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Pick of the Week: 13th Boy & More

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It’s a Yen-heavy week at Midtown Comics! See how the Manga Bookshelf blogger picks stack up below!

MICHELLE: Although VIZ Media and others make a decent showing on this week’s release list from Midtown Comics, the majority of the titles hail from Yen Press. Unfortunately, most of them are the latest volumes in series I don’t personally follow, but there is one shining gem, the eighth volume of the quirky and fun manhwa, 13th Boy. I recently indulged in a binge and got caught up on the series, so I’m looking forward to keeping current with new releases. When we left off, Beatrice, heroine Hee-So’s talking cactus, was stuck in his human form and living with his creator lest he burden his beloved owner with his troublesome presence. I never thought I’d be rooting for a cactus to win the girl of his dreams, but it’s to 13th Boy‘s credit that this seems like an entirely rational thing to do.

SEAN: I already pimped Book Girl and the Captive Fool on my Manga The Week Of post, so will stop myself doing so again, even though it’s a fantastic novel series that everyone should be getting. Instead, I’ll go for the 4th and last of Higurashi When They Cry: Eye Opening Arc, which concludes the ‘Shion’ arc of the manga based on visual game series. This particular arc has a reputation of being one of the bloodiest and most off-putting, and therefore I expect getting through the last volume will be quite a haul for me, as generally speaking I tend to avoid gore. As always, though, Higurashi’s intense plot and taut emotions pull me in, and if it upsets me too much, I’ll remind myself of the reset button and Rena’s arc beginning in October.

MJ: I’d like to say that I’m torn this week, with the latest volume of Blue Exorcist on the way, but I’m not. I’m with Michelle, all the way. 13th Boy is one of my favorite girls’ comic series being published today, and one of the few series I’ll put aside everything to read the moment it lands on my doorstep. It’s just that charming. SangEun Lee has managed to create a heroine who really is just an “ordinary” girl, while reminding us how idiosyncratic and genuinely relatable “ordinary” can be. Also, as Michelle mentioned, it’s the first time ever I can recall actively ‘shipping someone with a cactus. I wholeheartedly recommend 13th Boy.

DAVID: I’m going to be predictable and take up the Blue Exorcist mantle. You can see my specific opinion of the third volume in this week’s Bookshelf Briefs, but I will note that Kazue Kato becomes more assured with this material with each new volume. It’s not perfect fantasy adventure, but it’s certainly the best example to debut lately, and it’s got some great, root-worthy characters.

KATE: Though I also share the group’s enthusiasm for Blue Exorcist and 13th Boy, I’m going to recommend the latest omnibus of InuYasha. Readers familiar with the anime will want to pick us this particular volume, as it features the beginning of the series’ best-loved story arc: The Band of Seven. There’s also a plotline involving Sesshomaru — always a plus in my book — and a memorable showdown between InuYasha and a faceless demon. And if you still need persuading, let me praise VIZ for giving InuYasha the deluxe treatment it deserves, printing it on good quality, over-sized paper, retouching the artwork, and reproducing the original Japanese covers in full color.

Readers, what looks good to you this week?

Bookshelf Briefs 8/8/11

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This week, MJ, Michelle, David, Kate, & Sean check out recent releases from Viz Media, Vertical, Kodansha Comics, Dark Horse, & Yen Press.

13th Boy, Vol. 8 | By SangEun Lee | Published by Yen Press – At my age, it isn’t often that a teen romance comic can really make me angst over which potential suitor its heroine should ultimately end up with. Most of the time, these conclusions are obvious, and even when they’re not, it’s difficult for a writer to make even one romantic prospect interesting enough for this jaded forty-something to genuinely root for, let alone two or three of them. Not so with manhwa-ga SangEun Lee, whose love interests each suit her quirky heroine uniquely, even if one of them is actually a sentient cactus. That said, here in volume eight, it’s hard not to root pretty exclusively for the cactus. Charming and idiosyncratic as always, 13th Boy remains one of the freshest, most imaginative girls’ comics currently in publication. Highly recommended. – MJ

13th Boy, Vol. 8 | By SangEun Lee | Published by Yen Press – I feel like I’ve talked a lot about the inventive whimsy of 13th Boy, and been derelict in extolling its dramatic virtues. This volume is more of a setup for future fallout, but readers can still anticipate the inevitable (and major) repercussions to come. Hee-So begins the volume so worried and depressed about her missing cactus, Beatrice, that she can’t even summon the energy to bathe. When Won-Jun visits, he gets the impression that Hee-So feels she can’t rely on him for help, and so turns toward the desperately dependent Sae-Bom, who is being sent to live with her father in America and asks him to come along. I love that, despite its fanciful elements, 13th Boy can serve up realistic drama like this wherein it’s the characters’ choices and personalities that have led to the deterioration of a relationship. I am seriously pining for volume nine already. – Michelle Smith

Black Jack, Vol. 15 | By Osamu Tezuka | Published by Vertical, Inc. –For my money, every volume of Black Jack has a “price of admission” story, and I always like to identify them. This time around, it’s “A Cholera Scare.” The title alone is endearing, and the story has plenty of other aspects working in its favor. First and foremost is the fact that it heavily features Black Jack’s creepy assistant and ward, Pinoko. While Black Jack worries that he’s contracted a potentially deadly contagion, Pinoko is left to deal with a walk-in patient at the clinic. The story is constructed and timed in some really imaginative way, and Tezuka packs an awful lot into a mere 20 pages. While individual Black Jack stories can vary in quality, there’s always at least one that justifies the purchase. – David Welsh

Blue Exorcist, Vol. 3 | By Kazue Kato | Published by Viz Media –Like so many of my favorite fictional institutions of learning, the True Cross Academy displays a reckless disinterest in the safety of its student body, especially the ones pursuing the exorcist track. In this volume, our principle characters deal with an aggressive new instructor and a potentially deadly field trip. Relationships are tested! Secrets are revealed! A kitty joins the supporting cast! In other words, Blue Exorcist continues to improve. Kato even works up the nerve to invoke the events of the first, terrible chapter of the series, and she gets away with it. The underlying plot of the series is probably its least successful element, but that hardly matters chapter by chapter. I like the characters and the scenarios Kato invents for them, and the art is always clean and interesting. – David Welsh

Blue Exorcist, Vol. 3 | By Kazue Kato | Published by Viz Media – Blue Exorcist is an interestingly mixed bag. Like Joss Whedon’s television epic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series uses an over-the-top supernatural premise as a metaphor for the real horrors of a troubled teen, struggling to overcome his personal demons so that he might finally have a taste of life’s most precious treasures—friends, family, and a sense of real belonging. Unlike Whedon, mangaka Kazue Kato fails to make her story’s supernatural plotline genuinely compelling, but the rest works so well, this hardly matters. This volume gets off to a particularly strong start, as brothers Rin and Yukio work together to quell the grief of Father Fujimoto’s abandoned familiar, and continues to gain momentum throughout. Extra points to Kato for clear, readable action scenes and saving the life of a cat. Recommended. – MJ

Fairy Tail, Vol. 14 | By Hiro Mashima | Published by Kodansha Comics –First off, I’m pleased that the ‘take out all the female members and turn them into hostages’ plot died fast. If only as it leads to a lot of great moments for the female characters in this volume. Erza, of course, gets to show her badassery and why you should never try to outbluff or outthreaten her. Lucy gets to show she’s more than simple fanservice with the help of Loke. Juvia shows she’s still worried about everyone trusting her now that she’s a new member, and gives a good reason why they should. And Levy gets to show that it’s not just hitting really hard that wins these fights.But really, the big climax here is seeing Mirajane lose it, and discovering both what she’s like at full power, and why she tries to avoid it. She’s quite terrifying. Fairy Tail still isn’t the very best shonen out there, but it’s comfortably in the bracket below it.– Sean Gaffney

Fairy Tail, Vol. 14 | By Hiro Mashima | Published by Kodansha Comics – Something I’ve long wished for from Fairy Tail is more information about the members of the guild who aren’t the main characters. Happily, Mashima has concocted an arc that seems specifically designed to provide just that. Laxus, one of the most powerful members of Fairy Tail, has launched a takeover attempt, which involves forcing the guild members to fight each other. It’s unfortunate that many of the female members are sidelined at first, having been turned to stone while competing in a beauty pageant (sigh), but when they are eventually freed, they proceed to kick ass, so that makes up for it a bit. Highlights include seeing Mirajane’s abilities at last and some noble self-sacrifice from Juvia, a reformed enemy who has recently joined the guild. I hope this increased level of involvement from the supporting cast continues in future volumes! – Michelle Smith

I Am Here!, Vol. 2 | By Ema Toyama | Published by Kodansha Comics – When it was announced that Kodansha Comics would be taking over the release of manga they’d licensed to Del Rey, I was really hoping we would get the second half of I Am Here!, an earnest shoujo romance that I found to be surprisingly enjoyable. Happily, it made the cut and now I know for sure that a) Ema Toyama can draw some seriously cute bunnies (seriously) and b) the plot does, in fact, eschew an obvious outcome. It’s too bad Toyama had to utilize a random mean girl as drama instigator at one point, but at least Hikage, the painfully shy heroine, was able to blossom at last and become strong enough to follow her heart. Getting the whole story in two omnibus editions is also pretty durn awesome. – Michelle Smith

Magic Knight Rayearth | By CLAMP | Published by Dark Horse –First of all, unlike the souped up, fancy Card Captor Sakura reprints, there’s no reason for fans who own Tokyopop’s 2nd release of Rayearth to get this one. It’s a very good, decent reproduction and translation – but it’s not the huge advance CCS is. As for the content, it’s still a lot of fun, especially if you aren’t already familiar with the ending. One of CLAMP’s first titles to mix the shoujo and shonen genres, this story of three high-school girls who find themselves called on to save a fantasy world takes itself seriously when it wants to, and makes fun of itself the other times. There’s no amazing characterization here, though I am quite fond of Caldina and her “I’m doing this for the money” attitude. (Note her lack of obsession lets her survive.) But really, it’s the ending that made everyone remember Rayearth, and led to its sequel – it’s a gut punch if you don’t know it’s coming.– Sean Gaffney

Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution, Vol. 4 | By Yuuki Fujinari | Yen Press – Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution may be the most tepid reverse-harem manga ever written. The series drifts aimlessly from one uneventful scene to the next, as the characters perfect their swimming technique and attend tag sales. Not only does the story lack dramatic shape, it also lacks memorable characters; each of the boys in Hitomi’s circle is so faultlessly polite and supportive of her weight-loss goals that he comes across as a paid consultant, not a friend. There’s nothing wrong with a manga about nice guys, of course, but authors like edgy characters for a reason: bad boys make more compelling subjects than goody-goodies. Even Hitomi remains a cipher; she’s kind and determined to lose weight, but those two characteristics alone aren’t enough to make her seem like a real girl struggling with a real problem, a shortcoming made all the more obvious by the abrupt, wish-fulfillment ending. – Katherine Dacey

Previews review August 2011

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Okay, I normally don’t dwell on this sort of thing, but I just have to make an observation about the covers in the DC section of the current Previews catalog. These are mostly the second issues of the publisher’s big re-launch of its super-hero line presumably to make it more accessible to people who wouldn’t normally pick up a comic about Superman or Batman or Green Lantern. Here’s my observation: the covers of these comics look exactly like these comics have looked for the last twenty years, possibly pinpoint-able right to the late 1990s. So this should be interesting, since it really does seem like an example of the scientific method. If all other things are equal, and DC changes one thing – the volume of back story in play to theoretically confuse or bar a casual reader from entry – will people who did not previously care about the Justice League suddenly start caring about the justice league? Time will tell! Let’s move on to things I will actually purchase!

Princess Knight vol. 1, written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka, Vertical, Inc., AUG11 1232: The most actually exciting thing in the catalog is the English-language debut of Tezuka’s game-changing shôjo classic. Some of us have been waiting years for this to happen. Years.

Hark! A Vagrant, written and illustrated by Kate Beaton, Drawn & Quarterly, AUG11 1018: Beaton’s super-smart comics “takes readers on a romp through history and literature — with dignity for few and cookies for all — with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Beaton’s pared-down, excitable style. This collection features favourite stories as well as new, previously unpublished content. Whether she’s writing about Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, or Nancy Drew, Beaton brings a refined sense of the absurd to every situation.”

Two Generals, written and illustrated by Scott Chantler, Emblem Editions, AUG11 1060: This is the soft-cover edition of Chantler’s acclaimed historical graphic novel.

Tesoro: Short Stories 1998-2008, written and illustrated by Natsume Ono, Viz Media, AUG11 1256: This volume collections some of the earliest professional work by the gifted creator of series like Gente and The House of Five Leaves. So you should probably buy it.

There’s also the 2011 edition of The Best American Comics from Houghton Mifflin. I’ve made it this long without reading one of these, so I doubt my streak will be broken, though the guest editorial duties of Alison Bechdel may make me waver.

And here are new volumes of ongoing series that you should seriously consider buying:

That’s… like… a lot.

 

Monthly Comic Alive

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I’ve spent the past few days down with a nasty cold, one of the worst I’ve had in years. Nausea, coughing, slight fever, weakness, the works. As a result, reviews have been thin on the ground. So I figured that, since I’m *already* ill, what better time to take a look at the August issue of Monthly Comic Alive, from the folks at Media Factory?

Usually whenever I go into NYC I try to get a different manga magazine to try out. Lately I’ve been limited as they’ve stopped carrying some of the really obscure ones, and the choices seem to be limited to the old classics – all the big 3 shonen, Morning/Afternoon/Evening, Big Comic/Original/Superior/Spirits, and Young ______. The remainder, down on the bottom shelf of Kinokuniya’s seinen section, tend to be what I call ‘media tie-in boobie magazines’, where the manga caters to people who like franchises and fanservice. Here you’ll find Kadokawa’s Shonen and Young Ace, for example, or Shonen Gahosha’s Young King Ours. And Champion Red goes here, despite its lack of tie-ins, by its sheer skeeziness.

Media Factory is in general known as an anime company first and foremost. In 1999 they started to put out a manga magazine Comic Flapper, which is still running, and was the home of Dark Horse’s incomplete series Translucent. In 2006 they noted the growing otaku market and started Comic Alive, which oozes otaku from its every pore. I picked up the August issue with trepidation. I mean, look at this cover.

So, knowing I was in for a rough ride, I started to glance through the contents. Let’s see…

It needs to be said, if you want to know what the current otaku kinks are, Comic Alive is a great place to go. Catgirls are in here, of course. As are maids. A lot of maids. Panties, of course. Gotta have lots of underwear. And of course lots of nudity as well. There’s also witches, mainly as half the magazine seems to be fantasy of some sort. Fans of current anime series will find a lot of this familiar, as many of these are current animes, past animes, or future animes. Sacred Blacksmith. Zero no Tsukaima. Sasameki Koto. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. MM! Maria Holic. Stein’s Gate. In addition, a good number of those I just mentioned are based off of light novels or games, making it even more franchise bait. And a few of them have ‘side stories’ running in other magazines from other companies.

As I wrote short notes about each chapter I read, one thing kept coming up over and over. ‘Ecchi fantasy’. Not porn, of course, as that would require anyone actually getting lucky, which isn’t going to happen here. But… well, I could probably write a synopsis that would fit 75% of Comic Alive’s stories.

“Kenji, a nondescript ordinary guy, is going to school at Elite Academy, where he finds he is one of only 10 boys in a school almost entirely populated by girls. One day, he discovers that he is the bearer of an awesome power (magic/swordsmanship/being really nice, delete where appropriate), but one that can only be used if he gains power by earning the love and/or affection (really, rubbing against him will do) of at least five different 13-16 year old girls of varying personalities and body types, as long as you have one girl who’s flat-chested and angry and one who is buxom and seductive. Of course, Kenji is a nice guy, so these girls have nothing to fear. As the series goes on, he will come up against bigger villains and more girls, all of whom fall for him and most of whom he meets when he walks in on them changing, or in the shower, or hell, when they wake up naked in his bed. What’s Kenji going to do? How can he possibly decide which girl is his true love and which he just needs to use their affection to power himself up? Especially as he represents so many readers, none of whom will agree. (He’ll probably end up with the angry girl, but let’s hedge our bets and do a side-story in Shonen Ace where he doesn’t.) Soon to be a new anime in the Fall of 2012!”

There are a few bright spots. Sasameki Koto may be a bit more serious than it once was, but its relatively realistic look at a budding yuri couple is a breath of fresh air amidst all the panty shots elsewhere in the magazine. Likewise Himawari-san, another low-key series with a dash of yuri. I was also quite pleased with Suugaku Girl, which is apparently in its third incarnation, and is designed to teach difficult math concepts through the power of moe cat-eared girls. It has some service, but not a lot, and seems to be pretty dedicated to teaching its math (at least from the one chapter I read).

But really, the thing that struck me most about Comic Alive, a magazine devoted to being the go-to point for otaku who like to read more of the same, it’s that there were 4 different series that had 4-koma comedy spinoffs later in the magazine. Zero no Tsukaima, Mayo Chiki, Infinite Stratos, an Aria the Scarlet Ammo *all* have cutesy superdeformed 4-koma series to keep milking the same thing. Presumably as if they had to rely on series that weren’t part of a light novel/manga/anime/game franchise, it would be a very short magazine indeed.

Uncontested races

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I’m sad to announce that there won’t be any Previews-related polls this month. The boys’-love category offered a clear winner, and there weren’t enough dubious debuts to populate that slate. But here are the two books that might have “won” those contests, both of which will be dutifully pre-ordered and reviewed.

About Love, written by Narise Konohara, illustrated by Tomo Ootake, Digital Manga Publishing, originally published as Koi ni Tsuiete by Souryuusha, one volume:

Wedding co-ordinator Asaka could never forget his very first clients. When he meets up once more with that very same client, the man who spends his life arranging weddings for others unexpectedly learns a few things about love himself. Heartwarmingly bittersweet, this is the eagerly awaited English-language debut of mangaka Tomo Ootake!

I know nothing about how eagerly anticipated Ootake’s debut is or isn’t, but that cover is so pretty and expressive that it almost makes me cry. Plus, wedding planner manga! A dream fulfilled!

Love Hina Omnibus Volume 1, written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu, Kodansha Comics, originally serialized in Kodansha’s Weekly Shounen Magazine, originally published in English by Tokyopop:

When Keitaro Urashima fails his entrance exams to get into Tokyo University for the second time, he’s officially an unemployed and uneducated slacker. To make things worse, his parents have kicked him out of his house. Fortunately, his grandmother owns the fabulous Hinata Lodge and has agreed to take Keitaro in as caretaker. What he doesn’t know is that the lodge is actually a girl’s dorm and he’s the only guy around! Most guys would kill to live with five sexy ladies, but if Keitaro’s not careful, this job will kill him.

I know this series probably counts as a classic in terms of licensed manga, but I just never bothered with it. Now, Kodansha gives me a cheap-ish chance to introduce myself to this well-liked harem comedy. And I seriously didn’t want to run the risk of having to read the Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus. Cat-ears give me hives, unless they’re on an actual cat.

I’ll go through the rest of the month’s highlights tomorrow.

 

Saturday Spotlight: revisiting NANA

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There are a couple of factors influencing my choice for this week’s Saturday Spotlight. First, following last week’s news regarding the return of Wild Adapter and today’s announcement that CLAMP is resuming Legal Drug, Michelle asks on Twitter, Can we hope for NANA?

Secondly, as some of you may know, I moonlight as a singing/acting coach, and this week I had the unique pleasure of experimenting with some cross-discipline learning while coaching a group of very talented young women. As part of a week-long acting intensive, we spent a day working with scripts pulled from some of my favorite manga—beginning with dialogue only, and then later studying the ways in which the mangaka used the artwork to “direct” the scenes, from one emotional beat to the next, emphasizing the importance of body language and the spaces between the dialogue.

One of these scenes came from the fourth volume of NANA, reawakening my love for the series, and inspiring me to recommend it, at least to the 17+ crowd. Of course, even today, the best tool I have for this is an older post from 2008, Why you should read NANA.

Still the most-viewed post on the site, this “persuasion post” was responsible for my introduction to quite a number of folks in the manga blogosphere, and my feelings for the series have remained mostly unchanged since that time. If you’ve never been sold on NANA, check it out!

License request day: Dragon Zakura

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I’ve taken a shine to this week’s license request precisely because it doesn’t really resemble any of my recent wish-list items. It’s also part of an under-a-cloud subcategory, manga that explores the life of the delinquent. A wee handful of the 25 volumes of Hiroshi Takahashi’s Worst ever saw publication in English from Digital Manga. Beloved though it may be by tastemakers, Eiji Nonaka’s Cromartie High School still hasn’t found a new home since the shuttering of ADV.

So what makes me think the commercial prospects are any better for Norifusa Mita’s Dragon Zakura? I actually don’t think it would sell like gangbusters, and I can’t even clearly articulate why I’m eager to read it. All I can say is that I like its magazine provenance – Kodansha’s Morning – and that I find the covers ugly in kind of a mesmerizing way.

But what’s this 21-volume series about? It follows a former motorcycle gang leader turned lawyer decide to turn teacher. He joins the faculty at an on-the-brink-of-bankruptcy school and declares that he will lead at least five of its students to the academic Promised Land: admission to Tokyo University. That the kids are kind of stupid and downtrodden apparently doesn’t bother this academically inclined opportunist.

I can’t quite tell if this is a comedy or a drama, though it seems to lean on the serious side. This is probably a good thing, as the comedic stories of this stripe tend to be things like School of Rock, while the dramas are more like To Sir, with Love, and I can tell you which one I’d rather watch without even a soupcon of hesitation. And Dragon Zakura has won a couple of major manga awards: the Kodansha and the Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Prize, both in 2005.

 

Manga on the Big Screen: Love*Com, NANA, and Ping Pong

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As anyone who’s seen Green Lantern or Captain America can attest, adapting a comic for the silver screen is an art, not a science. Done poorly, comic book movies alienate fans with the omission of favorite characters and glossing of seminal plotlines, or confuse newcomers with in-jokes and choppy storytelling. Done well, however, comic book movies can appeal to just about anyone who’s receptive to the genre and the characters. VIZ Pictures may not have released as many comic-book movies as DC or Marvel, but its catalog includes adaptations of several popular manga, including Aya Nakahara’s Love*Com, Ai Yazawa’s NANA, and Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong. These three films make an instructive case study, as they illustrate the pitfalls and potentials of bridging the gap between page and screen.

Love*Com: The Movie
VIZ Pictures • 100 minutes • No Rating
Risa, the tallest girl in the seventh grade, develops a crush on Otani, the shortest boy in her class. Though superficial opposites, the two are really kindred spirits, sharing an enthusiasm for Umibozu (a Japanese rap artist that their classmates detest), swapping good-natured insults, and bonding over memories of rejection for being too tall and too short, respectively.

Whether you’ve read Aya Nakahara’s charming manga or not, you won’t have too much difficulty guessing how the story will end. The problem, however, is that Risa and Otani’s journey from bickering classmates to boyfriend and girlfriend seems utterly contrived. The scriptwriter borrows two romantic rivals from different volumes in the series’ run, but only succeeds in making Mr. “Mighty” Maitake, Risa’s handsome homeroom teacher, an integral part of the story. Even then, Mighty’s arrival is a bolt from the blue, and is never satisfactorily explained; he’s simply inserted into the final act of the story so that he and Otani can compete for Risa’s affections. (And when I say “compete,” I mean it: the two play a pick-up basketball game in front of the entire school.)

The other major drawback to Love*Com is its superficial treatment of the principal characters. Though Aya Nakahara’s manga charts the ups and downs of Risa and Otani’s friendship in minute detail, the movie’s frantic pace never allows us to get to know the characters or understand why they’re drawn to each other; we simply see them walk through a variety of stock scenes — cultural festivals, school trips — without actually seeing the evolution of their feelings dramatized.

It’s a pity that the Love*Com script feels so hastily assembled, as the film has the potential to appeal to both long-time fans and newcomers. The button-cute leads have some chemistry, even if the script doesn’t give them much to do. And the script shows flashes of inspiration; a “director” surrogate periodically interrupts the proceedings to explain certain peculiar-to-manga conventions (most notably the nosebleed-as-sign-of-arousal), intoning this information over strains of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. These digressions occur just a few times, but add some much-needed humor to a film that lacks the wit and honesty of the source material.

The verdict: Skip it. This flat, uninspired retelling of Risa and Otani’s courtship will bore all but the most devoted Love*Com fans.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on 3/24/08.

Nana
VIZ Pictures • 114 minutes • No Rating
I admire Kentaro Otani’s chutzpah in bringing NANA to the big screen, as it’s the kind of story that inspires intense devotion to the characters; make a poor casting decision or cut a beloved character and you run the risk of angering the manga’s most devoted fans. Otani steers clear of those hazards, however, assembling an appealing cast that look and sound like their cartoon doppelgangers. The movie offers a somewhat streamlined account of the manga’s first five volumes, beginning with the two Nanas’ fateful encounter on a Tokyo-bound train and ending with Trapnest’s first visit to the girls’ apartment. Most of the dramatic juice is supplied by Hachi’s relationship with the feckless art student Shoji, and by Nana O.’s relationship with Trapnest bassist Ren.

As much as I enjoy the manga, I’ve always found Hachi’s relentless enthusiasm and boy-crazy antics irritating and couldn’t imagine why the fierce, scornful Nana O. didn’t feel the same way about her. As portrayed by Aoi Miyazaki, however, the character makes more sense. Miyazaki does a superb job of convincing us that Nana O. would befriend someone who seems too ditzy, too dependent, and too femme to hang with an up-and-coming punk act. Mika Nakashima, as Nana O., also turns in a solid performance, playing her character as a believable mixture of belligerence, determination, and vulnerability.

The other great advantage of the movie is its soundtrack. All of the rock-n-roll shoptalk and song lyrics seemed a little preposterous on the page; I had a hard time imaging why Trapnest or Black Stones commanded loyal followings, as they seemed like pallid imitations of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Seeing and hearing these acts in the film, however, transported me back to my college years, reminding me how passionately I felt about certain musicians, and how much their songs felt like an expression of my own identity. The film’s two lengthy concert scenes are highpoints of the film, offering us a window into both girls’ complicated emotional lives — their dreams, their disappointments, their improbably close relationship.

I had a few small bones to pick with the scriptwriters — what happened to Junko and Kyosuke? — but on the whole, I found NANA immensely entertaining. The true measure of the film’s appeal, however, is that my sister, who isn’t a manga maven, loved it too, and wanted to know if there was a sequel. Thank goodness the answer is yes.

The verdict: Rent it. Some die-hard fans may take issue with the casting and script, as the film isn’t as faithful to the manga as the anime adaptation is.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on 3/24/08.

Ping Pong
VIZ Pictures • 114 minutes • No Rating
Based on Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga of the same name, Ping Pong focuses on a pair of friends: Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka), a flamboyant table tennis star who’s obsessed with the game, and Smile (Arata), a reticent young man whose primary motive for playing is to spend time with Peco, whom he quietly regards as a hero. Peco’s swaggering style — complete with acrobatic leaps, trash talk, and frequent dives — makes for good theater, but he’s trounced in a tournament by long-time rival Demon (Koji Ohkura). Despondent over the loss, Peco quits the team and burns his paddle. The coach, himself a former champion known as “Butterfly Joe” (Naoto Takenaka), then turns to Smile to lead his peers to victory in the next major competition, a responsibility Smile is reluctant to accept.

Like Hoosiers, Rocky, Rudy, or A League of Their Own, Ping Pong sticks close to the sports movie playbook, delivering epiphanies with clockwork precision. Smile discovers his inner competitor. Peco discovers that he can’t live without ping pong. “Butterfly Joe” imparts wisdom to Smile. And so on.

Yet for all its sports-movie posturing, Ping Pong is weirdly thrilling, thanks, in large part, to the colorful cast of supporting characters: there’s Peco’s chain-smoking grandmother (Mari Natsuki), a fierce devotee of the sport who runs a table tennis dojo; China (Sam Lee), a washed-up Chinese champion seeking a fresh start in Japan; and Dragon (Shidou Nakamura), a competitor who shaves his eyebrows in an effort to look more intimidating. The other key to Ping Pong‘s success is its fidelity to Taiyo Matsumoto’s original vision. Director Fumihiko Sori’s painstaking efforts to recreate the look and feel of the manga are evident throughout the film, from the casting decisions to the extreme camera angles, jump shots, and fleeting fantasy sequences; Sori manages to capture Ping Pong‘s heightened reality without becoming too arch or mannered.

Fans wanting a behind-the-scenes look at the table tennis action or a few pointers for their own game will want to view the omake on this two-disc set, which includes a 54 minute “making of” documentary, a short “how to” feature reviewing ping pong techniques, and the usual assortment of trailers, tv spots, and cast profiles. All in all, Ping Pong makes a great addition to your library, especially if you still have dog-eared copies of No. 5 kicking around the attic.

The verdict: Rent or buy it. The film captures the arch, surreal quality of Taiyo Matsumoto’s writing even better than the animated version of Tekkonkinkreet.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on 8/28/07.

Manga on the Big Screen: Love*Com, NANA, and Ping Pong

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As anyone who’s seen Green Lantern or Captain America can attest, adapting a comic for the silver screen is an art, not a science. Done poorly, comic book movies alienate fans with the omission of favorite characters and glossing of seminal plotlines, or confuse newcomers with in-jokes and choppy storytelling. Done well, however, comic book movies can appeal to just about anyone who’s receptive to the genre and the characters. VIZ Pictures may not have released as many comic-book movies as DC or Marvel, but its catalog includes adaptations of several popular manga, including Aya Nakahara’s Love*Com, Ai Yazawa’s NANA, and Taiyo Matsumoto’s Ping Pong. These three films make an instructive case study, as they illustrate the pitfalls and potentials of bridging the gap between page and screen.

LOVE*COM: THE MOVIE

VIZ PICTURES • 100 MINUTES • NO RATING

Risa, the tallest girl in the seventh grade, develops a crush on Otani, the shortest boy in her class. Though superficial opposites, the two are really kindred spirits, sharing an enthusiasm for Umibozu (a Japanese rap artist that their classmates detest), swapping good-natured insults, and bonding over memories of rejection for being too tall and too short, respectively.

Whether you’ve read Aya Nakahara’s charming manga or not, you won’t have too much difficulty guessing how the story will end. The problem, however, is that Risa and Otani’s journey from bickering classmates to boyfriend and girlfriend seems utterly contrived. The scriptwriter borrows two romantic rivals from different volumes in the series’ run, but only succeeds in making Mr. “Mighty” Maitake, Risa’s handsome homeroom teacher, an integral part of the story. Even then, Mighty’s arrival is a bolt from the blue, and is never satisfactorily explained; he’s simply inserted into the final act of the story so that he and Otani can compete for Risa’s affections. (And when I say “compete,” I mean it: the two play a pick-up basketball game in front of the entire school.)

The other major drawback to Love*Com is its superficial treatment of the principal characters. Though Aya Nakahara’s manga charts the ups and downs of Risa and Otani’s friendship in minute detail, the movie’s frantic pace never allows us to get to know the characters or understand why they’re drawn to each other; we simply see them walk through a variety of stock scenes — cultural festivals, school trips — without actually seeing the evolution of their feelings dramatized.

It’s a pity that the Love*Com script feels so hastily assembled, as the film has the potential to appeal to both long-time fans and newcomers. The button-cute leads have some chemistry, even if the script doesn’t give them much to do. And the script shows flashes of inspiration; a “director” surrogate periodically interrupts the proceedings to explain certain peculiar-to-manga conventions (most notably the nosebleed-as-sign-of-arousal), intoning this information over strains of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. These digressions occur just a few times, but add some much-needed humor to a film that lacks the wit and honesty of the source material.

The verdict: Skip it. This flat, uninspired retelling of Risa and Otani’s courtship will bore all but the most devoted Love*Com fans.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on 3/24/08.

NANA

VIZ PICTURES • 114 MINUTES • NO RATING

I admire Kentaro Otani’s chutzpah in bringing NANA to the big screen, as it’s the kind of story that inspires intense devotion to the characters; make a poor casting decision or cut a beloved character and you run the risk of angering the manga’s most devoted fans. Otani steers clear of those hazards, however, assembling an appealing cast that look and sound like their cartoon doppelgangers.

The movie offers a somewhat streamlined account of the manga’s first five volumes, beginning with the two Nanas’ fateful encounter on a Tokyo-bound train and ending with Trapnest’s first visit to the girls’ apartment. Most of the dramatic juice is supplied by Hachi’s relationship with the feckless art student Shoji, and by Nana O.’s relationship with Trapnest bassist Ren.

As much as I enjoy the manga, I’ve always found Hachi’s relentless enthusiasm and boy-crazy antics irritating and couldn’t imagine why the fierce, scornful Nana O. didn’t feel the same way about her. As portrayed by Aoi Miyazaki, however, the character makes more sense. Miyazaki does a superb job of convincing us that Nana O. would befriend someone who seems too ditzy, too dependent, and too femme to hang with an up-and-coming punk act by showing us what the girls have in common. Mika Nakashima, as Nana O., also turns in a solid performance, playing her character as a believable mixture of belligerence, determination, and vulnerability.

The other great advantage of the movie is its soundtrack. All of the rock-n-roll shoptalk and song lyrics seemed a little preposterous on the page; I had a hard time imaging why Trapnest or Black Stones commanded loyal followings, as they seemed like pallid imitations of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Seeing and hearing these acts in the film, however, transported me back to my college years, reminding me how passionately I felt about certain musicians, and how much their songs felt like an expression of my own identity. The film’s two lengthy concert scenes are highpoints of the film, offering us a window into both girls’ complicated emotional lives — their dreams, their disappointments, their improbably close relationship.

I had a few small bones to pick with the scriptwriters — what happened to Junko and Kyosuke? — but on the whole, I found NANA immensely entertaining. The true measure of the film’s appeal, however, is that my sister, who isn’t a manga maven, loved it too, and wanted to know if there was a sequel. Thank goodness the answer is yes.

The verdict: Rent it. Some die-hard fans may take issue with the casting and script, as the film isn’t as faithful to the manga as the anime adaptation is.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on 3/24/08.

PING PONG

VIZ PICTURES • 114 MINUTES • NO RATING

Based on Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga of the same name, Ping Pong focuses on a pair of friends: Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka), a flamboyant table tennis star who’s obsessed with the game, and Smile (Arata), a reticent young man whose primary motive for playing is to spend time with Peco, whom he quietly regards as a hero. Peco’s swaggering style — complete with acrobatic leaps, trash talk, and frequent dives — makes for good theater, but he’s trounced in a tournament by long-time rival Demon (Koji Ohkura). Despondent over the loss, Peco quits the team and burns his paddle. The coach, himself a former champion known as “Butterfly Joe” (Naoto Takenaka), then turns to Smile to lead his peers to victory in the next major competition, a responsibility Smile is reluctant to accept.

Like Hoosiers, Rocky, Rudy, or A League of Their Own, Ping Pong sticks close to the sports movie playbook, delivering epiphanies with clockwork precision. Smile discovers his inner competitor. Peco discovers that he can’t live without ping pong. “Butterfly Joe” imparts wisdom to Smile. And so on.

Yet for all its sports-movie posturing, Ping Pong is weirdly thrilling, thanks, in large part, to the colorful cast of supporting characters: there’s Peco’s chain-smoking grandmother (Mari Natsuki), a fierce devotee of the sport who runs a table tennis dojo; China (Sam Lee), a washed-up Chinese champion seeking a fresh start in Japan; and Dragon (Shidou Nakamura), a competitor who shaves his eyebrows in an effort to look more intimidating. The other key to Ping Pong‘s success is its fidelity to Taiyo Matsumoto’s original vision. Director Fumihiko Sori’s painstaking efforts to recreate the look and feel of the manga are evident throughout the film, from the casting decisions to the extreme camera angles, jump shots, and fleeting fantasy sequences; Sori manages to capture Ping Pong‘s heightened reality without becoming too arch or mannered.

Fans wanting a behind-the-scenes look at the table tennis action or a few pointers for their own game will want to view the omake on this two-disc set, which includes a 54 minute “making of” documentary, a short “how to” feature reviewing ping pong techniques, and the usual assortment of trailers, tv spots, and cast profiles. All in all, Ping Pong makes a great addition to your library, especially if you still have dog-eared copies of No. 5 kicking around the attic.

The verdict: Rent or buy it. The film captures the arch, surreal quality of Taiyo Matsumoto’s writing even better than the animated version of Tekkonkinkreet.

This review originally appeared at PopCultureShock on 8/28/07.

Harlequin Manga Quick Takes – Married by Mistake!, Caribbean Desire, and Marriage Wanted

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All titles available on emanga.com.

Married by Mistake by Takako Hashimoto and Renee Roszel Wilson

I didn’t realize when I started this that it is a further book in a series with a harlequin manga I read earlier, To Marry a Stranger. In this book, the heroine of To Marry a Stranger has been impregnated by her husband with an eye patch. Helen starts having contractions near the infamous “Mansion of Love” so of course she and her sister Lucy are stuck with having to deal with a sudden home birth in the romantically cursed house. Lucy manages to assist her sister with having twins in the space of a panel. Let me tell you, I’ve had twins and it doesn’t happen that quickly! Lucy is exhausted after assisting her sister and thinks back about her fiance Stader, who kept postponing their marriage. This Stadler guy is no prize as in Lucy’s memory he appears with wavy hair and an odd sort of cravat. Do not trust a man wearing a cravat unless you live in the early 19th century, ladies. Lucy is woken by Jack, a man with intense eyebrows and a decent suit who is wearing a tie instead of a cravat. This looks promising.

Lucy mentions the legend that if a woman spends the night of her birthday at the mansion of love, the first man she sees the next day will be her destined love. It is the day after her birthday, and Jack looks both befuddled and horrified. He’s Lucy’s ex-stepbrother and he has loved her for a long time. It turns out that Lucy’s horrible cravat-wearing fiance has decided to get engaged to an actress and travel to Lucy’s hometown in a fit of cravat-inspired cruelty. Lucy’s family promptly decides that Lucy has to pretend to have a fiance for revenge and Jack is just the person for the job. The art in this adaptation is really much better than the typical Harlequin manga title. The backgrounds might be sparse, but the character designs are distinct and attractive. What I found most amusing was the wacky facial expressions of Lucy’s family as they cheer on her fake romance. I was especially amused by the antics of Lucy’s one-eyed brother-in-law Damian who was the tortured hero in To Marry a Stranger, as he keeps popping up in chibi form with a big grin to cheer on his sister-in-law. In conclusion, men with cravats are bad, but men with eye patches or suits are good. This is what I’m taking away from this Harlequin manga.

Caribbean Desire by Cathy Williams and Takane Yonetani

The cover for this looks good, because it appears that there are wind machines blowing the male and female leads’ hair in opposite directions. Unfortunately the inside of this manga doesn’t feature the goofy fun I tend to prefer in my Harlequin manga adaptations. Emma arrives on an island to interview the rich businessman Alastair for his biography. She develops an intense dislike for the Conrad, the man currently running Alastair’s company. Emma has a secret connection with Alastair’s family, but will she reveal her secret before it is too late? And what will she do with her growing attraction to Conrad? The storyline was as predictable as Harlequins usually are, but there wasn’t really any humor to lighten things up. The art and adaptation were pretty typical, with stiffly posed characters and sketchy backgrounds. This wasn’t a good title to read right after Married by Mistake!, because it really suffered in comparison.

Marriage Wanted by Debbie Macomber and Eve Takigawa

Savanna is a wedding coordinator with an injured leg. Dash is a divorce attorney who has given up on love. Together they find love through a marriage of convenience, as one always does in Harlequin romance world. I tend to enjoy Harlequin manga very much when the art has a vaguely 1980s aesthetic. Even though this adaptation was produced in 2005, I still see a bit of a retro feel to the art with Dash’s square jaw and Emma’s bright eyes. Savanna is convinced the she’ll never find love because her limp makes her unattractive to men. Dash comes into Savanna’s store and proceeds to lecture her about the meaninglessness of weddings when he finds out that she’s planning his little sister’s wedding. Dash and Savannah spend more time with each other and decide to enter into a marriage of convenience when he needs a wife to get a promotion and she needs a husband to get her parents to stop being so overprotective. There wasn’t much humor in this title, but the art was better than average and it was fun seeing Dash and Savanna argue with each other over the value of marriage.

Access to electronic copies provided by the publisher.