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Manga the Week of 7/8

July 2, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 5 Comments

SEAN: It’s a new fiscal year, and that brings a new pile of books, mostly from Viz. What have we got?

DMP print release dates give me a migraine. Twittering Birds Never Fly 2? I guess?

ASH: I can never tell when something will actually be released by DMP anymore.

MICHELLE: Me, neither. I’ll perk up when Itazura Na Kiss 11 gets here.

SEAN: Kodansha gives us a 5th volume of Ken Akamatsu’s immortals fighting each other manga UQ Holder.

Seven Seas has a trio of books. The second volume of 12 Beast is minimally interesting to me, but may interest those who like fantasy and harems.

ASH: It should at least hopefully be a hit with the Monster Musume crowd.

SEAN: Oddball slice-of-fantasy-life manga A Centaur’s Life is up to Volume 6.

Pandora in the Crimson Shell combines one of my favorite authors with one of my favorite artists, but I have heard the result is… well. We shall see. I expect I will not love this as much as Excel Saga.

MJ: I dunno, the title just makes me feel like I should be reading something by Jun Mochizuki.

SEAN: The ninth volume of What Did You Eat Yesterday? will, I suspect, have far less fanservice than Pandora in the Crimson Shell, unless you count food as fanservice.

ASH: The food definitely counts as fanservice.

MICHELLE: Oh, I had forgotten this was coming out so soon! Yay!

ANNA: Woo hoo!

MJ: This, this, this this, THIS.

SEAN: The rest is Viz, starting with Vol. 64 of Bleach. Bleach has gone from one of the big 3 shonen series to a series where even fans are screaming “Just die already!”, but it seems to still sell well.

ANNA: That is certainly many, many volumes. I did enjoy the first 13 volumes of Bleach.

MJ: Every once in a while I think it might be fun to check out what’s happening in Bleach these days. And then I don’t.

SEAN: So well that we are getting another giant Bleach box set, with Vol. 22 through Vol. 48. Use it as a very short pole vault!

D.Gray-Man has its 7th 3-in-1 omnibus as well.

As if two series weren’t enough, there’s more Aya Shouoto starting next week, with The Demon Prince of Momochi House. Like Kiss of the Rose Princess, this ran in Kadokawa’s Asuka magazine.

ASH: The cover is pretty, and there are yokai!

MICHELLE: That looks like Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss!

ANNA: Is there a shoujo series featuring yokai? SIGN ME UP!

MJ: Okay, yes.

SEAN: And Kiss of the Rose Princess is exactly like Kiss of the Rose Princess, unsurprisingly. Here’s the 5th volume.

ANNA: I like it. I will not claim it is profound, but it is a good manga to read when I do not feel like thinking very hard.

SEAN: My Love Story!! has shot up in popularity thanks to its anime, and the 5th volume hopefully translates into even more manga sales.

ASH: It wasn’t popular before?! It should be. Still loving this series.

MICHELLE: Yay, again! I had no idea there was an anime.

ANNA: Such a great series! I hope the anime inspires more people to check out the manga.

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: Naruto also has a giant box out next week, with Vol. 28-48.

Nisekoi, one of my favorite modern harem comedies, hits double digits.

And with the 11th 3-in-1 of Skip Beat!, I think we’ve caught up with the single volumes.

MICHELLE: Just about. Volume 34 came out in April.

SEAN: We’ve just heard that Sunny will be ending in Japan soon, but in the meantime, enjoy its 5th volume. (Lotta 5th volumes next week.)

ASH: Viz has been doing a really lovely job with this series.

MICHELLE: I need to get caught up on Sunny.

ANNA: I’m glad VIz still breaks out the impressive packaging and design for series like this that totally deserve it.

MJ: This is such a beautiful series.

SEAN: Twin Star Exorcists is the newest Jump Square series, from the author of popular yet unlicensed Binbougami-ga!. I’ll let you guess what it’s about.

World Trigger is up to Volume 6, meaning it’s passed the 2-3 volume ‘culling’ stage of many Jump series.

Lastly, get in touch with your past life with the 3rd Yukarism.

MICHELLE: Yay, yet again. I wasn’t sold on this series after the first volume, but enjoyed the second a great deal.

ANNA: I like anything by Chika Shiomi and this series is no exception.

MJ: I’m with Anna here.

SEAN: Do you have manga for your summer vacation?

Tales of the Shiny, Princess Magazine

July 1, 2015 by Erica Friedman Leave a Comment

We’ve had kings galore here on Magazine no Mori, with Young King Ours and Dengeki Daioh, and we’ve met the Queen of all Shoujo, Nakayoshi, so it seems fitting that we’ll spend some time with a princess or two. In Monthly Princess (プリンセス) magazine, everyone is royalty.

Princess magazine is wall-to-wall stories about the rich, the powerful, the magical, and the beautiful orphaned daughters of dukes with whom they fall in love. The stories may take place in far-off places and times, fantasy settings, or may be set in current school or office, but the concepts are the same. The woman (who is no longer always in need of rescuing) will be the center of attention. Ironically, the series pictured on the cover of this issue never originally ran in the pages of Princess. Hosokawa Chieko’s “Hakushaku Reijou” was a series that ran in Hitomi Comics, from 1979-1987, but which has been resurrected here to celebrate the Takarazuka version of this oh-so-classically shoujo manga series about an orphan who is actually a duke’s daughter, the powerful man who saves her life, but lies to her, and her cat, Mimi. (A performance that I was honored to be able to see in person and my goodness, was it chockful of shoujo tropes!)

The Princess website instilled in me a sense of deep cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, the page lists Princess, Princess Gold, Elegance Eve, Petit Princess and other wholly girly magazines, but just above them are listings for the Champion family of magazines, including Champion Red, which is openly women-loathing and misogynistic in ways that make my jaw ache. The fact that these are all bunched together almost makes me suspect of Princess and it’s apparently-wholesome-but-actually-not-at-all obsession with love. Romance, it seems to say, is the opium of the female masses. The website itself is more informative than interactive. Akita Shoten, perhaps more used to selling to hardcore otaku, doesn’t seem to want to look you in the eye as it talks.

Princess monthly has been published since 1974 and reading it gives one a sensation of stepping into a more innocent past. And only a very few of the titles that have run in Princess have skipped to other media – they are few, far between and unknown here in the west. At 630 yen ($5.30 USD at time of writing) per issue, for about 600 pages, you’re getting a lot of fantasy bang for your buck.

Monthly Princess from Akita Shoten: http://www.akitashoten.co.jp/princess

My Week in Manga: June 22-June 28, 2015

June 29, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week, the most recent manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga was posted. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, so there are still a couple of days left to enter for a chance to win the first volume of Assassination Classroom. All you have to do is tell me about your favorite teacher from a manga. I also posted two reviews last week. The first review was of Yaya Sakuragi’s boys’ love manga Hide and Seek, Volume 2. The series continues to be one of her strongest; I’m really enjoying it. The second review was of Taiyo Fujii’s novel Gene Mapper, the most recent release from the Haikasoru. Gene Mapper is a great example of realistic near future science featuring thought-provoking information and bio-technologies.

Organization Anti-Social Geniuses has been posting some great manga-related content recently, including a conversation with manga translator Amanda Haley about Book Walker and the translation field. A new manga feature at OASG was announced for the summer as well: Shoujo You Should Know, the first column focusing on CLAMP’s short series Wish. And speaking of shoujo manga, Shojo Beat is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Among other thing, the imprint is posting brief interviews with some of its creators. First up was Maki Minami followed by Yun Kouga. Over at Things We Lost at Dusk, Alicia posted and interesting essay about gender, identity, and language, specifically in regards to Moto Hagio’s manga They Were Eleven.

Last but not least, I would like to draw everyone’s attention to Chromatic Press’ Kickstarter project to help support and fund Sparkler Monthly‘s third year. I am a huge fan of Sparkler Monthly and everything else that Chromatic Press is doing. (Experiments in Manga’s Chromatic Press tag is filled with my love, reviews, and features.) The content, creators, and everyone else involved are all fantastic. So, please check out Sparkler Monthly. Most of the comics, prose, and audio, is currently available for free online. And if you like what you see, please consider pledging to the Sparkler Monthly Kickstarter project if you can. Every little bit helps. The work being done at Chromatic Press is spectacular; I sincerely hope that Sparkler Monthly and the publisher’s other efforts are able to continue.

Quick Takes

Awkward Silence, Volume 4 by Hinako Takanaga. Some of the very first boys’ love manga that I ever read we’re by Takanaga. I soon began counting her among my favorite creators working in the genre and so was quite pleased when Sublime licensed Awkward Silence. The fourth volume in the series was actually released in English quite a while ago, but I only recently realized that I hadn’t actually read it yet, probably because Awkward Silence isn’t particularly memorable. It’s not a bad manga, and there are plenty of things that I like about it—Takanaga’s artwork is great, for one, as are some of the characters—but overall, Awkward Silence somehow manages to come across as generic. For the most part it’s enjoyable and sometimes even sweet, but the series just doesn’t stand out. Initially, I was under the impression that the fourth volume was the end, but apparently it’s an ongoing series. Being something of a Takanaga completist I’ll likely read any subsequent volumes, but otherwise I don’t know that I would feel compelled to seek the series out.

Just So Happens by Fumio Obata. Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2014, Just So Happens was recently released in North America. Yumiko is a designer who left Japan to study and work in London. From time to time she returns to Japan to visit her family, but she is largely satisfied with her life in England. But Yumiko’s most recent trip to Japan is different. Her father unexpectedly died in a mountain climbing accident and she wants and needs to be there for his funeral. In part drawing inspiration from the imagery and symbolism of Noh theater, Just So Happens is a beautiful and subtle work about family, grief, identity, and coming to terms with past decisions. Obata’s watercolor illustrations are absolutely lovely and very effective in conveying the work’s quiet, introspective atmosphere. The story itself is fairly simple and is emotionally resonant without being overly dramatic. Much like Yumiko, Obata is himself a Japanese artist who has made England his home, so while the graphic novel isn’t necessarily autobiographical, Just So Happens still feels very personal.

Servamp, Volumes 1-2 by Strike Tanaka. From my admittedly limited exposure, my impression of manga originating from Comic Gene is that they tend to have a lot of style without necessarily making a lot of sense. So far, that seems to be the case with Servamp as well. The first two volumes are entertaining, even enjoyable, but I’d be hard pressed to actually explain everything that is going on in the manga. Granted, Mahiru, the series protagonist, doesn’t really know what’s going on either, and the characters who do aren’t being particularly forthcoming. Mahiru likes to keep things simple, which basically means that he ends up doing up anything and everything himself rather than involving other people. And so he’s more or less taken on the responsibility of saving the world, or at least saving humans from the vampires who would kill them all. Mahiru does have some help though, namely an exceptionally lazy but supposedly extremely powerful vampire known as Sleepy Ash, as well as a few other allies. Though it has yet to be seen just how far those allies can really be trusted.

Übel Blatt, Omnibus 1 (equivalent to Volumes 2-3) by Etorouji Shiono. Although there was a fair amount that bothered me about the initial omnibus of Übel Blatt, the series still showed some potential and I was curious to see where it might go. I am happy to be able to say that the most recent omnibus is an improvement. There’s still gratuitous nudity and sexual content, but it doesn’t seem nearly as out-of-place as it was at the beginning of the series. The fact that many of women are dressed in ridiculously revealing and impractical clothing is even lampshaded at one point when Peepi celebrates the fact that she gets to wear “normal clothes.” In general, the female characters actually are treated a little better and are slightly more developed as individuals in Übel Blatt, Omnibus 1, but sadly not to the extent that I really want to see. To be fair, though, most of the characters seem to lack depth. The action sequences and artwork remain fairly strong, and I do largely like the lead, but for the most part Übel Blatt just isn’t connecting with me. This does surprise me somewhat as I usually really enjoy dark fantasy and tales of revenge.

Manga the Week of 7/1

June 26, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, Anna N and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: Since next week is a light week (despite being July 1st, it doesn’t count as a first week of July), I thought I’d do the manga in reverse order. And hey, coincidentally, that makes the image line up properly, too! Funny, that.

So we start with Vertical, who have the 5th volume of fanservice and ladies being awesome fantasy Witchcraft Works.

ASH: I’m a bit behind in this series, but I did enjoy the first few volumes.

SEAN: Seven Seas finally have a 7th volume of Toradora! for us (blame Japan, the series comes out very slowly over there), which resolves the horrible cliffhanger from… February 2014. Ah, the joys of monthly series that are caught up. I’ve reviewed it here.

The Seven Seas debut this week is Non Non Biyori, a sweet city-girl meets countryside story that I’ve heard described as Higurashi without all the murder and conspiracy, and seemingly light on fanservice. I’m looking forward to this a great deal.

MICHELLE: Hmm.

ASH: I know quite a few people looking forward to this manga.

ANNA: I don’t know. I will wait and see what the early reviewers say about this one.

MJ: Also “Hmm.”

SEAN: And there can’t be a month going by without an Alice in the Country of Hearts, this one a short story collection called Junk Box.

ANNA: I really liked the first Alice series and have just resigned myself to the fact that the spin-offs are not going to be as good as the main series.

SEAN: Attack on Titan is such a big seller for Kodansha that even the non-fiction books are getting licensed (almost unheard of after a few character guides bombed over here). This one is The Science of Attack on Titan. The author apparently specializes in looking at fantasy worlds and figuring out how they would work. Also, vampi—I mean, Titans!

ASH: Attack on Titan is the only series that has been able to convince Kodansha to break its “manga only” rule.

SEAN: And we have the third and final volume of Maria the Virgin Witch. There’s a one-shot collection of side stories in Japan, but I’m not sure Kodansha has picked that up.

ASH: Kodansha has! Exhibition is currently scheduled to be released in August.

SEAN: Finally, there’s the 9th Lone Wolf & Cub omnibus from Dark Horse, who curse the fact that I’m not starting with them as always.

Did reversing this make something stand out more for you?

MICHELLE: Alas, no. Just one thing to anticipate your review of!

ASH: Reversing the order made me realize that there was an actual order…

ANNA: I’m happy that this week is so light, because maybe I can catch up on my stacks and stacks of unread manga.

MJ: I can do nothing but be miffed on Lone Wolf and Cub’s behalf.

Manga Giveaway: Assassination Classroom Giveaway

June 24, 2015 by Ash Brown

The end of June draws near, which means the end of the first half of the year is quickly approaching, too. It also means that it’s time for another giveaway at Experiments in Manga! Most schools are now out for the summer (at least in the United States), but we mustn’t forget all of those hardworking teachers. And so, this month’s giveaway is for Yusei Matsui’s Assassination Classroom, Volume 1 as published in English by Viz Media. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!

Considering the sheer number of manga translated into English that are based in a school setting, relatively few seem to grant more than a passing acknowledgement of the teachers. Sometimes they aren’t even included in the story at all or barely make an appearance beyond the background. But occasionally teachers are actually given a prominent role. Assassination Classroom is a series that stands out for that very reason (among many other reasons). Great Teacher Onizuka, the first series that I read in which a teacher was a lead character, is another manga that immediately leaps to mind. There’s S.S. Astro: Asashio Sogo Teachers’ Room, too, but I can’t think of very many other examples off the top of my head that are available in English.

(Okay, I will admit right now that there are plenty of hentai and boys’ love manga that feature teachers, but those particular stories really weren’t the ones that I had in mind…)

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Assassination Classroom, Volume 1

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite teacher from a manga. (Never noticed a teacher in your reading? Simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

There you have it! Each person can earn up to two entries for this giveaway. You have one week to submit comments. If you have trouble with the comment form, or if you prefer, entries can also be sent to me via email at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. The comments will then be posted here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on July 1, 2015. Best of luck to you all!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address in the comment form, a link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: Assassination Classroom Giveaway Winner

My Week in Manga: June 15-June 21, 2015

June 22, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

I was on vacation last week, much of which was spent in the middle of the woods in the middle of Ohio camping with my family. This meant I had very little Internet access. But even so, I did manage to post two reviews last week. My monthly horror manga review project continued with a review of After School Nightmare, Volume 4 by Setona Mizushiro. This was the first volume in the series that I hadn’t previously read before embarking on the review project. The second review was of Satoshi Wagahara’s prize-winning light novel The Devil Is a Part-Timer!, Volume 1 which is very amusing and silly. But, having watched the anime series last year, I already knew that.

As previously mentioned, I was occupied with other things last week, so I probably missed out on all sorts of interesting reading, news, and announcements. However, there were a few things that came across my radar before I left for Ohio. Kathryn Hemmann at Contemporary Japanese Literature wrote about The Cultural Cross Pollination of Shōjo Manga. And speaking of shōjo manga, Digital Manga’s most recent Tezuka Kickstarter is aiming to publish Storm Fairy. (The project also aims to reprint Unico with better image and color quality, which makes me wonder why Digital Manga didn’t do that for the first printing, but I’ve given up trying to understand Digital Manga’s decision making.) Finally, Udon Entertainment announced a new manga license: Shuji Sogabe’s adaptation of Persona 4.

Quick Takes

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Omnibus 3 (equivalent to Volumes 5-6) by Saki Nakagawa. Out of all the various Attack on Titan spinoffs, Junior High is the one that probably has the smallest audience overall and is the one that is the most uneven for me specifically. Sometimes the manga can be a slog to get through, but sometimes it’s absolutely hilarious. At its best, Junior High can actually make me laugh out loud; I keep reading the series for those moments because when Junior High is funny, it is very funny. The manga continues to be a very weird mix of Attack on Titan and a generic school setting with all of the standard tropes that that entails. Sometimes the combination works better than others. This particular omnibus features the school culture festival, a battle of the bands, eating contests and cooking competitions, club activities, lots of cleaning, and school rivalries among other things. I was very pleased to see that characters and storylines from other Attack on Titan spinoffs like No Regrets are now being incorporated into Junior High as well.

Lies Are a Gentleman’s Manners by Marta Matsuo. Since for whatever reason Digital Manga often seems to be hesitant to include “Volume 1” in the title of a new manga, I didn’t initially realize that Lies Are a Gentleman’s Manners is actually an ongoing series in Japan. The first volume stands well enough on its own, but I do hope that any subsequent volumes will be licensed as well. Despite the fact that neither of the leads in this boys’ love manga are particularly likeable—Jonathan, an unscrupulous medical student selling drugs to his fellow classmates, and Paul, his equally unscrupulous (and married) college professor who uses that fact to blackmail him into a relationship—I actually do want to read more. Though some of the situations are unquestionably unsavory, the manga can also be very funny and even sexy on occasion. One of the most interesting things about Lies Are a Gentleman’s Manners is its setting. The manga takes place on America’s modern East Coast among the country’s wealthy, aristocratic upper class. While certainly a fictional representation, some of the social dynamics ring true.

Towerkind by Kat Verhoeven. Originally self-published as a series of mini-comics, Towerkind was recently collected and released by Conundrum Press in a single volume. I was not previously familiar with Verhoeven’s work; Towerkind was a TCAF-inspired impulse buy. I’m very glad that I picked it up though because I’m loving this comic to pieces. Towerkind certainly won’t be to everyone’s liking, but there’s just something about the comic that I find oddly compelling. It’s surreal, strange, chilling, and ominous. Verhoeven effectively uses a small format to create a claustrophobic atmosphere that emphasizes the feeling of impending doom experienced by the characters. The volume opens with a foreword by Georgia Webber explaining the importance of the backdrop of Towerkind—Toronto’s first vertical neighborhood of high-rise apartments St. James Town—which helps to set the stage and tone for the comic itself. Towerkind follows a group of children gifted with unexplainable supernatural abilities who live in the towers of St. James Town while what may be the end of the world approaches.

Welcome to the N.H.K., Volumes 5-8 by Kendi Oiwa. Having already read the original Welcome to the N.H.K. novel by Tatsuhiko Takimoto and having already seen the Welcome to the N.H.K. anime series (which, it turns out, was based on both the novel and Oiwa’s manga adaptation), I am already quite familiar with the story and characters Welcome to the N.H.K., but I somehow managed to forget just how dark and hard-hitting it can be. Ostensibly Welcome to the N.H.K. is a comedy, and it can be quite funny in a painful sort of way, but it deals with some pretty heavy subject matter including (but not limited to) drug use, self-harm, suicide, and mental illness. The second half of the series, while at times outrageous, tends to fall on the more serious side of things. Although I’ve always considered Welcome to the N.H.K. to be Satou’s story, the manga also places particular emphasis on Misaki’s story. It’s been a while since I’ve read or watched them, but I believe the manga actually has a unique ending that’s different from both the novel and the anime. All three version of Welcome to the N.H.K. are very good.

Manga the Week of 6/24

June 18, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Ash Brown, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 2 Comments

SEAN: The end of the month always brings a deluge from Yen, and if you add on the other publishers doing stuff it can get rather expensive. Let’s see what might be worth your hard-earned cash.

Ze, from 801 Media, has finally hit Volume 10, despite a particularly irregular release schedule.

ASH: I just recently caught up with Ze and am ready for more, even if some of the characters are jerks.

MICHELLE: I read the first few volumes of Ze and then drifted away when there was a lull between volumes. I seem to recall some plot I wasn’t wild about, also, but the details escape me now.

MJ: I *do* remember pretty clearly why I drifted away from Ze, but I’m fairly impressed that it has gone on this long. Long BL series seem so rare.

SEAN: If it seems like it’s been forever since the last Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, that’s because it has been – Vol. 13 was out in December 2012. But things are looking up, as not only do we get Vol. 14 next week, but there’s an omnibus re-release in the fall.

ASH: They may not come out very frequently, but I’m always glad to see another volume of this series.

MICHELLE: Oh, that’s a pleasant surprise!

SEAN: Let’s Dance a Waltz hit all the right buttons except one – but it was a big wrong button. Now that our heroine has magically lost weight and become cute through the power of dance, can Vol. 2 hold on to an audience that all groaned when that happened?

MICHELLE: I am avoiding this one just on general principle. It makes me really wish The Stellar Six of Gingacho could’ve continued, because I ended up buying the final volume in Japanese and let’s just say this particular trope is avoided quite satisfactorily.

MJ: Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh. Ugh. Also, ugh.

ANNA: The Stellar Six of Gingacho was really good!

SEAN: Noragami is a series that just didn’t catch on with me, but others from the Manga Bookshelf team can tell you about its 5th volume.

Your Lie in April’s first volume didn’t completely wow me, but had a lot of promise. Vol. 2 should build on that.

ASH: Music manga! I’m looking forward to reading more.

MICHELLE: As a pianist, I should want to read this but somehow I feel kind of “meh” about it.

MJ: I’m behind, here, but still interested!

SEAN: Seven Seas debuts a new manwha with an omnibus of Freezing 1 and 2. This has been highly anticipated by many readers, despite not having any monster girls that I know of. The blurb calls it “Ultra violent and sexy”, so the usual Seven Seas warnings apply.

No monster girls is not a problem with the 2nd volume of goofy comedy Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary.

Vertical has the 10th volume of mechstravaganza Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin. (I give permission for Vertical to use ‘mechstravaganza’ in their blurbs, if they’d like.)

ASH: Still one of the best looking manga being released in English right now.

SEAN: Given the huge popularity of Sword Art Online, and the slightly less huge but still pretty good popularity of Accel World, Yen On licensing a new Reki Kawahara novel series seems obvious. This one’s even in hardcover, so is getting the deluxe treatment. It’s called The Isolator, and seems a bit more sci-fi/aliens than his other series.

Pandora Hearts has some light novels as well, and we get the first in the Caucus Race series next week. MJ?

MJ: Honestly, I had no idea about these! Well, count me in!

SEAN: As for Sword Art Online itself, Vol. 2 of the Progressive novel series takes us into uncharted waters: this hasn’t been adapted in anime or manga form yet. It apparently has elves!

On Yen Press’s manga front, we have the first volume of Alice in Murderland. Given it’s Kaori Yuki, I’m sure the pile of corpses that will no doubt stack up as the series goes on will be exquisite.

ANNA: This title sounds amusing.

SEAN: And continuing with Alices, Are You Alice? has hit nine volumes and still doesn’t know.

Barakamon has its 5th volume of small town life and occasional calligraphy.

ASH: Barakamon has really started to grow on me.

SEAN: Bloody Cross just announced it’s ending in Japan, but I think we still have a few volumes to go here. This is the 7th.

From the author of Scrapped Princess comes another kind, Chaika the Coffin Princess, a fantasy series about a young girl who carries a coffin on her back. No relation to Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro, though one has to be side-eyeing Yen a bit here.

A double shot of Kaoru Yuki this month, with the 3rd Demon from Afar.

And a 3rd He’s My Only Vampire, a series I’ve become quite fond of.

MICHELLE: I’ll be reading this one.

MJ: Same.

SEAN: Love at Fourteen’s third volume will have adorable and heartwarming 14-year-old romance, I imagine.

ASH: I was a little surprised by how much I enjoyed the first two volumes. Definitely plan on reading more.

MICHELLE: And this one, too!

MJ: I really enjoy this series, so I’m definitely on board here!

SEAN: Secret has a 2nd volume, no doubt filled with survival games and animal masks. I wish the artist would go back to drawing Higurashi spinoffs, honestly.

Lastly, there’s a long-awaited 2nd volume of Void’s Enigmatic Mansion, which will hopefully become a bit more opaque this time around.

Are you feeling excited? Or merely buried in stuff?

My Week in Manga: June 8-June 14, 2015

June 15, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Two reviews were posted last week at Experiments in Manga. First up was my review of the short comic The Ring of Saturn by Kaiju, a creative team made up of Kate Rhodes and Jennifer Xu. I had previously read the comic online at Sparkler Monthly and loved it, but now it’s available in print! The second review was of Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son, Volume 8. The series is an incredibly important one to me, and I’m very glad that it’s being released in English. The eighth volume ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I have no idea when the ninth volume will be released, so now I’m doubly anxious.

Elsewhere online, the MASSIVE/Gay Manga tumblr talks a bit about the success of Gengoroh Tagame’s first manga for a general audience, My Brother’s Husband. It sounds like there’s an ongoing effort to license the series for an English-language release, which I really hope happens! Drawn & Quarterly made an interesting licensing announcement of its own, Yeon-sik Hong’s Uncomfortably, Happily. You don’t hear about many new manhwa being released in English these days. (Although Netcomics does seem to be making a quiet comeback.) Frederik L. Schodt spoke briefly on To the Best of Our Knowledge about Osamu Tezuka and his works. Finally, Organization Anti-Social Geniuses continues its Manga Advice series, this time interviewing four manga designers.

Quick Takes

My Little Monster, Volume 8 by Robico. The last volume of My Little Monster got my hopes up as the series seemed to be regaining its momentum. I wouldn’t say my hopes were dashed reading the eight volume since there were plenty of funny and dramatic moments, not to mention the introduction of a new character as well as several confessions of love, but the series still isn’t going anywhere fast. Both Robico and the characters know this, too, and even comment on the fact that nothing has really changed all that much from the beginning of the story. Although, I do suppose that it’s an important development that Shizuku and Haru are now officially a couple. (Except that I thought they already were? Guess I was wrong.) My Little Monster does frustrate me a little with all of its one step forward, one step back approach to storytelling and relationships, and it seems to have forgotten some of the major plot threads that were started earlier, but I do still like the series as a whole. My Little Monster can be very funny at times and the quirky characters continue to amuse me. So, I’ll likely keep reading.

Say I Love You, Volume 7 by Kanae Hazuki. Although Mei and Yamato are clearly the main characters of Say I Love You, large portions of the series are actually devoted to their friends, classmates, and families. After showing the outcome of Mei and Yamato’s date (which his sister crashed before his older brother was able to drag her away) and the result of their first night spent completely alone together, the seventh volume largely focuses on Megumi’s story. After Megumi was rejected by Yamato, who remains devoted to Mei, she has been trying to ruin all of Mei’s new-found friendships. She actually ends up making herself miserable in the process and ends up withdrawing more and more from the people who legitimately care about her. Like many of the characters in Say I Love You, Megumi is dealing with some pretty serious personal issues. Her self-confidence has been destroyed, she doesn’t trust other people, and her relationships are falling apart. As unlikeable as she can be at times, it’s still heartbreaking to see her intense unhappiness. But the growth and development of the characters in Say I Love You is excellent.

Wuvable Oaf by Ed Luce. I was introduced to Ed Luce and his work thanks to TCAF 2014’s Queer Mixer where I learned that Fantagraphics would be releasing a collection of his most well-known creation, Wuvable Oaf. The volume opens with “Music Is My Boyfriend,” the first major Wuvable Oaf story arc which follows the titular Oaf, an ex-pro wrestler who now spends his time crafting handmade dolls (stuffed with his own body hair) and working at Oaf’s Home for Wayward Kitties Who Are Really Cute & Need Lotsa Love, and his relationship with Eiffel, a much smaller and extremely surly fellow who is the lead singer of Ejaculoid, a disco grindcore band. The volume also includes a collection of Wuvable Oaf short stories and “The Official Handbook to the Oafiverse,” which contains detailed (and humorous) character profiles among other things. Oaf himself is adorable and an absolute sweetheart. Although occasionally kind of gross, Wuvable Oaf can be surprisingly sweet and charming, filled with all sorts of marvelous queerness. Wuvable Oaf is also very, very funny. And it just so happens to be a cat comic, too!

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, Volume 2 by Miki Yoshikawa. Despite the manga’s title, the witches of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches have yet to make their presence known, though I’m assuming it’s only a matter of time. I enjoyed the first volume Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches a great deal. I enjoyed the second as well, but it didn’t manage to leave as big of an impression on me. The fanservice seemed a little more forced in the second volume, too. Still, the series is a comedy more than anything else and I continue to find it to be highly entertaining. (But then again, I do have a proclivity towards stories that include body-swapping and gender play.) Yamada has discovered that he has a strange ability that allows him to switch bodies with another person if they kiss. He doesn’t know why he has this power, nor does he completely understand how it works. But even so, he and the few people who know about it are more than willing to use Yamada’s peculiar skill to their advantage, whether it’s appropriate or not. (Often it’s not.) This of course means there’s all sorts of kissing and other antics going on.

Manga the Week of 6/17

June 12, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown, Anna N and MJ 1 Comment

SEAN: A second small week in a row! This is getting creepy. Where’s that manga boom?

Fans of Eden: It’s an Endless World will be more disappointed than ever see see that a new manga called Eden is not what they think. Fans of Gen Manga’s alternative stuff, though, will be delighted with Eden Vol. 1.

xxxHOLIC Omnibus 6 is a bit smaller than previous ones, as they had 4 volumes to go so had to divide it 2 and 2. Also, we’re at peak Syaoran levels. This is not a drill. Please protect yourself from further Syoaoran outbreaks.

MICHELLE: *snerk* Someday I really will finish this series and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

ASH: And thanks to the omnibuses, you can! (I’m on the same reading program)

ANNA: I enjoy Clamp, but I gave up on xxxHOLIC and Tsubasa. Also I am still bitter that X/1999 is unfinished.

MJ: Sean, you hurt me. Also. You people. What.

SEAN: Not only does the cast of Haganai still not have many friends as of Vol. 11, but the cover shows that Yozora is looking more sullen than ever.

And Servamp’s protagonist is probably looking sleepy in this 2nd volume, if Vol. 1 was any indication.

Viz has Dogs reaching double-digits with Vol. 10. Man, remember when this was the new Black Lagoon, as opposed to Gangsta? Also, is it me or is this out before its traditional one-per-year release?

MICHELLE: I think it is.

ANNA: Just wanted to mention how much I like Gangsta!

SEAN: Junji Ito time, with Fragments of Horror, a short story collection that will no doubt scare the bejabbers out of everyone. It’s in hardcover, too.

ASH: Very much looking forward to seeing more of Junji Ito’s work in English!

SEAN: Master Keaton’s 3rd volume will continue to show why Keaton is a brilliant investigator and a less-than-brilliant husband and father.

MICHELLE: I am terrible because I haven’t managed to find time to read 1-2 yet!

ANNA: I agree that you are being terrible to yourself for not reading these books already!

SEAN: Lastly, there is the much anticipated Tokyo Ghoul, which seems to be making fans of the anime very happy, but is not as pleasing to the manga blogger crowd. We shall see.

ANNA: I am going to check this out.

MJ: What she said.

SEAN: Are you getting something, or saving your money for the following week’s deluge of Yen?

My Week in Manga: June 1-June 7, 2015

June 8, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Happy June, everyone! I’ve been super busy (I seem to say that a lot, don’t I?) but was still able to post a few things here at Experiments in Manga last week. The winner of the Ema Toyama Twosome manga giveaway was announced. That post also includes a list of manga available in English that feature novelists and other writers. The honor of the first in-depth manga review for the month of June goes to Masayuki Ishikawa’s Maria the Virgin Witch, Volume 2. Ishikawa seems to be trying to do a lot with such a short series (it’s only three volumes), maybe a bit too much. Even if he’s not able to successfully pull everything off, I still find Maria the Virgin Witch to be an intriguing series and want to read the rest of it. Finally, over the weekend I posted the Bookshelf Overload for May. I had a pretty big haul of manga and comics last month; I largely blame TCAF.

Elsewhere online there’s been some interesting reading to be found. Justin interviewed Kate Dacey (aka The Manga Critic) over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Kate was one of my biggest manga blogging inspirations, so I’ve been very happy to see her recent return. Sean Kleefeld brought my attention to a panel on the history of manhwa. Drawn & Quarterly recently released the massive anthology Drawn and Quarterly: Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels. Joe McCulloch specifically looks at the volume’s manga content. Mangabrog has a translation of a conversation between Naoki Urasawa and Hisashi Eguchi. Last but not least, two licensing announcements were made last week that I’m very excited about: Viz Media is finally releasing a print edition of One-Punch Man by ONE and Yusuke Murata and Drawn & Quarterly is releasing more of Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro! (I loved the publisher’s first Kitaro collection.)

Quick Takes

Welcome to the N.H.K., Volumes 1-4 by Kendi Oiwa. Originally published in print by Tokyopop, Viz Media recently announced that it would be releasing Welcome to the N.H.K. digitally in the very near future. Tatsuhiko Takimoto’s original Welcome to the N.H.K. light novel was fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed the anime adaptation, too. It was only a matter of time before I read Kendi Oiwa’s manga adaptation, though I am a little surprised that it’s taken me this long to get around to it. It has been a while since I’ve read or watched the other versions of Welcome to the N.H.K., but so far the manga is closer to the anime than it is to the novel, except that it seems a little more streamlined and perhaps even a little raunchier. Satou is a college dropout and hikikomori who has been targeted by Misaki, a young woman who is determined to rehabilitate him despite her own oddities and personal issues. In some ways, the more recent Watamote is reminiscent of Welcome to the N.H.K. Both series feature protagonists who are extremely socially awkward and both series can be hilarious, but they can also be somewhat depressing and painful to read at times, too. But, I am enjoying the manga version of Welcome to the N.H.K. a great deal.

xxxHolic: Rei, Volume 3 by CLAMP. Initially, I felt that it wasn’t necessary to have read xxxHolic in order to enjoy xxxHolic: Rei. However after reading the third volume, I feel I need to revise that opinion. It’s still not absolutely necessary to have read xxxHolic, but Rei makes a lot more sense and is much more meaningful if a reader has that background. I’ve actually not finished reading the entirety of xxxHolic, so while I was able to get the basic gist of what was going on in Rei, I did feel I was missing out on some important context while reading the third volume. However, I really like what CLAMP is doing with the series and I’m looking forward to reading the part of xxxHolic where Rei ties in directly. Rei has developed a marvelously ominous atmosphere that has a surreal, dreamlike quality to it. CLAMP’s high-contrast artwork in the series is great, too. At first, Rei felt directionless as though CLAMP didn’t really know what to do with the series, but the third volume begins to bring everything together in a way that actually makes sense. Of course, this also means the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles connection is becoming more pronounced as well, which can sometimes feel forced.

Ze, Volumes 7-9 by Yuki Shimizu. Despite it being a series that I tend to enjoy, it’s actually been a few years since I’ve read any of Shimizu’s supernatural boys’ love manga Ze. Although there is some dubious content (which doesn’t really surprise me much at this point), these three volumes reminded me what it is about Ze that I like so much: Shimizu has a knack for creating fascinatingly intense and complex relationship and power dynamics. The seventh and eighth volumes explore the backstories of Kotoha and Konoe; I was very satisfied with the explanation of their peculiar relationship and personalities. (Granted, most of the characters and relationships in Ze are pretty strange.) Ze, Volume 8 focuses on Shoui and Asari. Most of the story arcs have been two volumes long, but perhaps because their relationship has been developing in the background over the course of the series, the eighth volume is the only one specifically devoted to the couple. These three volumes are also very important in setting up the next and what I believe is the final story arc which will reveal more of Waki’s tragic history. I had forgotten how much of an asshole he can be, so I am curious to find out what made him the person he is.

Manga the Week of 6/10

June 5, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown, Anna N and MJ Leave a Comment

SEAN: Thank you for all those who bought manga to bring rain to the Northeast. You can stop now (keep buying manga, I just mean no more flash flood warnings). Meanwhile, what have we in this small week?

Kodansha gives us an 8th volume of shosei (I just coined it, whaddya think?) romance Say “I Love You”.

MICHELLE: Yay!

ASH: Shosei. I like it.

ANNA: I’m behind on this series, but I do enjoy it!

SEAN: Something that could not remotely be mistaken for an angsty teen romance is the 5th volume of D-Frag! from Seven Seas. Betcha it’ll be funnier, though.

Barring any further spinoff licensing (unlikely, I suspect), we also get the 4th and final volume of sweeter than I expected tank manga Girls Und Panzer.

Sublime is still Starting with a Kiss, but it’s Vol. 3, so perhaps they’ve gone further.

ASH: Perhaps, perhaps…

SEAN: (Amazon lists The World’s Greatest First Love 2 as well, but I understand from a Viz press release that this has been delayed to late July.)

Viz proper, meanwhile, has the 22nd Arata the Legend volume. Man. So many more volumes than Fushigi Yuugi.

MICHELLE: Yeah, that is really hard to believe. I like Arata, but it’ll never approach Fushigi Yuugi‘s iconic status.

ANNA: I feel bad constantly comparing Arata to Fushigi Yuugi, but I can’t help it.

SEAN: And a 9th volume of slice-of-life prison comedy Deadman Wonderland. (Spoiler: it is not a slice-of-life prison comedy).

MICHELLE: Heh.

MJ: Wow, I have fallen behind!

SEAN: Lastly, Magi hits a dozen volumes. And hasn’t slowed down its release schedule, a major accomplishment for Shonen Sunday titles.

MICHELLE: Yay, Magi! This one is already in my Amazon cart!

ANNA: Nice! I enjoyed the first few volumes of this series a bunch.

SEAN: Do you have a favorite here?

My Week in Manga: May 25-May 31, 2015

June 1, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Last week was the last week of May, which means the most recent giveaway at Experiments in Manga is currently underway. There are still a couple of days left to enter for a chance to win an Ema Toyama Twosome, i.e. the first volume of both Missions of Love and Manga Dogs. I also posted a couple of in-depth reviews last week. The first review was of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Volume 8: Operation Odessa, which is the first volume to take place after the series’ extended flashback arc. It’s not my favorite volume in the series, but Kai gets his moment in the spotlight which I was happy to see. The second review was of Kazuki Sakuraba’s award-winning novel Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas, which I enjoyed immensely. Sakuraba is probably better known as the creator of Gosick, but Red Girls is a fantastic multi-generational epic.

I was actually at a conference for work most of last week, so I wasn’t able to keep up with news and announcements to quite the same extent that I’m usually able to. However, I still did come across some interesting reading. Aya Kanno, for example, has recently had some interviews posted. Over at Barnes & Noble’s Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Brigid Alverson talked with Kanno about defying expectations and Rebecca Silverman’s interview of Kanno was posted at Anime News Network. A couple of weeks ago I reviewed the first volume of Wayward which I quite enjoyed, so I found Katriel Page’s essay about how Rori embodies liminality to be particularly interesting. And over at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, Justin wants you all to Meet the Man Who’s Translated a Thousand Manga Chapters—Dan Luffey.

Quick Takes

Cipher, Volumes 7-11 by Minako Narita. Despite being twelve volumes in Japan, for some reason the English-language edition of Cipher was collected in eleven. (It is the complete series, though.) I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of the series, and the sixth volume ends with a fairly dramatic twist, so I was anxious to read the manga’s conclusion. Cipher and Siva, being nearly inseparable growing up and at one point even sharing an identity, are now living apart with the entire country between them. Wracked with guilt, Cipher has moved from New York to Los Angeles, leaving his girlfriend Anise behind along with his twin brother. In general, this second half of Cipher tends to be somewhat more believable than the first, though there are still plenty of parts that aren’t especially realistic. However, Narita does an excellent job of exploring the emotional fallout and the changes in the characters’ relationships with one another that come about as a result of both Cipher and Siva learning to live their lives as individuals and each becoming his own person. New characters are introduced who play a very important role in this evolution, including Cipher’s Los Angeles roommate Hal and Siva’s fellow model Alex. In the end, Anise’s story ends up being secondary to that of the brothers, but she shows growth and development as well.

Cry to the Moon by Various. I discovered Love Love Hill relatively recently, but the collective releases some great comics, so I’ve been making a point to pick up its anthologies. Cry to the Moon, based on the theme of delinquents and animals, is the most recent Love Love Hill comics anthology. The volume includes contributions from eight different creators. I was especially looking forward to Saicoink’s “To My Dear White Dove: A Quiet Love,” a sort of alternate universe side story to her series Open Spaces and Closed Places (which I absolutely love), but I enjoyed the other works that were collected as well. Cry to the Moon has a nice variety of comics that range from the comedic to the bittersweet to the tragic. Many of the stories are based in reality while a few of them incorporate more fantastical elements. Some are only a few pages while others are more lengthy and involved. But no matter the length or the tone of the story, each of the comics collected in Cry to the Moon exhibits heart. What I love about anthologies is the opportunity to experience the different art styles and storytelling techniques of the creators involved. I also appreciate that the individual creators are given space in Cry to the Moon to write about their influences and inspirations for their stories and how they decided to interpret the anthology’s theme.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 3 by Hiromu Arakawa. I am largely enjoying The Heroic Legend of Arslan, it’s a great fantasy story with exciting battles and interesting worldbuilding, but I do wish that the characters and plot had a little more complexity and nuance to them. By the end of the third volume, I have some hope that this will eventually happen as the series continues to develop, but right now it’s just not quite there. Characterization in the manga tends to be painted with a fairly broad stroke and heavy hand. Some of the humor, while amusing, doesn’t always mesh well with the overall tone of the series, either. However, there are other things that The Heroic Legend of Arslan is doing well. I particularly like the series’ approach to action scenes and battles. There are plenty of examples of extraordinarily strong fighters showing off their incredibly powerful skills, but strategy and tactics are also incredibly important to how a battle plays out in the end. In the third volume, Arslan and his small contingent of supporters face off against more than a thousand soldiers, but thanks to careful planning, psychological manipulation, and effective use of the geographical terrain, for the most part they are able to come through unscathed.

Showa: A History of Japan, 1944-1953 by Shigeru Mizuki. This third and penultimate volume of Showa: A History of Japan addresses the time period of that era that I already knew the most about—the end of the Pacific War and the following occupation of Japan by Western forces. Even so, there were things that I learned reading the manga that I never knew before. Showa: A History of Japan continues to be told using two closely intertwined narratives. Mizuki outlines the larger developments of the war and Japan’s reconstruction, but he also incorporates the story of his own experiences and the experiences of his family. It’s this personal touch that makes Showa: A History of Japan especially compelling and hard-hitting as it drives home the tragedy of war and the dire circumstances faced by the soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict. Part of the third volume deals with some of the same events found in Mizuki’s Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, so I was already familiar with some of the story, but that didn’t make its impact any less effective. This volume reveals how Mizuki survived during war against all odds as well as how he survived after the war (another difficult feat), including his beginnings as a kamishibai and manga artist.

A Silent Voice, Volume 1 by Yoshitoki Oima. If the volumes that follow the first are anywhere near as strong, A Silent Voice is likely one of the best series to be released this year. (At least in print; technically, the manga started being officially released digitally on Crunchyroll last year.) The first volume of A Silent Voice is both powerful and heartbreaking. The story follows Shoya, a somewhat unlikeable young man and a terrible bully. He learns that his actions have consequences not only for others but for himself as well when he decides to make Shoko, a deaf transfer student, his next target. A Silent Voice doesn’t sugarcoat school bullying, showing just how vicious and cruel kids can be and how quickly they can turn on one another. Perhaps even more tragic is that some of the teachers do very little to put an end to it or to discourage the behavior. In some cases, they seem to even encourage it, or at least allow the bullying to flourish. There is a stunning lack of empathy from almost every character in the series. The majority of A Silent Voice, Volume 1 takes place during Shoya and Shoko’s middle school years. This actually occurs six years before the start of the manga, establishing the complicated nature of Shoya’s feelings toward Shoko and the exploring developments that led him to become the person he now is.

Manga the Week of 6/3

May 28, 2015 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Ash Brown, Anna N and MJ 1 Comment

SEAN: It has been hot here recently, so I am hoping that this Manga the Week of can serve as a rain dance. Doesn’t make much sense, but the heat has addled my brain.

Fairy Tail 48 seems like a lot, till you remember it’s nowhere near One Piece. Which honestly applies to Fairy Tail in general.

MICHELLE: *ba-dum ching*

SEAN: Also from Kodansha, My Little Monster 8 features actual plot progression, slow and incremental though it may be. Progress!

MICHELLE: I recently procured volumes 5-7, so I am ready to get current with this series again!

ASH: Enjoy! I think it’ll probably read better in a larger chunk.

SEAN: The rest is our standard Giant Pile O’ Viz (TM). Assassination Classroom gives us a 4th volume of heartwarming comedic antics about training young children to be trained killers.

ANNA: I still need to read volume 2! I do like heartwarming assassination.

MJ: Agreed.

SEAN: Now that we’re caught up with Blue Exorcist, waiting for the next volume can be frustrating, especially when there’s as much going on as there in in this series. However, here is Vol. 13, hooray!

If you aren’t caught up with Dragon Ball via its original releases or the three or four re-releases we’ve seen, here’s another one, with the 9th 3-in-1.

ASH: (I still haven’t actually read most of Dragon Ball.)

SEAN: I now feel kind of bad for my initial review of Food Wars!, given I’ve been enjoying it so much. Here’s a 6th volume, and I will try to ignore the orgasm faces.

MICHELLE: I unabashedly love this series now.

ASH: I’ve… actually always kind of liked it…

ANNA: I like it, although it took some time to win me over due to the orgasm faces.

MJ: I have avoided it, and now I feel like I’m missing out.

SEAN: Kamisama Kiss has finally come back to the present, but I suspect that new problems will arise in this 18th volume, as, well, otherwise the series would be over, and it isn’t.

ANNA: This series can go on as long as possible, as every volume is mega-charming.

SEAN: Kimi ni Todoke 21 will have, I suspect, four more chapters filled with adorable, though I do wonder if the drama quotient might be upped on the Ayano front.

MICHELLE: I’ll be reading both of these as well.

ANNA: I need to get caught up on this. It is such a well-executed shoujo series.

SEAN: Is Naruto done yet? (checks) No, not quite yet. But here’s Vol. 70.

I have resigned myself to very few Natsume’s Book of Friends volumes having my OT3 involved in the plot, but this does not reduce my love of this series at all.

MICHELLE: Somehow, I had not realized there was a new Natsume coming and I had just been wishing for one!

SEAN: One Piece’s 12th 3-in-1 is the Water Seven arc, I think. I love that arc.

As for Seraph of the End 5… um… vampires? (shrugs)

It’s very rare to see a long-running Sho-Comi series over here that isn’t drama and questionable consent. But I have high hopes for So Cute It Hurts!! (Kobayashi ga Kawaisugite Tsurai!!), which debuts next week. The author’s been on my ‘keep an eye on them’ list for a while now.

MICHELLE: Yeah, this is intriguing! Seems like a while since we’ve had a new Shojo Beat series, but that’s probably not true.

ANNA: Looking forward to reading this.

MJ: Same!

SEAN: Toriko continues to feature more fighting and less weird food. I hope that changes, but I suspect it won’t be changing for Vol. 28.

Lastly, I was wrong about it being last. Voice Over! Seiyu Academy apparently has one more to go after this 11th volume. I should be used to this with Hakusensha series, to be honest, which tend to have 80 epilogues.

MICHELLE: I think I am going to hoard volume eleven ’til twelve comes out so I can read them back-to-back.

SEAN: Did it work? Is it raining yet? (checks) No! You must BUY MORE MANGA!

Manga Giveaway: Ema Toyama Twosome

May 26, 2015 by Ash Brown

June is almost here, and May is almost through, so it’s once again time to hold a manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga! This month you will all have the opportunity to win not one, but two manga created by Ema Toyama and released in English by Kodansha Comics: Manga Dogs, Volume 1 and Missions of Love, Volume 1. As always, the giveaway is open worldwide!

So far, mangaka Ema Toyama has had three of her original series released in English: I Am Here!, Manga Dogs, and Missions of Love. She was also one of several contributors involved with Shugo Chara Chan!. My introduction to Toyama’s work was through Missions of Love (which I find to be incredibly addictive with all of its over-the-top melodrama and twisted relationships). The only other manga of hers that I’ve read is the three-volume series Manga Dogs. The two series are very different from each other, but I find it interesting that they both feature young women as protagonists who are creative types. In the case of Missions of Love, Yukina Himuro is a cell phone novelist while in Manga Dogs, Kanna Tezuka is a shoujo mangaka. Though both Yukina and Kanna have other things to deal with in their lives, at least part of each manga series deals with their careers as professional storytellers.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win two volumes of Ema Toyama’s manga?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about your favorite character in a manga who is an author, novelist, or some other type of writer. (If you’ve never come across one in your reading, simply mention that.)
2) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting, or retweeting, about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

It’s as easy as that! Each person participating in the giveaway can earn up to two entries and has one week to submit comments. If you prefer, or have trouble leaving comments, entries can also be sent via email to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. I will then post the entry here in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on June 3, 2015.

Contest winner announced–Manga Giveaway: Ema Toyama Twosome Winner

My Week in Manga: May 18-May 24, 2015

May 25, 2015 by Ash Brown

My News and Reviews

Well, it was a little later than I initially intended, but I finally finished writing and posted my random musings on TCAF 2015 last week! It’s a long post which includes some of my general thoughts as well as write-ups of the panels that attended while at the festival. Even considering its length, people still seem to like it or at least find parts of it interesting, which makes me happy. Tangentially related to TCAF, I also posted and in-depth review of Wayward, Volume 1: String Theory, the first collection in an ongoing comic series created by Jim Zub and Steve Cummings. (Zub was one of the exhibitors at TCAF, though I picked up Wayward long before that.) The comic is heavily influenced by stories about yokai, but it definitely has its own modern twist on Japan’s myths and legends. String Theory is a great start to the series and I’m looking forward to reading the next volume.

Last week seemed to be oddly quiet on the news and licensing front. I’m sure there must have been some interesting things posted, but at least I didn’t come across very many. However, speaking of yokai, The New York Times recently published the article “Reviving Japan’s Dreaded and Beloved Ghosts” (or, “Pokémon’s Spooky Ancestors” if you try to look it up in the print edition) about some of the recent and forthcoming books being released in North America about the creatures. Vaguely related, Seven Seas announced that it has licensed Yoshihiko Inui’s Tomodachi x Monster, a dark parody manga series about kids and their pet monsters. Otherwise, if I’ve missed some particularly good reading, please do let me know!

Quick Takes

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. Originally an award-winning webcomic, Nimona was recently released as Stevenson’s debut graphic novel. The comic has been slightly revised for the print edition and additional content, including a new epilogue, has been collected in the volume as well. Nimona is one of my favorite comic releases so far this year. In the beginning it’s silly and very funny. But, while it never loses its humor, the comic does become more serious and even heart-wrenching as it progresses after some of the characters’ personal struggles and backgrounds are fully revealed. Nimona is a young shapeshifter who has decided that she will become the sidekick of Lord Ballister Blackheart, a supervillain whose plans are always being foiled by his arch-nemesis Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin. (The two men share a history together and deeply care about each other.) Nimona does manage to convince Blackheart to allow her to join his team, but finds his strict code of ethics frustrating to deal with. Likewise, he often frowns upon her excessively wild nature and propensity towards violence. Despite their differences, over time the two of them grow very close to each other. Nimona is an incredibly delightful and charming comic. I look forward to reading more of Stevenson’s work in the future.

Noragami: Stray God, Volume 4 by Adachitoka. Even though Noragami seems to have been doing fairly well for Kodansha Comics, I haven’t really heard many people talking about the series. Initially I thought that Noragami was primarily going to be a comedy but the last few volumes, though they have their moments of levity, have actually been pretty serious. The fourth volume largely focuses on the plight of Bishamonten, a warrior god (technically goddess in Noragami). Though outwardly very strong and aggressive, she is having difficulty controlling and supporting the numerous shinki under her care. This does strike me as a little strange since Tenjin also has a large number of shinki without there seeming to be any negative consequences, but perhaps Bishamonten’s group is significantly bigger. It is interesting to see the differences in the relationships between the shinki and their respective gods in Noragami. After some strife in the last couple of volumes, Yato and Yuki have managed to forge an impressive partnership. Probably most importantly, they are at a point in their relationship where they can be honest with each other, airing their grievances and sharing their pain. The same cannot be said of Bishamonten and her shinki, which may be the source of their problems. Even though it is out of concern, hiding their true feelings is actually more damaging in the long run.

xxxHolic, Omnibus 5 (equivalent to Volumes 13-15) by CLAMP. I’ve come to the realization that I much prefer xxxHolic when it isn’t being tied down with its association toTsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles. Fortunately, even though its connection to the other series continues to solidify in this omnibus, for the most part this portion of xxxHolic remains its own story without too much interference. Oddly enough, it even becomes a food manga of sorts, which I really wasn’t anticipating. Perhaps it’s not so surprising, though. Throughout xxHOlic Watanuki has always been shown to be cooking, making bento and snacks for the people who are important to him. But in the fifth omnibus of xxxHolic the cooking becomes critical to the story itself rather than just being a part of his character. (CLAMP also has a way of making the most mundane thing extraordinarily melodramatic to such an extent that a character’s very life seems to hang by a thread from it.) Watanuki teaches Kohane to cook because he wants to, but then he is hired out to fulfill the wish of one of the shop’s clients by providing instruction to her, too. Though at first he halfheartedly puts up a fight, he takes this task very seriously, eventually uncovering the woman’s true fears and desires. (All through the power of food!) There is also a sense of ominous foreboding in this volume as the series prepares for its finale.

You & Me, Etc. by Kyugo. After I finished reading You & Me, Etc., I was extremely surprised to note that the boys’ love manga had been rated mature by the publisher. Honestly, nothing more than a few kisses and perhaps a little bit of cuddling happen in the manga. (The fact that it’s between men shouldn’t make a difference.) I believe You & Me, Etc. is the only manga by Kyugo to have been released in English. You & Me, Etc. is not an especially memorable collection of short boys’ love manga—none of the selections really have any sort of “hook” per se—but the stories are executed very well and it’s a very enjoyable volume. The stories included are quieter with a strong focus on the characters’ relationships and interactions. Some of those relationships aren’t even particularly romantic in nature (which will likely disappoint readers expecting or hoping for something a little steamier from a manga with an “M” rating), but nonetheless they are still very important and most often deal with some sort of love or affection. The volume features three couples (broadly defined) who must navigate and develop their relationships in the face of difficult circumstances, whether it be a life-changing accident, a shared secret, or a death in the family. Based on the volume’s strengths, I would certainly be interested in reading more of Kyugo’s work.