Features

Manga the Week of 8/14

August 8, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ 3 Comments

SEAN: First of all, I’m giving up on moving Yen to when I get it. Diamond is shipping it next week to me, but that would mean 25 books this week, and only 3 to discuss next week. That’s just imbalanced. I’ll go back to using Amazon’s street date, and just revel in things on my own earlier.

We start off with another Tezuka manga, as Vol. 1 of Triton of the Sea hits stores via Digital Manga Publishing. Another late 60s/early 70s Tezuka title, this was serialized one page at a time in Kodansha’s daily newspaper Sankei Shimbun. The story involves humans and mermaids, and is not as peppy and cheerful as Unico and Atomcat were.

ANNA: This looks interesting!

SEAN: DMP are slowly returning to print, which means more BL titles as well. The Tyrant Falls in Love has hit 8 volumes, and judging by the description it’s done that by basically being a giant soap opera. Expect emotions.

MICHELLE: I’ve never read any of this series, but I’m very happy to see DMP returning to print editions.

ANNA: I’m also glad to see that DMP is returning to print.

MJ: I hated the first volume of this series and then loved the second. I’ve been warned off later volumes of the series by fans who know my tastes, but I’m still glad to see it returning to print.

SEAN: Meanwhile, Wild Honey is a one-and-done volume that involves… sigh… werewolves. Really hot werewolves, no doubt.

Kodansha has the 2nd Battle Angel Alita: Last Order omnibus. I think this volume will feature the title’s descent into the Tournament Arc from Hell, which it takes several years to emerge from. That said, the fights are quite well drawn.

And the second volume of No. 6 drops, where no doubt our hero continues to find out how this world really operates and has more not-quite-ship tease with his newfound companion.

MICHELLE: I’m going to give this series one more volume at least, but I’m feeling a little meh so far.

SEAN: SubLime has the 2nd volume of Blue Morning, for those who want butlers and masters and really well-done cover art.

MICHELLE: Yay!

MJ: I kinda can’t wait for this.

SEAN: For those who don’t want well-done cover art, there’s Embracing Love, debuting here in a 2-in-1 omnibus. See how the leads stare at you. They are serious about being gay. VERY serious.

MICHELLE: *snerk* I believe this is considered a BL classic, so I’m interested to read it.

MJ: Agreed.

SEAN: Viz has some amazing titles coming out this week, making my Pick of the Week either a chore or something I will have to cheat on. Dorohedoro hits double digits, which I am honestly delighted by. Still my favorite SigIkki title, and it looks like it may be hitting a point of no return soon in regards to Caiman.

EXCEL SAGA 26! The second to last volume! Do you realize that we are almost at a point where you will not be buying new volumes of Excel Saga? This makes me so sad! And yet, new volume! Everyone must buy it! It has Homestuck, Warehouse 13, and Welcome to Night Vale cameos in it! Really! Trust me! Would I lie to you?

MJ: Someday, Sean, I’m going to try to read this series, and it will be entirely because of your undying enthusiasm.

SEAN: InuYasha’s VIZBIG edition hits Vol. 16, containing… (calculates) 3 more volumes! Honestly, I can’t remember. I think it’s somewhere in the 40s. Takahashi fantasy at its most popular. I really must catch up one day.

MICHELLE: I still haven’t finished InuYasha. I think I have the last ten volumes hanging around here unread.

ANNA: I am frightened by the length of this series, but it is totally something I would check out of the library one day.

SEAN: Itsuwaribito 9 brings us to a village ruled by women who have no use for men. Oh dear. In a shonen manga? Please don’t have the village learn a valuable lesson about how awesome the male lead is…

I’ve been waiting for this debut for a while now. Magi is one of Shonen Sunday’s more successful current titles, and I hope the title breaks out here in North America in a big way. Retelling the Arabian Nights the shonen fantasy way, with verve and sass. And yes, starts slow. All Sunday titles start slow.

MICHELLE: I was pleasantly surprised by volume one, so if it gets even better from here, that’s definitely promising.

ANNA: Hmm, this sounds like a good shonen series for me to try out.

MJ: I’ve definitely got this in my queue!

SEAN: Neon Genesis Evangelion 3-in-1 gives us Vol. 4, containing Vols. 10-12 of the original title, and everything begins to go completely to hell here. Not that it had all that far to wander, honestly.

If you can’t get enough of the main Tiger & Bunny series, how about a doujinshi anthology? No, not like that, you pervs. This is 100% clean, though no doubt FILLED with ship tease. Vol. 1 of the anthology debuts from Viz.

MJ: I gotta say… meh. Unfortunately.

SEAN: Lastly, the X 3-in-1 hits Vol. 6. If I’m not mistaken, this is where the volumes will have to end, at least until CLAMP returns to the title to wrap it up. Which ain’t happening anytime soon. In the meantime, enjoy where it leaves off.

MICHELLE: I have no idea if it’s still available, but the anime did offer an ending of sorts. Or at least a reasonably satisfying stopping point.

ANNA: This is really one of my favorite CLAMP series despite the lack of ending.

MJ: I’m actually really looking forward to this, even though I’ve already read the not!ending. These lovely editions really have given me a new appreciation for the series.

SEAN: Besides EXCEL SAGA!, what else interests you here?

It Came From the Sinosphere: Shadow of Visions

August 6, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

Example Scene

When I first picked this up and browsed through it, this was the scene that caught my eye.

Wanxiang’s dream is to win the beauty pageant so she can win the prize, return to her hometown, marry her childhood friend, and live comfortably ever after.

However, a seer has told her that it’s best for her to forget about the pageant and just return to her hometown now. But without the prize, she will be poor. And she’s certain she will win.

The pageant has started, and Wanxiang is as confident as ever.

It is the most beautiful, splendid, glorious moment of her life …

… and the end of her life.

I was struck by the contrast of her beauty and the serenity all around her, and the fact that she has just been murdered.

The Story

Yingshuang has a dream: the freedom to wander and go where she wants. Strange, I know. However, everybody expects her to marry the son of her wealthy neighbor, Wen Moyan. Though Moyan has been sweet on Yingshuang since childhood, she doesn’t have the slightest interest in being his wife.

Then one day, an apparently blind man, Shan Yumu, appears in the village. He is said to bring bad luck. In fact, he’s not blind – he’s merely tired of seeing the future. And he sees that, unless Yingshuang gives up her dream and marries Moyan, her family will soon be destroyed.

Well … not long afterwards, her home is set on fire, and Yingshuang is the sole survivor of her family. It is eventually revealed that the arsonist/murderer is … Moyan, who is so in love with Yingshuang that, after her repeated refusals of his marriage proposals, was driven to destroy her family so that she would be completely dependent on him and finally agree to marry him (note: if this is “love,” then I hope nobody ever “loves” me).

After Yingshuang frees Yumu (who had been arrested as a suspected arsonist), they start wandering together. But Moyan does not give up so easily…

Background

This is yet another Star Girls title (I have written about StarGirls before). Sheau Giun (she seems to prefer her Taiwanese name to her Mandarin name) is a regular contributor to Star Girls – she has a series running in the magazine right now.

Artwork

Can you tell this is from Taiwan and not Japan just by looking at the artwork?

I can’t. Sure, the visual sensibility is certainly informed by Chinese traditions, but that’s also true of Japanese manga set in historical China.

Of course, this is what I expect from Star Girls, which tries to be as much like Japanese shojo magazines as possible.

And this manhua can be just as bloody as Japanese shojo manga.

I like the artwork. First, it’s very effective at telling the story. It’s also clean, and pleasing to the eye (or at least my eye).

While I could go into a detailed analysis of how the artwork works, this time, I think I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Choice vs. Predestination

Well, the premise of this story is: are our fates determined, or can we choose our fate? (the answer: both, because our choices are predetermined)

The story adds a feminist slant, in that society defines women’s fates more narrowly than men’s. Yingshuang *should* just go ahead and marry Moyan, who will “love” her and spend many happy years with her, while her family can continue to prosper. All she needs to do is give up on her dream of having some freedom.

And when Yingshuang refuses this path, and Moyan decides to burn her family because he “loves” her so much, it’s *Yingshuangs’s* fault that her family is gone and that Moyan is now a criminal. No, not Moyan’s fault at all. In the real world, this victim-blaming happens all the time when men punish women for exercising autonomy.

The thing is: it’s humans who determine this. There wasn’t any supernatural force which makes Moyan act as he does; Moyan, in spite of his claims that Yingshuang’s rejection of his love “forced” him, actually chooses his own actions. However, society assigns the blame to Yingshuang because she has rejected the status quo, whereas Moyan is acting in accordance to the status quo. We later learn that, though Yumu is male, his personal circumstances are more like Yingshuang’s than Moyan’s. This is why, repeatedly throughout the story, people trust Moyan but not Yingshuang or Yumu – Yumu looks like a bum, Yingshuang is a teenage girl, but Moyan is a “charming” man from a “good” (re: powerful) family.

The story puts a neatly ironic twist in Yingshuang’s ‘fate’, but that would be a spoiler.

My History With This Manhua

When I was first nursing a curiosity about Chinese-language comics, there was precious little information available. I could piece together some bits of information from the internet, but it was not very newbie-friendly. I did, however, learn about Star Girls, and lacking better guidance, I went to a Taiwanese comic book shop and picked up the first volume of every Star Girls manhua they had in stock.

This manhua was one of them.

Some of the manhua I picked up from that grab-bag were so terrible that I am grateful that I’ve already forgotten them.

This, however, made the deepest impression. It was one of the few which I bothered to track down in its entirety.

One of the reasons I write this column is so that it will be a little easier for the next person who becomes curious about Chinese-language comics. While this column is not a comprehensive guide, I hope it’s more useful than what I was working with when I started exploring.

Availability in English

This manhua has never been licensed in English *Sara K. experiences a coughing attack*.

Conclusion

This is overall a solid read. While I can quibble about its faults (for example, that plot hole left wide open in the last volume), overall, it’s competent storytelling. I also have fond memories of it being one of the first manhua I liked.

Yet, somehow, it falls short of being so wonderful that I simply MUST SHARE WITH EVERYONE!!!! But perhaps that’s just as well. I’m fine with it going on being the manhua which I like, but which nobody else reads (not that anybody reads the manhua which I enthusiastically recommend either).

Next time: Laughing in the Wind (TV show)

Hail. In Taiwan. In JULY. Sara knows it snows in the mountains in winter, but she sure did not expect the summer to be this cold. After spending three nights at temperatures of about 12 degrees C with only a sleeping bag to keep her warm, Sara was even looking forward to returning to humid, 30+ degrees-C weather. Well, one of the reasons she went to the mountains in the first place was to get away from summer heat. In that respect, the trip was a resounding success.

Manga the Week of 8/7

August 1, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, Anna N and MJ 9 Comments

SEAN: Can’t talk, too much manga.

Dark Horse has the 2nd Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus. I enjoyed the first one more than I thought, and will hope that the 2nd gives us just as much assassination intrigue and adorable toddlers with killer eyes.

MICHELLE: I also liked it more than I expected.

ANNA: I read the first five or so volumes of this back in the day, and am glad it is getting reissued.

MJ: I’m surprised to find myself really looking forward to this second omnibus!

SEAN: Drawn and Quarterly finally, after a long gestation period, has the first in what I hope becomes a series of books based on Shigeru Mizuki’s 60s yokai classic, Gegege no Kitaro. Retitled Kitaro for North America (Gegege is sort of an untranslatable sound of fear), it’s over 400 pages of 60s shonen goodness. For those who love all the yokai manga coming out these days, here’s the King.

ANNA: I am intrigued by this!

MJ: Same here!

SEAN: I know only I care, but I still do care: Kodansha Comics has Vol. 31 of The Wallflower. 31 volumes! That’s more than Kenshin! Lots more than Fruits Basket! It’s 30 volumes more than Gaba Kawa! It’s a long series that rewards me with comedy, not romance.

MICHELLE: Back in the day, I bought the first six or seven volumes of this. But then I learned about its length and its episodic nature and I just went “Ugh.”

ANNA: I had a very similar reaction to Michelle’s. I found the first few volumes amusing but wasn’t willing to sign up for a neverending series.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a significant presence this week. There’s another Alice spinoff, The Clockmaker’s Story. The spinoffs are starting to glut the market, but I really enjoy Julius and his grumpypantsness. He reminds me of Austria from Hetalia. So I have hopes for this.

MICHELLE: I kinda like Julius, too, but I have really lost count of these spinoffs.

ANNA: I am pro-Julius!

SEAN: Hooray, a new volume of A Certain Scientific Railgun, the manga that reminds you once again that spinoffs can not only do better than the original, but inspire flamewars about the original! The athletics festival continues here, and we find out what Misaka does when her support team of good friends is taken from her.

Dance in the Vampire Bund continues to omnibus itself with Vols. 7-9. I understand it has vampires.

Kanokon also gives us an omnibus, featuring Vols. 3 and 4. I think I’ve already said what I need to about this series.

MICHELLE: I don’t even know what Kanokon is. Should I be glad?

SEAN: The Sacred Blacksmith has a second volume, for fantasy swordplay fans. I seem to recall I liked this slightly better.

And World War Blue, Seven Seas’ attempt to license a Fairy Tail that’s all their own, has its own Volume 2, just a month after Vol. 1.

It’s rare I discuss artbooks, but I’m also a giant Haruhi Suzumiya fanboy, so this dovetails nicely. Udon is putting out the first of a series of Haruhi artbooks, this called Haruhi-Ism: Noizi Ito Artworks. I suspect, as opposed to Udon’s amazing Read or Die artbook, we’ll see more art and less infotext here. But hey, getting it anyway.

MJ: I’m actually kind of interested in this, too.

SEAN: Vertical gives us the 4th volume of Knights of Sidonia. What’s the chance they go back to the wacky harem comedy this time around? I’m guessing it’s more likely there will be body horror and space battles instead. But it’s good. I’m just being churlish.

MICHELLE: But it’s creepy body horror of the best kind! I love Sidonia a lot.

ANNA: I guess I am now two volumes behind on this series, but I look forward to getting caught up. I’m happy that Vertical is bringing over mecha manga like this and Gundam: The Origin.

MJ: I *heart* Knights of Sidonia very much.

SEAN: And Viz. Bakuman comes to an end with its 20th volume, and has proven to at least be a slightly happier ride than Death Note. Certainly more people know about the workings of Jump now…

MICHELLE: Stay tuned for a special Off the Shelf devoted to Bakuman., coming next month!

MJ: I’m really looking forward to the discussion with Michelle. This series surprised me at intervals, throughout, and I was especially surprised to find myself actually caring about the romance during the last volume. Can’t wait to see how it plays out!

SEAN: A Devil And Her Love Song hits double digits with Vol. 10. Given where last volume left off, it’s expecting this one will be a big ol’ angstfest, but you never know.

MICHELLE: I think angstfest is a good bet.

ANNA: I have read this and haven’t been able to write my review yet, but I would say that it goes beyond angsfest and heads strongly into severe emotional traumaland.

MJ: Oh, my.

SEAN: Happy Marriage?! is the new josei title from Shojo Beat, being another foray into the magazine that gave us Butterflies, Flowers. I must admit, I’m a bit wary – Butterflies, Flowers succeeded for me because of its ridiculousness – this may not have as much of that. But hey, any Petit Comic over here is good.

MICHELLE: I’m wary, too, but I’ll give it a shot.

ANNA: I liked it just fine! It is a lightweight, fun to read josei title. Not as goofy as Butterflies, Flowers, but still enjoyable.

MJ: I’m interested, for sure. Wary, but interested.

SEAN: Kamisama Kiss has caught up with Japan, at least as much as Viz allows itself to do, so it’s been a while since we’ve seen it. Lucky Number 13 should give us yokai manga of the week #2.

MICHELLE: I’m going to try to get caught up on this soon.

SEAN: Kaze Hikaru 21! Squee! OK, I admit, I’m still 20 volumes behind on this series. But hey, any series that comes out yearly is always in my wheelhouse, given Excel Saga was there for a while as well. Highly underrated shoujo, from what my friends tell me.

MICHELLE: I love Kaze Hikaru very much. Everyone should read it! But especially MJ.

ANNA: I adore this series and I always feel a bit giddy when a new volume comes out.

MJ: *hangs head in shame*

SEAN: Kimi ni Todoke 17. I have little to say about this series, even though I love it to bits. Just expect everyone to be even more sweet and adorable, OK?

MICHELLE: Works for me!

ANNA: Works for me too!

MJ: Count me in!

SEAN: Another series hits double digits as Library Wars: Love & War gets to Vol. 10. I think this got delayed a month or so, so I hope it’s worth the wait.

MICHELLE: I’m kind of surprised how much I’ve been enjoying Library Wars lately.

ANNA: I was always going to be a fan because it is not that often that my profession gets featured in a manga, but I think that this series has gotten more enjoyable several volumes in.

SEAN: Naruto 62. That’s a whole lotta ninja.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan wraps up Kyoto here at last, and moves on to a few side stories before the next big arc. It’s also yokai manga #3.

There’s always one Viz manga Diamond ships to my store late, and this month it’s Otomen 16. But the rest of you will get it. As always, I’m there for the Ryo.

Slam Dunk is in its closing volumes, but still not quite there yet. Here’s Vol. 29.

MICHELLE: It is taking a lot of willpower not to read the three unread volumes I have now collected, but this series is so good when read in chunks, so I’m tying to hold out ’til volume 31 gets here.

ANNA: I have less self control and generally read Slam Dunk as soon as it arrives because I can’t ration out my reading of this sports manga masterwork.

SEAN: Tegami Bachi is bachi-ing its tegami with Vol. 14. (Sorry, this has been a long post, I’m tired, and I don’t read the series.)

Lastly, Toriko 17 wraps everything up with some more tasty food fighting.

Assuming you didn’t move on halfway through this endless list, what are you getting this week?

Manga the Week of 7/31

July 25, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 5 Comments

SEAN: It’s the dreaded 5th week of the month, but there’s more to find here than usual, with a couple of really tasty manga treats, particularly if you like old-school manga.

Dark Horse has the 28th volume of Gantz. I’m not certain if they’re still all wearing shiny leather catsuits. I have to assume they are. Sadly, this series is still not Hen or HEN, two series (yes, they are separate, though connected) by the same author that I would rather see licensed over here.

MICHELLE: Do they involve chickens? (Please say yes.)

SEAN: Nope. Hen involves a straight high school boy falling in love with another boy, and trying to convince himself that his love is a girl who’s just trapped in a boy’s body. HEN is essentially the same, only the lead is a girl falling for another girl (this version got an anime). They’re both more interesting than they sound. (Hen means ‘strange’ in Japanese.)

MJ: Is it awful that I’m more excited about this Hen/HEN discussion than I am about the actual items on this week’s list?

MICHELLE: So am I. Gender-complicated romance trumps shounen fighting sagas.

MJ: Amen.

MICHELLE: Even if there are no chickens.

MJ: Even then.

SEAN: I also note that both Hen and HEN ran in Young Jump (which explains much of the fanservice scattered throughout both titles). So they’re not just seinen gay manga, but MANLY seinen gay manga. :) (They also take place in the same ‘universe’, and intertwine slightly.)

I found out about HEN from Erica, who has the series in Japanese.

MJ: I feel somehow that this week’s featured image should be Hen. Or HEN. One of the two. :D No?

SEAN: Sadly, it would require Viz to license the series (or sublicense it to Dark Horse, but honestly Gantz is more their style), which I doubt will happen unless the market changes a lot more than it has to date. This is late 80s-mid 90s stuff, let’s remember. :)

MJ: Oh, well. *sniff*

SEAN: Kodansha Comics has a new Fairy Tail, also a Vol. 28. Still speeding up, though if you have a digital option, you can get up to Vol. 33 now, I believe. I believe that fights are still happening.

MICHELLE: That is a good bet.

SEAN: Picturebox debut their new line of ’10-cent manga’, which seems to pick up various influential old-school titles, Yes, Tezuka is coming in the fall, but first we have Shigeru Sugiura, who was almost as influential but is criminally underrepresented outside Japan. His Last of the Mohicans came out in 1953, though I believe this hardcover release is from his 1970s redraw/touch-up of that. This is not a straight-up adaptation, though. Surreal is the word of the day. Highly anticipated.

MICHELLE: Huh. Interesting.

MJ: I’m definitely interested in this, though with the slightest concern over my ability to fully appreciate it. But I have high hopes!

ANNA: This sounds off the beaten path and very interesting. I’m always glad when something unconventional gets released, and old-school manga is something that we’ve not seen as much of over here as I would like.

SEAN: And in case you really wanted Tezuka, Vertical has the sequel to Princess Knight, Twin Knights. This came out in 1958, 5 years before the Princess Knight we saw over here, which was a redone version of the original Princess Knight from 1954, of which this is a direct sequel. If that made sense to you, congratulations, you are a Tezuka fanboy. This should be light, frothy adventure fun.

MICHELLE: Maybe it will be missing the elements of Princess Knight that kinda made me mad.

MJ: I’m hoping so. A lot.

ANNA: Looking forward to this!

SEAN: Lastly, Yen releases another in their series of Kingdom Hearts releases, this one an omnibus repackaging of Kingdom Hearts II. This is a full-on shonen adventure, which ran in Square Enix’s main magazine, Gangan. The only odd thing about it is Donald Duck and Goofy’s presence, really. Otherwise this could be Fairy Tail or Soul Eater.

MICHELLE: I regret to say that I could not possibly care less about Kingdom Hearts.

MJ: I probably could, but not a lot less.

SEAN: Are these titles too old-school for you? Or not old enough? Or do you want HEN as well? (No, it’s still not licensed – that image above is from the French release.)

It Came from the Sinosphere: Starry Starry Night

July 23, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

Right near the beginning of the film, our protagonist is sitting inside Taipei Train Station, with a train ticket in her hand. Then it begins to snow.

I think that says more about what kind of movie this is than any blurb I can think up.

The Story

Xiaomei is not as happy living in the city with her parents as she was when she lived with her grandfather in the countryside. She becomes friends with her new classmate, Xiaojie, who is often bullied by the other students.

There is a piece missing in her “Starry Starry Night” jigsaw puzzle, and she can’t find it or replace it.

Eventually, shortly after her grandfather’s death, Xiaomei’s parents announce that they are going to divorce. Afterwards, Xiaomei runs away with Xiaojie to go to the house where she lived with her (now dead) grandfather. But they get lost…

Background

This film is based on the picture book by the very successful Taiwanese illustrator/writer Jimmy Liao, which in turn was named after a certain Vincent Van Gogh painting. It was a Chinese-Taiwanese co-production (China supplied the money, Taiwan supplied the creativity), and the first public screening was at the Busan International Film Festival.

Location, Location, Location

Wow.

First of all, when I saw the first scene, which was filmed in Taipei Train Station, I thought “that is exactly how it looked when I was living in Taipei.” I remember when the scaffolding in the background was first put up. However, it’s been over a year since Taipei train station looked like that (the scaffolding was for the renovation), so I checked. Lo and behold, that scene was shot in March 2011, when I was still living quite close to the train station. Back then, I spent quite a bit of time wandering around Taipei station, pondering whatever was on my mind (for example, I remember one evening when I was walking around Taipei train station and couldn’t stop thinking about Basara). The fact that this is exactly how Taipei Train Station looked when I lived around there (minus the snow, of course) makes this specific scene very nostalgic to me. When I get around to discussing Mars (I can hardly believe that I haven’t dedicated a post to Mars yet) I will say more about the neighborhood.

And then there are the scenes in the Alishan mountains.

This looks like it's might still in the subtropical zone, so I suspect this scene isn't too deep into the Alishan mountains.

This is nothing compared to the famous cypress or bamboo forests in the Alishan region.

The film never says that Xiaomei’s grandfather lived in the Alishan mountains … but it looks like the Alishan mountains, and I know that it was filmed in the Alishan mountains.

The Alishan mountains have an important place in Taiwan’s cultural heritage. First of all, Taiwan’s most famous kind of tea, Alishan mountain tea, is grown there. A popular Taiwanese drink/desert, aiyu, originated in the Alishan mountains, and the best aiyu I’ve ever consumed was in Ruifeng, one of Alishan’s villages. Alishan is one of the most popular places to view Yushan, Taiwan’s highest – and most culturally revered – mountain. And then, there is the famous Alishan Forest Railway, which an important cultural symbol, as well as notorious for its many mishaps. Currently, only a few sections of the railway are in operation (the tracks have a tendency to collapse during earthquakes and typhoons). The silver lining is that, because the trains aren’t running, it is safe to walk on the tracks, which is sometimes the best way to get around the transportation-hostile Alishan range (roads are often washed-out, buses get cancelled, etc). In fact, during the film, Xiaomei and Xiaojie do walk on some train tracks.

There are tons of tea fields in the Alishan region.

Currently, the grandfather’s house is in the historic town of Fenqihu. The movie was not filmed there, but the county requested they move the film set to a place where tourists could visit it. At the time I visited it, I had not seen the movie, but I could see the loving and meticulous care put into all of the little details of the house.

What Does France Have To Do With It?

Xiaomei’s mother is into all things French. She wears French clothes, drinks French wine, decorates her home with French artwork, often talks in France, and after the divorce, she moves to France.

A scene in France.

Until a few decades ago, most prominent visual artists in Taiwan received their training abroad, usually in Japan, China, or … France. When I visit art galleries focusing on Taiwanese artists from before 1980, I can often tell whether the artist trained in Japan, China, or France. Since the institutions to support native talent in the fine arts in Taiwan are relatively young, patrons of the arts who are not so interested in contemporary work often devote most of their attention to foreign art.

What I find interesting is that, in Xiaomei’s imagination, Alishan/Taiwan and France/Europe are not separate worlds. They are part of the same world – her world. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the scene where an Alishan alpine train rolls through Van Gogh’s “Starry Starry Night.”

Climate-wise, Alishan and France are also not so different. Though Taiwan is a tropical island, the Alishan region is at such as a high elevation that it’s climate is temperate, as you can tell in the movie. When I show some of the photos I’ve taken in Taiwan’s mountainous interior to both Taiwanese and European people, they often comment ‘that looks like Europe’.

The Alishan region also has a significant number of European Catholic missionaries – as reflected in the movie by the abandoned church.

The abandoned church, next to a section of the Alishan railway. There are reasons why most of the Alishan train line is not operating right now, and reasons why, back when it was operating, it was unreliable and had a number of accidents which killed a bunch of passengers.

Strike ‘Em With Magical Realism

A lot of the appeal of this movie comes from juxtaposing ordinary things in an extraordinary way. For example, Taipei Train Station is ordinary, and snow is ordinary, but snow in Taipei Train Station is extraordinary. Ditto with the Alishan alipine train and the painting ‘Starry Starry Night’.

However, sometimes it’s a little more subtle – light the shadow of Xiaomei’s half-naked body in an abandoned church (I’m surprised that I’m calling the silhouette of an adolescent girl changing her clothes inside a church “subtle”).

However, the climax of the movie is Xiaomei’s nightmare.

In her nightmare, her friend Xiaojie, and then her parents, are a jigsaw puzzle – and the pieces are falling apart.

The Human Side

However, what makes a deeper impression on me than the magical realism is the human side of the story.

Xiaomei’s Mother

One of the most memorable scenes is when Xiaomei is dining with her mother in a very posh establishment. Xiaomei asks her mother if she’s happy, and her mother says that she is very happy. It’s obvious to the audience, however, that she is not at all happy. To get away from the topic of her (un)happiness, her mother spontaneously pulls her daughter out of her seat for a dance. For a moment, mother and daughter are cheerfully dancing together and then … the cheerfulness recedes.

It’s little touches like this throughout the film which makes the characters feel lively and real.

Availability in English

This movie is available on DVD with English subtitles.

Conclusion

I don’t get this movie.

Though I appreciated many of the individual elements in this movie, for some reason, the trees would not come together in my mind to form a forest.

It’s not that the plot is hard to follow. The plot is quite easy to follow. It’s the significance of what happens which baffles me.

I know this is supposed to be a movie about the loss of childhood innocence, and I can get that the jigsaw puzzle is a metaphor for Xiaomei’s life/world. However, I still do not get how some elements tie into this, and I’m not completely sure what the movie is trying to say about the loss of childhood innocence.

Maybe if I were to see the movie again next year, I would totally get it, and wonder why it wasn’t obvious to me before. Or maybe I still wouldn’t get it.

In spite of all this, the movie is still recommended. Even though I had trouble figuring out the sum of the parts, nearly all of the parts are very charming.

Next Time: Shadow of Visions (manhua)

As long as there isn’t a typhoon, or a big earthquake, or roads closed by landslides, or huge rocks falling for no obvious reason, Taiwan’s mountains are an excellent place to get away from the heat of the Taiwanese summer. Sara K. plans to go into the mountains next week, partially for that very reason. Alas, there are plenty of things which can foil her plans. Fortunately, she is less susceptible to altitude sickness than many people, which makes things a little easier.

3 Things Thursday: Kouga’s Women

July 18, 2013 by MJ 3 Comments

If you’ve been a reader of this blog for any significant amount of time, you’ll know that I gravitate towards female writers—a tendency I wasn’t even fully aware of myself until the moment I realized that nearly all of the series that made my personal top ten list a couple of years ago had been written by women. Fortunately, this preference tends to offer me a fairly spectacular array of terrific female characters to meet and fall in love with, and I’ll be grateful to the Japanese comics industry forever for nurturing the talent of so many incredible female artists and publishing them in such volume.

Unfortunately, there is one female-dominated manga genre in which female characters are drastically under-utilized (and often vilified), and that would be boys’ love. And yes, I do realize that a love story in which both members of the primary romance are male will inevitably have male characters at its center, and that there isn’t often room in the romantic universe of two for anyone else of significance. Still, I admit I long to see relatable female characters as essential parts of any story, and I tend to hold BL authors who agree in the highest regard.

The male-centric sensibility often applies to shoujo manga as well—particularly those penned by creators who enjoy a strong undercurrent of BL subtext in their work, and this absolutely describes Yun Kouga. After all, even Gestalt‘s kick-ass heroine, Ouri, is actually a man temporarily endowed with a female form. Still, Kouga-sensei does not let me down! Female characters are always part of the fabric of her stories, even the most BL-rific of her worlds. For today’s 3 Things Thursday, I’ll look at three of these!

3 favorite female characters in the worlds of Yun Kouga:

1. Gestalt: Suzu – Ouri is a scene-stealing character from Gestalt‘s start to its finish, but I admit that my true heart belongs to dark elf Suzu, who begins as an antagonist, sent by the church to capture and return Father Olivier, and slowly but surely becomes part of our heroes’ party. Though she’s a character who is slow to open up, even to the reader, this scene in volume three in which she finds the courage to battle her sisters, by whom she’s been made to feel inadequate for pretty much her entire life, really begins to reveal who Suzu is. And that Suzu is awesome.

2. Earthian: Elvira – Though Earthian‘s romantic drama revolves largely around its primary couple—partnered angels Chihaya and Kagetsuya—a major key to its larger plot is human/angel hybrid Elvira, daughter of the fallen angel Seraphim, who fell in love with a human woman. Her role is complicated in many ways, but it’s her persistence that brings to light the angels’ true plans for the Earthian. She’s smart, angry, manipulative when she needs to be, and I can’t get enough of her.

3. Loveless: Yamato & Kouya – It may seem like I’m cheating by choosing these two characters together, but together is the way they belong, and they’re willing to risk life as they know it to ensure that it’s how they’ll remain. The story of this “Zero” team is one of my favorites in Loveless‘ early volumes, and I particularly love the way that Kouga-sensei references and then rejects the trope sometimes known as “Bury Your Gays” by setting these two up to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their love, and then turning that completely on its head. Also, they just kick ass.

Do you have favorite female characters created by Yun Kouga? Share them here!

To submit your contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF for inclusion in this month’s archive, please send your links by email to mj@mangabookshelf.com or via Twitter to @mjbeasi between now and Saturday, July 20th. If you would like your contribution(s) to be hosted at Manga Bookshelf, please email them to MJ, along with any included images. Contributions to the Yun Kouga MMF will be archived here.

Manga the Week of 7/24

July 18, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: As you’d expect when I get Yen a week early, that makes this week look pretty damn tiny. What’s coming in? All final volumes this week!

Kodansha has the 11th and final volume of Bloody Monday. There are two sequels out in Japan, but I have a sneaking suspicion this may be it for the title on these shores. Let’s hope it ends better than your average season of 24!

MJ: I abandoned this series early on, though the fact that it wraps up in 11 volumes might be enough to draw me back to it eventually. I guess time will tell.

MICHELLE: I only ever bought the first two volumes of this one. I wonder if it’ll be the first series by this pseudonym-happy creator to actually finish in America, even if we don’t get the sequels. GetBackers, Drops of God, Kindaichi Case Files… all stopped short of the end. Oh, wait, there was Psycho Busters. Exactly my last choice of that group.

SEAN: Vertical has the 5th and I believe final volume of Heroman. Everyone on the cover looks happy, particularly the giant robot.

Lastly, Vertical also has the 6th and final volume of Limit, which has spend 5/6 of its time torturing its cast. Will it kill everyone off, or do we get to survive to see a sequel where they crash on a desert island or something?

MJ: This is definitely the most compelling item on the list for me this week. It has consistently kept me on the edge of my seat, so I’ll be anxious to find out what happens!

MICHELLE: I must confess that I haven’t read beyond volume one of Limit. One day I will!

ANNA: I need to catch up on this too! I enjoyed the first two volumes very much.

SEAN: Which series are you wrapping up?

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Crane-Iron Pentalogy (Part 2)

July 16, 2013 by Sara K. 12 Comments

I actually do not think this image from the manhua is quite in the spirit of the original novels, but it’s still pretty.

Read Part 1

The Development of a Pentalogy

Though the internal chronology is Crane Frightens Kunlun / Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin / Sword Force, Pearl Shine / Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Iron Rider, Silver Vase, the first novel to be written/published was the central one, Sword Force, Pearl Shine, followed by Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin, with Crane Frightens Kunlun.

In other words, Wang Dulu first went back in time, and then decided to go back forward in time.

Sword Force, Pearl Shine is the shortest of the five novels, and I suspect that it was originally intended to be a stand-alone novel. However, being shorter, it is also a little less developed than the other novels. This underdevelopment may have been a blessing in disguise, for I suspect it led Wang Dulu to ask himself about Yu Shulien and Li Mubai’s origins, which inspired Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin, and then he asked himself about Southern Crane, which led to writing Crane Frightens Kunlun. Crane Frightens Kunlun itself has a loose end, and tying that up leads to the creation of a key character (Yu Jiaolong) and much of the plot of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Whether that loose end was put in Crane Frightens Kulun on purpose because Wang Dulu was already planning to write Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I do not know. I strongly suspect, however, that Wang Dulu did deliberately write that open-ended finale ine Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon because he was already planning to write Iron Rider, Silver Vase.

The point is, Wang Dulu did not have a master-plan when he was writing the pentalogy. He let it unfold organically, one book at a time, and even he probably didn’t know where the story was going to go more than a book in advance. The novels are much better because of this.

The scriptwriter Brian McDonald says that storytellers should be the slaves, not the masters, of their stories. To me, it seems that Wang Dulu was not the master of his stories, and I mean that in a good way. On the surface, they seem quite humble and not at all impressive, but they prove to be surprisingly powerful.

About the 2000 Ang Lee Film

Nowadays, even in the Chinese-speaking world, most people know about the Crane-Iron Pentalogy thanks to the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. So how does it compare?

The film simplifies the story. A lot. It has to. It’s only two hours long, and most of the audience is not familiar with the events of Crane Frightens Kunlun / Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin / Sword Force, Pearl Light.

While I love the Crane-Iron Pentalogy as a whole, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the novel I love the least. Unlike the other novels, I felt CTHD has some rather long, tedious sections. The film, quite wisely, leaves out all of the tedious stuff, while keeping the most interesting parts.

Of course, while the movie leaves out a lot detail, it certainly drops quite a few hints. For example, one of the major characters is Cai Xiangmei, a girl who performs acrobatics on the street, yet the only reference to her in the entire movie is a single shot showing a girl performing acrobatics on the street. I think this is Ang Lee’s way of saying ‘Yes, I read the novel, but I simply do not have the screen time to include this character’s story’. I do not think people who haven’t read the novels are consciously aware of these little hints throughout the movie … but I suspect they can still feel that this is just part of a broader story.

Ultimately, the feel of the movie is not the same as the novels. That does not make it a bad movie – in fact, it probably would have been a worse movie if it had tried to stick too close to the novel. I have trouble imagining the subtle psychological tug-and-pull in the novels translating well into film, and of course the gorgeous cinematography of the film is totally absent in the novels.

It’s a good movie, and I recommend it. But…

The Thing Which Bothers Me About the Movie

I am going to be a bit vague to avoid spoilers.

The message of the movie is that you need to recognize, pursue, and consummate (romantic) love before it’s too late. That’s not the message of the original novel, but that is not a problem, nor is it a problem that the movie changes the ending to pull this off. The movie implies that a certain couple never got married because they did not realize how much they loved each other / did not have the courage to pursue their love, and that they regret this. That is also not a problem. The problem is … the couple used to demonstrate this point is Character Y and Character Z (I said I was going to be vague).

In the novels, Y and Z know that they love each other, and they didn’t remain unmarried because of a lack of courage. They stayed unmarried because they decided they did not want to marry. While one could have a great discussion about why they make this choice, it clearly is a deliberate choice on their part.

And they put up with quite a bit of nonsense from other people because of this.

Years after they have made their decision clear, their friends are still scheming up ways to get them married. They get kicked out of shelter onto the street in the middle of the night because of their unmarried status. At one point, someone practically orders them to get married.

But the movie glosses all over this. If two people who are in love with each other refuse marriage, there simply must be a problem, they cannot just be mature adults making thought-out choices about their own personal lives.

I think that’s rather insulting to Character Y and Z, and I think it contradicts the point the novels try to make about freedom in personal relationships. I really wish the movie had found a different way to make this point.

About the New Movie

The word is that Yuen Wo Ping, who was the action choreographer for the Ang Lee film, will be directing the new movie, which I’ve seen titled as both Iron Rider, Silver Vase and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2 – the Green Destiny.

My guess is that it will be even less faithful to the original novels than the Ang Lee film, but will probably incorporate at least parts of the story of Iron Rider, Silver Vase. Personally, as long as they make a good movie which does not do anything too irritating, I’ll be happy. That said, I do hope they will include Han Tiefang and not change him too much, since he’s one of my favorite characters in the pentalogy.

The Heart of Wuxia

One of the things which strikes me about wuxia is the emphasis on the characters’ thoughts, feelings, and relationships with each other. This introspective emphasis is much heavier in wuxia than in western speculative fiction (with some exceptions). That’s not to say that wuxia is better than western speculative fiction, since western speculative fiction explores plenty of other things. Nonetheless, the emphasis on feelings and relationships makes wuxia stories (particularly novels) sometimes feel more like romance fiction than the speculative fiction I grew up with.

The Taiwanese edition of Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin

I have not read many of the old (as in written before 1950) wuxia novels, so I cannot make my own analysis, but I’ve read that the older wuxia novels are full of lots of exciting, magical, action-packed adventures, and contain not so much psychology. The claim is that Wang Dulu, and the Crane-Iron Pentalogy in particular, changed that.

Now, anybody reading the Crane-Iron Pentalogy for the fights and action sequences is going to be disappointed. It’s not that it’s badly written, it’s just that all of the ‘action’ parts are really brief. Wang Dulu always uses violence/action as a tool to get the characters where they need to go, and never as an end in itself.

Some say Wang Dulu brought the wuxia genre to maturity. His wuxia-romances certainly became very popular very quickly, and I can tell that he has a strong influence on later writers. Based on what I know, it seems that his major contribution is putting the ‘heart’ – the passion, the introspection, the intense human relationships – into wuxia.

Availability in English

Simon and Schuster acquired the English translation rights to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and possibly the other novels as well, and then did … nothing.

The 2001 Ang Lee movie, the 2004 movie, and manhua which bear the name Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are all available in English. I haven’t seen the 2004 movie, though generally it’s considered inferior to the Ang Lee film. I have also yet to read the manhua, but the word is that the first two volumes are actually based on Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin, and that starting around volume 3 the story gets further and further away from the novels.

The manhua, again.

Conclusion

I love the Crane-Iron Pentalogy. I’m still left with a sense that there is something wonderful about the stories which I have totally failed to convey in these two posts.

My love, as you may have gathered, is not equally distributed among the novels. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gets the least love from me, whereas my favorites are Iron Rider, Silver Vase and Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin. Particularly Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin. It is a beautiful novel which swept me up and then left me in tears. Part of me wishes they would adapt Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin into a movie, and part of me cannot imagine any movie adaptation being as moving as the original.

Next Time: Starry Starry Night (movie)

Sara K. worked on this post as Typhoon Soulik made its way across Taiwan. Soulik managed to greatly annoy Sara K., but it did not do her any major harm.

Manga the Week of 7/17

July 11, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 4 Comments

SEAN: Standard ‘Diamond is sending me Yen Press a week early’ warning. I’m not quite sure why they do this, it seems to only be the the Northeast Corridor. Ironically, years ago, I used to get my manga a week later than others, again just the Northeast Corridor was affected. In any case, my list is hefty this week.

Dark Horse has the 4th volume of Gate 7, a title that has completely failed to keep me interested in any way. But there are some fans of it, particularly those of a historical bent.

MICHELLE: I feel bad that this one didn’t particularly grab me, but… it didn’t.

MJ: Gate 7 *did* grab me right away, but then the heavy concentration of unfamiliar historical references kinda bogged me down. Fortunately, I found a helpful guide to carry me through! So I’m looking forward to this new volume with only the slightest sense of bog.

SEAN: Kodansha has the 4th volume of Missions of Love. You know, when I was first promoting this title as an interesting little shoujo love triangle, I wasn’t aware that it was going to turn into the Gakuen Prince of 2013. Let’s see how saucy it will get this time.

MICHELLE: I read a couple of volumes of this, but I think I didn’t like any of the characters enough to continue.

ANNA: Knowing now that it turns into the Gakuen Prince of 2013, I’m glad I didn’t start reading this.

SEAN: Many are calling the 12th Sailor Moon volume the final one, and it’s true that the main story wraps up here. However, this re-release stripped out all the short stories that had originally been interspersed in the volumes, and has given them two separate books of their own. So fear not! Soon you will be able to learn if Rei farts.

MICHELLE: Yay?

SEAN: Viz has the 5th volume of 07-Ghost, a series I’ve fallen behind on. Anyone else?

MICHELLE: I’m behind, too. I’ll catch up one day.

MJ: Same here, and that’s really a shame.

ANNA: I’ve read through volume four, and I like this series! But I’m predisposed to enjoy any manga that involves fighting priests.

SEAN: They also have the 5th and final volume of I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow, a SigIkki series. I found the protagonist too annoying to continue the series, but then, that was sort of the point, and I know a lot of people identified with his situations.

MJ: I can’t say that I identify with him, but I do feel like I know him, and that is enough to keep me interested in his plight.

SEAN: The rest is all Yen. We have the 14th volume of Black Butler, which I’m sure is sexy as hell, at least according to the Tumblrs I see. Or perhaps smexy.

MICHELLE: I am old, because I just had to look up what “smexy” means.

MJ: Smexy or not, I just… can’t get into it.

ANNA: I read the first volume, and that was enough for me.

SEAN: This isn’t a manga, but I don’t care. The Book Girl light novel series has hit its endgame, and Book Girl and the Scribe Who Faced God is a 2-parter it’s so big. Part 1 drops this week, and we will finally get to focus on Tohko.

The 2nd and final Doubt omnibus is out, which will no doubt kill off most of the rest of the cast. If you’re a fan, good news: its spiritual sequel Judge is coming soon.

Is This A Zombie? 5 proves that it’s not just Seven Seas’ moe titles that make me sigh and rub my forehead. Congrats to Yen, I guess?

MJ: Heh.

SEAN: K-On! had a sweet, definitive ending, but it was also wildly popular, and you know what companies think about wildly popular finished titles. So K-On! College is the first of two sequels that continue the story, this one following Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Mugi in higher education.

Nabari no Ou is the last title we have this week that is ending, showing us that you can succeed as a ninja manga and not be Naruto. Though I’m sure it would have appreciated Naruto’s sales…

MICHELLE: This title isn’t one of my favorites, but it’s been interesting enough to keep me reading, so I’m looking forward to reaching the conclusion.

MJ: This title is one of my favorites, so I’m looking forward to it!

SEAN: Madoka Magica prints money, let’s have more of it! Puella Magi Oriko Magica is another spinoff series, and I believe it’s the darker of the two that Yen is putting out.

Soul Eater 15 shows us barreling to a climax, though things have started to go badly for some of our heroes. Poor Kid!

Lastly, we have a 4th omnibus of Until Death Do Us Part, which doesn’t remind me of the way Glenn Miller played at all. (Seven Degrees of Pun Bacon there.)

MICHELLE: I would feel so proud of myself if I could get the reference.

MJ: That’s what Google is for, Michelle!

SEAN: Even Google might not help. Till Death Do Us Part -> Till Death Us Do Part -> All In The Family -> “Those Were The Days” -> “Boy, the way Glenn Miller played…” Welcome to Sean’s mind. Don’t stay long.

MJ: I guess we’ll have to wait until someone develops a search engine for Sean’s brain. It’s sure to happen. Someday.

SEAN: What manga are you beating the heat with?

It Came From the Sinosphere: The Iron-Crane Pentalogy (Part 1)

July 9, 2013 by Sara K. 1 Comment

Book cover for ‘Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin’

The Iron-Crane Pentalogy is not just one of the most influential works of wuxia ever written, it’s possibly the most well-known work of wuxia outside of the Chinese-speaking world. In fact, many Manga Bookshelf readers have already heard of it.

Before you think “Hey, I’m a Manga Bookshelf reader, and I’ve never heard of the Iron-Crane Pentalogy,” look at the titles of the five novels:

1. Crane Frightens Kunlun
2. Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin
3. Sword Force, Pearl Shine
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
5. Iron Rider, Silver Vase

The name “Crane-Iron” comes from the titles of the first and final novels.

If you have never heard of a single one of these stories, then okay, you’ve never heard of the Iron-Crane Pentalogy.

The Story

Book cover for ‘Crane Frightens Kunlun’

There is an old man who is the master of the world’s most awesome martial arts. He has two disciples, the older of whom is a mute (and nobody know his name), and the younger of whom is eventually known to the world as “Southern Crane.” Both the mute and Southern Crane transmit their martial arts knowledge to future generations. The Crane-Iron Pentalogy is about the marital artists who learn these awesome technqies.

The first novel, Crane Frightens Kunlun, is about the boyhood of Southern Crane, who was born as Jiang Xiaohe. Jiang Xiaohe centers his youth around getting revenge on Bao “Kunlun” for the murder of his father and forced separation from his mother. Jiang Xiaohe also wants to marry Master Bao’s granddaughter, Bao Ahluan, and it never occurs to him than she might object to him killing her grandfather. Xiaohe’s rashness and anger is an irresistable force, and Bao ‘Kunlun’s narrowmindedness and refusal to openly acknowledge the wrongs he has committed is an immovable object. Irresistable force + immovable object = tragic consequences.

In the second novel, Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin, Li Mubai, the son of two characters in Crane Frightens Kunlun, falls in love with Yu Shulien, whose beauty is only surpassed by her peerless sword-fighting skills and sense of honor. However, it turns out that Yu Shulien already has a fiance, Meng Sizhao. BUMMER! Li Mubai goes to Beijing, where, in his attempt to get over his heartbreak, he gets into a romantic relationship with a prostitute called Xie Cuiqian, who might secretly be a vigilante who rescues innocent girls. Meanwhile, Meng Sizhao’s greedy older brother has forced him to go into exile so he can have the family property all to himself, and Yu Shulien has to deal with her father’s very powerful enemies.

In the third novel, Sword Force, Pearl Light, Southern Crane tells Li Mubai to fix the mess that is his life. Later, people try to get some pearls, people are murdered, a girl gets kidnapped, Yu Shulien gets involved…

In the fourth novel, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and important sword goes missing, and it seems the thief is an expert at martial arts. Did Cai Xiangmei, an acrobat girl who has recently agreed to work as a servant for Yu Jiaolong (daughter of a very high-ranking offical) steal it? Also, we learn that the family who was murdered/kidnapped because of that set of pearls in the third novel has a secret family member, called Lo Xiaohu, who, not knowing his true family origins, is a bandit…

In the fifth novel Iron Knight, Silver Vase, Han Tiefang, who grew up in an official’s family, abandons everything he has to find his mother, who had been kidnapped long ago. Meanwhile, a young martial artist, Chun Xueping, knows almost nothing about her family…

Background

Book cover for ‘Sword Force, Pearl Shine’

The Iron-Crane Pentalogy was originally published in the 1930s and 1940s, and was one of the most popular works of Chinese fiction in that era.

The writer, Wang Dulu, had a strong interest in psychology (for example, he read many of Freud’s works). Before writing wuxia, Wang Dulu was a romance novelist, though apparently many of his ‘romance’ novels were as much about sons clashing with their fathers as they were about romance. And it really shows in the Iron-Crane Pentalogy that Wang Dulu was a romance novelist, since the martial arts are just a plot device, and much more attention is paid to the characters’ romantic feelings.

The “Northern School” and the “Southern School” are the two sets of novelists who are considered responsible for defining the wuxia genre in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Wang Dulu is considered one of the key writers from the ‘Northern School’.

I also must note that these novels were just after the first part of the Chinese Civil War, and during the Japanese invasion of China, in other words, China as a state was unravelling. I think this helps explain much of the bleakness and antagonism found in the novels.

Practically every major wuxia writer after 1950 was heavily influenced by Wang Dulu, and the Iron-Crane Pentalogy in particular. I will write more about that later.

Just Enough to Convey the Feeling

Book cover for ‘Iron Rider, Silver Vase’

As you can tell by reading the above attempt at a plot summary, the plot is actually rather complicated … but it feels simple when you read it. In fact, it feels so simple that it’s only after the fact that I realized how many of the subtleties I had absorbed, particularly the little ripples of the characters’ consciousness.

For example, there is a scene (I’m changing the characters’ names to avoid spoilers) where Character A is grieving over the death of Character B. A and B were lovers, and even had a child together, but B left A almost two decades ago, and A never went to find her until it was too late. A is feeling intense grief, not only because B is dead, but because he never said goodbye.

Enter Character C.

C at first is moved by A’s very sincere grief, and his first impulse is to comfort A. Then he holds himself back. C has a great deal of respect for B, and feels that A is no where close to being worthy of her. Furthermore, the fact that A and B had sex and a child out of wedlock was a great stain on B’s honor. Therefore, C decides to torment A, by essentially saying ‘you did not see her for almost twenty years, and now you’re crying because she’s gone. What kind of man are you? A real man would not be weeping over this.’

A replies “You’re right.” Then he says “I am only thinking of her so much because you remind me of her.”

What A and C do not know – but the reader knows – is that C is A and B’s biological son. That makes this little scene all the more poignant.

The novels are full of this subtle little emotional back-and-forth. Wang Dulu states just enough for the reader to understand what is happening, and no more. Unlike many dramatic stories which try to squeeze more dramatic juice than the pulp of the story can supply, Wang Dulu squeezes out just enough dramatic juice to demonstrate just how juicy the story is.

And it works because it feels true. People really do have these emotional entanglements.

If I can use the word “image” to describe something that is emotional rather than visual, then these novels have plenty of striking emotional images.

The Freedom to Define Intimate Relationships

Book cover for ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’

One consistent theme in the pentalogy is that trying to force people to make their intimate relationships fit “socially-acceptable” forms leads to a lot of suffering. For example, Southern Crane’s father was killed because he pursued sex with a woman other than his wife. Is having extramarital sex without some form of agreement from one’s spouse right? No, but adultery does not justify murder, and forcing Southern Crane’s mother to remarry and separate her from her son because it’s the socially appropriate thing to do causes Southern Crane to have an extremely unhappy childhood (also, note that Southern Crane’s mother, even with the adultery, did not want her husband to get get killed).

Another example: Han Tiefang, under pressure from his family, got married when he was only 15 years old … and his marriage is very unsatisfying. Since his wife hasn’t done anything wrong, he doesn’t want to divorce her (and thereby deprive her of economic support), so instead he leaves town forever (or at least that’s what he thinks) to look for his mother.

This happens again and again throughout the pentalogy. Intimate relationships which do not follow narrowly defined social norms (which is quite a few of the intimate relationships in the pentalogy) get heavily policed.

The pentalogy also shows quite a range of intimate relationships. Some women who are unmarried and not prostitutes choose to have sex (SHOCK). Some people love and want to marry women who are not virgins (SHOCK). Some people even love and want to marry prostitutes (SHOCK). Sometimes people in intimate relationships are not having sex with each other (SHOCK). Sometimes people in intimate relationships do not want to marry each other (SHOCK).

The stories are heteronormative, but considering they were written in 1930s/40s China, I would have been extremely surprised if they were not.

One of the more subtle points is that, for intimate relationships to be satisfying, people need time. Most of all, they need time to figure themselves out, and discover who they are and what they want, before they can build a mature intimate relationship. This is exactly why pressuring people to marry young (a pressure that most of the characters feel) can lead to disaster.

And there’s more…

The Iron-Crane Pentalogy is one of my favorite works of Chinese fiction, so of course I’m not done discussing it. Come back next week for Part II.

Sara K. loves fresh lychee fruit. She ate some right before working on this post.

Manga the Week of 7/10

July 5, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and MJ 11 Comments

SEAN: Not as big as week 1 of July, but there’s plenty of tasty treats to check out as the summer continues to be hot.

Dark Horse has the 2nd and final omnibus of Tokyo Babylon. I didn’t buy this one, so will forever imagine it ends with a big picnic, and possibly puppies and unicorns. :)

MICHELLE: I will allow you to have your dreams.

MJ: I’m sure everyone can guess how eagerly I’ve been anticipating this release. I was over the moon for Dark Horse’s first omnibus, and since I actually like to be beaten into a sobbing pulp by my fiction, I’m willing to move forward without those puppies and unicorns. Note: This volume will also contain Hokuto’s side story of epic awesomeness, so there’s that.

SEAN: Digital Manga Publishing is finally returning to print manga, and what better title to see returning to our shelves than the 7th volume of Vampire Hunter D?

MICHELLE: While this personally doesn’t excite me much, I was very pleased to see that the tenth volume of Itazura Na Kiss is now available for pre-order. Hurray for print manga!

SEAN: SubLime has two new debuts. False Memories has a cute cover, so I have less to say about it. It’s by the author of Devil’s Honey and Dash!

MICHELLE: The cover is very cute indeed. I confess that was all it took to convince me to read it, and I didn’t connect the author with Devil’s Honey. The latter was pretty good, though, so I’m definitely intrigued.

MJ: Agreed!

SEAN: Oh Dear Lord. Look at the cover for Hide & Seek. Have you seen two people you want to punch in the face more than these two? :) This is by the author of Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, which if I recall also had ridiculous covers. Recommended for those who enjoy large yaoi hands.

MICHELLE: *snerk* While I liked Yaya Sakuragi’s Stay Close to Me, Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love was so generic and the characters so unappealing that I now view anything else by the author with trepidation.

MJ: Heh. I deeply disliked Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, but on the upside, at least these two characters both look like adults, so I’ll give it a try.

SEAN: Vertical has the 6th volume of Flowers of Evil, whose sales will hopefully be bumped by the recent conclusion to the anime version.

MJ: I hope so, too! I’m looking forward to this volume in any case.

SEAN: Viz has Case Closed Vol. 47. In Japan, Vol. 79 came out this April. Sadly, I suspect we will not be seeing the great Case Closed speedup anytime soon.

MICHELLE: I find this series to be fun occasionally, but it’s one of those cases where I’m very grateful my local library purchases it so I don’t have to. I can’t imagine housing dozens of volumes of goofy, episodic mysteries.

SEAN: The 5th Fullmetal Alchemist omnibus contains Vols. 13-15 of this shonen series that everyone should own. And I hope Viz can negotiate digital rights back now that Square Enix shuttered their digital site.

MICHELLE: It’s a classic.

MJ: Fullmetal Alchemist is absolutely a must-own, and I’m glad it’s being given a second run like this.

SEAN: The 4th Loveless omnibus, with Vol. 7 & 8, I think catches us up with Viz’s newer releases, right?

MICHELLE: It does, as volume 11 came out in June. It also catches us up with Japan.

MJ: I honestly can’t wait. The new volumes have been mocking me from the shelf for so long.

SEAN: Rin-Ne has hit a dozen volumes, and is doing well enough that it doesn’t have to worry about getting as behind as Case Closed is. Not that this means any legitimate plot is happening, mind you…

MICHELLE: I’m happy that RIN-NE exists for whenever I want a dose of Takahashi, but it’s true there’s not really anything to get excited about.

SEAN: Finally, we see the second volume of superhero manga Tiger & Bunny. He’s a superhero. He’s also a superhero. THEY FIGHT CRIME!

Anything here catch your fancy?

It Came from the Sinosphere: Island, End of Nightmare (Manhua)

July 2, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

Why couldn’t I find this image in a bigger size?

Hello, everyone! I’m back.

The Story

During a trip to an island in the South China sea, a teenager called Luonian has an encounter with a phoenix, and then a giant dog (a demon?) pins him to the ground. Then Luonian wakes up in a hospital in Taiwan. Was it just a nightmare?

Back in his hometown, Banqiao, Luonian gets attacked by a demon … which gets taken down by some fellow senior high school students. Apparently, a number of teenage demon hunters attend Luonian’s senior high school, but demon hunters are generally pretty discreet about their work, so he wasn’t aware of their activities before. Now that he knows, their offer to train him and let him join their demon-hunting club.

To make matters worse, that “dog,” who is actually a nine-tailed fox and is called “Huaizhen,” comes back. Huaizhen had waited 3000 years to get the “aura” of that phoenix … and Luonian had “stolen” that opporunity by getting the “aura” of the phoenix instead.
Therefore, Huaizhen wants to eat him. However, they strike a deal – Luonian lets Huaizhen suck his phoenix-aura-laden-energy (note: this might not be the best way to translate this from Chinese), and Luonian will let him live. Furthermore, since demons are attracted to the phoenix-aura, Luonian should expect a lot more demons in his life from now on.

In case you’re not familiar with Chinese-mythology, men are supposed to feel extreme sexual attraction towards nine-tailed-foxes. In Huaizhen’s experience, this is generally true … with the notable of Luonian, who doesn’t have the least bit of sexual interest in Huaizhen. Huaizhen finds this … intriguing.

Finally, Huaizhen urges Luonian to join the demon-hunters because a) they can help protect him from the demons (and if the demons get him, she can’t suck his energy) and b) she wants to know more about the demon-hunters. But Huaizhen makes a point of hanging around Luonian a lot, pretending to be Luonian’s teenager sister, and if the demon-hunters learn about her true nature…

Background

This manhua is adapted from a series by a very popular online novelist called Moren. Moren is known for mixing fantasy, wuxia, and science fiction together. I myself have only read the first couple volumes of Island, End of Nightmare, and I would call it fantasy with elements of wuxia and science fiction rather than blend (I feel it has a lot more in common with the YA fantasy I’ve read than the wuxia or science-fiction I’ve read).

The artist YinYin with Han Baobao, who did the writing for the manhua adaptation.

The manhua edition is drawn by YinYin, who also drew the illustrations and book covers for the original novels. YinYin is a regular contributor to Crative Comics Collection, and has produced her own original manhua.

The Artwork

YinYin says in the interview at the end of the volume that, when drawing for manhua, her first priority is to communicate the story, and aesthetic considerations (i.e. is the artwork pretty) are secondary. I think this is a good set of priorities since comic books are storytelling media, and there are many other media for artists who want to put aesthetics first.

SURPRISE! Fellow senior high school student nabs demon. There is a big, clear panel showing the main action, with supporting panels with reaction shots. Also, notice that the demon hunter is erect and vertical, while the demon is horizontal, making a nice right-angle.

And I think YinYin gets the “storytelling” part down. The artwork does an excellent job of clearly communicating the story. Though the plot summary above may seem a bit complicated, it’s actually quite easy to follow in the manhua itself, and I think the artwork definitely helps. It took much less effort to follow the manhua than the original novel, and the novel itself is not hard to follow.

I also don’t think putting the story first costs the aesthetics anything.

First of all, the more I look at it, the more I like the cover illustration of the novel. I really dig the blue/orange theme – and it’s very appropriate that Luonian is blue, and that Huaizhen is orange, since they act as opposite personalities. Come to think of it, this is a beautiful example of storytelling and aesthetics coming together.

This ‘big main panel with supporting reaction panels’ composition really works.

The artwork clean and smooth. I think the trick is that YinYin makes sure there is enoguh detail to give the artwork meaning, yet it stays simple enough that everything is focused and the reader’s eye is not distracted by minutiae. And YinYin knows how to make a page pop with a simple, striking image. Most pages are not like that, but then again, if they were, then they wouldn’t pop.

Getting nabbed by a giant dog definitely pops.

And some of the images are simply, well, graceful.

I like this page for some reason.

In fact, I think this is the best work I’ve seen from YinYin.

The phoenix, of course, is lovely.

YinYin also says that, while obviously there is a strong Japanese influence on her work, she tries to express her own style rather than try to make her artwork look like Japanese manga.

Where Have I Seen This Before

If you have read a significant amount of general manga – heck, even if you’re just reasonably familiar with YA fantasy – this should seem like familiar territory. The question is: what sets this tale of teenage demon-hunters apart from other tales of teenage demon-hunters?

One way to stand out is to have superlative writing. Though this story is well-written … and there are definitely touches I like (for example, the fact that Luonian’s senior high school just happens to have a demon-hunting group, and of course he didn’t know about it since there was no reason for him to know about it) … the storytelling alone is not exceptional enough to make it stand out from the other well-written stories in this genre.

Alas, the story’s attempts at puberty/sexual humor is not one of the things which makes it stand out.

The thing which does make this story stand out is that it is set in Taiwan.

All other things being equal, people are usually more interested in stories about their own society and themselves than stories about other societies and other people. Taiwanese people are no exception. While Taiwanese people love Japanese manga, all other things being equal, they find things even more interesting if it’s about Taiwanese people in Taiwan than Japanese people in Japan.

While it’s not apparent in the first volume of the manhua (though I’m sure this will come through in future volumes), this story really does run all over Taiwan, and I think that is on purpose. There is such variety in Taiwan itself that one can find quite a variety of interesting locations without ever going abroad. As someone who has travelled extensively in Taiwan, I really enjoy this aspect of the story.

Availability in English

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Conclusion

I have no intention of continuing with this manhua, or with continuing the original novel series. It’s good enough that I don’t mind reading it, it’s just that there is so much more out there that I’m much more excited to read.

This manhua seems to be part of a campaign by the publisher Gaea to promote local manhua, particularly manhua which is distinctively Taiwanese. Making one of the first manhua an adaptation of a popular novel series is probably a good move, at least as far as getting readers’ attention. Considering the recent successes of movies made in Taiwan, I think there is definitely an audience out there for good, distinctively local manhua. The main thing needed to build that readership is to create and publish consistently high-quality manhua to attract and, more importantly, keep them.

However, though this volume was first published last August, volume 2 has yet to appear. That conceivably could be because the artist is too busy … but I think it’s a sign that the manhua has not been selling well.

Next time: The Iron-Crane Pentalogy (novels)

So much has happened in the past few weeks, where can Sara K. begin? Well, she is now one of rare people in the world who can honestly say that she has soked in an outdoor seawater hotspring in the middle of a thunderstorm. There are only three seawater hot springs in the world, and considering her geographic location, Manga Bookshelf readers can probably figure out that she did not go to the one in Sicily.

Manga the Week of 7/3

June 27, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Anna N 6 Comments

SEAN: I’m pretty sure there’s something for absolutely everyone in this week’s list. Let’s break it down.

Starting off with a publisher we don’t often talk about. But Last Gasp has not one, but two manga releases out this week. First off is The Strange Case of Panorama Island, which is an adaptation of a famous Edogawa Rampo novel by underground manga artist Suehiro Maruo. Now admittedly, most of the indie manga fans grabbed this at TCAF already. Let’s get it more widely read.

MJ: I’m definitely interested, and I wasn’t at TCAF, so count me in!

MICHELLE: Ooh, finally! This one has been on my Amazon wishlist for ages!

ANNA: How many years ago was this announced? I’m glad that Strange Case of Panorama Island is coming out finally, I am very curious about it.

SEAN: And there’s also the 2nd volume of the cute yet disturbing Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu, the first volume of which came out back in 2009. It’s a Junko Mizuno title, so be prepared for strangeness.

MJ: At long last! I still have the first volume that I borrowed from Michelle ages ago, so I guess I’d best reread and send back to her so that she can do the same!

MICHELLE: !!!!! I genuinely had no idea the second volume of this was on the horizon! It might be time to bust out my seldom-seen happy dance!

ANNA: I had no idea either! This is exciting.

SEAN: Seven Seas has a quintet of releases. Alice in the Country of Clover: Cheshire Cat Waltz hits its fifth volume, and continues to feature Alice’s love relationship with Boris.

MICHELLE: I have a tendency to start each new “Alice in the Country of” series, but then never go back to them. That’s the case with this one, too.

SEAN: Gunslinger Girl finally comes to an end with this volume, and if I’ve guessed correctly it will probably not involve everyone living happily ever after and there being punch and pie. Still, it’s a beloved series, and will no doubt be heartwarmingly bleak and tragic.

There’s also the 3rd omnibus of I Don’t Like You At All, Big Brother!!. I think this actually catches us up with Japan, given it’s an omnibus. As such, it may be a while before I have to talk about it again.

The same cannot be said for Mayo Chiki, which resists all my voodoo doll poking at it. Vol. 3 is out next week.

MJ: I can’t tell you how little interest I have in these things.

MICHELLE: *snerk*

SEAN: Lastly, and if I’m honest most interesting, is the debut of a new series, World War Blue. It’s basically the Nintendo/Sega console wars, only with human personifications. I find the premise intriguing, and it does not seem, on first glance, to be filled with moe incest, so it’s my Seven Seas pick this week.

MJ: I agree, that does sound interesting. May be a rare Seven Seas winner for me.

MICHELLE: Huh.

SEAN: Vertical has a debut this week as well, though it’s a much darker series. Wolfsmund comes from the folks at Enterbrain, home to A Bride’s Story, and is a brutal examination of the Middle Ages. It’s supposed to be really excellent, but honestly may be too dark for me.

MJ: “Dark” has never scared me away, so bring it on!

ANNA: This sounds a bit odd and potentially interesting.

SEAN: And what would a first week of the month be without Viz? Bleach 57 gives you 57 varieties of plot, 3 speeds (slow, very slow, and stop), and 3,249 characters.

MICHELLE: And again I snerk.

SEAN: Blue Exorcist hits double digits, and I believe finally heads back to Academy life, though who knows how long that will last.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on this one.

ANNA: Me too.

SEAN: A new 3-in-1 omnibus, for those who missed it the first time. Like me. D.Gray-Man 1-3 gives us an introduction to this series that started off in Jump before moving to Square (for the artist’s health reasons, I believe). It’s the series about exorcists that didn’t become a monstrous hit (see above for the other one).

Jiu Jiu finishes with its 5th volume, and I’m so relieved that I believe I will actually read it.

MJ: Heh.

MICHELLE: Jiu Jiu is over now? Hallelujah! I expected it to keep limping on indefinitely.

ANNA: I’m probably not going to read this, but I’m relieved that the series is wrapping up. Viz is also going to be releasing infinitely more interesting shoujo/josei very soon.

SEAN: Natsume’s Book of Friends is always welcome in my house, even if it likely won’t feature my OT3 again. But Vol. 14 will be filled with melancholy, gentle humor, and piles and piles of yokai.

MJ: I haven’t checked in with this series in a while, but it was always a favorite, so perhaps now’s the time to catch up!

MICHELLE: I heart it!

ANNA: I have a stash of volumes somewhere I need to catch up on!

SEAN: Oresama Teacher is one of my top 5 comedy mangas right now, and Vol. 14 will be read as soon as it is in my hot little hands. I love it to bits. (Yes, yes, but I loved The Magic Touch, I’ve heard that before…)

MICHELLE: Usually episodic comedies don’t do much for me, but I frequently enjoy Oresama Teacher.

ANNA: I like this series a bunch. It might not always make sense, but the ridiculous situations are part of its charm.

SEAN: Psyren 11 will, I hope, go deeper into the question of Sakurako’s personality disorder, or at least not feature 200 pages of nothing but psychic battles again.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on this one, too.

SEAN: Skip Beat! gets its 5th 3-in-one, and I seem to recall this would put it right in the middle of the Dark Moon arc. If you haven’t read it yet, why are you reading this? Read Skip Beat!

MICHELLE: Do!

ANNA: Skip Beat! is so good, and unlike most other long-running series it doesn’t seem to slow down or have less interesting storylines.

SEAN: And lastly, in Strobe Edge 5, everyone will be sad. This is not so much a prediction as a premonition.

MJ: I’m totally on board with this kind of sadness.

ANNA: So am I. This series has really gotten better as it develops.

MICHELLE: Me, too. I like Strobe Edge very much.

SEAN: So what appeals to you on this 4th of July week? (Or, if you aren’t American, this generic week?)

Manga the Week of 6/26

June 20, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 1 Comment

SEAN: Given that I got in Yen books this week but the rest of you get it next week, my own Next Week list is somewhat short. But not without interest.

First, I forgot this last week, but the 9th light novel of the Haruhi Suzumiya series, The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya, is out this week. This one is part of a 3-book set (Books 10-11 are coming out here as one big book around Thanksgiving) that revitalized the franchise, giving the series a shot in the arm, as well as a new rival for Kyon’s affections… or is she? Good stuff.

MICHELLE: I think I read the first one of these a long time ago, but never managed to continue.

MJ: I’d like to read these light novels, because the manga adaptation has mostly not done a lot for me. Maybe I’ll like it better in its original form.

SEAN: Now on to 6/26 proper. Dark Horse has the third volume of OreImo. With Haganai, coming out via Seven Seas, it managed to be just interesting enough that I continued it despite its skeeziness. This title is just skeezy enough that I dropped it despite its interestingness.

MICHELLE: Ugh.

MJ: So much skeeze these days, it seems. What’s up with that?

SEAN: Kodansha is still speeding up Fairy Tail. Vol. 26 ended with out heroes in a bad spot. Will they continue to get the crap kicked out of them here as well? Oh, probably, this arc is 7 books long and this is only Book 4 of that.

MJ: This is one of those long series I keep thinking I’d like to try (Hiro Mashima is such a charming guy!) but I’m perpetually intimidated by its length. Should I start it anyway?

SEAN: There’s also a new Negima omnibus for those who missed it, this one taking us into the Magic World arc that proved to be much better than anyone was really expecting.

MICHELLE: An omnibus cannot tempt me to read Negima.

MJ: What she said.

SEAN: Lastly, and most important, we have the 2nd volume of Gundam the Origin. Vol. 1 blew me away with how cinematic it looked, how easy it was for a Gundam newbie to get into the story, and how much care went into its design – this is a gorgeous book intended to stay on shelves for long periods. Get it now, it’s also a limited item.

MICHELLE: Finally, something to look forward to, and I agree with you completely, Sean. My only complaint is the focus on plot over characters, but that’s not enough to dissuade me from picking up volume two.

MJ: Same here. I thought the artwork in the first volume was absolutely stunning. I’m looking forward to more!

ANNA: I agree, Gundam the Origin is the only thing I’m excited about this week. Given the limited print run for this special edition, I’d advise fans to pick up their copy sooner rather than later.

SEAN: What manga makes you go three times faster just to get it?

A Bouquet of Manga, Flowers Magazine

June 19, 2013 by Erica Friedman 2 Comments

Flowers, a Josei manga magazine from Shogakukan, is a veritable showcase of talent. Regardless of which series are running in the magazine at any given time, the list of authors is practically a checklist of manga history. Names that were publishing top-notch manga in the pages of Flowers magazine more than a decade ago are still publishing top-notch manga in the same magazine now.

In the current volume of Flowers, the award-winning, essential manga Heart of Thomas creator, Moto Hagio, contributes a brand new Sci-fi series Away. Saito Chiho, best known here for the manga version of Revolutionary Girl Utena, is working on a manga retelling of the classic Japanese tale of gender-switching, Torikaebaya. Tamura Yumi’s 7 Seeds was begun on the pages of Betsucomi in 2001, but continues in the pages of Flowers, since 2002. Also notable for western fans, Higa Aloha’s Shirokuma Cafe, which was given an anime adaption and streamed as Polar Bear Cafe, runs in this magazine.

Ancient Japan, the modern world and futurescapes live side by side in Flowers. Stories of alternate histories, such as Akaishi Michiyo’s Amakusa 1637 – which completely rewrote Japanese history – and Moto Hagio’s science fiction Barbara Ikai, will sit comfortably next to Yuu Watase’s Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden. Japan’s past, present and future, talking animals, alternate states of being…this Josei magazine, while showcasing grace and beauty, is not at all afraid to ask, “What if it all goes wrong?” The predominant art style is one I’d like to call “Timeless” without irony. These artists have been working for decades and, in some cases, have been genre-defining. One can see the influences of decades of manga and centuries of visual references from Fine Art in the pages of Flowers.

Flowers magazine comes in at just over 500 pages for 570 yen ($6.04 at time of writing). The magazine has a website, which contains interviews with, messages from and profiles of the creators, chapters of new stories for preview, and publishing schedules. (If you want to be sobered by the sheer mass of work by some of the women who publish in Flowers, click on a few bios and looks at the lists of books in print. Akaishi-sensei has something like 50+ books *in print* right now.) Flowers has a 2011 – 2012 monthly circulation of 33,000.

Looking at the cover above, it would be easy to dismiss Flowers as a repository of girlish fantasy but, if one did so, one would miss the crucible of talent that makes the Flowers stable some of the longest-running, most-popular and most-talented group of creators in manga today.

Flowers Monthly Magazine, from Shogakukan: http://flowers.shogakukan.co.jp/

« Previous Page

Page 1

…

Page 66

Page 67

Page 68

Page 69

Page 70

…

Page 109

Next Page »