Features

JManga the Week of 11/22

November 16, 2012 by Sean Gaffney, MJ and Michelle Smith 6 Comments

SEAN: Most of what JManga is doing this week is catching up on some new volumes, so let’s look at those.

Crazy for You and Pride both have their Vol. 3s out. Both of these series were hits for me, so seeing more of them is a very good thing. Also, I love the way Kaoru Shiina draws grins.

MJ: I loved both of these, especially Pride! I kinda can’t wait for those new volumes. I’m seriously anxious over here. I would read them right now if I could.

MICHELLE: Me too! I am very happy about both of these, but since we’re talking about shoujo from Shueisha here, I will shamelessly exploit this opportunity to beg JManga to “please get Cat Street!”

SEAN: Elemental Gelade hits Vol. 2, and we are thus one-ninth of the way through this fantasy series! (Sorry folks, I got nothin’.)

MICHELLE: I can muster no enthusiasm for Elemental Gelade.

MJ: Clearly, neither can I.

SEAN: Despite the lack of a translated title (apparently some publishers just don’t want titles changed), Edo Nekoe Jubei Otogizoshi is one of my all-time favorite JManga releases, simply as it’s a supernatural mystery cat manga from a cat manga magazine. Its very existence here in North America for sale justifies digital manga.

MJ: I’m completely ignorant on this one, and now I feel I should be ashamed! More cats!

MICHELLE: I bought a couple of volumes of this but confess that I haven’t read them yet.

SEAN: There are also two new titles. Eleven Soul is a long-running shonen series from Mag Garden’s Comic Blade, and has an intriguing premise of futuristic samurai trying to battle a genetically engineered enemy that has taken over half the world.

MJ: That sounds… well, a little bit “meh.” But I’ll give it a shot.

MICHELLE: I will split the difference and say that it’s a premise that is teetering on the precipice between intriguing and meh. Could go either way.

SEAN: I am presuming that The Narrow Road to the Deep North is not the play by Edward Bond, but the classic Japanese work Osu no Hosomichi, a travel diary through Edo Japan. The original text is quite famous, consisting of both prose and haiku verses, and I wonder how Variety Art Works have managed to convert it to manga.

MJ: I hope this is exactly what you think it is, because that sounds really intriguing. I’m definitely on board for that.

MICHELLE: Me too!

It Came from the Sinosphere: Princess Pearl (Pt. 2)

November 16, 2012 by Sara K. 5 Comments

Yet another screenshot from the TV adaptation.

So, last Tuesday I talked about the super-popular novel Princess Pearl. Now I’m going to keep talking about it.

The Friendship/Sisterhood of Ziwei and Xiaoyanzi

I don’t know whether to call them “friends” or “sisters.” As I mentioned in the previous post, Chinese-speaking cultures tend to value family relationships above romantic relationships, and this also applies to friendships. But what happens is that, especially in stories set in historical periods, whenever two people become close friends, they become sworn sisters/brothers. In a way, in Chinese, a “brother” or “sister” is anybody from the same generation with whom you have a close relationship. This can even apply to romantic couples, which weirded me out until I got my head around the fact that in Chinese-speaking cultures, calling one’s lover “sister” or “brother” does not imply anything incestuous.

Okay, I’m calling them “friends.”

One of the things which makes Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei’s friendship so entertaining is that they are opposites. Ziwei is well-educated, has an excellent understanding of the high arts, is a beautiful singer, an excellent chess player, etc. Xiaoyanzi is illiterate, and can’t follow proper etiquette even when her life depends on it. Ziwei, while healthy, is physically weak … whereas Xiaoyanzi is quite good at hand-to-hand combat, jumping over walls, and other physically-demanding feats. Ziwei can’t lie, but she’s very good at staying quiet. Xiaoyanzi can’t stay quiet, but she’s an excellent liar.

And it’s hilarious that Xiaoyanzi has to pretend that she is a princess, while Ziwei has to pretend that she’s not.

What they have in common is their passionate feelings. I think this is ultimately what brings them—and keeps them—together. Xiaoyanzi is willing to brave any danger to keep Ziwei safe … and Ziwei is willing to sacrifice anything for Xiaoyanzi’s well-being. When someone feels that way about you, it’s hard not to respond, and when it’s mutual, it’s hard to break apart. No wonder Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei care more about each other than the charming young men they fall in love with. Ultimately, they even come to the conclusion that their relationship with each other is more important than their relationship with their father, Emperor Qianlong. This is a classic example of how the more one gives, the more one has.

Princess Pearl and Goong

Out of all of the Asian comics I am familiar with, Goong feels the most like Princess Pearl. They are both about a teenaged girl from the commoner class who finds herself inadvertendtly becoming a princess, locked away inside the royal court. Neither Xiaoyanzi nor Chae-Kyung are very good at being refined, well-behaved princesses, and it’s their very roughness and lively spirit which eventually wins over the love of almost everybody in the palace.

Princess Pearl and Goong are entertaining for some of the same reasons. There’s plenty of opportunity for comedy as the commoner way of life and the royal way of life clash with each other, yet underneath all of the amusing escapades a potential tragedy is brewing (notice that I say *potential* … I am not trying to imply that either story actually is a tragedy).

Prince Shin is, in some ways, the opposite of Emperor Qianlong. Prince Shin is a big jerk at first, and only later reveals his tenderness; Emperor Qianlong is all sweetness and tenderness at first, and only bares his fangs once the novelty of having a new daughter wears off.

And of course, some of the major details are really different … Goong really is a romance, and Princess Pearl scores way better on the Bechdel test (come to think of it, it’s very rare for two male characters to talk about something other than a woman in Princess Pearl), not to mention the whole time period/location thing. But I think it would be fair to call both of them soap operas.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Princess Pearl and Goong feel so much alike. The 1998 TV adaptation of Princess Pearl was extremely popular in South Korea (where it is called “Emperor’s Daughter”). Goong started serialization just a few years later in 2002. I don’t know whether or not Princess Pearl inspired Park SoHee, but considering what I’ve read about the impact Princess Pearl had on South Korea, I think it must have at least been an influence.

Availability in English (rant)

This novel has never been published in English or in any other European language as far as I know. I can’t even find a TV adaptation with English subtitles (though I suspect that it just might be possible to get Singapore DVDs with English subtitles—I haven’t turned over every stone).

This … irritates me.

I do not buy the argument that non-Asians can’t understand the oh-so-mysterious Chinese culture. I think somebody who had never even heard of China before could love this novel. Understanding what it’s like to be a human being is all that’s required, as far as I’m concerned.

And considering that this story has proven extremely popular in places with such different cultures as Mongolia and Indonesia, I don’t see why this couldn’t have been a worldwide hit … aside from reluctance on the part of the media to even try.

*sigh*

Maybe they should make a comic book adaptation … manhua, manhwa, manga, whatever (the original novel and the 1998 TV adaptation are available in both Korean and Japanese) and then get that licensed overseas.

But this is one of the reasons I bother writing this column. I want to help the works which do get translated into English get more attention, and I want to discuss things which don’t get translated into English so that English-speakers at least have a clue about what they’re missing.

Conclusion

I figured that, since this is one of the most popular Chinese-language novels ever, that it would at least be readable. What I didn’t expect is that it would become one of my personal favorites. It’s really a very simple story, yet the simplicity makes me love it harder. Actually, it’s so simple that I’m even a bit embarrassed that I love it so much.

I think one of the fundamentals of human existence is that we crave love and affection from others. The flipside is that we are all afraid of losing that love. This is true whether we are a street urchin or the emperor of China. To some extent, it doesn’t matter where that love comes from—a parent, a sibling, a child, a lover, a friend, a stranger. That craving, and that fear, can drive us to both wonderful and terrible things.

I think this is the chord that this story has struck in a billion people.

Sara K. …. has completely forgotten what she wants to say. Oh well. When she remembers, she can stick it at the end of a future post.

Manga the Week of 11/21

November 15, 2012 by Sean Gaffney, Michelle Smith and MJ 11 Comments

SEAN: After a very, very busy first two weeks of November, you’d think the manga industry would let us off easy before Thanksgiving, but no. There’s an awful lot to bite into this week.

First of all, Midtown seems to have caught up with Diamond Comics. If you’re looking for the 2nd week Viz releases or the Seven Seas titles, we discussed them last week.

That still leaves a lot. Starting, as ever, with Dark Horse, who are bringing out the first of their Trigun Maximum volumes. While I always tended to prefer the anime adaptation of this story, I do still have a soft spot for Vash and company, and if you haven’t tried the title out yet, you might want to. Meryl and Milly are a stitch!

MICHELLE: I never have been able to muster much enthusiasm for Trigun, even though I have vaguely good feelings towards it.

SEAN: Digital Manga Publishing has one BL titles and two non. Starting with the BL, we first have Honey Smile, a title from Nihon Bungeisha’s Karen Magazine. Aside from appealing to women named Karen, the premise sounds quite sweet, and the cover only adds to that impression.

MJ: It’s so rare that I like the cover for a BL manga (even when I end up liking the manga), but for once this actually does look like My Kind of BL, right from the start. I’ll definitely be looking out for this.

MICHELLE: Oh, that *is* pretty adorable-looking!

SEAN: I had thought that Lovephobia, Vol. 2 of which is out next week, fell into the BL category as well, mostly as it runs in the hideously named Comic B’s Log KYUN!. But it’s apparently a regular old shoujo title that features vampires. As you know, Congressional Act Pub-L 111-369 decrees that all vampire manga must be licensed for North American audiences, so here we are. Do they sparkle?

MJ: Hmmm, I’m torn between my love for the words “old shoujo” and my increasing weariness with vampires. Which feeling will win?

MICHELLE: I keep mentally conflating Lovephobia with Toko Kawai’s Loveholic, so I’ve been thinking of it as BL as well.

SEAN: I’m not used to seeing DMP dipping its toes into the waters of Media Factory’s Comic Alive, which is usually the purview of our friends at Seven Seas. Here they are, though, with Vol. 1 of Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat. It apparently features a perverted protagonist *and* a tsundere, but we’ll give it a shot anyway.

MJ: This sounds like it could either be awesome or horrible, and I’ll probably wait for someone else to read it first. I’m looking at you, Sean.

MICHELLE: Ugh. Not for me.

SEAN: 3 titles next week (well, this week, but it’s Kodansha, we know the deal) from Kodansha Comics. Animal Land has hit Vol. 6. For some reasons, I always assume this title is geared towards little kids in Japan, but it runs in Monthly Shonen Magazine, also home to Flowers of Evil and Attack on Titan, so I could be wrong. Are there at least animals? In a land?

MJ: There are, but I couldn’t even make it through the first volume, so that’s about all I can tell you.

MICHELLE: I made it through the first one, but never did continue. It’s got tons of poop jokes, so you’re probably right about its intended audience.

SEAN: Love Hina’s omnibus re-release hits Vol. 4, and introduces two of its most controversial plot points. a) Kanako Urashima, Keitaro’s younger sister, and b) Keitaro’s leave-of-absence from the series, and subsequent return with a personality transplant. Still, it has a new translation, and probably better scans, so Love Hina fans (like me) will get it anyway.

Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations hits Vol. 3, and sadly still lacks most of the cast of the games themselves, being content only with Dick Gumshoe. Still, even though Edgeworth is not as silly as Phoenix, he surrounds himself with silly suspects.

Apologies to BL fans: when porting over Viz’s 2nd week releases last week, I missed the two SubLime BL titles. So here they are. Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love has Vol. 2, with a cute feminine little guy trying to attract the grumpy, chain-smoking big manly guy. (I really need to come up with better ways to describe BL.) As for the cover of Vol. 2 of Starting with a Kiss… do necks even BEND like that? Oh my God!

MJ: I admit I’ve been pretty wishy-washy on SuBLime releases in general. I love what they are doing and how they’re doing it (Viz has proven they really get digital distribution, including how it works best for particular audiences—in this case, BL fans), but for the most part, their licenses are simply not to my taste. I am not the BL fan they are publishing for, and titles like Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love really drive that point home. Given the response I’ve seen from BL fans at Manga Bookshelf (and elsewhere), I’m pretty sure they’re making strong choices for the larger fanbase, but I just really don’t care for these titles.

MICHELLE: I have genuinely liked at least one (The Bed of My Dear King) and was unexpectedly intrigued by another (Punch Up!), but on the whole I must agree. I prefer a kinder, gentler sort of BL. And egads, that Starting with a Kiss cover is creepy!

SEAN: Viz also has a few 3rd week releases. Bokurano: Ours has hit Vol. 7, and is still doing what Bokurano does quite nicely. Its uplifting and life-affirming message requires the reader to sit through piles and piles of trauma, and thus I’ve given it a miss.

MJ: Oooh, I bet Michelle has a response to this!

MICHELLE: There’s no denying Bokurano is grim, grim, grim, and that one doesn’t get to learn much about the cast of kids until it’s their turn to pilot the robot and subsequently die. But it’s the mystery of why this is all happening that keeps me fascinated.

SEAN: REAL is still ongoing in Japan, albeit at a very slow rate, and now North America gets Vol. 11. This volume actually promises to feature Nomiya, the delinquent protagonist who got most of the beginning of the series before the focus moved away from him. Still a good story well-told, as you’d expect from Inoue.

MJ: Hurray! Seriously, that’s the only possible response to a new volume of REAL.

MICHELLE: I disagree. I think “Huzzah!” works equally well!

SEAN: And Saturn Apartments, one of the quieter SigIKKI titles, has hit Vol. 6. I think 7 is the last, so it must be getting close to wrapping things up.

MJ: Wow, I’m behind in this series. I need to remedy that, pronto.

MICHELLE: Me, too. I really like it, but I’ve fallen behind by several volumes now.

SEAN: There’s a new omnibus out for CLAMP’s classic shoujo series X, containing Vols. 10-12, and more preparation for the complete and total apocalypse that we still haven’t actually quite seen yet. Still, the preparation is absolutely gorgeous.

MJ: Despite my lukewarm feelings for this series, these omnibus releases are a must-buy. If there’s one thing I really do love about X, it’s the gorgeous, shoujo-tastic artwork, and these volumes show that off to its best advantage.

MICHELLE: I still have yet to read beyond volume one of this series, despite owning it in its entirety and having the first two omnibus editions. I’ve seen the anime, though.

SEAN: Lastly, I had wondered why Diamond didn’t ship it this week with the rest of Yen’s titles, but no matter: The long awaited Thermae Romae Vol. 1 (a two-volume omnibus) is out next week in glorious hardcover. Far more than just a take of Roman baths, this series is another reason why North Americans keep wanting more and more from Comic Beam (also home to Emma and Wandering Son).

MJ: I can’t wait to read this!

MICHELLE: Me, neither! Coming soon to an Off the Shelf near you!

SEAN: It’s Thanksgiving Week for The U.S.! What titles are you thankful for?

It Came from the Sinosphere: Princess Pearl (Pt. 1)

November 13, 2012 by Sara K. 3 Comments

So, a while ago, I said I needed to read some Chiung Yao novels and try some of the TV adaptations. Well, I’ve been working on that, and it is with great enthusiasm that I present Princess Pearl (AKA My Fair Princess and Prince Returning-Pearl).

About Chiung Yao

Chiung Yao might be the most popular Taiwanese novelist ever (this is difficult to measure). She is without a doubt the most popular female Chinese-language novelist ever, as well as the most popular Chinese-language romance novelist ever.

Almost all of her novels were originally serialized in a magazine aimed at teenage girls, and with all of the cliffhangers, they read like serializations. The works I’ve read so far have an addictive melodramatic quality that reminds me of 70s shoujo manga.

Princess Pearl is her most popular novel, and was adapted into the most popular Mandarin-language TV drama ever (I am not exaggerating). But I want to talk about the novel, not the TV drama.

Story

This novel is set in 18th century China. Xiaoyanzi is a burglar and a swindler who grew up on the streets of Beijing. She encounters Ziwei, an educated and refined girl from Shandong. At first they rub each other the wrong way, but soon enough they bond and become sworn sisters. Ziwei left Shandong upon the death of her mother, and her mother’s dying wish was that she would go to her father in Beijing. Though Ziwei knows where her father is, getting access to him is a problem because her mother never had a chance to tell him that they have a daugther and … well, he’s the emperor of China. Of course, while Ziwei can’t break into the Forbidden City, Xiaoyanzi, as an expert burglar, can.

Upon breaking into the Forbidden City, carrying the evidence of Ziwei’s paternity with her, Xiaoyanzi is shot by an arrow, and eventually passes out. Emperor Qianlong, seeing the evidence, mistakes Xiaoyanzi for being his own daughter. By the time Xiaoyanzi is clear-headed again, it is explained to her that if he discovers that she is a fake, the emperor will cut off her head. Meanwhile, Ziwei remains outside the Forbidden City.

About Emperor Qianlong

Emperor Qianlong ruled for over 60 years, one of the longest reigns in Chinese history. I don’t know much about the historical Emperor Qianlong, but I remember one exhibit about his personal ceramics collection. In order to show his appreciation for ceramics, he would write poems praising their excellence, and then order people to carve the poems into the pieces. While I didn’t bother to read the poetry myself, apparently a common theme was that it was very important for an emperor to appraise ceramics, and therefore he was not neglecting his imperial duties by obsessing over his collection.

Emperor Qianlong wasn’t just interested in pottery. He also collected paintings, jade, ivory, and other works of art. He didn’t just appreciate Chinese art; he also collected art from Europe and Central Asia. In addition to visual art, he also loved music, poetry, and literature.

He is a very popular character in Chinese-language historical fiction … however most historical fiction focuses not on his love of art, but his romantic and sexual relationships with various women. Even though I’ve never seen (and probably never will see) The Legend of Qianlong, I do like the theme song.

This isn’t even the first time I’ve discussed him; he’s one of the main characters in The Book and the Sword.

In this particular novel, he is basically presented as a loveable spoiled brat who unfortunately (for everyone else) has absolute power over an empire. He loves art and culture, and feels entitled to having access to the best. He loves romance and sex, and feels that any woman he approaches ought to feel happy about it. And he has had so many relationships that it’s easy for even someone he likes a lot to slip from his mind (Ziwei’s mother specifically). He expects his children to continually shower him with affection and to do everything he tells them to do because a) he is their emperor and b) he is their father. And it is really, really easy to hurt his feelings.

I’m making him out to be a nasty character, aren’t I? Well, in his defense, he is also very loving. When he takes a liking to somebody, he is extremely gentle and kind, and he often gets heartbroken because a) somebody he likes got hurt or b) he feels betrayed by somebody he likes. It seems that he has, by nature, a sweet, warm, and sensitive personality, yet he has been warped by having more power than any human being ought to have.

In any case, it’s no wonder that he appears in so much Chinese-language fiction. He is a complex character who can be presented as a hero or as a villain, and he can fit well in anything ranging from a deep work of serious literature to a titillating pornographic film.

The Love Triangle

Okay, so sue me, I am using an image from the TV series

Since Chiung Yao is known as a romance writer, I was expecting this to be a romance. And there is some romance in the novel, but it generally happens in the sidelines. But while this novel is not about romance, it is definitely about love. There is even a (non-romantic) love triangle at the center of the action: Xiaoyanzi, Ziwei, and Emperor Qianlong.

Neither Ziwei nor Xiaoyanzi had any father-figure in her childhood, so they both crave the fatherly affections of the emperor. Neither is interested in political power, so when they compete for the status of princess, this is their motivation. Meanwhile, the emperor wants as much love as possible to come his way, and while he never consciously tries to break up Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei, one of the schemes he comes up with to get more of their love would have incidently separated them.

Daughters and Fathers

I would say that, in the culture of the United States (as well as in Britain, Canada, Australia, etc), romantic relationships are valued more than parent-child relationships. In the Chinese-speaking world, it’s the other way around.

It has been noted that one of the things which makes Taiwanese idol dramas different from K-dramas and J-dramas is that there tends to be a lot more emphasis on the romantic couples’ parents and other relatives. I don’t know enough about K-dramas and J-dramas to confirm this … but compared to shoujo manga, this is certainly the case. This is also reflected in my encounters with Taiwanese people; they are much more likely to ask questions about my parents and family than about my romantic life.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two Taiwanese movies—Cannot Live Without You/No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti and Seven Days in Heaven—that are primarily about the relationship between a daughter and a father (and IIRC neither movie has any romance whatsoever). I cannot think of any English-language movie that is primarily about a relationship between a daughter and a father. In the context of Chinese-speaking culture, the fact that Princess Pearl focuses on parent-child relationships does not make it an outlier.

So what does the novel have to say about children and parents?

On the one hand, even though Xiaoyanzi and Emperor Qianlong are not biological relatives, they come to care for each other very deeply. This implies that the bond between daughter and father is forged by shared experiences and people’s actions, not by biology. On the other hand, Emperor Qianlong also happens to become very attached to Ziwei, even though he does not know that she is his biological daughter. This implies that the genetic bond still counts for something. Then again, when he first meets her, he doesn’t notice her. It is her actions that finally catch his attention.

While I disagree with some of the ideas that Chinese-speaking cultures have about parent-child relationships, I think it is good that they value them so much and include them far more often in their mainstream media, and I think my own culture could stand to learn something from them.

I have plenty more to say, but I think that’s enough for now. So please come back on Friday for Part 2, when I will:

– discuss the friendship/sisterhood between Xiaoyanzi and Ziwei
– compare the novel Princess Pearl to the manhwa Goong
– ~~rant~~ talk about its (un)availability in English

Next time (not Friday): You Are the Apple of My Eye (movie)

When Sara K. was caught reading a Chiung Yao novel, somebody told her that they are for 16-year old girls. She replied that when she was 16 years old, she couldn’t read Chinese. Furthermore, Sara K. has discovered that Chiung Yao novels, particularly the second halves, are NSFW. If she read them, they might make her cry, and then she’d have to explain to everybody what was wrong.

Guest Feature: 10 Things We Should Know About Manga

November 9, 2012 by Justin Stroman 6 Comments

There are many things to know about manga — after all, it’s existed for a pretty long time — but while there are a lot of things to learn about manga, I say there are 10 you should know already. Let’s get this list going!
…

3 Things Thursday: Miracle Comics

November 8, 2012 by MJ 6 Comments

Unfinished manga series… everyone’s got a favorite—at least one beloved manga whose abrupt cancellation or apparently indefinite hiatus serves only as a source of pain. And we all know the score, don’t we? Vanished series almost never return to publication, so chances are, our disappointment is permanent. Still, sometimes, just sometimes, a beloved series does come back. Perhaps it finds a new publisher, or the artist recovers from a long-time illness—every once in a while, a manga miracle occurs.

Next week’s list of new manga includes one of these miracle series, as the third volume of Satoko Kiyuduki’s Shoulder-a-Coffin, Kuro (a former subject of Kate Dacey’s The Best Manga You’re Not Reading series) is due for release from North American publisher Yen Press after a five-year hiatus in Japan.

I have my own list of favorite comics that were prematurely interrupted, and a few of these have had their miracles! None has seen republication in English yet, but I have hope once again! And so…

3 Favorite Miracle Comics

1. Wild Adapter | Kazuya Minekura | Original publisher: Tokyopop – I know, I know, I’ll jump on any excuse to talk about Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter, but that is seriously how often it is on my mind. Interrupted both by the author’s health problems and rumored content conflicts with its original Japanese publisher (Tokuma Shoten), the series finally resumed serialization in Ichijinsha’s Comic Zero Sum last year, starting from the beginning, with new chapters scheduled to begin next spring. Though Wild Adapter‘s original US publisher, Tokyopop, ceased their North American publishing operations last year, the prospect of new chapters certainly reawakens hope for fans that the series could be re-licensed in the future. We live in hope. So much hope.

2. Legal Drug | CLAMP | Original publisher: Tokyopop – Though it’s easy to pile on Tokyopop for their list of unfinished series, here is another case in which a canceled manga’s problems originated in Japan. CLAMP’s supernatural detective series Legal Drug ran from 2000 to 2003 in Kadokawa Shoten’s shoujo magazine Monthly Asuka, until the magazine itself went out of publication. Despite CLAMP’s (and particularly the series’ primary artist Nekoi’s) occasional remarks about wanting to continue the series, I think most of us had pretty much left it for dead. Much to our surprise, then, the series resumed publication in Kadokawa’s Young Ace Magazine, with a new name (Drug and Drop) and for a new (seinen) demographic. Though the series has been running again for nearly a year, it hasn’t been re-licensed… yet. With CLAMP, this seems thankfully inevitable. I can’t wait!

3. Off*Beat | Jen Lee Quick | Original publisher: Tokyopop – This one actually is Tokyopop’s fault, though it’s also to their credit that the series ever saw publication to begin with. Years ago, when Tokyopop was experimenting heavily in the world of OEL manga, a fantastic little series called Off*Beat was born. This idiosyncratic comic about a genius teenager figuring out who he is went down in flames with the rest of Tokyopop’s OEL program after only two volumes, but its quiet fandom lived on. I discovered the series thanks to a plea from my former PopCultureShock colleague, Isaac Hale, and followed that up with a plea of my own. Though contractual issues hung up many of the Tokyopop writers from carrying on with their series after cancellation, even after TP’s North American demise, hope seemed bleak. So imagine the joy and surprise that followed this article last year (sourced from Johanna Draper Carlson who spotted this tweet from Lissa Pattillo—see how news travels in the manga blogosphere?). The new volume hasn’t seen the light of day quite yet, but recent posts still sound positive. Hurrah!

Do you have favorite miracle comics?

It Came from the Sinosphere: Ài Shā 17

November 6, 2012 by Sara K. 8 Comments

So, the official English title of this drama is Bump Off Lover, but I dislike it so much that I am just going to use the Mandarin title Ài Shā 17 (Love Murder 17) instead.

Many people comment that Taiwanese idol dramas are always cheery, always romantic, always upbeat, and are overall a light-hearted, bubbly, pop (junk) culture genre. First of all, I’m very wary of make distinctions between “junk” culture and “high” culture. And it also turns out that there are quite a few rather dark idol drams out there. I’ve even discussed one previously—The Outsiders. But the darkest, most disturbing idol drama I’ve ever seen is, without question, Ài Shā 17.

TRIGGER WARNING: This TV drama presents stalking, sexual bullying (including a male victim), under-age prostitution, rape with drugs, child-kidnapping, victim-blaming, people defending the perpetrators, suicide, and other disturbing topics. Consequently, these topics are also come up in this post.

Now, in order to set the mood for this post, I suggest watching the opening song before continuing.

The Story

The story starts with two 17-year old twin sisters, Yizhen and Yijing.

Yijing (left) and Yizhen (right)

Yizhen’s high school teacher, Yang Renyou, had tried to rape her, which is why the school fired him. However, Yang Renyou is apparently now stalking Yizhen.

Yang Renyou is watching Yizhen’s family

Meanwhile Zou Kejie, another student at their school, is being bullied. Because of this pressure, Zou Kejie joins a mysterious BBS called “Heart of Darkness” for social support. He also becomes good friends with Yijing (actually, he has a crush on her).

Kejia and Yijing having a good time together

One evening after school, Yizhen spots Yang Renyou running around the school grounds. Later that evening, she hears her sister Yijing cry out for help. While running towards her sister’s voice, somebody pushes Yizhen into a swimming pool—and she can’t swim. She is rescued by her boyfriend, Jiawei, but it’s too late; by the time they find Yijing, she’s already dead.

Jiawei pulls Yizhen out of the swimming pool

In the trial by media, Zou Kejie is presented as being Yijing’s murderer. While he professes his innocence, he refuses to cooperate with the police. Even his own brother, Zou Kejiang, begins to suspect that he is the culprit. Eventually Zou Kejie cannot handle the pressure of everybody and the media accusing him of being Yijing’s murderer, and commits suicide.

After the suicide, Zou Kejiang regrets not believing his brother, and is determined to find the true murderer in order to clear his brother’s name. Meanwhile, Yizhen suspects that Yang Renyou did it. Yizhen, Kejiang, and Jiawei work together to solve the mystery … and what Yizhen learns is more disturbing than anything she imagined.

Jiawei, Yizhen, and Kejiang in a hospital

Taiwanese Online Culture

Last week, I discussed Taiwanese online culture a bit. This idol drama depicts it too. In 2007, it would not be very credible if a bunch of ordinary (as in non-geeky) people in the United States decided to casually join a BBS, but in Taiwan BBS are still a dominant way to socialize online. They’ve even survived the popularity of Facebook.

Angela Chang and Shen Shihua

Idol dramas are called “idol dramas” because they present “idols” (usually music idols) in “dramas.” The “idol” of this drama is clearly Angela Chang, the popular Taiwanese singer who plays both Yizhen and Yijing.

First of all, I must give some credit to the hair-and-makeup people, who did a really good job of distinguishing Yizhen and Yijing.

Of course the bulk of the credit goes to Angela Chang and the scriptwriters. This was an excellent way to demonstrate Angela Chang’s acting skills—there is nothing which proves that somebody can act better than casting them as two different characters in the same story. I ought to watch another Angela Chang drama.

Angela Chang, in addition to playing both of the main characters, also sings the opening and ending songs for the drama.

For an example of an Angela Chang song not directly related to Ài Shā 17, check out Bu Tong (No Pain). The pinyin lyrics with an English gloss can be found at Chinese Tools.

Shen Shihua as Liang Yajuan

Yet I think the very best acting performance in this drama was given by Shen Shihua, who played Liang Yajuan, the mother of Yizhen and Yijing. She even won the 2006 Golden Bell Best Supporting Actress award for this performance. In some ways, Liang Yajuan is a more difficult character to play than Yizhen or Yijing. Liang Yajuan actually grows more as a character than either of her daughters, and has to convey more subtlety. She just doesn’t get as much screentime.

The Whodunit Murder Mystery

The whodunit murder mystery is one of my least favorite genres of fiction. I only watched this drama because I received multiple recommendations. So how does it hold up as a murder mystery from a non-fan’s perspective?

I generally was less interested in the story when it was more purely a whodunit, and more interested when it was focusing on something else (like the relationship between Yizhen and Yijing). This probably says more about me than the drama itself. And of course, much of the story seems contrived. I find that is almost always the case with whodunits (then again, a fan of whodunits could probably point out the many ways the fiction I love seems contrived too).

A shot from one of the interrogation scenes

However, even I can recognize that this is a very well-crafted whodunit. There are several likely suspects, it’s very well set up, and plenty of surprises for the viewers. I had predicted one of the “shocking” plot twists pretty early, which made me cocky. The denouement, however, caught me completely off-guard. At first I was so shocked that I thought I had misheard something … yet looking back on the drama, it made so much sense, and even explained some things about the story which had seemed a bit odd. That is good writing.

Rape Culture

If you don’t know what “rape culture” is, this is a good introduction.

Unfortunately, this drama is a reflection of reality in Taiwan. Older men really do prey on teenage girls and child prostitution really does happen online in Taiwan. Of course, these atrocities also happen in the United States. It’s hard to tell whether this is really more prevalent in Taiwan, or whether Taiwanese people (or more specifically, the Taiwanese people I encounter, which is not a random sample of the population) are just more willing to talk about it. It is worth noting that there was a drastic reduction in child prostitution in Taiwan in the 1990s when the government started to actually enforce the anti-child-prostitution laws … and it was not a coincidence that the government cracked down on child prostitution at the same time that Taiwan transitioned to democracy.

The police arrest a client of an under-age prostitute

I, luckily, have yet to be directly threatened, and I think I am actually at much less risk of being sexually assaulted here than when I was living in San Francisco. Nonetheless, the local rape culture does affect my life in Taiwan too, just as it affects everybody else’s lives. I don’t think this is the place to discuss that, though that might be a good topic for my personal blog.

In some ways, this drama gets things very right. Most rapes are not committed by strangers, and none of the crimes in this drama are committed by strangers (the only crime which seems to have been committed by a stranger turns out to have been perpetrated by someone who is not). The drama also clearly shows how many people are ready to defend rapists, which unfortunately is very realistic. The drama also makes clear that in a society where saving face is more important than stopping abuse, abuse will flourish.

A man solicits sex from Yizhen, and Yizhen clearly does not consent

Now, I am uncomfortable with the way the drama depicts some things [SPOILER WARNING FOR THIS PARAGRAPH]. For example, I think the drama shows just a little too much sympathy for Yang Renyou. Sure, he was tricked, and he was lied to … but you know what? He also tried to have sex with one of his teenage students—multiple times—and when she was obviously not-consenting, he still continued. That is 100% Yang Renyou’s fault, and nobody else’s. The drama doesn’t exactly try to defend Yang Renyou—it presents the “facts” pretty clearly and he does die a horrible death—but I think the drama should have made it clearer that, regardless of the circumstances, Yang Renyou’s acts were utterly despicable and totally his responsibility. Also, I don’t like that Yijing, the victim of the most abuse (kidnapped as a child, drugged and raped, and finally, murdered) is also the main villain. In the context of a society without rape culture, this wouldn’t bother me … but victim blaming is so virulent in both Taiwan and the United States that it makes me very uneasy when the kidnapping/rape/murder victim just happens to be the Big Bad.

Availability in English

This drama is not legally available in English. That’s too bad. This would make a great addition to Dramafever’s line-up *hint hint*. That said, the first episode is crafted in such a way that I would have been able to follow the story even if the dialogue had been exclusively in Old Church Slavonic.

Conclusion

As I said before, this isn’t really my kind of thing. Therefore, it is not a personal favorite. But, in spite of all of the contrived stuff, I can’t deny that this is one of the best-written idol dramas I have ever seen. The mere fact that I watched the whole thing is a testament to its quality.

And while many people dismiss idol dramas as “junk culture,” I have found that the better idol dramas discuss some very important issues—in this case, rape culture. While I have my reservations about the way it’s handled in this drama, I still think it is a worthwhile addition to the conversation. The very fact that these dramas can make these important conversations accessible to a wide audience, in my opinion, makes them more valuable than works of high-falutin’ culture which are only accessible to an elite group.

Next Time: Princess Pearl (novel)

Sara K’s life is returning to “normal.” Of course, her “normal” life is not necessarily very normal at all and, much as she appreciates the opportunity to rest, she looks forward to the next time that her life will stop being “normal.”

Manga the Week of 11/7

November 1, 2012 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Katherine Dacey and Michelle Smith 5 Comments

SEAN: Hello, and welcome to Manga The Week Of: Expanded Version! We liked chattering about JManga so much that we decided to let it carry over into my regular feature. So pull up a chair, sit back, it’s the first week of the month, so Midtown’s list is… tiny.

Oh dear, they’re doing it again. (Note: as of 5pm Wednesday. If they update their list again later, this is all irrelevant). Sometimes Viz shows up late to Midtown. No idea if it’s due to Hurricane Sandy, Diamond, or mere happenstance. As it happens, I checked with my own comic store, and they seem to be getting in Viz’s 11/6 releases on 11/6. So I will proceed to break them down here as well, assuming most comic shops not affected by possible Sandy distribution delays will get them.

But first, our fine folks at Kodansha have some stuff coming out! Actually, it came out everywhere else today. But when you’re Diamond Comics Distributors, you can … well, do whatever you want. So they ship Kodansha a week late.

In any case, Air Gear 26 is out, continuing the great Air Gear tradition.

Mardock Scramble continues our 6 theme by having Vol. 6 out.

MJ: I am several volumes behind on Mardock Scramble, but I really liked it early on. Should I try to catch up? Anyone have an opinion?

MICHELLE: I find the concept interesting, but never started it and thusly haven’t bought beyond the first couple of volumes. Also, “the great Air Gear tradition” made me snicker.

SEAN: And, carrying the 6 theme to a third release (hey, 666. Happy Halloween!), Negima! is up to Volume 36, meaning it’s close to completion. I see Asuna is on the cover. Is she back in action?

MJ: I do sort of consider Ken Akamatsu to be the devil, so that works. (Please don’t hit me.)

MICHELLE: I really have tried to approach his stuff with an open mind, but I just can’t like it.

SEAN: Finally, ruining the 6 theme by being a Vol. 8, Sailor Moon ends its S arc and starts Super S. Let me tell you folks who only know this arc from the anime: you are in for a treat.

MJ: I can’t wait!

MICHELLE: The outers are in it, the outers are in it! On the sad side, however, Fish-Eye and Tiger’s-Eye appear so briefly in the manga version as compared to the anime that it’s kind of a blink-and-you-miss-them situation.

SEAN: Yen Press was supposed to have Vol. 2 of Soul Eater NOT! out two weeks ago, but for some reason it got delayed to this week for comic shops. This fusion of the Soul Eater Universe with the moe aesthetic is taking a while for me to warm up to, but I’ve heard it’s not all light and fluff. Will there be creepy art to give nightmares in the best Soul Eater tradition? Let’s hope so!

Now, on to Viz, which may or may not get to all stores, and may or may not have all these titles, but oh well.

First, Bakuman enters its final quarter with Vol. 16, and continues to have a love/hate/mostly hate relationship with its female characters, but is a lot of fun nevertheless.

MJ: I have to admit I’ve been addicted to Bakuman since the beginning, even when it’s really pissed me off. So I’ll be picking this up for sure.

KATE: I freely place myself in the Feminists Who Loathe Bakuman Camp. The authors’ treatment of the female characters — especially the smart, competent ones — is a deal-breaker for me, even though the manga shop talk is fun.

MICHELLE: Like MJ, I get annoyed, but then I keep reading. Some of the kooky supporting cast is a lot of fun, which helps.

SEAN: Bleach has Vol. 50 and 51, which I’m pretty sure don’t star Aizen. What is this strange Aizen-less manga I see before me?

MICHELLE: I am soooo looking forward to the end of this Hueco Mundo arc. I don’t know any Bleach spoilers, so I have no clue what’s coming next, or whether it is better, but ye gods, this has been dragging on.

SEAN: A new Blue Exorcist! At least for those of you who didn’t read it digitally ages ago. One of the best current Jump titles, and always a treat.

Claymore hits Vol. 21, and the cover simply glares at you balefully, daring you to pass it by. Do you really want to take that risk?

MJ: I can’t pass it by!

SEAN: We’re not quite caught up to Japan with Kamisama Kiss, so the volumes are still coming out fast and furious. Here’s #11, which features a New Year’s theme just in time for November! Well, surely it’s New Year’s somewhere…

Kimi ni Todoke hits Vol. 15 here (it is caught up, so we’re seeing it less now), and Chizuru and Ryu are standing pensively back-to-back, not looking each other in the eye. We all know what that means. SMOOCHIES! …well, OK, probably not. But I hope they get a nice juicy plot arc.

MJ: This series just never stops being charming, does it?

MICHELLE: No, it doesn’t.

SEAN: Naruto is up to Vol. 59! Holy crap! I admit I haven’t read it since Vol. 6, so the cover makes about negative zero sense to me, but hey, it sells amazingly well, so therefore is doing many things right.

In case you missed the Nausicaa Manga when Viz released it a few years ago, they’re now putting it out again in a handsome box set. It’s a gorgeous manga, as well as environmentally conscious. Pick it up today.

MJ: I am thrilled about this, I have to say. I did miss this when Viz originally released it, so I’m incredibly pleased to have another shot at it.

KATE: I’ve also been looking forward to the new edition of Nausicaa. The old edition — though nice to look at — was printed on crummy paper that didn’t age well, and I’ve been eager to replace mine with a cleaner, newer version.

SEAN: Wasn’t it released on environmentally correct paper? That may be why…

MICHELLE: Somehow I missed this news! I have an awesome local library with a genuinely huge manga selection, so I was lucky enough to read Nausicaa (the four-volume Perfect Collection edition) that way, but I might need a handsome box set of my very own!

SEAN: Neon Genesis Evangelion is (digitally) day/date with Japan! And out only a week later in print! This is truly amazing, and big kudos to Viz for pulling it off. Best of all, this is the version with the happy ending! … OK, I lie, it’s not. It’s still depressing. But hey, maybe Shinji is more proactive? The manga’s been good at that.

KATE: The NGE omnibus has been sitting in my review queue for a few weeks. I’ve never read or watched any NGE stories, so I’m hoping that VIZ’s new three-in-one edition will make it easy for me to familiarize myself with this enormous, seemingly inexhaustible supply of material.

SEAN: Did I say holy crap when Naruto hit Vol. 59? Well, One Piece is up to Vol. 65! And… well, is still in the Fishman Island arc, but can’t have everything. I believe this is a ‘battle-only volume, the kind Jump readers love! If only as it reads smoother in Volume than it does week-to-week.

MICHELLE: Yay, One Piece!

SEAN: Another manga I tend to push as much as possible, Oresama Teacher has hit its 11th volume. The subject is Christmas! … OK, what with that and New Year’s, Viz is playing mall music at us far too early. But I’m not complaining!

MICHELLE: I like Oresama Teacher, but I do sort of inwardly groan when shoujo manga feel obliged to hit all the holidays. Hopefully this’ll be one of those times where the series is genuinely funny.

SEAN: The giant huge box set thing that is Ouran High School Host Club Vol. 1-18! It’s a fun series, if you haven’t checked it out, and need a Christmas Present for your wish list, this is a great choice.

Rosario + Vampire Season II hits Vol. 10, and possible Chapter 5 and Verse 2. In any case, vampires!

KATE: I’ve long thought of Rosario + Vampire as Twilight for guys: it’s got impossibly beautiful female monsters who inexplicably love an unremarkable human. While none of the vamps in Rosario sparkle, they do show a lot of cleavage and leg — the next best thing, I guess, if you’re a fourteen-year-old boy. It’s not my cup of tea, but I can definitely understand its appeal.

SEAN: You don’t need vampires to have girls falling all over themselves for a nebbish guy. See: any harem manga ever.

SEAN: NEW SERIES ALERT! Strobe Edge, from Io Sakisaka, is a school romance about a girl who wants to find out what love is and the school heart-throb… um, haven’t I heard this premise before? Oh right, Japanese shoujo manga. Despite that, this is apparently a lot of fun. I heard that people are… NICE in it. Gasp! It ran for 10 volumes in Shueisha’s Betsuma.

MJ: I’ll admit that Kate’s review gave me some pause about picking this up, but it’s really hard for me to pass up new shoujo.

KATE: I freely admit that I’m turning into a big curmudgeon when it comes to shojo manga; I’ve read one too many stories about nice, unassuming (read: boring) girls who develop crushes on hot guys. Strobe Edge isn’t bad, just predictable as taxes. Give me Maria Kawai and her razor-sharp barbs any day.

MICHELLE: It doesn’t look like it’s going to be a manga that makes me explode into hearts, but I’m definitely planning to give it a chance.

SEAN: Speaking of series I hadn’t realized hit double volumes, there’s Tegami Bachi! Presumably the mail must still get through for these letter bees.

Vampire Knight, which I still can’t quite quit, hits Vol. 15. If only it weren’t so damned addictive. Also, vampires!

Lastly, there is We Were There, which has no vampires whatsoever. It’s almost over, but there’s still this volume and 16 to go. So there’s LOTS more ways the author can make her character’s lives miserable! (Admit it, that’s why we love it. This is *the* angst shoujo.)

MJ: I love this “angst” shoujo. I really, really do. It’s a longtime favorite, and I never miss a new volume.

MICHELLE: I love it, too. Volume 15 is on the top of my review pile!

3 Things Thursday: Monstrous

November 1, 2012 by MJ 4 Comments

I’m not a huge fan of horror manga as a genre, nor am I particularly easy to scare. But I do find that when a manga can scare me, it sticks with me forever. While a good ghost story is generally the ticket for me (and indeed I picked out three ghost hunters for my last Halloween column), there are other types of monsters that can get to me as well—often in complicated ways. So, without further ado…

3 Favorite Manga Monsters

1. After School Nightmare | Setona Mizushiro | Go!Comi – As I realized in the midst of a Let’s Get Visual column last year, sometimes the scariest monsters are the ones we see in ourselves. In After School Nightmare, Setona Mizushiro explores the terror of a group of high school students who are forced to endure a series of shared nightmares in which they appear as the physical manifestations of their own worst fears… about themselves. As you can see from the scans included in that column, the results are twisted, eerie, sometimes grotesque, and may hit just a bit too close to home for many readers (including this one). *Shiver*

2. March Story | Hyung Min Kim & Kyung Il Yang | Viz Media – Monsters aren’t always evil—at least not unambiguously so—and it’s a monster like this who played a big part in winning me over to March Story, an exquisitely drawn comic by a pair of Korean creators working in Japan. Though the series’ first volume was wildly uneven, one of the characters who immediately caught my eye was Jake, the (literally) bigger-than-life mentor of the story’s heroine, March. Though Jake first appears smiling and offering March a ride, she is immediately, utterly creepy, and remains so throughout, despite her frequent role as comic relief.

3. Wild Adapter | By Kazua Minekura | TOKYOPOP – Sometimes, our monsters don’t look like monsters, and may even be people we love. Hello, Wild Adapter. While both of the series’ main characters are frequently referred to as “monsters” (and one of them even has a sort of animal paw for one hand), the one who has done many, many monstrous things is Kubota, a former up-and-coming yakuza whose apathy about nearly all other people has made him a fairly brutal killing machine. One of the images that sticks in my mind always is the one below (discussed in-depth in our Wild Adapter roundtable), in which Kubota has helped out a young woman by savagely beating her abusive ex-boyfriend. Though he’s done this to protect her, even he knows that his actions make him a monster. It’s a poignant and chilling moment, especially as we’ve already grown to love him as a character (and continue to love him even afterwards). Well done, Minekura, well done.

Readers, who are some of your favorite manga monsters? As you can see, my criteria is pretty broad, so feel free to push the envelope!

It Came From the Sinosphere: The 8th Bronze Man of Shaolin (Manhua)

October 30, 2012 by Sara K. 6 Comments

So our protagonist, Qisuo, grew up hearing stories about heroes. Naturally, he wants to become a hero. Where do you become a hero? Shaolin Temple of course (see my previous post about The 36th Chamber of Shaolin).

Qisuo manages to get to Shaolin Temple. Being Buddhist, the monks of Shaolin temple are supposed to be celibate vegetarians. What does Qisuo find at Shaolin temple?

Why, it’s monks eating meat and hanging out with prostitutes! What gives?

Shaolin Temple started accepting any rich kid as a student in order to get generous donations, and the rich kids don’t really want to give up on meat and sex, and … well it influenced the whole institution. Shaolin Temple is now a school for anti-heroes.

Note 1: this is an example of truth-in-fiction; the present day Shaolin Temple does allow the consumption of meat, and according to one martial arts master I know, has become a tourist trap which has lost its traditional way.
Note 2: It is very common, at least in the wuxia fiction I read, for Shaolin (or other Buddhist) monks to somehow break their vows of chastity. They actually seem to be more likely to get laid than the lay unmarried male characters.

Anyway, WHAT IS QISUO SUPPOSED TO DO?! He is so naïve that even this isn’t enough to break his rose-colored glasses.

Don’t worry, he gets to study some marital arts … after getting bullied at the Shaolin Temple.

Oh, and childhood friend, Hongzhong, also leaves the village to learn martial arts. She’s not going to let Qisuo have all the fun.

About Giddens Ko

Giddens Ko is nobody important. He’s just Taiwan’s most popular active novelist.

About Online Novels

It’s a bit hard to describe the world of online novels, partially because I don’t know it as well as I should.

On the one hand, for aspiring Taiwanese novelists, online is pretty much the only way to start these days. Even novelists who prefer the traditional publishing route have to go there because the traditional publishers would rather work with writers who have already proven themselves online.

Fortunately for the aspiring novelists, Taiwan has a vibrant and unique online culture, which I actually am not too familiar with since I spend most of my online hours in the English-language net (hey, I already live in Taiwan offline, I don’t need to live in Taiwan online too, at least not yet). One of the distinctive features of the Taiwanese internet is that bulletin board systems (BBS), which are considering a relic in most of the world, still flourish (another reason I’m not too familiar with the Taiwanese internet – while I’ve learned thousands of Chinese characters, I still haven’t learned how to use a BBS!). Anyway, it is in the BBS-world that aspiring novelists show their stuff.

Now, there are traditional-style novels which first reach readers through the internet. For example, Passionate Wastrel, Infatuated Hero was originally published online. If these novels get a traditional publishing contract, they will generally be listed under a traditional genre (in this specific case, “wuxia”). However, a new style of novel writing has emerged from the labyrinths of the Taiwanese BBS world, and if these novels get printed, they will be listed as “online” novels.

Giddens first became famous in the BBS world, and I know about half of his novels originated there. I have not confirmed whether The 8th Bronze Man of Shaolin is one of them. Nonetheless, pretty much all of Giddens novels get shelved under “online novels,” regardless of the story’s genre. And while this story is in some sense a wuxia story, the novel is written in an online style.

Oh wait a minute. I’m not discussing the novel. I’m discussing the manhua. So I also need to talk about…

James Khoo

So, if Tony Wong (whom I’ve discussed here and here) and Ma Wing-shing (whom I discussed here) are the two top Hong Kong kung-fu/wuxia manhua artists, then James Khoo is around number four. He actually started as an assistant for Tony Wong, and later left to make his own name.

Artwork

Unsurprisingly, James Khoo’s style is a lot like Tony Wong’s style. On the one hand, his artwork doesn’t pop the way that Tony Wong’s does, nor does it compel me to flip back through the pages after I’ve finished a volume. On the other hand, it’s more grounded—and I don’t think it’s any less lovely. I haven’t seen James Khoo display Tony Wong’s skill in telling a story visually, though this might not have been the right story in which to do that (NOTE: the artwork looks way better in print than in these terrible photos).

Seriously, was it necessary to expose Ling Xue’s belly like that? She’s a flipping martial artist! None of the male martial artists wear such impractical clothing…

Original Tragedies and Monkey Wrenches

Most wuxia novels (or at least the ones I’ve read) follow the original tragedy/monkey wrench pattern. To me, it’s more essential than the martial arts. The “original tragedy” is something horrible that happens to the protagonist early on and propels the protagonist into embarking on a journey, literal and/or metaphorical. The story is basically about the protagonist coming to terms with the “original tragedy.” But the path is not straightforward, because at some point, a monkey wrench is going to hit the protagonist on the head (and sometimes there are multiple monkey wrenches).

To make this clearer, let me use the wuxia novel Pingzong Xiaying Lu as an example. The protagonist is Yun Lei. In the prologue, we learn that her grandfather had been exiled in Mongolia for 20 years, her father had been killed, and she had been separated from her mother, all because of somebody called Zhang Zongzhou. Shortly before his death, her grandfather commanded his offspring to grow up and get revenge by killing any member of the Zhang family, young or old, that they may encounter. At the time, Yun Lei was seven years old. This is her original tragedy.

Ten years later, Yun Lei is a teenager who knows how to wield a sword. It is time for her to actually go about getting revenge for the wrongs done to her family. She intends to reunite with her brother, whom she hasn’t seen in more than ten years, so they can get revenge together. Of course, traveling alone isn’t fun, so she travels with a young man called Danfeng. He’s also pretty good with a sword. They have adventures together and fall in love. Then it is revealed that Danfeng is Zhang Danfeng and … well, I think you can guess who his father is. He is Yun Lei’s monkey wrench.

This is the most common setup—somebody killed the protagonist’s parent(s), so the protagonist must work hard to be powerful enough to get revenge—but then ZOMYGOSH THE PROTAGONIST FALLS IN LOVE WITH THE CHILD OF WHOEVER KILLED THE PROTAGONIST’S PARENT!!!!!! There are, however, plenty of other ways to set up original tragedies and monkey wrenches. And of course, original tragedy/monkey wrench setups can be found outside wuxia too (in manga, for example).

Why did I go into this long digression? Because this is why the story of The 8th Bronze Man of Shaolin doesn’t quite click with me. Qisuo does not have an original tragedy—he left his village because he wants to be a hero. Okay, he does get bullied a bit at the Shaolin temple but a) Qisuo doesn’t seem to be hurt enough for that to work as an original tragedy b) it doesn’t change Qisuo or inspire him to take a particular course of action.

Now, Jubao does have an original tragedy, but a) he’s not the primary protagonist and b) it … I just don’t feel enough pain coming from Jubao for that to quite work either.

Wuxia stories don’t absolutely need original tragedies but this story doesn’t really work without one. The lack of monkey wrenches also does not help. This story feels to me like it’s just about youths learning martial arts, improving, and defeating increasingly powerful enemies … all without growing or maturing as people.

And the thing is, I don’t even think the fights are that good. I have no issue with James Khoo’s artwork—to the extent that the fights are interesting, it’s thanks to him—it’s just that the fights aren’t written to be very interesting. On a technical level, most of the fights lack any elements of puzzle-solving or surprise which can provide intellectual stimulation. On an emotional level there is … little impact.

In other words, this story fails for me.

Availability in English

The artwork is available to anybody who has eyesight. The story (in both manhua and pure prose form) is only available to readers of Chinese, but I don’t think that’s a big loss.

Conclusion

I don’t think Giddens was trying to write a classic wuxia story at all. I think he was trying to indulge in wuxia geeks’ fantasies. Qisuo—who grew up listening to stories of heroism—is basically a cipher for the reader. He gets to be best friends with Zhang Sanfeng, the legendary creator of Tai Chi and a character in many wuxia stories, help him develop Tai Chi, and eventually marry his sweetheart.

Well, it did not work for me. But the idea is good. In fact, Giddens tries the same thing in another novel, and in that novel it works so well that it is my favorite Giddens novel so far (I will discuss it here eventually, I am sure).

I do like James Khoo’s art … and I find it a bit disappointing that he choose to adapt this novel when there are so many better novels out there he could have adapted (Pingzong Xiaying Lu for example).

Next Time: Bump Off Lover / Ai Sha 17 (idol drama)

What was Sara K. doing while this column was on hiatus last week? Last Tuesday she was visiting Little Liuqiu Island, where they burn boats (they weren’t burning any boats while she was there though). Anyway, Sara K. is going to do a lot less running around Taiwan now, which means this column will regain its regularity. Hopefully.

Comic Conversion: A Wrinkle in Time

October 29, 2012 by Angela Eastman 3 Comments

A Wrinkle in Time | Novel: Madeleine L’Engle / Laurel Leaf | Graphic Novel: Hope Larson / Farrar Strraus Giroux

Meg Murry is the intelligent daughter of two world-renowned scientists, but her world is still falling apart. Unable to cope in school, she’s failing her grade and getting in fights with teachers; meanwhile her four-year-old brother Charles Wallace, the smartest, kindest person in her life, refuses to talk to those outside his family, leaving the whole town thinking he’s a simpleton. Everything would be better with her father around, but Mr. Murry has been missing for years, ever since he went to Washington to work on a top secret project. Then, a mysterious old woman named Mrs. Whatsit appears at their house on a dark and stormy night. She and her friends, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, take Meg, Charles, and their friend Calvin on a quest through space and time to save their father and fight a battle against the darkness that threatens to consume the universe.

First published in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time has won a number of awards, including the Newbery medal for children’s literature. Despite that, Madeleine L’Engle had quite a struggle getting it published, being rejected almost 30 times because the story was “too different.” Now, her science fiction novel has been continuously in print for 50 years and continues to make showings on lists of top books for children. In 2010 publishing house Farrar, Strause and Giroux — the original publishers of A Wrinkle in Time — decided to create a graphic novel version of the now classic book, signing on artist Hope Larson to bring the beloved story to life.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Madeleine L’Engle, and though my awe of her really began with A Ring of Endless Light (to this day one of my favorite books) A Wrinkle in Time and all of its companion novels hold their own special place. It’s difficult to think of a contemporary novel, children’s or adult, that you can compare this to. Very basically it is the usual story of good versus evil — the light against the dark — but her characters aren’t as simple as that. Charles Wallace is empathic and smarter than most humans can imagine, but he’s also arrogant, while Meg, the ultimate hero of the story, is emotional, angry, and easily affected by the evil creature IT. When talking about Earth, which is shadowed by a darkness that has taken over many other worlds, their friend Calvin admits, “We make some awful bloopers there.” But, he points out, humankind is fighting the shadow, trying to be better than they have been. That is what A Wrinkle in Time is about, perhaps more than good vs. evil; it’s about knowing and accepting your own faults, and striving to be better than you may have been before.

Right away in the graphic novel we see the famous opening words scrawling across the page: “It was a dark and stormy night.” From that point on, Hope Larson remains faithful to the original book. She did still make the decision to edit down some parts, such as when Meg is momentarily left alone in the darkness after she rescues her father from his prison. These were things that worked very well in the context of the book, increasing the apprehension and Meg’s fear. In the graphic novel, however, this would have resulted in repetitive images and slowed down the pace.

Though L’Engle’s original novel is written in the third person, the story is told entirely from Meg’s point of view. Obviously aware of this, Larson used some effective techniques to keep it that way. Rather than copy-and-pasting narrative passages from the novel, Larson reworded portions so they were Meg’s first-person thoughts, keeping us close to Meg. Larson also does something interesting with her art while Meg is paralyzed — there is none. For five and a half pages there are is nothing but small black squares as Meg struggles to move and listens in on her father and Calvin’s conversation. By keeping the panels small, Larson maintains the steady pace while also creating the feeling of movement more effectively than one black page full of text would have done.

Larson made the interesting choice to color the entire graphic novel in shades of blue. While I would have loved to see the story in full color, the soft monotone grants the images an ethereal quality that fits with the novel’s tone. The character designs, for the most part, were what I’ve been imagining for years: Meg is scruffy and grumpy, and Larson remembered to keep a bruise on her cheek throughout, while Calvin is lanky and adorable. The only one that didn’t quite reconcile with the image I’d had in my head is Charles Wallace. Larson’s attempts to have Charles look far too intelligent and wise for his years made him look a bit strange to my eyes. This works much better later on when Charles is being controlled by IT, but Larson’s design makes him appear a bit creepy long before that’s supposed to be the case.

Really, any problems I have with the graphic novel are just nitpicking. Any changes Larson made were minimal and effective in maintaining the flow and tone of L’Engle’s novel. The biggest issue I had was with some of the character designs, but that’s ultimately a matter of preference rather than quality. Larson’s love and respect for A Wrinkle in Time is apparent in every page, and I couldn’t have ever possibly hoped to experience a more satisfying adaptation of L’Engle’s work. I would always want to urge kids to read L’Engle’s book, it would not be disappointing in the least to see them reading this graphic novel instead.

BL Bookrack: October 2012

October 28, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

Welcome to the October installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at the debut volume of Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love from SuBLime, while MJchecks out My Dear Prince at JManga. In Brief: Hitorijime Boyfriend (JManga) and est em’s ULTRAS (DMG).

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Vols. 1-2 | By Yaya Sakuragi | Published by SuBLime | Rated Mature – I’ve confessed before that I tend to judge BL by its cover, and I must admit that had I not previously read and enjoyed something by Yaya Sakuragi, I would’ve passed on Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love. Unfortunately, however, this isn’t one of those times where the cover belies the contents. What you see is, in fact, exactly what you get. This manga is all about a shrimpy teenager repeatedly pushing his feelings on his older, tsundere neighbor.

The story begins when seventeen-year-old Ao Sawanoi has a wet dream about Ryomei Kosaka, his neighbor, older-brother figure, and priest of the nearby Shinto shrine. Ao proceeds to openly discuss this occurrence with several people, including Ryomei himself, and then becomes obsessed with making the dream a reality. He pesters Ryomei quite a lot, and eventually snags a kiss, which convinces him that he is in love. Ryomei puts up some token resistance, but when Ao takes his rejection too much to heart and ceases his daily visits to the shrine, Ryomei ends up seeking him out and encouraging his feelings. (There are two volumes yet to go of this series, so as of the end of volume two, the guys are not yet a couple.)

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love is another of those BL titles that isn’t outright bad, but it’s pretty generic. (I think I am going to start keeping a tally of how often I see that gross, obligatory panel in which a “sexy” string of spittle connects the tongues of the two leads in a BL manga.) I don’t like Ao—he’s vacuous and immature—and I don’t understand why Ryomei would be interested in him. I also don’t get why Ryomei’s friend is encouraging the relationship, but then again, this is the same guy who lets his second-grade daughter man a convenience store alone and has her cook meals for guests when it’s her bedtime.

Most likely I am taking this too seriously, but with so much BL manga now available, there are much better things to read.

– Review by Michelle Smith

My Dear Prince | By Fumi Tomoe | Published by JManga/Libre Publishing | Rated Mature – Shinta and Tsukasa (whose name can also be pronounced “Prince”) have been dating for a while—in secret, according to the adamant Shinta. The reality is that their whole class knows about them and would do practically anything to keep them together, if only to help out their beloved Prince. Tsukasa (who initiated the relationship) worries constantly that Shinta doesn’t really want to be with him, and Shinta worries constantly that Tsukasa will find out that he’s a “pervert,” but no matter their troubles, there’s a sense from the start that everything will always be okay.

If this sounds like a story with too little conflict to be engaging, that’s definitely a concern. Yet somehow, despite its overly rosy view of teenaged romance, there’s a freshness and adorableness about My Dear Prince that saves it from becoming a total snore. Tsukasa’s spells of paranoia feel mostly warranted, and thus avoid falling completely into either melodrama or camp. In fact, they’re actually quite endearing, which keeps the overall tone light. Meanwhile, Shinta’s worries feel authentic to the trials of adolescent sexuality without ever becoming creepy or pushing him into overbearing seme territory. Mostly, though, what really carries this fluffy little story along is the genuine charm of it all. No matter how unrealistic the boys’ story seems, it’s undeniably pleasant to read.

Like so many BL one-shots, My Dear Prince is only a few chapters long, leaving the rest of the volume to be filled in with several short manga—often of lesser quality. Tomoe’s shorts are a little better than most, mainly due to the same charm she brings to the title story. Even the creepiest of the bunch, “Happy Bride Project,” about a delinquent high school student who strives to become the perfect “bride” after his teacher requests his hand in marriage, is almost saved (I repeat, “almost.”) from its potentially skeevy premise and hideous devotion to traditional gender roles by the power of a cute puppy:

As you see in this panel, Tomoe’s artwork is clear and cute, and that carries over into the volume as a whole, even on a philosophical level. Problems are easily understood and solved, people are adorable—inside and out, and happiness is as accessible as a cute little puppy.

My Dear Prince is no masterpiece, and there’s no denying that amidst a stronger lineup, it would hardly make an impression. But sometimes a bit of good-natured fluff is enough to win the day.

– Review by MJ

In Brief:

Hitorijime Boyfriend | By Memeco Arii | Published by JManga/Ichijinsha | Rated Mature – Back in elementary school, Kensuke parted with BFF Hasekura on painful terms. Reunited now in high school, Kensuke has a second chance to rekindle their friendship, but “friendship” may not be what Hasekura has in mind. Such is the premise of Hitorijime Boyfriend. Sounds unoriginal but potentially cute, right? Sadly, “potential” is really all it’s got. Though best-friends-turned-lovers is one of my favorite romantic fantasy scenarios, even that can’t survive the book’s relentless non-con or a clumsy English adaptation that becomes less and less readable as the story goes on. JManga has had an increasingly strong track record with BL since first launch. Unfortunately, Hitorijime Boyfriend goes against the trend. Not recommended. – MJ

ULTRAS | By est em | Digital Manga Guild | Rated Mature – Ordinarily, I’m not a huge fan of BL anthologies, but the format really shows off est em’s gift for swiftly establishing her characters, enabled by her distinctive, economical, and expressive artistic style. The title story, about a pair of Spaniards who are as passionate about soccer (though for opposing teams) as they are for each other, is more than a love story, it’s a lesson in both tolerance and pursuing what you want despite what others may think. Although this is the best story in the collection, the others are pretty interesting, too. My favorite is probably “Say Hello to Mr. Smith,” which involves a conman, a pickpocket, and a monkey. I hope that someday est em decides to tackle a multi-volume work—it’s awesome to contemplate what greatness might ensue! – 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.

Chatting About Canon

October 28, 2012 by Michelle Smith

The following discussion contains spoilers.

MICHELLE: As we did for the CLAMP Manga Moveable Feast, special guest Karen Peck and I decided to collaborate on a contribution. This month’s MMF theme is vampires, so we opted (actually, this was totally Karen’s brainwave) to talk about Canon, the four-volume Chika Shiomi shoujo series published by CMX. I really didn’t know what to expect, having never read it before, but I think you had, right, Karen?

KAREN: I read it years ago, as I am a total Chika Shiomi fangirl, and figured the MMF would be a great excuse to talk about a lesser-known CMX series. A little background on Chika Shiomi and the series—Canon was her first series after her 1993 debut, running in Mystery Bonita Special. She’s one of those mangaka who’s had her work released by several English-language publishers—Night of the Beasts by Go!Comi, one volume of Queen of Ragtonia by Aurora, and Viz has most recently released Yurara and its sequel series Rasetsu. Her current work is Yukarism, a time-travel tale running in Bessatsu Hama to Yume, which is currently on hiatus.

Canon Himuro, ill with an incurable disease, was the sole survivor of a massacre that left her classmates dead. Months later a reporter runs into her, and she looks healthier than before—and carries a secret. Her classmates were attacked by a vampire, who then turned Canon into one. Horrified and wracked by guilt, she declares revenge on the vampire with silver hair and blue eyes. Holding onto her humanity, Canon refuses to drink blood, and wears a cross necklace given to her by a kindly foreigner, as explained in the second chapter. She is also accompanied by a vampire crow, Fui, who helps keep the story going and provides the humor. Canon is out for vengeance; Fui would just like a snack.

So, Michelle, what did you think of the series? Beyond the ’90s fashion, that is?

MICHELLE: I shall tell you, though we really must get back around to the fashion topic!

I ended up enjoying Canon quite a lot, though moreso in the first two volumes. The story begins episodically, and after a first volume that I’d describe as “not riveting, but entertaining,” the second volume packs a real wallop as Rod (such an intimidating name!)—the silver-haired, blue-eyed vampire—makes his entrance. By this point, Canon has met Sakaki, a smug and violent half-breed who’s also out for revenge against Rod (who murdered his parents), and they’ve formed an alliance. Fairly soon, though, Rod’s servants are telling Canon that their master lives as a hermit and couldn’t possibly be responsible for the attack upon her classmates, and suggesting that the real culprit is Sakaki. Canon resists the truth until Fui overhears a conversation confirming it (and is gravely wounded by Sakaki as a result).

I probably should’ve seen this reveal coming, but I was sort of enjoying the series in an uncomplicated way and wasn’t expecting it to veer into territory this dark. Ultimately, you’ve got Canon unable to forgive Sakaki, Sakaki unable to forgive Rod, and some uncomfortable parallels for Canon to navigate as her own hatred (fueled by the humiliation of having been tricked) threatens to undo her efforts to retain her human heart. It’s good stuff, really!

That said, I thought the entrance of Glenn as a common enemy kind of squandered the momentum a little. I mean, I’m glad that Rod and his awesome servant, Machua, got to become good guys, but Glenn lacks any real depth as a character, and I found his sudden change of heart regarding Canon—he’d previously been adamant about the need to exterminate her—rather baffling.

KAREN: The names crack me up, too. “Rod” just doesn’t sound… menacing. Rod and Glenn sound like they’d be assistant managers at an Office Depot, not powerful vampires.

It is good stuff! One thing I dislike about vampire stories—in manga and in print—is the angsty, boohoo I’m a vampire aspect. Canon does not wallow in that too much, the action is swirling around her and she’s a part of it all—she’s not a passive character. I think the shortness of this series helped as well; she had to stick to the unexpectedly twisty story–everyone has a motive, and they’re bound by vampire laws and revenge. Except Glenn. I agree with you, Michelle, that his change of heart is baffling–he’s the person that exists to move the story in one direction yet doesn’t seem to be upset that his purpose in the story is nullified by that direction. It’s a bit sloppy, but given how well she plotted out everything else, I’ll give Shiomi-sensei a pass since this is her first work.

As for the Canon/Sakaki relationship, at first I didn’t get it. After some consideration, though, it does fit in with what Canon was trying to get through to Sakaki and Rod–to stop the cycle of vengeance, that everyone can move on. Yes, Sakaki created Canon and messed with her memories to create a weapon to get at Rod in an exquisitely personal way, but her own words apply just as much to herself. She could kill him for her own vendetta, or she could remember that little boy who was left bleeding next to the corpses of his parents and understand what drove him. There’s a theme of forgiveness and breaking cycles here that I think is (mostly) well-done.

So, back to the fashion. Canon’s ankle boots have actually come back around to being fashionable again, but I fear that Rod’s overcoat on top of a turtleneck overcoat look will never be repeated. I suppose hermit vampires who feel bad about killing their best friends are just naturally chilly?

MICHELLE: I hadn’t actually seen that about Rod’s garb until you pointed it out, but once I did, I couldn’t stop noticing it. I think I thought the black one was a cloak at first, but upon closer inspection, it clearly has sleeves.

You’re absolutely spot-on about Canon remembering the terrible things that had happened to Sakaki that caused him to inflict terrible things upon her. And though it might feel like a betrayal of her classmates, she can’t stop loving him. This reminded me a lot of Shuri and Sarasa in Basara, actually, where she is able to forgive him for the atrocities committed as the Red King, even though other villagers will never be able to. And, of course, any time something can be compared to Basara is a good sign!

Speaking of comparisons to other works, the side story in volume four about the other half-breed who briefly takes care of orphaned Sakaki reminded me a lot of Shion’s backstory in Please Save My Earth, as another example of a boy in such tremendous need who tragically loses yet another person who could’ve shown him love. And Sakaki’s physical appearance reminds me some of Tokyo Babylon‘s Seishirou, especially round about the shoulder region.

Actually, Sakaki’s got some fashion challenges of his own to surmount. In this picture, his coat’s billowing so much it looks like a frickin’ hoop skirt!

KAREN: I know–why does he need two coats? I think it’s a little hypocritical of a vampire to wear turtlenecks anyway.

Now you’re reminding me that I need to finish reading Basara! But it’s a good comparison, and one that reflects favorably on Chika Shiomi–I think a lot of people can write a love story, but it’s harder to write one where it makes sense and is right for the characters. Hand-waving with a “that’s how love is!” is lazy, and she doesn’t take the easy way out. The ending offers a further complication, but again, it goes with the feeling that the characters really need to want this instead of just engaging in relationship fanservice.

The art—especially for Sakaki—really had a CLAMP-circa-X vibe going on, but this was 1994. I also enjoyed Machua’s style, even if it wasn’t as flamboyant and flowing.

MICHELLE: I liked her, too, though at first I thought she might be a dude!

The art really is frequently lovely in that early-’90s kind of way. Below I’ve included an image of one of my favorite two-page spreads, where you’ve got all sorts of overlapping panels, huge flowers, leads superimposed over a background of space… My cynical side wonders if Shiomi had a checklist of specific items to include, but the overall effect is still one I enjoy. And, of course, I can’t help thinking that MJ, with her well-documented love for old-school shoujo art, would just love this to pieces. (Click image to enlarge.)

KAREN: This is some lovely ’90s art, and it holds up pretty well—Canon herself (sans ankleboots) could just as easily be a design in a modern Chika Shiomi work. I also enjoyed her eye for action–I was a little unsure about how the vampires were always leaping about, but I assume it’s a case of Our Vampires Are Different. The pages you picked show how nice a page with flashbacks and conversations can be–it’s not just good storytelling, it also sets an emotional mood that really sells the scene for me.

I’m glad there was a Vampire MMF to make me get this series off the shelf and re-read it. It’s one of those quiet CMX series that came and went with little fanfare, but shows how well-curated their shoujo line was–I’m sure they could have found a more sensationalistic vampire manga with prettier, broodier boys, but this is one with an overall strong story and a tough heroine. It may not be a classic on the lines of contemporary works like X, but it’s cheap on the used market and, in my opinion, a good short series.

MICHELLE: I definitely agree! Thank you for suggesting it!

And now, an announcement: because Karen and I had such a good time reading Canon, it really fanned the flames of “Damn, we miss CMX.” And so, to help offset our still-lingering pain, we’ve decided to embark upon a monthly feature called The CMX Project, where we will revisit both the lauded and the lesser-known works from the CMX catalog. Look for the first column—featuring Land of the Blindfolded—in January 2013!

JManga The Week Of 11/1

October 26, 2012 by Sean Gaffney, MJ, Michelle Smith and Katherine Dacey 5 Comments

SEAN: Welcome to a new feature here at Manga Bookshelf, which for want of a better title will be called JManga The Week Of. As you might guess, it is similar to my Manga the Week of posts, in that we break down what’s coming out next week from JManga (and possibly other e-publishers if I can find an easy way to get their release dates) and discuss what we’re looking forward to, what we’re curious about, what what we don’t really see the appeal of at all.

Since this is an inaugural post, I will start with THIS week’s JManga titles, then move on to next week. So it’s a double dose!

First off, we’re getting more “rescues” from the former folks at Del Rey, consisting of the titles they didn’t bring with them to Kodansha. School Rumble has 8 more volumes, which brings it up to date with what Del Rey had put out. This would mean Vols. 17-22, as well as the one-off sequel School Rumble Z, would be original JManga translations/productions. School Rumble is a comedic harem title from Weekly Shonen Magazine, and was quite popular among the blogosphere when it was coming out. And by popular I mean folks read the scans avidly. Cough. When the manga ended, as most harem manga do, with an ending that did not please everyone, the fandom died faster than Ali MacGraw. I do hope that enough time has passed that said fans return to the fold to support the remainder of the series.

MJ: I’ve always been sort of curious about this title—I even bought the first volume at one point, but never read it—so JManga’s acquisition here is definitely of interest to me. That said, there are Del Rey titles I miss much, much more (*cough* Nodame *cough*) so I’m not quite jumping up and down yet.

MICHELLE: I feel exactly the same way, MJ. I’m not generally interested in shounen harem manga, but there’s just something about this one that I find kind of appealing. Still, I’m more in a state of holding my breath for other things—aside from Nodame, I’m hoping that JManga will finish Papillon and Ghost Hunt!

SEAN: Re: School Rumble. It’s an interesting title as I suspect that it changed considerably from what the author had planned. It’s very much a gag manga at the start, with few harem elements. Then the author had its male lead, Harima, interacting with two polar opposites, the tsundere princess-type Eri and the meek young housewife-type Yakumo, and popularity soared. (Note that Tenma, the actual female lead, has never been as popular – in fact, Western fans tend not to like her much, mostly due to her childish characteristics.) Combine that with a truly huge cast, and you get a strange kudzu-like manga with multiple genres (though it never quite backs away from its gag manga roots, except towards the end).

Re: Nodame Cantabile, I have a theory about that. There are a few Del Rey hiatus series still not on JManga, such as Alive: The Final Evolution and Moyashimon. But Nodame is the most prestigious of those, and that may be the problem. It’s one of Japan’s biggest sellers. It’s huge in other countries. It has anime and live-action adaptations. And I love JManga and what they’re doing, but Kodansha giving them all these titles is very much a “we have no more interest in getting these out in print, so here.” I can see Kodansha thinking to themselves, “we need to hold onto Nodame in hopes that we *can* get it back into print, as it’s a flagship josei title.”

Pastel, another harem manga from Shonen Magazine (though after Vol. 6 it moved to the monthly Magazine Special), has also caught up with Del Rey releases, as Vols. 9-14 are out. Pastel is *still running* in Japan, with Volume 33 due out in November. Given it is, at heart, an ecchi harem manga bout a weak male lead, the various busty girls who fall for him, and their series of misunderstandings, the mind reels. I didn’t get very far into Pastel, but I know it has fans who enjoyed its slice-of-life, sometimes sweet story, so hope they enjoy seeing it go on. And on.

Speaking of license rescues, we have a new old series from Mag Garden’s Comic Blade. The first volume of Elemental Gelade came out from Tokyopop in 2006; they put out 12 of the 18 volumes before it was dropped. Digital Manga Guild re-licensed the series earlier this year; I’m not sure if this is their translation. In any case, it’s a fantasy series with pirates and living weapons, and also spawned its own anime.

MJ: While I’m always happy about manga becoming as accessible to people as possible, am I the only one who finds duplicate releases like this a little confusing?

SEAN: Ninja Papa hits Volume 3 of its seven volumes. As I’ve noted before, no one will ever accuse this of being great literature. But if you’re a middle-aged flabby balding guy and you want to imagine yourself doing mad ninja tricks, gorily killing bad guys in sprays of blood, then returning home to make love to your gorgeous hot wife… well, then you might want a subscription to Futabasha’s Manga Action in general. But this is *particularly* for you.

MICHELLE: … I can totally see this plot being yoinked for an American movie.

KATE: I’d like to see a josei take on this same basic fantasy: middle-aged woman performs mad ninja tricks, dispatches bad guys, then comes home to her impossibly hot husband. I’d definitely read that manga.

SEAN: Clair Voyance is a new manga from Ohta Shuppan’s online magazine Pocopoco. It’s actually by a Singaporean artist, FSc, aka Foo Swee Chin. She has done some alternative comics for Neko Press and Slave Labor Graphics. It seems to be about Monster Helpers rather than Monster Hunters, and I’m intrigued to see where it’s headed.

MJ: Thanks to Kate’s recommendation, I’m definitely planning to pick this up!

MICHELLE: Yeah, that one looks neat!

SEAN: And there’s Vol. 4 (of 7 and still going) of My Sadistic Boyfriend, which runs in Futabasha’s little known shoujo magazine Comic Mahou no Island. From what I’ve gathered, this fits squarely in the Black Bird/Hot Gimmick/B.O.D.Y. mode of “I love this guy who treats me horribly and I let him as I am weak and he is sexy.” I admit it is not my genre, but Viz apparently sells them like hotcakes (well, mildly warmcakes), so the audience is there. Has anyone compared this one with the classics like Hot Gimmick? How does it stack up?

MJ: “From what I’ve gathered, this fits squarely in the Black Bird/Hot Gimmick/B.O.D.Y. mode of ‘I love this guy who treats me horribly and I let him as I am weak and he is sexy.'” In a word, “Ugh.”

MICHELLE: I admit that I have judged this one purely on its title and did no further investigation regarding it. Also, I snickered at mildly warmcakes. :)

KATE: Wait… Hot Gimmick is a classic?

SEAN: Next up, JManga just announced 5 titles for release next Thursday.

Neko Ramen is another Mag Garden Comic Blade license rescue from Tokyopop, and is a cute 4-koma series about, well, a cat who owns a ramen shop. Funnier than it sounds, this was a surprisingly fun series when it first came out, and I’m pleased to see it here.

Peacemaker Kurogane is also a Comic Blade title, and this one has a long and tortured publication history. ADV manga (remember them?) put out Vols. 1-3 a long while back, then went under. Tokyopop revived the series and released Vol. 4, then they moved on. Now JManga has reissued the first 2, with presumably plans for more. I hope it catches on this time. It’s a Shinsengumi book, supposedly chronicling the life of Tetsunosuke Ichimura during the Meiji period and his attempts to get revenge.

MJ: Here’s a title I’ve always wanted to read! I’m pretty excited about this one, actually. I was a fan of the first volume of Momo Tama (from the same artist), though I never managed to pick up subsequent volumes, and I’ve been curious about this series ever since.

MICHELLE: Peacemaker doesn’t engender much of a response from me, but I am very pleased to see Neko Ramen arrive! I found the series to be a pleasant surprise, and though some volumes weren’t quite as giggle-inducing as others, it’s definitely among the series I mourned when TOKYOPOP went under. It fits in well with JManga’s quirky foodie manga, too!

KATE: I’m also glad to see Neko Ramen series get a second chance with readers. In the abstract, Neko Ramen sounds like a one-joke manga — hey, waiter, there’s a cat hair in my soup! — but the strips manage to wring fresh humor out of Taisho’s misguided promotions, menu items, and interactions with long-suffering customers. I don’t know if JManga will preserve the original Tokyopop translation, but I hope they do; the Tokyopop re-write has the same snappy quality as an Abbott and Costello routine.

SEAN: Lastly, there’s a new classic literature adaptation from Variety Art Works. This publisher specializes in adapting famous works of literature (both Japanese and worldwide, though the latter is what JManga has mostly focused on) in single volume manga format. This new title adapts Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, which, um, is really more of a lecture than a story, but hey. It’ll be quite interesting to see how this gets presented.

KATE: I’ve read a few of these “Illustrated Classics” — including the adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human — and thought the artwork was pretty bad. Their great redeeming virtue is that they hew closely to the original texts, so I suppose they have some value as Cliff Notes.

SEAN: So, what are you picking up this week?

Manga the Week of 10/31

October 24, 2012 by Sean Gaffney

So, which of this title will you be getting this week?

(It’s OK, wait till November, the Manga Avalanche Month.)