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Drama Diary 1-24-13: Love Rain

January 24, 2013 by MJ 2 Comments

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

January 24, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

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)

Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower

January 24, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Mizuki Nomura. Released in Japan by Enterbrain. Released in North America by Yen Press.

One of the main themes of the Book Girl series has been elements of the past seemingly overlaying with elements of the present, and our heroes and other protagonists finding themselves trapped in a seeming reimagining of past crimes. Konoha, our hero, is especially notorious for seeing his relationship with Miu mirrored and kaleidoscoped in virtually everything he interacts with, but it also plays out with Takada, Akutagawa, and the other members of the cast. Including a girl from the 2nd novel named Hotaru Amemiya, whose presence is felt in this 6th book of the Book Girl series.

This novel takes place chronologically between books 2 and 3 (Famished Spirit and Captive Fool), during Tohko and Konoha’s summer break. That said, it reads better having come after the others, and has significant foreshadowing for the last two books, so it’s well-placed here. It also delves into the story of Maki Himekura, which isn’t too surprising, given she’s the one remaining main cast member who didn’t get a book of their own. I had worried that Famished Spirit would be all we saw of her, but that was Amemiya’s book, and its consequences play out a bit here, as we see Maki unchained, to a degree. Or rather, that’s what she wants to be.

Each Book Girl novel focuses on a specific work, and this one is no exception. I admit I’ve never read Kyoya Izumi’s play Demon Pond (I’m not even certain if it’s available in English), but its plot it helpfully laid out by Tohko along the way, so there’s no real need to. This book is also heavily imbued with demons and the supernatural, just like Famished Spirit, and even though most all of the ghostly elements are eventually explained as being all too human, the book has an atmosphere of tension, sort of like the old haunted castle romances of the turn of the 20th century.

This book takes place at the Himekura summer estate, so Takeda, Akutagawa and Kotobuki are absent. We do get to see Ryuto, however, Tohko’s cousin, and it becomes clear that Maki isn’t the only one deeply affected by the events in Famished Spirit. He and Maki clash immediately, with physical as well as verbal abuse. Not a surprise given how they’re both extroverted, flamboyant characters. As for Maki herself, she’s trapped in a situation that fans of Japanese manga with rich girls will know all too well – her life is already laid out for her and she can’t escape the thumb of her all-controlling grandfather. This helps explain (though not excuse) some of the rather unpleasant things she does in this book.

As for Konoha and Tohko, things are seemingly the same as ever. We get a classic Konoha panic attack here (though he’s just been kidnapped and is lost in a forest during a downpour, so I’ll grant him this one), and Tohko once again has a long speech at the end where she lays everything out for the cast, something that always seems a bit affected in these books, but fits the character perfectly. However, we also get a few hints of the final two books. Ryuto gives Konoha some prompts that, when eaten, given Tohko an altogether different attitude, and the final few pages of the book show Tohko in a highly melancholic state over the fact that soon she won’t be able to be with Konoha anymore. (The answer being ‘she’s graduating’, but given who Tohko is and the way this scene is written, it makes it *sound* as if she may have some wasting disease or something. I doubt the series is that downbeat, however.)

All five previous books of this series have bold type showing the inner monologue of the volume’s protagonist or antagonist, be that Takeda, Akutagawa, or whoever. Interestingly, the epilogue to this book’s bold type not only gives us a hint of Maki’s eventual fate (not sure how I feel about it, but that’s just the shipper in me talking), but reveals who the actual author of these pieces may be. If you’ve been reading along, it’s not much of a surprise, but the fact that we’re seeing it shows that we’re definitely getting all the cards laid out now. All that’s left is the final Book Girl story, which is so epic it will take two books to cover.

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: January 21, 2013

January 23, 2013 by Derek Bown 4 Comments

This is it! The big week! When what most thought would be impossible became possible—simultaneous releases of Shonen Jump manga. Back when WSJA first started a year ago I thought that while it was a little sad that we couldn’t get simultaneous releases, it was still the best thing we’d gotten. And it was more than enough for me. I figured that simultaneous releases were an inevitability, but never would I have imagined we would get them just a year later.

With the simultaneous releases the Alpha phase is over. And the magazine has been renamed: Weekly Shonen Jump. And since this will cause confusion between the Japanese print magazine and our e-magazine I propose we call it Weekly Shonen Jump Online.

There was a slight hiccup with the release on Monday, in my case at least. This may not have been experienced by other readers, but it took a day for the WSJ section in my viz app to be updated, and during that time I couldn’t get to even my old copies of WSJA. Fortunately this was a minor problem, since the browser-based reader was perfectly functional.

But enough of that, let us take a look at the first chapters we get to read simultaneous with Japan.

Naruto Ch. 616
Naruto managed to leave little impression, which is possibly the best I can say about a manga that I honestly can’t say I’ve enjoyed in a good few years. The concept of sharing chakra felt out of place, mostly because it’s been so long that I can’t remember if that was ever brought up before. If it was, then my dissatisfaction is a matter of my poor memory. If not then the fault lies entirely of improper set up.

I did enjoy the color spread, it seems forever since Naruto has gotten one of those. It harkened back to the days when Team 7 were the main characters, and only served to remind me that Sakura’s development was abandoned by the roadside ages ago.

One Punch Man Ch. 001
We tend not to get all that much from the superhero scene in Japan over here, to the point that sometimes I tend to forget they do have the genre. It just doesn’t appear that often in manga. Sure there are super-powered characters, but few of them are actual superheroes. And while the superhero genre in Japan is somewhat different from what we are used to in the West, it follows similar tropes as our own. So it is odd that one of the rare examples of superheroes in manga happens to be a parody.

It only took me one chapter to fall in love with this series. There’s something charming about the idea of a superhero who is so powerful that he beats all his enemies in one punch—no specific powers, no real reason for them—he just punches enemies and they die. One would think that gimmick would run dry fast. But somehow the execution saves it and I look forward to seeing more predictable yet hilarious fights.

One Piece Ch. 695
While this was mostly a chapter to show off Nami and Usopp’s abilities further, I have to say that once again One Piece had one of the strongest chapters in WSJ. There’s an innate charm in the series that just can’t be beat. Even the proud declaration that the two will fight any injured and retreating enemy is less a character flaw and more a funny quirk.

While it may be based in gender stereotypes, I still love the General Franky jokes. All the men, adult and children, love that robot and all the women, adult and child, just don’t get it. Sure there are women who like giant robots, but even a joke playing on stereotypes can be funny if it’s done without malice.

Nisekoi Ch. 058
It was good to get a chapter focusing on Ruri. While she isn’t one of the main characters, she’s still one of the more entertaining characters. And while she’s normally the serious character, she gets a lot of good laughs, as well as some impressive character development.

I find this an example of my favorite type of manga. An ongoing story is all good and fine, but I like it most when each chapter can stand on its own and do so without seeming too short or forced. In my opinion some of the best manga manages to tell a single story in a chapter and then move on to the next story without sacrificing quality.

Bleach Ch. 523
I really used to love this manga. It was one of the first I read all the way through, before I ever read One Piece or Naruto. For a while I loved Bleach more than even One Piece. And then we get chapters like this one. While the ideas are interesting, they showcase the dangers of weekly serialization. While it’s interesting to finally meet the man who creates zanpakuto, and to learn that zanpakuto start off blank and are then written over by their owner’s spirit essence, it does beg the question: Where did Ichigo get his zanpakuto? Not the aspect of it that is part of his spirit, but the actual, physical sword. He didn’t take Rukia’s, since hers was already written over with her powers. So where did he get a blank to write over with his powers?

The biggest problem here is that while this is a cool idea, Kubo unfortunately has already written parts of the story that contradict what he’s saying here. And while it’s a limitation of the medium, I can’t help but feel that at some point manga writers have to suck it up and decide that certain ideas won’t work because they contradict what has been said elsewhere.

I could go on forever about this chapter, mostly in regards to how this chapter managed to destroy all respect I had for Kyoraku. Why would anyone think that training one soldier by losing the other is a good idea? It reeks of false drama that had to be forced in to make use care about a story element that is pretty weak.

Cross Manage Ch. 017
I do like this manga, but I feel like I may join the crowds predicting its demise. While this was a good chapter, it resolved the match much faster than I would have expected. I don’t get the feeling that we will be getting much development for the other characters—that all the time allotted this series has been spent with our leads because the author doesn’t expect the series to last much longer. It would be a shame to see Cross Manage go, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Toriko Ch. 218
This chapter was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t bad, it just took the story in a different direction than what I was hoping for. I would have liked to see more of the cooking tournament. Seeking the Gourmet Corps attack so soon in the series certainly caught me off guard, but it seemed like a much more distant threat. I imagine that the outcome of this event will be the kidnapping of Komatsu, which would take the story in an interesting, if predictable, direction.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal Ch. 026
There really isn’t much more I could say about this series that I haven’t already said. Without the necessary context I can’t say I’m equipped to properly comment. A card game happened, there is little more I can say than that.

Want more? Go listen to last week’s episode for a more in depth look at WSJA. Episode 031 – January 14, 2013 – Don’t Be a Jerk Just Enjoy Your Manga and Fairy Tail Vol. 4 Check out other past episodes: Manga^3

Kekkaishi, Vols. 10-15

January 23, 2013 by Anna N

I absolutely adored the first few volumes of Kekkaishi. It is rare for me to find a shonen series that I like that features art that is both clear and visually arresting combined with plenty of character development, adventure, and the occasional bit of humor. But even though I liked what I’d read when I started reading the series back in 2010, the length of the series at 35 volumes made me a bit hesitant to commit to collecting it. I’ve had volumes 20-25 stockpiled for future reading for some time now, but the Viz digital sale during the holidays and my rapidly diminishing bookshelf space prompted me to pick up 10-19 for my iPad.

These volumes feature Yoshimori in the middle phases of his shonen hero journey. He’s a little bit more self-assured and more confident and slightly less goofy around girl next door and fellow Kekkaishi Tokine. There are glimmerings of great power that make the suggestion that he’s “the chosen one” seem plausible, but he hasn’t yet fully grown into his abilities. Tanabe does a good job fitting in more episodic adventures into the larger mystery that Yoshimori is pursuing as he tries to find out the truth behind the mystical Karasumori site he is sworn to protect.

Volumes 10 and 11 deal with a powerful attack and the aftermath when powerful opponents visit the Karasumori site. Gen, Yoshimori’s new ally who is uneasy in his skin due to his half akashi nature, but he tries to help out Yoshimori as best he can. A fox princess and her retainers are visiting the site so she can gain power, which gives Tanabe the chance to create some lovely scenes where a pavilion is transported via gianty dragonfly ships, piloted by a spider-like woman, and accompanied by ninjas who drop out of the black clouds filling the sky.

Yoshimori’s brother is away on Night Troops business, casually flying through the air on a translucent Kekkai cube, talking strategy to Gen on his cell phone. Yoshimori, Tokine, and Gen band together to defend their site, with more strategy and skill than their opponents expect. Gen finds more acceptance than he anticipates from Yoshimori when he reveals his true powers, but he’s surprised by a sneak attack. The Fox Princess, expecting to find rejuvenating power, starts getting sick instead from the site. One of the reasons why I enjoy Kekkaishi so much is that it is able to portray a variety of emotional states in just a few pages, without ever feeling rushed. Yoshimori grieves the loss of his friend, then decides that he’s determined to exact revenge and become stronger. There’s a funny sequence where he tries to join forces with Tokine’s grandmother, and since she’s trying her best to dodge him, he brings a secret weapon – not a new mystical power but a skateboard. Tanabe’s akashi designs are always interesting – one of the foes the Night troops fight when they attack Kokuboro is a giant blobby monster baby.

Yoshimori’s unique powers cause him to be kidnapped and taken hostage by the Kokuboro, something that he doesn’t seem to mind all that much because he wants to destroy the akashi who took out Gen. Volumes 12 and 13 center on the battle with Kokuboro, as Yoshimori travels through his enemy’s castle in search of Kaguro. Yoshimori runs into Sen and an old friend of his grandfather’s along the way. Kaguro likes to toy with his opponents and play mind games with them. While he taunts Yoshimori, the young hero manifests a new power of destruction – a zekkai. The Night Troops come to the rescue just as the world of Kokuboro begins to crumble, and Masamori has to help deal with the aftermath of the odd power his younger brother suddenly manifested. In Kekkaishi each battle prompts moments of emotional revelation, and a big one occurs when Tokine confronts Yoshimori about his actions when he finally returns home. There are then a few stolen moments of normalcy, as Tokine goes back to her usual lectures while the friends walk to school, and Yoshimori escapes into the kitchen once again for his dessert experiments.

In volumes 14 a new ally named Takeshi appears, on the hunt for an evil spirit named Jaren who destroyed his master. Takeshi’s enthusiasm and explosive personality almost make him a parody of a shonen hero, but things quickly turn serious when the new friends confront Jaren, whose proclivities towards psychological manipulation make battle difficult. Things can’t be all doom and gloom and angsty battles, so when Yoshimori is visited by a crow goblin seeking help because his master has grown overly flirtatious, Yoshimori finds himself drawn into an odd adventure. Things take a turn for the surreal when odd black boxes start popping up that serve as portals to the home of a very disturbed man. A young, timid member of the night troops is trapped, but she ends up being remarkably resourceful with her very specific powers.

Revisiting this series reminded me of just how enjoyable shonen manga can be when it is really well done. The pacing in Kekkaishi is excellent, as Tanabe swings back and forth between epic battles and shorter episodic encounters. The fights in Kekkaishi are rarely just for the sake of fighting, as each confrontation generally leads Yoshimori into a little bit more knowledge about either the nature of the site he is protecting or how best to manage his own powers. There are plenty of manga that sacrifice clarity for looking cool – producing action scenes that are difficult to follow or overly detailed panels that end up distracting from the story. Kekkaishi’s art is easy to follow, but many of the character designs and scenes remain in my mind after I’ve finished reading a volume. I’m a little annoyed at myself for waiting so long to continue reading this series, but I’m glad that have so many volumes waiting on my to read stack now.

Shonen Jump takes a giant leap

January 22, 2013 by Brigid Alverson

Big changes at Viz yesterday as Shonen Jump Alpha became Weekly Shonen Jump and starts releasing new chapters the same day they come out in Japan. Editor-in-chief Andy Nakatani has all the details at ICv2, and former Shonen Jump editor-in-chief Hisashi Sasaki also discusses the Japanese digital scene and why the editors decided to let the two magazines go in sync.

Ash Brown is hosting this month’s Manga Moveable Feast, which features the work of Moyoco Anno, at Experiments in Manga. Erica Friedman has a guest post about how she got turned on to Sakuran, and Ash’s weekly roundup includes three short reviews of Anno’s manga.

Johanna Draper Carlson is skeptical about Tokyopop’s newest incarnation, and she notes that Kodansha won’t be picking up any more of the old Del Rey series.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week as well as this week’s new releases in print and on JManga. MJ and Michelle Smith discuss The Heart of Thomas in their latest BL Bookrack column, and MJ discusses what she has been reading lately in her most recent My Week in Manga video. And in the magazine department, Erica Friedman takes a look a look at Big Comic Superior and Derek Bown recaps the latest issue of Shonen Jump Alpha.

Dave Roman is serializing the next volume of Astronaut Academy online, and in a blog post on that site, he has some suggestions for manga that non-manga readers might like, based on their tastes in comics.

Jason Thompson takes a look at Japan As Viewed by 17 Creators in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Lissa Pattillo reflects that Digital Manga seems to be putting yaoi on the back burner. Lissa also surveyed the most recent manga releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

The Manga Village team takes a look at 2012 in the rear view mirror, and Katherine Hanson lists her top 11 yuri moments of 2012 at Yuri no Boke.

News from Japan: The nominees for the Manga Taisho Awards have been announced; the only one that is licensed in the U.S. right now is A Bride’s Story.

Reviews:

Connie on vol. 10 of 13th Boy (Slightly Biased Manga)
Jocelyne Allen on 25 Ji no Vacances (Brain Vs. Book)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Afterschool Charisma (The Comic Book Bin)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 1 of Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit (ANN)
Naru on All the Time (Organization ASG)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 17 of Bakuman (The Comic Book Bin)
Theron Martin on vol. 16 of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order (ANN)
Connie on vol. 23 of Blade of the Immortal (Slightly Biased Manga)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 7 of Case Closed (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 45 of Case Closed (The Comic Book Bin)
Connie on Cross Game, Eyeshield 21, and Real (Comics Should Be Good)
Kristin on Danza (Comic Attack)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Connie on vol. 1 of Don’t Blame Me (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vols. 21 and 22 of Fairy Tail (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 20 of Higurashi When They Cry (ANN)
Carlo Santos on vol. 8 of House of Five Leaves (ANN)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 10 of Jormungand (The Comic Book Bin)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 36 of Negima! (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Elie Byun on vol. 1 of Neon Genesis Evangelion (omnibus edition) (Anime Expo)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 5 of Oh My Goddess (Blogcritics)
Connie on vol. 17 of Ouran High School Host Club (Slightly Biased Manga)
Helen on vol. 1 of Please Save My Earth (Narrative Investigations)
Andre Paploo on vol. 8 of Raiders (Kuriousity)
Lori Henderson on Sakuran (Manga Xanadu)
Connie on vol. 3 of Scent of Apple Blossoms (Slightly Biased Manga)
Rebecca Silverman on vol. 2 of Soul Eater NOT! (ANN)
Richard Bruton on vol. 3 of Summit of the Gods (Forbidden Planet)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (Blogcritics)

It Came from the Sinosphere: Lee Chi-Ching’s The Laughing Proud Wanderer

January 22, 2013 by Sara K. 11 Comments

An Example Scene

Linghu Chong notices that the young woman whom he is still very sweet on, Yue Lingshan, is unhappy.

Furthermore, he notices that her father and husband don’t care that she’s unhappy. He tries to think of a socially appropriate way to cheer her up.

Linghu Chong remembers that, when he was a part of Yue Lingshan’s family, he could always cheer her up by losing to her in a sword fight (without letting her know that he lost on purpose). Therefore, he figures the best way to cheer her up is to challenge her to duel.

Notice how the artwork first shows Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan’s intense gazes, then goes back to show how the fight looks to the crowd – i.e. Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan have now entered their own world, oblivious to everyone else.

The crowd notices that, while the fight is intense, the feeling is not of intense enmity, but a feeling of intense love. Somebody even remarks that it seems like they are dancing rather than fighting (ha, I am *not* the only person to consider the fights in Chinese martial arts fiction to be a kind of dancing).

I love those flowers. Methinks the artist has been exposed to shoujo manga.

This fight is bringing back Linghu Chong and Yue Lingshan’s memories of practising swordplay at Mount Hua, which was the happiest period in both of their lives. In fact, they are using the sword technique that they themselves made up together.

And this is why Jin Yong writes the best fights. Anyone who invests the time it takes to be a good martial artist has pretty strong feelings about it, and in Jin Yong stories, the fights are a key means by which characters express their feelings, grow, and mature. I have yet to encounter another storyteller who so thoroughly integrates combat and the characters’ emotional journeys.

Yue Lingshan’s husband is jealous. Personally, since he doesn’t care about his wife’s happiness (or lack thereof), I think he has forfeited his prerogative to feel jealous.

A sword has been launched into the air!

And it lands on Linghu Chong’s back (Linghu Chong let this happen so that Yue Lingshan would win).

Everyone, especially Yue Lingshan herself, is shocked that she injured Linghu Chong, except Linghu Chong, who is busy enduring the pain of having a sword in his back.

The reader knows that purposefully losing this duel is a potential disaster for Linghu Chong and the people he is responsible for, but it would take at least a paragraph to explain the context, so I’ll just say that the reader should feel an impending sense of doom at this point.

Background

The Laughing Proud Wanderer is, of course, one of Jin Yong’s more famous novels. It should not come as a surprise to anyone who read my post about Lee Chi-Ching’s The Eagle-Shooting Heroes that I would eventually review the other manhua adaptation of a Jin Yong novel. This novel is also special to me for a personal reason, but I plan to discuss that in a future post.

The Laughing Proud Wanderer was written during the Cultural Revolution in China, and it’s pretty obvious that Cold War politics strongly influenced the novel. Some people even go so far as to say that it’s a political allegory. I prefer not to interpret it as an allegory, but allegories are fun, so I’m going to describe the story in allegorical terms using the most common interpretation (Five Mountain Sword Sects = Soviet Union, etc.)

Story

Linghu Chong is a disciple of the Hua Mountain Sect, which is part of the Soviet Union. He a bit of a loose cannon. He tries to do the right thing, but this sometimes gets him in trouble. Furthermore, in situations when most Jin Yong heroes would run away, he says, “Bwa ha ha ha ha ha, I am Linghu Chong, I’m NOT SCARED OF YOU! HA HA HA HA HA!” even when he is clearly no match for whatever he’s facing, which leads to him getting bashed up a lot and spending at least half of the story recovering from injuries he could have avoided by running away. It’s a bit astonishing that he manages to survive all this.

Anyway, the Soviet Union is sworn enemies with the Chinese Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, and has a … tense relationship with Shaolin, Wudang, and Emei, which belong to NATO.

Linghu Chong gets kicked out of the Hua Mountain Sect, which causes him much angst because he has been brainwashed by the Soviet Union, and is in love with his shifu’s daughter, Yue Lingshan. During his wanderings, he encounters another young woman, Ren Yingying, and slowly develops a relationship with her, but then it’s revealed that she is part of the Chinese Communist Party. which, according to the Soviet Union, is totally evil.

Of course, the intrigue gets thicker. Joseph Stalin, who already leads the most powerful sect in the Soviet Union, wants to bring the entire Soviet Union under his control, and Mao Zedong has imprisoned Ren Yingying’s father and taken over the Chinese Communist Party. Linghu Chong does not want to deal with this, but he has a clue of what’s at stake and, unfortunately for him, NATO, the Chinese Communist Party, and especially the Soviet Union want to deal with him.

Artwork

Many of the comments I made about the artwork in Lee Chi Ching’s The Eagle-Shooting Heroes also apply to this manhua, though there aren’t nearly as many tears in this one. Linghu Chong is the *laughing/smiling* proud wanderer, not the weepy proud wanderer.

Lee Chi-Ching is still a master of depicting movements of the human body.

Lee Chi-Ching’s style, of course, is heavily influenced by Japanese manga, but he also draws upon the long history of Chinese brush-ink paintings, which makes the manhua feel more distinctively Chinese (this was, if I remember correctly, one of the reasons Jin Yong was interested in having Lee Chi-Ching adapt and illustrate his novels).

Additionally, this manhua has a few color pages, like the ones below.

The palette is quite muted, unlike the palettes seen in most Hong Kong manhua, or Japanese manga (or American comics for that matter). It most resembles the color palettes found in traditional Chinese paintings. Since the color is used to highlight particular moments, I wouldn’t want the entire manhua to be in color, but I would have definitely liked more color pages (perhaps having the manhua be 10% in color).

Two characters who I think Lee Chi-ching did a particularly good job of depicting are Yue Lingshan and Yue Buqun.

Yue Lingshan is upset

Lee Chi-Ching says Yue Buqun is one of his favorite characters, and I can see that in the artwork (one of the color examples above shows Yue Buqun). I also think he got Yue Lingshan just right. This manhua deepened my appreciation of both of these characters.

However, comparing this to The Eagle-Shooting Heroes, I find that the art in The Eagle-Shooting Heroes is ultimately more striking. I think this mainly due to the differences in the stories. The Eagle-Shooting Heroes is a story where characters are constantly wearing their hearts on their sleeves and feels like an epic folk tale, whereas The Laughing Proud Wanderer is a more intellectual story in which characters do a lot of thinking and often don’t reveal their true feelings, and the plot is much more complicated, so it simply does not lend itself as well to striking artwork (unless one wishes to distort the story).

Adaptation

This time, I read the novel before reading the manhua.

On the one hand, I’m a bit disappointed that it removed one of my favorite scenes. On the other hand, I recognize that this story is so long that Lee Chi-ching almost had to abridge it, and that the scene is not essential to the main story.

Impressively, Lee Chi-ching did manage to keep most scenes from the novel, but he often slimmed them down—I often notice that specific bits of dialogue I remembered were not present in the manhua. It is a compliment to Jin Yong’s writing skill that I was able to remember so many bits of dialogue more than six months after having read the novel, yet at the same time I think slimming down the dialogue was the right choice; having too many words would have bogged down the manhua’s pacing, and people who really want that should read the bloody novel.

While it’s not identical to the novel, I feel this is faithful to the spirit of the novel, and while it’s always possible to find something to complain about, I still think this is, overall, an excellent adaptation, and I don’t think anybody else would have done it better.

Dongfang Bubai

Dongfang Bubai and his/her lover

It would take an entire post for me to describe what I think about the depiction of Dongfang Bubai and certain other characters, so let’s just say that I think it’s transphobic, homophobic, and sexist.

Given the source material, I think Lee Chi-ching’s depiction was as inoffensive as it could be while staying faithful to the original … with one exception.

In both the novel and the manhua, Linghu Chong says that it’s laughable that a sect leader would dress as a woman. First of all, there’s Huang Rong in The Eagle Shooting-Heroes who is a sect leader and usually dresses like a woman, but maybe she doesn’t count because she’s cis-female. And for some reason, people don’t think it’s shameful for women to dress as men (which happens quite often in Jin Yong stories).

However, in the novel, Linghu Chong later on ends up dressing like a woman himself, demonstrating that masculine heroes are just as capable of dressing like women as anybody else. This is one of the things which ameliorates the transphobia in the story. Unfortunately, this scene is cut in the manhua. I am almost certain this was in order to make the story move faster, but I still wish it had been kept, if only to counteract the transphobia/sexism.

Lee Chi-ching’s Afterwords

Each volume of this manhua ends with an afterword from Lee Chi-ching, and these were actually quite interesting. Almost all of them contain a sketch of himself, like this one:

He sometimes talks about Hong Kong current events (such as the transfer to People’s Republic of China rule and the SARS epidemic), he sometimes talks about the personal meaning The Laughing Proud Wanderer has for him (it’s his favorite Jin Yong novel, which is why he was so stoked when Jin Yong asked him to adapt it), and he talks about his artistic ambitions, as well as the other projects he’s working on (such as illustrating all of Jin Yong’s novels for the large-print edition).

Of particular interest to Manga Bookshelf readers are his comments about Korean manhwa. I knew one reason Jin Yong licensed manhua adaptations of his novels was to counter the influence of Japanese manga, but I hadn’t realized that the Hong Kong manga industry also feels invaded by Korean manhwa. Lee Chi-ching tries to see the competition with Korean manhwa as an inspiration to try harder.

Availability in English

I wish.

Conclusion

Whenever I return to an artist I love, I always wonder if the artist is as great as I recall, or whether a given work will fail to meet my high expectations. Sometimes I am disappointed, but this time I was not. Instead, this manhua reminded me why Lee Chi-ching is one of my favorite comic book artists in any language.

Next Time: Sword Stained with Royal Blood (TV series) (yes, it’s a Jin Yong double whammy)

When you like going outside and live in Northern Taiwan, that means the weather has a great deal of control over your schedule. The weather has been unusually good lately (by local standards), so Sara K. barely finished this post on time.

A Bride’s Story, Vol. 4

January 22, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Kaoru Mori. Released in Japan as “Otoyomegatari” by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine fellows!. Released in North America by Yen Press.

I reviewed the two previous volumes of this series as Bookshelf Briefs, but continued to have the same issues I had with Volume 1. The quality was excellent, but I had trouble connecting with many of the characters due to Kaoru Mori’s standard operating procedure of placid people with vaguely repressed emotion. This was not helped by the release of her Something And Anything collection, which showed she could write loudmouths and comedy as well as the rest of them. And so, seeing this new volume was coming out and had a slightly more upbeat cover on it, I wondered if it would get me more involved emotionally.

Oh yes. Hyperactive tribe of loudmouths for the win! Actually, we do start off in Amir’s area, with ominous foreshadowing about her family’s clan, as well as a cute little story where the tribe’s resident tsundere, Pariya, finally meets a guy who may not be terrified of her. But the bulk of the story continues to follow Dr. Smith as he heads towards the West slowly (and thankfully does not run into the well-written but depressing angst that Vol. 3 gave us). Here he meets the twins of the title, who are rambunctious hellcats who can’t sit still and who are so much of a pair that a suitor for them would almost have to involve a pair of brothers so they aren’t separated. The bulk of this volume is dedicated to their trying to catch themselves a man, and their family’s eventual success at this task.

As I noted, this entire tribe seems a lot more lively than Amir’s. It’s not just the twins – their parents may be more mature, but they’re just as over-the-top. Indeed, the mother’s reaction to her children being unable to sit still for even two seconds is comedy gold. And for all that it looks as if the twins are trying totally stupid things to get themselves noticed and married off, when their mother and aunt talk about how they both got married, the stories are based off of coincidence and luck. This does not help to provide a good influence. And of course the couples contrast nicely, as each girl is matched up with a quieter, more cynical young man (childhood friends, of course) and the two couples learn how to take their own path and be slightly different. It’s only slight, too – I liked how it’s shown the two twins really are nearly alike, even in personality, and only differ in subtle ways that have to be picked up on.

Not all is sweetness and light, thought. I already noted the ominous first chapter with Amir’s tribe, but there’s a constant reminder here at how many folks die young – particularly women in childbirth. Pariya’s suitor notes her attitude, and his father says that the girls with ‘too much energy’ are the best. Likewise, the twins’ mother gives them one last request – stay healthy, above everything else. This is very much a series from another time, and it gives a poignancy to all these matchmakings.

Vol. 5 only came out in Japan recently, I think, so it may be a while before it hits here. In the meantime, we have a wedding to attend. Let’s hope this one is filled with more unambiguous joy than the others we’ve had so far. Though I have a feeling that, even as this series focuses on ‘different’ brides every arc, that we’ll soon be wandering back to Amir’s village.

Guest Post: How a Non-Manga Fan Got Me Into Sakuran

January 21, 2013 by Ash Brown

As host of the Moyoco Anno Manga Moveable Feast, I am delighted to welcome Erica Friedman to Experiments in Manga as a guest writer. Thank you, Erica, for your contribution to the Feast!

Erica Friedman is the founder of Yuricon and ALC Publishing—she is devoted to bringing fans of yuri together. Erica reviews yuri and shoujo-ai manga and anime as well as other comics with lesbian themes at her blog Okazu. She can also be found on Twitter @OkazuYuri.

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“In your wanderings, can you look for this for me?”

That was the message I received on Facebook from a friend. She’s asked for me to look for random things in Japan before this message, but when I looked at the “this” I was shocked – she wanted me to look for a manga? She has no interest in manga. None whatsoever.

“I like the art,” was her reply to my question. Oh well, now *that* made sense. My friend is an artist – an exceptionally talented one, I might add. Okay, no problem, I’ll look for the book. It was clearly Anno Moyocco’s art, but I otherwise knew nothing about it. I missed out on the Happy Mania! mania when Tokyopop printed it, and although I’d certainly encountered her work in some of the Josei manga magazines I read, I’d never been a fan.

The manga, as it turned out, was well out of print. I never expected to find it for her. One day I wandered into a used manga store, turned the corner and there it was, one of the Kodansha deluxe editions, old, but still with gorgeous paper, with colored edges. I flipped through it, bought it and gave it to her without anymore thought to the contents. Anno’s art was not for me.

And then, out of the blue, Vertical licensed Sakuran. So I contacted my friend with the news, expecting her to say she wasn’t interested in the book in English. I guess I just expected her interest to end with the art, loopy as it appeared to be. But, to my surprise, she said she was interested, so I got her volume 1. And with her permission, I read it before I gave to her.

I loved it. The character was amazing, the story harsh and unsympathetic (all things I had come to expect from Anno.) But about halfway into the book there’s a series of color pages, in which the color washes away leaving only blues. It was, for me, a moment of blinding recognition of Anno’s mastery.

A few years ago, I did a lecture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art about the Ghost in the Shell: Innocence movie. At that time they were running an exhibit of Utagawa art. It was at this exhibit I learned about Prussian Blue and Ultramarine, two colors that completely changed Japanese art forever. (Incidentally, these colors helped inform my understanding of Murakami Haruki’s art which was also on exhibit at the BMA, and of Nakamura Ching’s GUNJO, the title of which means “ultramarine.”)

So there, as the color leeches out of the color pages, we are left staring at a what has to be seen as shockingly good late 19th century print. In a flash, Anno’s style made perfect sense to me. As I read the cold, calculating instructions on how to perform successful oral sex on a man, I became a fan.

I’m having a hard time summing up my feelings about Sakuran, so I turned to my friend who is completely responsible for this review. She nailed it.

“I enjoyed her nonstop and often inexplicable anger and her near-sociopathic disregard for everyone around her. On the other hand, I often wondered why she didn’t just walk out of there and go out on a world-conquering spree on her own. She certainly seemed to have enough bad-assery and blind force of will to make such a move, but I guess traditional Japanese class distinctions were too overwhelming. I also really, really liked her appalling table manners; particularly in that oh-so-proper Japanese setting.”

Yes, that was it. It was her anger that appealed to me most. That white-hot rage against the universe and all the people in it. Recently I was involved in a discussion about how tediously psychopaths were written these days in fan media. Kiyoha’s genuine hatred for every single person around her read more realistically to me than anything I’d seen in ages.

Skilled execution, combined with ferocious misanthropy. No wonder I love this book. Thanks, Meryl, for turning me into an Anno fan.

Pick of the Week: The Flowers of Evil

January 21, 2013 by Sean Gaffney and MJ 2 Comments

SEAN: It’s a fairly slim week of stuff, but there are some intriguing titles. My pick of the week is Vol. 4 of the dark shounen series Flowers of Evil. I admit I’m about a volume or so behind on this one, but it’s worth my catching up on. The cover design has turned darker, and the book seems to be trending the same way. I can’t say I enjoy reading the volumes, but I’m utterly fascinated by them, and want to know what happens next so I can be repelled against my will again. Which is a recommendation, in case anyone was unsure.

MJ: I’m going to go with Sean on this one. The Flowers of Evil is the only print volume I’m really interested in this week, but it should be noted that even in a stronger week, it’d have a good chance with me. I find this series very compelling, and I’m pretty psyched to read more of it. From my review of the last volume, “Volume three is unexpectedly moving as Kasuga comes to the surprisingly insightful realization that putting his dream girl on a pedestal is not the same thing as loving her, and as all three of the series’ main characters are faced with truths they weren’t quite prepared for. If this series’ first volume read mainly as “better than Sundome” its third proves that it is really so much more.”

Readers, what looks good to you this week?