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License request day: Prix Asie 2011

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This week, we have less of a license request than a round-up of likely candidates. Tom (The Comics Reporter) Spurgeon shared this year’s nominees for the Association des Critiques et Journalistes de Bande Dessinée’s Prix Asie award, so let’s learn more!

We’ll start in the Philippines with Gerry Alanguilan’s Elmer, published in French by Editions Çà et Là. This is a family drama set in a world where chickens have achieved (or downgraded to) a human-equivalent level of sentience and emotional complexity. That’s a really neat premise, and the preview pages at the publisher’s site are gorgeous and odd. Alanguilan has worked on some high-profile franchise properties in the U.S., but I’d much rather read about the neurotic chickens.

Sanpei Shirato’s Kamui-Den, published in French by Kana, offers more from the gekiga category. This time, it’s a period piece about a young ninja fighting against dehumanizing caste systems during the Edo period. I think Viz published at least some of this a while back as The Legend of Kamui. It ran for 21 volumes in Garo. I love the cover designs, which is kind of an emerging theme.

I’m already kind of in love with Kazuo Kamimura’s La plaine du Kantô (published in French by Kana), based almost entirely on the covers, but I always thought Kamimura’s art was always the most interesting thing about Lady Snowblood (Dark Horse). This seems to be an autobiographically informed story of cross-cultural understanding set in Japan just after the end of World War II.  I have no idea who originally published it, but it sounds interesting.

Shotaro Ishinomori’s Le voyage de Ryu (published in French by Glénat) features a young man who travels a bit father in space and time than he’d intended. He wakes from suspended animation to find that his ship has crashed onto a bizarre and hostile planet. It seems like there should be more of Ishinomori’s work in print, though some publishers have made stabs in the past. I mean, he did kind of help define the super-hero for Japanese comics fans, didn’t he?

Last, but certainly not least, is Makoto (Planetes) Yukimura’s Vinland Saga, published in French by Kurokawa, which has been lurking near the top of my license wish list for years. YEARS.

Which of these do you find most enticing?

Grand Guignol Orchestra, Vol. 3

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In his review of TRON: Legacy, critic Andrew O’Hehir made a distinction between movies that are boring because they make the viewer keenly aware of time’s passage — what he calls “intentional and challenging boredom” — and movies that are boring because they overstimulate the viewer — what he calls the boredom of “endless distraction and wall-to-wall entertainment.” Kaori Yuki’s latest effort, Grand Guignol Orchestra, is a prime example of the latter, a relentlessly melodramatic horror story that never pauses to catch its breath. And while that kind of manga can be engrossing, Yuki’s unwillingness to vary the tone or pace robs Grand Guignol Orchestra of its power to shock, amuse, or arouse anything resembling a real human emotion.

In other words, it’s boring.

The third volume isn’t boring for lack of effort. There’s a lengthy set-piece in which Eles, Gwindel, and Lucille engage in hand-to-hand combat with an evil, cross-dressing nun who is, in fact, a castrato; there are several flashbacks to Lucille and Gwindel’s tortured pasts; and there’s a third-act auction in which noblemen bid for the privilege of watching a young woman be transformed into a zombie. And if those plot twists weren’t enough to hold the reader’s attention, Yuki throws in a few more for good measure: characters double- and triple-cross each other, former enemies unite against a common foe, and zombies swarm a castle, chomping on everyone in sight.

For all the sound and fury, volume three is dramatically inert. Every conversation is overwrought to the point of cartoonishness, draining the truly horrific and sad moments of their visceral power. Worse still, Yuki feels the need to include closed captions for the emotionally impaired, a function she’s assigned to the hapless Eles; when Eles isn’t playing the piano or being held hostage by one of Lucille’s enemies, her primary job is to think about the other characters: “Oh, so that’s why so-and-so has been depressed!” or “They don’t hate each other; they just can’t be together!” And so on.

The artwork, like the script, seems calculated to overwhelm rather than seduce. Yuki is a big proponent of the costume-as-character school of manga writing, substituting epaulets, eye patches, and lace for actual personality traits. As a result, every character, no matter how inconsequential to the story, wears a wackadoo outfit of one sort or another: a habit with a plunging neckline, a clown mask and a cock-eyed top hat. Yuki’s artwork is certainly arresting; her linework is very sensual, and her flair for drawing costumes undeniable, but her desire to populate every scene with elaborately dressed nuns, zombies, and masqueraders comes across as numbing excess in a story that lacks any form of narrative restraint.

I realize that many people will read this review and think I’m a killjoy, that I’ve lost my ability to enjoy a manga for what it is and not what I want it to be. And, to some extent, those readers are right; after five years of grinding out manga reviews, I’m no longer enthusiastic about stories that rely on spectacle to command my attention. But what I find more frustrating about Grand Guignol Orchestra is that there’s nothing real or interesting lurking beneath its busy surface; it’s hysteria masquerading as drama, and the constant stimulation of all-caps dialogue, sudden plot reversals, and Baroque murders becomes its own form of tedium to be endured, rather than something to be savored and enjoyed.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

GRAND GUIGNOL ORCHESTRA, VOL. 3 • BY KAORI YUKI • VIZ MEDIA • 196 pp. • RATING: OLDER TEEN (16+)

Grand Guignol Orchestra, Vol. 3

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In his review of TRON: Legacy, critic Andrew O’Hehir made a distinction between movies that are boring because they make the viewer keenly aware of time’s passage — what he calls “intentional and challenging boredom” — and movies that are boring because they overstimulate the viewer — what he calls the boredom of “endless distraction and wall-to-wall entertainment.” Kaori Yuki’s latest effort, Grand Guignol Orchestra, is a prime example of the latter, a relentlessly melodramatic horror story that never pauses to catch its breath. And while that kind of manga can be engrossing, Yuki’s unwillingness to vary the tone or pace robs Grand Guignol Orchestra of its power to shock, amuse, or arouse anything resembling a real human emotion.

In other words, it’s boring.

The third volume isn’t boring for lack of effort. There’s a lengthy set-piece in which Eles, Gwindel, and Lucille engage in hand-to-hand combat with an evil, cross-dressing nun who is, in fact, a castrato; there are several flashbacks to Lucille and Gwindel’s tortured pasts; and there’s a third-act auction in which noblemen bid for the privilege of watching a young woman be transformed into a zombie. And if those plot twists weren’t enough to hold the reader’s attention, Yuki throws in a few more for good measure: characters double- and triple-cross each other, former enemies unite against a common foe, and zombies swarm a castle, chomping on everyone in sight.

For all the sound and fury, volume three is dramatically inert. Every conversation is overwrought to the point of cartoonishness, draining the truly horrific and sad moments of their visceral power. Worse still, Yuki feels the need to include closed captions for the emotionally impaired, a function she’s assigned to the hapless Eles; when Eles isn’t playing the piano or being held hostage by one of Lucille’s enemies, her primary job is to think about the other characters: “Oh, so that’s why so-and-so has been depressed!” or “They don’t hate each other; they just can’t be together!” And so on.

The artwork, like the script, seems calculated to overwhelm rather than seduce. Yuki is a big proponent of the costume-as-character school of manga writing, substituting epaulets, eye patches, and lace for actual personality traits. As a result, every character, no matter how inconsequential to the story, wears a wackadoo outfit of one sort or another: a habit with a plunging neckline, a clown mask and a cock-eyed top hat. Yuki’s artwork is certainly arresting; her linework is very sensual, and her flair for drawing costumes undeniable, but her desire to populate every scene with elaborately dressed nuns, zombies, and masqueraders comes across as numbing excess in a story that lacks any form of narrative restraint.

I realize that many people will read this review and think I’m a killjoy, that I’ve lost my ability to enjoy a manga for what it is and not what I want it to be. And, to some extent, those readers are right; after five years of grinding out manga reviews, I’m no longer enthusiastic about stories that rely on spectacle to command my attention. But what I find more frustrating about Grand Guignol Orchestra is that there’s nothing real or interesting lurking beneath its busy surface; it’s hysteria masquerading as drama, and the constant stimulation of all-caps dialogue, sudden plot reversals, and Baroque murders becomes its own form of tedium to be endured, rather than something to be savored and enjoyed.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media, LLC.

GRAND GUIGNOL ORCHESTRA, VOL. 3 • BY KAORI YUKI • VIZ MEDIA • 196 pp. • RATING: OLDER TEEN (16+)

Tallies for June 2011

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It’s time for the results show, just like on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars! Well, partly, because only one poll depends on popular votes. So the other half is more like when Tom Colicchio decides who gets knifed on Top Chef, except I’m not an icon to the bear community. (I don’t honestly think Colicchio is either, and how would Andy Cohen know if Colicchio is or not? I just don’t see him doing exit interviews at the Green Lantern.) Anyway, thanks to your votes and input, I’ve managed to complete my Previews order.

First up, we’ll discuss this month’s Boys’ Love Blind Date. Now, as I strongly suggested, I eliminated Only Serious about You, as it sounds exactly like something I’d really enjoy, so no vetting was necessary, and I just ordered it. While A Fallen Saint’s Kiss would probably offer valuable insights into adult novelties, the power dynamics might negate that value by making me wish for death. A similar problem taints Private Teacher, and it doesn’t even sound smutty, so why risk it? This leaves Mr. Tiger and Mr. Wolf as this month’s choice. Characters with animal ears don’t do a single thing for me as a reader (see also: angel wings), but there does seem to be a likelihood that this book may be funny and/or cute.

Moving on to the infinitely more dangerous, fully crowd-sourced Dubious Manga Selection, it is my duty to report that the majority of comments were in favor of Mardock Scramble. This is actually kind of a relief. I can’t honestly imagine any way that Tales of the Abyss won’t be crushingly boring, and reports indicate that Bloody Monday is actually pretty good, as these things go. There’s a giddy, frightening uncertainty to Mardock Scramble. It could be interesting and provocative. It could be dull and formulaic and pandering. It could be so deliriously awful that I may require hypnotherapy to recover from the reading experience. I just don’t know, and that’s the fun of these polls, at least for me.

To wrap things up, I noticed an omission in my Previews overview post:

Gate 7 vol. 1, written and illustrated by CLAMP, Dark Horse Comics, item code JUN11 0039: I have a mixed history with CLAMP titles, but I’m kind of high on them at the moment, still coasting on my overwhelmingly positive reaction to Cardcaptor Sakura. Here’s the skinny on Gate 7:

“Chikahito Takamoto has always read about the beauty and mystique of Japan’s ancient capital city, Kyoto. Now, two years into high school, he’s finally visiting there for real. But wandering the grounds of Kyoto’s legendary Shinto shrine of Kita no Tenmangu, he chances upon a mystery that his guidebooks didn’t prepare him for – two handsome men and an attractive woman, all strangely-garbed, wielding powers…and fighting monsters! The two men treat poor Chikahito with suspicion – but the girl seems to like him. They aren’t worried about what Chikahito’s just seen, because they have the power to erase his memory…except for some reason, that power doesn’t work! And why does the girl kiss him before sending him away? One thing’s for sure: Chikahito is going to be seeing a lot more of these three strangers…”

Hardly untraveled territory for CLAMP or a hundred other mangaka, but I’m hoping for lots of lovingly drawn scenery and some gender-neutral romantic geometry. These do not seem like unreasonable expectations.

 

From the stack: Ten Questions for the Maidman

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I think Adam Warren has done tremendous work turning Empowered into something much greater than the sum of its parts. This trend continues with the second series special, Ten Questions for the Maidman. I’m always impressed with the ways that Warren can stretch a single, seemingly unpromising joke several times farther than what would be the snapping point for lesser writers.

Adam Warren is joined on artistic duties by Emily Warren, who provides painted pages for the titular interview that are sprinkled throughout the comic. They’re attractive, but they reinforce for me how essential Adam Warren’s creative control is to the property. One of the reasons Maidman is a great joke is the character’s routinely masculine body language. He’s just a guy who happens to fight crime in a frilly maid’s costume, as stolid and solid as your average caped vigilante.

In the interview pages, Emily Warren overlays Maidman’s body language with a certain coyness that, to my way of thinking, undermines the deadpan genius of the character, which is articulated in Maidman’s responses to the fatuous interviewer for a super-hero version of Inside Edition or Entertainment Tonight. The amusing cognitive dissonance is lost when Maidman is actually behaving in ways that are consistent with his appearance. It’s just not as funny, and it almost seems to contradict what the character is saying in his feature sequences. His shtick seems more about playing on the perceptions opponents impose on him, not about actively triggering those perceptions. It’s funnier when it’s the villain’s gay-panic paranoia at work rather than being a response to Maidman’s active provocation.

Still, this is an entirely welcome expansion on the Empowered universe, focusing on one of the funnier and more subversive supporting characters while still giving the title character some moments to shine. I hope Adam Warren keeps this specials coming, as they help to pass the time between new volumes of the main series by being perfectly entertaining in their own right.

 

Blue Exorcist Volumes 1 and 2

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When I start to read this I realized that I was going to sample the first two volumes of this series on two different platforms. I bought the first volume on the Viz iPad app when it was on sale, then I was sent a print review copy for the second volume. I expect as I transition more to reading things on my iPad that my physical and virtual bookshelves will fragment even more, with volumes of the same series scattered between them.


Blue Exorcist Volume 1 by Kato Kazue

I tend to skim rather than read closely reviews of series that I might later end up reviewing myself, but my general impression of the response to this first volume is that most manga bloggers thought it started out sort of rocky and then stabilized a bit in the final chapters. This was pretty much my response to the first volume as well. The intriguing elements of this manga for me initially were the character designs and art. The story seemed poorly paced, with too many elements and twists introduced in so few pages it was hard to keep track of what was going on. Rin is a troubled young man who lives in a monastery with his guardian/priest and his seemingly timid younger twin brother Yukio. In the first few chapters it is revealed that Rin’s guardian is a powerful exorcist, Rin is the son of Satan and thus demonic, and evil demons walk the earth that must be battled. Rin gets a magic key and a special sword, Rin’s guardian is possessed by Satan, there’s a terrible fight, a headmaster who enjoys wearing knickers and a top hat tells Rin he has to enroll in a special school for exorcist, Rin goes to boarding school and finds out that his younger brother has been hiding his identity as a gifted student of exorcism all along. All of this happens in roughly the first chapter. That is a lot of plot to wade through in order to set up what is essentially a Harry Potter like situation of a young, not very gifted boy suddenly enrolling in exorcism boarding school.

Once Rin is at school, things settled down a bit and I was able to enjoy the manga a bit more. The visual design of Blue Exorcist is appealing. The characters are all wearing gothy punked out clothes that would serve as good inspiration for a cosplayer. I was really interested in the few glimpses of Blue Exorcist’s setting. True Cross Academy is shown as a mini city full of buildings with different architectural styles stacked up in a hill, with multi-level roads running through it. There seems to be a system of different keys acting as dimensional portals, and Rin soon finds out that school is going to be challenging, as he has to hide his identity as Satan’s son while attempting to study for the first time in his life. Rin’s slight fangs and sloppiness contrast with Yukio’s buttoned up personality and glasses. Rin finds out that the little brother he always thought he had to protect is more competent at demon fighting than him.

Blue Exorcist Volume 2 by Kato Kazue

Like most shonen manga, after the inital set-up, Rin starts gathering a team of allies around him. The first is a gentle girl named Shiemi, who is devoted to gardening and traditional clothing. When Rin helps save her, she promptly decides to enroll in exorcism school too. The second volume focuses on the rocky relationships between the characters. Rin keeps falling asleep in class and is shunned by the other students. Shiemi is bullied by her female classmates. Rin’s classmate Suguro hates Rin because it seems like he’s not taking school very seriously. The confrontation between Suguro and Rin soon becomes physical as they take risks during their demon fighting lessons. The students begin to explore their powers. Shiemi’s affinity for plants allows her to summon a familiar that can produce healing herbs on command.

Kazue’s character designs are very distinct, so it was easy to keep track of Rin’s classmates. The second volume mixed classroom action with the students getting to know each other. It seemed a lot more consistent, and even though “students train to develop super powers” isn’t a particularly innovative concept to build a manga around, so far I’m enjoying the way it is executed in Blue Exorcist. If the third volume continues the upswing in story quality, I’ll likely be hooked on this series. Blue Exorcist is certainly one of the more stylish shonen manga to come out recently, and it seems like the author is improving. I’d recommend reading the first two volumes at once, because the first volume isn’t really enough to give a reader a full picture of what the series is going to be like.


Review copy of volume 2 provided by the publisher

Off the Shelf: Deliver us from slugs

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MJ: Well, hello there, colleague! I’m still really enjoying that.

MICHELLE: Why, hello! Fancy meeting you here.

MJ: What a lovely space we have here. Makes me feel like talking about books. And you?

MICHELLE: Now that you mention it, I am experiencing an odd tingle, so I’m going to take that as an invitation to begin! My reads this week provoked wildly different reactions in me. One was epic and impressive while the other was icky and confusing. Saving the best for last, I shall begin with the latter.

I didn’t have very high hopes for Amnesia Labyrinth, the two-volume (so far) series released this year by Seven Seas, but it is a mystery manga penned by Nagaru Tanigawa, the man behind the Haruhi Suzumiya light novels, so I at least expected to derive a modicum of enjoyment from it. Alas, while the first volume is merely not very good the second is downright craptacular.

The story begins promisingly enough. Readers witness the murder of a high school student who turns out to be the class president of the school our protagonist, Souji Kushiki, is transferring into. Two other students have died over summer break, as well. One of Souji’s classmates, the perky Yukako Sasai, is attempting to investigate and enlists his help because he’s very smart and she thinks his politician dad might be able to get her access to the police department’s information. By this point, I was expecting a Haruhi-esque story, in which stoic Souji goes along with energetic Yukako’s efforts to unravel the mystery. Instead, the story goes in a completely different direction, as we begin to learn more and more unpleasant things about Souji’s deeply creepy family.

The back cover of the first volume tries very hard to depict the “inappropriate” and “clingy” behavior of Souji’s sisters as something new, but it quickly becomes apparent that this is par for the course, given that Souji’s been having sex with his half-sister, Saki, since at least middle school. This doesn’t prevent his full-blooded sister, Youko, from coming on to him nor his innocent step-sister, Harumi, from wanting to be his bride. On top of this, Souji suspects Saki and Youko of committing the murders, and volume two attempts (in as baffling a manner as possible) to flesh out the family history as (I think) supernatural assassins of some sort who also possibly suffer from multiple personality disorder. It’s monumentally unclear and surreal in a bad way.

Natsumi Kohane’s art doesn’t help matters any. Faces are generic and stiff, anatomy can occasionally be very strange, and the action scenes in the Heian-era flashback are utterly incomprehensible. Plus, there’s a lot of squicky images like this one. Seriously, is that supposed to be sexy? It looks like she’s barfing out a slug!

Apparently, this is all that’s been written of this series so far, and the second volume is padded out with an illustration gallery and a preview of Blood Alone. Normally I’d be sorry to see a manga go unfinished, but in this case, I think we should all be grateful.

MJ: Well, wow. After that image, I find that I have nothing to say. Except maybe, “Ew.”

MICHELLE: “Ew” is certainly the prevailing thought I’m left with after that second volume. After that image, we’re both probably in need of a mental palate cleanser. I hope you’ve something that can do the trick!

MJ: You know, I do! I liked both my reads this week, but I’ll start with one I know you’ve read and liked as well to help with that cleansing. I’m talking about Bakuman, by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the fifth volume of which has been released just this week.

Mashiro and Takagi have gotten their manga serialized, but their success begins with a shock as their editor, Hattori, is being replaced by Miura, a man they’ve never met before. Though they have no choice but to accept the change, things get off to a rocky start as their series takes a while to catch on with Jump readers.

I’ve blown hot and cold with this manga in some ways, but I think I’ll never stop being fascinated by the look it provides into the process at Weekly Shonen Jump, however pro-Jump it might read to someone with more knowledge of the business in Japan. I’m charmed, too, by the way its creators use the Jump formula to comment in Jump itself.

For a long time, these things were the series’ only decisive draw for me, but more and more I’m drawn in by the series’ supporting characters, especially eccentric prodigy Eiji Nizuma and Takagi’s girlfriend, Miyoshi, who are probably my favorite characters in the series.

Volume five warms me to some potential new favorites, including reluctant mangaka Hiramaru who, when asked if he wanted to be a manga artist, replies, “Maybe, for like a fraction of a second.” I’m also becoming increasingly fond of self-possessed writer Aoki, who manages to lower her defenses a bit in this volume.

More astonishingly, the series’ protagonists have started to matter to me. While this should perhaps be a given for most series, this is the first volume in which I’ve found myself really at the edge of my seat, wondering what will happen as they receive each week’s reader survey results. Finally these characters mean something to me, which makes the whole thing that much more worthwhile. It’s a real treat.

MICHELLE: I love Nizuma so much now that I can’t believe I ever found him irritating. My favorite moment in the whole volume occurs when Mashiro and Takagi encounter him at the Jump New Year’s party, dramatically quaffing soda from a champagne glass.

I’m with you, too, on finally caring about Mashiro and Takagi as people. I think it helps that other characters are acknowledging the ridiculousness of Mashiro’s arrangement with Miho, the girl he likes, not to see each other until their dreams come true. Plus, Miyoshi is so awesome that Takagi grows more awesome for liking a girl like her.

It’s really become a series that I actively anticipate.

MJ: You’re absolutely right about Miyoshi’s awesomeifying effect. And I think it helps, too, that Miho is really struggling, so we’re seeing some nuance in that relationship even within its ridiculous construct.

So go on now and hit me with “epic and impressive!”

MICHELLE: I know that you, historically, have not had an easy time getting into Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece, but I have to say, it really is a stunning piece of storytelling. Oda has created not just a cast of likable characters, but a fully realized world for them to inhabit, and in this world, conflict has long been brewing between the pirates and the navy.

In volume 57 of the series, this conflict comes to a head on the island of Marineford where Portgaz D. Ace, brother to series protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, is about to be executed by the navy. Luffy’s on his way to save him, along with a plethora of pirates he helped escape from the impregnable prison Impel Down, but does not actually appear until midway through the volume. Instead, we witness the beginnings of an epic clash between the navy and Whitebeard, a powerful pirate and Ace’s captain.

The battle is huge, sprawling, and fascinating. It’s made doubly more impressive by the fact that, with the exception of the tardy Luffy, it’s entirely being carried out by supporting characters. That is how fleshed out this world is—there’s a whole cast of semi-familiar navy officials (and hired security of sorts in the form of the Warlords of the Sea) to go up against Whitebeard and his allies. Part of the draw is the cool Devil Fruit powers nearly everyone seems to possess, but Oda does a great job conveying the importance of this encounter as well as linking the public revelation of Luffy’s parentage to events that occurred much earlier in the series. Continuity has always been one of the series’ strongest suits.

I must also mention that many of Luffy’s allies are drag queens who rush into the fray whilst wearing fishnets and high heels. No one bats an eye, because in this universe, it’s a given truth that anyone can be brave and awesome, even if they’re a man wearing a tutu.

MJ: Well, if you think about it, is there anyone braver than a man wearing a tutu? I think not.

I know I need to get further into this series, and every time you or David talk about it, I remember why.

MICHELLE: That’s a very good point!

And yes, you do. I wish everyone had a public library as awesome as mine, because it’s ever so much easier to commit to a 62-volumes-so-far series like this one when you have that kind of resource. Even so, I find myself seriously tempted to start compiling my own collection. It’s just that good.

What else did you read this week?

MJ: Well, I’m way behind, but I finally read the third volume of Natsume Ono’s House of Five Leaves, one of my very favorite current series.

It’s difficult to discuss plot when talking about this series, because though things do happen in the world of broken samurai Masa, the story’s actual events are never really the point. There’s a missing member of the Five Leaves gang and the theft of a candle merchant’s seals, but the real story here seems to be about Masa’s acquaintance with a man from the magistrate’s office and the strain that acquaintance is putting on his relationship with Five Leaves leader, Yaichi.

This series is built on deeply private characters and layers and layers of atmosphere. Even when nothing particular is going on, you can feel the weight of Masa’s world on his slouched shoulders. Even in his most contented moments, his world feels heavy, yet he’s quietly grateful for all of it, somehow. He’s the soul of this story in all his passive reticence, and it’s his personal journey that most interests me.

That said, some real tension begins brewing in the plot department during this volume, which should offer a clearer thread of action as the story continues on. And if I’m content to sit with Masa as he quietly waffles through life, I admit that this extra momentum is a bit exciting. One gets the feeling that it wouldn’t take much for the entire world Ono has created to shatter into pieces, should something happen to break the tension she’s built up so slowly.

This series is one I find myself rereading already just to pick up extra nuances as I head into each new volume. It’s that compelling for me.

MICHELLE: I haven’t read beyond volume one yet myself, but even from the beginning the weight of tension is tangible. Now I’m excited by proxy at the idea of actual plot momentum. I wonder if that’s an IKKI thing, because Saturn Apartments is similar—I’m perfectly content to wallow in its slice-of-life charm, but small stirrings of actual plot seem to be cropping up in earnest now, meaning the series might become even more enjoyable.

MJ: Yes, I’m really looking forward to what the next volume has in store.

In other news, every time I look up at that slug-tongue image, it creeps me out more. I had to make it smaller, just to lessen the effect.

MICHELLE: I keep looking at it, too, as if to remind myself of its utter awfulness. Now I feel compelled to apologize to the readers for exposing them to it.

MJ: Hopefully they will forgive us … and possibly save us from it.

MICHELLE: We can only hope.

Inside the DMG, Week 19

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It’s been a long time since I had anything to say about my experience with the Digital Manga Guild—eleven weeks, actually, since my last update. Now, at long last, I can report that members of approved groups have received their contracts, with instructions to sign and return them to Digital Manga headquarters.

I received my contract last Friday, June 3rd, and took some time to look at it over the weekend. It’s a lengthy document, and while confidentiality requests prevent me from revealing its specifics, there are a few general comments I can share.

First of all, aside from some pretty standard sections of legalese which may be unfamiliar to those who don’t work with contracts regularly, there isn’t much that will be surprising to those who have been following along with discussion in the DMG forums or recordings of the original teleconferences with DMP President, Hikaru Sasahara. The picture he’s painted publicly of his vision for the Guild is very much in line with what appears in the official contract, including some of the fuzziness of that vision.

One issue in particular that remains unclear, even after distribution of the contracts, is exactly how much work any group will be expected to produce over a specific period of time. While the contract lays out expectations in terms of meeting deadlines and so on, there’s not much clarification on exactly how much work is being ultimately agreed to, which may be a real problem for localizers trying to determine whether they can commit to the arrangement. While Sasahara and DMP have been clear from the start that this new system can’t provide payment up front, localizers seeking to manage their time in order to ensure that they can maintain the work that currently pays their bills may find this lack of clarity unhelpful, to say the least. ETA: a DMP representative has posted some clarification on this question in the DMG forums.

Another point that seems unclear is whether Guild members have recourse if they object to any of the contract’s terms, aside from simply quitting the Guild. Now, I don’t work in publishing, but aside from my experiences with union contracts (which have already been heavily negotiated before they reach members), in my line of work, I’ve never offered (or been offered) a contract for work, even one I considered standard, without expecting that there might be questions and at least some level of negotiation on any questionable or undesirable terms. While DMP is clearly open to questions (rumor tells me that some members who have had multiple issues are being encouraged to bring them to a teleconference), it remains to be seen whether they are open to changes on an individual basis or whether this is an all-or-nothing offering.

Contract aside, however, it seems that the biggest issue muddying the DMG waters these days is inconsistency in information, something that has been a problem since the beginning. For instance, member dashboards were recently updated to include information indicating which tests each member has taken, and of those, which were passed or failed. This is terrific, but word in the forums is that what some people are seeing does not jive with the original pass/fail e-mails they received, especially since we were all explicitly told by company representatives (as is still stated in the Guild FAQ) that receiving a “pass” e-mail indicated that we’d passed all positions we tested for.

To quote the FAQ: “Q. I got my acceptance email and I took more than one test. Which position is it for? A. It’s for every position that you sent your test in for. The same goes for a group, if a group leader receives in email it’s in regards to everyone.”

With members suddenly finding out that they have not passed tests they were originally told they passed, I think the greatest challenge now for DMP, in terms of attracting more members and keeping the ones they have, is inspiring confidence that they have the organizational structure needed to really pull this off. This is an ambitious project to say the least, and while it’s understood that the Guild is somewhat a work in progress, it’s going to be important that members feel they’re in competent hands.

So with all that in mind, am I signing my contract? Yes, I am.

And onward we go.

Readers, please feel free to ask any questions you like. I will answer anything I can without violating the confidentiality I’ve agreed to.

Upcoming 6/8/2011

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As we noted over in the current Pick of the Week at Manga Bookshelf, this is a positively crushing week for new releases from Viz. As it is at Midtown, so it is with the ComicList. As a result, I’m limiting my Viz picks to one, but it’s a doozy.

Yes, at long last, it’s time for the 57th volume of Eiichiro Oda’s smashing pirate adventure, One Piece. When we last joined would-be greatest-pirate-in-the-world Luffy, he was desperately trying to save his older but considerably less ambitious brother from execution. Along the way, he inadvertently staged a massive prison break and raised pirate-navy tensions to perhaps their highest pitch in the history of the series. An alternate title to this book could be “How to Succeed in Chaos without Really Trying.” As always, I’m enjoying it enormously, but I miss the heck out of the rest of Luffy’s crew and am eager for their return.

Vizalanche aside, there are a couple of pamphlets I’m eager to purchase. First is Adam Warren’s second Empowered Special which asks Ten Questions for the Maidman from Dark Horse. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, Maidman is one of the few peer superheroes who treats our titular heroine with anything resembling courtesy and respect. I fully expect another outing packed with equal parts satire and sincerity, plus a reasonable amount of equal-opportunity cheesecake.

There’s unlikely to be any cheesecake in Veronica 207, the first issue of the Kevin Keller miniseries created by Dan Parent for Archie Comics. Kevin, as you may recall, is Riverdale’s first openly gay character. As Brigid (MangaBlog) Alverson noted in this piece for Publishers Weekly, Kevin is one of the reasons that Archie has reasserted its relevance over the past couple of years and become, dare I say it, kind of cool for possibly the first time in its sturdy but fairly safe-and-steady history. I just like comics about gay people, provided they aren’t Chick Tracts.

What looks good to you?

 

Harlequin Manga: Ridge: The Avenger, Codename Prince, and An Officer and a Princess

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Ridge: The Avenger by Leanne Banks and Keiko Kishimoto

I tend to like Harlequin manga the most when the art is ridiculously old fashioned. If the adaptation has art that looks a little bit like a throwback to the 80s, I tend to enjoy the goofy storylines of these books even more. Kishimoto has a lush style, featuring bee-stung lips. In some scenes I was reminded a tiny bit of Yumi Tamura’s Basara, especially with the angular proportions of the hero’s face. The hero in question is bodyguard Ridge, assigned to protect the goddaughter of a presidential candidate. He thinks Dara is spoiled and silly. Ridge has an ulterior motive in being assigned as Dara’s protector. What could it be? He is out for REVENGE! Ridge’s tortured past (this must be why he seems to be pouting so much) has led him to want to destroy Dara’s godfather and his political future.

Ridge and Dara bond with each other over assassination attempts and their horrible fashion choices when rollerblading. While they fall in love, Ridge is still out for REVENGE and he might destroy Dara’s life! But he loves her! The art in this title is really much better done than most Harlequin manga. There were interesting panel layouts, perspective shifts, and the character designs were attractive in an old fashioned way. This was a fun read.

Codename: Prince by Megumi Toda and Carla Cassidy

Codename Prince is the third book in the Stanbury Crown series. Royal cousin and military man Ben is posing as his cousin Prince Nicholas in order to get himself kidnapped and collect intelligence on the group who has kidnapped the King of Edinburg. His captor is the attractive woman Megan who has been blackmailed into helping her brother with his nefarious schemes. Megan has a young daughter who the kidnappers threaten to hurt if she doesn’t help them. The story opens with Ben tied up on a bed with a teddybear placed next to him, slowly developing a hopeless crush on Megan. Codename Prince is very short, and doesn’t really contain the type of spying shenanigans I was hoping for based on the title. The art is simple and fluid, without some of the stiffness that seems to plague many of these quick romance novel adaptations.

An Officer and a Princess by Megumi Toda and Carla Cassidy
This series wraps up with the final volume, where the princess of the family decides to go undercover with her crush to unravel the mystery behind her father the king’s disappearance. Isabel had to give up her dream of serving in the military for her princessy duties, and her good friend and fellow officer Adam tends to view her only as a princess and not as a woman. When they pose as man and wife, will their love finally blossom?

By the end of the series, I think I liked the concept of linked books with overlapping characters a little more than the actual execution of it. The King certainly managed to stay kidnapped for a long time, as four royal couples managed to get married off while he was missing. A certain level of sameness started to settle in with the plots of this series, so while these manga weren’t the worst Harlequin manga ever, they ended up not being all that great either. These were still perfectly serviceable for someone wanting a quick summer read.

Access to electronic copies provided by the publisher.