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Two by Natsume Ono

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For my latest column at Comics Should Be Good, I reviewed the debut volumes of two (relatively) new Natsume Ono series: House of Five Leaves and Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso. I really loved House of Five Leaves, with its story of a hapless samurai drawn into the schemes of a fascinating criminal. Gente is more a collection of low-key short stories than a single narrative, which means it’s slightly less awesome but still very entertaining.

You can find those reviews here.

Both House of Five Leaves and Gente are published in English by VIZ. The former is still ongoing in Japan, where it is up to eight volumes, but the latter (a “delightfully whimsical continuation” of Ristorante Paradiso) is complete with three volumes.

Review copy for Gente provided by the publisher.

Manhwa Monday: Manhwa comes to iOS

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Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! This morning’s big news is the official launch of the Magician app from new webtoon publisher, iSee Toon, available now for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement that appeared on the company’s blog early this morning:

“[Magician] App is released. (Direct Link)
You could search [Magician] at iPhone App Store. With this App, you could read until Vol. 2 for free, purchase until Vol. 5. You could purchase additional volumes $0.99 each. We will update this App for better experience of users.”

Though iSee Toon’s blog needs some urgent help from a native English speaker, I think you get the gist.

The app requires iOS 4.1, which means that iPad users (like me, this morning) who race to the App Store to pick up Magician will be bitterly disappointed. Perhaps we’ll be able to pick it up after the upcoming release of iOS 4.2? We live in hope.

iSee Toon has picked up a bit of buzz lately, including a mention in the official KOCCA (Korea Creative Content Agency) blog, which quotes company spokesperson Kim Jin Sung, and an enthusiastic shout-out from Daniella Orihuela-Gruber, who worked on Magician‘s English adaptation.

This week in reviews, a couple of back volumes of popular Yen Press manhwa are getting some attention. First, at Slightly Biased Manga, Connie checks out volume seven of Goong. Then, at Manga Village, Justin Colussy-Estes takes a look at volume nine of One Thousand and One Nights, observing that even with no knowledge of the series early volumes, its stories-within-the-story still make the read well worthwhile. “I highly recommend you find a volume of this rich, exciting, consuming epic series and get lost in all the stories it has to offer.”

In new (and upcoming) Yen Press releases, at Manga Xanadu, Lori Henderson runs through the October issue of the new, digital Yen Plus, which includes new chapters of Time and Again, Jack Frost, and Aron’s Absurd Armada. I also take a look at the upcoming fourth volume of Time and Again in last week’s Off the Shelf column at Manga Bookshelf.

And reviews continue to pile up for the first volume of Japanese-produced, Korean-created March Story (Viz Media), with takes from Bill Sherman at Blogcritics.org and Chris Zimmerman at CBS4. (Thanks to Brigid Alverson for both those links!)

That’s all for this week!

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

The Stellar Six of Gingacho Volume 1

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The Stellar Six of Gingacho Volume 1 by Yuuki Fujimoto

The Stellar Six of Gingacho is set on a busy market street district, where the “Stellar Six” of the title are all middle school students who have grown up together while working at their family businesses. The main couple in the book are Mike, who is the daughter of a greengrocer and Kuro, a boy whose family runs a fish shop. At the opening of the market Mike and Kuro stage an acrobatic mock battle where they fight over what is better – fresh fish or daikon. The display reels the customers in to the market street. Mike and Kuro used to run together in a pack of children. There’s Sato, an otaku girl whose parents run a Yakitory stand. Iba’s parents run a rice stand, and she can heft an impressive amount of rice bags. Ikkyu uses his good looks and womanizing ways in his role of delivery boy for his family’s soba restaurant, and the group is rounded out by the oddly withdrawn Mamoru whose parents run the local liquor store. The group hangs out at the local bar before it opens officially, running up a tab for sodas and tea.

Mike is feeling wistful, but she’s not certain why. When the group of friends entered middle school they began to grow apart after being assigned separate classrooms. When everyone accidentally gets together in the bar, Mike realizes it has been a long time since the group has been in the same place at the same time. She embarks on a campaign for a group bonding activity – entering the traditional Japanese dance contest at the upcoming street festival, with her eye on the second place prize of free food. When the neighborhood bar gets vandalized, the group pulls together with the idea of winning the cash prize to help pay for repairs and their tab.

Mike isn’t yet facing up to the reality of adolescence and the possibility of her childhood friendship with Kuro changing into something else. The neighborhood setting of The Stellar Six gives it a different feeling than the many school-related shoujo series. While the antics of the kids are funny, the manga is also filled with a feeling of nostalgia about leaving childhood behind. All the adults on the street look after the children, and the children in turn keep tabs on residents that might need extra help or encouragement. This gives Stellar Six more depth and narrative interest than similar workplace shoujo manga like Happy Cafe. One of the greatest complements I can pay this series is that it feels a lot like a CMX title, with the same type of sweetness and deceptive simplicity that I found in their best shoujo titles. This isn’t a surprise since The Stellar Six was published by Hakusensha, source of many CMX and Tokyopop manga. The Stellar Six has a ton of heart, and while it might not be flashy, it is a perfect feel-good read.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Dragon Girl Omnibus Volume 1

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Dragon Girl Omnibus Volume 1 by Toru Fujieda

Some manga creators have the ability to make cliched stories so much better than they have a right to be. Toru Fujieda managed to make Oyayubihime Infinity, a convoluted shoujo series dealing with pop idols, reincarnation, and butterfly birthmarks, both involving and interesting. Dragon Girl is a fairly standard reverse harem manga mashed up with sports storylines and the always present evil student council, but the characters and situations she creates are genuinely endearing and funny.

The heroine of Dragon Girl is Rinna Aizen. She’s determined to join the Shoryu High Cheerleading Squad where her father was once a legendary captain. When little Rinna confesses her intention to a boy named Subaru, he tells her that she’s an idiot because Shoryu is an all-boys school. Years later Shoryu has been forced to go co-ed and Rinna is enrolling. She quickly finds out that the Cheerleading Squad of her dreams has fallen on rough times. The only member of the squad left is the eccentric captain Hasekura, who stalks around the school wearing his cheering uniform, along with a weedy mustache that he’s grown in an attempt to live up to his idea of manliness. The class president says that the Cheering Squad will be disbanded do to lack of members, and Rinna promptly volunteers. Hasekura is dubious about the prospect of female squad members, but Rinna is like an exceptionally cute, energetic steamroller and soon there’s a ragtag squad of students learning traditional cheers and fighting to get their club status returned. The evil student council tries to stamp out the Cheering Squad and attempts to make Rinna into a pawn by giving her “Platinum Student” status.

Fujieda has a knack for creating sympathetic but slightly quirky characters. In some ways Rinna is a typical energetic shoujo heroine, but what sets her apart is her admirable quality of total commitment to cheering, and her fearless approach to throwing herself into situations that others might find embarrassing. She approaches chicken fights, waving improvised flags, friend trivia contests, and trying to win over fellow Platinum student with the same amount of cheerful determination. Even though there’s a large supporting cast, they all had distinct personalities. Hasekura acts like a ridiculous manly stereotype, but his feelings towards Rinna evolve from grudging respect into something more. Rinna’s fellow cheer squad members include the cool Chizuri and Temari who has a pathological fear of men. Rinna’s first love Sakura makes a couple enigmatic appearances as a model-like boy who goes everywhere with his pet cat. Rinna’s antagonists include the evil student council president, a crossdressing boy who forms a rival cheerleading squad, and a Platinum student named Yaotome who deliberately holds himself apart from other people and claims to hate women.

Dragon Girl is a total reverse harem series with a large cast of cute, goofy and mysterious guys. Fujieda’s distinct and attractive character designs make the art a pleasure to look at. The details about traditional cheering were interesting, and like most Yen Press editions there were translation notes included at the end of each volume. After reading three volumes of this series I wasn’t sure who I wanted Rinna to end up with, and I could see different possibilities for a potential boyfriend for her, which I think is a sign of a good reverse harem series. It might not be groundbreaking shoujo, but for what it is Dragon Girl does extremely well. It was fun being able to dive into the story and read three volumes all at once. I will be definitely be buying the second omnibus which wraps up the series. Highly recommended if you are looking for some new fluffy shoujo to read.

Saturday Morning Cartoon: Paradise Kiss Ending

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Today’s Saturday morning cartoon is the ending credits for the Paradise Kiss anime, because more anime shows need to show their characters shaking their heinys:

I do love these whimsical credits and the shift in character design for the closing. Using a Franz Ferdinand song isn’t so bad either.

Fanservice Friday: A Girl’s (G)Fantasy

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Many female manga fans regularly read shonen manga. This is simply a fact. Women are infinitely adaptable and generally omnivorous readers. We like romance, intrigue, action, drama, satire, comedy, tragedy, and sometimes, porn. Most of us spent our school days reading books written by men, the classroom philosophy being that girls would read books written for boys, but boys would rarely read books for girls.

Popular entertainment thrived on this principle also, ensuring that most film and television with any real money behind it would be geared to male viewers. We’d come along too, the executives figured. And sure enough, we did. In fact, in 2009, women dominated the movie-going market, though only a couple of big hits were deliberately made with us in mind.

Though the Japanese manga industry offers girls a veritable treasure chest by comparison, girls still spend a lot of time in the shonen section of the store, enough so that publishers deliberately court a female audience, even for manga created for boys.

Watching the industry from the English-language side, we’re not always privy to Japan’s subtler trends. Titles are generally chosen here with American tastes and habits in mind, and Japanese demographic categories frequently become meaningless. Casual fans rarely know or care how their favorite titles are marketed in Japan, let alone what magazines they ran in.

But for those of us who read a lot of manga, and who are likely to identify books with their publishers, certain things eventually become apparent. This entry concerns a trend that’s become particularly fascinating to me as a female reader who enjoys quite a bit of shonen manga.

All of the cover art displayed above belongs to manga series that run in the same magazine. That magazine is Square Enix’s Monthly GFantasy. Its demographic? Shonen.

So why are these shonen titles plastered with fanservice… for girls?

Some of the licensed titles that have run in GFantasy include Switch, Gestalt (both published by Viz Media), Black Butler, Pandora Hearts, Zombie Loan, and Nabari no Ou (all from Yen Press). Something all these titles share in common (besides a gallery of drool-worthy bishonen covers) is that they’re all written and drawn by female mangaka. Though women drawing shonen is hardly revolutionary, a collection of so many in a single magazine seems notable indeed. And with the kind of artwork that’s being displayed to market this manga, it seems likely that Square Enix has gathered them for a reason: to draw in a female audience.

Though each of the titles I’ve mentioned contain fanservice for girls, some of it is so subtle, you’d never know from a quick glance. Gestalt, for instance, contains as much (or more) fanservice for male readers, with its female lead, Ouri, prancing around in outfits that reveal a bouncing bosom any shonen manga would be proud to display. All the women in Gestalt are voluptuous, while most of its men are somewhat nerdy, especially glasses-wearing Father Olivier who begins as sort of the hero of the piece.

Yun Kouga’s trick is in text more than in pictures, where she reveals in the first volume that curvy Ouri is actually a man, lending new, exciting undertones to a scene like this.

Gestalt is an older manga than the others on this list, running from 1992 to 2001, which may account in part for its more traditional boobs and butts. Kouga’s artwork, too, though attractive, lacks the excessively pretty bishonen that dominate many of the magazine’s current series.

Still, the story’s gender-bending heroine provides titillation for both its male and female readers, while bringing to mind Deb Aoki’s recent question on Twitter, where she asked if Shonen Jump manga might be the gateway drug to yaoi.

Of course, some of GFantasy‘s titles are more subtle than others.


Yana Tobaso’s Black Butler, in particular, makes use of heavy BL subtext (as well as actual parody text as illustrated above) to please its female readers, particularly playing up the relationship with butler Sebastian and underaged Ciel, tapping into not just BL fans but shota fans in particular.

While that particular type of fanservice is not at all my cup of tea, elements of shotacon can be found even in my favorite GFantasy series, Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts, a serious fantasy tale that uses inter-dimensional time incongruities to create a gap of quite a few years between hero Oz and his devoted valet, Gilbert. Though the fanservice to this end is far more subtle than in Black Butler, the situation allows for lots of lingering glances and tense undercurrents.

Mochizuki’s real talent for fanservice, however, shines through in her character designs and costuming. She fills the pages of Pandora Hearts with long, tousled bangs and oversized shirt and coat sleeves, infantilizing even her creepiest characters in a spectacularly cozy way. Though this effect is used indiscriminately, both on male and female characters, the males’ top hats, long coats, and careless tendrils enhance the look significantly.

Sometimes, of course, her artwork is just very, very pretty.

In the face of all this girl-centric fanservice, the question burning in my mind has been, “Is shonen really the demographic for this magazine?” GFantasy runs other series, of course, that don’t fit the picture I’ve been painting, but even so, series like Black Butler or even Nabari no Ou seem especially crafted to please a female demographic. Yet a quick (and even not-so-quick) web search reveals no conversation on the topic whatsoever.

Unsatisfied, I turned to Twitter to seek out those more knowledgeable than I, and received some interesting responses from some folks who regularly buy and research magazines in Japan.

Sean Gaffney, in particular, had some interesting things to say. “… as the years have gone buy, and ‘comics for boys’ and ‘comics for girls’ have come more and more to mean ‘comics for people who have money to spend’, the genres have been busted down as the magazines cater to what people want to buy … And if that means pretty boys, hey, then pretty boys it is. Square Enix does not have a dedicated shoujo magazine, the way their competitors do … As a result, when they have a female friendly title, it has to go into one of those books.”

“But you’re right, no other title seems to lie about its genre more than GFantasy.”

And Tanbishugi pointed out these interesting facts: “Saiyuki and Loveless were originally serialized in GFantasy and later moved to Comic Zero-Sum which is a female-oriented magazine. Tactics also briefly ran in GF before it moved to another publisher.”

Also, regarding the BL background of some of the series’ authors, “Yana Toboso got her start writing Prince of Tennis doujinshi and Gackt RPS, and original BL under the pen name Yanao Rock. Naked Ape have also been fairly active in the doujinshi scene.”

And who do American publishers see as their primary market for these books? My request for insight from Yen Press received no response, but photos from last month’s Yaoi-Con suggest that women are good bet, at least for some titles.

So readers, male and female, do you read GFantasy titles? Manga Bookshelf wants to know!

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Images copyright Yun Kouga, Peach-Pit, Naked Ape, Yana Tobaso, Jun Mochizuki, Square Enix, Viz Media, & Yen Press

Many thanks to David Welsh who proposed the title for this feature! Check back for more Fanservice Friday on the first Friday of every month!

PR: IMPERIAL INTRIGUE AWAITS READERS IN THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU, NEW FROM VIZ MEDIA

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Viz has released a press release announcing Story of Saiunkoku, a title I’ve already reviewed here. There’s been a lack of new historical fantasy shoujo series coming out recently, and this manga was one of my most anticipated new series. I’m looking forward to reading the second volume. Read on for details:

IMPERIAL INTRIGUE AWAITS READERS IN THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU, NEW FROM VIZ MEDIA

Beautifully Illustrated Shojo Beat Series Depicts A Young Girl’s Rise In the Imperial Court To Become A Royal Confidant And Advisor

San Francisco, CA, November 4, 2010 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, delivers shojo-styled drama with the release of THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU, written by Sai Yukino with artwork by Kairi Yura, available now in stores. The new manga (graphic novel) series will be published under the company’s Shojo Beat imprint, is rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

Shurei Hong, destitute but of noble birth, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from holding office. The emperor Ryuki, however, refuses to take command, leaving everything to his advisors. Shurei is asked to become a consort to the emperor to persuade the ne’er-do-well ruler to govern.

“THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU will draw readers in with its beautiful artwork and smart, courageous heroine who dedicates herself to serving her country, rising in the ranks to become the emperor’s trusted advisor,” says Nancy Thistlethwaite, Editor. “This historical fantasy also inspired the popular anime series produced by Madhouse Studios. THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU is an exciting new addition to the Shojo Beat imprint, especially for those readers who love romance and political intrigue!”

Kairi Yura is the illustrator of both the manga and the light novels for THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU. She is also the creator of the Angelique series. Sai Yukino is author of the popular series of young adult novels, THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU, and its manga counterpart. She also received an honorable mention and the Readers’ Award for Kadokawa’s Beans Novel Taisho Awards.

For more information on THE STORY OF SAIUNKOKU manga and to read free previews online please visit www.ShojoBeat.com.

Manga on Deck for early November

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I enjoy it when other people feature the new manga they’ve gotten on their sites, so I thought I’d do that here too.

This is what I’ve bought or swapped for recently. I tend to preorder my manga from DCBS and I only do monthly shipping so sometimes I’m waiting a little bit for newer volumes.

I bought:

Cross Game Omnibus 1
Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus 1
Dragon Girl Omnibus 1
20th Century Boys #11
VB Rose #10
Astral Project #1 (Decided to throw this in randomly during my last DCBS order)
Kekkaishi #23

I swapped for:

Duck Prince #1
Crown of Love #2

While I’m excited to read all of this, I’m probably most looking forward to the Dragon Girl Omnibus. I enjoyed Toru Fujieda’s Oyayubihime Infinity series a bunch, so I was excited to see that an additional series from her was licensed. What new manga are you looking forward to reading?

3 Things Thursday: Going Digital

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Everyone’s excited about digital manga these days, with more companies jumping on board all the time. TOKYOPOP teamed up with comiXology in September (and with eManga just a short while later). Last month’s New York Comic Con elicited announcements from both Dark Horse and Yen Press, with Viz Media‘s new iPad app emerging just this week. And I’m sure I’m not the only manhwa fan anxiously following iSeeToon.

These announcements are unquestionably exciting, of course, and even those of us who far prefer our beloved ink on bound paper can’t reasonably deny the importance of this shift. Thing is, there’s been digital manga available for quite some, much of which has received little attention up to this point.

With that in mind, I’m dedicating this week’s 3 Things to digital manga (and manhwa)’s early players.

3 digital comics you may have been missing:

1. Small-Minded Schoolgirls | Toma | NETCOMICS – This digital-only offering comes from Korean artist Toma, better known for X-Diary, the basis for a feature film currently in production. The series follows the lives of two women, Miru, a successful novelist, and Somi, a would-be writer who makes her living securing talent for a literary magazine. The women become acquainted through Somi’s magazine, and as the manhwa progresses, we see their lives contrasted as they each struggle with issues of career, love, and family, thwarted, more often than not, by their own self-made obstacles. Toma’s simple, expressive artwork is a highlight of the series, and serves as nice counter to complaints of manhwa artists emulating Japanese style.

Check out Michelle Smith’s review of the series’ first two volumes for more.

2. Kiss Blue | Keiko Kinoshita | Juné – For BL fans, I recommend Kiss Blue, a quiet story of friends-turned-lovers that explores this common yaoi trope in a particularly thoughtful way. The manga provides an intimate look at the feelings of its characters, without relying on melodrama to move the story forward. This isn’t a flashy title by any means, but it’s one of those that has stuck with me since my very first digital read. Though also available in print, of course, it’s hard to beat the bargain at eManga, which offers a rental price of 200 points (about $2) with the option to “keep” for just double that. That’s less than a third of the book’s retail price. And with a second volume finally slated for release next month, this is a great time to check out the first online.

Read this review from Leroy Douresseaux for more.

3. 10, 20, and 30 | Morim Kang | NETCOMICS – Also from Korea, this seven-volume series revolves around three generations of women, teenaged Rok, her twenty-something cousin Belle, and her widowed mother, Krumb. The story follows each of them through school, career, and romantic trials, devoting significant time to both their individual hopes and pursuits as well as their dynamic as a family. Though the first two volumes were made available in print, even these may be hard to find (both volumes, for instance, are currently out of stock at Amazon), and despite a lack of permanence, NETCOMICS’ online rental price–a total of $7 to read the series in its entirety–is more than a bargain.

Look to Kate Dacey’s review of the series’ first volume for more.

Though it was tempting to consider some of Viz’s SigIKKI titles for this list (House of Five Leaves, in particular, springs immediately to mind), the removal of early chapters as new volumes are released in print makes them imperfect as digital options. You, readers, however, may choose whatever you like. :)

So, how about it, readers? What are some of your favorite early digital adopters?

Off the Shelf: Sports, Ghosts, Books, & Boys

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

This week, we check out new volumes of currently-running series from Yen Press and Viz Media, as well as a sweet, new one-shot from Digital Manga Publishing.

MJ: Hi, Michelle! So… I am totally out of semi-clever lines with which to begin this exchange. Um. Got books?

MICHELLE: Have I ever! I came close to answering “Far too many,” but then wondered if that could ever really be true.

MJ: I think emphatically not. :)

MJ: They really are! Also, I have to say that your description of the book has completely charmed me. I hadn’t had much interest in checking out this title, but now I feel I must read it!

MICHELLE: More like there are far too many I want to read right this minute!

One book that I did manage to read this week is Cool/Uncool, a recent release under DMP’s DokiDoki imprint. Cool/Uncool follows a pair of life-long friends turned lovers as they progress from high school to college and deal with various insecurities in their relationship. In the title story, Yukihisa can’t figure out why his friend Takashi keeps avoiding him. Savvy BL readers will think “It’s because he loves you, silly!” and that does tie into it, but the actual reason is completely random and rather endearing.

Each successive story visits the boys after the passage of months or more and reveals the status of their relationship at that point in time. Much of the plot is derived from one fellow feeling like he’s the only one feeling a certain way, whether it be the desire to stay together forever or jealousy of a female classmate. In the end, the message is “be straightforward with your concerns,” which is not exactly the most riveting conclusion ever, but it fits well with such a cute and cozy story.

I liked the art in this one, as well. There are quite a few comedic interludes that look positively adorable, but the artist has quite a way with eyes. Here, check out this example! (see attachment)

Aren’t they pretty?

MJ: They really are! Also, I have to say that your description of the book has completely charmed me. I hadn’t had much interest in checking out this title, but now I feel I must read it! …

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