as a notorious bandit (even though nobody’s proven he committed any crime), and ends up rescuing Shen, who is The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (there are so many Most Beautiful Women in the World in wuxia fiction that it’s ridiculous – this gets lampshaded in Passionate Wastrel, Infatuated Hero where they keep a bloody list of the most beautiful women in the world, which Zhao Guan takes exception to). Xiao and Shen end up spending a few months together, and fall in love with other. Alas, Shen is already married, to a handsome, strong, skilled, rich, well-mannered young man no less. Oh, and she’s pregnant (with her husband’s child).

Anyway, Xiao has his own matters to deal with, being an outlaw and all. Eventually, Shen’s family is murdered and Xiao is accused. Things get pretty gnarly…

Now, I Talk about Gu Long

Gu Long, along with Jin Yong (discussed previously many times in this column) and Liang Yusheng (discussed here), is considered one of the three great writers of “new wuxia”. I actually prefer to call it “Cold War wuxia” since, you know, a new generation of wuxia writers has already emerged. Gu Long is also one of the four great (Cold War) wuxia writers of Taiwan, of which he is certainly the most popular.

What I respect about Gu Long is that he created his own personal style of wuxia, and was never content with his success – he always strove to push the wuxia genre and his own craft to the limit of his ability. As such, his works feel unique, both distinct from other wuxia writers, and distinct from each other.

Gu Long studied foreign literature in college, so it should come as no surprise that his works are heavily influenced by non-Asian literature. That isn’t to say that other wuxia writers weren’t influenced by foreign writers – Jin Yong was certainly influenced by classical Greek literature and Alexandre Dumas – but studying foreign literature is one of the things which helped Gu Long break away from the conventions of the genre and make his own kind of wuxia. Some of the foreign writers who influenced him include Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming, John Steinbeck, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

I’m tempted to say that Gu Long’s works are ‘wuxia noir’, except his work is so diverse that I think that is too limiting.

Writing Style

Some people say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Right now, I think thousands of words are worth taking pictures of.

Here is a random page from The Bride with White Hair.

Those paragraphs are … well-sized. Actually, these paragraphs seem a bit shorter than average for Liang Yusheng – it’s not unusually for a paragraph to take up an entire page (yes, even in this big-page format). Furthermore, Liang Yusheng uses quite a range of vocabulary.

Here is a random page from a Jin Yong novel.

That is a wall of words alright. And not just any words – the vocabulary required to read this is significantly more advanced than needed to read Liang Yusheng. I reckon it took me about 90 hours to read Shè Diāo Yīngxióng Zhuàn. It’s not just non-native readers who think Jin Yong is hard – I’ve met Taiwanese people who claim they can’t read Jin Yong novels because it’s too hard (on the other hand, I’ve also seen 10-year-olds reading Jin Yong novels).

Now what about Gu Long? Here’s a random page:

It’s heavy on dialogue, and even the non-dialogue paragraphs are awfully short, heck, most of the sentences are short too. It’s not just the paragraph/sentence length – the vocabulary is also much more basic. Granted, Gu Long occasionally uses pretty advanced vocabulary, but even so, when it comes to difficulty, he’s definitely not in the same league as Jin Yong or Liang Yusheng.

I think you now understand why some learners of Chinese interested in wuxia choose to start with Gu Long.

The fact that Gu Long chooses to write mostly dialogue and sentences which are much shorter than what is standard for Chinese literature (or even conversational Chinese) definitely affects the mood. Whereas Jin Yong will go into a loving digression about tea or something, Gu Long can be so brief it’s stark.

Gu Long and Gender

Ha, I could dedicate an entire post to this topic.

Some people say that Gu Long is the most misogynist of wuxia writers. Other people say that Gu Long wrote better and showed more respect female characters than other wuxia writers.

I partially agree with both sides.

I think Gu Long has earned reputation as a misogynist. No other wuxia writer I’m familiar with comes anywhere close to saying anything as vile as what Gu Long says about women in some of his works. To be fair, the most misogynist remarks are concentrated in the villains’ mouths, however the narrator and protagonists are also guilty, and even if it’s in the villain’s mouth, it’s not much fun to read.

Now, I don’t think there is any respect in which one could claim that Gu Long writes better female characters or is more gender-egalitarian than Zheng Feng or Liang Yusheng. There are certain respects in which I think Gu Long handles female characters in a more egalitarian manner than Jin Yong or certain other wuxia writers … but in my opinion, this is more than outweighed by the misogynist bile that Gu Long sometimes pours out. It’s my impression that a much higher percentage of Jin Yong fans than Gu Long fans are female, and I think it’s because that it’s because, overall, Jin Yong is simply friendlier to a female audience.

But it’s not the sexism which most bothers me about Gu Long. It’s the gender-rigidity. Like I said, Gu Long’s works have quite a bit of variety, and some of his works are much less misogynist than others. However, everything I’ve read by him is full of statements like “All men do X because they are men” and “Women always do X. Otherwise, they would feel bad.” First of all, this erases anybody who doesn’t conform to the gender binary While I wouldn’t call Jin Yong or Liang Yusheng champions of gender diversity, they do have some characters who are not cis-gendered. But even among cis-people, there is greater differences between people of the same gender than there are between different genders. While I think there are biological between the sexes, I think gender is a social construct, and that most of the “differences” between female and male are driven by society, not biology. I strongly take exception to Gu Long’s policing of gender roles, which is far more stringent than any other writer I’ve encountered in Chinese.

I will give credit to Gu Long for offering his characters more flexibility vis-a-vis gender in Happy Heroes (which was translated into French as Les quatre brigand du Huabei), but that seems to be the exception, not the rule, for Gu Long.

Why is Gu Long more wretched than his Chinese-speaking precedents and contemporaries? I can’t definitely answer that question … but remember how I mentioned that he was strongly influenced by foreign literature? Among other things, he was influenced by the James Bond novels … and one of the lines in The Spy Who Loved Me is (trigger warning) “All women love semi-rape. They love to be taken.”

Gu Long, to his credit, has written with sensitivity at least one female character who had experienced rape, and has never managed to make a statement quite that terrible. Nonetheless, he is the only wuxia writer I know who I could ever imagine saying anything like that. Overall, his gender-policing seems to be derived much more from European and American writers than Chinese writers.

Women in The Eleventh Son

Fortunately, The Eleventh Son is quite tolerable when it comes to gender, at least by Gu Long standards. Shen, as The Most Beautiful Woman in the World, could have easily just been a fantasy object, but she’s a fully realized character with a vibrant inner life. She tries to figure why she is not in love with her fantastic husband, she is very attached to her birth family and visits them regularly, she isn’t sure how to deal with Xiao, etc. In fact, she has so much going on that she hardly has brain space left to think about her pregnancy.

Shen’s also not always a helpless victim – she has mastered a bad-ass martial art technique courtesy of her family (and thus is heavily tied up with her feelings about her family), and ends up rescuing Xiao more than once. Eventually, she is the one who decides how to resolve the love triangle between Xiao, her husband, and herself.

Additionally, another female character ends up starting a successful new romance in her mid-to-late thirties (I don’t remember her exact age).

Availability in English

This novel has been published in English.

Ha, I bet you weren’t expecting that!

I haven’t read the translation myself, but the reviews I’ve read claim that it’s excellent.

Conclusion

I actually discussed Gu Long more than this novel specifically, didn’t I? That’s probably because I think this is less interesting than the other Gu Long novels I’ve read. It’s not that it’s a bad novel – it’s fast-moving and I got involved in the story and all – it’s just that I can’t think of much to say about it.

If you can read French, I recommend Les quatre brigands du Huabei (my favorite Gu Long novel so far) over this one. In fact, if The Eleventh Son hadn’t been translated into English, I would have probably chosen to write a post about Happy Heroes/Les quatre brigands du Huabei instead. However, if you can’t read French/Chinese/etc., then I actually highly recommend reading this novel. Gu Long is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, and this is quite different from anything I’ve read in English. Most importantly, it is a fun read.

Next Time: Night Market Hero (film)

Sara K. sometimes wonders why she spends so my effort reading, watching, and writing about stuff in Chinese. After all, the global economy is speeding head-first into another crisis, the too-big-to-fail-banks and other oligarchical/monopolistic corporations have murdered democracy in the United States (and other countries), and if we don’t make radical changes right now, climate change will kill off at least 90% of the human population within 30 years. Shouldn’t she be spending her energy dealing with these issues instead? However, she also thinks that the power of popular culture is underestimated, and needs to be examined.