Features & Reviews

Bookshelf Briefs 2/11/13

February 11, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

This week, Sean, MJ, and Michelle look at recent releases from Kodansha Comics, VIZ Media, and Vertical, Inc.

Fairy Tail, Vol. 23 | By Hiro Mashima | Kodansha Comics – This volume can pretty much be summed up by: cool things happen. Seemingly every five pages. We’re still in the middle of the battle in Edolas, and we see Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy combine their dragon powers to take on the insane king; Erza fighting her doppelganger while also plummeting from a great height; Edolas Fairy Tail showing up just in time to be Big Damn Heroes and prove their mettle. In the middle of all this is Mystogan, aka the Edolas version of Jellal, who has a cunning plan to save Edolas that, much to my relief, is immediately exposed as being mind-numbingly stupid. And since the best way to combat stupid is with stupid, it’s up to Natsu to save the day. There’s a lot of fighting going on here, but it’s certainly never dull. And the next volume should finally wrap up this arc.-Sean Gaffney

The Flowers of Evil, Vol. 4 | By Shuzo Oshimi | Vertical, Inc. – Though on the surface this series appears to be getting darker, for Nakamura and Takao this volume offers up the opportunity for a kind of camaraderie that hadn’t previously been possible. Where this leaves poor Saeki is another question, but though Takao and Nakamura are clearly headed down a perverted path, the tone is decidedly jubilant as this volume comes to a close—for better or worse. In a way, it just feels like their story is back on track, though I think it needed to fall apart in order to get there, and especially to put Takao and Nakamura on something closer to equal ground. Either way, I can’t deny that I’m more intrigued by this story than ever at this point, which indicates that things are going very much right. Readers who found the first few volumes a bit too dark to handle will not see any relief here, but for the rest of us, this volume is a must-read. Still recommended. – MJ

Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 12 | By Julietta Suzuki | VIZ Media – A new arc starts here, as Nanami is abducted by the servents of a spoiled-brat yokai who is engaged to marry Himemiko. The trouble there is Himemiko is already in love with a human boy, Kotaro. Of course, she hasn’t actually told him who she really is. There’s some examination of the huge gulf that exists between kamis and humans, and why most people regard Himemiko’s affair as a mere fling. Nanami doesn’t, though, and she continues to be the best part of the manga simply by being herself. Laying the smack down on the spoiled yokai while trying to espouse the virtue of true love, it’s almost as if she has some other reason for wanting Himemiko’s marriage to a human to happen. There’s a lot of romantic angst here, as we try to resolve a minor subplot that’s been simmering for far too long…-Sean Gaffney

Miles Edgeworth: Ace Attorney Investigations, Vol. 4 | By Kenji Kuroda and Kazuo Maekawa | Kodansha Comics – And so the second series of Phoenix Wright manga volumes comes to a close, with two more fairly typical cases. These have been good reads for those who merely want to see more of Edgeworth being cool, or Gumshoe being dumb. But they’re frustrating for anyone wanting long-term character development, as they can’t change (or even mention) their original source material, the games. The best chapter in this series was the one where Ema Skye returned from America, simply as it was a connection to past and future games we were being allowed to see. Most of the series, unfortunately, didn’t have that, leaving it as a series of cute one-shot crimes with little to no emotional content. Also, Phoenix makes a much better protagonist. Sorry, Edgey.-Sean Gaffney

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 9 | By Naoko Takeuchi | Kodansha Comics – I firmly believe that there are no bad volumes of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, but this is an especially good one. The aim of the villainous Dead Moon Circus is to turn people’s dreams into nightmares, and so each of the “inner senshi” gets a chapter to herself in which she triumphs over an enemy attempting to instill doubt (and the notion that she should just find a nice boy and settle down) in her, earning a new attack phrase in the process. It’s great to spend some quality time with the girls individually, and there are some truly rewarding moments (especially concerning Artemis), but the best chapter is about the “outer senshi” and the little family they’ve become in the six months since they made a pledge to raise baby Hotaru. All in all, a truly great volume. My only complaint is that the Amazon Trio are vanquished so quickly! Tiger’s Eye in particular is barely a blip. Sniff. – Michelle Smith

Skip Beat!, Vol. 30 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | VIZ Media – Lory’s school of Enforced Method Acting to sure his proteges’ deep inner traumas has always been for everyone, not just Kyoko, and here we once again see the effects it’s having on Ren, who’s forced to relive the past that he’s been blocking out. Ren is not doing a particularly good job at this, and is starting to lose himself in the role – something that Kyoko is all too familiar with. And it’s not just the serial killer character of BJ, either – Ren and Kyoko’s roles as Cain and Setsu are blurring together as well, and the intentional incestual subtext is getting to be a bit too much to bear for both of them. Things seem to be reaching a boiling point, though I’ve said that before, and this series has now gone 30 volumes with no sign of romantic resolution. Still, maybe a kiss? Hrm? Sadly, no kiss here. Still great stuff, though.-Sean Gaffney

My Week in Manga, Episode 8

February 10, 2013 by MJ Leave a Comment

MJshares what she’s reading this week, including a look at volume five of Hotaru Odagiri’s The Betrayal Knows My Name. In other news, she really needs a haircut.

Manga this week:
Knights of Sidonia, Vol. 1 (Vertical, Inc.)
BTOOOM!, Vol. 1 (Yen Press)
The Betrayal Knows My Name, Vol. 5 (Yen Press)
Awkward Silence, Vols. 2-3 (SuBLime Manga)
His Favorite, Vols. 2-3 (SuBLime Manga)

Links:
Off the Shelf: Explosions, Missions, & Mecha
Manga Bookshelf Book Club: The Betrayal Knows My Name

Edited by MJ
Music (“Stickybee,” “20/20,” “Stars Collide,” & “Swansong”) by Josh Woodward

Off the Shelf: Explosions, Missions, & Mecha

February 9, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 3 Comments

MICHELLE: Hey, MJ! I’d make a joke here, but after viewing various pictures of startling amounts of snowfall, I just hope you’re staying warm!

MJ: I am! We may be buried in snow, but at least we have electricity! We’re very lucky.

MICHELLE: That’s good! I presume having some electricity means that you’re up for talking about some manga this morning!

MJ: I am indeed! Though it’s possible that the snowstorm is at least partly responsible for today’s choice of reading. As I perused my stack of books to review this morning, I was immediately drawn to Junya Inoue’s BTOOOM!, a debut series from Yen Press with a decidedly survivalist feel.

Ryouta is a “loser,” according to the book’s marketing materials, and while I think that characterization may be a little harsh, for the moment we’ll go with it. He’s an avid gamer with dreams of working in the video game industry, but with these dreams yet to be fulfilled, he’s essentially a freeloader living off his mom while rejecting her efforts to secure him some kind of paying job. He’s especially skilled at an online game called “BTOOOM!,” in which players fight each other only with a variety of small explosive devices. Having defeated the game’s entire pool of Japanese players, he’s ready to move on to world domination, but the world apparently has other plans.

One morning, Ryouta wakes up to find himself hanging from a parachute on a remote tropical island. He doesn’t know where he is or how he got there, but through a series of (occasionally deadly) encounters, soon discovers that he’s been placed into a sort of real-world rendering of “BTOOOM,” in which he must kill other real-life players in order to escape the “game.” As other players help him put the pieces together (or try to blow him to pieces, depending on their dedication), Ryouta battles his own conscience and sense of humanity as he struggles to survive.

As you may have already determined from reading my description, there’s nothing remotely original about BTOOOM! or its hero’s inner struggle, at least not so far. Stories like these are so common and so evenly spread across every storytelling medium in existence, that it’s impossible for me to even identify Inoue’s specific influences. That said, I can’t deny that I had a good time. Setups like these become cliches for a reason—when done well (or even passably), they work, and BTOOOM! is no exception. Even as I rolled my eyes at the series’ premise, I found myself becoming engaged in Ryouta’s story, and chances are I’ll tune in for more.

MICHELLE: Yeah, as I was reading your description there were various other stories that kept springing to mind, but I agree—this one looks potentially interesting. I like the cover, too. I’m not sure why little boxes with timers on them look cool, but they do, so just go with it, I suppose!

MJ: Exactly! Sometimes familiar-but-fun is exactly enough to satisfy, and I feel like the cover conveys the truth of that pretty well.

So what have you got for us today?

MICHELLE: This week I decided to check out the first two volumes of Ema Toyama’s Missions of Love (published by Kodansha Comics). Despite generally enjoying Toyama’s I Am Here!, I was fairly skeptical about this one, largely due to its Japanese title (Watashi ni XX Shinasai!) translating more or less to “Do XX to me!” I was expecting something smutty, an impression that the cover images seem to wish to reinforce. As it turns out, though, there’s really no smut in sight.

With her icy glare, third-year junior high student Yukina Himuro is known to her classmates as the “Absolute Zero Snow Woman.” Little do they know that she’s actually the famous cell phone novelist, Yupina, and the reason she always seems to be staring at them is that she’s gathering material for her stories. One student who has never been able to inspire her is the most popular boy in class, Shigure Kitami, who always maintains the same smiling, pleasant demeanor. When Yukina learns that her fans would prefer more love scenes, she’s troubled, since she’s convinced she’ll never be able to experience love herself and will therefore not be able to write about it convincingly. Luckily, she promptly stumbles upon proof that Kitami is not what he seems and uses this to blackmail him into doing things like holding her hand, clutching her to his manly bosom, etc. so that she can produce updates to her story that make her fans’ hearts skip a beat.

By the end of volume two, Yukina and Kitami seem to be on the path to developing real feelings for each other, but there’s still a lot of contention and distrust in their relationship. He has discovered her secret weakness—it’s pretty dumb—and uses this against her, but feels bad when she ends up hurt by what happens. Meanwhile, Yukina’s cousin and only friend, Akira, reveals that he loves her and wishes she’d use him for boyfriend experience instead of Kitami the creep.

Honestly, I am not sure what I think about Missions of Love at this point. The leads are struggling between their real selves and their facades, and as a result, sometimes they’re likeable and sometimes they’re not. Sometimes Yukina is smart—she skillfully deflects several of Kitami’s attempts to trip her up—and sometimes quite dense, especially when pondering such shoujoriffic concepts as “This pounding in my chest… what does it mean?” Akira has potential to stir things up, but so far his primary character trait is that he’s always snacking. There must be something to this series—after all, it won a Kodansha Award last year (for best children’s manga, while here it’s rated for older teens)—but so far the only things tempting me to continue are the brief glimpses of the story Yukina’s writing and the idea that eventually Kitami is going to give up his disguise (which has already begun to slip) and face the consequences.

MJ: Hm. Well, so far it sounds like it possibly could benefit from some of that smut its title promised. Well, maybe not for you, but I’m feeling the tediousness of the heart-pounding revelation pretty keenly here. Also, I’m already anticipating the pain of Guy #2. Am I way off-base on that?

MICHELLE: Not even a little. This is about as clear-cut a case of Guy #2 as there could ever be. Kitami might be a jerk, but he’s the one. Here’s a scene in which Yukina describes why Akira’s not suitable for her experiment:

Yukina: Akira is my cousin; he means a lot to me. I could never do to him what I’m doing to you.
Kitami: So you can’t use him, but you can use me?!
Yukina: Of course I can use you!! You’re the one that makes my heart skip a beat!

Of course this is said while clutching the back of his jacket in the way shoujo heroines do.

MJ: Poor Guy #2… sigh.

MICHELLE: Yep.

But now for something completely different! I am really eager to talk about this one, but I’m curious to see how you’d describe it, so you wanna introduce it for us?

MJ: Sure! So, our mutual read this week is volume one of Knights of Sidonia, a new science fiction series from Vertical, created by Tsutomu Nihei, the author of Blame! I’ve never read Blame! nor seen the anime adaptation, but after getting this taste of Nihei’s work, I can’t deny that I now want to.

Nagate has lived his whole life in the “underground” of an enormous space ship, with only his now-deceased grandfather for company. Though it was grandpa’s wish that Nagate never leave their isolated environment, hunger sends Nagate on a quest for rice that ultimately brings him to the attention of the ship’s larger human society. Things have changed drastically since grandpa’s days, with most humans now possessing the ability to photosynthesize for sustenance and some bred from both human and animal species. Humans have also officially developed beyond the gender binary to include people who are neither male nor female and who can reproduce with either (or even just by themselves).

Human evolution aside, however, there is at least one aspect of Nagate’s lifelong isolation that has made him a real asset to his new human community. With little else to occupy him, Nagate logged an enormous number of hours in a battle simulator designed to train humans to operate a type of mecha known as “Garde”—the humans’ only defense against the alien Gauna who wiped out human life on Earth centuries ago. Nagate’s skill earns him the right to pilot Tsugumori, an older Garde with legendary status, much to the dismay of at least one other young trainee. Though piloting mecha and fighting the Gauna are the focus of Knights of Sidonia‘s plot, the story’s real drama so far really comes out of Nagate’s attempts to navigate a new social environment that still holds a lot of mystery for him.

MICHELLE: I am not going to be coy. I pretty much loved Knights of Sidonia with every fiber of my being.

I have read BLAME! (and really liked it), so I can’t help but approach Knights of Sidonia with an eye for comparison. It’s true that BLAME! had many story elements that weren’t fully explained to the reader, but so far, there is less of that with Sidonia. On a few occasions, readers are propelled into scenes without explanation, but Nihei’s very good about filling in the details in a timely fashion. The characters are more accessible—more human, despite whatever evolution they’ve undergone—and the overall tone and look is lighter.

But oh, that look. I’m not the greatest connoisseur of manga art, but there’s just something about Tsutomu Nihei’s style that pushes my buttons in a big way. I LOVE the labyrinthine feel of the place, which reinforces Sidonia’s immensity. Doors, pipes, tubes, stairs, deep dark abysses… I simply cannot get enough. I even love the mecha, and the fact that the chapter title page illustrations constitute a gallery of random spots around the ship is just icing on the cake.

I feel like I should probably comment on Nagate’s attempts to adapt—and don’t get me wrong, I loved all of that, too—but I’m so rarely bowled over by art that I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to wallow in it a bit.

MJ: Wallow away! This manga earns it. I can get right on board with your admiration of Nihei’s artwork, too. It’s detailed and mysterious—much like the story itself. But while there is still a lot of mystery still for readers (as well as for Nagate) at the end of the first volume, that sense of the unknown is far from overwhelming. I’ll admit that I had to read the book twice in order to feel that I really understood it, but I honestly don’t consider that a negative in any way. I’m a fast reader, but it’s not too often that a single volume captures me so easily that I’m really happy to re-read it immediately afterwards, just to catch more of its details.

I’m also really anxious to find out more about some of the series’ mysteries, both in terms of the sci-fi plotline (What are the Gauna? What really happened back on Earth? Why does Nagate seem to possess inhuman skill?) as well as the already-complicated human relationships (What’s Izana’s story? And what’s the deal with Kunato?). I’m very much on the edge of my seat at this point.

MICHELLE: Me, too! And that’s why it delights me to report that this series is at nine volumes in Japan and still ongoing. This is longer than Nihei’s six-volume Biomega (recently released by VIZ and which I now feel an urgent need to finally read) and likely to be longer than BLAME!, which has ten volumes. A story like this needs as much time as possible to really unfurl its layers. Happily, it looks like Vertical has scheduled volume two for April, so maybe we’ll get regular bimonthly releases!

I did want to note… even though mecha stories certainly aren’t new, and even though there were a few scenes (like the assembly wherein the awesome and capable captain informs everyone about the threat) that reminded me of Battlestar Galactica, Knights of Sidonia never once felt derivative to me. I think the details and careful world-building are largely responsible for that.

MJ: Agreed all-around! Knights of Sidonia is a real treat, and I’m anxious for more!

Weekly Shonen Jump Recap: February 4, 2013

February 8, 2013 by Derek Bown Leave a Comment

Now in color! Well, a fraction in color. But some color is better than no color. Unless it’s poorly colored. But we should probably save this line of thought for the Dragon Ball Z section. Weekly Shonen Jump Online can be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes we get just the basic number of chapters, and sometimes we end up with an extra thick issue when the monthly titles start rearing their heads again. This is one of those good weeks.

Dragon Ball Z Ch. 001
What can I say about Dragon Ball Z that hasn’t already been said? Well, I can probably say that the addition of color makes the panelling stand out a lot more than it did the first time I read through this series. It’s important to remember that Dragon Ball is an old series, and its panel layout is very different from modern styles. Normally I wouldn’t even notice it, but the amount of white space I saw this chapter just made it stand out.

The translation is a bit weird, I assume it’s just the same old translation Viz has been selling, in which case I think it’s a shame not to take advantage to update some of the vernacular. Picollo in particular had some strange phrasology going on.

Otherwise I am somewhat reminded of Highlander 2, with the revelation that Goku is in fact an alien. I think we can all agree that it worked much better for the Dragon Ball franchise than it did for the Highlander franchise. Other than that, there isn’t much to say about this chapter. I usually think in terms of episodes of the anime, so I was surprised at how short this chapter was. Still, I look forward to another chance to read through Dragon Ball Z again. I’ve been meaning to do it, and this gives me a chance to do so without bothering to go looking for my copies of the series.

Naruto Ch. 618
I promised myself I would be nicer to Naruto. And I have to say, this chapter was the least offensive chapter Sasuke has ever been involved in.

I kid, I kid.

Actually, I quite liked this chapter. Seeing Orochimaru active again fills me with two emotions; joy that the original interesting villain of this series is back, and frustration that his demise feels a bit like a waste of time. I can’t help but wonder what exactly we are supposed to get out of the four hokages being resurrected. While they are no doubt formidable, we just witnessed an army of legendary ninja. I can’t see this as being all that big a threat. Granted, this would have been a good opportunity for Naruto to discover his heritage, but since that has already happened that idea is a no go. It feels like perhaps Kishimoto would have liked to do something like that, considering how he used the edotensei to give closure to several other characters.

Ultimately, this was a good enough chapter, though it once again reminds me how far we’ve come from shuriken and traps. Makes me miss the good old days.

Rurouni Kenshin Ch. 008
I really, really liked Rurouni Kenshin when I was younger. Which is why it hurts to see this series dragged out again for a pointless retelling. What hurts even more is seeing why exactly Watsuki hasn’t had another hit. While the original Rurouni Kenshin could be ludicrous, Watsuki has only gotten sillier with age. Which is why the moment that soured me to this chapter involved a formerly minor villain turned arch villain beating Yahiko with a bag of money. Watsuki has brought up the evil of money before, but in the past he at least attempted to be somewhat subtle about it. Now he isn’t even trying. He’s almost literally beating a dead horse by this point. We understand, money is evil. Magic Samurai that don’t kill are good. This isn’t a concept that really needs to be brought up so often, and so clumsily. Even in bombastic shounen action series I appreciate a little subtlety here and there.

Long story short, I hated Kanryu as a villain before, now I hate him because he’s the symbol of everything that makes this retelling not only pointless, but even bad. In a way, I feel like we dodged a bullet by not getting a continuation to the series. Given what I’ve seen so far there is no way it could possibly have lived up to the original.

One Piece Ch. 697
Take one half classic Oda shmalz, and one half gruesome horror imagery, and you get this chapter. The marines’ confession to actually liking the Strawhats was classic Oda corn, but enjoyable nonetheless. What really made this chapter was the end, where Law confronts Doflamingo, putting him in an impossible position. This chapter just emphasized my prediction that something massive is going to happen for the seven hundredth chapter. What it is I honestly cannot say, but whatever comes next will be amazing.

Toriko Ch. 220
Toriko is one of those rare manga that I don’t mind when the entire chapter is nothing but punches, or even the aftermath of a single punch. Sure there wasn’t much content this week, but what we did get was just so very, very cool. By this point I am completely accepting of the fact that the cooking fest won’t continue, and ready to just sit back and enjoy the insane action.

Cross Manage Ch. 019
This is more what I’ve been wanting from Cross Manage for a while. Back when Kato got a chapter focusing on herself I thought to myself that we needed more of that. Now that Komatsu has gotten her own chapter I think of it as a confirmation that we will be getting some much needed character development for these girls. In an ensemble cast all the characters need developing. As an added bonus, Komatsu is probably one of the more entertaining cast members in a cast of entertaining characters. This was possibly my favorite chapter of this series so far.

One-Punch Man Ch. 003
One-Punch man manages to be as poignant as it is funny. The entire premise is that being the strongest is a lonely summit. As shown by the monster that accidentally killed his own brother, and by Saitama himself and his hillariously boring one sided fights. This chapter gives us a chance to get a closer look at the world that One-Punch Man is set in, as well as setting the stage for what the next few chapters will be like.

Bleach Ch. 525
This was a really, really good chapter. I’ve always been a fan of Kenpachi, and I’ve been somewhat partial to Unohana, even though she hasn’t done much in the series. This was a great chapter for both of them, and it actually explains why Kubo is having the two fight like this rather than having her train Kenpachi. Ultimately I hope that she won’t have to die to unlock Kenpachi’s true strength. It seems like a waste of a talented fighter to have one really strong fighter rather than two really strong fighters, even if one of them is a bit weaker than the other.

Nisekoi Ch. 060
I’m not a huge fan of comedies that try to get serious. And while there is plenty to laugh at in this chapter, ultimately it ends on a downer. And while that may work for some, it does not for me. Kirisaki seems to be the main source of downers in this series, so it’s little surprise she is not my favorite character. This is mostly just because of personal preference, but for the next bit I imagine I’ll just be waiting for the series to get funny again.

Blue Exorcist Ch. 043
While I’m not entirely up to date on this series and I find myself a bit lost in the plot sometimes, I can still appreciate a good chapter on its own merits. I loved seeing Konekomaru take charge. It’s so rare that group dynamics are brought into question in shonen manga that seeing the characters reevaluate their positions was a lot of fun. We don’t have enough series that focus on the tactics of fighting as much as they should. Overall, a great chapter with an awesome fight scene and a few good funny moments.

If you want to hear more, go listen to the Manga^3 Archives. If you want last week’s episode of the podcast, go listen to Episode 033 – January 28, 2013 – What Does Simultaneous Actually Mean and Bood Lad.

JManga the Week of 2/14

February 8, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, MJ and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

SEAN: The danger of doing a weekly column like this is that you run into weeks where nothing that inspires you is coming out. For the print manga column, that’s somewhat rare, and it’s been more common but still rare for JManga as well.

Next week, we have a 7th volume of PoyoPoyo’s Observation Diary, and the third Tsumanuda Fight Town.

…I got nothing. Look forward to them, fans of those series!

MJ: Yep.

MICHELLE: *nods sagely*

Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game, Vol. 1

February 8, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Quin Rose and Mamenosuke Fujimaru, based on the game by Quin Rose. Released in Japan as “Joker no Kuni no Alice – Circus to Usotsuki Game” by Ichijinsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Zero-Sum. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

As I’ve noted before, I’m enjoying the Alice series a lot more than I’d expected to. I think one reason may be its similarity to the Higurashi series, another favorite of mine. Both franchises based on ‘visual novel’-type games, and made into manga series where the continuity reboots with each new incarnation. The Alice books, however, haven’t really tied into each other the way Higurashi does – you don’t really need to read them in order, and you can simply pick the series with your favorite guy and only read that one without missing much. Now, though, we have Alice dealing with a new antagonist, Joker, and this very much ties into the previous series, and rewards readers/players who are well-versed in it.

It may come as a surprise, then, to see the volume begin with what amounts to a giant 80-90 page recap of Alice’s adventures in Wonderland to date, from her abduction by Peter to her present life working in the Heart Palace (yes, she’s there in this iteration, not the Clocktower, the Amusement Park, or the Hatter Mansion). We meet the entire main cast, get a brief precis as to who they are and what their damage is, and see how they interact with Alice (who hasn’t fallen for anyone here – romance is, so far, not in the cards in this setup). It’s given a wraparound of Alice reading her diary and reminiscing about the past, which works all right. However, this doesn’t seem like filler but more a way of putting the basic concepts of Wonderland in the reader’s mind before the creators start fiddling with them.

Because it’s April, the Circus is coming to town, and Alice’s memories are starting to go a bit wonky. She’s currently in the country of Clover, yet runs into Julius and Gowland, neither of whom should technically be there. It would appear that this is merely a function of the season, but the arrival of the circus to town might also be a reason – a circus with two creepy children and their master, the titular Joker. We met Joker in a small cameo in the original Alice series, but this is the first time dealing with him in the flesh. He’s a smug trickster-type character, and no doubt will be driving Alice nuts as the series goes on. More to the point, Joker and his two assistants ask Alice why she’s staying in Wonderland and not returning to her world. We get a bit more detail about her life pre-Wonderland here, including a touchingly sad side-story detailing her crush on her tutor, and her sister’s role in it. Again, we see that all of the main male cast seem dedicated to her NOT thinking of her sister, and I have a feeling Joker might try to sabotage that. (Of course, the fate of her sister is about as much of a spoiler by this point as Higurashi’s main villain – if you haven’t figured it out yet, read the main series again.)

This is a more serious and mystery-oriented incarnation of the Alice series, with only one sexual innuendo from the Hatter (a new low!). This isn’t to say it’s without humor, however. Alice’s reaction to Peter’s assault at the start is amusing enough to take the taste of creepy away a bit, and the Hatter’s way of showing her she’s being appalling by comparing him with her tutor is fantastic. There’s also an amusing side-story showing what the series would be like if Alice was a tiny cute little girl instead – let’s just say less romance and more adorable. But the main reason to read Alice, as always, is for the mind games the world brings with it, and this series promises to be the best one yet in delivering them.

Manga the Week of 2/13

February 7, 2013 by Sean Gaffney, Anna N, MJ and Michelle Smith Leave a Comment

SEAN: I had forgotten that Midtown, for some odd reason, hates Seven Seas and doesn’t get their books in for ages. So I’ll add the books that came out via Diamond this week to next week’s list.

So what is on that list? Dark Horse has a short story collection by Hiroaki Samura, creator of Blade of the Immortal, entitled Emerald And Other Stories. It will come as no surprise that these stories are about Samurai in some way, shape or form. Sounds similar to the recent Kaoru Mori collection, only with samurai replacing maids. Fun!

ANNA: I have the first few volumes of Blade of the Immortal but never got into it as much as my beloved Vagabond. I think I have room in my heart for only one long-running samurai series. That being said, I might check this out because I did really enjoy Samura’s short story collection of college life, Ohikkoshi.

MJ: I can’t decide if I’m interested in this. I don’t love samurai or short stories, but I have always wanted to try Blade of the Immortal, and maybe this would give me the push I’ve needed to dig in.

MICHELLE: I read the first volume of Blade of the Immortal and thought it was awesome, but somehow I have never continued with it. I think it’s ‘cos I have to brace myself for the gore I might encounter, which is why I’ve not continued with Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, either, despite liking the first volume.

Anyway, Emerald and Other Stories sounds pretty interesting and not too full of samurai, if Amazon’s description is to believed. I might have to check this out!

SEAN: Kodansha has what I believe is the final volume of Deltora Quest, the manga adaptation of Emily Rodda’s books that ran in one of Kodansha’s younger titles, Comic Bom Bom.

MICHELLE: I read the first volume of Deltora Quest, which was sufficient to convince me that I didn’t need to read any more volumes of Deltora Quest.

SEAN: Coming out this week via Diamond and Amazon, and sometime whenever via Midtown, Seven Seas has a new Alice series debuting. Alice in the Country of Joker: Circus and Liar’s Game is a much darker take on a series that can get pretty dark already, and pays more attention to the mystery of Alice’s older sister.

ANNA: I didn’t enjoy Cheshire Cat Waltz very much, but I still have a certain amount of affection for the franchise and would probably read this if some other reviewers think it worthwhile.

MICHELLE: I had no idea there was a Country of Joker incarnation! I think I have at least sampled all of the versions, but this one sounds more promising than most.

SEAN: There’s also the 2nd volume of Haganai: I Don’t Have Many Friends. Of Seven Seas’ three moe titles this fall, this is the only one I bothered to get a second volume of. It’s on probation, however, so we’ll see if it improves any.

SubLime has Vol. 3 of Awkward Silence, featuring that ever-popular BL cover of a smug guy forcing himself on an angry nervous guy. As seen in everything forever. (As also seen in a lot of shoujo and josei, with the uke replaced with a girl. The pose is equal opportunity.)

MJ: I’m really trying to give Awkward Silence the benefit of the doubt, mainly because of its author. But I’ll admit that volume one did not give me a lot of confidence that this series will transcend its cover art. Anyone want to offer me some hope here? I’ve got both volumes two and three sitting here staring at me.

MICHELLE: I found the first volume to be really generic, if not outright terrible, and was surprised that Takanaga’s been able to sustain the premise for multiple volumes. So, I guess I’ve no hope to offer you.

SEAN: Vertical has the debut of a new sci-fi manga from the creator of Biomega and Blame!. It’s called Knights of Sidonia, and the advance buzz on it has been excellent. It runs in Kodansha’s Afternoon, but is probably not very much like Oh My Goddess! at all.

ANNA: Is there a bear with a machine gun in this manga? That’s my main question. I will pick this up, because I want to support Vertical on principal but not all of their titles appeal to me. Anything from the person that created Biomega is something I am interested in for sure.

MJ: I am totally there. This looks really interesting to me.

MICHELLE: I really enjoyed Nihei’s grimly compelling BLAME!, so I was predisposed to be interested in this, but the phrase on the back cover that really clinched it for me was “the spaceship’s cool-headed female captain.” Sign me up!

SEAN: Viz time. It’s been half a year, so it’s time for a new volume of Shonen Sunday series Hayate the Combat Butler. I love this series and no one else on Manga Bookshelf touches it, so I’ll just say I’m happy to see it and move on. :)

ANNA: I read the first volume and liked it well enough, but it didn’t inspire the kind of loyalty I would need to feel to keep reading such a long series.

MJ: I’ve wanted to try this series for years, so you keep on supporting it, Sean! I’ll fall in line eventually!

MICHELLE: I have to admit, it’s the artwork on this that keeps me away. It looks fairly moe-tastic.

SEAN: And Inu Yasha continues to get its VizBIG re-release, with Vol. 14 covering volumes…. um… (does math) 40-42 of Takahashi’s most popular (in North America, calm down, UY fans) series!

MICHELLE: Yay, InuYasha! I actually still need to read the final ten volumes of this; I’ve sort of been hoarding them until I’m ready for it to actually be over after all this time.

SEAN: So what’s your Valentine manga?

Guest Post: What Manga Got You To Read More?

February 6, 2013 by Justin Stroman 43 Comments

So tell me, how did you all get into manga? Because let me tell you something: I didn’t exactly get hooked immediately. During my middle school years I mostly settled on watching anime and anything that aired on Toonami and Adult Swim. It wasn’t until around 8th grade when I finally bought manga, and those manga happened to be Psychic Academy, One Piece, and D.N Angel. I can’t remember how I had come to know what manga was—I may have learned about it in a magazine most likely—but thanks to some silly reasons (for example, I mixed up a character from a fighting game, and that’s why I brought Psychic Academy), I bought these three manga.

I only kept up with Psychic Academy and maybe mistakenly gave up on the others—even throwing them away because they were starting to take up space in my room and I wasn’t reading them. After that, though, I wasn’t all that connected with manga, and stayed in the realm of anime and video games. However, I suddenly had a desire to write and draw around my high school years. Don’t worry, these are stories I’ll be inclined to keep to myself! Anyway, when I attended college, I decided it was time to learn my craft. At the time, purchasing books or anything related to what I did was not an option, so I didn’t know what was a trend or what was really all that popular. So during my sophomore year of school, I believe, I decided to return to the manga world and start reading in general—just to get a sense of what I’d like and what was popular. I wasn’t convinced, though. I had only picked up manga I had heard of like Rosario + Vampire and Negima, and aside from the usual shounen stuff (Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach), nothing really compelled me to read more and take manga seriously.

Then the best thing happened to me when it came to manga: I watched the first episode of Monster on SYFY. That episode made such a great impression on me that I had to find out more on what it was and what it was all about. That was how I found out Monster was a manga series created by some artist named Naoki Urasawa. I brought the first volume at the bookstore, got home, and started turning the pages. And turning. And turning! Needless to say, I was captivated. The story was suspenseful and full of seemingly implausible yet true twists, the art blew me away (as at the time I didn’t believe manga could be like that), and it made me understand a lot of things about manga that I might have glossed over before. Needless to say, this was the time I wanted more.

So you could also approach this as a question of how you got into manga, but let’s try and dig a bit deeper. What was that one manga you read that really hit you and told you to go read more manga? Were you in a position where you read a manga, did not like it, but was convinced by someone or something to check out a different manga? Whatever the case is, feel free to share in the comments the manga that got you hooked onto more manga.

Justin Stroman is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, a Japanese Pop Culture Blog that covers anime, manga, games, and more. You can follow him on Twitter and like the Facebook page to get updates and links to Japanese Pop Culture Related content.

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 7

February 6, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Toru Fujisawa. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Vertical.

Another volume of 14 Days, and the lessons remain the same. Don’t let your past define you, don’t become a bad person just because society thinks you are, there are other people who really do care about you, etc. The telling of this can be somewhat melodramatic, but that works in the story’s favor, to be honest. Onizuka and his story is larger than life. Moreover, to every teenager who thinks their problems are the ABSOLUTE WORST EVER, every decision they make and conflict they have is this dramatic. Indeed, it’s telling that Kikuchi and Urumi’s solution on how to break Miko is simply to ramp *up* the drama.

That said, my favorite part of the volume came in between crises, as Shinomi gets back to the White Swan and runs into Urumi, who’s hanging out after assisting Onizuka with Miko. Seeing the most popular girl in Shonan Jun’ai Gumi meet the most popular girl in GTO is sort of a fan dream, and at the start it goes exactly as we’d expect: Urumi instantly identifies Shinomi as a threat and starts to systematically make her feel small and cornered, with the help of money and a typically oblivious Onizuka.

The best comes in the bath, however, when Urumi learns that Shinomi hasn’t actually gotten anywhere with Onizuka, and realizes that they’re not rivals but the same – doomed to be the ‘little sister’ who can’t be seen romantically. And the tension in Urumi *instantly* dissolves, as she suddenly regards Shinomi as someone to confide in (I don’t think she ever did that in GTO, so it’s impressive). They’re both probably correct, by the way – I suspect if Onizuka ever does end up with anyone in the future of GTO, it’ll be Fuyutsuki, simply as he actually sees her as a possible romance. In any case, Urumi’s juvenile solution to their frustration, and Shinomi going along with it, is a pitch-perfect ending to the scene.

Unfortunately, the real world is due to come crashing into the series. Despite a chapter that pushes the bounds of ridiculousness by having Onizuka literally fly for over a mile. The mayor of Shonan proves to be the sort who wants anything that might be a problem to simply go away till he’s re-elected, and his slimeball assistant appears to want to take advantage of that by having some of the ‘White Swan’ kids returned to the loving arms of their parents – even if those parents are abusive scum. Which means that, with only two volumes of the series to go after this, we may end up right back where we started, with Sakurako being in danger.

For all that Miko and Riko were a credible threat to Onizuka in the past couple of volumes, there was no doubt that they wouldn’t be won over (kicking their deadbeat dad into the harbor likely helped out a lot there). These guys, though, are far less likely to simply be misunderstood or uncaring. Yes, GTO may tell you that you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and move forward, but it never diminishes what you’ve been through. Which makes this new threat all the more scary. That said, this is Onizuka, and I look forward to seeing how he takes it out.

Adventures in the Key of Shoujo: Skip Beat! 3-in-1, Vol. 1

February 5, 2013 by Phillip Anthony 7 Comments

Skip Beat | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Published by VIZ Media | Rated: Teen

Kyoko just wants to be with her boyfriend, Sho. That’s all—simple enough request. Trouble is Sho’s not really into the whole “love and respect” thing. He’s also not into the whole “tell the truth” angle in a relationship. Sho is coasting towards being a superstar pop idol (whatever the hell that is) but isn’t quite there yet. Still, he thinks things are secure enough that he makes the mistake of blabbing to his REAL girlfriend about how he’s playing with Kyoko and would dump her in a heartbeat. Soon Kyoko has no boyfriend, no life, and no reason to go on.

Kyoko should have paid attention to the axiom: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” After Sho dumps her, Kyoko’s only purpose in living is to destroy Sho and beat him at his own game. By “beating him” I mean that she’s going to become an idol like him, and by “destroying him” I mean in the Doctor No, James Bond villainy sort of way. You know things will not stay calm when the lead character is delirious over the idea of her enemy’s destruction.

The main thing I took from my reading of this manga is that victories over your enemies are often hollow. Kyoko, for all her wild plotting to destroy Sho, sometimes hits brick walls. Her first order of business after vowing revenge on Sho is to join L.M.E., the rival talent agency to Sho’s. But she thinks that raw anger is enough to carry her through the auditions. When she’s rejected, she curls into a ball. Only the poking and prodding of friends and rivals gets her going again. It’s like every time she hits an impasse, Kyoko reverts back to the day after Sho left her. Luckily she doesn’t waste time, and like every good leading character, she comes back better than ever.

Of course, the supporting cast of this story has to be good to keep up with such a manic main lead. The family that employs Kyoko in one of two jobs she held while supporting Sho spends their time fretting about her, just like her real parents would. The patriarch in that family is one of my favourites. He pretends to be gruff, but really has that Burgess Meredith coach-like toughness. Another person who antagonizes Kyoko into action is Sho’s rival, Ren Tsuruga. Ren is everything Sho isn’t: quiet, reserved, and methodical. But every time he and Kyoko get close, he says something to deliberately make her mad. Is he going for this tactic because he sees something in her? Possibly—he does make cryptic remarks to his assistant with that in mind. More often than not, his observations coincide with lessons that Kyoko has to learn the hard way. Is he saying what he’s saying because he’s been in her shoes or because her motives are so transparent? Interesting how that question is not resolved in this volume.

I haven’t spoken too much about Sho. The reason is, he feels somewhat one-dimensional. When the big reveal shows him to be a cad, playing with Kyoko’s heart, all he’s short of is having the moustache and twirling it—he’s that evil. But afterwards, he’s shown to be clueless and unaware of the horrors he’s caused for our heroine. So this leads me to conclude that either the author didn’t know quite what to do with him after the initial chapters, or that he was always this inept and Kyoko was just too blinded by love to see it. Resolutions, I require them.

The most enjoyable parts of this omnibus occur after Kyoko joins L.M.E., where she is put into the agency’s version of the morale maintenance squad. There, she must play general dogsbody to the rest of the employees in order to gain points, which means that if she cheeses off the wrong person, points will be taken away. Kyoko spends her time thinking she’s done a good job only to have her work undone by one trip up—sometimes in the service of comedy, other times for dramatic effect. Either way, it’s another way to gauge her progress as a character.

It’s great to see a female protagonist engage in the kind of antics reserved for comedy manga. The way Kyoko describes how she will destroy Sho is incredibly rewarding, and Yoshiki Nakamura’s artwork makes light work of putting Kyoko’s narrative across. The characters around her can almost sense what she’s done or what she’s thinking in these moments (usually with a murderous intent), and their reactions are as satisfying as hers are.

As the volume progresses, the cast begins to include other people from L.M.E., like the manager of the new recruits section who has to put up with Kyoko haunting him day and night in her quest for a place at the agency. The president of L.M.E. wins the prize for most flamboyant character in the volume (mind you, it’s set around a talent agency which has naturally flamboyant people in it!) who takes a personal interest in Kyoko. His tests are where Kyoko hits most of her brick walls, but he seems to be waiting for her to “get” something that she’s not paying attention to. Hopefully either Kyoko figures out what that is or his actions get some kind of sharper clarity in further volumes.

I didn’t think I would like Skip Beat as much as I did. Coming late into shoujo romance, I don’t always know what is considered standard in the genre and what’s not. When you get past the funny parts of this tale, you are still left with a girl who has been hurt by someone she trusted and cared for and who must now find herself, her place, and her self-respect again. I can relate to this and I’m sure you reader can too. Shojo Beat had earlier indicated that Skip Beat’s omnibus’ might not keep going—I would presume due to low sales—but recently they confirmed that they would be continuing with these releases. These omnibuses are a great way for new readers to make their way in and I recommend reading these rather than trying to dive into the latest volume (which is on volume 30 now as far as I know).

Sailor Moon will be back in March with two reviews for volumes seven and eight. Are you looking forward to it returning to the column? If not, why? Please leave a comment or send me a tweet to me or the official MBS twitter account.

It Came from the Sinosphere: Hokkien Hollywood and Anime Amoy

February 5, 2013 by Sara K. 7 Comments

This week’s column is a little different. Instead of officially published works, I am discussing fan-generated material, specifically, YouTube videos. But first, some background.

The Behemoths of Mass Popular Entertainment

Living in Taiwan has changed how I think of Hollywood and Anime/Manga.

In the United States, Hollywood is domestic. It is (for better or worse) a part of American culture. Many Americans claim that Hollywood is corrupting American culture, but it is not perceived as an outside force threatening to wipe out American cultural identity.

Much as many Americans love anime and manga, they are not perceived as existential threats to American culture. While some Americans claim that anime/manga are corrupting American culture, and the animation and comic book industries have felt the effects of competition with anime and manga, nobody is scared that anime and manga will crowd out American cultural identity.

In Taiwan … the situation is different.

A Taiwanese movie poster for The Hobbit

Most movies which run in Taiwanese movie theatres nowadays originate in Hollywood. Most of the cartoons available in Taiwan are anime (and if they’re not anime, they’re probably from Hollywood). And most comic books published in Taiwan are translated from Japanese.

In the 1990s, the Taiwanese movie industry collapsed, and prior to 2007, local movies were for art-film types, and everybody else ignored them. This situation changed when Cape No. 7, a local film, became the second-highest grossing film in the history of the Taiwanese box office (first place: Titanic). Since 2007, ordinary Taiwanese people have started watching new local films in significant numbers, and other local box office hits have followed, including Night Market Hero.

From an anecdotal perspective, local blockbusters seem to get the Taiwanese people I encounter more excited than Hollywood blockbusters. In particular, I recall that there was an entire month when it seemed like everybody was talking about Seediq Bale. However, there are still many more Hollywood blockbusters per year than Taiwanese blockbusters per year, which means that, if I ask a Taiwanese person ‘Have you seen any good movies lately?’ they are much more likely to talk about the Hollywood movie they just saw than the local movie they just saw.

Japan has even more dominance over the Taiwanese comic market than Hollywood has over the Taiwanese movie market. The dominance is so extreme that I’ve met Taiwanese people who aren’t even aware that there are non-Japanese comics published in Taiwan (at least everyone in Taiwan *knows* that there are local movies).

I’ve been asked by multiple people who have travelled in Taiwan how to find Taiwanese manhua, since they themselves couldn’t find any. Imagine a traveller in a major Japanese city being unable to find manga, or even in a major American city and unable to find American comics.

As far as animation … the only local animation I know about in Taiwan is Next Media Animation, and they’re owned by a Hong Kong company.

I saw a bit of Neon Genesis Evangelion on Taiwanese TV during Lunar New Year last year. Can you imagine a mainstream American TV station airing Evangelion during Christmas?

On the one hand, many Taiwanese people love Hollywood movies/TV shows and/or Japanese anime/manga (and many love Hong Kong media, and many love K-dramas, and the Hindi-film fanbase, while small, it is rapidly growing). On the other hand, some Taiwanese people see Hollywood and anime/manga taking up most the oxygen that local storytellers need just to breathe, in other words, they are an existential threat to local culture.

How do Taiwanese people and other Chinese speakers respond to situation of loving the very thing that threatens to crowd out their own culture?

Well, they respond in many ways. One way is adapting Japanese manga into local TV dramas, which always, based on the ones I’ve seen, includes Taiwanizing the stories – changing the setting to Japan, making the characters Taiwanese, adding elements specific to Taiwanese culture, etc. Another way is dubbing Hollywood movie / anime clips into Hokkien and putting them on YouTube.

But before I get to the YouTube videos, some background on Hoklo culture.

Some Notes about Hoklo Culture

First of all, it’s impossible to sum up a culture in just a few paragraphs. This is not intended to be a comprehensive introduction, or even a functional introduction – I’m just trying to provide some context.

‘Hoklo’ is to ‘Chinese’ what ‘Spanish’ is to ‘European’ – Hoklo people are Chinese, but a distinct subset. The Hoklo people mainly come from southern Fujian province, and they speak a language which is called ‘Hokkien’ or ‘Minnan’, which has many, many, MANY dialects. The dialect spoken around the city of Xiamen is called ‘Amoy’, the dialect spoken in Taiwan is called ‘Taiwanese’ (though Taiwanese Hokkien itself has distinct dialects varying by region in Taiwan), and the dialect spoken in Singapore/Malaysia is called ‘Penang Hokkien’.

I’ve been to Kinmen, an island in southern Fujian province where Amoy is spoken. There are many ‘wind lions’ around the island. The people felt that good times turned into bad times too quickly, so the wind lions were put up to prevent good luck from getting blown away by the wind. Even though this is specific to Kinmen, I think it represents something about the Hoklo experience in general.

A picture of a Kinmen wind lion taken by Wikimeida user kleistan.

Southern Fujian has historically been the poorest and most politically unstable part of coastal China, but now it’s one of the wealthier parts of China. Likewise, Taiwanese people (70% of whom identify as Hoklo) are wealthier than their Chinese counterparts, and Hoklo people in southeast Asia are often wealthier than their neighbors – but the reason why so many Hoklo people left China in the first place was because of their poverty and difficult lives.

And there is still the possibility that the current situation could get really horrible really quickly – Taiwan is a lot more militarized than California (because it needs to defend itself from China), Fujian is the most militarized part of coastal China (because, at a minimum, it has to be able to withstand a Taiwanese counterattack, and would likely be the launching point of an offensive on Taiwan), Singapore is nervous about Malaysia, and as recently as the 1990s, Chinese Indonesians (many of whom are Hoklo) were the targets of ethnic-based violence, which inspired many of them to leave Indonesia.

The origin of much Hoklo wealth lies in international trade – in fact, the English word ‘tea’ comes from Hokkien (guess who first sold tea to the British). Because of their geographical dispersion and their participation in international trade, Hoklo people, particularly those outside of China, know a lot about different cultures and have taken many aspects of other cultures as a part of their own. On the other hand, Hoklo culture itself is considered to be under threat pretty much everywhere even in Taiwan where they have a majority.

Even though there are over 40 million native speakers of Hokkien, there is no writing system which is accepted by the majority, or even a large plurality, of native speakers. This means there are very few books published in Hokkien, and most native speakers would not be able to read them easily. Therefore, Hoklo people rely on other languages (often Mandarin) for written communication. In modern times, lacking a widely accepted writing system is a major threat to a language.

What point am I trying to make? This point: Hoklo people, historically and today, are very open to other cultures, in fact much of their wealth comes from understanding foreign people, yet they often feel like they are in danger of losing their identity, or worse.

Finally, the Videos

As far as I know, no Hollywood movie or anime has ever been officially dubbed in Hokkien (and I am certain no manga has been published in Hokkien). There is not even the expectation that things will be translated into Hokkien – interactions with outsiders are conducted in Mandarin or foreign languages.

Therefore, many people find the idea of Hollywood movies and anime in Hokkien very funny.

Enter YouTube

The most popular Hokkien Hollywood video is this famous scene from Star Wars, dubbed in Hokkien. The Hokkien used is a direct translation from the original English dialogue, so I think subtitles are unnecessary:

However, these videos are intended to be entertaining, so sometimes the video makers take *ahem* liberties with the translation. Here is Hokkien James Bond, with English subtitles (warning: immature sexual humor)

And if you had any doubts concerning whether or not there is an overlap between this Hokkien fandubbers and slash fandom, let this Lord of the Rings video put those doubts to rest:

Of course, Hollywood movies are not the only subjects of Hokkien fandubs – anime gets Hokkien treatment too (though generally without English subtitles, which is why I’m not providing examples).

Now, I think many of the people who make these videos simply want to post something fun and silly on Youtube. However, at least one maker of these fan videos has an explicit social point to make.

This video starts with Taiwanese students working hard to learn various foreign languages, yet they can’t speak Taiwanese. The point that Taiwanese people are choosing foreign culture over their own culture is very clear. Then the video proceeds to present clips from Hollywood movies, anime, and various other things, all dubbed in Hokkien (if you want to know which movies an anime get dubbed, watch it yourself).

It’s hard to explain, but in Taiwan (and I suspect this is also true for Hoklo people in China and southeast Asia), Taiwanese is considered a very personal language – for example, even for people who use Mandarin as their primary language, Taiwanese is the language of choice for swearing.

Hokkien also symbolizes local control, whereas Mandarin and foreign languages represent centralized and distant authority. For example, in both Taiwan and China, formal education happens in Mandarin, as mandated by the central government from Beijing/Nanjing (even though it’s been many decades since the Republic of China, the current government of Taiwan, controlled China, it originally was a government based in Beijing/Nanjing, not Taipei). Furthermore, in Singapore, the government encourages all ethnic Chinese residents to speak Mandarin, in spite of the fact that Mandarin is, for most of them, not their heritage language. Likewise, Mandarin and foreign languages represent art controlled by distant, centralized authorities (media corporations), whereas Hokkien represents folk traditions. This is one reason why people have such powerful feelings about the choice of language in the Chinese speaking world.

Fandubbing is one way for Hokkien speakers to reclaim some control from the central media authorities.

***

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year! This is the last post of the year of the Dragon. I will celebrate the new year … by putting this column on hiatus for a few weeks. The next post should come on February 26 (I also have a special post planned for February 28).

Sara K. is Jewish, yet she is ignorant of much of Jewish culture. She thinks it is terribly ironic that, as bad as her Taiwanese and Hakka language skills are, they are currently a hundred times better than her Hebrew language skills. When she wonders why many Taiwanese people invest so much more effort into learning foreign languages than mastering Taiwanese/Hakka, she then remembers the people in her family who wonder why she is putting so much effort into mastering Chinese instead of learning Hebrew, and then she thinks ‘oh’.

Drama Diary: My Princess Eps. 1-7

February 4, 2013 by Anna N 4 Comments

I don’t often rewatch dramas simply because there are so many other shows out there that I haven’t seen. I have watched bits of Boys Over Flowers more than once, and I seem to need to rewatch You’re Beautiful every couple of years. My Princess is a show I’ve been meaning to write about for some time, and I planned to only watch the first episode, but promptly got addicted to the series all over again.

My Princess has one of the better opening scenes that I’ve seen in any drama to date. There’s a dramatic procession and ritual going on in a historic building. A traditionally attired princess sits in a throne to watch the festivities. Soon some details start appearing that make the scene look a little bit off. The princess is fidgety and bored in a most unprincess-like way. An alarmingly handsome man in a modern suit is talking in an earpiece about ensuring the safety of a “Princess Stella.” Soon we realize that the whole scene is taking place in the modern world, in a very lavish historical tourist trap. The girl playing the fake princess is Lee Seol, a flighty student who has far too many part-time jobs. The alarmingly handsome man is Park Hae Young, a diplomat and third generation heir to a giant Korean corporate conglomerate.

Are they the most adorable couple in Kdramas ever?

Hae Young induces Seol to work overtime, but doesn’t carry small enough bills to pay her which causes her much consternation. Seol is like an extremely charming steamroller, somewhat relentlessly relying on being cute to sail through life, but she carries on in such an amusing manner it is hard not to be captivated by her. Her main focus is her obsession with her archeology professor Nam Jung Woo, as she entertains elaborate Indiana Jones style fantasies of how their romance will kindle when they meet in Egypt. When Seol realizes that Hae Young intends to marry her professor’s first love, museum director Oh Yoon Joo, she decides that she has to help the young man with romance by making Yoon Joo jealous. Seol claims to be Hae Young’s girlfriend. Seol treats Hae Young like a slightly dimwitted older brother, but she doesn’t yet realize how their lives are about to be intertwined. In the meantime, things between the professor and Yoon Joo are tense, because evidently museum directors lack basic academic integrity and she has poached on her knowledge of the professor’s research to create professional triumphs for herself.

The proper response to male nakedness….

is to cover one’s eyes with produce.

Love rectangle firmly established, My Princess moves into thought experiment territory as it explores what would happen if modern day Korea tried to bring back the Monarchy. Hae Young’s grandfather established his fortune with funds from the royal family, and as he is nearing the end of his life he has decided to give all his money and the royal family back to the country. It turns out that fake princess Seol is actually the last living member of the Royal family! She was abandoned when she was five years old and adopted. Seol’s early childhood memories are fragmented, but she does confirm a few details that show her to be the true princess. Despite her tendencies towards materialism, Seol isn’t actually that interested in becoming Princess, only agreeing to accept the position when she sees false press reports about her dead father. Hae Young is decidedly unhappy about his anticipated inheritance being taken away from him and tries a number of strategies to prevent Seol from entering the palace. Yoon Joo maneuvers herself into a position of Executive Director of the Royal Foundation.

Seol should be Hae Young’s enemy, because if she’s voted in as Princess his life will be taken away from him. With his background in diplomacy, he manages to get himself assigned as her etiquette instructor and goes to live in the palace too. Seol’s only ally in the palace is a young chef who keeps looking out for her. Yoon Joo is a master at passive aggression and goes out of her way to make Seol feel uncomfortable when they are in front of other people, only to come out and calmly discuss her hatred when they are alone. Hae Young isn’t without compassion, and Seol can be terribly charming.

Seriously, how cute are they!?

There are so many cute touches in this drama. Seol and Hae Young are falsely linked romantically before the truth comes out, and Seol’s mother is almost giddy with excitement over the idea of a chaebol son-in-law. Seol’s dogged pursuit of her Professor is hilarious, but she spends more time on the run with Hae Young, watching the movie Roman Holiday in an open air theater and charging him a fortune to say in her family’s bed and breakfast. My Princess manages to balance the frothy aspects of a modern day fairy tale with plenty of realism as Seol deals with her tough past and the politicians conspire to derail the efforts to restore the royal family. As a couple, Seol and Hae Young are one of my favorite pairings in drama. The actors have an undeniable chemistry that makes watching them so much fun. I highly recommend that you check out My Princess if you are looking for a fun romantic comedy drama to enjoy with Valentine’s Day coming up!

Watch now at DramaFever!

Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Vol. 37

February 4, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan as “Mahou Sensei Negima!” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

First off, I will admit that this reads a lot better in collected format than it did in weekly chapters. The parts of the story that really aggravated me are confined to the latter third of the book, and there is some honest attempt at character building and attempting to wrap things up. But overall, this is still Ken Akamatsu, after an exciting 18-volume arc of fighting and apocalypse, going back to Mahora Academy and simply coasting on fanservice for a while. And, at least in the West, he found himself up against a fandom that was now reading Negima almost entirely for the action and drama, and hated the fanservice. This is a big problem if you’re Ken Akamatsu.

Where the story works well is when it’s capturing the fallout from the Magic World arc. Setsuna, as Eva points out, can’t deal with being a soldier in peacetime, and is still (still!) upset with her base desires for Konoka, not to mention finding out that Asuna is a princess. Her heroic self-loathing can be quite amusing, but it’s also a very annoying side to her, and so I was somewhat torn between laughing and wanting to smack her. Of course, all that class distinction goes right out the window when she finds out what Negi and Asuna’s plan for saving the magic world is. It’s a big but workable sacrifice for Negi, but a huge and appalling sacrifice for Asuna, and Setsuna is justifiably appalled that she’s avoiding telling anyone what she has to do. More on this in the final volume…

There are some other good chapters. Chisame spent most of the Magic World arc filling in for Asuna as Negi’s tsukkomi and adviser, and now that they’ve returned suddenly finds that she hates being out of the loop. Yue gets shorter shrift, but finally manages to recover the memories from the past year, ironically triggering them by confessing to Negi. Unfortunately, this then leads to the rest of the book, where Haruna and Misa (a truly disastrous combination who should never be allowed to plan anything together ever) decide that Negi ‘leading on’ all these girls by his natural-born charisma, and not responding to any of their love confessions (despite his age – I wonder if he’s turned 11 by now) makes him an enemy of women.

Earlier in the volume we had a chapter or so devoted to a giant fight between Negi and Eva, fanservice for those who like that sort of thing. And at the end of the manga we get a giant wacky chase, which Akamatsu loves to do (see my recent review of the 4th Love Hina omnibus) and which never fails to annoy me, as it always has people acting out of character for the sake of comedy schtick. Combined with far more nudity than usual (let’s just say Negi sneezes quite a bit this volume) and you have Akamatsu specializing in many of my least favorite scenarios.

There’s also the fact that Negima ends in the next volume, and there seem to be an insane amount of loose ends that still haven’t been tied up. Negi’s parents, the whole plan with Asuna – it won’t end the way it’s suggested, unless this series goes really dark – and of course which girl wins. And behind the scenes, Akamatsu and his editors at Weekly Shonen Magazine are (allegedly) having a bit of a tiff. How will this all shake out? Well… see you next time.

Off the Shelf: Three from JManga

February 2, 2013 by MJ and Michelle Smith 1 Comment

MJ: Good morning, Michelle!

MICHELLE: Good morning! I’m fixin’ to eat some corn chex!

MJ: That sounds delicious! Any manga to share this week along with your corn chex?

MICHELLE: As a matter of fact, yes!

So, you might remember that in a BL Bookrack column from a year ago, I praised Yuiji Aniya’s Men of Tattoos. When JManga recently acquired another one-shot of hers, DROPS, I knew I had to read it. (I do note, however, that there’s no BL in this volume at all.)

Like Men of Tattoos, DROPS is a collection of interconnected short stories, this time about the members of the Matsuno family. The first, “A Taste of First Love” stars the youngest Matsuno, grumpy and chubby 15-year-old Shizuku, as he realizes that his first love has feelings for his pervy friend (and as he is utterly oblivious to the feelings another girl has for him). Subsequent chapters focus on Shizuku’s four older sisters and their romantic lives, while Shizuku himself grows older in the background. There’s a chapter about the twins, Kaede and Momiji, who are in search of a man they can share. One about Tsubaki, the rebellious second-oldest sister who has finally found a reason to stay at home. And one about Hisagi, the responsible eldest sister, who finally gets the chance to be selfish and irresponsible. By the time the final chapter rolls around, Shizuku is a 22-year-old hottie attending his friends’ wedding.

It’s probably Hisagi’s story I like best, as Aniya likens her life—slowly brewing, but becoming more delicious—to sake, but each is pretty entertaining in its own right. I like Aniya’s omniscient narration and some of the over-the-top comedy, and though there are quite a few sexual situations, they’re all light-hearted and character-driven. Also, I simply must share these panels from Tsubaki’s story, because they’re just so silly and awesome.

Ultimately, this was quite a fun read and one that probably didn’t have much chance of making it as a print edition. It’s very much a comedy, but one with thoughtful moments, too. I think I am officially a Yuiji Aniya fan.

MJ: I never read Men of Tattoos, and now I’m regretting that even more. This sounds like exactly my kind of short manga! I’m not a big fan of short manga in general, as you know, but interconnected stories are much more attractive to me, and I’m loving the sound of these. Also, those panels are delightful!

MICHELLE: These may be short stories, but as a whole they form something satisfying, so they don’t feel as skimpy as they otherwise might. I do think you’d like them! Join me on the Aniya bandwagon!

Anyhoo, I suspect you’ve got some manga you’d like to talk about, too!

MJ: I do, though my experience wasn’t nearly as satisfying!

Normally I’d save this for BL Bookrack, but I have a pretty full docket this month, so since we’re all about JManga this week, I thought I’d talk about it here. After discussing the cute cover a few weeks ago, I decided to check out Pochi and Tama, a recent BL one-shot from Libre Publishing, created by Fumiko Shusai and Yura Tamaki.

Tama and Pochi have been a couple for six years, and they’re finally taking the big step of moving in together. They’ve been calling each other by the names “Tama” and “Pochi” since the very first time they were introduced, thanks to their cat and dog-like natures, respectively. Domestic life has its challenges—mainly Tama’s concern that Pochi is always taking care of him (and their apartment) without receiving any help from him—but mostly they’re a sweet, happy couple whose biggest worry is whether one of their womanizing friends might try to hit on Pochi’s refined little sister, Kana.

And… really, that’s it. Though I’m generally a fan of the rare variety of BL manga that focuses on established relationships over first love, without any significant conflict or some other catalyst for real character development, there’s just a bit too little going on to make this a satisfying story. Tama and Pochi are adorable, Pochi’s sister is adorable, and even the womanizing friends (who, in true BL form, end up having a thing for each other in the end) are pretty close to adorable, but there’s not much more to say about any of them. The most interesting moments in the whole manga are the one or two brief appearances by Tama’s awesomely straightforward female friend Mariko, which gets the book off to a strong start. Unfortunately, things peter out shortly after her exit from the page. Also, on a perplexing note, though the authors make much of the characters’ cat and dog-like personalities—a not-uncommon theme in BL manga— here in Pochi and Tama, it seems to be all talk. Neither of them displays any significant characteristics of these animals that I’m familiar with, making the whole theme of the thing feel very much on the surface.

I realize it sounds here like I hated Pochi and Tama, and that’s really not true. It is a perfectly pleasant manga filled with perfectly pleasant people, and there are some genuinely cute moments. But I’ll admit, I hoped for more.

MICHELLE: Oh, that’s too bad. It definitely looked really cute, but maybe it’s too cute, not enough substance. Because the characters have been in a relationship for a while before the story begins—and because of the kitty references—I wonder if you were expecting something as great as My Darling Kitten Hair.

MJ: You know, I might have been. And probably that’s unfair to Pochi and Tama, given how much I love My Darling Kitten Hair, but I can’t deny that I was disappointed.

So, would you like to introduce our mutual read for this week?

MICHELLE: Sure!

One of the many good things about JManga is their commitment to releasing yuri series. This week, MJand I read the debut volume of one of the most recent—Akiko Morishima’s Hanjuku Joshi, which seems to translate into “soft-boiled girls/women.”

Yae Sakura and Chitose Hayami are first-years at an all-girls high school. Without any boys around, the atmosphere there is quite relaxed and the first time we meet Chitose, she’s casually topless in the classroom. In contrast to boyish, uninhibited Chitose, Yae doesn’t like herself. She’s frustrated with her girly hobbies and feminine appearance and this results in her not seeming to enjoy herself much at school. Seeing this, Chitose decides to take Yae under her wing and help her have a bit more fun.

Friendship pretty quickly turns into chest aches and warm feelings, and after a promiscuous upperclassman accuses Yae and Chitose of merely playing at love, things start to get more serious between them. From this point on, the girls’ progressing physical relationship—and, indeed, it’s mostly physical, as when conflicts arise they’re swiftly resolved so that the making out can resume—is intercut with scenes of the upperclassman getting it on with a prim teacher.

I didn’t dislike Hanjuku Joshi or anything, but it’s not exactly emotionally subtle or complex yuri.

MJ: You know, I think I had the same reaction as you did for about the first half of the manga, but I actually really appreciated the second half, which delved more deeply into both relationships—that between Yae and Chitose and that between the teacher and the upperclassman, whose relationship is made more complicated by the men in their lives and the upcoming wedding of the teacher’s first love (also a woman). The teacher’s story is particularly poignant, as she comes to terms with the fact that, unlike her first love, she’s simply never going to be happy with a boyfriend. Fortunately, her new lover feels the same way, and though their relationship was first based on only sex, there’s obviously much more potential there.

The older characters (especially the teacher) are also openly envious of the two freshman, whose lives have not been complicated yet by the expectation that they’ll pair off with boys, and I felt like the juxtaposition of these two primary relationships is what made this particular yuri series feel to me like it’s written for women rather than solely as fanservice for men. Sure, there are a lot of sexy scenes in Hanjuki Joshi, but there’s also some real exploration of the characters’ actual sexuality and what it means for them in their lives.

On a personal note, I also really appreciated Yae as a character for her discomfort with her feminine traits—both physical and personality-wise. It’s something I struggled with myself a lot at her age, and it’s not something I’ve seen addressed often in fiction. You see “tomboy” characters all the time, but rarely girls who are something less neatly defined. Probably that alone was largely responsible for my enjoyment of this manga.

MICHELLE: You know, for all of its steamy scenes, I also never got the feeling that they were written purely for a male audience. And I too identified a lot with Yae and her body issues.

So even while it seems you liked this more than I did, I still liked it enough that I plan to read the second volume when it comes around.

MJ: Count me in for that as well!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Vol. 9

February 2, 2013 by Sean Gaffney

By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan as “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I have so many things to say about this volume of Sailor Moon that I’m not even sure where to begin, so please forgive me if I start to ramble. For those of you wondering what’s going on, the Senshi are dealing with the Dead Moon Circus and Chibi-Usa’s getting visions of a pegasus who’s looking for the Legendary GOLDEN Crystal. Meanwhile, all the senshi have found themselves unable to transform and are wondering if this means their duties are over… and whether they can start to follow their dreams.

The volume opens with each of the four Inner Senshi discussing their dreams of the future. Ami wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a doctor, Rei likewise wants to succeed her grandfather (who I’d forgotten looks nothing like his anime counterpart) at the shrine. Makoto wants to be a wife and baker; and Minako of course dreams of being an idol singer. As we move on, it’s not limited to just them. Not only do the Outer Senshi find themselves living in a small bubble of ‘perfect happy family’ that seems like a dream, but even the Amazoness Quartet, this arc’s minor villains, use the same language – getting their freedom to move in the real world is referred to as their dream.

The first three chapters also remind us that many of the senshi have family issues. Ami’s mother is really too busy to give her the care she needs (though notably she seems to show remorse about it, unlike a lot of ‘education mama’ portrayals of Ami’s mother I’ve seen), and her father essentially ran away and divorced them a few years prior. Rei’s mother died soon after she was born, and her dad is a government minister who has no time for his daughter and has sent her off to live at the shrine. (As we’ll find in a later short story, he *is* as unpleasant as he sounds.) And Makoto’s parents are both dead, and she’s living on her own with the traditional manga “where the hell does she get the money to afford that place” apartment.

The Amazon Trio (who, this being the manga, are barely characterized and killed off right away) thus have no trouble finding ways to get into the girls’ heads and try to tempt them away from their true calling. Preying on Ami’s loneliness and abandonment issues, Rei’s sense of duty and how oppressive that can feel, and Makoto’s indecision and feelings of being weak. Naturally, in the end, each finds the inner strength to go on (in Jupiter’s case, MONSTER STRENGTH, a line that had me laughing hard) and are able to transform, power up, gain new attacks, and wipe out the enemy. (Though not, notably, the Quartet, who always get away. Maybe it’s because they always work in a group, rather than on their own like the previous minor villains. You’d almost think they were friends…)

And then there’s Minako, who has issues of her own. She’s supposed to be the leader of the Inner Senshi, after all (something the anime quietly dropped), and is rather upset that they can all now transform and she still cannot. What’s more, the other three are all mentioning the Outers more and more – how inspirational they find them, the good advice they received from them, and how it would be great if they could show up to help everyone out. This makes Minako even more annoyed, as she never really bonded with them the way the others did, and is unable to offer advice as she’s still powerless. We see in the previous chapters each Inner thinking of advice from their Outer mentor – Ami with Setsuna, Rei with Michiru and Makoto with Haruka. Clearly that would leave Hotaru for Minako, but as she’s a baby right now that doesn’t really happen.

(Speaking of which, when did all these chats and bonding with the Outers actually happen? Between S and SuperS, or in the bits we didn’t see between S? Also, I know that Minako and Hotaru is quite a popular fanfic crack pairing, and I wonder if this might be a reason why.)

In many ways, this parallels an episode of the S anime, where Minako is frustrated that she’s the only one who hasn’t been attacked by the enemy. Here she charges forward into the enemy’s trap (and yes, she’s quite aware it’s a trap) in an attempt to make herself power up through sheer force of will. Unfortunately, what this leads to is her being dropped off of a tall platform, and the only thing holding her up is Artemis. Ignoring the physics of that for a moment, this resonates the best of the four Inner Senshi stories. Ami and Makoto had tiny little versions of themselves gibing them pep talks, and although Rei and Phobos and Deimos turn human briefly, we’d never seen her interact with her crows in quite the same way. But Minako and Artemis are partners (in a way that Usagi and Luna will never be), and when Minako thinks he’s been killed she’s heartbroken.

Artemis’s transformation into a white-haired handsome bishie would likely be less startling to those who read the manga when it first came out (they’d already seen a side-story where Luna did the same, which was adapted into the S movie), and it’s presented as sort of a powerup, much as the senshi go from Planet Power or Star Power to Crystal Power, Artemis is now strong enough to turn human in times of need. This is turn allows Minako to find the strength to make her own transformation.

In the meantime, as I noted, the Outers are living an idyllic life in a mansion somewhere. Haruka’s racing idiots on the highway, Michiru’s recording CDs (and getting hit on), Setsuna is doing important research, and Hotaru… now seems to be about 5 years old. And is quoting Yeats. The Senshi of Destruction quoting The Second Coming is never a good sign. She has her memories as Hotaru, her memories as Saturn, and these new memories of growing up with the Outers all in her head, and it’s turned her into quite the little prodigy. Of course, she also has her deep bond with Chibi-Usa, and knowing that she’s in trouble leads to her age up, again (this time to about 12, it seems), and unite the other Outers to do the same. It’s the sort of scene you want to see set to music, and is beautiful, inspiring, and a bit scary all at once.

In the meantime, what of our leads? Well, poor Mamoru is once again suffering by being the one who is always targeted. This time it’s shadows on the lung, which then becomes coughing up black blood – and even worse, it seems to be contagious, something we find at the very end of this volume when Usagi starts to cough as well. The ‘swapped bodies’ cliffhanger from last time is resolved fairly quickly (though not before Usagi tries to cuddle up with Mamoru in her chibi body, and finds that though he likes ’em young, that’s a little *too* young). Most of the book has Chibi-Usa trying to figure out what’s going on with Pegasus, which is a combination of ‘I want to save him from the bad guys’ and ‘he transformed into a hot guy what are these feelings in my heart?’. This, by the way, leads to the other big funny moment in the volume, where Chibi-Usa imagines talking about her unicorn wannabe-boyfriend with the other Inners, and quickly realizes Makoto is the only conversation that wouldn’t be a disaster.

I seem to have gone on a bit. Suffice to say this book was basically everything I wanted it to be, gave me tons of character stuff to analyze (giving lie to the anime fans saying the manga characters are too dull), and had huge roles for Minako and Hotaru, my two favorite senshi. And, if I recall, the next volume is just as good, and will wrap up the SuperS arc. Get it!