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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/

BL Bookrack: June 2013

June 15, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

Welcome to the June installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two debut series from SuBLime Manga, Blue Morning and Sleeping Moon. In Brief: Help! God of Love and KINE IN! (DMG).

Blue Morning, Vol. 1 | By Shoko Hidaka | SuBLime | Rated M (Mature) – One word that I keep seeing used regarding Blue Morning is “psychological,” and much as I would like to say something new about the work, this label really is inescapable.

Akihito Kuze is the son of a viscount, but spent the early years of his childhood living away from Tokyo with his sickly mother. When his parents die six months apart, ten-year-old Akihito inherits the title and moves to the Kuze estate, where everything is capably managed by a cold young man named Tomoyuki Katsuragi. Akihito is instantly in awe of Katsuragi, but the latter shows the child neither warmth nor sympathy, but instead piles on the studies and repeatedly informs Akihito that he must be perfect in order to carry on the Kuze line. Akihito does his best to comply, and, as he grows, eventually develops an obsession to make Katsuragi notice and approve of him.

There’s a lot of really complicated and interesting character work going on here. Akihito’s early fascination with Katsuragi makes sense, given that he seemingly lived his early life mostly among women, as does the eventual evolution of his feelings. Katsuragi’s treatment of the boy makes sense, as well, once readers learn how the man came to be in the Kuze household in the first place, and the lengths to which he went to emulate his former master, while Akihito is going about, being his own person without a care. My one complaint is that a conversation about Katsuragi’s true parentage doesn’t make much sense, but perhaps it was meant to be cryptic and will be clarified in future volumes.

Complex, dark, and a bit twisted, Blue Morning is the best BL I’ve read so far this year. And, as if that weren’t reason enough to celebrate, this is a continuing series, with volume two due out in August!

– Review by Michelle Smith

Sleeping Moon, Vol. 1 | By Kano Miyamoto | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – Akihiko’s life has been long haunted by a curse said to kill his family’s male descendants at an early age. Though his own father unsuccessfully attempted to escape his fate by leaving home, the curse brings Akihiko, now nearing thirty, back to his roots to search for answers.

Using his research in comparative religion as an excuse to visit his family’s ancestral home, Akihiko is confronted both by the awakening of his inherited paranormal abilities and the awakening of his heart, as he finds himself drawn to two very different men. The first of these is Ren, Akihiko’s free-spirited but lonely cousin who shares his ability to see ghosts and other supernatural beings. The second is Eitaro, a young man living 100 years in the past, whom Akihiko visits in his dreams, and who bears a striking physical resemblance to Ren.

The premise I just described could so easily be the worst kind of supernatural romance, filled with overblown psychic powers and cross-generational mistaken identity. Fortunately, in Miyamoto-sensei’s capable hands, it is instead the best kind.

Akihiko’s reception in his family’s home is the kind one encounters only in stories of old, well-to-do families—an odd mix of unquestioned acceptance and extreme discomfort. That, together with his supernaturally-based connection to his cousin reminds me of nothing more than Mary Stewart’s Touch Not the Cat, a favorite novel from my teens.

This sort of strained (but undeniable) intimacy between people who’ve met only at distant family functions creates an immediate sense of history and makes relationships that spring up too quickly feel somehow perfectly natural—a decided advantage in this kind of romance. In particular, Ren’s desperate need to connect with someone, anyone, who shares his fate feels urgent and genuine, helping to ground the series despite its supernatural premise. Miyamoto’s artwork is a highlight as well, nicely capturing the sense of both past and present haunting Akihiko’s every move.

The second (and last) volume of this series is due out in September, and I admit I’m quite anxious for its arrival. Highly recommended.

– Review by MJ

In Brief:

Help! God of Love | By Tsukiko Kurebayashi | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Mature (18+) – One of the great things about the Digital Manga Guild is that it’s in a position to make available a lot of manga that would otherwise never see any kind of English release. This has resulted in the discovery of hidden gems like Climb On To My Shoulders, and expanded the English-language catalogues of talented authors like est em (KINE IN!) and Keiko Kinoshita (You & Tonight). Unfortunately, there are untranslated manga that would be better left alone. This is one of those manga. Between its ultra-contrived melodrama and underdeveloped relationships, Help! God of Love is one of the most poorly constructed BL manga I’ve read to date, a circumstance not at all helped by its occasionally awkward English adaptation. Not recommended. – MJ

KINE IN! | By est em | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Young adult (16+) – I’m always up for anything by est em, and even though the first thing I read by her—Seduce Me After the Show—remains my favorite, there is always something worthwhile to be found in her other works. I’ll admit that my faith was a little shaken by the opening chapters of KINE IN!, which revolve around a high school love triangle, but est em returns to form with the unrelated short stories that round out the volume. My particular favorites are “The Scenery of That Summer,” which is about a pair of step-brothers that meet for the first time for a funeral, and “The Salvia and the Barber,” in which a pair of sixty-year-olds decide to live together as family. Both stories are poignant and offer only a suggestion of romantic feeling. In fact, this entire volume is very chaste indeed, probably due to a recurring theme of love postponed. Definitely recommended. – Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publishers.

Disclosure: MJ is currently under contract with Digital Manga Publishing’s Digital Manga Guild, as necessitated for her ongoing report Inside the DMG. Any compensation earned by MJin her role as an editor with the DMG will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Other recent BL reviews from MJ & Michelle: Blue Morning (SuBLime)

Manga the Week of 6/19

June 13, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith, MJ and Anna N 4 Comments

SEAN: Sometimes the images we feature with this post work out perfectly. And sometimes we have weeks like this. Where the images I want to use are all in a row next to one another. Sigh. By the way, my shop’s getting in Yen early, so WE ARE AS WELL!

Kodansha has the final volume of their Kitchen Princess omnibus. If you hadn’t picked this up earlier, it’s now available in 4 handy volumes! And there are recipes!

MICHELLE: I regret to say that I still haven’t managed to read Kitchen Princess, despite owning the original edition in its entirety. I wonder how it compares to Arisa… is it less ridiculous?

MJ: This is one of those series I planned to catch up with in omnibus form, but have yet to pick up. Someone want to tell me how foolish I’ve been?

ANNA: Kitchen Princess is cute and sweet and a little bit weird. I need to finish the series too.

SEAN: And there’s the 28th volume of Air Gear. Which is a whole lot of Air Gear.

Vertical has a done-in-one series coming out. Utsubora: the Story of a Novelist is a psychological drama that comes from the pages of Manga Erotics F, a magazine that has given us more polarizing titles than any other, I believe. Will this one also divide readers who love it and hate it? Find out by reading it!

MICHELLE: Looks interesting!

MJ: I will usually try anything Vertical thinks I should–their track record is pretty good. So I will definitely check it out.

SEAN: Viz has the final volume of Children of the Sea, which was one of its first Ikki titles but ran up against the dreaded “the final volume isn’t out in Japan yet”. It’s been two and a half years, and honestly I think I may have to re-read. But I do recall being very fond of this series about love, loss and the sea.

MICHELLE: I have actually been hoarding Children of the Sea, so now I’m glad of a chance to read the series all in one go.

MJ: I have missed this series! Though, like Sean, I may have to start from the beginning again at this point.

ANNA: I’ve read a couple volumes of this and it is lovely.

SEAN: And the rest is all Yen. I am very fond of GA Art Design Class, which has a very entertaining cast of moe stereotypes, but more importantly, due to this series I have learned SO MUCH MORE about art. Vol. 5 is out. (And yes, it is still not Shoulder-a-Coffin Kuro.)

At least, what we’ve been waiting for: the home stretch of the main Higurashi Storyline. Not to spoil or anything, but this is, finally, the one with the Good End. Festival Accompanying Arc starts with this omnibus, which gives us Miyo Takano’s backstory, and needs a giant TRIGGER WARNING: ABUSE applied to it. But still good stuff.

MICHELLE: I just can’t make myself read Higurashi. It’s like you said in your recent Umineko review, Sean. We’re not supposed to like these people or care what happens to them personally; we’re just supposed to care about the mystery. But I guess I can’t simply stick around for that if I don’t like the protagonists at least a little.

SEAN: I’d argue that the big difference between Higurashi and Umineko is, in fact, that the characters ARE more likeable in Higurashi. Sure, they can be horribly screwed up, particularly in the earlier arcs, but we get to see them learn from past iterations and grow as people. Umineko is more about trying to figure out what’s going on and solving the mystery, and the development of a bunch of gold-happy adults is quite secondary. (The kids fare a bit better.)

MICHELLE: That does sound more like something I’d enjoy.

SEAN: Kingdom Hearts has a new volume out, called Chain of Memories. I still don’t know much about this except it has Donald and Goofy in a fantasy game world setting.

Pandora Hearts 16! MJ? Tag!

MICHELLE: How have I gotten so far behind on this one?! I’ve only read through twelve!

MJ: I’m sure nobody will be surprised to hear that I CAN’T WAIT. Seriously, though, things have really gotten intense. Every volume at this point is a source of great anticipation. So. Y’know. GIMME.

SEAN: For those who enjoyed the mindscrew that was Madoka Magica and want more, here’s the first of two spinoff manga licensed by Yen. Kazumi Magica features a different lead, but no doubt will still have the same old Kyuubey lurking around.

MJ: I found the manga to be a little disappointing, but I’ll probably give this spinoff a shot.

SEAN: Soul Eater has a big artbook coming out. Considering that one of the top three reasons I read Soul Eater is the amazing art, this is a pretty big deal. Even casual fans should give this one a look.

Spice & Wolf! Did you know it had a manga as well, to go along with the light novels? It does! It’s also caught up to Japan, so be prepared to wait a bit.

And lastly, there’s volume 3 of Triage X. If you like BTOOOM! but wanted more motorcycles, try this series.

MICHELLE: Ugh. I am very tempted to christen BTOOOM! “the-manga-that-must-not-be-named,” that’s how little I’d like to think about it in the future.

MJ: Heh.

SEAN: What manga are you getting for your father? (Please don’t say Triage X.)

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Lady Hermit

June 11, 2013 by Sara K. 1 Comment

Wow. A Hong Kong martial arts movie which puts a female-female relationship at the heart of the story.

The Story

A servant called Leng Yushang observes talented young woman called Cui Ping comes to town. Cui Ping is embarking on a career of helping innocent people and kicking butt. She is searching for “Zhong Kui Niang” (who I will henceforth refer to as “the Lady Hermit”) so she can become her disciple and learn how to kick butt even harder. The catch is that nobody knows where ‘the Lady Hermit’ is. The ‘Lady Hermit’ had been badly injured by the ‘Black Demon’, and hasn’t been seen since. Little does Cui Ping know that Leng Yushang is, in fact, the ‘Lady Hermit’ living incognito.

Of course, while Cui Ping tries to uphold justice, she gets into a lot of trouble (criminals generally are not amused when their activities are discrupted), so Leng Yushang has to interfere, and eventually, break her cover.

Background

Zhong Kui is a figure from Chinese mythology who fights and surppresses demons. “Zhong Kui Niang” means “Lady Zhong Kui,” implying the Leng Yushang, like Zhong Kui, is a mysterious vanquisher of evil.

This film stars the legendary martial arts actress Cheng Peipei as the “Lady Hermit.” You know how I always like to compare martial arts to dancing? Before starring in martial arts movies, Cheng Peipei studied ballet for six years. This is also the first film which casts Shi Szu in a leading role as “Cui Ping,” and thus put her on the map. I’ve read that Shaw Brothers intentionally wanted to make Shi Szu “the next Cheng Peipei,” so the purpose of the film was probably to transfer the aura of Cheng Peipei onto Shi Szu. Not that I’m complaining.

The Fighting

Since this was made during the golden era of the Shaw Brothers, of course all of the fighting is good from a technical standpoint. However, it was a bit difficult for me to get really involved in the action because the Lady Hermit and Cui Ping mow down their opponents too quickly. Instead of making the Lady Hermit and Cui Ping seem awesome, it just makes their opponents look terribly incompetent. The heroes really should struggle a bit more when vanquishing their foes.

Of course, I do like the fight at the suspension bridge, simply because it integrates great scenery and action so beautifully.

Checkov’s Bridge: If there is a suspension bridge in an action scene, it will collapse while our protagonist is on it.

Which brings me to the topic of …

The Scenery

I love the scenery in this film!

First of all, it is beautiful scenery, but it’s not just that it’s beautiful – I love the way the characters really seem to live in the scenery.

Leng Yushang at sunset

In some movies, the scenery simply stuns the audience with its beauty. And I like that too. But in this movie, rather than stunning the audience, it naturally blends into the movie as a whole.

Even the bad guys are part of the scenery.

I think this might be partially because it is not isolated from the characters/actors. When filmmakers really want to emphasis the scenery, they place the scenery alone, without the characters.

This was the only scenic shot I found without any humans.

But this film does not do that often, and when it does, it chooses relatively soft scenery which blends smoothly with the preceeding and following shots. Often, the actors are incorporated into the overall visual image presented.

Cui Ping looks isolated and alone amid the trees and mountains.

And I like the trick where characters are often introduced by reflections in the water.

This is the first sign that the Lady Hermit is on the scene!

And it’s also nice that there is variety in the scenic shots: grassy mountains, bamboo forests, temples at night…

You know how I like to compare martial arts flicks to dance musicals…

Doesn’t this screenshot feel a bit Busby Berkeley?

Female-Female Relationship For the Win

Since almost every wuxia story has a variety of female characters, it is not hard to find stories which pass the letter of the Bechdel test. But wuxia stories which depict deep female-female relationships are rare. The only other wuxia story I know about which puts female-female relationships front and center (rather than as an aside to the Much More Important Male-Female Relationships) is The Celestial Zone.

By the way, when I say male-female relationships tend to get more weight than female-female realtionships, I’m not just talking about the romantic relationships. For some reason, more weight gets put on daughter-father and sister-brother relationships than daughter-mother and sister-sister relationships.

The development of the relationship is what sucked me into the movie, as Cui Ping and Leng Yushang slowly reveal themselves to each other. The moment when Leng Yushang finally accepts Cui Ping as her student is sweet indeed.

Of course, the relationship is so compelling because both Leng Yushang and Cui Ping are individually interesting characters. Leng Yushang is collected, experienced, calm, quiet, grounded … and slowly healing old wounds. However, while she’s very discreet, she is not the least bit cold – she’s quite warm, friendly, and open when she is not being the ‘Lady Hermit’ or trying to hide her identity.

Meanwhile Cui Ping is young, energetic, brash, bold, and naive. She has very strong feelings about almost everything, which is what drives her to try to uphold justice, constantly improve her martial arts, and try so hard to find the “Lady Hermit.”

You might notice that these two are a bit like opposites, and I find their relationship compelling in the same way that good ‘opposites attract’ romances are compelling.

I really have to applaud both Cheng Peipei and Shi Szu’s performances, as I feel that their acting is what made the teacher-student relationship between the Leng Yushang and Cui Ping feel so intense.

… But There’s Something Which Irritated Me

And that is Changchun.

Well, not Changchun himself. As a character, he is so empty that there’s not much about him personally which can irritate me. It’s his position in the story which irritates me.

First of all, I don’t understand why the female characters are so attracted to him. There is nothing in the script which explains this, so the only explanation I can think of is that he is physically handsome, in which case they should have cast a better-looking actor.

Now, I do actually like the scenes between Changchun and Leng Yushang, since they seem genuinely tender without being over-the-top. Okay, maybe I can understand why Leng Yushang likes him.

What really irritates me is that a) Cui Ping gets a crush on Changchun and b) when Cui Ping discovers how sweet and tender Changchun and Leng Yushang are, even though she is not in a committed exclusive relationship with Changchun, she decides to break off her relationship with Leng Yushang.

WHAT!

Cui Ping went to great lengths to become Leng Yushang’s disciple, and her actions indicate that Leng Yushang is the most important person in the world to her. It’s understandable that she would be upset to see Leng Yushang and Changchun touching each other lovingly … but to break up with Leng Yushang over a mere crush seems to indicate that the teacher-student bond was not as important to her as the audience was led to believe.

Disclosure Time.

I will admit that, as an aromantic, I am particularly sensistive to this sort of thing (if you do not know much about aromantic people, here’s a primer). I have nothing against romance – I even like well-written fictional romances – but to me, full-blown romance is like sisterhood – very common, frequently interesting, but something I will probably never personally experience. That’s okay, because sibling relationships and romantic relationships are not the only kinds of relationships which can be psychologically fulfilling.

I do not like being told that romantic relationships are so special that it’s only natural that any other relationships – no matter how deep – can be dumped for romance – regardless of how shallow the romance is. If individual people want to only value romantic relationships, that’s their business (though I think they should inform their friends, families, and colleagues that they do not value non-romantic relationships). But to see such a wonderful teacher-student relationship disrupted over such an empty romance is heartbreaking.

Then again, Chang Yushang herself is hurt by Cui Ping’s actions, and it seems that Cui Ping is so upset not because her feelings for Changchun are so deep, but because her feelings for Leng Yushang are do deep.

And this brings us back to culture.

One of the reasons I enjoy Chinese-language fiction as much as I do is that, compared to mainstream English-language fiction, the value of romantic relationships is more balanced with other kinds of relationships. And ultimately, the movie does vindicate me, and show that the relationship between Leng Yushang and Cui Ping is far more important than anything going on with Changchun. In an American movie … I think that vindication would have been less likely.

Even son … sigh … I wish they had chosen a different plot device to acheive the same effect.

Availability in English

This movie is available on Region 3 DVD with English subtitles.

Conclusion

A beautiful movie about a beautiful relationship between two vivid characters. What more can I say?

This column will go on hiatus for two weeks.

The Dragon Boat Festival is happening on June 12th! Time for Sara to go watch some dragon boat races and eat some rice dumplings. She also finally has an excuse to visit the town of Longtan.

Manga the Week of 6/12

June 6, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, Michelle Smith and MJ 5 Comments

SEAN: Between Amazon and Diamond, I’ll sort out this release date schedule yet! (cries) So confusing…

Dark Horse has a 3rd Trigun Maximum omnibus. This was, I seem to recall, right around the point where the art during the fight scenes made me jump ship, but maybe it reads better in a 600-page shot.

ANNA: I couldn’t get into more than three volumes or so of Trigun as a manga, but I did enjoy the anime.

SEAN: Digital Manga Publishing has the 2nd of their Tezuka 3-fer with the done in one Atomcat! It combines Astro Boy and cats. What more is there to say?

Kodansha Comics has two debuts this week. The first, No. 6, looks fairly serious and science-fiction oriented, and invokes the popular plot of “nice, popular guy discovers the secret facade behind everything he’s ever known”. I suspect his popularity will not last long.

MICHELLE: Possibly interesting!

MJ: Count me in! I haven’t loved many of Kodansha Comics’ debuts, but this one sounds genuinely interesting.

ANNA: That does sounds interesting. If Michelle and MJlike it, I might check it out!

SEAN: There’s also Vol. 1 of Sankarea: Undying Love. I reviewed this title already here, but suffice it to say this should please fans of both romantic comedies AND zombie films, and shows some promise that it won’t be just another harem series.

MICHELLE: I have to say, I am really weary of zombies.

MJ: And I am weary of harem series, but I’ll give it a chance to follow through on that promise.

ANNA: I am also weary of harem series. Not reverse harem though, that will always entertain me.

SEAN: His Favorite 4… I can’t with you. Seriously, that cover. That face. Those eyes. This is the best BL series ever. Based just on how the covers make me laugh. Also because it’s Luffy and Rule 63 Robin getting it on. >_>

MICHELLE: *snerk* I haven’t actually read any of this one yet.

MJ: I have read *all* of this series so far, and it is exactly as charming as it looks. It is one of my favorite SuBLime releases so far.

ANNA: That does look hilarious.

SEAN: There’s also a new BL series, Sleeping Moon. The cover is far more serious and broody, which likely suits its time-traveling angst shenanigans. The author had 3 one-shots come out from Deux back in 2008, so this is a grand return!

MICHELLE: I liked the oneshots, as I recall, so I’m looking forward to this one!

MJ: I am optimistic as well!

ANNA: Huh, this was not on my radar at all, but it looks intriguing.

SEAN: Arata: The Legend hits Vol. 14, which means it only has a few to go before it passes the original Fushigi Yuugi. I understand there are god swords.

MICHELLE: I enjoy Arata in a very Shonen Sunday kind of way.

ANNA: It is very well executed, I just really like Watase’s other series more.

SEAN: And oh look, I bet this gets some Pick of the Week. Loveless has Vol. 11 coming out, in which Seimei reveals that this has all been a wacky scheme to buy Ritsuka the perfect birthday present. Or something.

MICHELLE: Hooray! Except… I can’t read this (or volumes nine and ten) until the omnibus of seven and eight comes out next month. But I’m still happy about it. But perhaps not as happy as *somebody* in this post…

MJ: Aaaaaand that would be me. Like Michelle, I won’t be able to catch up to this volume until the fourth omnibus edition comes out next month, but I am pretty much DYING over that.

ANNA: This is another series I need to try – I have the first omnibus somewhere in my house.

SEAN: What’s your June Manga Bride?

It Came from the Sinosphere: The Duke of Mount Deer (Part 2)

June 4, 2013 by Sara K. Leave a Comment

First, a Song!

I’ve never seen any of the TV adaptations of The Duke of Mount Deer, but I do like the opening song of the version starring Tony Leung and Michael Miu.

Hey, I Know That Place!

I have never been to China. While I know where places like ‘Beijing’ are, a lot of the action in these stories takes place in rural areas I’ve never heard of. Likewise, my knowledge of Chinese history is very, very basic, so when certain prominent historical figures pop up I know little, if anything, about them.

But while I’ve never been to China, I have most definitely been in Taiwan (I’m in Taiwan now).

This novel has many references to Taiwanese history and places in Taiwan, and eventually our protagonist even goes to Taiwan.

Furthermore, I read part of the novel in Penghu, which was a stronghold of Shi Lang, one of the characters in the novel. So, while I was reading about the fictional Shi Lang, I was learning about the historical Shi Lang by wandering around his old stomping ground.

This village in Penghu was around when the events of this novel took place.

So, for once, not only did I understand a lot of the historical references being dropped and know quite a few of the places being mentioned, they were mentioning places which I have physically visited and have vivid memories of. For example, at one point Wei Xiaobao thinks about five concubines of King Ningjing. I have visited the temple dedicated to the five concubines, and seen the very wooden rafter where they hung themselves.

I had not expected to see places I’ve been to in my travel around Taiwan to pop up in a Jin Yong novel. It’s exciting to see a bit of one’s life represented in fiction, and it made my reading experience even richer.

The Island

Something that comes up again and again in Jin Yong stories is 2-8 characters going to an island where they live together in isolation from the rest of humanity. Or maybe they go to a remote mountain instead. This is the happiest part of the characters’ lives, and if/when they leave the island/mountain, they suffer.

In other words, happiness is setting up one’s own isolated micro-society, while people living within a huge, hierarchal society are doomed to suffer. There, I’ve just summarized about 5000 pages of fiction.

(this section contains some spoilers for this novel)

But there is one protagonist who is not happy with living on his own island, namely Wei Xiaobao.

He thinks the greatest pleasures in life are watching theatre shows, gambling, and having sex with beautiful women. But on the island, only the ‘sex with beautiful women’ is an option, which is why Wei Xiaobao doesn’t want to be on the island in the first place. He does try to gamble with the beautiful women, but since they are not really into gambling, it’s not much fun. Then some gamblers come to the island, so Wei Xiaobao gets sex with beautiful women and gambling. But he’s still unhappy. Then a theatre troupe comes to the island … no, I’m making that one up, but I bet even if a theatre group had come to the island and performed for Wei Xiaobao every day, he would still be unhappy.

It is then said that Wei Xiaobao can only be happy in a bustling city, such as Yangzhou or Beijing. But I wonder, is that really it? He seems happiest when he’s with his friends. If his friends were on the island with him, would he be so unhappy?

In any case, I find it interesting that Jin Yong subverts his own island/mountain fantasy.

Not a Good Person

Jin Yong has received many complaints from readers about the novel because the protagonist is … not a good person. Jin Yong’s response is that protagonists don’t have to be ‘good’, his novels are not supposed to be morality textbooks, and nobody is completely ‘good’ anyway. He does say to any impressionable people who may read the novel that Wei Xiaobao’s loyalty to his friends is a virtue, but aside from that, his behavior should not be imitated.

I like to pride myself in being someone who wants complex characters with shades of grey and all that … yet Wei Xiaobao also frustrated me. Which makes me realize that I also like to sort characters into ‘good people’ and ‘bad people’, much as I don’t like to admit it.

Wei Xiaobao simply does not fit in the ‘good person/bad person’ dichotomy. He some some horrible things in the story, and never regrets them, let alone apologize for them. He also does some good things at personal cost to himself. At times I would be cheering him on, and then think ‘wait a minute, I’m cheering on the guy who did [horrible thing].’ And then there were times when Wei Xiaobao was suffering, and I would think ‘that’s not fair.’

Many of Wei Xiaobao’s ‘bad’ features are actually him living out fantasies we are not comfortable to admitting we have. For example, he is too lazy to study, and always finds clever workarounds for actual work. Many of use would love to have the benefit of work being done without doing the work ourselves. And while I personally do not have fantasies about having sex with a harem of beautiful women, based on some of the search results I’ve gotten, this seems to be some people’s favorite part of the story.

I have Asagi from Basara on my mind lately (thanks, MJ) and even he fits in the good person / bad person dichotomy. He’s a bad, broken person who becomes a good, healed person. Wei Xiaobao, however, is not broken – in fact, he is the least angst-ridden of all Jin Yong characters. While he does grow up over the course of the story, whether he becomes a ‘better’ person is open to debate.

To a large extent, Wei Xiaobao is just adapting to his environment. He often gets rewarded for lying and cheating, so he lies and he cheats. He grew up around people who treat young women as sex objects instead of as people, so he treats young women as sex objects instead of as people (though he gets a little better about this towards the end of the story). Older women tend to shower affection on him when he flatters and papmers them, so guess what, he flatters and pampers older women. His friends express their gratitude when he tries to help them, so he tries to help his friends. While Wei Xiaobao is individually repsonsible for his actions (especially since it is demonstrated that he CAN resist his social conditioning), to a large extent, his virtues and flaws are reflections of the society he lives in.

What a vexing character.

Wei Xiaobao and His Mother

(this is mildly spoilerific)

For most of the novel, Wei Xiaobao hardly thinks about his mother at all, and he certainly does not wonder how she’s doing. Finally, he returns to Yangzhou and sees her. From her point of view, her young son had disappeared years ago, and no matter how hard she searched for him, she couldn’t even find a clue about his whereabouts. She is understandably extremely upset about his long absence, and makes sures Wei Xiaobao knows it. At the same time, she is overjoyed to know that her son is alive and well. Wei Xiaobao also observes that she is getting older, and that some day she will need somebody to take care of her.

At first, this encounter doesn’t seem to change Wei Xiaobao, but looking back, that was a major turning point in his development. Before their reunion, Wei Xiaobao has a very self-centered lifestyle – everything is about making himself safe, comfortable, and happy. After being separated from her again, Wei Xiaobao actually misses his mother, and worries about how she is doing. And it’s not just his mother – Wei Xiaobao starts considering how his actions affect other people, not to manipulate them, but because he starts to care about their well-being. He realizes that there are people who depend on him. And thus his carefree existence is finished.

This is actually not unlike my own life. I haven’t seen my own mother in years, unless you count the *one* conversation we had over Skype last year, which incidently was the only time I talked to her in all of 2012. She would probably count that, for she said was that it was so wonderful to see her daughter’s face moving and smiling again after having not seen me for so long. Though I don’t think my behavior is nearly as harmful as Wei Xiaobao’s, I am currently living a self-centered life myself. I am only taking care of myself, and though Wei Xiaobao and I do very different things for fun (well, we do have ONE passion in common – live theatre), we are both trying to please ourselves to the greatest extent feasible.

I consider my eventual reunion with my parents to be the end of my carefree existence, for I see that, between my parents and myself, the direction of the caregiving is going to reverse. One reason I value my current self-centered lifestyle is that, by my reckoning, I will never be able to live like this ever again.

Availability in English

This novel has been published in English as The Deer and the Cauldron by John Minford. I haven’t read any of it myself, but this translation gets very, very mixed reviews. Currently, it’s out of print and expensive, so I suggest borrowing it from a library.

There is also an incomplete fan translation by ‘Foxs’. I’ve looked at it, and it’s very literal (on purpose, according to Foxs). It’s not the smoothest reading experience in English, but it’s close to the original Chinese. Some people say that the best way to read The Deer and the Cauldron in English is to read the Minford and the Foxs translations side-by-side.

Conclusion

A lot of people say this is Jin Yong’s best novel, and dammit, they are right, this is Jin Yong’s best novel.

If you can get the Minford translation from a library, or get the novel in a language you understand by some other means, then this novel needs to be on your reading list now (caveat: I am not going to blame people who avoid the novel because of the sexual abuse it depicts).

I am a bit sad to finish this novel. I had held off on reading this for a long time because it is the last Jin Yong novel. Now, I will never read a fresh Jin Yong novel ever again. Re-reads are not the same. That said, this was the right novel to save for last.

Thanks, Jin Yong. It was a great ride.

What does it say about Sara K.’s life that she saw some Beijing opera, learned how to open up encrypted filesystems with a liveCD, and was bitten by wild leeches in the same week?