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My 5 Favorite CLAMP Manga

July 24, 2012 by Katherine Dacey 19 Comments

I’ve read almost every CLAMP title available in English, from X (or X/1999, as we called it in back in the day) to Gate 7, and while I can’t claim to love them all, there is a core group of manga that I’ve read, re-read, and recommended to other fans. I make no special claims of excellence for these series, though I will say that these manga impressed me with their technical brilliance, genre-bending narratives, and beautiful artwork, if not their stellar endings.

MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH (Dark Horse; 2 volumes)

It’s easy to forget that Magic Knight Rayearth ran in the pages of Nakayoshi, as it adheres so closely to the friendship-effort-victory template that it almost passes for a Shonen Jump title. A careful reading of MKR, however, reveals it to be a unique fusion of shojo and shonen storytelling practices. On a moment to moment basis, MKR reads like shojo: the heroines denigrate their academic prowess, swoon over the only cute boy to cross their path, and extol the value of “heart” in defeating their enemies. The intense and protracted battle scenes, however, scream Naruto — or maybe Gundam — as the girls are pushed to their physical and emotional limits while casting spells, swinging swords, and piloting giant robots. That CLAMP reconciles such tonally different genres into a coherent whole is an impressive narrative feat; no matter how many times the heroines utter dippy or painfully sincere sentiments, their tenacity in combat makes them every bit as bad-ass as Naruto, InuYasha, or Ichigo Kurasaki. -Reviewed at The Manga Critic on July 22, 2011.

LEGAL DRUG (Tokyopop; 3 volumes)

I hesitate to use the word “intertextual” to describe Legal Drug, as that term is so heavily freighted with academic associations. But intertextual it is, as Legal Drug takes place in a universe that’s been carefully mapped out in prior works such as Angelic Layer, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Suki. Major and minor characters from Chobits and Suki wander in and out of the story, providing comic relief and commentary on the budding relationship between Rikuo and Kazahaya, two handsome young errand boys for the Green Drugstore. As in xxxHolic — a series in which Rikuo and Kazahaya make guest appearances — the supernatural frequently intrudes on mundane existence, giving rise to scenes of sublime comedy and surreal grace. An odd mixture of melancholy and whimsy, with a soupçon of shonen-ai.

CLOVER (Dark Horse; 1 volume)

Clover is a gorgeous train wreck, an unholy marriage of shojo, steampunk, and science fiction that almost — almost — gels into a coherent story. The plot revolves around a class of psychically gifted individuals known as Clovers, who have been rounded up, tested, and sorted into categories based on their abilities. The most powerful — Three- and Four-Leaf Clovers — have been imprisoned, as they pose a threat to humanity.

In the small fragment of story that CLAMP completed, the Clovers’ abilities are hastily sketched; the few demonstrations of their powers are less-than-awe-inspiring, and the government’s reasons for fearing them poorly explained. But oh, the atmosphere! Anyone who remembers what it felt like to be fourteen will recognize the Clovers’ magnificent isolation, as they struggle with feelings of loneliness, rejection, and desire; that they’ve been singled out for being different (and special!) only heightens the emotional intensity of their dilemma. The artwork, too, is a feast for the eyes, with inventive layouts and sensual character designs that rank among CLAMP’s finest. Even CLAMP’s use of soggy, overwrought song lyrics as a narrative device contributes to the story’s moody beauty, if not the pantheon of great love songs.

SHIRAHIME-SYO: SNOW GODDESS TALES (Tokyopop; 1 volume)

Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales is testament to CLAMP’s Borg-like ability assimilate any genre or artistic style and make it into their own. The three stories that comprise this slim volume are folkloric in tone and subject-matter, but expressed in a visual language that’s a beautiful synthesis of shojo manga and ukiyo print-making; the characters — with their pointy chins and artfully tousled hair — inhabit stark landscapes reminiscent of the Kishi and Shijo schools. If the overall mood is more subdued than xxxHolic or Tokyo Babylon, the stories are nonetheless moving in their directness and simplicity. The first, “On Wolf Mountain,” is the strongest of the three, exploring how one girl’s quest for revenge is transformed by the discovery that her enemy is, in fact, more courageous and generous than she ever imagined. The other stories — “The Ice Flower” and “Hiyoku no Tori” — read more like entries in Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan and Other Strange Stories, but are nonetheless effective parables about sacrifice. An out-of-print gem.

X (VIZ; 6 volumes)

On many levels, X is a bad manga: the characters are underwritten, the storytelling is lazy, and the dialogue is comically awful. (Don’t believe me? Check out Party Like It’s 1999, a Tumblr blog dedicated to exploring X on a page-by-page basis.) If you can look past the 90s hair and the tin-eared dialogue, however, what you’ll discover is a fierce apocalyptic drama that boasts some of the best end-of-the-world imagery in any manga not written by Katsuhiro Otomo. Oh, and blood. Buckets of blood.

The battle scenes are kinetic and violent, executed with a gory zest that’s difficult to resist. The dream sequences, too, are suitably shocking: characters are dismembered, crucified, impaled, and engulfed in flames, often right before their loved ones’ eyes. I hesitate to suggest that X‘s body count is a victory for women, but it is a sharp and welcome rebuke to the idea that female readers strongly prefer conversation and character development to butt-kicking and carnage. – Reviewed at The Manga Critic on 10/16/11.

So, readers, I turn the floor over to you: what are your favorite CLAMP titles? Which manga do you recommend to friends and new fans? Inquiring minds want to know!

Last week at Manga Bookshelf, July 15th-21st

July 24, 2012 by MJ Leave a Comment

Here’s what you may have missed at Manga Bookshelf last week, July 15th-21st!

From the main blog:

The Battle Robot files another installment of Bookshelf Briefs. We also make our Pick of the Week.

Matt Blind looks at online manga bestsellers from the week ending June 10th, 2012.

Derek Bown continues his Comment Commentary column with some strong words about Naruto.

In last week’s “It Came From the Sinosphere,” Sara K. introduces us to the Taiwanese comics anthology Creative Comics Collection.

From The Manga Critic:

Kate reports on new Yen Press licenses. She also takes a look at Laurianne Uy’s new comic Polterguys.

From A Case Suitable for Treatment:

Sean rounds up manga news from San Diego Comic Con. He also reviews Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz, Vol. 1, One Piece, Vol. 63, Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Vol. 35, and Wonder!, Vol. 2 He also takes a look at Manga the Week of 7/25.

From MangaBlog:

Still holding down the fort, Kate provides us with some Monday morning manga links, as well as a batch for Wednesday.

Viz speaks!

July 24, 2012 by Brigid Alverson

Start your reading today at ICv2, where their two-part interview with Viz brass touches on the state of the manga market (better than last year), the problem of kids’ manga, the renewed popularity of shoujo, their “aggressive” push to digital, and some books to look forward to in the fall, including the old and new volumes of Loveless. And here’s VP of publishing Leyla Aker on why Viz is going beyond parent companies Shueisha and Shogakukan for licenses:

When Tokyopop was a major force in licensing and Go! Comi, Bandai, and the smaller publishers were around, we really didn’t go to a lot of publishers because it was more of an effort to secure those licenses in competition with the other publishers, and we didn’t really need to. Our parent companies’ catalogs were so deep there wasn’t a huge impetus to go out to try to find other stuff. But now the publishing landscape here has changed so much, where there’s essentially only a handful of players left, the field is more open so when we are looking to acquire material, the editors know that they should be looking everywhere. It’s kind of an organic process of just going further afield.

This month’s Manga Moveable Feast focuses on CLAMP, and MJ kicks it off with an introduction to the team and their works, both major and minor, as well as an argument in favor of Cardcaptor Sakura. The Manga Bookshelf bloggers devote their Pick of the Week to their favorite CLAMP manga as well. The full archive for the feast is here.

The Manga Village team makes their picks from this week’s new manga.

Lori Henderson has a concise roundup of the manga news from San Diego at Manga Xanadu, and the Manga Village team has a roundtable discussion as well.

Digital Manga’s Tezuka Kickstarter campaign raised over $49,000, enough to fund print editions of Unico, Triton, and Atomcat, and perhaps setting a record for manga-based Kickstarters, says Deb Aoki.

Johanna Draper Carlson and Ed Sizemore host an epic edition of the Manga Out Loud podcast, discussing Kickstarter with special guests Matt Blind, Erica Friedman, Jason Yadao, and Ben Applegate

Erica Friedman explains why it is important for yuri manga to be commercially successful—and that means paying the licensors, translators, and publishers.

Alex Hoffman has a license request: The josei manga 3 A.M. Dangerous Zone, a workplace story about a girl who designs pachinko machines.

Three Steps Over Japan takes a peek between the covers of Monthly Comic Rex.

Matt Blind lists the manga best-sellers (online sales) for the week ending June 17.

News from Japan: A local group has asked the Hiroshima Board of Education not to use Keiji Nakasawa’s Barefoot Gen in its peace studies program, calling the semi-autobiographical tale of a boy who survived the Hiroshima bombing “one-sided.” Eikichi Onizuka, the title character in GTO, will make an appearance in a one-shot spinoff of Inohead Gargoyle, the latest series by GTO creator Tohru Fujisawa, in Young magazine. The manga team Peach-Pit (Shugo Chara!, Rozen Maiden) has a new manga in the works that will run in Kodansha’s Dessert. Happy Hustle High creator Rie Takada will launch a new series, Boku no Kanojo wa Yōjinbō (My Girlfriend is a Yojimbo/Bodyguard), in the September 3 issue of Silky. ANN has the Japanese publisher rankings for the first half of 2012, plus a bit of analysis.

Reviews: Deb Aoki takes a look at the first chapter of Takama-Ga-Hara, the newest series to join the Shonen Jump Alpha lineup. Adam Stephanides takes a brief look at three untranslated manga by Shintaro Kago at Completely Futile. Ash Brown reports in on the latest week of manga at Experiments in Manga.

Lissa Pattillo on vols. 1-3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (Kuriousity)
Kristin on vols. 11 and 12 of Bakuman (Comic Attack)
Sheena McNeil on vol. 44 of Bleach (Sequential Tart)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 22 of D.Gray-Man (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 1 of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuko-Chan (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
J. Caleb Mozzocco on vol. 1 of The Flowers of Evil (Every Day Is Like Wednesday)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of Gate 7 (Manga Xanadu)
AstroNerdBoy on vol. 23 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
L.B. Bryant on vol. 1 of Jiu Jiu (ICv2)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 4 of Pokemon Adventures: Diamond and Pearl Platinum (Blogcritics)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 17 of Ranma 1/2 (Blogcritics)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Rosario + Vampire: Season II (The Comic Book Bin)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 6 of Sailor Moon (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Dave Ferraro on Sakuran (Comics-and-More)
Jia on vol. 1 of Walkin’ Butterfly (Dear Author)

CLAMP MMF Links: Day 1

July 24, 2012 by MJ 1 Comment

The CLAMP edition of the Manga Moveable Feast is well on its way! I kicked things off yesterday morning with my Introduction & CLAMP Directory, including an overview of all CLAMP’s works published in English.

The blogosphere was a-buzz with CLAMP yesterday, and I’m quite pleased to note that many of the entries I received came from writers outside the usual crowd. Keep ’em coming, fandom!

Over at the Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin was so eager to start, he began a day early, expressing his (so far) disappointment with CLAMP’s work and asking for suggestions in Sunday Spotlight: Where Should One Start With CLAMP?

Jade at Jade’s Escape laments the difficulty of finding CLAMP fans in Okinawa, in CLAMP: The Known-Unknown Manga-ka.

“Who?”

“You know, CLAMP,” I said excitedly before repeating the name with Japanese pronunciation: “Ku-la-n-pu”. My Japanese co-worker scrunched up his face in the same way my students looked at me whenever I spoke English.

“Who?”

At Experiments in Manga, Ash Brown offers up a CLAMP-focused My Week in Manga: July 16-July 22, 2012.

Aaron speaks his mind at Manga Energy, sharing his personal view on one of CLAMP’s recurring themes, in Love Is Not All You Need: A Refutation of Clamp’s underlying philosphy of “love”.

At The Manga Otaku, Tiffany mulls over a few thoughts on Chobits.

And back home at Manga Bookshelf, Michelle, Sean, and I make CLAMP the subject of our latest Pick of the Week.

In CLAMP reviews, yesterday brought us Lexie’s take on Clover at Poisoned Rationality, and Ayame’s on Man of Many Faces at The Beautiful World.

That’s the roundup for Day 1! More to come! All entries are linked from the CLAMP MMF archive.

To submit your contributions to the CLAMP MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to mj@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mjbeasi. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images.

Why you should read Cardcaptor Sakura

July 24, 2012 by MJ 6 Comments

It’s been quite a while since I sat down to write one of my “persuasion posts.” I’d nearly forgotten that my very first of these was for another work of CLAMP’s. Of course, the two series are about as different as they could be, yet both exhibit some of my favorite CLAMP-y traits, particularly CLAMP’s ability to create warm, believable relationships within an unbelievable setting. With that in mind, let’s talk about…

Cardcaptor Sakura was CLAMP’s second series (after Magic Knight Rayearth) to be published in the shoujo anthology Nakayoshi, and the first created from the start with Nakayoshi‘s sensibilities specifically in mind. Thus, the series’ heroine, Sakura, was written to be the same age as the magazine’s core readership and also as a magical girl, though CLAMP had little experience with the genre. Of course, CLAMP being CLAMP, they’d do this in their own way.

The Premise:

“Sometimes, when you read too much manga, you get jaded. You think you’ve seen it all; you think that a whole genre sucks, like battle manga or Boy’s Love manga or four-panel manga. At times like these, sometimes you just need to read one really good manga to realize that a good enough artist can make even the most stereotypical premise seem fresh. For me, when it comes to ‘magical girl’ manga, that manga is Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP.”

– Jason Thompson, ANN/Jason Thompson’s House of 1000 Manga

Fourth grader Sakura Kinomoto lives with her older brother Toyo and her widower dad in the fictional town of Tomoeda, Japan, not far outside Tokyo. Sakura is afraid of ghosts, hates math, is great at sports, and loves to eat pancakes. She’s also the official collector of the Clow Cards, a deck of magical cards accidentally released from a book Sakura found in her father’s study. She’s guided in her task by a cute, winged, teddy bear-like creature named Cerberus (usually referred to by Sakura as “Kero-chan”), guardian of the book and, like the cards themselves, a creation of the long-deceased sorcerer Clow Reed. Sakura is also generally accompanied by her best friend, Tomoyo, who designs and sews elaborate costumes for Sakura to wear on her magical girl adventures—and captures it all on video.

(click image to enlarge)

If the above paragraph alone represented the entirety of Cardcaptor Sakura, it would already be the absolute dearest of all dear things in the world. But of course, there’s more.

Just as Sakura’s really getting the hang of the whole cardcaptor business, along comes Syaoran Li, a Chinese transfer student and direct descendent of Clow Reed, who has traveled to Tomoeda to capture the cards himself. Certain that an ordinary girl like Sakura is in no way up for the task, he follows her on all her adventures, sometimes helping out, but as time goes on and Sakura becomes more confident in her role, Syaoran spends more time simply being struck by the awesomeness of Sakura’s developing power which is ultimately far greater than his own.

Then there’s Yukito—a sweet, bespectacled young man who happens to be both Sakura’s brother’s best friend and (unbeknownst to Yukito) the “temporary” human form of Yue, second guardian of the Clow Cards and one thorny supernatural dude. Yue is also skeptical of Sakura’s abilities and unwilling to accept a new master of the Clow Cards, which forces Sakura into the position of having to win the right to his loyalty by defeating him in a fight—one that potentially poses grave consequences for Sakura and everyone she holds dear.

(click images to enlarge)

But in Cardcaptor Sakura, even the most dire of dire situations is something that can be overcome. Sakura’s mantra, “I’m sure I’ll be all right!” is more than just an uplifting quasi-magical spell, it’s a philosophy of the manga as a whole. Scary circumstances may arise, possible villains appear, but the world is a warm and generous place, and even our deepest wounds can be healed with the help of loving friends.

The Relationships:

Sakura’s got a huge crush on sweet, unaffected Yukito who is (sadly for Sakura) already pretty well hung up on her brother. But Toya’s not the only rival for Sakura’s affections. Prickly Syaoran also becomes quite bothered in Yukito’s presence, much to his own dismay.

(read right-to-left, click images to enlarge)

Meanwhile, new British transfer student Eriol is showing lots of interest in Sakura, just as Syaoran begins to realize that Yukito may not be his heart’s desire after all. And rounding out all the romantic complication is smiling, devoted Tomoyo, whose best friend is oblivious to her affections—a reality that kindhearted Tomoyo is mature enough to take in stride.

(click image to enlarge)

If this is all sounding kind of relationship-y and not all that magical-girl-y, well… it should. Though CLAMP makes fun and stylish use of Sakura’s supernatural journey, it’s her emotional journey that’s really the point of it all. Throughout the series, Sakura finds herself needing to re-evaluate her feelings for most of those nearest and dearest to her, as she becomes aware of the many different kinds of love she feels for them. This is the heart of Cardcaptor Sakura, and it’s one that absolutely shines.

(click image to enlarge)

One of the things you’ll note, even just from reading this description, is that this series tends to treat its same-sex crushes and romantic relationships pretty much the same as its heterosexual crushes and romantic relationships—which is to say that they’re all pretty chaste, and all very readily accepted by Sakura, who for the most part acts as the series’ moral center.

Even in a CLAMP manga, this is pretty refreshing, for although CLAMP has several series that portray same-sex romantic love (Tokyo Babylon and Legal Drug spring immediately to mind), there’s a purity to Cardcaptor Sakura—and to Sakura herself—that keeps these relationships from ever reading as deviant or exotic, as they so often do in manga (including CLAMP manga like, say, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland). And while it would be inaccurate to attribute anything we might recognize as actual gay identity to the series’ portrayal of its same-sex pairings, this straightforward, innocent approach rings true for a character like Sakura, whose ideas about love are being formed, slowly but surely, right before our eyes.

(click image to enlarge)

There’s a scene early in the second of the Dark Horse omnibus volumes, in which Sakura and a very embarrassed Syaoran are discussing their mutual feelings for Yukito. At the end of the conversation, Sakura arrives at this simple conclusion: “We can’t help it. We just… like him.” This is Sakura’s romantic worldview in a nutshell. She doesn’t know why people love who they love, or what any of it might mean in the eyes of her school, her town, Japan, East Asia, or humankind as a messy, divisive whole. She just knows that they do, and that’s more than enough for her. And with Sakura at the helm, it feels perfectly natural for her clear, unspoiled perspective to permeate the series overall.

Of course, romantic love is not the only variety on the table, and that’s one of the series’ strengths as well. Even the story’s romantic couples are decidedly friends first, and whatever “floaty” feelings may be buzzing around, it’s clear that those friendships stand strong, with or without anything more heart-throbbing behind them. Family relationships stand out as well, particularly Sakura’s relationships with her brother and her father—both of which are every bit as charming and throughly-written as her budding romantic adventures.

The Adorableness:

In our anniversary edition of Off the Shelf, David Welsh writes of Dark Horse’s first Cardcaptor Sakura omnibus,

I’ve already used the word “adorable” twice in this review, and you should gird yourself for me using it again, because this book is adorable in all of the best ways a thing can be adorable. The character designs? Adorable. The jokes and romance? Adorable. The sparkly, easy-to-read art? Adorable. It’s cheerful, heartwarming stuff that still manages to be thoughtful and exciting, and I can’t wait to read more of it, because, beyond being very endearing magical-girl manga, it seems like it might be heading interesting, even daring places.

As usual, David is not wrong. Cardcaptor Sakura is endlessly adorable. And by that I don’t mean “precious” or “saccharine” or anything like that, because Cardcaptor Sakura is none of those things. Nor is it any kind of grand satire or comment on the genre. It doesn’t need to be, because it’s just so skillfully created as exactly what it is. Cardcaptor Sakura is straight-out adorable—warm, heartfelt, genuinely cute, smart when it needs to be, and often funny.

Sakura? Adorable. Tomoyo and her costumes? So freaking adorable. Toya and Yukito? Dreamy and adorable. Syaoran crushing on Yukito and Sakura? Absolutely, positively adorable.

And while the main cast is, as I’ve said, extremely adorable, CLAMP doesn’t skimp when it comes to supporting characters, either. Most of Cardcaptor Sakura‘s minor characters are just as charming and idiosyncratic as its leads. Particular favorites of mine, for instance, are Sakura’s classmates Chiharu and Yamazaki. The two have been a couple since kindergarten, and much of their page time in the series is spent with Yamazaki conveying completely made-up facts to the other children while Chiharu rolls her eyes affectionately. Later, British transfer student Eriol joins in, much to Yamazaki’s delight. Observe:

(read right-to-left, click images to enlarge)

The Books:

The out-of-print TOKYOPOP books are becoming difficult to find, but fortunately as of September 26th, the entire series will be available in Dark Horse’s beautiful omnibus editions—worth the wait if you don’t already own the series (and probably even if you do). The omnibus editions come in a wonderful large trim size, printed on beautiful, smooth, white paper that shows off CLAMP’s delicate line work to its greatest advantage. Each volume contains beautiful color pages, including bonus images at the end of each omnibus, like these lovely drawings of Yue and Cerberus in their true forms.

I’m looking forward to changing out my older copies of the last three volumes for Dark Horse’s shiny new omnibus, and I plan to reread the entire series as soon as that volume is released.

Won’t you join me?

It Came From the Sinosphere: Autumn’s Concerto

July 24, 2012 by Sara K. 3 Comments

I have no idea why this drama is called Autumn’s Concerto in English. I much prefer the Mandarin title Xiàyīzhàn, Xìngfú (Next Stop, Happiness).

Anyway, this is widely considered to be one of the best idol dramas ever filmed.

The Story

Liang Mucheng is an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle-in-law who run a lunch box business on a university campus. Her uncle-in-law tries to peek at her whenever she changes her clothes, secretly takes sexual pictures of her, and seems to be waiting for an opportunity to sexually abuse her in a more severe way. Meanwhile, Mucheng encounters one of the university’s most brilliant law students, Ren Guangxi, who is also the son of one of the univerisity’s trustees. He acts like a playboy, but has actually lost sight of the point of life. His mother wants him to marry the daughter of a business tycoon, He Yiqian, who also happens to be a brilliant medical student herself. Mucheng is also friends with another law student, Hua Tuoye, who secretly has a crush on Mucheng. Sadly for Tuoye, there is no doubt in the viewers’ minds who the main couple is going to be as soon as Mucheng and Guangxi meet each other.

It is hard to say more than that without getting into spoiler territory, but the above feels a bit too incomplete to me, so I feel the need to say [SPOILER WARNING] Ren Guangxi loses his memory. Six years later, a village hires him as a lawyer to defend them from the corporation that wants to buy them out and evict them. This happens to be the village where Tuoye grew up, and Mucheng also happens to live there with her son, Liang Xiaole. The mayor asks Mucheng to act as Guangxi’s host while he stays in the village. He has instant rapport with Xiaole, but he is unaware that he had previously met Mucheng and finds her behavior really strange. Little does he know that he is, in fact, Xiaole’s biological father. [END SPOILER WARNING]

“I already told you, the lawyer from Taipei is not your father.”

Then Mucheng sees who the ‘lawyer from Taipei’ actually is …

Cue music.

Connections to Other Idol Dramas

First of all, there are quite a few connections between The Outsiders and Autumn’s Concerto. The most obvious is that the female leads of both dramas are played by Ady An … but it’s more than that. For one thing, in both dramas, she plays a character who knows how to play the piano. And Autumn’s Concerto recycles some of the soundtrack from The Outsiders (since The Outisders has one of the best idol drama soundtracks, it is a good source for recyclable material).

On the other hand, Vanness Wu, who plays Ren Guangxi, played one of the F4 in Meteor Garden (the Taiwanese version of Boys Over Flowers), which is the mother of all idol dramas. Meteor Garden launched the acting careers of three of the most prominent idol drama stars (Barbie Xu, Vic Chou, and Rainie Yang), but Vanness Wu rose to acting stardom relatively late for a Meteor Garden actor … in fact, he didn’t become a proper acting star in his own right until he was case as Ren Guangxi. Fun fact about Vanness Wu: he was born and raised in California and is a native English speaker who learned Mandarin as a second language, just like me.

Tiffany Hsu, who plays Ren Guangxi’s fiancee He Yiqian, also performed in It Started With A Kiss (Itazura na Kiss), where she also played the male lead’s alternative romantic interest.

Other connections to other idol drama is right in script, or cinematography. At one point, one of the villagers mentioned that they can resist the corporation just like the village that resisted the Senwell corporation, and another villager points out that they don’t have a cuckoo flower. This is, of course, a reference to the story Prince Turns Into Frog in which the Senwell coproration’s plans to buy out a village are foiled by the discovery of the endangered cuckoo flower within village limits. Prince Turns To Frog is one of the most popular idol dramas ever made. At one point in the story the Ren family gets inquiries from iFound, where My Queen’s Shan Wushuang works. Yet another My Queen connection is that, in the last episode, there is a magazine featuring He Yiqian as a star doctor … the other doctor featured is Lucas, My Queen’s male lead.

Location, Location, Location

Many of the early scenes seem to take place in the fishing villages on the north coast (probably in Shimen or Sanzhi) where Mucheng has to help her uncle-in-law at a fish market. I suppose it might be in Danshui, though it seems a bit too sparsely populated to be Danshui to me (I happened to mention Danshui’s Fort San Domingo last week).

Some scenes are also set in Minsheng Hospital which is in … Taoyuan City. Hey, I’m in Taoyuan City too! While I’ve never entered Minsheng Hospital, I have shopped at the Carrefour across the street. Minsheng Hospital is, among other things, a medical tourism hospital, and generally caters to people willing to pay a little extra money for nicer care (me, I go to Taoyuan Veterans’ Hospital for my medical needs, which is quite close to one of the locations where My Queen was shot).

Mucheng holds Xiaole in a flower field in Cihu.

This has got to be Dasi Flowering Oasis.

And at least some of the village scenes were shot in Daxi township which … is in Taoyuan county. Daxi has such an interesting history that I do not have space to discuss it in full detail, but I have to mention that Fong Fei-fei was born and raised in Daxi township. Like the village in the drama, one of Daxi’s main industries is growing ornamental flowers. The “flower fields” in Autumn Concerto look like they were filmed at the Dasi Flower Oasis, which is “the holy land of idol dramas” and a tourist trap farm. Dasi Flower Oasis is in a part of Daxi called Cihu, which has a lot of interesting history in its own right. Personally, I think the coolest thing about Cihu history is that there is a former secret military headquarters which was built in case People’s Republic of China troops ever landed in Taiwan (the headquarters was built to be difficult to detect so that military leaders could direct troops in safety).

A Few Words About the Opening

Unlike most idol dramas, Autumn’s Concerto does not have an opening per se. Right after the recap of the previous episode, it jumps straight back into the action. It has an opening song, but it’s always played in the background as the story gets moving. “I Love Him” is a beautiful, haunting song which fits the theme of the drama very well.

The Symptoms of Idol Drama Jadedness

While watching this drama, I kept on thinking “this is just like what happened in drama x.” There is ONE basic standard idol drama plot which all but a few dramas follow. Autumn’s Concerto follows it so closely that when somebody told me about some of the later events before I got that far in the drama, I could not even claim that it was a spoiler. I have seen so many idol dramas that any drama which follows this plot too closely—unless it puts a truly fresh spin on the plot or is very well suited to my tastes—will trigger Idol Drama Jadedness Syndrome in me. Autumn’s Concerto is so well-made that it maintained my interest in spite of seeming completely unoriginal to me, but my jadedness is so deep that I could only like it, not love it. It seemed more like going through a ritual drill than discovering something exciting or new. The very fact that I am spending so many words discussing the location and other meta instead of the actual story is a symptom of Idol Drama Jadedness Syndrome.

Then Xiaole appeared.

At the time I was watching the drama, Xiaole was the only thing which made the drama seem truly alive to me and not just the product of skilled story-crafters. Xiao Bin Bin is a delightful child actor, and … well, I love kids. Xiaole’s scenes are definitely the ones I enjoyed the most, and the only ones which did not make me think about other idol dramas or make me think more about the meta than the actual storyline. Well, that’s unfair, I did get involved in the story, I just did not lose myself to it.

The last story arc irritated me, mainly because Ren Guangxi turned into an asshole, but Mucheng was annoying stubborn too. If you must turn your male lead into an assole, at least make him a gloriously fun asshole (I am referring to one of my favorite idol dramas, which handles the male-lead-turns-into-asshole gambit a lot better).

But the last story arc still has Xiaole, so I shouldn’t complain too much.

Much as Xiaole was the most enjoyable part of the drama for me at the time, reflecting back on the drama, Xiaole is not what stays with me the most. It’s the theme.

The Theme

It took me a while to consciously realize it, but Autumn’s Concerto has a very consistent theme, which is: it is better to tell the painful truth than to cover it up with lies. Aside from Xiaole (who is too young to lie), pretty much every main character (and some minor characters) at some point lies in order to “protect” someone from a harsh reality. In fact, Xiaole’s simple honesty serves as a sharp contrast to the adults’ contorted thinking. Mucheng’s aunt tells herself that Mucheng seduced her husband so she won’t have to admit that she’s married to a sexual predator; Guangxi tells Mucheng that he doesn’t love her so that her heart won’t be broken when she finds out that he is going to die in a month; the corporation tells the villagers that it needs them to leave their lands so the villagers won’t find out that the corporation poisoned the water; Mucheng tells Xiaole that his father is an extrateresstial so she won’t have to tell him about what really happened with his father; and if I tried to list every lie told in the course of the drama, this list would be really long (and extremely spoilerful). And the lying … generally does not work out well. I can only think of one lie in the entire drama which has a partially positive outcome. On the other hand, when the characters choose to come clean, even though there is initial pain, things tend to improve. This is the theme which keeps the story glued together, and makes the difference between a series of soap operatic events and a memorable story.

Anyway, that’s rather serious, so here is some more Xiaole as an antidote.

Availability and Accessibility

Autumn’s Concerto is available for streaming with English subtitles in North and South America via Dramafever.

If you don’t live in North or South America, YesAsia sells the Malaysian DVD set which supposedly has English subtitles.

Also, for Chinese learners … I have to disagree with Jade and say this is actually good for Mandarin practice. I would say only 10-15% of the drama is in Taiwanese (I don’t know why Jade says half of it is in Taiwanese), and I think anybody whose Mandarin-listening ability is at B2 or higher would do just fine.

Conclusion

I favor idol dramas which are either a) mischevieously screwbally or b) seriously dark. Autumn’s Concerto does not fall into either category, therefore it is not one of my personal favorites. Still, even though I’ve only seen the drama straight-through once, I re-watched many parts in the process of preparing this post, and some scenes are more enjoyable the second time around. I have to admit that this is indeed one of the finest idol dramas out there. Even if you suffer from Idol Drama Jadedness Syndrome like me, you should watch it. Recommended.

Now I Have a Dilemma…

Ever since I started this column, I’ve really wanted to discuss [Drama A]. In fact, I planned to make it the second idol drama I reviewed after The Outsiders. [Drama A] happens to be legally available with English subtitles. But then I decided I had to discuss My Queen because it was a new addition to Dramafever, then I felt I had to discuss Autumn’s Concerto because it was another new addition to Dramafever, so my post about [Drama A] got delayed twice. Even though [Drama A] is not a personal favorite, I think [Drama A] is up there with Meteor Garden among one of the most important idol dramas ever made—certainly more important than The Outsiders, My Queen, and Autumn’s Concerto, and I really want to discuss it. It was next on the list … until I just discovered that [Drama B] one of my favorite idol dramas has JUST BEEN LICENCED!!!! I want to celebrate the licensing of [Drama B] by putting it next on the list and finally squeeing about it and getting the Manga Bookshelf community to watch it … but I am loathe to delay discussing [Drama A] yet a third time. So here is the question for you…

Do you want the next idol drama post to be about [Drama A], or [Drama B]?

Next time: The Fox Volant of Snow Mountain (novel)

Readers of this column might be under the impression that Sara K. speaks good Chinese. They can disabuse themselves of this notion by signing up at Lang-8 and reading Sara K.’s Chinese-language journal entries (even people who don’t know Chinese can see how much her Chinese needs to be corrected). To the best of her knowledge, she is the only Lang-8 user who talks about gardening in San Francisco. Manga Bookshelf readers who are brushing up their Japanese, please note that Lang-8 has many Japanese users.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Vol. 1

July 24, 2012 by Sean Gaffney

By Nagaru Tanigawa and Puyo. Released in Japan as “Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

It is noted in the ads at the back of this volume shamelessly plugging the rest of the Haruhi franchise that in order to get maximum enjoyment from this work, you need to have read the original books, particularly the 4th novel, Disappearance (which was made into the Haruhi movie). I think this is quite accurate. Without the context of Haruhi, this seems a lot fluffier and pointless than it really is. Not that it isn’t already light as air – this is not a manga for those who seek the sci-fi adventures the original sometimes gives us. But knowing the original series as we do helps us to see what the artist is trying to achieve here by, in effect, changing Kyon’s decision in the 4th book. What if he’d stayed, and his memories were also rewritten? How would that universe have kept going?

As you might guess by the cover, the focus here is on Yuki, who is back to being the meek and shy but far more human Yuki we saw in that novel. Luckily, she’s not a complete wallflower. One sensible thing this manga does is start ‘in media res’, as it were, showing us several chapters of Yuki, Kyon and the other interacting before going back at the end and giving us a flashback as to how they met. This allows us to see a Yuki more comfortable with Kyon (although she’s still awkward around him) and even lets her have the occasional snarky line, although that’s mostly directed at Ryouko, who fires right back.

Ah yes, Ryouko. Fans have a tendency to influence other people’s creations, as many writers will tell you. Especially when this is a spinoff once-removed sort of series. The artist, Puyo, is also writing the Haruhi-chan gag mangas for Shonen Ace, which feature his own conceit of Ryouko coming back as an adorable plushie-like creature and basically losing every trace of evil in her. Likewise, fandom in Japan read the first Haruhi books (and Disappearance) and theorized that Yuki and Ryouko would be eating meals together and such before Haruhi showed up and Ryouko went insane. Combining the two, here we see Ryouko as a pure onee-san figure. She has a quick temper, and gets easily frustrated, especially by Yuki’s indecision, but this is a Ryouko who is not going to be stabbing Kyon anytime soon – a genuinely good-hearted character who really is Yuki’s best friend. It’s quite sweet.

There are a few flaws here, of course. As with Haruhi-chan, Puyo’s art can be highly variable, especially when he draws faces. Unlike Haruhi-chan, he isn’t allowed the luxury of going super-deformed all the time. So sometimes we see some very awkward poses and art. In addition, our hero Kyon, deprived of Haruhi’s antics giving him a cynical and sarcastic inner monologue, comes off as being a bit dull, the standard romantic lead for the shy girl who wins her heart by… well, by actually interacting with her. His sharpest moments are actually with Ryouko, who is trying to nudge the two leads together, much to Kyon’s clueless bafflement.

Even with the universe having been rewritten, and Kyon and Haruhi not meeting each other, she’s still not very far away. This time around, an older Haruhi gets Yuki to draw figures on the ground – this time sending out a message for Santa. It’s another example of what this series is trying to do. It’s taking the characters of the Haruhi franchise (including Haruhi, who will get more to do in the next volume) and putting them in situations that make you go ‘Awwwww’ and smile. If you enjoy the sharp, caustic comedy of the original franchise, it would be best to stick to that. As an AU alternative, though, this is simply cute as a button.

Manga Bestsellers: 2012, Week Ending 17 June

July 24, 2012 by Matt Blind 1 Comment

Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales

last week’s charts
about the charts

Manga Bestsellers

1. ↑2 (3) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [422.8] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [413.8] ::
3. ↑4 (7) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [401.3] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [390.8] ::
5. ↓-4 (1) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [374.0] ::
6. ↑4 (10) : Death Note vols 1-13 box set – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Oct 2008 [365.8] ::
7. ↓-1 (6) : Black Bird 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, May 2012 [358.8] ::
8. ↔0 (8) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [355.3] ::
9. ↓-4 (5) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [344.9] ::
10. ↓-1 (9) : Bleach 40 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jun 2012 [338.0] ::

[more]

Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:

Viz Shonen Jump 86
Yen Press 77
Tokyopop 68
Viz Shojo Beat 60
Kodansha Comics 45
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 34
DMP Juné 18
Dark Horse 17
Seven Seas 13
Vizkids 13

[more]

Series/Property

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon – Kodansha Comics [1,114.6] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Naruto – Viz Shonen Jump [808.9] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Bleach – Viz Shonen Jump [710.9] ::
4. ↔0 (4) : Ouran High School Host Club – Viz Shojo Beat [633.6] ::
5. ↔0 (5) : Death Note – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [538.2] ::
6. ↔0 (6) : Black Bird – Viz Shojo Beat [503.4] ::
7. ↑2 (9) : Highschool of the Dead – Yen Press [472.4] ::
8. ↑2 (10) : Negima! – Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [454.4] ::
9. ↑2 (11) : Fullmetal Alchemist – Viz [443.1] ::
10. ↑3 (13) : Pandora Hearts – Yen Press [430.3] ::

[more]

New Releases
(Titles releasing/released This Month & Last)

3. ↑4 (7) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [401.3] ::
7. ↓-1 (6) : Black Bird 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, May 2012 [358.8] ::
9. ↓-4 (5) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [344.9] ::
10. ↓-1 (9) : Bleach 40 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jun 2012 [338.0] ::
11. ↑1 (12) : Dance in the Vampire Bund 12 – Seven Seas, Jun 2012 [309.9] ::
15. ↓-2 (13) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [281.8] ::
22. ↑3 (25) : Bleach 41 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jun 2012 [246.4] ::
24. ↔0 (24) : Pandora Hearts 10 – Yen Press, May 2012 [243.7] ::
25. ↓-4 (21) : Soul Eater 9 – Yen Press, May 2012 [241.3] ::
26. ↑5 (31) : Bakuman 11 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jun 2012 [238.1] ::

[more]

Preorders

12. ↓-1 (11) : Sailor Moon 9 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2013 [292.3] ::
17. ↓-3 (14) : Sailor Moon 8 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [267.3] ::
19. ↓-3 (16) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [261.9] ::
29. ↑4 (33) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder – DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [211.0] ::
33. ↓-1 (32) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [187.1] ::
36. ↓-8 (28) : Black Butler 9 – Yen Press, Jul 2012 [176.4] ::
44. ↑2 (46) : Negima! 35 – Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [154.7] ::
47. ↑2 (49) : Velvet Kiss 1 – Project H, Jul 2012 [146.6] ::
68. ↓-15 (53) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [117.7] ::
73. ↑2 (75) : Vampire Knight 14 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [115.5] ::

[more]

Manhwa

103. ↑26 (129) : Bride of the Water God 11 – Dark Horse, May 2012 [96.6] ::
300. ↑71 (371) : Bride of the Water God 9 – Dark Horse, Oct 2011 [40.2] ::
342. ↓-166 (176) : Priest Purgatory 1 – Tokyopop, Aug 2010 [34.9] ::
425. ↑99 (524) : Bride of the Water God 10 – Dark Horse, Jan 2012 [26.8] ::
840. ↓-75 (765) : Toxic (anthology) 1 – Udon, Jul 2012 [8.3] ::
1280. ↓-349 (931) : JTF-3 Counter Ops – RealinterfaceStudios.com, Mar 2011 [2.5] ::
1292. ↓-604 (688) : Ragnarok 1 – Tokyopop, May 2002 [2.4] ::
1389. ↑1105 (2494) : INVU 5 – Tokyopop, Nov 2009 [1.7] ::
1405. ↑457 (1862) : Bride of the Water God 8 – Dark Horse, May 2011 [1.5] ::
1503. ↑213 (1716) : Black God 16 – Yen Press, Apr 2012 [1.1] ::

[more]

BL/Yaoi

29. ↑4 (33) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder – DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [211.0] ::
68. ↓-15 (53) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [117.7] ::
75. ↑7 (82) : The Tyrant Falls in Love 6 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [113.1] ::
93. ↓-14 (79) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 – DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [101.1] ::
108. ↑15 (123) : Private Teacher 3 – DMP Juné, May 2012 [90.6] ::
125. ↑78 (203) : Samejima-Kun & Sasahara-Kun – DMP Juné, May 2012 [83.5] ::
130. ↓-22 (108) : Finder Series 5 Truth in the View Finder – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [80.1] ::
142. ↓-20 (122) : In These Words – 801 Media, Jun 2012 [76.4] ::
144. ↑98 (242) : Silver Diamond 8 – Tokyopop, Dec 2010 [75.5] ::
157. ↑496 (653) : No Touching At All – DMP Juné, Nov 2010 [71.5] ::

[more]

Ebooks

9. ↓-4 (5) : Naruto 56 – Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [344.9] ::
18. ↔0 (18) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [264.3] ::
21. ↑2 (23) : Maximum Ride 5 – Yen Press, Dec 2011 [252.0] ::
31. ↑3 (34) : Naruto 54 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [192.0] ::
33. ↓-1 (32) : Naruto 57 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2012 [187.1] ::
39. ↑6 (45) : Blue Exorcist 1 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2011 [164.5] ::
41. ↓-1 (40) : Naruto 53 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [162.6] ::
43. ↓-1 (42) : Haruhi Suzumiya Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 12 – Yen Press, May 2012 [159.8] ::
50. ↑6 (56) : Naruto 52 – Viz Shonen Jump, Jul 2011 [142.4] ::
65. ↑23 (88) : Bleach 37 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [120.1] ::

[more]

San Diego recap & some things to look forward to

July 23, 2012 by Brigid Alverson

I’m back from San Diego, bags filled with books, head filled with stories to be written. Thanks to Kate Dacey for filling in so admirably while I was away, and to Deb Aoki for being the best Comic-Con roommate ever!

I was covering the con for CBR, so I wrote my big manga story for them: JManga plans to launch an “all you can eat” website that will post a chapter a week of both new and older manga; the site will be free but a paid subscription will get you the manga faster–and may get you more titles as well.

Speaking of Deb Aoki, she has been more industrious than me and has already written up two of the major stories from Comic-Con, the Kodansha panel and the news that Picturebox will be publishing bara manga (gay erotic manga).

And Lissa Pattillo has a handy roundup of all the SDCC news at Kuriousity.

Jason Thompson takes a look at the exceptionally talented manga-ka est em in his latest House of 1000 Manga column at ANN.

Sean Gaffney looks at this week’s rather sparse new-manga lineup at A Case Suitable for Treatment.

News from Japan: Stepping on Roses manga-ka Rinko Ueda has a new series in the works, Sakura Jūyūshi, which will debut in the August 4 issue of Margaret. Sora Inoue, the artist for Real Bout High School, has started a new manga, My Ball, about a school soccer club. Fist of the North Star creator Buronson is writing a new manga to be illustrated by Yuka Nagate, who did the art for the Toki side story.

Reviews: Ash Brown reports in on another week of manga at Experiments in Manga.

Ken Haley on Barbara (Sequential Ink)
Connie on vol. 16 of Black Jack (Slightly Biased Manga)
Ash Brown on vol. 11 of Blade of the Immortal (Experiments in Manga)
Connie on vol. 4 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga)
AstroNerdBoy on vols. 29 and 30 of Hayate the Combat Butler (AstroNerdBoy’s Anime and Manga Blog)
Anna on vol. 1 of Jiu Jiu (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on vol. 9 of Jormungand (Okazu)
Anna on vol. 20 of Kaze Hikaru (Manga Report)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 12 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (I Reads You)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 35 of Negima! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 9 of Oresama Teacher (The Comic Book Bin)
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Polterguys (The Manga Critic)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 2 of Wonder! (A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Pick of the Week: CLAMP Edition

July 23, 2012 by MJ, Michelle Smith and Sean Gaffney 4 Comments

MJ: With the CLAMP MMF now upon us, and a fairly skimpy showing at Midtown Comics this week, I asked my fellow bloggers if they’d like to devote today’s Pick of the Week to favorite/recommended CLAMP series. Happily, they agreed!

Since I will be talk about my favorite CLAMP series ad nauseum this week, I’ll turn things over to Michelle and Sean, to let them make their picks first.

MICHELLE: I’ve decided to let nostalgia rule the day on this one and choose Cardcaptor Sakura, which is not only the first CLAMP manga I ever read, but the first manga I ever read, period (in a bilingual Kodansha edition, if you’re curious). It boasts an insanely likeable cast, many of whom are still among my favorite CLAMP characters—my eleven-year-old Kero-chan cellphone strap is still going strong!—and a story that’s touching, uplifting, and something you can feel comfortable loaning your friend’s daughter.

The anime is also a lot of fun—I distinctly remember visiting my local mall’s Suncoast to pick up each new installment on DVD—and is probably the one occasion where I liked that there was added filler. I am also going to shamelessly use this space to heap some love on the CLAMP School Detectives anime, which I adore, and which includes material from the manga of the same name as well as Duklyon and Man of Many Faces. We don’t really see CLAMP like this anymore, and I’ll always be fond of it.

SEAN: Before there was Kodansha Comics and Tsubasa/xxxHOLIC, before there was Tokyopop’s volumes of Cardcaptor Sakura and Legal Drug, there was Mixxzine. And with Mixxzine came Magic Knight Rayearth. Still one of my favorite CLAMP series, as well as one of the few times they revisited characters to make them *happier*. This RPG-styled fantasy combined the best of D&D role-playing and giant robot fighting, wrapping it up in a surprisingly serious storyline. The 2nd half gets a bit overly complex, but still not nearly as complex as their later works. Sometimes it’s best to just enjoy iconic, simple shoujo action.

MJ: Well, since nobody else has snatched it up, I’ll take this opportunity to recommend my (still) favorite CLAMP series, Tokyo Babylon. I’ve written about it fairly extensively in the past (and you’ll see much more of this come Wednesday), but besides the heart-wrenching story and stylish artwork, another thing Tokyo Babylon has going for it is length. At just seven volumes, it’s both short enough for nearly anyone to swallow and long enough to be genuinely satisfying. The original TOKYOPOP volumes may be getting hard to find, but with Dark Horse’s promised omnibus release presumably on its way, there’s fresh hope for us all!

Readers, what CLAMP title would you most recommend during this month’s Manga Moveable Feast?