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New Let’s Get Visual: Of Sakura and the Sea

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It’s the last Saturday of the month, which means time for a new installment of Let’s Get Visual at Michelle Smith’s Soliloquy in Blue!

My subject this time around comes from Daisuke Igarashi’s Children of the Sea, published in English by Viz Media. My point of discussion revolves around panel size, and how Igarashi uses it to influence the reader’s experience, up to and including how we feel about the characters and what they’re telling us.

In a series that is known for its beautiful (and unusual) artwork, I found it fascinating to analyze the way the artist uses structure as a tool as well.

Following that, Michelle leads us into a wonderful discussion about the way a mangaka can use art as a kind of emotional shorthand, demonstrated in several scenes from Mari Okazaki’s Suppli.

As always, we’re seeking input from those more knowledgeable about these things than we. So please come along and let us know where we’ve gone wrong!

2010 Manga Gift Guide

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Here are my picks for manga to give to people this holiday season! Here’s my guide from last year, in case you’re curious about my previous picks.

We’re lucky to be living in an age of awesome omnibus editions, and I think they make awesome gifts for manga fans. The books on this list are suitable for teens and adults, I didn’t read a ton of all ages manga this year.

For the fan of classic shoujo:

I don’t think it gets much better than the Dark Horse Clamp Omnibus releases. Some of the more recent Clamp series leave me a little cold, but it is hard to recapture the charm and whimsy of the original Cardcaptor Sakura. With plenty of outfit changes, a tarot card-inspired magical quest, and puppy-love crushes popping up everywhere, Cardcaptor Sakura is a must read for any fan of shoujo fantasy. I tend to be merciless about culling my collection if I have older volumes when I know I’m going to buy the same manga in a deluxe edition, so I don’t have my old stray volumes of the original Tokyopop release. I can’t compare the old and new translations, but I do appreciate the great paper quality of the new Dark Horse edition, as well as all the bonus color illustrations included in this volume. I’m looking forward to collecting the rest of this series.

Itazura na Kiss came out last November, but I didn’t read it until 2010 so I’m including it in this gift guide. The dim-witted heroine with lots of heart is a shoujo staple, and sometimes such a cliched character type can be a little annoying. However, one of the reasons why so many lazy mangaka turn to this character type is the classic and hilarious portrayal of Kotoko in Itazura Na Kiss. Kotoko’s hopeless and all-consuming love for the epitome of Japanese eliteness Irie inspires sympathy in me as opposed to resignation. Kaoru Tada surrounds her odd couple with a large and hilarious supporting cast, making Itazura Na Kiss much more interesting than you might think for a story that follows the romance of a nice but simple girl and her chosen snobbish but intelligent guy.

For the shoujo fan who has everything:

One of my pleasant discoveries late in the year was the omnibus edition of Toru Fujieda’s Dragon Girl. I enjoyed her series Oyayubihime Infinity from CMX, and Dragon Girl makes a slightly goofy premise (girl infiltrates a traditional Japanese cheering club) much more enjoyable than you might think. Rinna’s relentless pursuit of excellence in cheering and total lack of embarrassment even as some of her classmates attempt to pick on her are admirable, and Fujieda manages to create an interesting reverse harem story with plenty of humor. I’m looking forward to the second and concluding volume when it comes out later in the year, and I think the double omnibus edition will make a great addition to any fan of silly shoujo. I haven’t seen this title get as widely reviewed as other shoujo titles recently, so this is my under the radar new shoujo pick.

For the alternative comic fan:

If you know someone who tends to prefer alternative or indie comics, there are some manga out there that should appeal to them. Tops on the list is the Top Shelf anthology AX Volume 1. My full review is here, but the short version is that AX is a carefully curated anthology that gives the reader a new appreciation of the variety of storytelling and art styles that come out of the alternative comics scene in Japan. This would also be a great gift for the manga fan that appreciates volumes that fill in their knowledge of the history and development of the art form.

Other options would be almost anything from Viz’s Sigikki line which is filled with unique storytelling and distinctive art styles. My current favorites from this line are Children of the Sea, Afterschool Charisma, and House of Five Leaves. I think House of Five Leaves, with its slice of life account of a diffident ronin accidentally falling into a life of crime might appeal most to indie comic fans who are open to trying out some manga.

Fans of craziness in comic form – post apocalyptic sci-fi seinen version:

I’ve only read one volume of Biomega and I mean to track down the rest of the series at some point. However just from reading the first volume I wouldn’t hesitate recommending the title to anyone with a sense of humor who enjoys dark twisted science fiction. Tsutomu Nihei’s vision of the future is filled with stylish zombie fighters, abandoned places with interesting architecture, and a talking bear with a machine gun. I don’t think it gets much better than that. I can’t say that Biomega was terribly coherent, but the gorgeous art, creepy zombies, and the aforementioned talking bear with the machine gun goes a long way in satisfying me as a reader. Also: talking bear with machine gun.

Fans of craziness in comic form – cracktastic fantasy shoujo eye-candy version:

This was a really good year for shoujo. But the new series that immediately captured my attention was Demon Sacred, Natsumi Itsuki’s manga about mystical creatures from another dimension that manifest as unicorns and dragons, then take the form of super-hot idol singers when bonded to teenage girls. Add in the medical mystery surrounding the reverse-aging disease called Return Syndrome, a hot genius scientiic researcher, and angsty twin girls and you get one of the most genuinely crazy shoujo plots that I’ve seen since Moon Child. Priced at $5.99, it would be easy to pick up the first couple volumes for any fan of loopy shoujo series. While the first volume of Demon Sacred was a little dense, by the second volume I had given myself over to the craziness and I am eagerly looking forward to the third volume which is coming out at the end of the month, because I need another hit. Nope, this series isn’t addicting at all!

Shonen manga of the year:

I didn’t expect that I’d love Cross Game so much, but this slice-of-life story about a young baseball prodigy touches on issues kids face as they grow up with the baseball serving only as a backdrop. As the characters age and move up in school, they face challenges that go beyond just the baseball field. Ko is an engaging hero, and I’m genuinely curious to find out how he and his friends deal with the corrupt baseball coach at their high school. The three volume omnibus helps compensate for the slightly slow start to the series, but I appreciated being able to read a sports manga that showed time gradually passing for the characters.

Box Sets

Box sets might not be useful for established manga fans, but for newer fans who might not have collected the volumes yet, they could be a great way to get someone hooked.

Death Note Box Set (Vol. 1-13)

Vampire Knight Box Set

Fruits Basket, Vols. 1-4

As for what’s on my wish list, I’d probably want to fill in the gaps in some of the Viz signature series where I don’t have all the volumes, like getting the rest of Biomega, snagging volumes 2 and 3 of Children of the Sea, and the second volume of House of Five Leaves.

Happy Manga Shopping!

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Vision of Escaflowne

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Today’s Saturday morning cartoon is one of my all time favorite anime series, Vision of Escaflowne:

I might have been introduced to anime first by Robotech, but Escaflowne was the show that reeled me back in to watching it again after a long absence. I caught one of the episodes when it ran on American TV and decided to seek out the Japanese version. I liked the way Escaflowne combined mecha with a historical fantasy setting. I tend to rewatch this show every two to three years, and sometimes dip in for an episode or two if I’m feeling sick. If you know of similar shows to Escaflowne that I might enjoy, please post your recommendations!

Failure Friday: Fat girls have faces too.

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Last month on Failure Friday, I discussed a deeply flawed manga that I love despite its flaws. This month, I’m going to go in the other direction. Though it would be incorrect to state that I “hate” this manga, I find one of its flaws is so distasteful, it ultimately fails to work for me as a reader.

The manga I’m getting around to here is Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution by Yuuki Fujinari, published in English by Yen Press.

Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution is the story of Hitomi, an overweight student surrounded by impossibly pretty boys at her elite high school. Even more impossibly, all of the school’s prettiest boys live in the apartment building where Hitomi resides with her brother. Furthermore, they all seem to have an attachment to Hitomi in one way or another, bringing us to the real point of the story: Will Hitomi become romantically involved with one of them, and will she have to lose the weight to do so?

In case you haven’t guessed by now, this manga is based on a dating sim. And though this accounts for the simplicity of its plot, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. I genuinely enjoy romance, even sometimes of the harem variety, so the overall lack of thematic complexity is not in itself a deal-breaker. Even the brother character’s blatant sister complex is not enough to drive me away.

What makes this manga’s simple-minded approach less palatable, is its portrayal of Hitomi, particularly in terms of her relationship to food and to her own body. As any obese person can tell you, there is absolutely nothing simple about a young fat person’s daily life, and as a result, the manga’s approach seriously marginalizes its heroine and any readers who might genuinely identify with her.

Let’s begin just with the artwork. Here are a few things I wrote in my (not uncomplimentary) discussion of volume one:

While the series’ other characters get relatively detailed facial features–shaded eyelids, carefully lined, large eyes, real contour to the nose and cheeks–Hitomi gets two dots for eyes, a comic-strip nose, a Simpsons-quality mouth, and a couple of giant circles on her cheeks. She’s like a permanent chibi. Furthermore, the story’s other overweight character (a boy who supplies her with cookies, natch) is drawn in the same caricatured way. Newsflash, people: Fat girls have faces too.

Even just with the character design, the artist has already made it clear that fat kids aren’t real people. They may be kind and helpful, and others may even like them, but they can’t actually be fully-realized human beings until they’ve adequately slimmed down. Hitomi’s not working so hard so that she can finally get some romantic attention from the hot neighbor boys, no, she’s fighting to earn irises and normal NOSE. And while a more thoughtful artist might indeed use something like this as a metaphor for Hitomi’s actual feelings about herself, a concept like that is clearly well out of Fujinari’s depth.

Now, I mentioned that my discussion of volume one was not uncomplimentary, and that’s true. Even with this major caveat, I thought the series had some good points. As I made my way through volume two, however, my patience began to wane. Here Hitomi endures nasty comments, some pretty grueling exercise (thin people, try climbing a mountain with a 100-200 lb weight wrapped around your torso, and you might have some idea of what it’s like for Hitomi), and some physical symptoms of dieting she didn’t quite expect. And while these are certainly realistic things, there’s absolutely no sense of Hitomi’s real feelings about them.

She gets momentarily angry at the mean, thin girl who treats her like dirt, she feels tired from the exercise, and she worries about her split ends. This is seriously the extent of her emotional range on these issues, which makes one wonder how she even became overweight to begin with. Fat people eat for a reason, and any one of these might do, but nothing seems to have much of an effect on our easy-going heroine, whose only real stumbling block seems to be an occasional, vague longing for her beloved cookies, which is easily dismissed by her newfound sense of duty.

I have to wonder, is there anyone involved with this manga (or the game it was based on) who has struggled with overweight? It seems impossible that there could be. Even taking into account the game’s backstory, yet to be revealed in the manga but uncovered by Brigid Alverson in her review of the series, the entire thing reads like a thin person’s perspective on obesity. The series exists in that stereotypical mindset where physical fitness is as simple as a balanced diet and exercise, and fat people are lazy gluttons who simply lack willpower (and possibly basic intelligence). It’s simplistic, insulting, and just blatantly not true, which begs the question, who is this manga actually for? Surely not fat girls, or at least not real ones.

All this said, it would be reasonable for one to ask why I’ve bothered reading this manga at all. What did I expect from a series based on a dating sim? Why don’t I just walk away?

The truth is, it’s hard to walk away, when this highly flawed story is still the only manga I’ve personally encountered that features an overweight, female romantic lead. And isn’t that just sad?

So, readers… Ugly Duckling’s Love Revolution: failure or not?

3 Things Thursday: Thanksgiving

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It’s Thanksgiving day here in the US, a day in which we consume a great deal of pie. It’s also a time for us to focus on the gratitude we feel for the people and things that most enrich our lives. Over the past few years, manga has been a significant part of that enrichment in my life, along with the many friends and colleagues I’ve accumulated in its wake.

One of the greatest gifts bestowed upon me regularly by the people I’ve met through manga is, of course, the introduction to new manga, and there are a few of those introductions that stand out, not only for the manga themselves, but also for the role they’ve played in defining my tastes and even who I am as a manga blogger. So for this week’s 3 Things, I’d like to talk about three manga (or two manga and one manhwa) that have defined me as a blogger and the wonderful ladies who introduced me to them.

3 influential comics and the women who gave them to me:

1. Hikaru no Go | Viz Media | Aja Romano – I’ve told this story countless times, about the friend who finally convinced me to read manga and the elegant shonen series with which she achieved this truly incredible feat. What I often leave out of the story, though, is that she accomplished this by giving me some of her own Hikaru/Akira fanfic to read which, regardless of its canon-ness (or lack thereof) was filled with the same detailed characterization and deep sense of optimism that makes the series so very appealing.

I mentally thank Aja nearly every day as I gaze at my towering shelves of manga, and even more often as I engage with other manga bloggers on Twitter, in blog comments, and occasionally at conventions. I’ve thanked her directly many times as well, but there really isn’t any amount of thanks that could truly suffice. So today, I’ll thank her again.

Thank you, Aja!

2. xxxHolic | Del Rey Manga | The lady at Anime Ink – I was a bit lost after my original introduction to manga. Since I’d come into the medium through a shonen sports manga (sort of), I tried a few others of that kind, but none of them really grabbed me. I had better luck with shonen fantasy like Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Cat, but when I stood in the aisles of our local manga/anime shop, I was pretty much at a loss.

The shop was called Anime Ink, and one afternoon as I stood there staring helplessly at the shelves, the owner of the shop (whose name I regrettably don’t know) asked me what manga I liked so far. When I told her, she pondered for a moment, and then led me over to the end of the aisle. “I don’t like much CLAMP,” she said, “But this one is different.” She pointed at the first volume of xxxHolic, which I picked up and bought that day. The rest, of course, is history. Anime Ink is closed now, so I guess I’ll never know her name. But I’d like to thank her anyway.

Thank you, lady at Anime Ink!

3. One Thousand and One Nights | Yen Press | Katherine Dacey – At the end of 2008, in preparation for her departure from PopCultureShock, Kate Dacey cleared out the last of the manga review copies she had in her possession, sending out boxes to each of the site’s remaining writers. My box contained, among other things, the first six volumes of Han SeungHee and Joen HinSeok’s One Thousand and One Nights, one of the first Korean manhwa series I’d ever actually seen, and definitely the first I had the opportunity to dig into in bulk.

I was immediately enchanted by the series, which somehow managed to balance brutal violence, heady romance, and old-fashioned storytelling in a way that perfectly satisfied my most basic personal tastes. This not only began my love affair with the series, but also with manhwa in general, which has become a significant part of my comics collection as well as my identity as a blogger.

Thank you, Kate!

So, readers, what are some manga that have influenced who you are as a fan? And who introduced you to them?

Off the Shelf: In which there are bunnies

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Welcome to another edition of Off the Shelf with MJ & Michelle! I’m joined, once again, by Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith.

This week, we take a look at a couple of final releases from Del Rey Manga, as well as new volumes from Viz Media and Vertical, Inc.

MJ: I was going to open tonight’s discussion with a text rendition of “Over the River and Through the Woods,” but I realized probably neither of us are headed to grandmother’s house tomorrow.

MICHELLE: Well, I might end up at a grandmother’s house, and though this will include going over a river, there aren’t any woods. More like a security gate.

MJ: I suppose if you consider that my mother *is* a grandmother, that counts for something. And I’ll have to drive through some woods, so perhaps between the two of us, we have it covered?

MICHELLE: Sounds like it!

MJ: So how have you been passing the time leading up to your turkey coma?

MICHELLE: Well, as you no doubt are aware, Kodansha recently announced that they’ll be taking over distribution of Del Rey’s titles. The last batch of manga to come out under the Del Rey label was released yesterday, so I was marking the hopefully-not-really-a passing of a great publisher by checking out some of their newer releases.

First on my agenda was the first volume of I Am Here!, a five-volume shoujo series—originally published in the magazine Nakayoshi—that is being released here in two omnibus editions. It features Hikage Sumino, an 8th grader so severely shy that she’s practically invisible to her classmates and the world at large. Her existence is a lonely one, for although no one’s picking on her, no one knows her name, either. The only friends she has are Black Rabbit and Mega Pig (I am not making this up), frequent readers of her blog who provide her with advice and encouragement.

One day Hikage falls victim to the “locked in the gym storage room” cliché and is found by Hinata, one of the most popular boys in school. Any time Hikage played hide and seek as a child, “it” never remembered to look for her, so to be found at all is quite a big deal for her. She begins hanging around Hinata more, who pretty quickly confesses that he likes her. Even the small amount of socializing they do raises the ire of Hinata’s possessive fangirls (another cliché) and Hikage is subjected to bullying and a notoriety that she never would’ve expected. Eventually, she grows enough spine to refuse to agree to stop hanging around Hinata and vows to become the kind of person who can handle being his girlfriend.

So, yes, there are a lot of clichés in this story. But somehow its quiet earnestness really worked for me! Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading a good deal of shounen and seinen manga lately, but something as sweet and simple as I Am Here! proved genuinely entertaining. All of the characters are fairly lackluster, but I still enjoyed reading about them. Of particular note is the fact that Hikage keeps a blog and counts two members of the online community among her close friends, which kind of weirds out Hinata. In any other shoujo series this full of tried-and-true story elements, I would be absolutely convinced that Hinata is Black Rabbit, but I’m actually not sure. Probably he is, but all the same I’m impressed that I still have a tiny shred of doubt about that halfway through the series!…

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Naked Heat by Richard Castle: B

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From the front flap:
When New York’s most vicious gossip columnist, Cassidy Towne, is found dead, Heat uncovers a gallery of high-profile suspects, all with compelling motives for killing the most feared muckraker in Manhattan.

Heat’s murder investigation is complicated by her surprise reunion with superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook. In the wake of their recent breakup, Nikki would rather not deal with their raw emotional baggage. But the handsome, wise-cracking, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer’s personal involvement in the case forces her to team up with Rook anyway. The residue of their unresolved romantic conflict and crackling sexual tension fills the air as Heat and Rook embark on a search for a killer among celebrities and mobsters, singers and hookers, pro athletes and shamed politicians.

This new, explosive case brings on the heat in the glittery world of secrets, cover-ups, and scandals.

Review:
In this second outing for “Richard Castle,” Detective Nikki Heat and her squad are working two cases—one the death of a produce delivery driver and the other the murder of Cassidy Towne, a gossip columnist with scads of powerful enemies. Magazine reporter Jameson Rook has been shadowing Towne, planning to pen a feature on her, so he provides information for the investigation. While leads are followed and the (lamentably somewhat obvious) conclusion pursued, Heat and Rook deal must also deal with the awkwardness resulting from their fairly recent breakup.

Although I definitely enjoyed Heat Wave, the first media tie-in mystery for the ABC show Castle, Naked Heat succeeds more as an independent entity. The characters are less obviously stand-ins for characters on the show, and though large portions of the investigation still remind me of the TV series, that’s not always a bad thing. For example, it’s rare that a mystery novel makes me giggle aloud, a feat that Naked Heat achieved several times (once by way of a Firefly reference).

The main characters really are the chief draw here. The mystery is better than in the prior book—at least, what I can remember of its mystery, which isn’t much—but still involves glitzy types like mobsters and pop stars, which I just can’t care about. A few intense action sequences spice up the narrative, but it also drags in places. The most compelling aspect of the story for me was the detectives’ negative reaction to Rook’s recently published profile of Heat—both because it portrayed her as the star of the squad while marginalizing the contributions of the others and because unwelcome publicity is now hounding her at every turn—and his realization of how his approach to the article affected its subjects. I found his contrition believable.

With this installment, I think the book series has proven itself capable of standing on its own. As I said before, it’s a rare mystery that can make me laugh. Though the book is definitely not without its flaws, at this point I think I can safely say that even if this series bore no relation to a TV show I happen to watch, I would probably enjoy it to the same degree.

Pick of the Week: Time and Again

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It’s an especially rough week for choosing a Pick, with new volumes of a number of my favorite series hitting shelves at Midtown Comics. Yen Press delivers big this week, with volume five of ninja manga Nabari no Ou, as well as the final volume of the aptly named manhwa Very! Very! Sweet. Tokyopop brings us volume three of previous Pick Demon Sacred, and though it’s not on Midtown Comics’ list, David Welsh reports that we’ll be seeing volume two of previous Pick 7 Billion Needles.

One stand-out title that has not previously turned up here at Pick of the Week, however, is my favorite ghost-hunting manhwa, Time and Again, written by JiUn Yun, published in English by Yen Press, which sees the release of its fourth volume this week.

Here’s some of what I had to say about volume four:

Though both the last two volumes have delved a bit into these characters’ rather tragic pasts, this volume really gets to the heart of Ho-Yeon’s history and the events that led to the deep regret he’s carried with him all this time. It’s extremely moving, and I have to laugh now when I look back at my review of the series’ first volume, where I complained that its main characters were both “underdeveloped.” That’s certainly turned around over the past few volumes.

This volume also shows us Baek-On and Ho-Yeon’s introduction to each other, which manages to be tragic and a little bit funny at the same time. You know, I don’t think it’s everyone’s cup of tea, but JiUn-Yun’s sense of humor just really works for me. I am always delighted by it. Baek-On is such an… unfortunately honest character. He’s got no delicacy at all, but that’s really part of his charm.
Possibly the best thing about this volume, however, is that it also contains the first meeting between Ho-Yeon and Shin-Wal, the spirit-sword we’ve seen him with since the series’ first volume. It’s kinda beautiful, I have to say.

This is an especially warm volume, despite all its tragedy, and though the series’ original, episodic flavor has mostly flown out the window, I think the story is better for it. Don’t get me wrong, this volume still follows the two of them along on a few cases, but they’re far from the focus of the story anymore, which has just increased its interest for me.

With just four volumes published to date, it’s a great time to dig into this increasingly engaging manhwa. Buy these books!

Summoner Girl Volume 1

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Summoner Girl Volume 1

I think with this series, I have contracted a severe case of yokai fatigue. This manga probably won’t interest older readers who are already very familiar with monster hunting storylines from other manga, but I think it would be a fun read for younger readers. Hibiki is a summoner, given the ability to call on spirits that embody the five elements. She’s set on a quest to gather mystical jewels in order to fulfill her destiny to become High Summoner. Hibiki’s sent on quests by her overly enthusiastic grandmother who urges her to ditch school if there’s a spirit nearby that needs hunting. Hibiki is aided by a slightly dim-witted boy named Kenta who possesses some spiritual powers of his own. One aspect of the manga that I thought was interesting was the way Hibiki takes on the personalities of the spirits she summons to help her, for example becoming angry and belligerent when she summons the aspect of fire. Even though Hibiki hunts spirits, her general approach is to try to understand them instead of pounding them into submission with her considerable mystical powers. Hibiki’s spirit aides take the form of cute animals that rest on her shoulders, offering a running commentary on the action

Kubota’s art has a mobile, thin line which blends in cute drawings of Hibiki with elements of the grotesque like a yelling wrinkled grandmother, a house filled with cobwebs, and a snarling fox spirit. The plot was exactly what I’d expect from a yokai manga, without anything extra to draw me in to want to read much more of it. While Summoner Girl didn’t fully capture my attention, I think the combination of Hibiki’s good-willed approach to spirit hunting, demon fighting, and jokey sidekicks would appeal to younger readers. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this volume to a young teen wanting a new action series featuring an engaging heroine.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Manhwa Monday: Pre-holiday lull

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

As we head into a big holiday week here in the US, the blogosphere has been quieting down, but we do have a few brief items to share.

First of all, for all you artists out there, NETCOMICS has announced a new contest via their Twitter feed, with a deadline coming up at the end of the month. Here are the details quoted from their tweets:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, ’tis time for a NETCOMICS contest! Submit your own rendition of a NETCOMICS series for $100 e-Cash!

1) Choose your favorite series.
2) Identify a scene/panel to recreate.
3) Do yer thang: bubbles, illustrations, etc.–the whole nine yards.
4) Q yourself whether or not your work is compelling/original.
5) Tweet it like there’s no tomorrow.

Deadline: Nov. 30th. Spread the word.”

And what does the Great Gatsby cover have to do with this, you ask? Nothing, really. I just like it.

In reviews this week, Angela Eastman takes a look at three final volumes from Yen Press at Suite 101. At Kuriousity, Lissa Pattillo checks out volume four of Time and Again (Yen Press). And at Manga Maniac Cafe, Julie reviews volume four of Raiders (Yen Press).

That’s all for this week!

Is there something I’ve missed? Leave your manhwa-related links in comments!