Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Features

Item: One Moon

by 24 Comments

“You mean it wasn’t real? The bandit? The moonlight?”

Earlier today, an old friend commented on my Facebook status, jokingly begging me to blog about something other than manga. I had to laugh a bit, especially since this person has known me a very long time, because I would have thought most people in my life have realized by now that, well, I don’t really do hobbies. I do passions. I grab on to the things that are meaningful to me, and let them carry me to my next destination. I’ve always felt very strongly that these things lead me to where I most need to be, and so far that philosophy has served me very well in life.

So, if you’re among those who mourn the fact that this has become primarily a manga blog, just try to think back to all the things that brought me this far–all those stops along the way where I found each of you–and remember that even when I’m unsure about where I’m going, I’m always fully committed to the journey. This is the one truth about my life I know for sure I can believe in. For now, the journey has brought me to manga, and I’m extremely excited to find out where I’m headed from here.

Now… will somebody please license Bakuman?

Idle thoughts in no particular order

by 13 Comments

I’m enjoying a much-needed idle evening here at home. I have reviews I probably should be working on, and maybe I will as the evening goes on, but for now I’m feeling the need for random surfing and maybe a blog commenting spree.

Speaking of blog commenting, I drove by Danielle Leigh’s reading diary today, but didn’t actually read it, because she has a review there for the first volume of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking just released by Del Ray, and though I’m eagerly anticipating reading it myself, I already know I’ll be reviewing it for Manga Recon, so for now, other reviews are off-limits. I have found that I am easily intimidated by someone else’s fantastic review, so after one such experience, I decided to force myself to keep away until I’ve completed my own review. Now I’m wondering, you who review manga (or anything else for that matter), do you do the same?

In other news, I really enjoyed Brigid Alverson’s interview with Matt Thorn, whose translation of est em’s Red Blinds the Foolish (reviewed by me here) I found pretty spectacular. After I read the interview, I did some searching around, and discovered this essay on shojo manga that Matt Thorn published back in 2001. It was a pretty great read, so I thought I’d share that here.

Lastly, Lianne Sentar asked me for further elaboration on my accusations of misogyny in Let Dai, and I’m embarrassed to be unable to respond with any kind of credibility, because I don’t have print copies of the series. Can anyone help me out? I think some specific examples of the language used by Dai would help me, but unfortunately, I’m not good at remembering exact words, especially when I’ve consumed a series as rapidly as I did Let Dai. If you’ve got some handy, let me know! ETA: I think these are no longer necessary! Conversation progressing without them. :)

Let Dai, Vols. 1-15

by 1 Comment

Leaving a quick link here to my review of the full series of Let Dai over at Manga Recon. I have mixed feelings about this series (hence the fairly lengthy review), but as an epic boys’ love story, it shines like a jewel in a sea of one-shots and short series that never get the chance to be fully developed.

People have called Let Dai “the Korean Banana Fish” which I take some issue with, mainly due to the fact that Let Dai (unlike Banana Fish) asks me to love a sociopath, which isn’t something I can do so easily. That said, it is absolutely, utterly impossible to stop reading Let Dai, at least in my experience, and that’s some powerful storytelling.

Oh, shojo, I love you so!

by Leave a Comment

Hello all! Just a quick update this morning. I have two longish reviews in today’s On The Shojo Beat column at Manga Recon, one for the first volume of a new series, Magic Touch, and also for volume seven of Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden, which I’ll talk briefly about here.

I’ve never read the original Fushigi Yugi, which I realize makes me a very poor shojo fan indeed, but the truth is, it’s never really caught my interest, and every time I mention it here, I find out something through your comments that makes me even less excited to read it. Now I’m actually a bit torn, because I really enjoyed Genbu Kaiden, though I suspect that may be because it avoids the problematic elements of the original series, particularly issues concerning friendship between women. Anyone here read both?

In any case, Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden is on a pretty slow release schedule, both here and in Japan, but the next volume comes out here in April, and I’ll definitely be looking forward to it!

I have a long review coming out later this week which has taken up most of my free time over the past few days (and probably for the next day or two as well), so I haven’t had time to read or think about much else. Oh, to be a faster writer! I cling to hope that my careful deliberation pays off in some way.

Whining about digital comics distribution

by 7 Comments

On my RSS feed this morning (via Dirk Deppey), I found this link to Stephen Schleicher’s recent post on the (according to him) exciting future of digital comics distribution. To be perfectly honest, it filled me with dread.

I like reading books. A lot. I like the feel of them, the smell of the paper, the winning combination of portability and tangibility. I like being able to pass a book from one person to another–knowing that something that I’m reading has been read by someone else before me, or that it will be someday in the future. More than any of that, though, they are just plain easy to read.

…

Read More

My brain, let me show you it.

by 2 Comments

Hello all! I’m still recovering from my trip (and madly trying to catch up with all the reviews on my plate) but I wanted to point you toward something over at Manga Recon that was a special bit of fun for me. A while back I had an idea for a roundtable discussion, and while I was on the trip, Michelle asked me to start it up! My question was…

Some mangaka are stronger artists than writers, or vice versa, and most have pretty distinctive styles. If you could combine one mangaka’s writing with another mangaka’s art for a one-time collaboration, who would you put together and why?

Behold! Manga Recon Roundtable: Dream Teams, in which we discuss our favorite made-up mangaka pairings. I had a lot of fun with this, and I also put together all the silly images for the post. Enjoy! :D

One last note, it’s Danielle Leigh’s one-year anniversary over at Comics Should Be Good! Go wish her well!

Hi. Ow. Hi.

by Leave a Comment

Greetings from the Unified Professional Theater Auditions in Memphis, Tennessee! I spent the weekend eagerly following the news from NYCC in between auditions, and enjoying a flurry of excited text messages over Yen’s acquisition of Yotsuba&! So exciting! I also have a review in today’s Manga Minis for volume five of Shugo Chara! which is a series I have been enjoying very much. Be sure to check out Deanna’s latest post, too, where she talks about Wild Adapter!

On another small note, I’ve added a sidebar widget here that displays my Twitter updates for anyone who is interested. I’m not much of a, uh, tweeter, but frustration over my hotel’s painfully slow internet service drove me to find a way to make small updates with my phone, and this seemed like the easiest option. So there they are, near the bottom of my sidebar. You may choose to read or ignore as you please. :)

I am currently waiting on the little pot of watery hotel room coffee that is brewing in my bathroom, and attempting to find a way to soothe my aching back. For those of you who have never been to group auditions like this (which I’m assuming is most of you), the way it works is as follows: …

Read More

Comics in Memphis and Other Things

by 1 Comment

Just a few quick things this morning! First of all, I won’t be at NYCC this weekend, because I have to be in Memphis for UPTAs (since hiring actors is part of my actual paying job). What this means, however, is I’ll be in Memphis, which brings me to the question I always ask when I travel:

Are there any cool comic/manga shops I should visit in Memphis? Anyone?

And now a couple of links regarding manga reviewers who are not me. :) First, we have two new reviewers at Manga Recon! You can read about them both here! I am not the new girl anymore, hurray! Secondly, Michelle has started writing occasional reviews over at Comics Should Be Good (home of the fabulous Danielle Leigh), and you can read her first review (for The Quest for the Missing Girl) here.

Lastly, Chris Butcher has a great post about Diamond’s new order minimums, and why he thinks it will kill the direct market. I admit I don’t buy much manga anymore from my local comic shop (unless it’s from their used shelf), partly because they don’t keep up their stock after things sell out so they rarely have whatever volume I’m looking for, but also because on the day a new volume is released, they almost never have it. I’ve blamed Diamond for this in the past, and I don’t know if that’s fair, but sometimes even when I’ve called to ask the store about a new release of a series I know they carry, I find it’s not even on the list for their upcoming shipment. Anyway. Manga is obviously not most comic shops’ bread and butter, so I doubt anyone cares much about that, but I would really hate to see comic shops die, and I’m sure most of you feel the same.

That’s all for now!

Legal Drug, vols 1-3

by 17 Comments

Quick link! I have a review in today’s Manga Minis at Manga Recon for NETCOMICS’ Main Street in Elysium. It was hard for me to write a balanced review of this because I found it so distasteful. I think I did not succeed.

What I really want to talk about, though, is CLAMP’s Legal Drug. I know this is old hat for most of you, but I finally read it last night, and some thoughts popped to mind. …

Read More

Enjoy Everything

by 7 Comments

We’re snowed in again (sigh) but I was prepared at least, and brought work home with me yesterday. After a long morning of work, I thought I’d take a break. Probably I should have worked on the review I have due this week, but instead, I finally picked up volume 5 of Yotsuba&!, which I’d been holding off on since it’s the last one until forever (or something like that).

I swear, there is nothing that can make a person happier than a volume of Yotsuba&! There is truly nothing more delightful in this world.

And so I present a List of Awesomeness in Yotusba&! Volume 5: …

Read More

Links: manga, music, and nostalgia

by 15 Comments

Oh Monday. How I wish you were Friday. I have one review in today’s Manga Minis at Manga Recon, for volumes 2 & 3 of Go!Comi’s Ultimate Venus. It is a silly, silly series that I enjoyed quite a bit more than expected. This initially led to a rambling post musing on the futility of assigning grades in reviews, but it sort of pushed itself into a corner so I’ve given it up for now. Instead, here are a few random links to things I’ve enjoyed recently:

…

Read More

A few links on a sick day

by 11 Comments

I’m battling illness and stabbing blindly at a difficult review, so just a little link-blogging from me today!

First of all, I keep re-reading Ed Sizemore’s review of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys and find myself desperately wanting to read the manga. This has shot straight to the top of my to-buy list. Ed’s reviews are always very much from the heart, and it’s obvious how much he enjoyed this manga. Example number 100,000,347 of How Reviews Sell Manga.

Speaking of reviews selling manga, check out Michelle’s recent review of classic shojo manga A,A’. Made me want to buy that too!

At Manga Recon’s recent roundtable, the bunch of us talked about our hopes and fears for film adaptations of manga. I piped up in favor of adapting shorter, less-popular series that could grab someone other than the usual action flick crowd. Not that I expect that will ever, ever happen.

So, has everyone been following the conversation about manga at Hooded Utilitarian? I’ve avoided dwelling on it too much, because I keep getting angry, but one point rings true. I haven’t ever been able to get deep into western comics, and one of the reasons, I think, is that I find them visually overwhelming. So aside from the inaccurate (and insulting) aspect of the argument that simple = simplistic, I think there is something to the fact that I am a manga reader at least in part because the art is easier for me to follow. That is not the only reason by far, nor is it the biggest reason (which is actually that I find the stories being told in manga much more to my taste), but it is definitely a factor.

ETA: Of course I realize now that most of what I just said there has already been said much more eloquently and with less vitriol by Brigid Alverson.

Okay, gotta go. Be sure to check out Deanna’s post from earlier today!

Captive Hearts, volume 1

by 9 Comments

First things first, Monday means manga minis at Manga Recon, and I have one review there, for the second volume of Lay Mitsuki’s Yggdrasil from publisher Go!Comi. It’s one of those titles that could end up being incredibly good and packed with meaning, but it’s hard to tell at this point. Now on to the main topic.

Something I chose for a quick read yesterday evening, was volume 1 of Matsuri Hino’s Captive Hearts, a collection of three manga short stories (the first of which I believe will be continued) about love, or more accurately, obsession. I dug into Captive Hearts without having read anything about it, though if I’d actually paid attention to the cover art, which features a couple donned in wedding attire and chains, I might have been less surprised about the content. …

Read More

Busy, busy, busy

by Leave a Comment

The week has been a little crazy, and I haven’t managed much manga-wise, other than reading a couple more volumes of Yotsuba&! (SO CUTE) and making three trades at mangatude (YAY). I do have a couple of reviews up at Manga Recon today, though, and they are both of pretty interesting titles, so I’ll pass the links along here!

First off, I review Viz’s Heaven’s Will in today’s On The Shojo Beat column, and I must tell you that though I only graded it at a B-, I actually really liked it. It’s a complete mess, and impossible to recommend, but there is something so compelling about its quirky cast of characters, I really just wanted more. Read my review, and you’ll see what I mean. I should point out, too, Michelle’s review of Otomen vol. 1 in the same column, which made me want to run right out and buy it, though it’s obviously just for fun.

Secondly, I have a full-length review of the first volume of Nanae Chrono’s new series, Momo Tama. Writing this review was incredibly difficult for some reason, especially surprising considering that I quite liked the volume. I’ll be interested to see where this series goes, and whether it really does become a full-blown comedy as the promotional material suggests. I kind of hope it doesn’t, because it’s more interesting to me the way it is now.

Okay, that’s all for now. I look forward to the long weekend!

Find of the day!

by 8 Comments

Thanks to Lori Henderson at Manga Xanadu, I have discovered the wonderful world of Mangatude, where people swap volumes of manga they don’t want for volumes that they do. With my tight budget these days this is a godsend, and I’m sure I’m not the only one in that boat right now. I’ve signed up, and already have a trade in the works!

Of course, as wonderful a find as this is, I’m thinking about how it affects the industry for us to be trading books instead of buying new ones on our own. Right now, I’ve justified it in that my budget is pretty inflexible, and I wasn’t going to be spending more anyway, so better to be maintaining my interest in series that I eventually *will* buy more volumes of. Better, too, that books I don’t need (like our accidental duplicate copy of Fullmetal Alchemist vol. 8) will find their way into grateful hands. It’s made me think a lot also about what series I *really* want, and what I’d be willing to give up in order to get something I want more.

I don’t have a lot for trade right now (and half of what I did have is already gone), but I’m sure that will grow as time goes on. In any case, I’m passing the info along in the event that I’m not actually the last person to know about this. :)