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Lofty idealism? Bitter rants? Might as well just call it “fangirling.”

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Hi, MB! I’m Aja! I’m your newest columnist and I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’ve been brought on board primarily to give a pan-fandom perspective to the work being done on this site, and to regularly infuriate you all with my hastily conceived opinions! So let’s just dive right in, shall we? :D


This is F(X)! This is going to be a long post, HERE, HAVE SOMETHING FUN TO LOOK AT.

 

I’ve been in fandom for 14 years. I’ve been active in lit, media, RPF, and Asian fandoms, writing het, slash, and femslash. If this is all fangirl Japanese to you, please let me know, guys, because I am going to be spending a lot of time talking about fandom in this column (which is why it’s called FANBATTE! is that not the greatest name ever) and I want to make sure I start from the same place as the rest of you! I feel comfortable claiming a general acquaintance with fandom history and culture regarding literary fandoms, “western media” fandoms, comics fandom, sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, anime/manga fandoms, and Asian pop fandoms. I don’t claim that my knowledge is universal (lol what is gaming fandom, what is Vocaloid, what is Homestuck*), but I’m here and this is my column, dammit, so it’s enough to be going on with!

My mission statement, in a nutshell:

♥´¨`♥ Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Fanfic is okay. Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ♥´¨`♥

 

Not just okay, but amazing. I believe that participating in fandom is a way of engaging in critical discourse about something you love, and I also believe that fanfiction is part of a huge, centuries-old cultural tradition of recursive literature. Fandom is so cool, and I hope you’ll stick around to talk about it with me, because I’m still learning so much and I hope ! :)

The focus of this column will most likely shift between general topics and discussions of specific canons. I have no idea what those topics and canons will be yet, so if there’s something you’d like me to discuss, please let me know, because I would love to!

* lol j/k no one can explain Homestuck

 

 

Now. Let’s talk for a second about Fandom Perspectives. oh wait hang on MJ said this should be a header

Fandom Perspectives~

This week, the respected romance review site Dear Author is doing a series on fandom and fanfiction. Unfortunately, they’re doing it wrong. So, so wrong, you guys. It’s like they’re trying to have peace talks while hemmed in on all sides by barbed wire. FACEPALM.

In most of the posts so far, the panelists’ starting assumptions and their conclusions actually highlight many of the problems you run into when you generalize about fandom. And since part of what I will do in this column is generalize about fandom based on my personal experiences, I want to start by talking about why such generalization is tricky.

Dear Author has obviously tried to round up differing perspectives and different topics related to fanfiction, so kudos to them for that, really. However, they have not secured a plurality of experience or even knowledgeability about fandom, so their discussions are proving very unsatisfying to many actual fans I’ve talked to who’ve followed along.

There are 3 main reasons for this disconnect between us (as fans) and the representations of fan experience in the DA posts:

  1. So far, all of Dear Author’s assumptions seem to be built around the idea that fanfiction has to defend itself, that by way of existing it is encroaching on someone else’s space. This is not only a false dichotomy but completely antithetical to the way most fans do fandom and think about their fanfic.

    I can’t say this enough. To most fans, what they do is not shameful, it’s natural. And why shouldn’t it be? People have been reworking their favorite stories for centuries. Why is fanfic somehow any different? But if you start your deliberation of fanfic from the perspective that fans have something to be ashamed of, then you color the entire discussion with all kinds of icky assumptions and negative stereotypes. What I will be doing, in my first week here at MB, is unpacking some of these assumptions and attempting to offer a more balanced and nuanced examination of what fandom is and how it operates in various cultural corners of the internet.

  2. There are no fans from non-western fandoms represented in DA’s list, nor are there any queer fans (at least none I saw representing themselves as queer fans) or femslash fans. If the only voices you hear coming from fandom are from people who are culturally closest to you, then you won’t ever have a well-rounded discussion on what fandom is.
  3. The majority of the DA discussion about fandom is being had by people who come either from outside of fandom, or from within primarily het fandoms. By “primarily het,” I mean fandoms for which major emphasis is given to canon heterosexual ships within the source pairing, and whose discourse encourage their fans to adhere to canon relationships. (This doesn’t mean that there aren’t subsets of alternate pairing fans within those fandoms, but those other fans don’t typically interact with the rest of the fandom.)

    Among these primarily het fandoms, the major ones claimed by the panelists tend to be isolated pockets of fandom that don’t have any interaction with other fandom communities. Fandom, like every other corner of the internet, is as diverse as the people who are in it. So you can have whole communities within fandom that never talk to other communities, and then you can have whole corners of fandom that are focused around being multi-fandom hubs and pan-fandom hubs (like Livejournal or formerly Delicious), that also have their own limitations and cultural expectations that don’t translate out to the “satellite” communities of fandom. And that can become a problem because you can wind up with people who have drastically different conceptions of: a) what fandom looks like; b) what fans are doing fandom for; c) who is in fandom; and d) what kind of fanworks are produced by fandom.

    D) is especially important because the fanfic that you find on, for example, AFF, looks nothing like the fanfic you find on AO3. By the same token, someone who is in an archive-based fandom would not have the same conception of what fandom is as someone who is involved in primarily livejournal communities, or for example Tumblr, where there are natural overlaps and discourse between all kinds of fandoms and fans. The Austen and Twilight fandoms are both represented several times on the panel, probably because of their close ties to the romance industry. While these fandoms are totally different in many respects, they are both well-known for being primarily archive-based rather than pan-fandom-community based. This means that pan-fandom fans don’t talk to them, and they don’t talk to us, which leads to a huge disconnect on both sides about what fandom is for everyone involved.

    As an example, for years every time rare fandom nomination came up during Yuletide, people attempted to nominate Pride & Prejudice, and every year those of us who actually knew anything about Austen fandom would have to explain that Pride & Prejudice is in no way a rare fandom; that it actually has thousands upon thousands of fanfics and hundreds more published fanfics to its name–they just were all tucked away in archives and not in spaces that the typical Yuletide participant played in. So this disconnect hurts communication on both sides of the divide.

All of this translates into a need to recognize that your experiences are not universal. I’m going to spend a lot of time counter-arguing many of Dear Author’s other posts from this week, so I’ll just point to their post “Fan fiction: a personal perspective” as an example of an open-minded post about keeping your own experience in perspective.

If only the rest of their posts took this advice! Instead, the overall impression of fandom that I and others are taking away from this series is that fandom is primarily shamefaced, defensive, and poorly attempting to justify copyright infringement.

To all of which, over the next week, I will be merrily calling bullshit.

Whew! Okay, so that’s me finished for now! What about you guys? WHO EVEN ARE YOU PEOPLE? Where do you come from? What perspectives do you bring to your corner of the internet? Are you in fandom? (Hint: are you reading this site? Then yes.) Oh my god this post is 1300 words long. HERE, HAVE ANOTHER K-POP GROUP.

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Benkei in New York

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I’ve always thought that I had something in common with Warren Ellis — besides a sailor’s fondness for colorful language, that is — and reading Benkei in New York confirmed my suspicions: we both like Jiro Taniguchi. Flip to the back cover of the VIZ Pulp edition, and you’ll see Ellis declaring that “Benkei is better than 96% of the crime fiction coming out of America right now.” I have no idea how he arrived at that figure, but eleven years after Benkei’s initial US release, I’m still inclined to agree with him.

Originally serialized in Big Comic Original, Benkei in New York (1991-96) is a collaboration between Taniguchi and writer Jinpachi Mori, best known in Japan for Kasai no Hito, a long-running manga about an eccentric but wise judge. The seven Benkei stories focus on a Japanese ex-pat living in New York. Like many New Yorkers, Benkei’s career is best characterized by slashes and hyphens: he’s a bartender-art forger-hitman who can paint a Millet from memory or assassinate a thug using a swordfish. (Let’s just say they call it “swordfish” for a reason.)

Benkei’s primary job, however, is seeking poetic justice for murder victims’ families. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if Benkei simply used a gun; part of the series’ allure is watching him set elaborate traps for his prey, whether he’s borrowing a page from the Titus Andronicus playbook or using a grappling hook to wound an unscrupulous dockworker. In “Haggis,” for example, Benkei uses a draft-dodger’s memories of a 1968 trip to Scotland to win the man’s confidence, persuading him to visit an out-of-the-way bar where a gruesome dish awaits him. “Throw Back,” another stand-out, culminates in an elaborate showdown in the American Music of Natural History that gives new meaning to the phrase “interactive exhibits”; Benkei and his victim plunder display cases for weapons, dueling their way through the Hall of Human Origins.

As the scene in the Natural History Museum suggests, New York City is as much a “character” as Benkei himself. Taniguchi clearly spent hours poring over photographs of the city: his rendition of Coney Island, for example, doesn’t just show the Cyclone — an easy symbol for this iconic stretch of New York coastline — but all the bathhouses, apartment buildings, and other structures that line the boardwalk, including the distinctive facade of the New York Aquarium. Moreover, he captures the feeling of Coney Island in the off-season — the dark grey color of the ocean, the empty expanses of boardwalk, the absence of people — imbuing the scene with a melancholy authenticity.

Taniguchi’s eye for detail is evident in his busier scenes as well. In the opening pages of “Throw Back,” Benkei pursues his mark through the 42nd Street subway station. A series of narrow, horizontal panels convey the bustling energy of the platform, cross-cutting between a busker pounding on plastic drums (a subway fixture in the 1990s) and Benkei threading his way through the commuters. Taniguchi swiftly pulls back from extreme close-ups of the the drummer and Benkei to crowd scenes, in so doing helping us see this claustrophobic, noisy space as Benkei does: camouflage for the urban hunter.

Like many VIZ manga from the 1990s and early 2000s, Benkei in New York boasts a stylish translation. (Yuji Oniki is credited as the adapter.) The script crackles with wit and energy, as Benkei trades one-liners with clients and targets alike. One of my favorite exchanges occurs early in the volume, as Benkei talks business with the leader of an art forgery ring:

Forger: Timing is of crucial importance. Once we agree on a deal, it’s our responsibility to deliver the product to the client while they’re still drooling.
Benkei: You sound like you run a pizza joint.
Forger: What’s wrong with that? Selling pizzas is how I learned everything about New York.

Hokey as that conversation may be, it wouldn’t be out of place in a gangster flick; one could almost imagine a character in Goodfellas or The Godfather reminiscing about his past in a similar fashion.

If Benkei’s motives and methods are sometimes inscrutable — or downright illogical — the stories still work beautifully, with crack pacing and memorable denouements that can be as deeply unsettling as they are emotionally satisfying — or, in Warren Ellis’ words, Benkei in New York is “diabolically well-told.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

BENKEI IN NEW YORK • STORY BY JINPACHI MORI AND ART BY JIRO TANIGUCHI • VIZ • 224 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: Benkei in New York

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I’ve always thought that I had something in common with Warren Ellis — besides a sailor’s fondness for colorful language, that is — and reading Benkei in New York confirmed my suspicions: we both like Jiro Taniguchi. Flip to the back cover of the VIZ Pulp edition, and you’ll see Ellis declaring that “Benkei is better than 96% of the crime fiction coming out of America right now.” I have no idea how he arrived at that figure, but eleven years after Benkei’s initial US release, I’m still inclined to agree with him.

Originally serialized in Big Comic Original, Benkei in New York (1991-96) is a collaboration between Taniguchi and writer Jinpachi Mori, best known in Japan for Kasai no Hito, a long-running manga about an eccentric but wise judge. The seven Benkei stories focus on a Japanese ex-pat living in New York. Like many New Yorkers, Benkei’s career is best characterized by slashes and hyphens: he’s a bartender-art forger-hitman who can paint a Millet from memory or assassinate a thug using a swordfish. (Let’s just say they call it “swordfish” for a reason.)

Benkei’s primary job, however, is seeking poetic justice for murder victims’ families. Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story if Benkei simply used a gun; part of the series’ allure is watching him set elaborate traps for his prey, whether he’s borrowing a page from the Titus Andronicus playbook or using a grappling hook to wound an unscrupulous dockworker. In “Haggis,” for example, Benkei uses a draft-dodger’s memories of a 1968 trip to Scotland to win the man’s confidence, persuading him to visit an out-of-the-way bar where a gruesome dish awaits him. “Throw Back,” another stand-out, culminates in an elaborate showdown in the American Music of Natural History that gives new meaning to the phrase “interactive exhibits”; Benkei and his victim plunder display cases for weapons, dueling their way through the Hall of Human Origins.

As the scene in the Natural History Museum suggests, New York City is as much a “character” as Benkei himself. Taniguchi clearly spent hours poring over photographs of the city: his rendition of Coney Island, for example, doesn’t just show the Cyclone — an easy symbol for this iconic stretch of New York coastline — but all the bathhouses, apartment buildings, and other structures that line the boardwalk, including the distinctive facade of the New York Aquarium. Moreover, he captures the feeling of Coney Island in the off-season — the dark grey color of the ocean, the empty expanses of boardwalk, the absence of people — imbuing the scene with a melancholy authenticity.

Taniguchi’s eye for detail is evident in his busier scenes as well. In the opening pages of “Throw Back,” Benkei pursues his mark through the 42nd Street subway station. A series of narrow, horizontal panels convey the bustling energy of the platform, cross-cutting between a busker pounding on plastic drums (a subway fixture in the 1990s) and Benkei threading his way through the commuters. Taniguchi swiftly pulls back from extreme close-ups of the the drummer and Benkei to crowd scenes, in so doing helping us see this claustrophobic, noisy space as Benkei does: camouflage for the urban hunter.

Like many VIZ manga from the 1990s and early 2000s, Benkei in New York boasts a stylish translation. (Yuji Oniki is credited as the adapter.) The script crackles with wit and energy, as Benkei trades one-liners with clients and targets alike. One of my favorite exchanges occurs early in the volume, as Benkei talks business with the leader of an art forgery ring:

Forger: Timing is of crucial importance. Once we agree on a deal, it’s our responsibility to deliver the product to the client while they’re still drooling.
Benkei: You sound like you run a pizza joint.
Forger: What’s wrong with that? Selling pizzas is how I learned everything about New York.

Hokey as that conversation may be, it wouldn’t be out of place in a gangster flick; one could almost imagine a character in Goodfellas or The Godfather reminiscing about his past in a similar fashion.

If Benkei’s motives and methods are sometimes inscrutable — or downright illogical — the stories still work beautifully, with crack pacing and memorable denouements that can be as deeply unsettling as they are emotionally satisfying — or, in Warren Ellis’ words, Benkei in New York is “diabolically well-told.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

BENKEI IN NEW YORK • STORY BY JINPACHI MORI AND ART BY JIRO TANIGUCHI • VIZ • 224 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Sailor Moon, Vol.2

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Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 2 | By Naoko Takeuchi | Published by Kodansha Comics USA | Rated: T, Ages 13+

“Pretty Guardian of Love and Justice in a Sailor Suit! Sailor Moon has arrived!!”

I would be lying if i said I haven’t been looking forward to this review. Specifically, because around fifty pages into this volume we are introduced (reintroduced?) to Sailor Venus, aka Minako Aino, the first Sailor Senshi. Her adventures are chronicled in two volumes of Codename: Sailor V. When she popped up, I had only started on the first volume of Sailor V, so on the advice of a friend, I stopped reading Sailor Moon until such time as I finished Sailor V. Well, I’m glad I did, but I would caution that you don’t need to do the same in order to enjoy the second volume of Sailor Moon. Returning to my original point, the reason I’m looking forward to this volume is that the team building is over, the villains are known, and now we are ready for the real fights to begin.

This volume explores the concept of pre-destiny, particularly in regards to the finding of the Princess and the Legendary Crystal. Turns out that our heroes have done this sort of work before. I will endeavour to explain without ripping the lid off the plot. Usagi finally understands why she’s been thinking the way that she has about Tuxedo Mask, and her worldview is shattered as a result. The team is in the middle of a battle with the Dark Kingdom’s latest flunky, Zoisite, when one of their allies is injured. This causes the Moon Kingdom’s Princess Serenity to appear at which time she displays an enormous amount of energy. When the dust has settled, the team is changed forever and only a trip to the moon with Luna’s and Artemis’ (Sailor Venus’ familiar) help will answer their questions. But even after that clarification, the team is still fighting above their weight. I like how they stay together inside and outside the battlefield. They might be reeling from the blows, but they’re still standing. I can’t help feeling that this is a different fight they face due to Sailor V’s warnings and her emphatic statement that this evil must be destroyed for good. This theory is backed up by what the team learns on the moon. It’s a lot to take in, but Takeuchi keeps things moving fast. About two-thirds into the book there’s a brief respite, but it’s short-lived.

Looking at this from a guy perspective, I would say that I feel for Usagi and Mamoru so badly. They are tentatively trying to find their way toward how they feel about one another, but their intertwined destines keep being thwarted. I get now why people used to say to me that I was too dismissive of the series. For me, as someone who likes to write creatively, I think I understand where Takeuchi might be going with this. The path to true love is never easy in real life, harder in the realm of fiction, and almost impossible when it involves the fate of the world in the balance. So is Mamoru and Usagi’s love doomed to the void? Possibly, but I think the idea behind this volume might be that true love cannot be stopped, merely diverted. Also, if I’m going for broke, I would say the idea behind the first volume would be that big things start with something small and/or you are not as unimportant as you believe yourself to be. But, returning to the story, Takeuchi seems to be saying in this volume that not only are the Senshi going to have to deal with setbacks but also, potentially, casualties as well.

I wonder, though, how meaningful it is for me to write about Sailor Moon, given that I’ve been aware of the title for ten plus years but never really got into it. I am trying to imagine how young girls (and indeed guys) reading this in Japan at the time might have felt. Add to that my differing cultural heritage and the gulf gets wider by the minute. But my quest is not in vain, I hope. Alexandre Dumas wrote more than 150 years ago of the value of friendship with comrades in arms, Gandhi wrote and spoke of the fact that tyrants, while invincible for a time, always fall, and a Canadian filmmaker once commented that there is no fate but what we make for ourselves. The Sailor Senshi face a difficult task but the battles they face are universal and common. They have happened before in reality and fiction, they are happening now, and they will happen again.

Nearly seventy years ago, my grandfather’s brother stood on the beaches of France. He was fighting in a foreign army for a cause he believed in. When the ramps dropped and his squad ran onto the beach, he did so knowing what was asked of him. At a critical moment, however, the enemy directed a heavy machine gun at his squad mates. Without any thought for himself, he stood and took the hail of bullets. I presume that afterwards his squad returned fire. As to how accurate that account is, I have to trust the report my grandfather’s family received. In Sailor Moon, Usagi stands in front of the enemy protecting Tuxedo and her friends and laying down a burst of energy at her opponent. She does so because the thought of losing her friends and the one she loves is too much to bear. It is there that she discovers her inner light and does what it is her heart requires—much like a soldier taking the brunt for his team because the thought of losing his friends and failing his loved ones is too much for him to bear.

It’s funny how 200 pages of printed paper with drawings and letters can stir things in you that you had never considered. The weaknesses of this volume, such as the massive amounts of exposition, the somewhat Jason and the Argonauts-esque level of “Kill! Kill! Kill them all!!” of Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom, and the fact we still haven’t seen much character development for the other girls can be negated by the fact this is (or feels like) the opening salvo for the war that’s coming. I suspect it will be fought with the population being unaware, and that makes me appreciate Takeuchi even more as a writer. To fight for people and have them know of your achievement is one thing. It is another to do so without the issuing or request of acknowledgement. The question I pose myself is: would I do the save if the situation called for it? Would you?

As I’ve said, I love the artwork and I can’t fault it. If these pages were pastels or watercolours, I would happily have them on my wall. Just as the first volume has a lot of serene moments this one does too, but now they are happening within the story-building moments and the action scenes. It’s a hard act to follow. The Internet continues to punish me for not discovering Sailor Moon sooner, as original art books by Takeuchi-sensei command higher than normal prices. Even if I weren’t broke, I would still be unable to afford some of them.

There aren’t as many liner notes from the translator this time around. I chalk this up to the pace of the story. Thanks for the crisp job, Kodansha. This volume maintains my high opinion of the series and moves into a new direction. If proof is required of my enjoyment of the series, I start volume three tonight and have ordered volumes four and five. So far my experiment at this shoujo malarkey seems to be working.

Comics shops: The new Borders?

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ICv2 finds an interesting trend in comics sales: Sales of manga in comics shops have gone up in the past year. As those of us who have tried to buy manga in the local capes-and-tights emporium well know, many comics shops are not friendly to manga, but they do have the ability to offer books you can’t find in Barnes & Noble (which seems to have shrunk its graphic novel section drastically, at least in the store I visit). Borders had a huge selection of manga and catered to a wide variety of tastes, and ICv2 points out that the demise of the chain could be an opportunity for comics retailers. While a lot of folks buy their manga online, you can’t replace the immediacy of picking up the book in your hands and buying it right away, and a comic shop would be a great venue for that—if they have the foresight to stock the books.

Lissa Pattillo gives us a bit of background on Digital’s new licenses at Kuriousity.

Matt Blind looks at the manga best-sellers from the week of Feb. 19.

Time for another peek inside a Japanese manga magazine: Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at Weekly Manga Times.

Reviews: Ash Brown takes us briskly through a week in manga at Experiments in Manga.

Erica Friedman on the March issue of Comic Yuri Hime (Okazu)
Dave Ferraro on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Comics-and-More)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 1 of Hana-Kimi (omnibus edition) (The Comic Book Bin)
Drew McCabe on vols. 54 and 55 of Naruto (Comic Attack)
Philip on vol. 2 of Wandering Son (Eeeper’s Choice Podcast)

Manga Bestsellers: 2012, Week Ending 19 February

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Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales

last week’s charts
about the charts

##

Manga Bestsellers

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [468.0] ::
2. ↑2 (4) : Sailor Moon 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [420.0] ::
3. ↓-1 (2) : Negima! 33 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [398.4] ::
4. ↓-1 (3) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [389.3] ::
5. ↑1 (6) : Black Butler 8 – Yen Press, Jan 2012 [387.1] ::
6. ↓-1 (5) : Sailor Moon 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [384.3] ::
7. ↑3 (10) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 2 – Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [366.4] ::
8. ↓-1 (7) : Naruto 53 – Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [358.3] ::
9. ↓-1 (8) : Sailor Moon Codename: Sailor V 1 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [355.3] ::
10. ↑12 (22) : Bleach 38 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [294.5] ::

[more]

Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:

Viz Shonen Jump 98
Yen Press 73
Viz Shojo Beat 68
Kodansha Comics 38
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 30
Seven Seas 21
DMP Juné 20
Vizkids 17
Dark Horse 13
Del Rey 13

[more]

Series/Property

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon – Kodansha Comics [1,107.5] ::
2. ↔0 (2) : Naruto – Viz Shonen Jump [843.6] ::
3. ↔0 (3) : Black Butler – Yen Press [787.5] ::
4. ↑1 (5) : Negima! – Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [581.5] ::
5. ↑2 (7) : Bleach – Viz Shonen Jump [565.3] ::
6. ↓-2 (4) : Maximum Ride – Yen Press [564.3] ::
7. ↓-1 (6) : Highschool of the Dead – Yen Press [515.9] ::
8. ↑1 (9) : Pokemon – Vizkids [499.5] ::
9. ↑2 (11) : Blue Exorcist – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [446.8] ::
10. ↔0 (10) : Rosario+Vampire – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [441.5] ::

[more]

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

1. ↔0 (1) : Sailor Moon 3 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [468.0] ::
3. ↓-1 (2) : Negima! 33 – Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [398.4] ::
5. ↑1 (6) : Black Butler 8 – Yen Press, Jan 2012 [387.1] ::
14. ↓-1 (13) : Highschool of the Dead 5 – Yen Press, Jan 2012 [272.7] ::
15. ↑10 (25) : Omamori Himari 6 – Yen Press, Feb 2012 [269.9] ::
18. ↑2 (20) : Black Bird 12 – Viz Shojo Beat, Jan 2012 [254.1] ::
20. ↓-5 (15) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 7 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Jan 2012 [251.7] ::
23. ↑24 (47) : xxxHolic 19 – Kodansha Comics, Feb 2012 [239.0] ::
24. ↑30 (54) : Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus 3 – Dark Horse, Feb 2012 [237.2] ::
25. ↑3 (28) : Blue Exorcist 6 – Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Feb 2012 [236.4] ::

[more]

Preorders

4. ↓-1 (3) : Sailor Moon 4 – Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [389.3] ::
10. ↑12 (22) : Bleach 38 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [294.5] ::
11. ↑40 (51) : Naruto 55 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [287.6] ::
17. ↑1 (18) : Sailor Moon 5 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [254.1] ::
30. ↑4 (34) : Sailor Moon 7 – Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [229.0] ::
39. ↓-12 (27) : Sailor Moon 6 – Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [215.4] ::
40. ↓-31 (9) : Naruto 54 – Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [204.8] ::
63. ↑1 (64) : Negima! 34 – Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [146.6] ::
74. ↑9 (83) : Ambiguous Relationship – DMP Juné, Mar 2012 [133.1] ::
92. ↑36 (128) : Dance in the Vampire Bund 12 – Seven Seas, Jun 2012 [111.7] ::

[more]

Manhwa

225. ↑238 (463) : Bride of the Water God 10 – Dark Horse, Jan 2012 [50.4] ::
340. ↓-34 (306) : JTF-3 Counter Ops (ebook) – RealinterfaceStudios.com, Mar 2011 [33.2] ::
384. ↑5 (389) : March Story 3 – Viz Signature, Oct 2011 [28.3] ::
403. ↑46 (449) : Bride of the Water God 9 – Dark Horse, Oct 2011 [26.5] ::
590. ↓-71 (519) : March Story 2 – Viz Signature, Apr 2011 [15.3] ::
699. ↑229 (928) : March Story 1 – Viz Signature, Oct 2010 [11.3] ::
784. ↓-194 (590) : Bride of the Water God 1 – Dark Horse, Oct 2007 [8.7] ::
787. ↑ (last ranked 2 Oct 11) : Very Very Sweet 8 – Yen Press, Nov 2010 [8.7] ::
875. ↓-521 (354) : Black God 15 – Yen Press, Jan 2012 [6.8] ::
901. ↑359 (1260) : King of Hell 12 – Tokyopop, Feb 2006 [6.2] ::

[more]

BL/Yaoi

22. ↑1 (23) : Finder Series 5 Truth in the View Finder – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [240.3] ::
52. ↑6 (58) : Private Teacher 2 – DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [172.6] ::
62. ↑10 (72) : Maelstrom (ebook) 1 – Yaoi Press, Jun 2011 [147.3] ::
74. ↑9 (83) : Ambiguous Relationship – DMP Juné, Mar 2012 [133.1] ::
76. ↑141 (217) : Ice Cage (ebook) – Yaoi Press, Feb 2012 [132.6] ::
84. ↑13 (97) : Only Serious About You 2 – DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [121.7] ::
111. ↑169 (280) : Trapped Wizard (ebook) – Yaoi Press, Feb 2012 [92.3] ::
130. ↓-30 (100) : A Fallen Saint’s Kiss – 801 Media, Jan 2012 [79.7] ::
132. ↑50 (182) : Maelstrom (ebook) 3 – Yaoi Press, Jul 2011 [79.6] ::
134. ↑47 (181) : Maelstrom (ebook) 5 – Yaoi Press, Jul 2011 [78.9] ::

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Ebooks

62. ↑10 (72) : Maelstrom (ebook) 1 – Yaoi Press, Jun 2011 [147.3] ::
76. ↑141 (217) : Ice Cage (ebook) – Yaoi Press, Feb 2012 [132.6] ::
77. ↓-4 (73) : How to Draw Manga (ebook) Lesson 1 Eyes – Japanime’s Manga University, May 2011 [132.0] ::
99. ↓-25 (74) : Vampire Cheerleaders 1 – Seven Seas, Mar 2011 [106.6] ::
110. ↑23 (133) : Kanji de Manga 1 – Japanime’s Manga University, Jan 2005 [93.0] ::
111. ↑169 (280) : Trapped Wizard (ebook) – Yaoi Press, Feb 2012 [92.3] ::
122. ↑69 (191) : Vampire Hunter D (manga) 6 – DMP, Nov 2011 [81.8] ::
132. ↑50 (182) : Maelstrom (ebook) 3 – Yaoi Press, Jul 2011 [79.6] ::
134. ↑47 (181) : Maelstrom (ebook) 5 – Yaoi Press, Jul 2011 [78.9] ::
138. ↓-47 (91) : Manga Cookbook – Japanime’s Manga University, Aug 2007 [77.2] ::

[more]

Bookshelf Briefs 3/19/12

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This week, Kate, Michelle, & Sean take a look at recent releases from Yen Press, VIZ Media, Seven Seas, and Kodansha Comics.

13th Boy, Vol. 11 | By SangEun Lee | Yen Press – Reviewing the penultimate volume of a series is always a challenge. Divulge too little, and long-time readers might wonder if the story is building to a satisfying conclusion; divulge too much and incur the wrath of the Spoiler Police. I’ll try to find a middle ground here by saying that SangEun Lee uses volume eleven to explore the relationship between Whie-Young and Hee-So in greater depth — a relationship that may come at a price too great for Whie-Young, Hee-So, and the long-suffering Beatrice, who owes his existence to Whie-Young’s magic. The major plot developments of volume eleven are related with Lee’s customary mix of slapstick humor and sentiment; few writers can tack between the two extremes with such grace as Lee, who uses those sudden tonal shifts to underscore her characters’ emotional volatility. I have no idea if the story will turn out the way I want it to, but I’m confident that whatever happens in volume twelve will feel like the right outcome for this odd, magical manhwa. -Katherine Dacey

Ai Ore!, Vol. 4 | By Mayu Shinjo | VIZ Media – This is the point in the series where Mayu Shinjo had her big falling out with Shogakukan, and as a consequence Ai Ore! moved to Kadokawa Shoten, starting to serialize in their magazine Asuka. Asuka not being nearly as porn-oriented as Shoujo Comic can get, there’s a definite change in mood. Akira has continued his slide towards being less horrible, which is a good thing. His relationship with Mizuki has also gotten far more chaste – they’re back to hand-holding. In its defense, the humor is just as sharp as prior volumes, and the best parts show a mangaka not taking anything seriously. (Mizuki in a cage will make you boggle.) On the down side, Mizuki continues to be the weak part of this series, even needing to be rescued here. But then, by now no one is reading the series for Mizuki anyway. Still sort of recommended-ish.-Sean Gaffney

A Certain Scientific Railgun, Vol. 3 | By Kazuma Kamachi and Motoi Fuyukawa | Seven Seas – First off, we get the end of the battle between Misaki and Harumi, and it’s as brutal as you’d imagine. The backstory given is heartbreaking, especially since it involves children, and one hopes that this is not the last we see of it. Railgun is at its best doing serious and exciting action sequences – both with this and with the flashback showing a younger Kuroko in training – and given this is the majority of this volume, that makes it easily the best volume to date. Especially given the suggestion of more to Misaki’s destiny than she’s likely to be comfortable with. (Uiharu is also fantastic, lest I forget her.) I still think Kuroko is at her best when nowhere near Misaki, but that’s a minor point by now. Great action packed thriller manga.-Sean Gaffney

Mardock Scramble, Vol. 3 | Created by Tow Ubakata, Manga by Yoshitoki Oima | Kodansha Comics – If you asked me to summarize my response to volume three of Mardock Scramble, my one-word answer would be “grim.” (My two-word response: “really grim.”) Rune Balot plays cat-and-mouse with four of Boiled’s henchmen, dispatching each with gory zest. Though the plot flirts with moral complexity in later scenes — Balot seems to be enjoying her new-found powers in unexpected ways — that ambiguity feels unearned; Balot is such a flat, affectless character that her transformation feels too abrupt to be genuinely persuasive. A few startling images breathe life into the action scenes, but on the whole, volume three is so relentlessly brutal that few readers will want to continue with the series. -Katherine Dacey

Nabari No Ou, Vol. 9 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Published by Yen Press – Sometimes a volume of manga is good simply because it furnishes one with long-sought-after information. Volume nine of Nabari No Ou is just such a case, as it focuses primarily on Yukimi’s efforts to find out more about Yoite’s past. The momentum of the story is such that I was untroubled by that feeling I sometimes get with this series that it never quite manages to coalesce, and just simply enjoyed the revelations as they came. I still really don’t care about the search for five scrolls of secret ninja arts, but there are some good character moments in this volume that exemplify why I keep reading the series. The final pages are especially nice. Also, what I thought was going to be a depressing encounter with a malnourished kitten turned out to have a happy outcome. So, bonus points for that. – Michelle Smith

Rin-Ne, Vol. 8 | By Rumiko Takahashi | VIZ Media – By now readers should know that this is a manga where plot developments, if they happen at all, happen on a glacial scale. Shoujo writers, when they semi-retire, seem to gravitate to family stories in josei magazines for housewives. Takahashi seems to prefer going back to her roots, as this volume is filled with comedic one-to-two parters regarding Rinne and Sakura and their wacky soul-reaping adventures. We do get a longer arc involving Shoma, a young brat in the best Takahashi tradition (hi, Jariten), and this gets briefly serious when genuine innocent souls appear to be headed to hell. But for the most part, this manga is as calm and placid as its heroine, and is for fans who have read Takahashi for so long that they really have to keep reading her.-Sean Gaffney

Soul Eater, Vol. 8 | By Atsushi Ohkubo | Yen Press – It needs to be said right off the bat – if you hate snakes, or hate mental violation of children, do not read this volume of Soul Eater. Medusa’s takeover of Rachel is easily the most creepy and disturbing scene we have seen in the entire manga to date, and may honestly give nightmares. That said, Medusa and Arachnae’s confrontation is top-notch, and makes you want to see more of the two villains fighting for supremacy. Otherwise, it’s a fairly sedate volume of Soul Eater. Black*Star grows by tiny increments, and Crona discovers the warmth of friendship – very, very briefly. I’ve come to like this series for more than its art style, but it still leaves a weird feeling in your head as you read it – a sense that too much exposure might leave you ask insane as most of its characters. Recommended to those not easily squicked.-Sean Gaffney

Celebrating Taniguchi

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Erica Friedman adds an op-ed page to this week’s Yuri Network News with her commentary on the CBLDF manga case, Apple and Amazon’s content restrictions, and the difficulty of selling yuri manga in print.

Ed Sizemore kicks off the Manga Moveable Feast at Manga Worth Reading. This month’s featured creator is Jiro Taniguchi, and Ed hosts a review of Taniguchi’s The Walking Man by JE Latosa.

Johanna Draper Carlson looks at the most promising manga from this month’s batch of new releases.

The Manga Bookshelf bloggers discuss their pick of the week.

Lissa Pattillo has some background on Viz’s latest license rescue, 07-Ghost, as well as the news that Amazon is carrying listings for omnibus editions of the early volumes of Loveless. Yen Press announced at NYCC last year that it had rescued Loveless, but they only revealed plans to publish the volumes not already published by Tokyopop, so this is something new.

Connie continues her look at the Eroicaverse (the world of From Eroica with Love) with an article about Der Freischütz, a side story from 1982.

Matt Blind compiles another list of manga best-sellers, looking at online sales, from mid-February. Six of the top ten volumes are Sailor Moon or Codename Sailor V.

News from Japan: As Skip Beat celebrates its 10th anniversary, there are 10 million copies of its 30 volumes in print in Japan. A new Devilman spinoff, Devilman G, will be previewed in the May issue of Champion RED. And Kotaku catches a blooper in the latest issue of Comic Yurihime.

Reviews: The Manga Bookshelf team kicks off the week with a new set of Bookshelf Briefs. Other reviews of note:

Sweetpea616 on Angel Gunfighter (Organization Anti-Social Geniuses)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 2 of Chobits (omnibus edition) (Blogcritics)
Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Comics Worth Reading)
Lori Henderson on vol. 1 of The Earl and the Fairy (Manga Village)
Philip on vols. 1-4 of Kingyo Used Books (Eeeper’s Choice Podcast)
Leroy Douresseaux on vol. 7 of Library Wars (The Comic Book Bin)
Dan Morrill on Nadesico (Comics Forge)
Rebecca Silverman on vols. 9-11 of Natsume’s Book of Friends (ANN)
Sean Gaffney on vol. 13 of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Lesley Aeschliman on vol. 1 of Swan (Blogcritics)

Pick of the Week: Boy, Bunny, & Bride

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There’s a wealth of new manga shipping in to Midtown Comics, including popular titles from Kodansha Comics, VIZ Media, and Seven Seas. But it’s Yen Press who manages a clean sweep of the Battle Robot’s picks this week.

MJ: This week is really brutal on the pocketbook, or at least it is on mine. I see several must-buys on the list, including the latest volumes of favorites like House of Five Leaves, Bunny Drop, Sailor Moon, and Pandora Hearts, none of which I’d be willing to miss. And A Bride’s Story, for heaven’s sake! I couldn’t possibly pass that up! But for my pick this week, I’ll continue on in my endless crusade for SangEun Lee’s supernatural romance manhwa 13th Boy. I’ve followed this series rabidly since the beginning, and now that we’ve reached its penultimate volume, I’m bursting with anticipation. Though the series’ romantic destination has been clear (to me, anyway) from the start, the journey has always been the point, and I’m dying to see how Lee plans to take us there. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

MICHELLE: I’m in the same boat! I’ve touted both Sailor Moon and 13th Boy in the past, and love both with equal fervor. The tie-breaking factor, then, must come from how awesome the story is in each series at the present moment. Sailor Moon has just embarked on a new arc while 13th Boy is approaching its end, with all sorts of attendant drama. Put in that perspective, I think 13th Boy is the clear, “can’t miss” winner.

SEAN: I think we can all basically toss up a picture of Sailor Moon every time it comes out, and then say “in addition to this”. For me, my “in addition” is the 5th volume of Bunny Drop, the heartwarming josei manga about single parenthood. I’d noted when reviewing Volume 4 that I felt the series needed to shake things up a bit, and clearly Unita agreed with me – as the cover and back copy both note so no complaints – and so this volume timeskips ahead ten years to find Rin in high school, and Daikichi… well, just as single as he was. We’re going to have a whole new host of questions to wonder about and things to talk about. Hopefully this series can continue to keep the same high quality that has greeted us every time, even with this new development.

KATE: Tempting as those other titles are, my heart belongs to the third volume of A Bride’s Story. Kaoru Mori’s manga is awesome on many levels: it’s meticulously researched and meticulously drawn. It boasts a diverse, compelling cast of female characters who range in age from thirteen to seventy. And it has some of the funniest, weirdest omake of any series on the US market. (Seriously! Mori’s omake might be even better than Yellow Tanabe’s delightfully self-deprecating strips.) What really sold me on this title, however, is Mori’s ability to suggest the rhythm of daily life in nineteenth-century Central Asia; yes, the drama is compelling, but damned if I don’t find those chapters on weaving and bread-baking just as entertaining as the Big Confrontations.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, Vol. 13

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By Koji Kumeta. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

It was recently announced that Zetsubou will be ending in Weekly Shonen Magazine in about two months, making it a total of 28-29 volumes long. As a result, this volume manages to not even be halfway through the series, something that I’m sure worries Kodansha Comics here in North America more than it does the average reader. Still, let us read on to see what we can glean from this volume.

Indeed, the last short gag comic in this volume talks about the fact that, after the anime has aired, the cast has lost all motivation to continue to excel. Lots of cute little gags here – we see Kiri and Matoi in regular school uniform, and Nozomu in a T-shirt, as they just can’t be bothered to care. Naturally, this is a reflection of Kumeta-san’s own misgivings. He had been tortured back when Katteni Kaizo was running with the promise of an anime… which never materialized (at least not then.) Now that Zetsubou has gotten an anime series, he’s at a loss for what to wish for now. As the manga demonstrates, a live-action series would probably simply be ridiculous – for one thing, the violence would have to be toned way down.

Speaking of violence, for a while it seemed as if Chiri was slacking a bit in her role as Zetsubou’s favorite psycho. Luckily, she’s back on top form here, as she kills the cast and buries them under the floor in one chapter (then returns home to parents it’s hinted she’s also killed…) and in another chapter simply incites the rest of the girls to slaughter a number of prison guards in order to rescue their teacher. Kafuka has lost a bit of focus as the series has gone on, with Chiri’s stronger, more insane personality becoming more popular. But as ever, Kafuka shows who’s really in control of events here – I’m positive that’s her dressed as the girl giving Nozomu a love letter.

Another consequence of the series getting an anime is that it led to the manga getting new readers that would likely not have picked it up before – the otaku fan. Indeed, going to pixiv, a Japanese art site, shows a truly staggering number of questionable art of Kiri Komori, who was quickly singled out as the most ‘moe’ of the cast. Kumeta attacks these types of fans with even more vitriol than usual, especially in the chapter devoted to ‘honey traps’. Whether it be the average watcher of Haruhi and Lucky Star, or the man who buys character sheets and body pillows, no one is spared. Of course, as Kafuka cynically undercuts, they’re perfectly happy to have fans buying Zetsubou-sensei merchandise.

Chapter 129 has one of the stranger endings of the entire series, and even though Joshua Weeks (congratulations on lasting more than four volumes, Josh!) does endnote it, it’s worth looking at. Kumeta got his start at Shogakukan’s Shonen Sunday, and worked there for years. His most popular series there was Katteni Kaizo, which ran from 1998 – 2004… the period right before Zetsubou-sensei. Indeed, it was an argument with Shogakukan about the series (and the anime that never seemed to happen) that led to him leaving for Kodansha. (His assistant, Kenjiro Hata, elected to stay at Shogakukan, and was given his own series, Hayate the Combat Butler. Needless to say, ‘friendly rivalry’ doesn’t begin to describe things…)

Katteni Kaizo is a high-school gag manga about a boy who is convinced that he is a cyborg, his friend Umi who knocked him onto his head as a child, and their many,m many insane friends. When Kumeta deliberately cut it short, he decided to end it by showing Kaizo and Umi waking up in a mental hospital, where they had been imagining the entire series. Now “cured”, they go out into Tokyo to start life anew. The fan reaction was basically “…”, as you might imagine. One of the minor characters, Yoko, had, towards the end of the series, sealed herself in a wall by accident (something that is quite typical of this character). Whether Kumeta did this deliberately in order to write this precise chapter of Zetsubou-sensei 7 years later is unknown (I tend to doubt it), but it ends up looking quite clever.

I’m not sure what the future of Zetsubou-sensei is in North America. Vol. 14 is scheduled for April, but after that Kodansha’s schedule (up through November on Amazon) does not show it. You might argue “but it’s a New York Times bestseller!”, but aside from the fact that the NYT list frequently bears no resemblance to reality, the question is whether Zetsubou’s sales are worth the stress of having to translate this monster. More jokes than ever before in this volume are simply “this is funny if you’re Japanese, trust us” jokes, and the minimal endnotes only help a little. On the other hand, it could simply be that the series is taking a short break, possibly for the translator to recover his frazzled mind, and will continue down the road. Obviously I’m hoping for the latter. In any case, this is another solid volume of the series.