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Manga Giveaway: Triton of the Sea Giveaway

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The end of the month is almost here which means it’s time for another manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga! For this giveaway, participants will have the chance to win a copy of the first omnibus in Osamu Tezuka’s Triton of the Sea as published by Digital Manga. (The omnibus contains the first half of the series!) And, as always, the giveaway is open worldwide.

Triton of the Sea, Volume 1

I think it was when I finished Satoshi Kon’s Tropic of the Sea that I realized just how many manga I had read that included merfolk of one sort or another. Triton of the Sea is just one of many. Every creator seems to have a slightly different take on mermaids and mermen, which I find to be particularly fascinating. Some draw upon Eastern traditions, some are influenced by Western legends, and some freely incorporate elements from a variety of different sources, including their own personal imaginings.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Triton of the Sea, Omnibus 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me a little about the merfolk that you’ve encountered while reading manga. (Never come across mermaids or mermen in manga before? 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).

And there it is! Each person has one week to submit comments and can earn up to two entries for this giveaway. If necessary, entries can also be sent via e-mail to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com which I will then post in your name. The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on October 1, 2014. Good luck!

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: Triton of the Sea Giveaway Winner

My Week in Manga: September 15-September 21, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Two manga reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week, both with a bit of queer bent to them. First, I took a look at Wandering Son, Volume 7 by Takako Shimura. Wandering Son is a series that means a tremendous amount to me personally, so I’m always happy when a new volume is released. (And speaking of releases–Fantagraphics assured me that the eighth volume will be published sometime next year.) My second review from last week was of Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Volume 4, which I continue to thoroughly enjoy (even though it can sometimes make me hungry when I’m reading it).

A while back I, and a handful of other people, were interviewed by Justin Stroman about why we buy manga. He turned it into a pretty great article, so I hope you’ll check out Why It’s Worth It to Buy Manga over on Manga Bookshelf. As a followup of sorts, Justin also posted Life As a Manga Fan in the United Arab Emirates at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses which was a fascinating read. Another interesting interview from last week was Tofugu’s conversation with translator and interpreter Jocelyne Allen who has translated a ton of manga among other things. Also of note: Breakdown Press recently announced its next alternative manga publication–Masahiko Matsumoto’s “The Man Next Door.”

Quick Takes

I've Seen It All, Volume 1I’ve Seen It All, Volumes 1-2 by Shoko Takaku. The featured guest of this year’s YaoiCon was Shoko Takaku. I realized that I hadn’t actually read any of her work, so I decided to pick up I’ve Seen It All. Dr. Saikawa is a specialist in men’s health, specifically addressing concerns dealing with genitals. By chance he meets and soon falls in love with Asano who is blessed with a “cock of peerless beauty.” I’ve Seen It All easily has the most references to penises that I’ve ever come across in a boys’ love manga. Saikawa is completely unfazed about it–it is his job after all–and no one else seems to be either which just makes the manga even funnier. Asano and Saikawa are adorable as a couple. It was also nice to see that they both try to make sure that the other enjoys their more intimate moments (of which there are plenty). The other characters are pretty great, too. Despite some of the more realistic elements of the series, I’ve Seen It All leans slightly more towards the silly and sweet. Happily, there is at least one more volume of I’ve Seen It All; I just hope that the rest of the series will be translated because I loved the first two volumes.

Monster Soul, Volume 2Monster Soul, Volume 2 by Hiro Mashima. I’ll admit, I did enjoy the second and final volume of Monster Soul slightly more than the first, but it’s still not a series that left much of an impression on me. Where the first volume was largely episodic, the majority of the second volume of Monster Soul focused on one story–the Black Airs’ efforts to rescue the souls of an entire kingdom of humans from the clutches of the Drei Kommandos. In the process, Mashima takes the opportunity to delve into the back stories of the individual members of the Black Airs. I personally appreciated that the characters were further developed, but the series is too short to really take advantage of it all. Although Monster Soul doesn’t stand out much, it is generally entertaining. The action sequences in particular are fairly well done. Admittedly, there are a few annoying character quirks that don’t make much sense within the context of the story as a whole, such as Mummy’s propensity for stripping for no particular reason. Overall, Monster Soul feels more like a prototype than anything else. It is very energetic, though.

Time KillersTime Killers by Kazue Kato. While I largely enjoyed Kato’s manga series Blue Exorcist, I never seemed to be quite as taken with the story as so many others were. However, I’ve always been fond of Kato’s artwork. And so, I was very interested in reading Kazuo’s short story collection Time Killers. The anthology collects eleven short manga selected from over a decade’s worth of Kazuo’s work, including some of her earliest and debut stories. Many of the manga included in Time Killers simply consist of whatever elements Kazuo felt like exploring and mashing together, completely disregarding what readers might be interested in. The manga ends up being a somewhat odd conglomeration with a strong indie feel to it, but I rather enjoyed its quirkiness. The collection also includes a story that is derived from the same source material as Blue Exorcist, which was interesting to see. It’s also worth noting that Time Killers is probably the nicest release that I’ve seen from Viz Media’s Shonen Jump imprint. It has a slightly larger trim size, includes beautiful color pages, and is printed on high-quality, glossy paper, too.

Manga the Week of 9/24

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SEAN: I’ve been joking about the large amount of manga coming out last month and this month, but a look at what’s coming in October tells me I should have held back. October is vicious. That said, next week has a far greater amount of manga than usual on 4th weeks of the month, so let’s take a look.

MICHELLE: I just really cannot be bummed about that.

SEAN: Dark Horse has a 6th Lone Wolf & Cub Omnibus, which unsurprisingly has nothing to do with Spice & Wolf at all.

ASH: That it does not.

SEAN: DMP has a trio of new BL manga releases. Apple & Honey is apparently quite heartwarming, A New Season of Young Leaves is a schoolboy romance, and Twittering Birds Never Fly seems to be the darkest and most psychological of the three.

ASH: I’m really happy to see A New Season of Young Leaves finally being released after being delayed so many times. It has the same author as Seven Days (which I loved), so I have high hopes for the manga.

MJ: Oh, I also loved Seven Days… I will have to check this out.

SEAN: Kodansha has a 3rd xxxHOLIC omnibus, which hopefully continues to show off Watanuki, one of the best male leads they’ve ever had.

MJ: Hurrah! I will always applaud xxxHolic.

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SEAN: One Peace books has two volumes of a new series that could not be farther away from its previous license, Whispered Words. Raqiya: New Book of Revelation is a seinen manga from Kodansha’s Morning magazine, and deals with God returning to Earth, sort of.

ASH: It also deals with heavily armed heretical cults. And lots of things explode, too.

ANNA: Explosions and cults sound good!

MJ: Agreed!

SEAN: I enjoyed the first volume of D-Frag! more than I expected, with its focus on the weird rather than the cute. I’m hoping for more with Vol. 2.

Seven Seas has a third volume of Dance in the Vampire Bund: The Memories of Sledge Hammer, and yet I betcha he still hasn’t said “Trust me – I know what I’m doing” anywhere in it.

I enjoyed the first volume of Girls Und Panzer more than I expected, with its focus on the tanks and teamwork rather than the cute. I’m hoping for more with Vol. 2.

Series based on Alice in Wonderland are to the last two years what vampires were to the two years before that. Here’s I Am Alice: Body Swap In Wonderland, from the author of Dictatorial Grimoire. I’m hoping for some nice snark.

ASH: Oh, I had missed the Dictatorial Grimoire connection. It should have interesting character designs then, if nothing else.

SEAN: World War Blue has got to be running out of old-school video games to turn into fantasy kingdoms, given it’s up to Vol. 7.

If you enjoyed the first volume of the Accel World light novel from Yen On, perhaps you will also be entertained by its manga equivalent. I look forward to seeing if our hero’s weight is drawn purely for comedy or not.

MJ: I’m interested in this, and your question, too.

SEAN: Are You Alice Volume 6? Or are you any one of 10,000 other Alice titles?

ASH: Heh.

SEAN: I suspect Bloody Cross 4 will be the volume that finally makes me decide to continue with the series or not. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan has its 6th volume of being mild, adorable, and having minimal conflict. Can it keep this up?

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Each adaptation of a Durarara!! light novel seems to get its own separate manga series, so this 3rd series adapts the 3rd novel. After focusing on Mikado and Anri in the first two, Masaomi should get focus here.

I love GA Art Design Class, probably more than it deserves, and definitely more than any other bloggers out there. Don’t care. Cannot wait for Vol. 6.

And for the rest of the Manga Bookshelf team who aren’t waiting for moe slice-of life art school antics, there’s Goong 16.

MICHELLE: *Kermit flailing arms!*

ANNA: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!

MJ: SO MUCH SQUEE.

SEAN: And for those angry at GA for taking up all the artist’s time, there’s a 4th volume of the much darker series by the same artist, Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro.

And speaking of dark, Soul Eater’s covers are going to be pure black before too long.

If you’ve only been following the Spice & Wolf light novels, why not check out the manga? It’s up to Vol. 9! I understand there is some spice, and perhaps even a wolf (or wolf girl).

ASH: No swordsmen or young children in carts?

SEAN: Lastly, we get a 7th omnibus of the thrilling epic action movie manga Until Death Do Us Part.

MICHELLE: I really need to get caught up with this. I liked the first volume much more than I expected to.

SEAN: That’s a lot. What’s for you?

Why It’s Worth It To Buy Manga

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Manga Bookshelf

Why is it worth it to buy manga?

Living in New York City, where there’s Barnes & Nobles everywhere and a Kinokuniya on 41st and 6th, most manga available range from $10-13 dollars (Think Shonen Jump, Seven Seas, Shojo Beat, Kodansha, DMP for the most part), $14-20 dollars (think some Vertical titles, Viz Signature stuff), or you’ll find that rare manga title that’s $20-29 dollars (I think of Fantagraphics). Even if you order online, chances are buying food might be more important, cheaper, and satisfying than shelling out $8-9 bucks for a manga volume that has the issue of:

  1. It’s a volume out of who knows how many volumes of one series.
  2. The average reader can spend 30-45 minutes, depending on the material, on that one volume.
  3. Even if that one volume is perfect, what about the other volumes that come out that might not be so perfect because the storylines change?

And that’s just knowing the basics! If you’re a regular manga reader, then you’ll find other issues that pop up:

  1. Most manga in the states are well behind the Japanese editions. Only a certain few — Attack on Titan, One Piece — are popular enough to not be completely behind the JP editions, and in the history of manga publication in the states, only a few have been simultaneously published — Rin-Ne, Neon Genesis Evangelion are some I can think of — meaning we’re always gonna be behind in every facet unless we read it digitally.
  2. Space, space, space! Just like books, manga requires bookshelves, boxes, and space in your room to keep your manga. In the past, it was mostly ok, but with digital, reading manga physically is a thing of the past!

But ok, reading manga in your hands isn’t convenient for you. But that’s why we can read it online! There’s digital alternatives!…Oh, but there are issues there too:

  1. There’s manga services (Viz Media, Crunchyroll, Renta!) that don’t allow you to download manga since they’re flash based! So what happens if the service goes away? Won’t the manga go away? Didn’t we learn our lesson from JManga?
    (Note: if you have a phone/tablet, you can download and keep any Viz Media titles forever)
  2. And the ones that can allow us to keep pages (eManga, Manga Reborn) have some major site issues that limit potential — Paying $7.95 seems weird eManga! What’s with the design of the site Manga Reborn? I can’t tell what’s really new and cool to read!

All in all, there are logical, physical, and cost reasons regarding the purchase of manga that make me ask:

…Why is it worth it to buy manga again?

When I wrote a post wondering why people who read manga illegally end up informing publishers in multiple ways that they’re reading a manga the publishers licensed illegally, the answers were concise and straightforward. So, in a way, the response regarding price, digital alternatives, etc, reinforced something I’ve become more inclined to believe in since I’ve delved further into the manga industry (and in small ways manga fandom):

Manga is just not valuable.

I’ll say this though: it’s certainly valuable to go buy a $3.99 comic book issue or so that’s only 32 colored pages or a graphic novel that’s around $15-20 dollars, but not really cool to pay $10-20 dollars of 200 or so pages for a manga volume. It’s well worth it to shell out $60 dollars for a physical video game and have that sort of collection, but not as worth it to do so for manga since you’ll more than likely get more entertainment value out of the video game.

Now, as mentioned, there are legitimate reasons for concern about getting manga…moreso for those outside of the US. There’s digital alternatives that exist but are marked by harrowing issues (Manga Anime Guardians is Exhibit A), are region locked (though not as much as anime is), and are flash based, which apparently is more of an issue than I thought. There’s a lack of publishers, or no publishers, to publish manga outside of places like the US or France, and there are shipping issues that make a manga that’s $10 bucks cost more than it probably should if you’re ordering overseas in certain countries. There’s definite concerns that are worth complaining about, and you should complain about it if it’s something that can help publishers get better.

But you know, the other industries I mentioned, while they suffer from their issues, get criticized, and are for a different market, still sell pretty well. Manga on the other hand…not so much aside from the mainstream stuff.

Is this just a case of years and years of the manga market being inflexible, unflinching, with their model that doesn’t always show itself to be efficient? Past mistakes that are so unforgivable that it’s best to forget the creators actually exist and screw the publishers? Or just the notion that reading is a chore, you don’t want to fill your room with tons of manga that, for some, have no end in sight, etc? Or is this just a case of where you stand personally?

I graduated from school two years ago. At the time of graduation, I had no job, only money that I got from parents and family from graduating, and no real idea of what my future was. Needless to say, I ran out of money thanks to time, and that meant buying manga was unrealistic. The problem? Buying much of anything aside from a brand new Metrocard so I can get to job interviews and job fairs was unrealistic, so for most of 2013 and 2014, the only solace I had was that I could choose to read manga online, in an illegal fashion.

Of course I chose to do that!

…Not in the way you think though. For the most part, I only read stuff that no publisher would really care about. Like this interesting manhwa title called The Breaker: New Waves, or that extremely silly Mangaka-San to Assistant-San (better known somehow here as Comic Artist and his Assistants) by Doujin Work creator Hiroyuki. For anything that would get licensed, unless I liked it a lot, I’d pretty much drop reading it.

Well, I only ended up following two titles like that — Assassination Classroom, which I haven’t read since early in the year, for a few reasons, but once it got licensed, I stopped feeling the drive to read it, and Shokugeki no Soma, better known as Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma here. I did not drop Shokugeki no Soma once it got licensed. More on Soma in a bit. In any case, I followed what I could, and most importantly, any new title that showed up from publishers I didn’t read…in any capacity. After all, I can’t — or don’t want to — read everything in existence.

I finally got a job. I started a few months ago. That means I have money to spend! But…I can’t just spend it on everything, as my paycheck isn’t even that much right now. I’m pretty much drowning in school debt, which I can thankfully delay for one more year. So I’m also in the process of saving money too. What does that mean? That means spending judiciously, targeting continuing stuff I’ll like, and waiting to buy everything.

That means finally buying a physical copy of Food Wars.

Why It's Worth It To Buy Manga

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And I’ll be waiting to buy a copy of Assassination Classroom. Maybe the first few chapters will read better than when I read it online.

The point is, you want to read manga online, fine. I do it too. If there was a efficient way to get copies of something you like, a game or a novel or whatever without having to pay in any fashion, that’s your prerogative, and in the case of manga, especially when legitimate publications that most mainstream people read (coughcoughNew York Timescough) can’t get it right either, how can I blame you? After all, it’s not like it’s being stopped right now.

But is manga really so worthless that you can’t even set a modest limit to buy some manga during the year?

That’s unfortunate, because I find manga to be something of great worth. I find it worth buying, and especially for a certain few, I find it worth having in my hands.

I’m not alone in thinking manga is worth buying.

———-

Sarah Hayes lives in Missouri, and has been collecting manga for 14 years. How did she even know about manga? Well, it started with Pokemon, Toonami, and her nearby comic shop. “When I realized there was a comic version of Gundam Wing–” Sarah emphasizes she was really into the series — “I picked it up. And then I saw comics for Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Oh! My Goddess, and at point, I was hooked.”

Tony Yao lives where I live: New York City! He got interested in manga back in 1998, while still in high school, and, well, back when AOL dominated and most websites looked old and aged. “I learned about what manga was when reading about Ghost in the Shell in an issue of Wizard Magazine back in 1995,” he said. “But in 98’, I discovered that Dragon Ball Z was a manga. I read old-fashioned text summaries of DBZ volumes on a Geocites DBZ fan site and that’s how it started!” He started collecting manga in 2003.

Erica Friedman, who lives in New Jersey, has been into manga since the 1990’s, “with the advent of Sailor Moon,” she said. Of course, she’s also been a part of the manga industry, starting her yuri publishing company ALC Publishing, which exclusively published Yuri content; starting Yuricon, a convention geared towards yuri related manga and anime content; and was part of the creation of MangaNEXT, an exclusive manga only related convention. So she’s been in the manga industry and fandom side of it for a long time.

Why It's Worth It To Buy MangaUnfortunately, with issues with the fandom and the differences between JP and US relations proving to be too much, ALC Publishing effectively is no longer publishing anything new. Has that closed the book on her interest in manga? Nope, as she still buys the Japanese editions.

Ash Brown (I think you know who he is around these parts!) was Ohio bred and born, but then he ended up moving to Michigan when he got older. He works as a librarian — “sadly, my job has nothing to do with manga,” he bemoans — and on the side, he’s a musician, and a martial artist. He is the neophyte when it comes to manga collecting: he started collecting manga in 2009 (same for me) when he got employed and had a decent income, though it did take reading Urasawa’s Pluto and manga criticism from Jason Thompson for him to dive head first into manga.

“I have been collecting manga since 2004,” says Noura, a manga fan in Florida…or was in Florida, until in 2000, she moved back to her home. Her home is in the United Arab Emirates. Yep, the UAE is in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. She’s Emirati. There’s only the Kinokuniya in Dubai that actually sells manga, and even so, due to Islamic culture, there are manga that are banned from even getting published, especially Boys Love. How strict are the restrictions over there? “They were about to ban Attack on Titan Vol 8 because of the cover,” she said. The Kinokuniya staff did negotiate and convince regulators and parents (who she mentioned are conservative on these things) that they could sell it. But certain volumes of Dance in The Vampire Bund were banned. From The New World was in stock, but, whether it was due to sales or the content in the volume, they were slowly removed from the bookstore.

It hasn’t really stopped Noura from continuing to go back to that Kinokuniya, or just ordering the manga online. Considering the restrictions in place, it does make you wonder — why buy manga when you have to go through so many hoops to get it?

“Buying manga is like any other hobby,” said Noura, “so I do not understand why people refrain from spending money on it. If you love something, it feels better when you pay for it and have it, right? Video game fans buy games and I do not think they find it a waste of money, so I do not get why a lot of people feel that buying manga is not worth it.” She also mentioned that for titles she’s not sure of or not interested in owning the books of, she buys it digitally.

Erica reinforces this thought. “The simplest reason to buy manga is that actually putting your money where your interest is, is the easiest and best way to say ‘thank you’ to the manga artist you enjoy, the editors, the translators, the layout, the touchup, and letterers who all worked hard to bring you that book.”

Tony’s view on why it’s worth it to buy manga is the same, though it starts with a personal reason: details. “It’s easier to re-read things from a print book than from reading online. Reading online doesn’t allow for a better recall of details.”

Why It's Worth It To Buy Manga…I actually agree with that statement. But that’s merely a personal reason, and people are different. That’s why Tony’s second reason comes down to simply supporting mangaka. “You ensure someone else who has a dream about making it big as a mangaka can come true. If the industry grows, the money goes back to developing and nurturing future talent.” Tony references Hajime Isayama, and of course, with the big success of Attack on Titan not only in Japan but also in the West, he will be a name to be recognized after his current series ends. “A kid may be inspired to make manga because of him,” he continued. “He/she grows up and decides to pursue that dream and makes it happen. This situation has happened in the case of Akira Toriyama and the countless mangaka he’s inspired because of Dragon Ball. Your indirect support helps everyone.”

Even he acknowledges, however, that it’s not gonna be easy. With books in general, outside of a few best-sellers, they may be available everywhere but it’s not like they sell that much anyways, so why would manga sell the same when there’s not the same output? And scanlations have changed the game and forced publishers to actually pay attention to them, he said. None of that’s gonna change in the near future. But we can do something about that.

Sarah’s view on manga is the same and yet slightly different. Well, she does like having ownership of series she likes. “I love knowing that I can read and re-read and casually flip through my collection and not have to rely on someone else to keep them up on a server somewhere or a scanlation group that could very well shut down the very next day.” But, as a writer, her view of manga continues to change. “I’ve come to really value buying manga over any other course of action because as a writer, I understand how important it is to financially support our artists and writers and manga-ka everywhere. If shelling out so many dollars for a book of manga means keeping my favorite authors and the like in their homes, puts food on their tables, and keeps them from stressing out and focused on their work, then that’s cool by me.”

For Ash, who got into the collecting manga game late compared to everybody else, his reasons for thinking why buying manga is worth it are not complex, but not also simple, since he works as a librarian. Well, specifically, he works with digital content and materials, “so I am all too aware of the many challenges associated with them,” he says. It ends up starting physically, where you might as well spend your money on something that will last and can be shared with others. Then it’s mere exploration. “Personally, I take great enjoyment in the actual act of selecting and gathering material into a collection. I like finding and discovering manga to read and pulling it all together in one place.” He also ends up donating some of his collection — he told me his current collection’s close enough to 2,000 individual volumes of manga — to libraries, since that was how he originally was reading his manga: by borrowing it from them. “Libraries were what made it possible for me to pursue my interest in manga and other comics in the first place. It makes me extremely happy to know that even after leaving my collection, the manga that I bought will go on to be read by many other people.”

Overall though, the reason to actually buy manga is just like everyone else, for Ash: “I love manga and am appreciative of the creators and their work. I want to support them. There are easy ways to do that: I can purchase manga which have been licensed in English. I can purchase the original Japanese editions. I can borrow manga from a library. I can also encourage other people to do the same. By buying or borrowing legal copies of their work I am able to help support them and the industry financially so they can make a living and continue to create.

“In the end,” he added, “that’s what really matters to me. That’s why I buy manga. Because I love it and the people who make it.”

———-

As I briefly mentioned, I started collecting manga back in 2009 for a few reasons, one of which I eventually drifted away from as I lost my passion for art, or for making comics. Despite that, manga was always around for me to get, so I still continued buying. And yes, even despite Borders going away, it didn’t really change that much — I just now order online. Though my collection is extremely modest compared to mostly everyone, I think it’s cool to buy manga. Think of some of the examples given with what you can do with manga! You can re-read it anytime, hold it in your hand, buy it digitally, lend it to a friend or two, or donate it to your library. You could also do what I did and donate to your local anime/manga club (which I did do for some manga a few years ago). There’s a lot of things you can do with manga that I bet you wouldn’t want to do with your video game!…well, except sell it. Well, you can do that with manga too if you wish! Just, it depends how much you’re selling!

But whatever the case, sure, there are complaints that can be had about publisher practices, the current model, etc, and it is well within your right to complain about it, especially if you have a perfect example of a series that has been translated horribly, why should you accept a poor product, or an example of a manga that’s been poorly marketed (According to Twitter Noragami was apparently a victim of this for what it’s worth). And ok, sure, you can go ahead and choose to read some obscure or big time manga for free, since there’s hundreds of places to go do so, and not nearly enough legal services that you may feel that serves your needs — especially so for those who live outside the US. And paying for manga that you might not even want to keep three, four years from now? What kind of concept is that?

But there will always be issues with almost everything we choose to engage ourselves in — is manga thought about so little that we can’t even find a way to buy manga in English? In another language? In Japanese? Then that’s all manga is to you: of little value.

Fine, that’s ok. But I think manga has value. And that it is worth buying. Whether you buy a lot in a month, or choose to buy two manga in a month, or just once in two months, or however you do it, it adds up somehow. It will benefit someone. Whoever that person is! But contributions help. Even just going to your nearby library can help. In the end, it’s up to you really if you want to stuff your small room with manga or choose to buy manga digitally from a system that’s crippled from the get-go.

I’ll just state that I like manga a lot and I’ll continue to buy what looks to good to me…until I feel like manga is no longer an interest to me. Whenever that is!

Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, an anime/manga blog. He continues to fight his laziness, even though its inevitable he can’t defeat it. You can bug him on Twitter (@Kami_nomi)

My Week in Manga: September 8-September 14, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Two reviews were posted at Experiments in Manga last week. Coincidentally, they both happened to be for works that are a bit disconcerting. First up was my review of Boogiepop and Others, the light novel by Kouhei Kadono which launched the entire Boogiepop franchise. The book is a fantastic mix of science fiction, mystery, and horror with a particularly interesting narrative structure. I’ll definitely be tracking down more of the series to read. The second review was a part of my Year of Yuri monthly review project. I took a look at Erica Sakurazawa’s Between the Sheets, one of the very first josei manga to be released in English. It’s a story about obsessive love and is legitimately disturbing, but in an entirely different way than Boogiepop and Others.

I’ve been super busy at work recently (actually, life in general has been pretty busy) so I’ve not been able to keep up with a lot of manga news, but I did catch a couple of license announcements from this year’s YaoiCon. SuBLime has a new slate of digital and print manga to look forward to (I was particularly excited to see a Tomoko Yamashita manga licensed; sadly, I think it’s digital-only at this point) and Digital Manga will be releasing a collection of Kou Yoneda’s No Touching at All side stories, among other things. Also, Mangabrog posted translation of a Q Hayashida interview from a few years ago. As a fan of Hayashida’s Dorohedoro, I was very happy to have a chance to read the interview.

Quick Takes

From the New World, Volume 4From the New World, Volumes 4-5 written by Yusuke Kishi and illustrated by Toru Oikawa. I continue to be completely torn by From the New World. There are parts of the manga that I absolutely love, but there are several things that frustrate me immensely and greatly inhibit my enjoyment of the series. I am not a prude and am generally not offended by fanservice, but the sex scenes in From the New World seem so incredibly out-of-place. I know that sexual relationships are an important aspect of the worldbuilding in From the New World, but the manga does not integrate them very well at all. I can only assume the original novel handles it better. Thankfully, the sex scenes in the manga are relatively rare. Unfortunately, they are very difficult to ignore and are only ever shown when young girls are involved. From the New World does much better with the story’s science fiction and horror elements. It is dark and disturbing, and these two volumes are particularly graphic and violent, as well. Despite my reservations–of which I have quite a few–I do plan on finishing the series. There are only two more volumes after all.

Kinoko Inu: Mushroom Pup, Volume 1Kinoko Inu: Mushroom Pup, Volume 1 by Kimama Aoboshi. The first volume of Mushroom Pup may very well be one of the oddest manga that I’ve read recently. And even though I enjoyed the volume, I’m still not exactly sure what to make of it. Calling Mushroom Pup quirky would be putting it extremely lightly. Hotaru Yuyami writes and illustrates horror books for children, but ever since his beloved dog Hanako died his creative impulse has completely left him. One evening a strange pink mushroom growing in his garden turns into an even stranger intelligent dog-like creature which attempts to help Yuyami get over his loss in some very bizarre ways. (This isn’t even attempted to be explained.) Also invading Yuyami’s life as he tries to grieve is his childhood friend-cum-editor and a mushroom researcher (with an amazing mohawk) who just so happens to be a huge fan of Yuyami’s work. For all of its strangeness, Mushroom Pup is actually rather subdued and even the humor tends to be straight-faced, which in some ways makes it even funnier. At the same time, it’s also a bit melancholy and heartwarming.

Raqiya: The New Book of Revelation, Volume 1Raqiya: The New Book of Revelation, Volumes 1-2 written by Masao Yajima, illustrated by Boichi. One Peace Books doesn’t tend to do much in the way of marketing or press releases, so it seems as though the publisher’s manga appears almost out of nowhere. Raqiya is a five-volume series focused around a young woman named Luna who seems to be the harbinger for the end of days. She has caught the interest of a small but extreme cult of heretical Christians as well as the attention of a secret and heavily armed Catholic organization charged with hunting down such heretics. It’s interesting to see Christianity play such a huge role in a manga, even if it is a highly fictionalized version of the religion. There’s also plenty of destruction and action in Raqiya–explosions, gun fights, car chases, and so on. Boichi’s artwork is effectively dynamic and extremely intense, if occasionally a bit over the top. Raqiya is definitely a violent and extreme manga; Boichi doesn’t hold back. Boichi is a Korean artist now working and living in Japan. His series Sun-Ken Rock has been available digitally, but Raqiya is his first manga to be released in English in print.

UQ Holder!, Volume 1UQ Holder!, Volumes 1-2 by Ken Akamatsu. Technically a sequel of sorts to Negima!: Magister Negi Magi (or at least set in the same universe), UQ Holder! seems to stand completely on its own and requires no knowledge of the earlier series. (Which is a good thing seeing as I haven’t read it.) So far I am fairly underwhelmed by UQ Holder!, though there are a few things I like about the series. Akamatsu’s fight and action sequences can be fairly entertaining, for one. Also, I tend to enjoy manga that explore the repercussions of immortality, which UQ Holder! is set up to do. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite followed through on that potential yet, despite a wide variety of different types of immortals and immortality being introduced (vampires, genetically modified humans, cursed beings, and many others). In general, the story of UQ Holder! is lacking a clear direction with far too many different genre elements, tropes, and cliches being forced to share the same series. It doesn’t help that the goals and motivations of the series’ protagonist are left deliberately vague as well; Akamatsu tries to make a joke of it, but it either doesn’t quite work or just isn’t funny.

Skip Beat! the drama

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I recently marathoned 14 episodes of the Tawainese live action version of Skip Beat! which is airing now on Dramafever. This production has been stalled in development previously, with Jerry Yan aka the Tsukasa role from Meteor Garden set to play the Ren Tsuruga character. Instead in this version we have some amazing stunt casting with two members of Super Junior playing the roles of Sho and Ren. My love of Korean entertainment generally starts and ends with k-dramas, so my awareness of Super Junior is just that they are the group that does the Sorry, Sorry song.

I’m always curious to check out live adaptations of manga that I enjoy, because when done right it gives me an opportunity to enjoy a story I’ve liked in a different way. I have a couple quibbles with the casting, but overall I think that most Skip Beat! manga fans will be happy to check out this drama.

skipb

Skip Beat! is the story of Kyoko (sorry, I’m going to just stick with the original names from the manga), a young girl without a family who is raised alongside Sho Fuwa, whose main ambition is to become an idol. She follows Sho to the big city and works multiple jobs to support him while he pursues his music career. When she finds out that Sho has just been using her all along, she takes a vow of revenge to punish him by eclipsing him in the entertainment industry. She manages to join a top talent agency, LME under the “Love Me Program” where she has to slowly work her way up in the industry by acting as a gopher while wearing a humiliating pink jumpsuit. She meets and makes an impression on Ren Tsuruga, a leading young actor and Sho’s senior in the industry. As Kyoko progresses in her journey towards celebrity, she gradually finds the craft of acting more and more rewarding.

I was wondering if a live action adaptation of the manga would manage to capture some of the frantic energy in Yoshiki Nakamura’s illustrations, and I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Bo the Chicken in the credits, along with some low budget cgi versions of Kyoko’s grudge spirit creatures. The first episode showed Kyoko’s superspeed as she frantically races to get to a store to grab a promotional poster of Sho. You can get a general feel for the show in this trailer, which shows a few moments from the first few episodes:

Ivy Chen is a good Kyoko, angry and vengeful when needed, and then innocent and enthusiastic when she gets her first chance to transform into the princess of her dreams at the hands of a makeup artist.

On the whole, I was very pleased with how closely the drama followed the manga in terms of plot, handling Kyoko’s unconventional entrance into the entertainment industry, where the skills she perfected by growing up helping out at a traditional Japanese inn coincidentally come in handy during her first acting jobs. The choice to dub Siwon’s and Donghae’s voices as Sho and Ren is a bit distracting at times, but since I don’t understand either Korean or Mandarin, I guess I shouldn’t be too picky. As Sho, Donghae basically has to act petulant and spoiled most of the time.

Petulant and Purple

Petulant and Purple

I had some issues with Siwon as Ren, mostly due to the fact that there wasn’t really a noticeable age difference between the actors, when I expect Ren as a character to appear much more mature than Kyoko and Sho. On the acting side, Ren in this drama is as reticent and inner-focused as I’d expect Ren to be, with the pleasant and professional mannerisms starting to be derailed a bit due to close proximity with Kyoko.

Tiny Grudges!

Tiny Grudges!

One thing I was very happy about was that the relationship between Kyoko and Kannae had plenty of time to develop. I was worried that the drama would push things too far in the direction of Super Junior Love Triangle, but Kannae and Kyoko’s gradual friendship forged in the adversity they face as fellow “Love Me!” Section comrades got just the right amount of screen time.

Besties Forever!

Besties Forever!

At 14 episodes in, this series is getting up to the point where Kyoko appears in Sho’s video, and I expect the series will be heading into the Dark Moon storyline soon as well. It’ll be interesting to see how they decide to wrap the series up, since the manga hasn’t ended yet.

Carrying a girl in a pink jumpsuit around. As you do.

Carrying a girl in a pink jumpsuit around. As you do.

Putting aside my quibbles with live action Ren not seeming older and manly enough, this is a very solid adaptation of Skip Beat! that should please fans of the manga. My only problem is having watched so many episodes at once, the main song for the title credits is now seared into my brain.

Manga the Week of 9/17

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SEAN: Given the beginning and end of September have far more manga than is really sensible, it makes sense that there are also weeks where very little comes out. This is one of those weeks.

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Guidebooks are quite popular in Japan, but have never sold well in North America for some reason. Kodansha hopes that changes with the publication of Attack on Titan Guidebook: INSIDE & OUTSIDE. I think this omnibuses two separate guides from Japan, and will tell you far more than you could imagine about the world of the Titans.

ASH: I’m rather curious to read this one, especially since Kodansha has been so adamant about only publishing manga until now.

SEAN: Actually, back in the Del Rey days they released guidebooks for Tsubasa.

Kodansha also has the 5th volume of Genshiken 2nd Season, which continues to fascinate with its attempts to grab a new BL audience while still courting its old one via the harem antics.

MJ: So, I never picked this up, because I’d never read the original Genshiken and so on… but I do sort of want to let them attempt to grab me as a BL audience. That’s always fun. So. Hm.

ASH: Well, I can say that I’ve been enjoying the second season!

SEAN: Speaking of Attack on Titan, for those who enjoyed Kodansha’s release of Before the Fall, the prequel series, the novel it was based on comes out via Vertical, who have said it’s selling even better than hotcakes – and you know how well hotcakes sell.

MJ: Mmmmm, hotcakes.

ASH: Mmmmm, light novels. If I recall correctly, Vertical has already had to order a second printing of Before the Fall, and it hasn’t even been released yet!

SEAN: The final volume of Bokurano: Ours from Viz has been anticipated for so long that I made the joke about it back a month ago when Ikigami ended. So go look at that entry instead.

MICHELLE: I should muster my fortitude and finish Bokurano. I think I will have to do it on a sunny day amidst frolicking unicorns or something, just to keep my spirits up.

SEAN: Viz also has the second volume of Terra Formars.

So, ignoring that deliberate silence, what will you be picking up next week?

My Week in Manga: September 1-September 7, 2014

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My News and Reviews

There were three posts of note at Experiments in Manga last week in addition to the usual My Week in Manga feature. First of all, the winner of the Nana manga giveaway has been announced. The post also includes a short list of manga that people gave a second chance only to discover that they enjoyed them better than they did the first time they read them. I also posted August’s Bookshelf Overload, revealing how out of hand things can get when it comes to the number of manga I obtain over the course of a month. The first in-depth manga review of the month was also posted, the honor going to Hinoki Kino’s No. 6, Volume 8, the series penultimate volume. As a bonus, the first print run of the volume also includes sixteen color pages!

A few things of note from elsewhere online: The Beautiful World, which hosted the Kaori Yuki Manga Moveable Feast a while back, has issued a call for participation for a blog carnival to feature female goth mangaka in January. Sean has a nice roundup of some of the recent license announcements at A Case Suitable for Treatment. And Anna at Manga Report checks out Sparkler Monthly, which is currently running a membership drive for its second year. Please consider subscribing if you can; Sparkler Monthly has some great content and I hope for its continued success.

Quick Takes

AliveAlive by Hajime Taguchi. Gen Manga publishes independent manga, mostly focusing on the seinen demographic. Often, Gen’s releases are the first time the creator’s doujinshi have received any sort of “official” publication. Alive is a collection of over a dozen short manga of varying lengths by Hajime Taguchi. There’s not really a central theme to the volume, and the stories aren’t related to each other, but they all tend to be fairly melancholy. A few of the tales have some fantastical or surreal elements to them–a pair of glasses that obscures everything the wearer dislikes, a bizarre frog-like creature that talks, and so on–but most of the manga in the collection tend to be realistic, slice-of-life stories. Alive primarily explores the emotional lives of the stories’ characters. Love, heartbreak, self-confidence, guilt, personal growth, and loss are all present within the manga. Generally Alive focuses on the darker aspects of the human psyche and experience, but there are glimpses happiness as well. As with any collection, some stories are stronger than others, but as a whole Alive is a satisfying and somewhat unusual read.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 1The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Volume 1 by Hiromu Arakawa. Based on a series of fantasy novels by Yoshiki Tanaka, Arakawa’s The Heroic Legend of Arslan is one of several adaptations that have been made. Although the animated film had previously been released in English, Arakawa’s manga was actually my introduction to The Heroic Legend of Arslan. The first volume feels a bit like a prologue, introducing the characters and setting the stage for the story which will be the series’ real focus. Arslan is the young prince of Pars, mostly ignored by his parents but hoping to be seen as worthy by them. His chance to prove himself comes when the kingdom of Lusitania invades Pars, bringing war and destruction with it. In the first volume alone there have already been several battles and betrayals. Blood and death will not be strangers to Arslan, though it seems he would much prefer to find peaceful solutions to the fighting. So far, I’m enjoying The Heroic Legend of Arslan. It’s shaping up to be a solid fantasy series and the setting, which is influenced by historical Persia, is particularly interesting. I certainly look forward to reading more of the series to see how it develops.

Kokoro Connect, Volume 1 Kokoro Connect, Volume 1 written by Anda Sadanatsu, illustrated by CUTEG. I tend to enjoy series that involve body-swapping of some sort (it often provides clever opportunities for the exploration of personal identity), so I was curious about the Kokoro Connect manga, especially after hearing good things about the anime. In most of the body-swapping series that I’ve been exposed to generally only two people are involved, usually of the opposite gender. Kokoro Connect, however, involves five high school students–two boys and three girls–who one day begin to spontaneously switch places in all sorts of different combinations. This means that there are plenty of comedic possibilities for the series, but for the most part Kokoro Connect seems to be taking a more serious approach, addressing some of the more sobering implications of involuntarily swapping places with another person. The group does seem to be handling the whole situation remarkably well so far, though. There is a half-hearted attempt to begin to explain the whole swapping phenomenon, but it’s not especially compelling at this point.

Rabbit Man, Tiger Man, Volume 2Rabbit Man, Tiger Man, Volume 2 by Akira Honma. It might not be the most believable boys’ love series out there, but I was amused by and rather enjoyed the first volume of Rabbit Man, Tiger Man. While there is still plenty of humor in the second volume of the series, the manga has really started to take a turn for the serious. The yakuza plotline has become more prominent, introducing a significant amount of danger to the story. However, the delightful awkwardness between the series’ two leads still remains. Nonami and Uzuki are complete opposites in personality and demeanor. (They would be the titular tiger and rabbit.) It’s actually rather funny and sweet to see how hard the rough, tough yakuza boss has fallen for the meek, diminutive surgeon. I do think that I probably enjoyed the first volume of Rabbit Man, Tiger Man slightly more than the second, but I definitely want to read the third and final volume. Sadly, there’s no indication that it has or will be licensed. This is particularly frustrating since the second volume ends on one heck of a cliffhanger.

Manga the Week of 9/10

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SEAN: School is back in session, and we have some manga to help keep you occupied and away from your homework.

First off, apologies to Viz for leaving off one of their titles last week – Dawn of the Arcana 13, the final volume, should have been there. I know it’s quite popular with the MB writers, or at least is always on the ‘I should catch up with that’ list.

MICHELLE: Indeed, it is quite good!

ANNA: This is one series I read as it was coming out, and I enjoyed it a bunch.

legaldrug

SEAN: Dark Horse is putting out another CLAMP omnibus, this one containing Legal Drug, which deals with two young men at a drugstore who get involved in the supernatural. This should have all the initial manga – Dark Horse has also licensed the sequel, starting in 2015.

ASH: I think I still have my old Tokyopop volumes of Legal Drug kicking around somewhere, but I’m definitely interested in the sequel series.

MICHELLE: Me too, on both counts! The sequel, Drug & Drop, is also seinen, which is an intriguing demographic change.

ANNA: I’m really interested in the sequel series. Now if only X/1999 had an actual ending….

MJ: I am pretty excited about this. It’s got a new translation, so that’s something alluring for those of us who still have our old Tokyopop editions, but yeah… the real draw is the series’ continuation, which I’ve been longing to see for myself.

SEAN: DMP brings you Wolf Magic, which I don’t think has much to do with wolves, but…

ASH: …but there is a florist!

SEAN: Kodansha has the 19th volume of Battle Angel Alita. Has it escaped the tournament yet?

ASH: I’m really not sure that it has.

SEAN: There’s also the 4th Seven Deadly Sins manga, which is starting to really flesh out its cast of Sins, though I wish it would give Elizabeth a bit more to do.

The final Sherlock Bones manga is out, meaning there are no Holmes pastiches coming out in the manga world at all. This must be remedied soon.

ASH: Sherlock Bones was a surprisingly entertaining series.

SEAN: From SubLime comes another volume of His Favorite, which I still haven’t read but whose covers make it look like it’s a ton of fun. More BL comedy mangas are needed.

MJ: I kind of fell away from this series, but the covers do always make me want to jump back in!

fromthe6

SEAN: The penultimate volume of From the New World ships from Vertical. Surely it’s an old world by now. It’s been 6 volumes.

07-GHOST has a dozen volumes now, meaning my chances of catching up now are slimmer than ever. Anna has kept up though, right?

MICHELLE: I keep saying “one day,” but I really mean it.

ANNA: You know what? I just bought Volume 5, which was the one gap in my stack of 07-Ghost Volumes. I am saying it now, SEPTEMBER WILL BE THE MONTH I CATCH UP ON THIS SERIES!!!!!! Look for frequent and often 07-Ghost updates from me!!!!! 07-GHOST ALL THE TIME!

MICHELLE: READ ALL THE 07-GHOSTS!

SEAN: And Arata the Legend is up to Vol. 19! Sorry, Fushigi what?

MICHELLE: Arata is pretty fun, but won’t take the place of either Fushigi in my heart.

ANNA: I do love me some Fushigi.

SEAN: Lastly, I will have a LOT to say about it in my inevitable review, but suffice it to say if you get ANY two volumes of Hayate the Combat Butler, get Vol. 24, out next week, and the one before it. The series’ high point.

What manga are you tuning your hickory sticks to?

Getting Used To The Renting Manga Service Renta!

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Way back in February this year, I wrote about all the legal manga sites people don’t seem to either know or want to talk about, for a multitude of reasons. Renta! was one of them. The description I gave it then was not very kind of the service.

Then, in my rant about the state of manga some months ago, I did notice that Renta! had undergone a…change:

Old Site

Old site.

New site!

New site!

And I admitted it looked way, way better and actually accessible than before.

Flash forward to now, and I ended up getting contacted about a potential follow up article to the service now that it’s been changed. Not surprisingly, I joined in! I ended up speaking to Jay Hoare, who is the English checker for Renta!, among other things he does for the site. He was hired in April along with another person on the English Renta! site, and they’ve been working with 6 other non-native speakers since. (Just for comparison, the JP Renta site has 50+ people working on it.) He shares a lot of what he knows at this time:

Justin: What would you say Renta! is all about?

Jay Hoare: In a nutshell, we’re a site where you can rent and read manga online. We offer a rental service so people can try out the manga, and give them the option to upgrade to “unlimited” if they want to keep reading it whenever they like. To make the reading experience as smooth as possible, we’ve put a lot of effort into our manga viewer, so people can read everything online without having to download anything. Also, in order to differentiate ourselves from other manga sites, we’re trying as much as possible to provide people with manga that can only be read on our site.

What has been the biggest challenge in marketing Renta!, including the notion that we rent manga instead of purchasing them?

Oh man, where to start!? I guess there’ve been three main challenges:

a) Increasing the awareness of manga.

It still amazes me that despite the abundance of great titles available, and the infiltration of Japanese culture in the West, a lot of people still don’t know what manga is. (When I told my parents that I’d found a job with a manga website, instead of getting the “Congratulations! You’re the best son in the entire world that’s ever existed ever ever” that I was expecting, they simply said, “What’s manga?”) There’s a small but loyal community who are really into manga, which is wonderful, but, in terms of marketing, it’s important to reach as many people as possible, which has been really difficult. We’ve had no choice but to charge forward as best we can in the quest to attract new manga lovers.

b) Getting users to pay for manga.

At present, pirate sites rule the manga seas: they have a lot of content available, including the bigger titles that have been made into anime. As such, a lot of manga readers head that way. To try and differentiate ourselves from those sites, first and foremost we’re trying to provide high-quality content. I’ve been working alongside another native-English speaker to proofread the manga we put on our site; recently, we employed a new team of frankly wonderful, dedicated and talented translators who I work close with. We also offer content that’s exclusive to our site, a cheap rental service, and a customer support service that can’t be found on pirate sites.

c) Getting people used to the idea of renting manga.

A lot of users are used to paying for and downloading content. When you say “ebooks”, people often think “Kindle”. As our site is a rental-based system, the content comes with a rental period (unless people choose to rent unlimited of course), which I think puts some people off. However, the benefit of renting on our site means that people can view their manga on any device, be it PC/laptop, tablet or smartphone, and it’s cheaper than buying manga. However, even though our user base continues to expand, convincing people that there are benefits to renting instead of purchasing continues to be tricky.

I noticed you guys brought over Sakigake Otokojuku, a Shueisha property (and an older title) to your service. Can you explain your relationship with manga publishers and how they are helping you with providing content?

We deal directly with the Japanese publishers. Basically, we tell them which manga we’d like to put on our site and they contact the author. Once we get the OK from them, we go from there.

Will Renta! serve as that service that provides older manga like Otokojuku or is this more exception than the norm?

One of the things we’re really trying to do is get as much content as we can that’s exclusive to Renta!. As well as old classics, we also try to get newer stuff, too. So, summarily speaking, if we think our users will like the content, it doesn’t matter when it’s published.

You were brought over to Renta! in order to smooth out the English, among other things. There has been a trend where JP companies start up a site but have poor English (Manga Anime Guardians as a recent example). Do you know why this seems to be the case, especially if they’re trying to appeal to the English market?

A lot of the more famous Japanese companies set up a company in the region they want to sell to; as such, they’re able to employ people directly from that region. Before internetland existed, it was a given that any company wanting to do business abroad would set up a branch over there. However, with the introduction of the internet, companies have been able to reach the rest of the world from the comfort of their own office space. This means that it’s overall a lot cheaper to conduct business, which is great news for Japan, as a lot of its companies don’t have a lot of spare cash. Unfortunately, this lack of cash means that they tend to use their Japanese staff to do a lot of their English translation to reduce costs. As a result, you get some really weird and difficult-to-understand sites. (As you know, Renta! has been guilty of the same thing in the past, but we’ve finally started to get on top of that now!)

I had included in my write up of Renta! a pic which showed the type of content Renta! seemed to be providing. It doesn’t look like that’s changed. Would you say the site caters more to those 18+ and over, or is this just a case where publishers allow you to publish this type of content?

If you look at our home page, we’re making an effort to include more manga besides just pure adult stuff. We’re adding more to our Romance, Seinen, Shounen and Shoujo manga sections every week. Because there was a lot of adult content on the site to begin with, it’s going to take a while to balance everything out, but we’ve gotten the ball rolling in a positive direction, so over the next few months you’ll start to see the change more.

Will Renta! be looking to publish Josei manga, or at least if it’s there, have the genre listed in the near future?

Genre-naming has proven to be a tricky thing. On the one hand you’ve got avid manga readers who understand what “shounen”, “shojo”, etc. mean; on the other hand, you’ve got people who think “Dragon Ball” is a medical condition and don’t know what manga is. As a result we’re still in the process of figuring out what to call certain genres.

Regarding Josei manga, we have romance, yaoi and love manga, so there’s a lot on the site for people wanting that sort of content. They’ve all proven popular, which is why we’ve expanded them into separate genres.

As a side note, we’re aware that to a Japanese person “comics for males” and “comics for females” is inherently implied by words like “shounen” (“boys”), “seinen” (“men”), “shoujo” (“girls”), etc.. However, we’re trying to avoid explicitly labelling content on our site as “for boys” or “for girls”. We did in the past, but dropped the idea, simply because we feel it unnecessarily limits the choice of our users.

Can you recommend some manga people should consider reading on Renta!’s service?

You ready? Deep breath! Eleven Soul has a lot of depth to it as well as skillfully-drawn action sequences. Jeanne D’Arc is a really well-told and beautifully illustrated manga. If you like gritty stories, Mad Bull is engrossing, and often surprisingly funny. Of course, if you want a laugh though, I have to recommend Sakigake Otokojuku. If you like motion comics, there’s Karasuma Kyoko no Jikenbo, which has been slicky presented. For romance fans, we have the crazily popular His Wedding Ring of Revenge, The Italian Prince’s Proposal and The Billionaire’s Bride of Convenience. For shojo-lovers, there’s the emotional A Second Love Is Full of Tears. If you’re a yaoi fan, I’d say give Peach-Colored Taxi — 801 Yen to Ride a read; it’s proving to be a hit with our users.

What shall we be expecting from Renta in the next few months or so?

More manga! Also, we’re working our asses off to try and make the site more user-friendly, as well as investing in making it display more quickly. On top of all that, we’re trying to improve our tablet and smartphone versions of the site too. We’re a small team, but we’re all putting a lot of effort in (and a lot of late nights!), so I personally am looking forward to seeing the fruits of our labor in the coming months. We’re by no means a perfect site, but we’re trying our best to improve, so, if anyone has any suggestions, we’d love to hear them! Yoroshiku!

Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. He’s desperately attempting to defeat his laziness every day. You can follow him on Twitter (@Kami_nomi)

My Week in Manga: August 25-August 31, 2014

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My News and Reviews

The most recent manga giveaway at Experiments in Manga is currently underway, and there is still time to enter for an opportunity to win Nana, Volume 1 by Ai Yazawa. All you have to do is tell me whether or not you’ve ever given a manga a second chance and what your experience was. I also posted two reviews last week. The first was for the third and final volume of Off*Beat by Jen Lee Quick, which I was very happy with. Nearly ten years after the series first began, fans finally have a chance to read its conclusion thanks to the efforts of Chromatic Press. The second review last week was for Keigo Higashino’s most recently translated mystery novel, Malice. I enjoy Higashino’s work tremendously and was not at all disappointed with Malice. The novel will be released in October and is recommended for readers who enjoy smart, clever mysteries. Although it was from a couple of weeks ago, my Spotlight on Masaichi Mukaide has been making the rounds and gaining some attention. I worked pretty hard on it, so I’m extremely pleased that people are finding the post interesting.

Elsewhere online, Organization of Anti-Social Geniuses has an interview with Vertical’s Ed Chavez, discussing the success of Knights of Sidonia. And speaking of Vertical, the Fall 2014’s reader survey and license request form has been launched. Comics Alliance has an interesting interview with Felipe Smith (whose series Peepo Choo was published by Vertical). Yen Press announced some new light novel and manga licenses. And for your enjoyment, one of Kate Beaton’s recent Hark! A Vagrant comics focuses on Natsume Sōseki’s classic novel Kokoro. (I actually really like Kokoro and reviewed it a few years ago.)

Quick Takes

Noragami: Stray God, Volume 1Noragami: Stray God, Volume 1 by Adachitoka. Yato is a god of war that everyone has forgotten, or maybe never even knew about to being with. He has no temples or shrines, no followers or worshipers, but he’s determined to change all of that. Unfortunately, his personality leaves a bit to be desired and even his servants don’t like him; he’s had to resort to doing odd jobs and spreading his name (and number) by graffitiing the walls of bathroom stalls and alleyways. The beginning of Noragami: Stray God is somewhat uneven in tone, but by the end of the first volume it seems to have found a nice balance between the manga’s humor and the more serious aspects of the story. The introduction of the series’ other lead character–Hiyori, a human girl who has a little trouble with her spirit leaving her body after a near-death experience–helps to achieve this balance. She also happens to be a fan of professional wrestling, which actually comes into play in the story instead of just being a character quirk. I quite enjoyed the first volume of Noragami, finding it to be amusing and even a bit charming, and look forward to reading more of the series.

Shattered: The Asian American Comics AnthologyShattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology edited by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma. The followup anthology to Secret Identities, Shattered collects forty-three short comics and pin-ups from seventy-five contributors. Whereas Secret Identities focused on superhero stories, Shattered also includes other genres of comics–fantasy, science fiction, martial arts, historical, contemporary fiction, and so on. The volume is intended to address and subvert five stereotypical representations of Asians and Asian-Americans in media: The Brute, The Temptress, The Brain, The Alien, and The Manipulator. Although there are some absolute gems in the collection–personal favorites include Tak Toyoshima’s “Occupy Ethnic Foods” and the precursor to Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Shadow Hero–for me Shattered works better in concept than in execution. Many of the comics are either incomplete or feel as though they are pitches for a longer series instead of being finished works in their own right, making for a rather unsatisfying reading experience. However, I did appreciate the wide variety of comics and creators included in the volume.

Shinobu Kokoro: Hidden HeartShinobu Kokoro: Hidden Heart by Temari Matsumoto. Way back when, Shinobu Kokoro: Hidden Heart was one of the first boys’ love manga that I ever read. Had it been my only exposure to the genre, I might have given up on boys’ love because I didn’t enjoy Shinobu Kokoro much at all. And honestly I still don’t, despite there being a few elements that I like. Actually, it might be some of those elements that hinder my enjoyment of the manga. Two of the three couples in Shinobu Kokoro are ninja. When handled well, I generally like ninja. Sadly, they’re not handled particularly well in Shinobu Kokoro, or at least not believably. Subaru is so incredibly naive, I’m not sure how he’s managed to survive. Also because of this, the unbalanced power dynamics in his relationship with the head ninja come across as disconcerting rather than romantic. And it’s surprising that the ninja clan has continued to exist at all since Hiiragi and Asagi find it appropriate to take time to have sex while in the middle of an escape from a difficult mission. The third set of stories is about snow spirits, but I’ve since read better snow spirit stories, too. There is some nice artwork here and there, but overall I wasn’t especially impressed by Shinobu Kokoro.

Manga the Week of 9/3

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SEAN: Remember when I whined about so many titles coming out in August? Yeah, September is just as bad if not worse. Didn’t the manga boom end? Here’s what’s out the first week:

Dark Horse gives us the 2nd volume of the New, Modern-day Lone Wolf… no, wait, it’s the New Lone Wolf & Cub, but it’s still an old samurai manga. The lone wolf himself is new, though.

Gen Manga has the first volume of a series called Kamen, a word with much history in Japanese manga.

ASH: This is actually a new edition of a volume that was originally released in 2012 in preparation for the release of the rest of the series.

noragami1SEAN: If I say ‘ordinary middle school girl meets a god’ are you excited? No? Well, Noragami has that premise, but it’s apparently quite a coveted title, from the artists who brought you Alive, if you recall that old abandoned Del Rey series. Kodansha has Vol. 1 next week.

ASH: I got my hands on an early copy of Noragami and rather enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to reading more of the series.

ANNA: Hmm, I am a little curious about this.

MJ: Same.

MICHELLE: I recall hearing good things about Alive while it was ongoing, so consider me intrigued.

SEAN: The 2nd volume of Knight’s Knowledge, an Ace entry in the Country of Hearts series, is out. I thought vol. 1 was pretty good in showing that everyone just doesn’t gave in to the love interest of the arc. Hopefully it continues to interest.

ANNA: I need to pick up the first volume! Ace is my favorite. I also have no sense of direction and murderous urges.

SEAN: A Centaur’s Life has its fourth volume, and I think introduces us to a new cast member. My suspicion is this volume may deal with racism in a fantasy sort of way.

ASH: That it may.

SEAN: Mayo Chiki has its seventh and final volume, and further deponent sayeth not.

There’s also another volume of the 2nd part of the Zero’s Familiar series, Chevalier.

What Did You Eat Yesterday? has another volume of food and Shiro driving me crazy.

ANNA: I’m so happy this is being released in English! I am happy with every volume that comes out!

ASH: It makes me happy, too!

MJ: Hurray! Just when I thought this abundant week might not really have much for me… this is enough!

MICHELLE: Commence happy dance!

SEAN: Viz has a pile of releases, and a goodly number of them are omnibuses. Bleach, Naruto, and Dragon Ball all have 3-in-1 omnibuses for you to play catch up with.

midnight7Library Wars: Love & War had a fantastic action-packed 11th volume. Can this 12th volume keep things going? And will there be actual romantic progress?

ASH: I’m pretty sure I enjoy this series more than I should, but I can’t help it!

ANNA: I have read this volume and it features librarians kissing!!!!!

ASH: Oh, most excellent!

MICHELLE: Library Wars really has grown on me. I’m looking forward to this!

SEAN: Midnight Secretary comes to an end with the 7th volume. If you enjoyed it, no worries; Spell of Desire by the same author is out from Viz now. No vampires (yet), but it does have witches!

ANNA: This was a good conclusion to the series, and the bonus story included in this volume titled “Midnight Butler,” with a gender swapped couple consisting of a female vampire and human man is quite amusing.

MICHELLE: Spell of Desire also has kitties!

SEAN: Nisekoi has introduced a new antagonist to its harem, so I’m sure this 5th volume will be devoted to softening her antagonism a bit.

One Piece reaches its 72nd volume. 72! Will Luffy continue to advance in the tournament, or get distracted by shiny objects?

Phantom Thief Jeanne had quite a cliffhanger at the end of its third volume, and I suspect that a good chunk of the 4th will involve picking up the pieces.

ANNA: I don’t always greet reissues with glee, but this series more than deserves to be in print.

MJ: Clearly, I need to give this some attention.

MICHELLE: MJ, if there were ever an Arina Tanemura series you would love, I think this is the one. But seriously also read One Piece! :)

SEAN: A word of warning to those of weak constitutions: the 4th Ranma 1/2 omnibus introduces us to Happosai. Yes, I’m sad as well, but sometimes life just hands you lemons that you can’t even make lemonade from.

Seraph of the End has its second volume, and it’s probably not a good sign that I’m having trouble remembering what happened in the first already.

ANNA: I thought the first volume was intriguing and am looking forward to the second volume.

timekillersSEAN: Skip Beat! has reached Vol. 33, and it’s starting to creep up on the ‘longest running shojo manga in North America’ title.

ANNA: Skip Beat! is another favorite of mine. I’m also currently obsessed with the live action drama series based on the title.

MICHELLE: *happy sigh* Does Boys Over Flowers hold the title currently? That had 37 volumes, if you count Jewelry Box. Also, HOW DID I NOT KNOW THERE WAS A LIVE ACTION DRAMA SERIES?!

SEAN: For fans of Blue Exorcist, Viz has a short story collection from its author called Time Killers, collecting various one-shots done before she became a household word.

ASH: I’m looking forward to checking this one out.

ANNA: Me too!

MJ: I’m interested, I’m interested.

SEAN: Lastly, and I still don’t have anything to say about it, there’s the 6th volume of Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds.

What kind of September are you trying to remember?

Manga Giveaway: Nana Giveaway

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It’s that time again! Time for Experiments in Manga’s monthly manga giveaway! This month everyone will have a chance to win the first volume of Ai Yazawa’s fantastic series Nana as published by Viz Media. The series may not be finished, and it might never be, but it’s still well worth reading. The first volume actually stands very well on its own, too. As always, this giveaway is open worldwide!

Nana, Volume 1

Many, many years ago, before Experiments in Manga even existed, I read the first volume of Ai Yazawa’s Nana. I enjoyed it well enough, but didn’t initially get around to reading much beyond that. However, I kept seeing other people write about the series, expressing their love for the manga. And so a couple of years ago I decided to try reading the series again. And it floored me. (In a good way.) Who knows why at first Nana didn’t grab me? Maybe it was just bad timing, or maybe I was in a bad mood the day I read it. But I’m so glad that I gave the series a second look–it’s a tremendous work deserving all of the praise that has been bestowed upon it. Nana isn’t the only series that I’ve had a similar experience with. Take CLAMP’s X, for another example. I didn’t like the first volume at all, but gave the series a second chance when Viz began to release the beautiful omnibus edition. For whatever reason, the second time around X hooked me. Granted, in the case of X, it’s one of those manga that’s so bad it’s good as opposed to something like Nana which is just damn good.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win a copy of Nana, Volume 1?

1) Have you ever given a particular manga or series a second chance? If so, tell me about your experience in the comments below. If not, simply mention that and tell me why.
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 and has one week to submit comments. If you prefer or have trouble with the comment form, entries may also be sent via e-mail to phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. (The entry will then be posted in your name.) The giveaway winner will be randomly selected and announced on September 3, 2014. Best of luck!

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: Nana Giveaway Winner

My Week in Manga: August 18-August 24, 2014

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My News and Reviews

Last week–last Monday, to be exact–Experiments in Manga celebrated its fourth anniversary. I’ve taken to writing what usually ends up being a rather lengthy anniversary post every year in which I reflect on the past three-hundred-sixty-five days, and this year was no different. I also posted a review last week of The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan, Ivan Morris’ classic study of Heian-era Japan and The Tale of Genji. The work was originally published in 1964 and it’s still a great read. Finally, for something a little different, I posted a Spotlight on Masaichi Mukaide who, in the late 1970s, became one of the first Japanese comics artists to be released in English. I rather enjoyed investigating this bit of comics history; I hope other people find it interesting as well.

While working on my random musings about Masaichi Mukaide, I discovered that the three short manga currently believed to be the earliest manga to have been translated into English (Akasegawa Genpei’s “Sakura Illustrated,” Shirato Sampei’s “Red Eyes,” and Tsuge Yoshiharu’s “The Stopcock”) are available online to read digitally. Another interesting piece of reading that I came across last week was Ryan Holmberg’s article on manga, art history, and Seiichi Hayashi at The Comics Journal. Elsewhere online, Sean at A Case Suitable for Treatment looks at some of the latest offerings from Crunchyroll Manga and Justin at Organization Anti-Social Geniuses was able to get some of the manga publishers to weigh in on their approaches to the last pages of manga volumes.

Quick Takes

Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 1Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, Volume 1 written by Yuto Tsukuda and illustrated by Shun Saeki. Soma Yukihira wants nothing more than to surpass his father in the kitchen, but his goal of becoming the ultimate chef becomes a little more difficult when his father closes up the family restaurant for three years. In the meantime, Soma is expected to transfer into the most elite and competitive culinary school in Japan. The other students aren’t very welcoming of the son of a low-end family restaurant, so it’s entirely up to the arrogant and uncouth Soma to prove that his cooking is just as impressive as their high-class cuisine. Overall, the artwork in Food Wars is great. The illustrations of the food in particular are incredibly sumptuous. And then there are the reaction shots–those who taste Soma’s cooking often fall into nearly orgasmic ecstasy which is accompanied by highly sexualized imagery. This does include such things as young women being molested by tentacles, which will certainly not appeal to every reader. Personally, I was for the most part rather amused by the ridiculous levels and absurdity of the occasional fanservice.

The Prince of Tennis, Volume 1The Prince of Tennis, Volumes 1-7 by Takeshi Konomi. While recently reading The Princess of Tennis, a memoir written by one of Konomi’s assistants, I came to the realization that I had never actually read any of The Prince of Tennis. The series is one of the most successful and popular sports manga in Japan, growing into a fairly substantial franchise. The Prince of Tennis is an oddly addictive series–I tore through the first seven volumes very quickly–but to some extent it’s also a bit frustrating. There is virtually no story or character development, simply game after game of tennis and middle school trash talk. Some of the most important games, the ones that actually impact the characters’ growth (what little there is) happen almost entirely off-page. All of the players are very strong to begin with, so there hasn’t been much evolution in their performance or skill levels, either. But the various games are interesting and entertaining, if a little over-the-top. There are a lot of good-looking characters of various types, too, which is probably a large part of the series’ appeal. I’m not in a rush to read more, but I did enjoy the first seven volumes.

Random Musings: Spotlight on Masaichi Mukaide

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Star Reach, Issue 7

Star Reach #7

While reading Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present, I encountered a single sentence that particularly caught my attention: “Star Reach was also notable for printing the first Japanese comics to be translated into English, two short pieces by Masaichi Mukaide; the style displayed was not characteristically Japanese, however, and failed to ignite any further interest in importing manga for the time being.”

Masaichi Mukaide. Though at that point I was unfamiliar with Star Reach, I was pretty sure that I had come across Mukaide’s name somewhere before. And so I decided to investigate.

Star Reach was an influential independent American comics anthology that focused on science fiction and fantasy stories. Mike Friedrich, who was once an editor and writer at both DC Comics and Marvel, established his own press in order publish Star Reach, which began in 1974. In 1978, he also started to release Star Reach‘s sister publication Imagine. At one point or another, both of those magazines included short works by Mukaide. Some of the comics were entirely his own creation while others were collaborations with different writers, both Japanese and American–notably Lee Marrs and Steven Grant. The first of Mukaide’s comics to appear in English, “The Bushi,” was written by Satoshi Hirota and was published in the seventh issue of Star Reach January 1977.

In an interview with Friedrich included in the Star Reach Companion, Richard Arndt asked how it came about that Star Reach published the first manga to appear in America. Friedrich replied:

I’ve never met the Japanese artist I published, although we did present a fair amount of his work. Oddly enough, he’s not a comic book artist in Japan. He was basically a fan artist over there. He could not make his living as an artist in Japan because his work was considered too American! If you look at it now, it was probably the first combination of manga and American comics. His work didn’t quite fit anywhere. But, yeah, there’s a book, Manga! Manga!, which certifies that the first appearance of manga in the United States was in Star Reach. I had no idea that was true.

Well, it turns out that technically isn’t true–Ryan Sands has noted that a 1971 issue of Concerned Theatre Japan included three short manga in translation–but for all intents and purposes, Mukaide’s work was the first exposure that the average comics reader in the United States had to manga.

Try as I might, I’ve been unable to find very much information about Mukaide himself. The best clue that I’ve discovered comes from Friedrich’s editor’s note accompanying Star Reach #18, the magazine’s final issue:

A friend of Masaichi Mukaide dropped by the other day and I found out a bit more about our distant Japanese contributor. He’s a law school graduate who opted out of a legal career to enter the publishing world and keep up his art. His wife is also an artist, working on the local comics (I believe I was told).

However, that’s not the last that was seen of Mukaide in English. Sometime between 1980 and 1982 a volume simply called Manga was released. (ISBN 4946427015 for those who are interested in trying to track down a copy.) This collection is the reason that Mukaide’s name seemed familiar to me–his comic, “The Promise,” concludes the volume. He was also the editor of the collection. Looking more closely at Manga‘s credits, there are also some other names that I now recognize: Friedrich served as the consulting editor, Hirota was the associate editor, and Marrs was a contributing writer.

Manga was one of the first collections deliberately crafted in order to introduce Japanese comics to Western audiences: “Our purpose in publishing Manga is to give the non-Japanese reading public a visual taste of Japan and the creative talents that exist there. Nothing would give us greater pleasure, however, if in doing so we are able to boost the cultural understanding in the west about Japan.”

The Bushi

“The Bushi”

As already mentioned, the first work by Mukaide to appear in English was “The Bushi,” which was written by Satoshi Hirota. Were it not for the historical Japanese setting, there is very little to indicate that the creators themselves were also Japanese. Mukaide’s artwork is not all that different from many of the other comics found in Star Reach. The story is set during the tumultuous time between the age of myth and legends and the age of humans. A young warrior confronts and battles with a demon, seeking revenge for the slaughter of his family, only to become a demon himself.

“The Spider Thread” is based on the well-known short story “The Spider’s Thread” written by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa in 1918. In it, a sinner is given the chance to escape hell because he once saved the life of a spider–the only good deed that he ever committed. However, Mukaide gives his own little twist to the tale at the end of the comic. Considering the seriousness and drama of the story–it almost entirely takes place among the tortured souls in hell–the final panel is surprisingly humorous, turning the comic into a joke. “The Spider Thread” also contains what is probably my favorite single page composed by Mukaide.

Mukaide’s first collaboration with writer Lee Marrs, “The Awakening of Tamaki,” was apparently intended to be the start of a series which would follow the trials of a young woman named Tamaki. After her family is killed, Tamaki is raised in seclusion by her sole-surviving uncle. When he dies as well she must make her own way in the world, disguised as a boy for the sake of her safety. Thanks to her uncle’s training, Tamaki is an excellent swordswoman with exceptional moral strength. As far as I know, there were never any more installments in the series, which is a shame; I really liked the comic.

The Spider Thread

“The Spider Thread”

“The Mission” was Mukaide’s second collaboration with Marrs. Whereas I was very fond of “The Awakening of Tamaki,” “The Mission” is probably my least favorite of Mukaide’s comics in English. It seems like it should be a something that I would enjoy, but it just didn’t grab me. Despite the numerous twists and turns the story takes within its few pages, despite the lies and betrayals, despite the quick pace and all of the action and fighting, for some reason “The Mission” simply strikes me as somewhat generic ninja adventure. Ninja doesn’t even have a name; he’s just Ninja.

When compared to the rest of Mukaide’s English-language comics,  the two-paged “Salvation” stands out because the artwork and story is so simple. Backgrounds are almost nonexistent and the shading and detail of the illustrations are limited as well. The story follows a drunkard who keeps getting kicked out of drinking establishments. He causes a panic by claiming that a doomsday flood is coming in order to sneak back into the bars after everyone else has fled. It’s an amusing and silly short comic that, like most of Mukaide’s other comics, has a bit of a twist at the end.

“The Soldier Who Guards the Gate of the City Freedom” is another two-paged comic by Mukaide, although it is more of a historical allegory instead of a humorous gag like “Salvation.” A young soldier, a man of honor, has the lonely duty of guarding the city gates. He does so willingly, though the eventual enemy attack is a long time in coming. Mukaide’s emphasis on the soldier’s loneliness is the key to the impact of the brief comic. The steady passage of time, too, is important. Mukaide captures this through the use of a very regular progression of narrow panels which are all of the exact same size.

“Crashing,” which was written by Steven Grant, is the only example of Mukaide’s work in the genre of science fiction. All of his other comics published in English are historical in nature, generally with touches of the fantastic. Mukaide’s artwork in “Crashing” is not at all dissimilar to American science fiction comics of the era. It’s a somewhat confusing story, but this is exceedingly appropriate as the comic’s protagonist has gone insane. Mukaide’s artwork supports this as well–the illustrations can be somewhat hallucinogenic and the page layouts are often fragmented.

The Awakening of Tamaki

“The Awakening of Tamaki”

“The Promise,” the last of Mukaide’s comics to be translated, is his rendition of the legend of the Yuki-onna, or the Snow Woman. Lafcadio Hearn’s telling of the story in Kwaidan is probably the version with which English-language audiences are most familiar. Mukaide’s tale incorporates many of the same elements as Hearn’s, but he adds his own touches as well. “The Promise” also shares some similarities with “The Bushi,” especially in style, although “The Promise” tends to be stronger overall. However, the two comics bookend Mukaide’s excursion into English particularly nicely because of their parallels.

After that, Mukaide seems to disappear. I have no idea what happened to him or if he’s even still creating comics. Perhaps he went back to working in law. Either way, a small corpus of Mukaide’s comics released in English in the late 1970s and early 1980s does exist. What particularly strikes me about these works are the changes and adjustments that he makes to his art style and page layouts to better suit each story being told. Although each comic is definitely its own work, there are some common elements as well. For example, his narratives and artwork frequently draw inspiration from traditional stories, tales, and legends. Interestingly, although many of his comics take place within a vaguely historical Japanese setting, he does not exclusively limit himself to Japanese sources. Instead, Mukaide’s work blends together both Eastern and Western influences, which seems oddly fitting for one of the first Japanese comics creators to be released in English.

Masaichi Mukaide Bibliography

  • “The Awakening of Tamaki” written by Lee Marrs and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Imagine #4, October 1978)
  • “The Bushi” written by Satoshi Hirota and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Star Reach #7, January 1977)
  • “Crashing” written by Steven Grant and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Star Reach #18, October 1979)
  • “The Mission” written by Lee Marrs and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Star Reach #15, December 1978)
  • “The Promise” written and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Manga, 1980/1982?)
  • “Salvation” written and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Imagine #6, June 1979)
  • “The Soldier Who Guards the Gate of the City Freedom” written and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Star Reach #18, October 1979)
  • “The Spider Thread” written and illustrated by Masaichi Mukaide (Imagine #3, July 1978)
Salvation

“Salvation”

Further Reading
Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present by Dan Mazur and Alexander Danner
Early Manga: A Chronology by Ryan Sands
Incredible First-Ever Manga Translated in 1971 by Ryan Sands
Manga and Mega Comics by Jason Thompson
Manga in the USA by Michael Toole
My Life is Choked with Comics #19a: Manga by Joe McCulloch
My Life is Choked with Comics #19b: Manga by Joe McCulloch
Star Reach Companion by Richard Arndt