Features

Manga the Week of 1/11

January 4, 2012 by Sean Gaffney

A nice, reasonable 2nd week this month, with many interesting things coming out. Also, I’ll be getting Wandering Son 2 finally. Why I’m getting it after the rest of you already have, I don’t know.

Bandai emits a last gasp with its release of Volume 3 of the shrine maiden harem comedy Kannagi. If you want to know how it ends, I advise watching the anime, I suppose.

Dark Horse reminds us it’s not all just Gantz and Oh My Goddess there these days. They also have their various Evangelion spinoffs! This is Volume 10 of the AU story Shinji Ikari Raising Project, which seems to mostly be a kinder, gentler Evangelion. A reminder that it’s edited by Carl Horn as well. I wonder if it has extensive endnotes…

Seven Seas has a new volume of the big bestseller Dance in the Vampire Bund, which I’m sure they’re very happy remains an ongoing series in Japan. How long it remains ongoing is an interesting question, as Media Factory was just bought by Kadokawa. I’m not sure what they’ll be doing with Comic Flapper. Could this series move to Young Ace? At least, unlike Hayate x Blade, Seven Seas doesn’t have to worry about the series moving to a company that it’s near impossible to license from.

Manga Ends On Sunday as we see the final volume of Hyde & Closer from Viz. They’ve also got a much longer running Sunday series with Case Closed Vol. 41. And for older readers who perhaps want a bit more violence and death, there’s new volumes of Jormungand from Sunday GX and Bokurano: Ours from Ikki.

Anything appealing to you this week?

Roundtable: Sailors Moon & V, first volumes

December 30, 2011 by MJ, Michelle Smith, Sean Gaffney and David Welsh 2 Comments

MJ: Back in March, the Manga Bookshelf Battle Robot got together to share some squee about Kodansha Comics’ announcement regarding their upcoming re-release of Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon. nine months later, this re-release is well underway. The debut volumes of of both Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and its predecessor, Codename Sailor V dominated Matt Blind’s Manga Bestseller charts for months, with preorders of later volumes hitting the top charts well before they’ve been released.

As a newcomer to the series, I’ve been anxious to reconvene the Battle Robot’s original discussion now that I’ve had some real exposure to the series, so I’m quite pleased to say that Michelle, David, and Sean (a newcomer to the Bookshelf since our first go-around!) have agreed to join me once more!

I’ll talk about my impressions of the series in a moment, but first, I’d like to ask the rest of you–all fans of the series previously to one extent or another–how well the series has held up for you since your first experiences with it. Has this re-read stood up to your expectations?

SEAN: Oh, definitely. I’ve always liked the manga better than the anime, even though I’ve enjoyed both immensely. And since I’ve been involved in the fandom since 1996 or so, I did not have any issues with Usagi’s characterization the way that some people have. Honestly, the re-read of Vol. 1 of both Moon and V just made me realize how much I wanted to read the rest.

MICHELLE: I actually liked it *more* than I thought I would, because I was unprepared for what a difference actually reading it in English would make. There’s an immediacy to having understandable words on the page that you just don’t get when looking back and forth between a physical book in Japanese and a translation on a screen. Like Sean, I have loved Sailor Moon for a long time, so Usagi was exactly what I expected her to be at this early stage. It must help having advanced knowledge of her more competent moments!

DAVID: This is actually my first time around with the manga. I’ve seen a lot of the anime, though. This is really rare for me, but I actually like the anime more, and I think it’s because of what Michelle just said about Usagi’s competence. I’m reading a lot of titles right now that feature spunky, can-do heroines, and this early evolution of Usagi strikes me as a huge, can’t-do whiner. Is that blasphemy? I love the other sailors, though.

SEAN: This is an issue that I’ve thought about for some time. I discussed it a bit in my reviews of Teru Teru x Shonen as well. When you have a story where your goal is to take a very flawed heroine and gradually make her grow up and improve, how annoying can you make her at the start without losing your audience? I know with both Sailor Moon and TTxS, I had people tell me, “I don’t care if she gets better, I found her so aggravating I don’t want to read how it happens.” As David noted, the process might be helped here by the addition of the other senshi, who the reader can identify with as well. (Ami was the most popular senshi in many polls in both Japan and North America, for reasons that should be obvious.) It also might not be helped by seeing the Sailor V manga as well, as Minako is flawed in different ways, and I think Western fans approve of ‘shallow ditz’ more than ‘whining crybaby’ by default.

I also read the Super S manga first, so had exposure to Usagi’s epicness before I went back to read the early stuff.

DAVID: I think the comparison with Sailor V definitely doesn’t help, because her reaction to the circumstances feels more natural. She’s excited that she can become glamorous and powerful and, to a lesser extent, help people. If Usagi had something compelling going on in her life, the added responsibilities might actually seem like a burden, but she seems put out because it’s cutting into her nap time. It reminds me of how right Joss Whedon got this dynamic so right with Buffy, whose destiny was really gruesome and dangerous, and Cordelia, who went from being very shallow to really enjoying making a difference. Usagi is a very “Math is hard!” type. I’m looking forward when manga Usagi catches up with anime Usagi, who was a lot more likable and credible.

MJ: This might sound crazy, but I was actually really surprised after I read volume one and then saw everyone describing Usagi as annoying. I get that she’s slow to embrace her destiny and complains about it a lot, but it didn’t affect me the same way. I guess maybe I’m used to working with teens who complain that you’re ruining their lives if you ask them to practice between lessons or enunciate when they sing. By comparison, Usagi’s whining seem pretty reasonable. She doesn’t strike me as overly immature for her age, and I thought her little mental freak-out near the end of the volume over the fact that she’s supposed to be the leader of this group of girls, each to whom she feels stunningly inferior, read as very natural and relatable. I actually kind of…. like Usagi. I wonder what that says about me! Heh.

SEAN: I’m trying to think of comparable heroines… Miaka from Fushigi Yuugi, if I recall, had a similar issue with fans calling her a ‘whiner’. It seems to be far more of an issue here than in Japan… impulsiveness is not as much of a sin as reluctance or running away.

MICHELLE: Oh, maybe consuming the story out of order has a hand in my feelings, too, since my exposure to Sailor Moon was the third season of the anime. I guess all we can really do is assure people that Usagi does mature while still essentially remaining herself.

SEAN: Actually, while we’re discussing the anime, and how some of us saw that first, I wanted to mention the only character who is noticeably different between her anime and manga incarnations: Rei Hino. Rei in the manga tends towards the cool and collected, and might occasionally be grumpy or irritated with people, but for the most part is meant to show ‘aloof’ more than anything else. Rei in the anime, is, well, a hothead, who is contrasted with Usagi – and also compared, as the fights the two of them get into (and the arguments over Mamoru) make us realize their similarities. At least in this first volume, Usagi does not really have this – the other three senshi we meet are all more together or have better attitudes. I do wonder if the manga might be better presented in five huge volumes, one for each arc – I think Usagi grows a LOT in future volumes, and seeing this is easier once you get Vol. 2 and 3 down as well. And as I said earlier, I wonder why Rei was the only one gives major changes for the anime. (You can argue Minako was made flakier, and to an extent that’s true, but Rei’s seems DIFFERENT in a way that Minako does not.)

MJ: I’ve never seen the anime, outside of maybe one episode, so I came to the first volume of the series (and Sailor V too, of course) without really knowing what to expect. Even though Sailor Moon is iconic, I never had a clear sense of why people really loved it, even when friends would try to tell me. So I feel like I came to it with no expectations at all.

Honestly, I was charmed from the very first pages. It helps of course that I adore older shoujo art styles, but it wasn’t just that. There is a sense of, oh… girlish joy woven into the fabric of these books that I haven’t experienced to this extent since my pre-teen years when I was consuming things like Maida’s Little Shop and the Betsy-Tacy books as rapidly as I could acquire them. Of course Maida Westabrook and Betsy Ray weren’t fighting evil, but theirs were the kind of books that, even in their dated settings, seemed to take for granted that girls were brilliant, capable people with nothing to be ashamed of. They could run their own businesses or become famous writers, but they could also angst over friendships and romantic prospects, make mistakes, hate cooking, and leave their family’s religion, without tarnishing their awesomeness as girls in the slightest.

Sailor Moon and Codename: Sailor V are the same kind of books for me. The short skirts and concern over prettiness that I worried might be a problem for me, ultimately are exactly the opposite. These girls are allowed to care about feeling pretty and other typical teen things, but there’s never the sense that they need to care about these things in order to please boys, or for any reason other than because they enjoy it. In a way, this may even be related to why I like Usagi. She doesn’t feel terribly ashamed for wanting to nap instead of being ordered around by a cat with big claims on her destiny, and on some level I’m with her on that.

MICHELLE: MJ, I’m so glad that you love these books. I remember in our first roundtable attempting to reassure you that the girls calling themselves pretty really makes all the difference in the world; it’s like an empowerment thing. As I read your comment, I wondered whether people who approach this manga will fall into two camps: those who love it while spewing copious hearts and those who wonder what all the fuss is about. Is there a middle ground of people who simply kind of like it? I’m not sure.

Sean’s point illustrates why I’d recommend reading the manga and watching the anime. Personally, I like the manga version of Rei a lot more, and her squabbles with Usagi in the anime are kind of irritating. But there’s more humor in the anime, more fleshing out of character relationships (or at least more flirting when Haruka and Michiru come along), and more time for the villains. Several of Queen Beryl’s henchmen are dispatched in the first volume of the manga but stick around for dozens of anime episodes. Some of the villains are fun characters so it’s nice to have the opportunity to spend a little more time with them.

DAVID: I definitely feel like I fall into the middle ground that you theorized about, Michelle. I like a lot of these girls, and I like the fact that they still get to be teen-aged girls with specific lives and interests outside of their shared destiny. I tend to be of the belief that a little vanity and a little glamor should be a universal quality in super-hero fiction, which Sailor Moon certainly is. There should always be moments when the protagonists kind of step back and realize that their lives are pretty fabulously cool in a lot of ways, and I definitely get that vibe here.

I also really like the fact that none of the Sailors, even Usagi, are shrinking violets when the time for battle comes. They might not know exactly what they’re doing yet, but they know it has to be done, and they don’t tremble. After some awkward moments in the first volume of the generally wonderful Princess Knight where Osamu Tezuka seemed to be suggesting that a girl can’t be feminine and tough at the same time, Sailor Moon is definitely a tonic in that regard.

MICHELLE: Your first paragraph reminds me of a great exchange between Buffy and Faith (and for once I am not the first person to inject Buffy into a conversation!) in season seven where they’re commiserating about their dangerous destiny and Faith says, “Thank God we’re hot chicks with super powers.” “Takes the edge off,” Buffy agrees.

That sentiment definitely manifests in Sailor Moon, as I can think of several painful or pivotal moments for Usagi during which she has transformed into a serene and lovely version of herself.

SEAN: That’s a key thing about the series: Mamoru may give encouragement, or tell her not to doubt herself, He never saves her. She’s always the soldier, even when she’s the princess. In fact, that’s the unique thing about this incarnation as opposed to past lives: she *is* a soldier, as well as the princess to be protected. And this is one of the main reasons why they don’t die again (well, OK, they do, but they get better.) Mamoru may be a dashing prince and boyfriend, but he loves her strength. (Also, note how the series shows that a) you don’t need a boyfriend to validate yourself, but also b) if you get one, that having a handsome and understanding boyfriend IS great.)

MJ: So to switch gears a little, let’s talk about Sailor V. I read this first, and though I liked it quite a lot, I did get pretty weary of its string of similar villains, whose only purpose in villainy seemed to be making people their slaves. After a while, it almost seemed like a running joke. Is it just me?

SEAN: Sailor V is a bit schizophrenic simply due to how it was conceived and played out. The magazine it ran in (Run Run) came out, I think, only 6 times a year. This necessitated every single chapter reintroducing the basic plot for new readers. (You see that a lot in some Hakusensha shoujo, such as Natsume’s Book of Friends or S.A.). Then once she was told to create Sailor Moon, she drew V sporadically for the next 7 years. And by sporadically I mean ‘about 5-6 chapters in the entirety of 7 years’. I think as she did this, she realized she wanted to wrap it up in such a way that it could end with V joining the cast of Sailor Moon (as indeed she does). Thus, Volume 2, which comes out everywhere but comic shops this week, has a much stronger plot and is slightly more serious than Volume 1 is.

As for the one-shot villains being a running joke, Takeuchi doesn’t come close to the creators of the anime. How can one top Doorknobdar, for example? XD Most shoujo magical girl genres feature incredibly silly one-shot minor villains, and stronger major villains who are not as silly. We’ll meet Minako’s main nemesis in Volume 2 as well.

MICHELLE: I had forgotten the doorknob one! I remembered “Hurdler,” who is basically a tennis shoe imbued with demonic power who menaces a bunch of runners. Probably I remember that one because it appears in the episode depicting how Haruka and Michiru met which I *may* have watched about four times as often as the rest of the series.

So yeah, I’m not sure if Takeuchi intended the enslavement plot to be a joke or what, but you’re definitely not the only one to wonder what the point of it all was, MJ. Not only that, they’re all singing sensations. Was Takeuchi making a dig at the idol biz?

DAVID: I have to admit that I found myself favoring the low-rent cheese of V. it doesn’t speak well of me, and I can see why Takeuchi was asked to do a proper version of the story, but I just… like it.

MJ: I think Takeuchi’s “low-rent cheese” is some of the most fun I’ve seen, so I can get on board with that, David.

So, other than Usagi’s character development, what should I be looking forward to in future volumes of Sailor Moon?

DAVID: Well, I’m not sure what’s on the horizon exactly, but I know that it will involve lots more Sailors and sidekicks, and, in my book, the more crowded a super-hero book is, the better.

SEAN: As you’d expect, you’ll see Minako and Artemis join the cast. Get ready for a lot of destiny talk, as well as epic fantasy flashbacks. There will also be some bloodshed – Takeuchi is not afraid of violence when it suits her plot. Vols. 2 and 3 will be less episodic and more serious – though there will still be humor. And a very interesting – and controversial – plot will drop in as the first arc ends. Literally.

MICHELLE: Ha. I’d say *that* particular plot is even more controversial than Usagi herself!

I am tempted to squee about the eventual debut of the Starlights (volume eleven), but they’re around so briefly in the manga that I’m not sure you’ll love them as much as I do after prolonged anime exposure. Actually, they bring around a controversial plot in their own way, or at least something that’s controversial among the fandom…

SEAN: Are there still Seiya/Usagi fans? Sheesh…

MICHELLE: Yep. There was some big brouhaha at Ask a Pretty Soldier just recently having to do with that pairing.

MJ: Oh, fandom. I’m not sad to have missed out on all of that.

Thanks to all of you for joining me here. I look forward to reading both series’ second volumes!

Manga the Week of 1/4

December 28, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

Happy new year! At least next week, when you’ll be able to celebrate with a nice stack of manga from Kodansha and Viz! Courtesy the Midtown Comics list, and mostly the same as your friends at Diamond. (I say mostly as Wandering Son still is AWOL.)

Kodansha has two big omnibuses for all you Ken Akamatsu fans who enjoy buying things twice to get new, more accurate translations. Which, let’s face it, is most of you. The second Love Hina omnibus and third Negima omnibus will bring you over 1000 pages of tsundere girls getting embarrassed and hitting the men/boys they love. (Hey, it’s a known buying market. Stick with what you’re good at, that’s what Ken says.) There’s also the third volume of Monster Hunter Orage, for Hiro Mashima fans. (Note that all that was out this week in bookstores. Diamond: where shipping dates go to die.)

About 257 years after the release of the first One Piece artbook, the series has apparently sold well enough that Viz is releasing the second. Oda’s fantastical color pages are filled with imagination and strange animals, and I can’t wait to see what they look like in a larger size.

Meanwhile, the first week of the month always means a healthy dose of Viz’s Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat lines. From the former we have Naruto 54 and One Piece 60, both getting a slight speedup due to Shonen Jump Alpha. (They’re already available digitally.) There’s also Vol. 2 of Psyren. Jump Square gives us the 7th volume of the 2nd series of Rosario + Vampire, and the little-known V Jump, which specialized in video game tie-in manga, gives us Yu-Gi-Oh GX 8, one of the grandest game tie-ins of them all.

Shojo Beat is putting out several of its heavy hitters: Black Bird 12, Kimi ni Todoke 12, and Skip Beat 26. There’s also new volumes of Dengeki Daisy (oh, those cliffhangers…) and Oresama Techer (SUPER-BUN!). Lastly, for Sanrio fans, Viz releases the first volume of the adorable-looking Fluffy Fluffy Cinnamoroll, which is surprisingly printed right-to-left. Well, may as well get the future manga fans reading that direction early on, I suppose.

Sailor Moon Manga Moveable Feast: Call For Entries

December 26, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

It’s time for December’s Manga Moveable Feast, and this month’s topic is Sailor Moon. It’s a manga that I tend to talk about at the drop of a hat, and so I immediately volunteered to be the host for this month’s event.

(A brief warning: there is really no way to make this discussion spoiler-free. I realize there are people who, with Kodansha’s re-release, are coming to the series for the first time, and I apologize to them. But Tokyopop’s complete manga and four of the five seasons of the anime have been out in North America for years and years. And I also want to gush about the Outers later on. So you have been warned: this will spoil the series.)

In college, I vaguely seemed to have Sailor Moon on the outskirts of my attention as one of those cute Japanimation cartoons the kids were talking about. As I got into anime and manga via Ranma, I began to note there were several fanfics that had him meeting up with Serena/Usagi (delete where applicable) and their cohorts, but nothing that really drove me to find out more. It was really when Mixxzine began to appear, serializing the story, that I started to realize just what it was that was making children and adults talk about this phenomenon.

There’s really so much to talk about. The strength of the main cast, who are all decidedly feminine and yet will not hesitate to kick anyone’s ass if so required. The manga (and anime) examining what it means to be a defender of justice and how, unlike other previous magical girls, this is not something that they happily give up when they grow up and get married. Usagi and the others are not just magical girls, they are the future rulers of the entire planet. And despite all of that, the manga also shows us that they are not only free to pursue their dreams, but are actively doing so. The sheer brutality of both the manga and the anime – I know that when people actually saw the ending of the first season uncensored, a lot of tears were shed; and let’s not even talk about the manga, where one volume began with Usagi staring at the reader as her flesh melted off her head revealing her skull beneath. (She got better.) And there’s any number of things that can be said about Haruka and Michiru, who managed to break several barriers both here and in Japan. Even when censored into ‘cousins’, you could see who they really were.

Obviously I can’t say all these things myself. Nor would I want to, when there are much better writers out there to do so. I will chip in during the week for an essay or two, but this is a call to bloggers, readers, or interested parties to write about the series.

A few things to note:

1) Obviously this is the MANGA Moveable Feast, but I feel that when you’re discussing Sailor Moon, especially in North America, where most of us saw the anime first, you inevitably find yourself discussing both, even when they differ. In fact, especially when they differ. As a result, please feel free to mention the anime as well. And you can also talk about Sailor V, of course.

2) As I said before, you may discuss the entire series. You may want to, as I did, put a quick note at the top if you’re going to be getting into the nitty-gritty of the Black Moon arc or the Starlights arc. But it’s not required.

3) I realize the manga is being reprinted and not entirely available yet, and that the anime is also out of print, but it goes without saying: please do not link to scanlation sites or torrent sites.

4) If you don’t have a webspace or blogsite but want to contribute, just let me know.

To participate, you can either post your article on Twitter, making sure to tag it with the hashtag #MMF so that I will see it (I am @Toukochan on Twitter, you could also add my name to the tweet); or you can email the link to my attention at gaffneys at gmail dot com. (Sorry, spammers suck.) I will post daily links as is the custom. The MMF runs from today through January 1st.

I look forward to seeing everyone’s awesome articles, essays, reminisces, or just plain old gushing.

And now, post-MMF, here are all the daily links in one handy page:

Day One
Day Two And Three
Day Four
Day Five
Day Six
Day Seven

BL Bookrack: December 2011

December 22, 2011 by MJ 8 Comments

Welcome to the year’s final installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two offerings from the Digital Manga Guild, Climb On To My Shoulders and The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe, as well as Pet On Duty from JManga.

Climb On To My Shoulders | By Yuhki Takada | Digital Manga Guild | Rated T (13+) – Teen computer programmers Trey and Paul want to make a splash with their tic-tac-toe program, but a chance meeting with wheeler-dealer MJcatapults their hobby to a new (questionably stable) level. Can their budding business (or their longtime friendship) survive MJ’s “help”?

This title represents very well the greatest advantage to the Digital Manga Guild, at least for readers. Though it’s probably one of the most interesting and unique BL titles translated into English to date, it’s not difficult to see why Climb On To My Shoulders might have been an unlikely choice for traditional licensing. On one hand, so few of the genre’s usual tropes are present in this book, it’s almost inevitable that it will fall short of some fans’ expectations. And while the absence of those precise elements would doubtlessly make the book more appealing to others, there is one tricky issue that may turn those readers off as well. In the end, it’s hard to say exactly who this story’s audience is, though there’s a lot to recommend it.

While 1960s high school computer nerds may not seem like obvious BL fodder, Climb On To My Shoulders proves they emphatically are, as long as you’re on board for more bromance than sex. As its “Teen” rating suggests, this manga offers virtually no sexual content, but it also steers clear of the syrupy hearts ‘n’ flowers that often accompany teen-rated BL fare.

Unresolved sexual tension and socially-awkward adolescent male bonding are what you’ll get here, written with a level of insightful nuance that sets my UST-loving heart a-flutter. The only caveat here, is that 9th-grader Trey is drawn to resemble a curly-haired elementary schooler (so much so, that it’s part of the plot), inserting a serious element of squick into what would otherwise be one of the best comedic teen love triangles to ever hit the (virtual) shelves.

Frankly, though, the squick is worth it. While pondering Trey’s burgeoning crush on MJ(and Paul’s long-standing devotion to Trey) may be genuinely discomfiting alongside Takada’s cutie-pie artwork, this book is far too compelling and quirky to miss. Thanks, DMG, for making this kind of oddball release possible. I hope to see many more like it. – Review by MJ

Pet on Duty | By Nase Yamato | JManga | Rated Mature (18+) – When twenty-something Mizuki loses his job (and subsequently, his housing), he turns to his older brother for help. Unfortunately, all his brother has to offer is a covert existence in his company’s dormitory which doesn’t allow guests. Reduced to life as a forbidden housepet, Mizuki finds himself drifting (much like a real-life cat) towards the dorm’s least friendly resident, his brother’s roommate, Kudou.

Released in print by the now-defunct Boysenberry Books, Pet on Duty represents one of the manga community’s greatest hopes for digital publisher JManga—the license rescue. Though the book is available on the Kindle by way of its Japanese publisher, Libre Shuppan, JManga’s platform makes it once again widely available to new readers.

Is Pet on Duty worth rescuing? My verdict: probably.

There’s nothing special or unusual here, and the book’s house cat metaphor gets old fast (nothing cements an unbalanced seme/uke relationship like the insinuation that the uke is actually a pet). But Mizuki’s relationship with Kudou is genuinely sweet, and the author takes care to avoid the questionably-consensual sex that so often pervades these kinds of titles by consistently making “pet” Mizuki the aggressor in all sexual situations. And though there’s little going on outside of the story’s primary romance, that tends to be a plus in a single-volume manga, where so many authors bite off more than they can chew.

Nase Yamato’s artwork is sweetly expressive, with a mix of reality and fantasy elements that work together surprisingly well. She spends a lot of time on detail around her character’s eyes, giving them a level of real-life shading and contour one rarely encounters in quick-fix romance manga, while also maintaining a kind of doll-like beauty that anchors them firmly in a fantasy space. It’s an effective combination, and it suits her story well.

Though Pet on Duty is far from original, it’s a decidedly enjoyable one-shot, suitable for most fans of the genre. – Review by MJ

The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe | By Puku Okuyama | Digital Manga Guild | Rated YA (16+) – Having enjoyed Okuyama’s short story collection Warning! Whispers of Love, I was eager to try The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe, a volume-long one-shot nicely translated/adapted by the DMG group Cynical Pink.

This is the story of a mismatched pair of high-school boys: small and hyper Kosuke—who earns the nickname “Ham-chan” (hamster) through a combination of looks, behavior, and an alternate reading of a character in his name—and tall and popular-with-girls Raku, who has wearied of standing out due to his ethnicity (he’s only half-Japanese) and is therefore disguising himself with hair dye and black contact lenses. They become close friends and, actually, the entirety of the book is basically their interaction as friends up until the moment they decide to become something more, complete with many comedic episodes (many of which are actually funny) and a supporting cast of quirky classmates that put me in mind of Flower of Life, even though they can’t really rival that group for sheer awesomeness.

Overall, the story is very cute and innocent—there’s really no reason this couldn’t qualify for a Teen (13+) rating, though perhaps 16+ is as low as one can currently go for a love story involving two boys. There are a few things about it that could’ve been better, though. The emphasis on comedy frequently calls for Kosuke to behave in an antic and rather immature way, making it difficult to see him as someone who is mature enough to embark upon a relationship. Perhaps it is this lack of romantic tension between the leads that forces Okuyama to employ the old oops-I-tripped-and-fell-on-you maneuver multiple times in order to get her characters to consider smooching one another.

Neither of these issues prevents me from recommending the manga, however, and I think it would probably make an excellent “gateway manga” for anyone interested in BL but averse to explicit content. – Review by Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publisher.

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.

Manga the Week of 12/28

December 21, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

It may be quiet in your office, and everyone’s out having a post-Christmas lull, but there are lots of things coming into your local comic shop. Or at least Midtown’s shop. As always, actual dates may vary.

Dark Horse releases two series that could not be further apart from each other. The tits and violence appeal of Gantz, whose Vol. 20 is out next week, contrasts with the chaste and pure Oh My Goddess (Vol. 40), where even the supposed sexpot Urd isn’t doing anything worth slapping a rating on. That said, Oh My Goddess’s cast is breaking into Hell, so perhaps things will change.

Wandering Son was a very pleasant surprise in 2011, and I am pleased that we will be seeing the second volume before the year is out. Volume 1 was setting up the two leads and their desires, I expect Vol. 2 will throw a few monkey wrenches into things.

And Kodansha has its giant pile of manga which every other bookstore got today. Ah, Diamond… this includes Vol. 3s for Animal Land, Bloody Monday and Cage of Eden; the second Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus; another Phoenix Wright volume; and the 12th in everyone’s favorite footnoted series, Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei. There is also Vol. 21 of Air Gear, for those who read Tenjo Tenge and felt it just needed more inline skates.

Anything here reaching out to grab you? Throw off 2011 in style… with manga!

Magazine no Mori in the Evening

December 18, 2011 by Erica Friedman 7 Comments

It’s a well-known, unwritten rule of otakudom that one should never write or talk about something that other people know anything about. If one should venture into known territory, there’s a high likelihood that someone will be moved to explain to you how wrong you are.

Many people are familiar with Kodansha’s Morning magazine, and its slightly odd twin brother Morning Two. Likewise, people are relatively familiar with their older sister, Afternoon. But, because it’s out all day at work, and doesn’t get home until late, very few people know about their big brother magazine, Evening.

Evening magazine has a 2010 circulation of 147,980/month. It sells for 330 yen for just slightly over 400 pages an issue. Evening is one of those magazines you see most walking into convenience stores anywhere in Japan.

A few of the Evening series are going to be well-known to western readers. Most well-known are Moyashimon, that comedic series by Masayuki Ishikawa about cute bacteria, which is still ongoing in the magazine, and BLOOD ALONE, Masayuki Takano’s manga that shifted from Dengeki Daioh to Evening. Evening was involved in another another notable shift, when Gunm, Last Order (translated here as Battle Angel Alita, Last Order) was famously picked up and huffed from Ultra Jump to Evening finish its run when the creator, Yukito Kishiro, had issues with management.

Of note to people like myself who like oddball series, is “Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san,” by Yasuhisa Kubo about “funny” demons in hell (which has recently gotten anime treatment) and “Shoujo Fight!,” a series about women’s volleyball that will never make it over here because, while sports manga in the west sells indifferently, sports manga about girls never even make it here at all. Forget then, ever seeing “O-Gari,” Tachiko Aoki’s action gaming story around women playing Shogi. (Fans of Saki, and Shion no Ou take note of this one.)

On Evening‘s website, one finds the typical features one expects with a manga magazine website – series overviews, interviews with creators, sample comics, features of new series, downloads and, somewhat less usually, a job board and special non-profit collbgoration with Father’s Quarterly (FQ) magazine related to a series “Prochichi,” a story about a stay-at-home father by Mieko Osaka.

Instantly a reader of Evening will realize that they are presumed to be an adult. The focus is on story, character and art, instead of gimmick or service. Where something like “Captain Alice” would, in Ultra Jump be full of T&A, in Evening, it focuses on great reactions shots and a surprisingly detailed plane interiors. It’s easy to imagine salarymen picking up a copy of Evening on their commute home, and so they do.

Evening magazine from Kodansha: http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/magazine/index.php/02134

Manga the Week of 12/21

December 14, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

Looking for a last-minute gift for that special someone before the holidays? Why not get them some brand-new manga? There’s a number of titles out this coming week for any type of fan.

Remember Del Rey? When Kodansha split off, for contractual reasons the xxxHOLIC books stayed with the parent. And now we get the penultimate volume in the series, which… well, honestly, it’s lost me by this point. But I’m sure other Watanuki fans ill love it to bits!

As for Kodansha itself, there’s always the third volume of Mardock Scramble. Which is unusually resistant to my glib jokemaking, but possibly I’ll think of something by the time the fourth volume comes around.

Midtown Comics is apparently running late on its wine manga, as they not only have the second volume of international sensation The Drops of God, but also the first volume as well. Sounds like a gift set to me!

Yes, I want to have this be the image for Dorohedoro 5, which is awesome and highly underrated (stop looking for the plot – just let it wash over you), and you should all be buying that. But I just have to give prime position to the 27th and FINAL volume of Fullmetal Alchemist. The whole series has been building to this volume, an it absolutely does not disappoint – one of the best endings to any shonen series in North America. And if you’ve somehow missed the previous 26 volumes, Viz is kindly selling all 27 in a giant box. In fact, the box came out before this individual volume. Lastly, there’s the 7th and 8th volume (or 4th omnibus) of boobs and fights manga Tenjo Tenge, which if nothing else reminds me I still need to read the 3rd.

So what’s in your stocking?

Comic Conversion: Witch & Wizard

December 9, 2011 by Angela Eastman 9 Comments

Witch & Wizard | Novel: James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet / Grand Central Publishing | Manga: Svetlana Chmakova / Yen Press

One minute Whit Allgood is falling asleep in front of the TV, the next an army is breaking down his door, brandishing guns and dragging his sister Wisty out of her bed. But the biggest shock for Whit and Wisty comes when they’re accused of being a wizard and a witch by the New Order—the all new government that’s taken over the whole country—and are sentenced to death. As they struggle to survive in their jail cell, the siblings discover that they do have special powers, from telekinesis to bursting into flames. Even after they manage to break out, thanks to the help of a ghostly friend, Whit and Wisty still have to find their parents, and they might have to break back into jail to do it.

Witch & Wizard is one of the latest series to come out of the James Patterson novel mill, this time written in conjunction with Gabrielle Charbonnet. Though there was already a graphic novel adaptation from IDW, Yen Press decided to come out with their own version of the dystopian novel using artist Svetlana Chmakova, creator of Dramacon and Night School, to create Witch & Wizard: The Manga. Both versions of the story have their flaws, but one might be more worth your time than the other.

Let’s start with the novel. One good thing you can immediately say about Witch & Wizard is that it gets right into the action. The story has barely started before the New Order troops are breaking down the Allgoods’ door. It doesn’t slow down much from there, even when the siblings are locked in prison, as they deal with sadistic jailers and have to fight a pack of mad dogs for food and water. The short chapters (most only last 1 or 2 pages) help create the illusion that you are speeding through the book. But even with all the rapid action, the story can get pretty clunky at times. You’ll start the next chapter, and suddenly Whit and Wisty are somewhere else, or there’s someone new in the scene who wasn’t there before. And the short chapters, while helping you feel like the book is a fast read, hurt the overall smoothness of the longer, more dramatic scenes.

Whit and Wisty are certainly fun characters, with their wisecracks, determination, and magical powers. Wisty in particular has an entertaining, sarcastic tone. But unfortunately, it’s all surface. Though the story is in first person for both characters, you never feel like you get truly, deeply in their heads. Even when the story pauses for inner thoughts it’s pretty generic, like how awful or cool or sad something is. Then there is the villain, The One Who Is The One, who should be dark and terrifying… but for some reason, Patterson and Charbonnet have him spouting some of the weirdest lines. They range from awkward – “I can even shut your sister up!” – to just plain goofy – “TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS!” – and really diminish the fear readers should have of this all-powerful villain.

Now we come to Yen Press’s manga adaptation by Svetlana Chmakova. The visual aspect of the comic actually helps with the clunky-ness in the book. New character appearances are less sudden, and we see the transition from one place to another, so there’s no flipping back a page to see how Whit and Wisty suddenly got from point A to point B. Chmakova’s art also helps to brighten up some of the less-than-stellar character personalities. Sure, the villains are just as one-dimensional as in the novel, with their little dark beetle eyes, but other characters seem more human in her hands. Whit wears a blank look of shock when he discovers that Celia is a ghost, and Wisty’s range of expressions, from cartoonish excitement at living in a fancy department store to the dark, narrow-eyed look when she casts her angry spells, make this witch even more fun and exciting than her novel version.

Despite the pace of the original, cuts were needed to fit the whole story into a single graphic novel. We miss out on some interesting shows of magic, like when Wisty floats in her sleep, or Whit speeds himself up to handily defeat some guards. But the comic also does away with some bits I didn’t care for, most obviously The One’s horrible, cheesy lines. The One still isn’t as dark and foreboding as I would like (you can always go creepier) but at least his dialogue doesn’t make me cringe.

The Witch & Wizard novel has a lot of problems that I have a hard time overlooking. While the pacing is nice and quick, the novel persistently trips itself up with awkward breaks and sudden shifts in location. And the plot, while a decently done fight-the-power dystopian, can get repetitive, takes unnecessary turns, and ends so abruptly I’m honestly surprised Patterson and Charbonet didn’t add in a couple more chapters to smooth things out. Chmakova’s adaptation doesn’t escape the plot issues of the original, but in streamlining the plot to fit into a single graphic novel she manages to toss out some of the minor chinks, resulting in an easier flow. When you combine that with art that is much more expressive than Patterson’s prose, overall you get a more enjoyable read. It’s still not perfect, but Witch & Wizard the manga improves enough on the original to be worth your money.

Guest Feature: Mary Stayed Out All Night

December 7, 2011 by Sara K. 5 Comments

Guest Feature: Mary Stayed Out All Night

Mary Stayed Out All Night is the manhwa that Sooyeon Won, the artist responsible for Let Dai, Full House, and The Devil’s Trill, is currently producing. Considering how much of Sooyeon Won’s work has been published by NETCOMICS, is it quite possible that they will license Mary Stayed Out All Night too.

The Story

Our heroine is an ordinary young woman. She makes the ‘mistake’ of getting involved with a young man who is both handsome and a movie star, a popular singer, rich, a prince, or some other glorious thing. When they first meet, they do not get along. And somehow, another handsome, popular, wealthy, or high-class young man gets involved.

Of course, these young men are not equal. One of them has a higher social status than the other. I will henceforth refer to the higher-status one as ‘overdog’ and the lower-status one as ‘underdog’.

Through a contrived set of circumstances, the heroine has to move in with and/or get married to at least one of these young men. Perhaps it is because she has financial problems, or perhaps because her family made her do it. While many people would love to live with/marry handsome, popular/wealthy/high-class young men, because the heroine was forced into this situation, her plight is sorrowful.

Overdog is not interested in the heroine at first. He even has a girlfriend that he has real feelings for. But he falls in love with our heroine, and covers up the fact that he is in love with her, saying that he only agreed to the arrangement for convenience or some social reason.

Underdog, on the other hand, is much more open about his feelings for our heroine. Our heroine is his first love. Whereas overdog is about as supportive as a block of ice, underdog is always there to offer our heroine a shoulder to cry on. Of course, even though underdog is not as popular/wealthy/high-class as overdog, he is still sufficiently so to attract the attention of other girls.

Sometimes comedic, sometimes dramatic, sometimes tragic, the heroine and the young men cry, tease, yell, whisper, argue, run, chase, kiss, cuddle, flirt, woo, manipulate, beg, lie, confess, etc. all for the reader’s entertainment.

That is an accurate plot description of Mary Stayed Out All Night. This also happens to be an accurate plot description of Goong. And there are a lot of sunjeong manhwa for which this plot description would be at least 75% accurate.

If you like other manhwa of this type, you would probably like Mary Stayed Out All Night. If you dislike this type of manhwa, Mary Stayed Out All Night probably would not change your opinion. There are two things which make Mary Stayed Out All Night stand out from other manhwa of this type.

Kang Moo-Kyul

I generally find the characters in Mary Stayed Out All Night uninteresting, with a major exception: Kang Moo-Kyul.

Kang Moo-Kyul is like a patch of grass which, after being stomped upon, straightens right back up. It is hard to put him in a bad mood, and even harder to keep him in a bad mood. Under circumstances which would have the leading males of most shojo/sunjeong comics convulsing with angst, he thinks about the situation, fixes what he can and stays calm. While he might not go back to his usual cheer right away, he recovers faster than most of his sunjeong/shoujo-male-character peers would. Of course, being about as mature as a typical 25-year old, he is more mature than most of those peers.

The word which best summaries Kang Moo-Kyul’s personality is ‘free’. He is not a conformist; he feels no obligation to do things the conventional way. He is also not a rebel; he is perfectly happy to do things the conventional way when it happens to be what he wants to do anyway. According to him, the best way to go to a wedding is to arrive on a kindergarten school bus – with the kindergarten students on board. And this freedom is what attracts other people – both his fans (his band – “Strawberry Corpse” renders death metal music in a cheerful and silly way) – and Mary herself.

Of course, while grass springs back quickly after being stomped upon once, it does not spring back quite as high the second time. After being stomped upon too many times, it does not spring back up at all. Kang Moo-Kyul gets stomped on a lot in the story. Furthermore, it is hinted that Mary’s father was a lot like Kang Moo-Kyul as a young man, so he presents of a vision of what Kang Moo-Kyul might become in the future – an unhappy future. While Kang Moo-Kyul’s spirits are still high, they are slowly sinking.

The Artwork

This is what I truly love about this manhwa. The Taiwanese edition shows off the artwork very well, with its enlarged page size. In fact, Sooyeon Won fans, even those who cannot read Chinese, should seriously consider buying the Taiwanese edition, or the Korean/Japanese editions if the production values are equally high.

First of all, the artwork is extremely expressive. It is the equivalent of casting top-notch actors to bring the story to life. Look at these examples:

The shading, color, and layout are the equivalent of hiring a top-notch director and top-notch designers to bring the story to life.

Notice the following things:

1. The way the band-mate is standing over Kang Moo-Kyul as he is lying down.
2. The way the top-right and bottom-left panels are boxed, whereas the top-left and bottom-right left panels are not boxed.
3. The way that Kang Moo-Kyul rises in the bottom-right panel – as if he were swinging on a pivot located at the bottom-right corner of the page.

These elements individually provoke visual interest – the perspective of standing versus lying down, the mix of boxed and un-boxed panels, and the movement as Kang Moo-Kyul rises. However, they combine together to lead the readers’ eyes in a diagonal line of sight from the top left to the bottom right – and diagonal lines of sight are almost always more dynamic than horizontal or vertical lines of sight.

There is also sporadic use of color. The rarity makes the moments where color is used special. My favorite use of color is this page.

Individually, both of these colors would read as ‘black’, but used together they are clearly distinguishable. It is a lot more subtle than using two pigments which would never be read as ‘black’, and really highlights how this moment is different from other moments in this manhwa, yet is very much in the flow of the story.

This was too subtle for my camera, so I had to tweak the image into order to make the effect visible, and my tweaks are quite crude. Nonetheless, it is at least possible to see what I am writing about.

And there is a moment which displays Sooyeon Won’s skill particularly well.

If, on a street, a woman was running in tears, a man was chasing the woman, and a second man was staring blankly, most bystanders would pay attention to the woman and the man chasing her. They would not even notice the man blankly staring. Look at this:

Sooyeon Won directs the readers attention to Jung-In and away from Mary and Kang Moo-Kyul. She does this by:

1. Only showing Jung-In’s eyes, and not showing Mary’s face (the tears would grab too much attention).
2. Putting Jung-In in the center.
3. Shading Mary and Kang Moo-Kyul while keeping Jung-In looking bright. The human eye tends to move away from dark things and towards bright things.

This moment is not about Mary or Kang Moo-Kyul – it is about Jung-In, and Sooyeon Won makes sure that the reader knows that. And having a very compelling subject (a man chasing a woman in tears) yet managing to pull all of the attention to a different subject is in itself very dynamic.

Conclusion

While I am most impressed by the artwork, the story is solid, the jokes are funny, and Kang Moo-Kyul more than compensates for the blandness of the other characters. I sincerely hope that NETCOMICS or another publisher will put this out in English, and sooner rather than later.

Sara K. has previously written the following guest posts for Manga Bookshelf: Why You Should Read (and Want More) Evyione:Ocean Fantasy part 1 and part 2. In order to have something to read on the train, she brought her copies of volume 3 and 4 of Mary Stayed Out All Night to the peak of Filial Son Mountain (yes, she even brought them up the ladder).

Manga the Week of 12/14

December 7, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

‘Tis Christmas, and still no offers of pantomime! No worries, though. We may not have Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp, but there’s a nice healthy chunk of manga there. So what’s in store, Widow Twankey?

Kodansha features the 3rd volume of the re-release of Gon. If you haven’t read the adventures of the tiny dinosaur scrapper, now’s the time to catch up.

It’s the second week of the month, so Manga must be Starting On Sundays again. From Shonen Sunday this time around we get Vol. 8 of Arata: The Legend, Vol. 4 of Itsuwaribito, the 29th volume of Kekkaishi (that’s quite an accomplishment for a Sunday series!), and the 8th volume of Maoh: Juvenile Remix, pictured above doing their best anti-censorship pose, and with this volume’s remix by The Art of Noise. Meanwhile, from the seinen end of things, we get a new 20th Century Boys, which at Vol. 18 is almost nearing its climax at last. And Vol. 5 of House of Five Leaves, which will continue to feature people talking to each other a lot and people staring while not talking to each other at all. Sometimes at the same time! And for those who did not get it this week like the rest of us did, Naruto 53 is on Midtown’s list as well.

Lastly, presumably not arriving with the pile of Yen that came in this week, we have Vol. 2 of The Betrayal Knows My Name, which has mysterious men with mysterious powers hiding mysterious pasts. Mysterious!

Clap if you’re going to buy manga this week! Oh come on, that wasn’t loud enough! Clap harder!

Let’s Get Visual: The Jibblies

December 3, 2011 by Michelle Smith

MICHELLE: So, in our last installment of Let’s Get Visual we celebrated the pretty, so it seems only fitting that this time we devote our attentions to images that make us shudder with a feeling I like to call “the jibblies.” Just like beauty, creepy is a subjective thing, so we’ve each chosen a variety of images that get our personal hackles rising.

MJ, you want to go first this time?

MJ: Sure!

So, as I was perusing my manga collection for things that creep me out, it became increasingly clear to me that I’m very simple when it comes to what scares me. All it takes to really get to me is a single disturbing image–especially one that distorts something human into something sinister. I’m apparently not scared of monsters so much as I am of monsters in human clothing.

My first example comes from Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare. In this series, a group of teenagers is regularly drawn into a shared dreamworld in which they each appear as physical manifestations of their own worst fears. Some of these are visually more disturbing than others. The series’ main character, Ichijo, for instance, most fears his own confusion about gender, so his skirt-wearing dream self is really horrifying only to him. Some of the other students, however, wear their fears in a much more visually distorted manner. This short spread features two of those students.

After School Nightmare, Vol. 1 (Go! Comi)

First, you’ll see a student who appears only as an arm and hand, twisting itself around Ichijo. Second, a girl appears with giant cavities replacing her face and chest. While the second of these has the most stunning, immediate affect on my psyche, the first creeps up on me as I try to move away from the page. Both images stick with me long after I’ve put the book down, and this seems to be the real key to scaring the bejeezus out of me. If I can’t get the image out of my mind, it easily haunts me for days. That’s the power of a single, shocking image.

MICHELLE: My first thought upon hearing of your aversion to “a single disturbing image” is that you shouldn’t read Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, followed by the thought that you should read it.

My reaction to the image above differs from yours, though, in that while these images certainly provoke in me an “ew” reaction, they aren’t the type that haunt me. I definitely think that the slinky arm creature is the more creepy in the image you displayed. For me, it’s because the gaping images of emptiness are immediately recognizable as symbols for what that character is feeling, but what on earth is causing that other student to appear like a grasping, creeping arm?! I feel like their circumstances in life might ultimately be the more disturbing! (This comes from someone who’s read only one volume of After School Nightmare, so I don’t know if this turns out to be the case.)

MJ: I think part of what makes the gaping holes in the second student so horrifying for me, is that (for whatever reason) I’m strongly affected by a lack of face. I have the same reaction to images of people with blank faces. It creeps the hell out of me when I can’t assess a person’s feelings/personality from their expression. It feels very threatening to me.

Perhaps it’s further evidence of how much a face means to me, actually, that both of my follow-up images are pretty much face-only. First, from CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon, we have the face of a dead child who pleads with her mother to avenge her, and secondly, from Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts, the face of a girl that reveals itself to be a monster underneath.

Tokyo Babylon, Vol. 4 (TOKYOPOP)

Pandora Hearts, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)

I actually find both of these to be creepier than the images from After School Nightmare, though they are much simpler. Something they have in common is that they are presented against a stark, black background, giving the distorted expressions full focus. After that, though, they are nearly opposites of each other. The face of the girl in Tokyo Babylon is all too real, distorted by the power of raw emotion, while the character in Pandora Hearts is revealed to have no emotion at all, or at least none that matched what was on her false human face. Yet in the end, which is more monstrous?

MICHELLE: It’s interesting how much the things that creep us out reveal about us, isn’t it? I’d wager you get the same threatening feeling from the girl who is revealed to be a monster underneath as you do the girl with no face at all. People pretending to be what they’re not, hiding their real selves, etc. That’s definitely something all of us have experienced at one time or another.

Getting back to actual attempts at visual analysis, those deep black backgrounds really do focus the reader’s eye on what the mangaka wants them to see. It’s as if they’re saying, “I don’t want you to be distracted by anything else.”

MJ: Your analysis of me is spot-on, that’s for sure!

And yes, I think the black backgrounds achieve exactly that, while also evoking our natural fear of the dark, or what we can’t see. It’s a powerful tool for both showing us something and not showing us something, if that makes sense.

MICHELLE: It definitely does.

Now I’m reflecting on what the images I’ve chosen say about me. There’s hardly a face among them, for one thing, because I am less creeped out by shocking images than I am by imagining an experience, specifically an experience during which one is forced to endure something horrible for a really, really long period of time with no means of escape. Ugh, just thinking about the short story my images come from—”The Enigma of Amigara Fault” by Junji Ito—has given me the jibblies while typing this paragraph!

Gyo, Volume 2, “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” (VIZ Media)

Page 178

Page 185

Page 198

Page 203

Page 204

I’ve chosen this particular sequence of images from this short story because they illustrate the entire plot without me needing to introduce it beforehand. By now you probably don’t need me to explain that when the TV news reports on a mountainside full of people-shaped holes revealed by a recent earthquake, people flock to the site and can’t be dissuaded from climbing into their personal holes, where long, icky agony awaits them. At first the site seems innocent enough, if a bit strange, but soon people are walking into holes, having nightmares about what happens to you in a hole, and eventually discovering the exit and…. Holy crap, it’s terrifying. This is the kind of thing that will haunt me for ages.

I’m honestly trying to analyze Ito’s artistic techniques dispassionately here, but I find that the disturbing power of the images is so great that it is affecting my ability to reason even now!

MJ: Hmmm, I’m wondering if what it’s saying is that while I’m terrified of people betraying me, you’re terrified of your environment betraying you. Or something like that.

In any case, these panels are undeniably creepy. Even if they creep me out in a less personal way, I can certainly see what’s giving you the jibblies! Interestingly, we again see the human form distorted, though in this case it’s happening sort of *to* the character we’re relating to rather than in front of him. (Maybe I’m afraid of the people I trust being compromised, and you’re afraid of yourself being compromised?)

This has a Twilight Zone feel to me, where some unexplained supernatural phenomenon is turning the lives of ordinary people into a nightmare. The artist does a great job of evoking the real terror of what’s happening, too. The texture of the stone walls around the man gives the images a three-dimensional look that makes it feel more real than a lot of what we see in manga. It’s the only thing that has that kind of thick texture, too, so it really stands out.

MICHELLE: More like I’m terrified of taking a step that can’t be undone and ending up in eternal torment because of it!

And yes, now that I’ve regained my senses, I agree that it’s the realistic three-dimensional detail that really makes it so disturbing. The details of the setting itself establish it firmly in the here and now, and then we’re shown that within the here and now exists something completely alien and unexplainable! Regarding the texture of the stone walls… it’s that bit of dialogue about how they’re carved to prevent backtracking that really gets to me. It’s mute, immobile stone, and it’s going to be your tormentor for the next several months, slowly inflicting more gruesome horrors upon you than something living could ever do. Uh-oh… jibblies.

MJ: There, there!

MICHELLE: Thanks. I also really love the bottom left panel on page 185, when you see the outside world from inside the tunnel. Interestingly, this is an angle from which the guy who just entered the hole could never have seen the characters. He’s got his back turned to this world, and is resolutely leaving it behind. And, too, I love the “less is more” approach here. We don’t see the distorted figure actually emerge from the mountain and thrash around terrorizing people. One glimpse is enough to confirm what has happened. It’s almost kind of elegant in its structure.

MJ: Yeah, I agree, the threat of what is about to happen is actually scarier by itself than it might be if we actually saw it happen. Or at least it’s creepier that way.

MICHELLE: Well, I fear this column has actually been more about us than the art, but it’s been the art that made us feel that way, and that’s something, isn’t it?

MJ: It is!

MICHELLE: So, that’s it for us this month. What gives you the jibblies?

Manga the Week of 12/7

November 30, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

You may recall that the past few weeks the Manga Bookshelf teams has had some trouble picking out picks of the week, frequently having to dip into the well of non-manga or simply dropping out. Let’s just say… that won’t be an issue this coming week. Jeepers, there’s a lot of manga.

First off, next week as always brings us this week’s Kodansha releases, as Diamond feels there’s nothing worth doing that can’t wait a week. There’s the debut of the sequel to Until the Full Moon, which is called @Full Moon. It runs in Kodansha’s obscure yet intriguing magazine MiChao!, and still features vampires and werewolves being vaguely gay at each other. Oh, and did I mention it now adds genderbending? In other titles, we see the debut of Shugo-chara Chan!, the adorable 4-koma adventures of the original Shugo Chara cast. (Trust me when I say cute 4-koma adaptations are a hot industry in Japan.) There’s also new volumes of Deltora Quest and Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex.

Vertical has the final volume of the iconic Black Jack series, and I am so happy that they finished it. The series may be of highly varying quality, but its inventiveness has always been first rate. And if nothing else, it introduced Western fandom to Pinoko, who shows Chibi-Usa has a ways to go before she hits the big time of controversy.

Viz. Right. (rolls up sleeves) On the Weekly Shonen Jump side, we have a one-two-three-four-five combo punch that would kill any manga reader – new Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Toriko and Bakuman ALL AT THE SAME TIME. (Naruto is strangely not on Midtown’s list, but my shop says it’s getting it.) There is also Nura and Slam Dunk, which never quite hit the dizzying sales heights of the former but this does not make them unworthy. And from its sister magazine Jump Square, there’s Blue Exorcist, which may soon pass Rosario + Vampire and Claymore to become that magazine’s flagship title.

On the shoujo end, we see the debut of Dawn of the Arcana, a new fantasy romance that runs in Shogakukan’s shoujo for college kids (except it’s actually read by teens who want to be grownups) Cheese! magazine. Shueisha, not wanting to be left out, gives us a new Sakura Hime from everyone’s favorite artist Arina Tanemura. And our friends at Hakusensha remind North America they still exist despite being down to only one venue for their titles, and give us new Grand Guignol Orchestra (the final volume), Kamisama Kiss, Natsume’s Book of Friends, and the penultimate volume of Ouran High School Host Club. I think anyone will be able to find something they’ll like there.

Lastly, and strangely out of place this week (I think it got shoved back from a Week 3, which is where Viz normally releases their Ikki titles), as have a new volume of the slacker artist manga I’ll Give It My All… Tomorrow. Quick, name some other manga titles out over here with ellipses in them. It’s OK, I’ll wait.

And great, now Yen is shipping the first week of the month? That RUINS EVERYTHING! They have to ship second week so as to not CRUSH US ALL! Whine. Flail. Anyway, what have we here? New volumes of Bamboo Blade, still one of my favorites. The second of four Higurashi volumes devoted to its poster child, Rena. A new volume of the CLAMP manga Kobato, which honestly seems strangely forgotten now that Gate 7 is out. The final volume of My Girlfriend’s A Geek, a title for female otaku that I found myself quite enjoying anyway. And the “final” volume of 4-koma sensation K-On!. It’s the final volume of the original series, but as there are now 2 separate sequels going in Japan, I suspect we’ll be seeing a 5th before long. Till then, enjoy Romio and Juritsu.

Exhausted yet? I know I am.

Manga the Week of 11/30

November 23, 2011 by Sean Gaffney

It’s a 5th Wednesday of the month, folks. By all rights, we should be lucky we have any manga at all. Luckily, our friends at Diamond are still giving us Kodansha releases one week after bookstores, so there’s still something to talk about. Oh, and hey, who’s this?

Why it’s MPD-Psycho 10 from Dark Horse! A mere eight years after it came out in Japan, and 2 1/2 years after Vol. 9 was seen on North American shores. See? There’s hope for Translucent after all! In any case, this horror mystery is the darker, more serious counterpart to Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, they share the same writer and are both put out here by Dark Horse. Hopefully soon we will see more of KCDS as well!

Meanwhile, Kodansha gives us two more titles. Negima 32 is MOSTLY a breather volume, featuring a few more revelations and some good face time for the Sports Girls. However, danger lurks around the corner, as psycho Tsukuyomi shows up again. And then there’s the cliffhanger. I won’t spoil it, except to say that when Chapter 294 came out in Japan, fans FREAKED OUT. Kodansha also releases the 27th volume of The Wallflower. By now I feel as if I am its only reader anymore, but I don’t care; I don’t need resolution. I just want more goofy Sunako comedy. And here it is.

And while I don’t normally mention manwha here, I have to think of my fellow Manga Bookshelf comrades trying to dredge up a Pick of The Week in a few days. So I will note that Yen Press is putting out the 9th volume of 13th Boy. Churchy LaFemme would be terrified of him, I betcha.

Any picks to brighten up a post-Thanksgiving lull?

Lifting Our Heads for a Little Kiss

November 19, 2011 by Erica Friedman 4 Comments

Kiss magazine, published by Kodansha, has star power. If for no other reason than that one of the most popular and successful Josei franchises of recent years, Ninomiya Tomoko’s Nodame Cantabile, called Kiss home until the series and supplementary chapters came to an end in 2010.

Kiss magazine began publication in 1992 as Monthly Kiss, it is now released on the 10th and 25th of every month. It weighs in at approximately 350 pages an issue, for 450 yen (5.53 USD at time of writing) and pulls in a very respectable 127,962 monthly circulation, according the the JMPA’s 2010 numbers.

Kiss magazine has a website on Kodansha’s Comic Plus system, which offers current volumes for sale, a community on which to share thoughts about one’s favorite series, and a way to send messages to the creators, sample chapters, special sites with interviews, contests for new artists and more.

Series from Kiss are not high on the list for either translation into English as manga or transition to anime. Nodame Cantabile was a notable exception, as it spawned anime, manga, live-action dramas and even documentaries. Currently the series Kuragehime, by Higashimura Akiko, has created some noise as a popular anime.

There is little experimental art in Kiss. The style runs to clean, realistic rendering, even in explicitly fantastic stories like QB Karin – Keishichou Tokushu SP-ban.

Overwhelmingly, the feeling of stories that run in Kiss are stories for adult women. “Kiss and Never Cry,” “Gin no Spoon,” “SatoShio,” “Maison de Nagaya-san,” all are focused on relationships – life, family, career and romance. In fact, if there’s one strong theme running through Kiss, it’s the drive towards life-work balance…a topic that will be of interest to just about any working woman.

Kiss is a gentle magazine. There’s going to be no surprises here, no violence, no sex; fan service comes in the form of adult male characters who treat their women well. Kiss magazine is a familiar touch, a gentle peck on the cheek from a dear friend.

Kiss Magazine, from Kodansha: http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/magazine/index.php/02292

This article was originally published on Mangacast.net.

(Sincere apologies for my extended absence here…work has been “interesting.” ^_^;;)