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JManga the Week of 11/15

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SEAN: Nothing that makes me go squee in next week’s 4 new titles, but some interesting stuff regardless.

Takatoh-sanchi no Komatta Jijyou is another Be x Boy title from Libre Shuppan, with a smug square-jawed seme feeding his startled uke some pancakes. It’s designed for audiences who like that sort of thing, I imagine.

MJ: I tend to roll my eyes at covers like this, but I’ve also learned over the years that I can’t really judge a BL manga by its cover. I haven’t read any of Natsuho Shino’s other books, though a few of them have been released by both DMP and SuBLime. I have to admit that her (apparently unfinished) series Oh My God! (SuBLime) has one of those omyouji plotlines that tend to be kinda bullet-proof for me, even when they’re awful. Maybe I’ll check that one out first before braving the pancake cover.

MICHELLE: I haven’t read any of her stuff, either, though I must point out that back in the day, Kate kind of liked Oh My God!

SEAN: A Transparent Orange in the Lip, from Ichijinsha’s Yuri Hime magazine, is exactly the same, only for yuri audiences rather than BL. Look, vulnerable high school girls in love! (Why am I getting Kentucky Fried Movie flashbacks?)

MJ: Erica Friedman reviewed this title a couple of years ago, and… well, it’s not all that encouraging. Sadly.

SEAN: Our final two titles are both from Earth Star Entertainment, a company that has clearly made a big deal with JManga recently, as we’re seeing a huge pile of their stuff. They have a couple of magazines, and tend to have titles that run across multiple platforms, with anime, CD dramas, etc. Tokyo Cycle Girl is yuri-ish (in the same way that Zero-Sum titles are BL-ish) about a girl who tries to impress her new aloof roommate by upgrading her bike.

MJ: So does it follow then, that if I like Zero-Sum titles, I’d also like this? :D I’m hoping so, because I kinda love the premise. I hope it works out for the girl!

MICHELLE: It definitely sounds more promising than A Transparent Orange! And huzzah for more yuri and yuri-ish releases!

SEAN: You may notice that Koetama has 5 creators listed. It’s a project that was “conceptualized” by four voice actresses, who created characters based on what they would likely be cast as. Naturally, it’s a manga about aspiring voice actors. For seiyuu buffs, the creators are Nakahara Mai, Ueda Kana, Hayami Saori and Yahagi Sayuri. Intriguing, even if it looks very calculated.

MJ: This idea, while interesting, is kind of artistically suspect, though I suppose I should give it a chance.

MICHELLE: Yeah, I dunno. The cover says “not for you” in its art style, even while the girl herself is pretty cute-looking. I think I’ll wait for others’ reviews before I forge ahead.

JManga Translation Battle finalists announced!

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JManga’s great experiment to discover the next generation of manga translators has moved into its final round! Though the company has gathered an impressive panel of judges, including (among others) manga super-blogger Deb Aoki and translator William Flanagan, fans can put in their two cents by heading over to JManga’s Facebook page and voting on the eleven final submissions.

Three manga were chosen for the aspiring translators to work on—Tomonori Inoue’s COPPELION, Nana Haruta’s Chocolate Cosmos, and Akira Saso’s Shindo—and a winner will be selected from each group to receive a brand new iPad. The best of three will also be named winner of the Grand Prize—a trip to Japan to attend the Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo.

Voting is open online until December 2nd, 2012 at 11:59 PM Pacific, and winners will be announced later that month.

Manga the Week of 11/14

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SEAN: I am debating how much longer I’m going to keep using Midtown’s list. I started using it because a) I get my manga mostly from a comic book store, and b) it usually has next week’s list out before anyone else. But its resemblance to what I get at my comic shop every week has been growing smaller and smaller. Next week’s has all the Viz stuff we got in today, but doesn’t have the titles Viz actually has scheduled for next week. And, as always, Midtown doesn’t like Seven Seas much at all.

So this list is my usual fusion of Diamond, asking my comic shop guys what’s out for me next week, and Amazon. With that in mind… there’s a HUGE PILE again this week.

First off, Dark Horse is releasing Vol. 3 of Blood Blockade Battlefront. The words “Nightow” and “Battle” still give me horrible flashbacks to Trigun’s action artwork, but I know this has a ton of fans who have no issues working out what stuff is flying where.

Digital Manga Publishing has a quartet of titles due out. I’m not sure if DMP is using the bunko books as sources for Bad Teacher’s Equation or not – if they are, Vol. 5 may be the final volume of this series.

MICHELLE: I *think* that they are, though I’m not sure about that.

SEAN: Secret Thorns is a one-off that features my favorite kind of BL manga: a cover I don’t hate!

The same cannot be said for Sleepless Nights (though it’s not horrible), but the Odd-Couple-esque premise at least sounds like it will promise wacky shenanigans before the good stuff.

MJ: I feel like I should have something to say here… but I don’t. None of these really sound like My Kind of BL.

MICHELLE: I too like the Secret Thorns cover, but it’s by Kikuko Kikuya, whose Entangled Circumstances *also* had a really cute cover but was ultimately kinda disappointing. I’m wary.

SEAN: And lastly, in the non-BL category, DMP have the first volume of a seinen manga from Houbunsha’s Manga Time Jumbo, one of the infinite Manga Time titles that litter the landscape in Japan. Start with a Happy Ending seems to be about a newly deceased woman becoming a cat for 7 days before she goes to heaven, and the heartwarming stories that follow. Sounds intriguing.

Kodansha has a debut shoujo title! Ema Toyama, author of I Am Here!, has a longer series that also ran in Nakayoshi about a cell-phone novelist ignorant of romance and her blackmailing friendship with the class heart-throb, which Kodansha has smartly retitled Missions of Love. I talked about this as a license request a long time ago, and was very pleased to see Kodansha pick it up. If you like Devil and Her Love Song, but want something a bit sweeter, this may be for you.

MJ: I never read I Am Here! (despite the fact that Michelle loaned me the first couple of volumes ages ago), but maybe this will win me over to Toyama? It certainly sounds intriguing!

MICHELLE: It does, but probably more so because I ended up liking I Am Here! more than expected.

SEAN: Seven Seas is absent from Midtown’s list, but my store says they have some titles coming in. The biggie for me is Volumes 3-4 of Young Miss Holmes by Kaoru Shintani. I read Vol. 1-2 expecting something a lot more lolicon, but was surprised to find an addictive set of mysteries that treated Holmes with respect and had the best Action Maids I’d seen in ages. This 2nd omnibus deals with, among other familiar stories, The Hound of The Baskervilles (like they were gonna not do a pastiche of that), and The Five Orange Pips (wait, what? Seriously?!) The release comes out slow as molasses, but I’m so glad the next one is here!

MICHELLE: I have the omnibus of 1-2. Must get ’round to reading it!

SEAN: There’s also Vol. 1 of the new debut, Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends, the latest in Seven Seas’ autumn of moe. This is still pretty ecchi, and runs in Monthly Comic Alive, but if asked to choose between the Big Brother title, the forthcoming Mayo Chiki, and this, I would take this in a heartbeat. It’s about a club of misfits supposedly devoted to learning social skills.

Angel Para Bellum hits Vol. 2, and I must admit Vol. 1 did not impress me, so I have little to add.

And Alice in the Country of Clover hits Vol. 3 of Cheshire Cat Waltz, which has walked a nice line between innocent and saucy, as well as between meaningful and aggravating. As the best game tie-ins always do.

MJ: I still haven’t read anything in this series! Shame on me.

MICHELLE: Don’t start with these Clover spinoffs. At least Cheshire Cat Waltz is a lot better than Bloody Twins!

SEAN: Vertical also has a debut, HeroMan, which comes from the pen of Stan Lee (with an assist from the anime studio BONES) that ran in Square Enix’s Shonen Gangan. It’s a title for younger readers (though still readable for adults), about a kid who wants to be, well, a hero.

MJ: Given my reaction to Ultimo, I am not optimistic about the chances of me liking something from the pen of Stan Lee, sorry to say.

MICHELLE: Yeah. Sorry, comics fans!

SEAN: And there’s the final volume of GTO: The Early Years, which rounds out this delinquent manga with a flourish (and has a few mild hints of GTO proper, mostly Onizuka realizing he has no clue what to do with his life). I wish it had sold better, but kudos to Vertical for finishing this classic.

Midtown lists for Viz all the titles we talked about last week, so go there to see those. As for this week… deep breath…

MJ: *facepalm*

SEAN: It’s Excel Saga 24!!! Five months earlier than I had expected! Not only that, 25 is due out in April! It’s an Excel Saga speed up, just like Naruto! We’re only 4 away from the end now, and things are well into the endgame, with Excel’s very existence now at stake. You cannot miss this title!

In non-Excel Saga Viz releases, the license rescued 07-Ghost has its debut, with Viz redoing Vols. 1-3 (originally put out here by Go! Comi) before finishing the series. It’s an Ichijinsha (is this shoujo or josei?) series, which runs in Comic Zero-Sum, and is a fantasy supernatural thing with BL overtones. As is Zero-Sum in general, really.

MJ: I tend to like manga from Comic Zero-Sum, so I’m kinda looking forward to this!

SEAN: After being delayed for four months, we finally see the final volume of Cross Game (and judging by sales, it may be the last Adachi we see over here for some time.) The ending to this manga is terrific, I want to say. Don’t miss it.

MJ: I’m behind on this series, but definitely hooked. I’ll be picking this up!

MICHELLE: I can’t wait to read the ending of this, though low sales bum me out. In the continuing theme of “stuff I have but need to somehow find time to read,” I’m reminded that I’ve got a couple series of his in French. One of these days…

SEAN: Inu Yasha’s BIG edition trundles along, hitting lucky No. 13 this time around.

And speaking of Takahashi, Rin-Ne also keeps trundling along, finally arriving at double digits. Its hero and heroine may bear no resemblance whatsoever to Ataru or Lum, but it’s still Takahashi through-and-through, and has just as much chance of resolving.

MICHELLE: RIN-NE is a nice comfort read. Interesting enough not to bore you, simple enough not to challenge you in any way.

SEAN: And for those who saw Evangelion 13 this week and thought about giving it a try, Vol. 1-3 are out in an omnibus. Get it for Shinji. You mustn’t run away.

Lastly, Midtown (hey, back to their list!) has a giant pile of Yen releases that are coming out later on Amazon, so it’s back to the comic shops. Bunny Drop 7 finally gets around to working out the unresolved issues between Rin and her birth mother, and sounds fantastic.

MJ: I was skeptical of the later volumes of Bunny Drop, but after reading volume six, I’m definitely looking forward to more!

MICHELLE: Now it’s my turn to be ashamed for not having read any of a series!

SEAN: Haruhi-chan, the 4-koma spin-off that I care about and no other blogger does has reached Vol. 6. It’s funny and adorable. And genuinely moe, as opposed to “loli boobies!” moe. :)

Nabari no Ou is headed towards its climax as we reach Vol. 12, and yet is still sadly known as “that other ninja manga.”

MJ: “Sadly” really is the word here. Nabari no Ou is so much more interesting than the much bigger ninja manga. I wish it was getting more attention in the manga blogosphere.

MICHELLE: I’m happy that Yen’s continuing to release it, though. Looks like we’ll safely reach the conclusion.

SEAN: Omamori Himari Vol. 9 is.

Coming out a mere 4 years after Vol. 2 (blame Japan, not Yen – the author found an actual hit in GA Art Design Class and took a looooooong hiatus), we have Vol. 3 of Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro! It’s adorable and creepy and sweet and sort of sad all at the same time.

MJ: Kate recommended this quite a while back, which is a strong recommendation indeed. Between the two of you, I’m convinced!

SEAN: Soul Eater hits Vol. 11 right after its moe counterpart had Vol. 2 arrive. This is more serious and action-packed, and I suspect far more depressing as well.

Spice and Wolf is up to Vol. 7, and I presume still teaching us economic theory?

Lastly (thank GOD), There’s the debut of Umineko When They Cry, the sort of sequel to Higurashi from the same author. Darker in tone than its predecessor, it still has a lot of cute wacky comedy before everything goes to hell. It too runs in arcs, and this first omnibus collects the first two books of the first arc, which ran in Square Enix’s Gangan Powered.

MICHELLE: This time, I’m going to follow this one from the beginning!

SEAN: That’s… a lot of manga. Wow.

3 Things Thursday: Miracle Comics

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Unfinished manga series… everyone’s got a favorite—at least one beloved manga whose abrupt cancellation or apparently indefinite hiatus serves only as a source of pain. And we all know the score, don’t we? Vanished series almost never return to publication, so chances are, our disappointment is permanent. Still, sometimes, just sometimes, a beloved series does come back. Perhaps it finds a new publisher, or the artist recovers from a long-time illness—every once in a while, a manga miracle occurs.

Next week’s list of new manga includes one of these miracle series, as the third volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s Shoulder-a-Coffin, Kuro (a former subject of Kate Dacey’s The Best Manga You’re Not Reading series) is due for release from North American publisher Yen Press after a five-year hiatus in Japan.

I have my own list of favorite comics that were prematurely interrupted, and a few of these have had their miracles! None has seen republication in English yet, but I have hope once again! And so…

3 Favorite Miracle Comics

1. Wild Adapter | Kazuya Minekura | Original publisher: Tokyopop – I know, I know, I’ll jump on any excuse to talk about Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter, but that is seriously how often it is on my mind. Interrupted both by the author’s health problems and rumored content conflicts with its original Japanese publisher (Tokuma Shoten), the series finally resumed serialization in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero Sum last year, starting from the beginning, with new chapters scheduled to begin next spring. Though Wild Adapter‘s original US publisher, Tokyopop, ceased their North American publishing operations last year, the prospect of new chapters certainly reawakens hope for fans that the series could be re-licensed in the future. We live in hope. So much hope.

2. Legal Drug | CLAMP | Original publisher: Tokyopop – Though it’s easy to pile on Tokyopop for their list of unfinished series, here is another case in which a canceled manga’s problems originated in Japan. CLAMP’s supernatural detective series Legal Drug ran from 2000 to 2003 in Kadokawa Shoten’s shoujo magazine Monthly Asuka, until the magazine itself went out of publication. Despite CLAMP’s (and particularly the series’ primary artist Nekoi’s) occasional remarks about wanting to continue the series, I think most of us had pretty much left it for dead. Much to our surprise, then, the series resumed publication in Kadokawa’s Young Ace Magazine, with a new name (Drug and Drop) and for a new (seinen) demographic. Though the series has been running again for nearly a year, it hasn’t been re-licensed… yet. With CLAMP, this seems thankfully inevitable. I can’t wait!

3. Off*Beat | Jen Lee Quick | Original publisher: Tokyopop – This one actually is Tokyopop’s fault, though it’s also to their credit that the series ever saw publication to begin with. Years ago, when Tokyopop was experimenting heavily in the world of OEL manga, a fantastic little series called Off*Beat was born. This idiosyncratic comic about a genius teenager figuring out who he is went down in flames with the rest of Tokyopop’s OEL program after only two volumes, but its quiet fandom lived on. I discovered the series thanks to a plea from my former PopCultureShock colleague, Isaac Hale, and followed that up with a plea of my own. Though contractual issues hung up many of the Tokyopop writers from carrying on with their series after cancellation, even after TP’s North American demise, hope seemed bleak. So imagine the joy and surprise that followed this article last year (sourced from Johanna Draper Carlson who spotted this tweet from Lissa Pattillo—see how news travels in the manga blogosphere?). The new volume hasn’t seen the light of day quite yet, but recent posts still sound positive. Hurrah!

Do you have favorite miracle comics?

Open thread: fannish highlights of 2012

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Hello Manga Bookshelf readers! Between a sudden wave of blogger/contributor illnesses and Kate’s recent departure, we’re running a bit lean on the Manga Bookshelf roster this week. So let’s chat amongst ourselves, shall we?

As 2012 begins to wind down, a blogger’s thoughts are filled with one thing and one thing only: end-of-the-year lists and roundups. Here at Manga Bookshelf, we can (and probably will) jabber on about our favorite this and our top ten that, as thoroughly and as often as possible.

Looking back in preparation for the roundup onslaught, I can see that I spent my year reading BL at JManga, test driving the DMG, questioning Apple’s content policies, falling unexpectedly in love with Eikichi Onizuka, finally reading Loveless, indulging in hatred, saying tearful goodbyes to Fullmetal Alchemist and 13th Boy, fawning over old shoujo, experimenting with video, and geeking out on CLAMP.

But as I ponder my fannish activities over the past year, I have to admit it’s pretty insular. With such a wide variety of voices available both here and in the wider manga blogosphere, I’m free to let my tastes drive my own content—and it’s clear that they do. So with that in mind, I find that what I’m most interested in now is what you’ve been doing in 2012.

What have been the fannish highlights of your year? Profound moments? Favorite fandoms? Favorite fans? We can talk anime, manga, western comics—If you’ve had a fannish year, I want to hear about it!

Come forth and share!

Quick news roundup

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Just a few highlights today—I worked a 14-hour day yesterday, and even though I didn’t have to stay up all night to watch the returns, I’m beat! More comprehensive coverage will be coming tomorrow. Thank you to all of you who voted. And one more public service announcement, because I talked to a lot of people in this situation yesterday: If you are not properly registered to vote—if you never have registered, or if you have moved since the last time you registered, take care of that today! Don’t wait until next election day.

Okay, I’m done. Here’s some manga news:

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses their Pick of the Week—and a pretty awesome week it is!

Laura’s latest shoujo manga license request at Heart of Manga is Suki-tte li na yo.

It’s a sad day in the manga blogosphere: Kate Dacey is shutting down The Manga Critic, mainly because of some interesting new (non-manga) opportunities that have cropped up. I’ll miss her smart reviews and commentary, but she plans to contribute occasional columns to Manga Bookshelf and she knows the doors of this blog are always open to her as well.

Reviews: Ash Brown looks at a week of manga reading at Experiments in Manga. The Manga Bookshelf team presents us with more short takes on recent releases in their latest Bookshelf Briefs column.

Lori Henderson on Angel Heart (Manga Xanadu)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 50 of Bleach (The Comic Book Bin)
Russ Parsons on The Drops of God (The LA Times)
Anna on vol. 15 of Kimi ni Todoke, vol. 11 of Oresama Teacher, and vol. 15 of We Were There (Manga Report)

Get out and vote!

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It’s Election Day. Get out and vote! Everything you need to know—polling places, hours, and a sample ballot—can be found at the excellent site Vote411.org, which is run by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters.

I have written about this before, so please forgive the repetition, but I’m a strong believer in exercising your right to vote at every possible opportunity because of my own experiences. Back in 2000, when I was a newspaper reporter for the Melrose Free Press, I covered a mayoral election that was won by a single vote. That’s right: On election night, the winner had a margin of one vote (it opened up to ten on the recount). From this I drew three lessons:

1. Vote, dammit! This election is going to be close in many districts. Your vote matters.

2. If your vote is challenged, insist on voting using a provisional ballot. In the election I covered, the provisional ballots were opened on the recount and several were counted.

3. Once the election is over, move on. That single vote that decided the election? It wasn’t mine. I didn’t vote for the winner, which is a little embarrassing to admit, now that I work for him. The fact is, he turned out to be a far better mayor than I would have guessed from watching him as an alderman and a candidate. Fortunately, people on both sides dropped their animosity fairly quickly and started working together. That’s what we all need to do on Wednesday.

That’s it. Go, vote. Regularly scheduled programming will return tomorrow.

It Came from the Sinosphere: Ài Shā 17

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A picture of Zou Kejia, one of the characters of this drama

So, the official English title of this drama is Bump Off Lover, but I dislike it so much that I am just going to use the Mandarin title Ài Shā 17 (Love Murder 17) instead.

Many people comment that Taiwanese idol dramas are always cheery, always romantic, always upbeat, and are overall a light-hearted, bubbly, pop (junk) culture genre. First of all, I’m very wary of make distinctions between “junk” culture and “high” culture. And it also turns out that there are quite a few rather dark idol drams out there. I’ve even discussed one previously—The Outsiders. But the darkest, most disturbing idol drama I’ve ever seen is, without question, Ài Shā 17.

TRIGGER WARNING: This TV drama presents stalking, sexual bullying (including a male victim), under-age prostitution, rape with drugs, child-kidnapping, victim-blaming, people defending the perpetrators, suicide, and other disturbing topics. Consequently, these topics are also come up in this post.

Now, in order to set the mood for this post, I suggest watching the opening song before continuing.

The Story

The story starts with two 17-year old twin sisters, Yizhen and Yijing.

Yijing (left) and Yizhen (right)

Yizhen’s high school teacher, Yang Renyou, had tried to rape her, which is why the school fired him. However, Yang Renyou is apparently now stalking Yizhen.

Yang Renyou is watching Yizhen’s family

Meanwhile Zou Kejie, another student at their school, is being bullied. Because of this pressure, Zou Kejie joins a mysterious BBS called “Heart of Darkness” for social support. He also becomes good friends with Yijing (actually, he has a crush on her).

Kejia and Yijing having a good time together

One evening after school, Yizhen spots Yang Renyou running around the school grounds. Later that evening, she hears her sister Yijing cry out for help. While running towards her sister’s voice, somebody pushes Yizhen into a swimming pool—and she can’t swim. She is rescued by her boyfriend, Jiawei, but it’s too late; by the time they find Yijing, she’s already dead.

Jiawei pulls Yizhen out of the swimming pool

In the trial by media, Zou Kejie is presented as being Yijing’s murderer. While he professes his innocence, he refuses to cooperate with the police. Even his own brother, Zou Kejiang, begins to suspect that he is the culprit. Eventually Zou Kejie cannot handle the pressure of everybody and the media accusing him of being Yijing’s murderer, and commits suicide.

Kejia (left) and his brother Kejiang (right)

After the suicide, Zou Kejiang regrets not believing his brother, and is determined to find the true murderer in order to clear his brother’s name. Meanwhile, Yizhen suspects that Yang Renyou did it. Yizhen, Kejiang, and Jiawei work together to solve the mystery … and what Yizhen learns is more disturbing than anything she imagined.

Jiawei, Yizhen, and Kejiang in a hospital

Taiwanese Online Culture

Last week, I discussed Taiwanese online culture a bit. This idol drama depicts it too. In 2007, it would not be very credible if a bunch of ordinary (as in non-geeky) people in the United States decided to casually join a BBS, but in Taiwan BBS are still a dominant way to socialize online. They’ve even survived the popularity of Facebook.

Angela Chang and Shen Shihua

Idol dramas are called “idol dramas” because they present “idols” (usually music idols) in “dramas.” The “idol” of this drama is clearly Angela Chang, the popular Taiwanese singer who plays both Yizhen and Yijing.

First of all, I must give some credit to the hair-and-makeup people, who did a really good job of distinguishing Yizhen and Yijing.

Angela Chang as Yizhen and Yijing

Of course the bulk of the credit goes to Angela Chang and the scriptwriters. This was an excellent way to demonstrate Angela Chang’s acting skills—there is nothing which proves that somebody can act better than casting them as two different characters in the same story. I ought to watch another Angela Chang drama.

Angela Chang, in addition to playing both of the main characters, also sings the opening and ending songs for the drama.

For an example of an Angela Chang song not directly related to Ài Shā 17, check out Bu Tong (No Pain). The pinyin lyrics with an English gloss can be found at Chinese Tools.

Shen Shihua as Liang Yajuan

Yet I think the very best acting performance in this drama was given by Shen Shihua, who played Liang Yajuan, the mother of Yizhen and Yijing. She even won the 2006 Golden Bell Best Supporting Actress award for this performance. In some ways, Liang Yajuan is a more difficult character to play than Yizhen or Yijing. Liang Yajuan actually grows more as a character than either of her daughters, and has to convey more subtlety. She just doesn’t get as much screentime.

The Whodunit Murder Mystery

The whodunit murder mystery is one of my least favorite genres of fiction. I only watched this drama because I received multiple recommendations. So how does it hold up as a murder mystery from a non-fan’s perspective?

Yizhen in an alleyway

I generally was less interested in the story when it was more purely a whodunit, and more interested when it was focusing on something else (like the relationship between Yizhen and Yijing). This probably says more about me than the drama itself. And of course, much of the story seems contrived. I find that is almost always the case with whodunits (then again, a fan of whodunits could probably point out the many ways the fiction I love seems contrived too).

A shot from one of the interrogation scenes

However, even I can recognize that this is a very well-crafted whodunit. There are several likely suspects, it’s very well set up, and plenty of surprises for the viewers. I had predicted one of the “shocking” plot twists pretty early, which made me cocky. The denouement, however, caught me completely off-guard. At first I was so shocked that I thought I had misheard something … yet looking back on the drama, it made so much sense, and even explained some things about the story which had seemed a bit odd. That is good writing.

Rape Culture

If you don’t know what “rape culture” is, this is a good introduction.

A 17-year old prostitute prepares to jump off a balcony

Unfortunately, this drama is a reflection of reality in Taiwan. Older men really do prey on teenage girls and child prostitution really does happen online in Taiwan. Of course, these atrocities also happen in the United States. It’s hard to tell whether this is really more prevalent in Taiwan, or whether Taiwanese people (or more specifically, the Taiwanese people I encounter, which is not a random sample of the population) are just more willing to talk about it. It is worth noting that there was a drastic reduction in child prostitution in Taiwan in the 1990s when the government started to actually enforce the anti-child-prostitution laws … and it was not a coincidence that the government cracked down on child prostitution at the same time that Taiwan transitioned to democracy.

The police arrest a client of an under-age prostitute

I, luckily, have yet to be directly threatened, and I think I am actually at much less risk of being sexually assaulted here than when I was living in San Francisco. Nonetheless, the local rape culture does affect my life in Taiwan too, just as it affects everybody else’s lives. I don’t think this is the place to discuss that, though that might be a good topic for my personal blog.

a woman is very upset

In some ways, this drama gets things very right. Most rapes are not committed by strangers, and none of the crimes in this drama are committed by strangers (the only crime which seems to have been committed by a stranger turns out to have been perpetrated by someone who is not). The drama also clearly shows how many people are ready to defend rapists, which unfortunately is very realistic. The drama also makes clear that in a society where saving face is more important than stopping abuse, abuse will flourish.

A man solicits sex from Yizhen, and Yizhen clearly does not consent

Now, I am uncomfortable with the way the drama depicts some things [SPOILER WARNING FOR THIS PARAGRAPH]. For example, I think the drama shows just a little too much sympathy for Yang Renyou. Sure, he was tricked, and he was lied to … but you know what? He also tried to have sex with one of his teenage students—multiple times—and when she was obviously not-consenting, he still continued. That is 100% Yang Renyou’s fault, and nobody else’s. The drama doesn’t exactly try to defend Yang Renyou—it presents the “facts” pretty clearly and he does die a horrible death—but I think the drama should have made it clearer that, regardless of the circumstances, Yang Renyou’s acts were utterly despicable and totally his responsibility. Also, I don’t like that Yijing, the victim of the most abuse (kidnapped as a child, drugged and raped, and finally, murdered) is also the main villain. In the context of a society without rape culture, this wouldn’t bother me … but victim blaming is so virulent in both Taiwan and the United States that it makes me very uneasy when the kidnapping/rape/murder victim just happens to be the Big Bad.

Availability in English

This drama is not legally available in English. That’s too bad. This would make a great addition to Dramafever’s line-up *hint hint*. That said, the first episode is crafted in such a way that I would have been able to follow the story even if the dialogue had been exclusively in Old Church Slavonic.

Conclusion

As I said before, this isn’t really my kind of thing. Therefore, it is not a personal favorite. But, in spite of all of the contrived stuff, I can’t deny that this is one of the best-written idol dramas I have ever seen. The mere fact that I watched the whole thing is a testament to its quality.

Yizhen and Jiawei in the special school assembly announcing Yijing's death

And while many people dismiss idol dramas as “junk culture,” I have found that the better idol dramas discuss some very important issues—in this case, rape culture. While I have my reservations about the way it’s handled in this drama, I still think it is a worthwhile addition to the conversation. The very fact that these dramas can make these important conversations accessible to a wide audience, in my opinion, makes them more valuable than works of high-falutin’ culture which are only accessible to an elite group.

Next Time: Princess Pearl (novel)

Sara K’s life is returning to “normal.” Of course, her “normal” life is not necessarily very normal at all and, much as she appreciates the opportunity to rest, she looks forward to the next time that her life will stop being “normal.”

GEN Manga ramps up; Evangelion goes global

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Robert McGuire explains GEN Manga to ICv2 and reveals that they will be publishing 9 to 12 tankoubon next year, three times as many as this year.

Viz published vol. 13 of Neon Genesis Evangelion on Friday, digitally and in print, as part of a worldwide simultaneous release. I talked to Viz VP Leyla Aker about why that’s important—and why manga publishers are working hard to eliminate the gap between Japanese and English-language publication.

The Manga Bookshelf team discusses this week’s new manga releases. Lissa Pattillo goes over the past week’s rather sparse list of new manga releases in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA.

Digital posts a short interview with Miki Araya, creator of Secretary’s Job.

MJ looks at manga lovers who share the joy via Pinterest and Tumblr.

Starsamaria takes a look at power and gender in Kamisama Kiss at Shojo Corner.

Fantagraphics posts a first look at their edition of Heart of Thomas, translated by Matt Thorn; there’s a link to a preview as well.

News from Japan: Expect some turnover at Shonen Jump, which announced three new series this week: Yūki Tabata’s Hungry Joker, a science/action series; Masahiro Hirakata’s Shinmai Fukei Kiruko-san, a comedy; and Shun Saeki and Yūto Tsukuda’s Shokugeki no Sōma, a cooking manga.

Reviews

Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 6 of Afterschool Charisma (The Comic Book Bin)
Leroy Douresseaux on vols. 14 and 15 of Bakuman (The Comic Book Bin)
Ash Brown on vol. 1 of Bond of Dreams, Bonds of Love (Experiments in Manga)
Phillip Anthony on vol. 2 of Codename Sailor V (Manga Bookshelf)
Ken Haley on Godzilla (Sequential Ink)
Kate Haddock on Kamisama Kiss (The Collegian)
Victoria Martin on vol. 10 of Soul Eater (Kuriousity)