Features & Reviews

Weekend Quick Takes

August 8, 2010 by MJ 2 Comments

Welcome to Quick Takes at Manga Bookshelf, a new weekly feature, offering brief opinions of recent releases, particularly (but not exclusively) mid-series volumes of ongoing manga. We begin this week with releases from Del Rey Manga, Bandai Entertainment, Viz Media, and Dark Horse Manga.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking, Vol. 6 | By Koji Kumeta | Published by Del Rey Manga | Rated OT (16+) | Buy this book – The eternal challenge of a gag comic, of course, is to remain funny time and time again. And perhaps the additional challenge faced by a gag manga (especially in translation) is to continuously engage readers despite the fact that nothing ever really happens.

Western fans of manga (and this reviewer is no exception) have generally been lured into the medium by the promise of epic drama, romance, or adventure. How can a multi-volume series of stand-alone jokes ever hope to compete?

If any series has a chance, it’s this one. Six volumes in, this series funnier than ever. And though the humor remains sharp, its heavy reliance on culturally-specific jokes has declined just enough to satisfy even its early skeptics (or so one would hope). Highly recommended.

Read previous reviews of this series.

Lucky Star, Vol. 4 | By Kagami Yoshimizu | Published by Bandai Entertainment | Rated 13+ | Buy this book – Speaking of gag manga, perhaps the toughest sell of all to western manga fans is the 4-koma, a 4-panel style of manga similar to newspaper comic strips in the west. Despite widespread acclaim for Kiyohiko Azuma’s Azumanga Daiho, 4-koma manga in general has had a fairly dismal track record among western readers.

Enter Lucky Star, a 4-koma manga that happens to be the basis for an insanely popular anime series of the same name. Given that fact, licensing the manga should have been a no-brainer. Sadly, Bandai’s early releases were marred by a nearly-unreadable translation that sucked all potential humor from this slice-of-life comedy.

Fortunately, those days are over. Though Lucky Star‘s otaku-focused humor may still be an acquired taste, translator William Flanagan (brought on to the project beginning with volume three) displays its charms to their greatest advantage, giving the series new life in the western market. For fans of the anime series, this volume is a must-buy. And for everyone else, it may finally be worth giving a try.

Read previous reviews of this series.

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You, Vol. 5 | By Karuho Shiina | Published by Viz Media | Rated Teen | Buy this book – With Sawako now aware of her feelings for Kazehaya, this series is finally able to focus on romantic feelings between some of its other characters, which adds extra depth to this volume and even to Sawako, who is able to get out of her own head enough to actually notice what’s going on. Also, Chizu and Ayane meet Sawako’s parents in this volume, which is worth the cover price all on its own.

As awesome as Sawako is as a character, this series’ greatest strengths rely heavily on the richness of its supporting characters, so it’s nice to see them get some dedicated “screen time” this time around.

This series is exceptionally slow-moving, even for a shojo romance manga, yet it still manages to be increasingly satisfying, chapter after chapter. Though this volume lacks the intensity of volume four’s bitter romantic rivalry, its quiet drama is considerably more poignant than anything the series has offered so far. It is, undoubtedly, my favorite yet. Recommended.

Read previous reviews of this series.

Okimono Kimono | By Mokona (CLAMP) | Published by Dark Horse Manga | Buy this book – Perhaps the most important thing to note when discussing Okimono Kimono is that though it is written by CLAMP’s Mokona and released specifically by a manga publisher, there is very little manga in this book. In fact, the short manga included near the end of this volume is perhaps its least interesting aspect overall.

That said, what this volume does offer is a beautiful introduction to the world of the kimono, highlighted by some of Mokona’s personal wardrobe as well as a few of her own designs. Manga fans unfamiliar with the conventions of kimono will be easily enticed by designs inspired by characters from xxxHolic (a kimono featuring the full wrath of the pipe fox is a personal favorite).

Mokona’s original designs offer a pleasant transition into the later depictions of more traditional kimono, some of which are likely to appear overly-busy and jarring to the western eye. A transcribed conversation between Mokona and Puffy AmiYumi’s Onuki Ami is a real treat, too, as Mokona indoctrinates Ami into the ways of the kimono.

Though CLAMP fans may be disappointed with this book’s lack of manga offerings, there is much to please anyone interested in a modern look at traditional Japanese dress.

Check back next weekend for more Quick Takes, here at Manga Bookshelf!

Review copies provided by the publishers.

The Best Manga You’re Not Reading: ES: Eternal Sabbath

August 6, 2010 by Katherine Dacey

Back in June, Brigid Alverson, Robin Brenner, Martha Cornog and I gave a presentation at the American Library Association’s annual conference called “The Best Manga You’re Not Reading.” Our goal was to remind librarians that manga isn’t just for teens by highlighting fourteen titles that we thought would appeal to older patrons. Response to our presentation was terrific, so I decided to make “The Best Manga You’re Not Reading” a regular feature here at The Manga Critic. Some months I’ll shine the spotlight on something obscure or out-of-print; other months I’ll feature a title that you may have heard about (or even read) because I think it has the potential to appeal to readers who aren’t necessarily mangaphiles. This month’s title — ES: Eternal Sabbath (Del Rey) — was one of Brigid’s picks, a sci-fi manga that she felt had strong visuals and a suitably creepy atmosphere. I couldn’t agree more, so I decided to revise an old review from my PopCultureShock days to explain why you ought to read this trippy, thought-provoking story about the perils of cloning and extrasensory perception.

ES: ETERNAL SABBATH, VOLS. 1-8

BY FUYUMI SORYO • DEL REY • RATING: OLDER TEEN (16+)

The vivid images that haunt us when we sleep seem like perfect fodder for art, yet we often produce dream-inspired work that’s much goofier and far less potent than our nocturnal imaginings: think of Salvador Dali’s unabashedly Freudian dream sequence in Spellbound (the one false note in an otherwise great thriller), or John Fuseli’s heavy-handed symbolism in The Nightmare (in which a Rubenesque sleeper is tormented by a ghostly horse and an incubus, the ultimate Romantic two-fer). These images fail to shock because they seem too mannered, too staid — in short, too neat, failing to capture the subconscious mind’s ability to juxtapose the banal with the fantastic. In ES: Eternal Sabbath, however, manga-ka Fuyumi Soryo (best known to American readers for the shojo drama Mars) steers clear of the cliches and overripe imagery that reduce so many dreamy works to kitsch, producing a taut, spooky thriller that reminds us just how weird and terrifying a place the mind can be.

The first volume of ES introduces us to Shuro, a young man with the ability to read thoughts. Shuro uses the information he gathers from other people to impersonate their friends and family members, wiping their memories clean when he tires of the situation. His aimless routine is upended by a chance encounter with neuroscientist Mine Kujyou, who spots Shuro sauntering past a brutal crime scene in a state of utter indifference, as if he knew what was about to transpire. Her researcher’s instinct piqued, she begins to track Shuro’s movements, initiating a game of cat-and-mouse that quickly escalates into psychological warfare.
In a plot twist that would surely please Fox Mulder, a researcher from a clandestine government laboratory arrives on the scene, Smoking Man-style, to explain that Shuro is, in fact, a clone, created by scientists on the hunt for the “eternal sabbath,” a.k.a. eternal youth, gene. (The psychic powers powers are a happy by-product of the experiment.) Shuro escaped from his creators with fellow clone Isaac, an even more powerful, less scrupulous mind reader with a destructive agenda. Mine must then decide whether to assist Shuro and Isaac’s creator in re-capturing the wayward clones, or to allow Shuro to disappear back into the shadows and resume his impostor life of borrowed memories and feigned emotions.

To be sure, many of ES: Eternal Sabbath’s themes are science fiction staples: do scientists have an ethical obligation to treat engineered life forms with the same care as humans? Are there realms of knowledge and experience that cannot be quantified or explained through modern science? That such tried-and-true questions inform but never overwhelm the narrative is testament to Soryo’s storytelling skills. She creates a small, intimately linked cast whose conflicting desires, insecurities, fears, and friendships dramatize the series’ overarching theme, what does it mean to be human?, while underscoring the poignancy of the clones’ liminal status. (Isaac, as his name suggests, was intended as a sacrifice; his creators raised him for the sole purpose of studying and dissecting him.)

If her storytelling chops are strong, Soryo’s life drawing skills are not. Her character designs have a languid quality that makes them seem oddly placid in scenes fraught with conflict. Where Soryo shines are the dream sequences, which are visceral and unsettling. Some of the symbols she employs — horses, thorns — are familiar from television and movie dreams, yet the way in which she orchestrates these dreams is not, as she captures the peculiar rhythm and logic of a nightmare. One of the most effective sequences occurs right at the beginning of the series: a large insect emerges from a disturbingly organic mass that suddenly shatters into hundreds of living, moving pieces. The strangeness of the image, the abrupt shift in mood, the blurry line between inanimate and animate objects — these feel like an authentic product of the subconscious, and not a Freudian rebus to be decoded by the audience.

I could cavil about a few details (the translation is rather flat, as are Soryo’s pre-fab backgrounds), but on the whole, this eight-volume series has few wasted pages. The story moves at a brisk clip without sacrificing characterization or common sense; the art suggests the workings of the subconscious mind without silliness; and the ending is genuinely moving and surprising. Science fiction fanatics will find much to like here, as will horror buffs and readers who like the idea that women can kick butt in the sciences, Lawrence Summers and evil clones be damned.

This is an updated version of a review that appeared at PopCultureShock on 6/22/2008. The Best Manga You’re Not Reading is an occasional feature that highlights titles that aren’t getting the critical attention — or readership — they deserve. Click here for the inaugural column; click here for the series archive.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris: B-

August 5, 2010 by Michelle Smith

From the back cover:
Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. She’s quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn’t get out much. Not because she’s not pretty. She is. It’s just that, well, Sookie has this sort of “disability.” She can read minds. And that doesn’t make her too datable. Then along comes Bill. He’s tall, dark, handsome—and Sookie can’t hear a word he’s thinking. He’s exactly the type of guy she’s been waiting for all her life…

But Bill has a disability of his own: he’s a vampire with a bad reputation. But he is an interesting addition to the town, and Sookie can’t help but listen to what everyone else thinks about Bill… especially since she’s starting to fall for the buff bloodsucker. But when a string of murders hits town—along with a gang of truly nasty vampires looking for Bill—Sookie wonders if having an undead boyfriend is such a bright idea.

And when one of her coworkers is killed, Sookie realizes that Bill and his friends may have some special plans for a woman who can read minds…

Review:
I’ve had the first few books in the Southern Vampire series for a long time, but ever since acquiring them I’ve had doubts about whether I’d actually like them. My doubts appeared justified when an attempt to watch an episode of True Blood, the HBO series based on the novels, ended in about five minutes. Still, I can usually tolerate “blood and boobies” (description credit to Felicia Day) better in print than on screen, so I thought I’d give the books a shot.

As most probably know by now, this is the story of Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in small-town Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie is telepathic, which has made dating difficult, but when she meets vampire Bill Compton and cannot read his thoughts, she’s intrigued. Eventually they become a couple, but as Sookie learns more about Bill’s world she realizes that most vampires are quite unpleasant and that the hierarchy in their society means that Bill’s “superior,” Eric, can command her attendance as he chooses and there’s nothing Bill can do to prevent it.

Their relationship struggles play out against a rural backdrop that’s presently plagued by a string of murders for which Bill and Sookie’s brother, Jason, are individually suspected. This mystery fades into the background at times, but its resolution was a genuine surprise to me, though in retrospect it really shouldn’t have been. There is a good deal of sex once Sookie and Bill get together, but it stops short of being so explicit that it offends my prudish sensibilities.

As a Southerner, I can tell this book was written by “one of us.” Although I live in a fairly urban city, we’re surrounded by rural counties where the residents of Bon Temps would fit right in. I don’t live a life like these characters do, but I bet that some of my coworkers do.

Sookie herself strikes me as quite Southern in that she’s somewhat apathetic about her lack of education and go-nowhere job and extremely tolerant of some of Bill’s peculiar behavior. She’s got flaws—the adjectives vain, naïve, petulant, and complacent all describe her at one point or another—but she’s also got common sense and is resourceful in emergencies. Bill, so far, is kind of dull. The most interesting thing about him is that he became a vampire in the Civil War era, and so must try to get over some old-fashioned notions about women.

Ultimately, my feelings for this series are similar to those for the Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom series by Julie Kenner: there are things that bug me, and they’re not the greatest books on the planet, but I am still strongly compelled to keep reading them. Maybe one day I’ll even give True Blood another try.

Off the Shelf: Herky-Jerky, Kinda Girly

August 4, 2010 by MJ and Michelle Smith 7 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Off the Shelf with MJ & Michelle! I’m joined once again by Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith.

This week we offer up an array of girls’ manga and manhwa from Viz Media, Tokyopop, and Yen Press.

MICHELLE: It seems like forever since we’ve done a regular Off the Shelf column! It’s actually kind of soothing! What goodies did you read in preparation for this frabjous day?

MJ: Well, I heard you were getting a little bit girly, so I decided to do the same! This week, I delved into the latest volumes of two sunjeong manhwa titles from Yen Press and one Viz shojo title. I’ll begin here with the first of the manhwa, volume nine of Goong.

For those who don’t know, Goong is the story of an ordinary middle-class girl who, thanks to a long-forgotten agreement made by her grandfather, is plucked from her exceedingly normal life to be the new Crown Princess of her country. The premise is pretty standard girls’ comics fare, but what makes this series particularly enjoyable (and unusually fresh) is its setting and characters.

Set in an alternate version of present-day South Korea, with a constitutional monarchy firmly in place, manhwa-ga Park SoHee is able to weave a modern-day romance right alongside all the fantastic historical goodies that would usually be part of a big costume drama. Though the story’s heroine, Chae-Kyung, is thoroughly ensconced in the modern, everyday world, her sudden relocation to the isolation of the royal palace almost makes her seem like the anachronism at times, rather than the other way around. It’s brilliantly executed, really, and this constant conflict serves both the story and its characters very effectively. …

Otakon 2010: Rise of Manhwa

August 3, 2010 by Ed Sizemore 24 Comments

When Ed Sizemore mentioned to me that this year’s Otakon schedule included a panel about manhwa, I leapt at the opportunity to ask him to write a guest report for Manhwa Bookshelf. And since Ed is a great guy, he kindly agreed. Here it is. Please enjoy! – MJ

Looking over the Otakon schedule this year, I was surprised to see a panel named “The Rise of Manhwa.” Since I didn’t know much about Korean comics, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately, the Otakon programming schedule doesn’t list the name of the panelist and the panelist didn’t introduce himself, so I can’t tell you who ran the panel.

Things got off to a poor start. The previous panel ran over and some of the audience was lingering around, socializing. The manhwa panelist had to ask them to leave, which seemed to put him a belligerent mood. Thankfully, about five minutes into the panel, his mood began to improve, but it wasn’t the best way to begin. …

Manhwa Monday: The Webtoon Cometh

August 2, 2010 by MJ 3 Comments

Welcome to another Manhwa Monday!

Last week, Manhwa Bookshelf contributor Hana Lee introduced us to the world of Korean webcomics, or “webtoons” as they are known in Korea. Though only a handful of webtoons have made it into English translation so far (all published by NETCOMICS), more are on the way (at least for iPhone/iPad users), thanks to a new Korean company, iSeeToon.

As a response to both Hana’s post and some extensive conversation on Twitter, iSeeToon representative Kim Jin Sung has posted a number of posts in the company’s blog over the past week, including some general information about iSeeToon, descriptions of several potential properties, and some musings on the difference between Korean webtoons and western webcomics.

For more information on iSeeToon, check out their official website or follow them on Twitter. …

Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace: A

July 31, 2010 by Michelle Smith

From the back cover:
There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy’s age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she can play with. Sure enough, they do—a little girl named Tacy. And from the moment they meet at Betsy’s fifth birthday party, Betsy and Tacy become such good friends that everyone starts to think of them as one person—Betsy-Tacy.

Betsy and Tacy have lots of fun together. They make a playhouse from a piano box, have a sand store, and dress up and go calling. And one day, they come home to a wonderful surprise—a new friend named Tib.

Review:
Although I’ve been meaning to read the Betsy-Tacy series for several years, I didn’t really know what to expect. That is, I knew it was the story of two life-long friends, but I didn’t know that it would be written so fondly, so amusingly, or depict life as anything but rosy for these two girls.

Betsy Ray has no girls her age to play with until bashful Tacy Kelly moves in across the street. Tacy’s shyness prevents them from becoming friends immediately, but once they bond at Betsy’s fifth birthday party, they’re inseparable. A lot of the book is devoted to the various imaginative ideas they come up with to entertain themselves, whether it’s coloring sand to sell to other children or pretending to drive the family surrey to the exotic realm of… Milwaukee.

Much of the book is quite amusing, especially the stories Betsy makes up. I’m particularly fond of the one featuring a talking horse with a hankering for some doughnuts. I was pleasantly surprised when things took a more serious turn: Tacy is one of many children and the youngest, “Baby Bee,” dies after an illness. There’s a really wonderful scene where Betsy’s storytelling abilities help cheer Tacy up. Later, when Betsy is upset over the birth of a new, “perfectly unnecessary” sibling, Tacy takes up the role of comforter. It might not sound like much by way of drama, but both instances manage to be charming and a little bittersweet at the same time.

Betsy-Tacy would be a great book to read aloud to elementary students, particularly an audience comprised of girls. My brother and his fiancée need to hurry up and give me a niece so I can read this to her.

Run, Bong-Gu, Run!, Dokebi Bride, Time and Again

July 30, 2010 by MJ Leave a Comment

At Manga Bookshelf’s Off the Shelf, Michelle Smith and I discuss three manhwa series, Byun Byung-Jun’s Run, Bong-Gu, Run! from NBM/Comics Lit, Marley’s Dokebi Bride from NETCOMICS, and JiUn Yun’s Time and Again from Yen Press.

Here’s an excerpt from our discussion:

MICHELLE: How about with Run, Bong-Gu, Run! by Byun Byung-Jun? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this one since I finished it. For those who aren’t familiar with it, this is a simple story of a boy and his mother who travel from a seaside town to Seoul in search of the father/husband who went to the city in search of work and who hasn’t been heard from in some time. While there, they meet a kindly old man and his granddaughter, rescue a bird from a building, and bemoan the difficulties of life in the city.

While low on plot, Run, Bong-Gu, Run is high on atmosphere, with a dreamy yet deliberate way of portraying the actions of our protagonists as opposed to the near faceless mob of Seoul-ites who go whizzing past them. Our smalltown heroes have not lost the ability to see others in pain, be they homeless humans or endangered pigeons. They manage to do a fair amount of good on their visit simply by noticing those around them and providing what help they can offer.

MJ: It’s true there isn’t much to the plot of this little manhwa, and for me that’s definitely part of its charm. I love the simplicity of the story and its characters, and Byun’s manner of presenting them. I like, too, that it’s not just the smalltown visitors doing good, either.

The old man they meet there is as kind and helpful as they are, and obviously has been helping out the woman’s husband while he’s been in the city. There’s this big, faceless city, but once you get down to the individuals, they are just people like anyone else, and I love that about this story. I think it’s significant that the old man is first seen in the story panhandling on the subway. That person–a begger on the subway–is the easiest for most of us to brush off in our lives as someone on the outskirts of our own experience. Yet he turns up later as a fully-realized character.

In a way, Byun portrays Seoul exactly as I think of big cities in general. They can seem intimidating–as though they might swallow your individuality whole–but when you really spend time in one, maybe even live in it, you realize that a neighborhood is a neighborhood, no matter where you live in the world. A city is just a dense collection of small towns with no official dividers between them.

I like your description of the atmosphere as “dreamy yet deliberate.” That’s the perfect way to describe Byun’s artwork and writing style. And it’s nice to see it used for a warm, simple story like this one. Run, Bong-Gu, Run! lacks the sheer bleakness of Byun’s melancholy anthology, Mijeong, and though some of those stories perhaps have more to them, this one is much more soothing for the soul.

Hyde & Closer, Vol. 1

July 28, 2010 by Katherine Dacey

Move over, Chucky — there’s a new doll in town. His name is Hyde, and he’s a stuffed bear who wears a fedora, chomps cigars, and wields a chainsaw. (More on that in a minute.) Hyde belongs to thirteen-year-old Shunpei Closer, a timid junior high school student whose biggest talent is avoiding conflict. Watching Shunpei dodge bullies at school, it’s difficult to believe that he is, in fact, the grandson of Alysd Closer, a powerful, globe-trotting sorcerer with enemies on every continent. Keenly aware that his rivals might seek revenge against his family, Alysd created Hyde, a plush fighting machine capable of fending off attacks with a magical chainsaw. Hyde remained dormant for almost six years before the delivery of a mysterious package containing a murderous, knife-throwing sock monkey activated his abilities. (I can’t believe I just typed the phrase, “knife-throwing sock money,” but there it is.) Thus begins a kind of magical tournament manga that pits Hyde and Shunpei against an array of powerful sorcerers and their toy henchmen.

You don’t have to be a ten-year-old boy to find the sight of karate-chopping, knife-throwing dolls amusing, though it certainly helps. There’s a gleeful, go-for-broke quality to the fight scenes that evokes the feeling of real childhood play, a sensation akin to chopping off your Barbie’s hair or staging an epic battle between your sister’s My Little Ponies and your Star Wars action figures. Making these scenes even more enjoyable is Hyde, who sounds like an affectionate parody of James Cagney, punctuating the combat with sharp, funny one-liners that wouldn’t be out of place in The Public Enemy.

Yet for all the energy and goodwill engendered by these scenes, Hyde & Closer tends to bog down in exposition masquerading as dialogue, thanks to its rather complicated mythology. The rules of engagement are different for each opponent, which means that Hyde spends part of every fight outlining his strategy for defeating the villain du jour. Hyde isn’t the only character who sounds, at time, more like an omniscient narrator than a participant in the action; the villainous sock monkey, for example, lectures Shunpei at great length about Alysd’s true identity, scoffing at Shunpei for thinking gramps was an archaeologist. “That’s his cover story,” the monkey explains. “I guess no one told you anything.” (Or, more accurately, “I guess that’s my opening to disabuse you of that silly notion!”)

The battle scenes are further encumbered by Shunpei’s self-flagellating outbursts, usually along the lines of “I’m pathetic!” or “It’s all my fault!” Each time Shunpei doubts himself, the action comes to a screeching halt until he can muster the courage to stop whimpering and start fighting. Shunpei is clearly meant to be the kind of average-joe character that readers can identify with, but it’s hard to imagine anyone over the age of ten or eleven finding him sympathetic; after all, his bodyguard is quite handy with a chainsaw. Call me crazy, but I’d find that rather empowering.

If the script is a little creaky, Haro Aso’s artwork is bold, stylish, and suitably sinister. Hyde, by far, is his best creation, with his enormous button eyes, rakishly tilted hat, and jagged seams; he’s the perfect mixture of beloved stuffed animal and thirties gangster, easily transforming from a benign, wide-eyed toy to a glowering menace. (In a nice touch, the stitches on Hyde’s mouth are stretched to their limit whenever he’s spitting dialogue or downing one of his signature drinks: honey on the rocks.) The villains, too, are imaginatively rendered, from the jack-in-the-box with shark-like teeth to the kokeshi with lethal, snaking hair. (Hommage to Junji Ito, perhaps?) The only downside to Aso’s art is his penchant for extreme camera angles. He draws his fight scenes from so many different perspectives — from the floor up, the ceiling down, or directly behind Hyde’s head — that it’s hard to track the characters’ movement through the picture plane; characters have a tendency to pop up in unexpected (and sometimes illogical) places.

Still, it’s hard to deny the appeal of stuffed animal cage matches or teddy bears who swagger like James Cagney, and for those two reasons, I’m going to stick with Hyde & Closer to see where Aso goes with his Fight Club-meets-Winnie the Pooh premise.

HYDE & CLOSER, VOL. 1 • BY HARO ASO • VIZ • 200 pp. • RATING: OLDER TEEN (16+)

Off the Shelf: ParaChara!

July 28, 2010 by MJ and Michelle Smith 8 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Off the Shelf with MJ & Michelle! As always, I’m joined by Soliloquy in Blue‘s Michelle Smith.

Once again, the Manga Moveable Feast is upon us, this month focusing on Ai Yazawa’s short josei series, Paradise Kiss (see Michelle’s introductory post here). As has become our habit (if, in fact, twice constitutes a habit), Michelle and I took the opportunity to discuss the series together, here in this week’s column!

MJ: As you might imagine, I’m quite thrilled with this month’s choice for the Manga Moveable Feast. Since we’ve each reviewed this series as a whole (me almost a year ago and you just this week), perhaps for today’s discussion we can take a moment to explore each of its main characters in-depth. I know I could talk about them for hours, and I’m curious to see how our impressions match up (or not). I certainly have my favorites and I bet you do too. Perhaps I’ll ask you to begin with yours?

MICHELLE: I think with Ai Yazawa there’s always a distinction to be made between characters who are excellently developed, three-dimensional people with fascinating flaws and characters who are one’s favorites by virtue of being just plain likeable. In the latter category, for example, I would place Isabella. She’s warm and nurturing, and completely devoted to George for accepting her as she is. If I had a problem, I’d like to pour my heart out to her while she made me some tasty stew.

But in terms of a character that one could simply talk about for days, I think I’d have to go with George. He’s maddening and unpredictable, but man, those moments when he looks hurt and vulnerable really pull at one’s heartstrings. It’s easy to see why Yukari fell for him….

Apollo 23 by Justin Richards: B

July 26, 2010 by Michelle Smith

From the back cover:
An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it’s a publicity stunt.

A photo shows a well-dressed woman in a red coat lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon—beside her beloved dog ‘Poochie.’ Maybe it’s a hoax.

But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on Earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon—that’s where Amy and the TARDIS are.

The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS there’s no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens.

Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.

Review:
In the run of the Doctor Who: New Series Adventures books, this one comes in at number 37. At some point I’ll go back and read the earlier ones, but I’m really enjoying the new season with the eleventh doctor and couldn’t resist the temptation to check out the first book to feature him and his spunky Scottish companion, Amy.

I’m used to media tie-in books being fairly crappy, so Apollo 23 was a pleasant surprise. Oh, it’s not great literature or anything, but the characterization of Eleven and Amy is very solid, with dialogue that I can easily hear the actors delivering and several lines that elicit a grin. The basic plot is somewhat reminiscent of Dollhouse: there’s a secret base on the moon where experiments are being carried out on prisoners. The goal of the experiment is ostensibly to remove memories of bad experiences that led to criminal activity, but the technology winds up being used to create “Blanks” whose personalities are stored elsewhere while alien minds are imprinted upon them.

There’s more involving quantum links between Earth and the moon, but it’s really a sort of alien invasion/body snatchers story. The Doctor gets to zip around impressing people with his brilliance while Amy does a lot of snooping about. If this were an episode of the show, I’m sure it would be a disappointment, but in this format, it’s a quick and enjoyable read that might help ease the pain of the long wait ’til the Christmas special. I’ll be reading more!

Manhwa Monday: Welcome, Hana!

July 26, 2010 by MJ 1 Comment

Welcome to another Manhwa Monday! Today, I’m very pleased to introduce a new contributor to Manhwa Bookshelf, Hana Lee. Hana will be providing reviews of untranslated Korean manhwa as well as manhwa news from Korea. She’s begun today with An introduction to Korean webcomics, where she discusses Korean webcomics as a whole–their scope and origins–and provides short reviews for two popular comics as well. It’s a wonderful post that you all must take a look at.

Speaking of origins, here’s a short bio for Hana that will soon appear on our “About” page:

Hana Lee is a biology graduate student living in California. By day, she experiments with yeast; by night, she spends her time knitting and eating good food. She is also a longtime fan of anime and manga, as well as an avid reader of books. Hana is proud to call herself Korean-American and maintains her fluency in Korean by watching K-dramas, reading manhwa …

An introduction to Korean webcomics

July 26, 2010 by Hana Lee 15 Comments

What are webtoons?

South Korea is widely known as being the most wired nation in the world. The majority of Koreans have near-constant access to high-speed Internet. Consequently, the Internet has become a vehicle for new artists to make themselves known to a wide audience. Bestselling novels often originate in online serials, top actors can be discovered through personal blogs—and many of the latest hit manhwa make their start as webcomics.

In Korean, webcomics are called “webtoons” (a portmanteau of “web” and “cartoons”) and are available for free viewing on major portal sites, who pay the manhwa-ga to update once or twice a week until the storyline reaches completion. Some are professional manhwa-ga who have already made their name in the industry, such as Huh Young-man, who published his latest series, Kkol, online.*

Others are unknowns with separate day jobs who create manhwa in their spare time. For example, Shin Eui-cheol’s popular webcomic, Schoolholic was based on his daily experiences as a teacher.

Korean webcomics have grown immensely popular in recent years. Several series have garnered sequels or spin-off series due to their success with online audiences; others have subsequently been published in print or adapted for the screen as Korean dramas or movies.

New form creates new function

Korean webcomics cover a diversity of genres—anywhere from science fiction to horror to humor—and push the boundaries of the medium in many ways. Typically, each chapter is published as one long continuous vertical strip, extending beyond the dimensions of a print page. Some series use traditional panelling but others have taken advantage of the scrolling navigation to experiment with different layouts.

For example, as the viewer moves down the page, the blue background in the prologue to Mt. Hyeon Arari begins as an underwater scene with fish and becomes a cloudless sky with birds.** The scrolling allows the manhwa-ga to imitate a camera panning effect as the viewer’s eye descends through the sky to end with a view of a mountainous island, toward which a boat is sailing.

Moreover, since webcomics are usually drawn by tablet and colored with computer graphics software, the range of artistic styles can range from black-and-white line art to photorealistic paintings. Most series are available in full color for every chapter. The online format also permits manhwa-ga to insert multimedia features to accompany their art, such as the background music in the prologue to Monsoon.***

Popular series gain large fan followings, and the online format allows manhwa-ga to read their viewer’s reactions and even interact with their fans through the forums. Series that are ongoing at the same time will occasionally hold mock competitions for viewer ratings or showcase cameos from characters in other series.

Where to find webcomics

Webcomics can be viewed for free on almost all the major Korean portal sites. The two largest portals boast the widest collection:

Webcomics are also available at these portals:

However, not many webcomics have been translated into English yet. Among the English-language manhwa publishers, only NETCOMICS has published webcomics:

The Great Catsby (originally serialized at Daum under the Korean title 위대한 캣츠비)
X Diary (originally serialized at Paran under the Korean title 남자친9)
Almost Highly Classified (originally serialized at Ecomix under the Korean title 2급비밀)

The start-up company iSeeToon plans on releasing Korean webcomics in English as iPhone/iPod apps. (They are also on Twitter at @iSeeToon.) The first series they’ve licensed will be made available in late August.

Reviews

Sunjeong Manhwa, by Kang Pool

The release of this series in late 2003 made it one of the first Korean webcomics. Its popularity is largely responsible for setting off the webcomic boom on the Korean Internet. As one can guess from the title, the series focuses on the love story of two couples, featuring slice-of-life moments from their romance. The protagonists are a second-year high school girl and an older salaryman who lives in the same apartment building, as well as another high school student who is similarly in love with a much older woman.

Although I originally felt dubious about the large age gap in both couples, the manhwa soon won me over. The age difference is not brushed aside but features as one of the main sources of conflict in the series. One of my favorite scenes occurs when Suk calls out Ha-yeong to go walk in the first snow. Ha-yeong wants to discourage Suk’s determined attempts to woo her since he is much younger than her in age. She tries to squelch the romantic mood by saying that she doesn’t like it because the snow is too thin. She tells Suk that she prefers snow that piles up and crunches under her feet.

Undaunted, Suk reaches down and starts making small mounds of snow with his bare hands. He tells her to walk on the mounds so that it will feel as if the snow has piled up thickly beneath her feet. Ha-yeong reluctantly walks forward and hears the snow crunching at her footsteps. The perspective switches to Suk, who watches Ha-yeong walking towards him and feels incredibly happy.

Moss by Yoon Tae-ho

This horror webcomic finished last summer and developed such a large fanbase that the award-winning director, Kang Woo-suk, acquired the rights to produce a live-action movie adaptation. The movie will be released later this summer, and the trailer can be viewed at the official website.

The story starts with the death of Ryu Mok-hyeong, who left his family in Seoul to live in the country. Upon his death, his long-estranged son, Hae-guk, who has recently divorced from his wife and lost his job, decides to make a new start by moving to the village where his father spent the last years of his life. This news is not welcome to the village’s inhabitants, who try to convince him to return.

Moreover, there seems to be some mystery about his father’s death, as Ryu Mok-hyeong was only 67 and did not appear to die from any illness. The villagers, and in particular, the sinister-looking village foreman, seem bent on discouraging Hae-guk from finding out anything about his father’s life in the village or the circumstances surrounding his death.

The art is highly stylized and detailed, featuring strong lines on top of a dark and desaturated color scheme. The overall effect is gorgeous and well-suited to the horror genre. In the panel to the left, Hae-guk wakes up to find one of the villagers snooping outside his window, after he had mentioned that he had found a pile of documents belonging to his late father.

* 꼴 or kkol is a word that literally means one’s “look” or “state”. It’s often used in a negative context, e.g. “What a [pitiful] state you’re in!” or “Get out of my sight!” It’s also a pun for “goal”. (↑)
** 아라리 or arari is a Buddhist term coming from the Sanskrit alali. It’s used to mean a wide natural landscape where there is no sign of people. (↑)
*** 장마 or jangma literally translates to “long rain” and refers to the summer monsoon season in Korea. (↑)

Antique Bakery, Vols. 1-4

July 24, 2010 by MJ 15 Comments

Antique Bakery, Vols. 1-4 | By Fumi Yoshinaga | Published by Digital Manga Publishing | Rated YA (16+)

As I begin this article, I find myself struck by the impossibility of saying anything about Antique Bakery that hasn’t already been said.

Undoubtedly Fumi Yoshinaga’s most celebrated work, at least on this side of the Pacific, this story of four men working in a western-style patisserie in Tokyo first hit US shelves in 2005, three years after completing its original run in Japan’s Wings magazine. The series is a Kodansha Manga Award-winner, a 2007 Eisner nominee, and entirely deserving of both.

Yoshinaga utilizes all her greatest strengths in this manga, rich characterization, rambling dialogue, and a deep love of food. The descriptions of the bakery’s various specialties is enough to make any pastry-lover swoon (enhanced by DMP’s scratch ‘n’ sniff covers). Her gift for gab brings this corner of Tokyo alive–especially the bakery’s customers, who wander in from all walks of life. Where Yoshinaga really outdoes herself, however, is with her delightful quartet of male leads.

The first volume begins with introductions, though it jumps around quite a bit in the story’s timeline. We meet a teenaged schoolboy who confesses his love to a male classmate, only to be brutally rejected; a similarly-aged schoolgirl who admires a braver girl from afar; a brilliant young boxer whose career has abruptly ended due to a physical defect; and a weary salaryman who finds an evening’s solace in the works of J.S. Bach and a shortcake from the department store bakery.

These disparate characters are finally brought together at the bakery “Antique.” Two of them are customers (the schoolgirl and the salaryman) who find their way to their neighborhood’s new bakery with a mixture of surprise and delight.

The others are inhabitants of the bakery itself. Yusuke Ono, the boy whose heart was crushed so cruelly in junior high, is the bakery’s genius pastry chef. The boy who rejected him, Keiichiro Tachibana, is its owner. And the boxer, Eiji Kanda, is Ono’s promising apprentice.

As the series goes on, each of these characters’ histories is further revealed, including their relationships to each other and the journeys that led them to the Antique. Ono’s story is told first, which, despite its rather dramatic beginning, is by far the least tragic. As it happens, his devastation over Tachibana’s rejection serves as a springboard to a new life of self-awareness and sexual freedom that takes him to Paris and back again.

Kanda’s tale is much sadder, though his love for sweets has at least given him a chance at a new career. Tachibana’s journey, however, is both somewhat tragic and opaque, its path forever altered by his childhood experience as a kidnapping victim.

The bakery’s fourth personality, Chikage Kobayakawa, Tachibana’s childhood friend and bodyguard, is not introduced until the second volume, and though his status as a bumbling hulk might normally doom him to a role of perpetual comic relief, he is actually one of the most poignant characters of the bunch.

Though much of the series maintains a slice-of-life sensibility, chronicling daily business at the bakery, broken up by various events and small personal dramas, the series’ final volume takes a more dramatic turn, as a new rash of child kidnappings commands Tachibana’s involvement.

Though this is undeniably the most plot-driven section of the series by far, it is still heavily rooted in characterization, as its main purpose is to reveal more about Tachibana’s motivations and to move him along to the next stage of his life. While this shift in tone seems rather sudden, it provides some unexpected momentum for the series’ final volume, while uncovering much substance within Tachibana, ultimately to great effect. It’s quite telling that the cover art for the fourth volume is the only one in the series to portray just one character.

Praising this series may be easy, but categorizing it is not. Western readers frequently classify it as yaoi, but that label seems woefully insufficient and even misleading. Though its cast certainly contains gay characters (more who actually identify as gay, frankly, than most yaoi I’ve personally read), romance is minimal and hardly the point.

This is not coy, homoerotic fantasy, nor is it anything approaching pornography. And, “Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi” (No climax, no point, no meaning)? Utterly inappropriate when applied to this series.

This is not a negative statement about yaoi, by the way. I’m a fan, after all. This series just seems so far removed from anything in that genre, that calling it “yaoi” makes as much sense to me as categorizing Detroit Metal City with NANA because they’ve both got characters in bands. From the evidence I’ve seen (including the stack of BL manga sitting here in front of me), yaoi sits squarely in the romance genre. Antique Bakery simply does not.

What Antique Bakery has going for it is an impressively rich cast of major and minor characters, both gay and straight, male and female, upon which it places a lens much broader than can reasonably be allowed by romance. Its strength is its lack of any particular focus, unless you count a delightful obsession with sweets.

Lack of focus, however, does not constitute a lack of specifics. Each of the characters is fully-formed, regardless of what else is going on–even the ones who appear for only a chapter or two. And the series’ main characters are beautifully fleshed-out, even those with the most comedic roles.

Yoshinaga’s artwork is as unique and expressive as usual, though she makes particularly strong use of wordless panels in this series. The nearly three full wordless pages devoted to Tachibana’s reaction to his own cruelty to Ono (from a flashback in volume four) are some of the most affecting in the series.

However you choose to classify it, one thing is clear. Like the many cakes and pastries described within its pages, Antique Bakery is a delight few can resist.

Roundtable: Gerard & Jacques

July 23, 2010 by MJ, Michelle Smith, Danielle Leigh, Eva Volin, Robin Brenner and David Welsh 14 Comments

Fumi Yoshinaga’s Gerard & Jacques is a two-volume boys’ love manga that tells the story of Jacques, a young aristocrat swept into a new, terrifying world following the death of his father, and Gerard, the unlikely man who eventually becomes his new family.

Published in English by BLU Manga (Tokyopop’s BL imprint) Gerard & Jacques was recommended highly to me when I first began reading yaoi, but I’ll admit I had some difficulty with it my first time around, due to some specific content in the manga’s opening chapter which kept me from enjoying it at all at the time.

When I began to make plans for this special week of Yoshinaga, I decided to give Gerard & Jacques another try. I was also interested to hear what some of my favorite critics (and BL fans) thought of the work, so I invited a few of them along for the ride.

Joining me in discussion are …