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Show Us Your Stuff: Safetygirl’s Otaku Room

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Apologies for the late posting this week! Today’s featured collector is Safetygirl, a self-described Shinsengumi fan and avid manga collector who owns over 2,000 volumes. As you’ll see from her drool-worthy photos, her tastes run the gamut from Kaze Hikaru to Golgo 13 to Arata: The Legend. She’s so dedicated to anime and manga, in fact, that she custom designed a room in her house just to hold all her swag — and what a space it is! If anyone from Bravo or TLC is watching, I think Safetygirl’s organizational and decorating skills would make a swell basis for a reality show.

One quick programming note: since I will be hosting the Osamu Tezuka Manga Movable Feast next week, Show Us Your Stuff will be on hiatus until Thursday, March 1st. –Katherine Dacey

Hi, I’m Safetygirl! Welcome to my office, or, as a friend dubbed it, “the otaku room.” When I bought this house, I wanted a room for my computer and small manga collection, and it’s really expanded since then! Besides manga, this room is for my anime, cels, character goods, and doujinshi collections. I also LOVE the Shinsengumi, and collect anything with any version of the guys in baby blue.

Behold the Great Wall of Manga!

How long have you been collecting manga?
I was briefly into manga in the mid-’90s, mostly the stuff available in the old floppies, like Ranma ½, Maison Ikokku and Oh! My Goddess, but at that time I was all Marvel/DC/American superheros. Then I went to college and gave up on comics entirely, due to finances and being annoyed by the frequent rebootings and retconning of American comics.

That changed in 2003. That was when a friend let me borrow the first volumes of Kare Kano and Kindaichi Case Files, and I avoided reading them for a while. Then I finally read them… and I was hooked. I had just gotten a promotion at work and had extra disposable income, so a new hobby came just at the right time.

What was the first manga you bought?
I can’t remember what it was back in the ’90s—that was a long time ago! In more recent times, it was Kare Kano volume two. I was annoyed that the manga cows had been handling it and the spine was dinged, but I bought it anyway—I had to know what happened! It’s still in my collection now, even though my feelings towards the series has cooled appreciably since that time.

Close-ups of Safetygirl’s enormous (and drool-worthy) manga collection.

How big is your collection?
Over 2,100 volumes. Even though I cull and sell pretty aggressively, I’m running out of room! When I bought my house in 2004, I designed the custom-built shelves in my office to fit 1,300-1,400 books, which seemed like a lot—I had maybe 500 at the time, plus some character goods I wanted to display. As you can see, I’ve had to be pretty creative; I’ve found that manga can serve as great cord-hiders on the entertainment center. I bought a shelf at a Borders fixture sale, and it holds my Shinsengumi manga on one side while the other has my Yuu Watase titles (and a great place to display my Watase pin collection!). Recently I had to add another shelving unit; this one has my CLAMP collection (with a little room for expansion!) and Yumi Tamura. In the past couple of years, I’ve started stacking things vertically—I don’t like doing that, but the shelves aren’t deep enough for double rows.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
I wish I could say those super-expensive middle volumes of Basara, but I don’t have those yet. The French copies were an affordable placeholder, and it’ll be a good test of my French when I get there.

Beyond my manga, I also collect cels, and being one-of-a-kind, those are rare. The focus of that collection is Millennium Actress.

Safetygirl’s anime shrine. Bow before it and be humbled!

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
The original run of Golgo 13, as published by LEED here in the US in the mid ’80s. It’s flipped! Featuring strange coloring on the first chapters, where flesh tones are rendered in an Oompa-Loompa-ish orange! I’m not sure if it’s really weird, but it’s certainly early in the history of manga in the US.

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
I think I was like a lot of people: I went on what my friends were reading, and things related to the anime I was watching on TV. I didn’t find the manga blogging/tweeting community until much later, and they’ve been an influence. But these days, I don’t do Jump titles like I used to—I’ve not liked one enough in a while to justify the investment of dozens and dozens of volumes. I’d like to say that I’m pickier now, and I use the manga community to help guide me towards things I might have either overlooked or dismissed. But what attracted me to manga was shojo, and that’s still what I love the most. I’ve also discovered that the rest of the world has manga, too, so I’ve been able to improve my rusty high school French AND finish Walkin’ Butterfly at the same time!

Kaze Hikaru artwork.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
Taeko Watanabe (Kaze Hikaru), Shigeru Takao (Teru Teru x Shonen), Yuu Watase, Miyuki Yamaguchi, Kaoru Mori, and my newest favorite is Yumi Tamura. I really wish I knew how to bribe the folks at Viz—brownies, maybe?—so they’d license 7SEEDS. For American comics, the only titles I still have left from my once-extensive collection are the trade paperbacks of Sandman and Astro City.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
I try to keep up to date—I fell behind a bit 2007-2008, which sent me scrambling during the CMX/GoComi shutdown era. Currently: Kaze Hikaru, Twin Spica, Black Bird, Dengeki Daisy, Kimi no Todoke, Oresama Teacher, xxxHolic, Arata, House of Five Leaves, Sayonara Zetsubo-Sensei, Bakuman, Kamisama Kiss, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Vampire Knight, Chi’s Sweet Home, Afterschool Charisma, Kingyo Used Books, Story of Saiunkoku, Ouran, Goong, Bunny Drop, Bride’s Story, Yotsuba, Black Butler, Arisa, Otomen, The Betrayal Knows my Name, Drops of God, Sailor Moon, Dawn of Arcana, A Devil and Her Love Song. There’s a lot of other series I would be buying, if they still were being printed. Looking forward to: The Earl and the Fairy, Sakuran.

I buy stuff from France and Germany, but since I tend to order in bunches on a quarterly basis, I wouldn’t say that I’m following anything. From Japan I buy Kaze Hikaru, and whatever Yamaguchi Miyuki and Shigeru Takao are putting out, and other things as needed. I have a weakness for anything from Hakusensha with a pretty cover. If I lived near a Book-Off, I would need another room. I subscribe to Flowers and Melody.

Manga, anime, and Hello Kitty! swag.

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
Catalog it, somewhere. I used to use Collectorz, but it no longer met my needs. Now I’m fairly happy on LibraryThing, though I still use Collectorz as my back-up. I once was a big fan of ListerX, but it suddenly closed and ALL of my work was lost. So no matter how much I trust LibraryThing, I *have* to have an offline record of my collection. However, one advantage to an online catalogue—it’s easy to access if you’re out book shopping! I also keep spreadsheets on my pre-orders and things I will pre-order, once RightStuf has a sale!

Manga about the Shinsengumi.

Organize it in a way that makes sense to you. I do alphabetical, but I do keep series together (sometimes there’s a name change, like how GoComi’s Ultimate Venus is Big Bang Venus in French), or file by common name. (Both Codename: Sailor V and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon are under “Sailor.”)

Deals and rarities—I scour comic book stores. Some bought into manga heavily during the boom, and have a lot of stock from that era. Good if you’re looking for Emma, not so much for something more recent. For new things, I wait for RightStuf studio sales, and I’m a member of their GotAnime? discount club. I buy a lot of manga; getting it 40% off helps a lot!

To see more of Safetygirl’s awesome otaku room, click here.

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please follow the directions on this page.

How to Draw Shojo Manga

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This slim how-to manual caters to the manga fan who wants to become an artist, but finds the technical aspects of comic creation daunting. “If you’ve ever flipped through a How to Draw Manga book in a bookstore, looked at the pages that explain character design and perspective and thought, ‘I have to learn all this hard stuff to be a manga artist?’ then you are exactly the person who we want to read this book,” the authors cheerfully assert.

The introduction is a little disingenuous, however, as the book assumes a level of artistic fluency on the part of the reader that isn’t reflected in that warmly inviting statement. No novice could use the passages on anatomy or perspective to learn either of these essential drafting skills; the authors don’t break down the process of sketching a body or a three-dimensional space into enough discrete steps for a newcomer to recreate the examples in the book. The same is true for their advice on tools; though the authors provide a detailed catalog of pens, nibs, erasers, templates, blades, and brushes favored by professional artists, the information about how to use these tools presumes that the reader has worked with similar implements.

What How to Draw Shojo Manga does well, however, is introduce novices to the concepts associated with creating sequential art. The authors review the basics, explaining the various types of camera angles and shots, and when they’re most effective; discussing the underlying philosophy behind character designs; and showing how an artist takes a script from words to storyboards to finished product. The book also includes an appendix with practical information about submitting work to contests — obviously less applicable to American readers — as well as strategies for handling criticism; in a thoughtful touch, the authors critique a short story (included in full in the book) so that readers can better appreciate the substance of the editorial comments. Whenever possible, the authors use examples from actual manga to underscore points about character design and layouts; sharp-eyed fans will recognize works from such Hakusensha magazines as Lala, Melody, and Hana to Yume.

The bottom line: How to Draw Shojo Manga won’t turn a greenhorn into Arina Tanemura, but it will help her identify areas of weakness (e.g. poor drafting skills) and provide her with the vocabulary to discuss — and learn more about — the creative process.

Editor’s note: This review was originally included in a Short Takes column from November 2010. When I reorganized my site in January 2012, I created a category for instruction manuals (How to Draw Manga) and decided that this review would be better suited as a stand-alone piece. Look for more how-to reviews in the coming months!

HOW TO DRAW SHOJO MANGA • WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF HANA TO YUME, BESSATSU HANE TO YUME, LALA, AND MELODY MAGAZINES • TOKYOPOP • 176 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

How to Draw Shojo Manga

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This slim how-to manual caters to the manga fan who wants to become an artist, but finds the technical aspects of comic creation daunting. “If you’ve ever flipped through a How to Draw Manga book in a bookstore, looked at the pages that explain character design and perspective and thought, ‘I have to learn all this hard stuff to be a manga artist?’ then you are exactly the person who we want to read this book,” the authors cheerfully assert.

The introduction is a little disingenuous, however, as the book assumes a level of artistic fluency on the part of the reader that isn’t reflected in that warmly inviting statement. No novice could use the passages on anatomy or perspective to learn either of these essential drafting skills; the authors don’t break down the process of sketching a body or a three-dimensional space into enough discrete steps for a newcomer to recreate the examples in the book. The same is true for their advice on tools; though the authors provide a detailed catalog of pens, nibs, erasers, templates, blades, and brushes favored by professional artists, the information about how to use these tools presumes that the reader has worked with similar implements.

What How to Draw Shojo Manga does well, however, is introduce novices to the concepts associated with creating sequential art. The authors review the basics, explaining the various types of camera angles and shots, and when they’re most effective; discussing the underlying philosophy behind character designs; and showing how an artist takes a script from words to storyboards to finished product. The book also includes an appendix with practical information about submitting work to contests — obviously less applicable to American readers — as well as strategies for handling criticism; in a thoughtful touch, the authors critique a short story (included in full in the book) so that readers can better appreciate the substance of the editorial comments. Whenever possible, the authors use examples from actual manga to underscore points about character design and layouts; sharp-eyed fans will recognize works from such Hakusensha magazines as Lala, Melody, and Hana to Yume.

The bottom line: How to Draw Shojo Manga won’t turn a greenhorn into Arina Tanemura, but it will help her identify areas of weakness (e.g. poor drafting skills) and provide her with the vocabulary to discuss — and learn more about — the creative process.

Editor’s note: This review was originally included in a Short Takes column from November 2010. When I reorganized my site in January 2012, I created a category for instruction manuals (How to Draw Manga) and decided that this review would be better suited as a stand-alone piece. Look for more how-to reviews in the coming months!

HOW TO DRAW SHOJO MANGA • WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF HANA TO YUME, BESSATSU HANE TO YUME, LALA, AND MELODY MAGAZINES • TOKYOPOP • 176 pp. • RATING: TEEN (13+)

Drifters, Vol. 1

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Back in the 1980s — the heyday of Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone — Hollywood cranked out a stream of mediocre but massively entertaining B-movies in which a man with a freakishly muscular physique and a granite jaw battled the Forces of Evil, dispatching villains with a catch-phrase and a lethal weapon. I don’t know if Kohta Hirano ever watched Predator or Red Scorpion, but Drifters reads like the first draft of a truly awesome eighties movie, complete with a trademark phrase — “Say farewell to your head!” — and a simple but effective premise that promises lots of silly, over-the-top fight scenes.

The Dolph Lundgren character — if I might be allowed to call him that — is Shimazu Toyohisa, a Satsuma warrior facing long odds at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). Just as Shimazu’s death seems imminent, he finds himself transported to an alternate dimension, one in which mankind’s greatest warriors — Hannibal, Nobunaga Oda, Joan of Arc — have been assembled for an elaborate game. The purpose and rules of the game remain elusive, but the primary objective seems to be mass destruction: the game’s organizer unleashes hordes of ghouls and dragons on Shimazu and his allies, in the process laying waste to cities, forts, and crops.

Like all good Schwarzenegger or Stallone vehicles, Drifters makes a few token gestures towards subplot and world-building. Shimazu helps a group of elves resist their oppressors, for example, teaching them the manly art of standing up for themselves. Hirano provides so little explanation for the elves’ marginalized status, however, that the entire episode registers as a stalling tactic for the climatic battle at volume one’s end, a half-hearted effort to show us that however unhinged or deadly Shimazu may be, he knows injustice when he sees it.

Drifters’ other shortcoming is the artwork. Hirano’s clumsy character designs make the entire cast look like Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, with huge, sunken eyes, large, triangular noses, and blocky torsos. Though one might reasonably argue that Picasso’s bodily distortions were a deliberate aesthetic choice, it’s harder to make the same case for Hirano’s work; his characters’ mitt-like hands and poorly executed profiles suggest a poor command of perspective, rather than an artistic challenge to it.

Hirano’s action scenes suffer from an entirely different problem: they’re riotously busy, bursting at the seams with too many figures, monsters, and weapons, overwhelming the eye with visual information. One could be forgiven for thinking that Hirano was trying to out-do Peter Jackson; not since Sauron flattened the forces of Middle Earth have so many warriors and monsters been assembled in one scene to less effect. Looking at the opening chapter, however, it’s clear than Hirano can stage a credible battle scene when he wants to: he depicts the Battle of Sekigahara as a churning mass of horses, samurai, and swords, effectively capturing the confusion and claustrophobia of medieval combat. Once dragons and orcs enter the picture, however, the action scenes begin to lose their urgency and coherence, substituting the terrible immediacy of hand-to-hand fighting for larger, noisier air battles where the stakes are less clearly defined.

It’s a pity that Drifters is so relentless, as the story certainly has the potential to be a guilty pleasure; what’s not to like about a manga in which Japan’s greatest feudal warriors fight alongside Hannibal, Joan of Arc, and elves? What Hirano needs is a little restraint: when the story is cranked up to eleven from the very beginning, the cumulative effective is deafening, making it difficult for the reader to hear the endearingly cheesy dialogue above the clank of swords and explosions. And if there’s anything I learned from watching old chestnuts like Commando, it’s that even the most testosterone-fueled script needs to pause long enough for the hero to utter his catch phrase.

DRIFTERS, VOL. 1 • BY KOHTA HIRANO • DARK HORSE • 208 pp.  RATING: OLDER TEEN

Drifters, Vol. 1

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Back in the 1980s — the heyday of Dolph Lundgren, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone — Hollywood cranked out a stream of mediocre but massively entertaining B-movies in which a man with a freakishly muscular physique and a granite jaw battled the Forces of Evil, dispatching villains with a catch-phrase and a lethal weapon. I don’t know if Kohta Hirano ever watched Predator or Red Scorpion, but Drifters reads like the first draft of a truly awesome eighties movie, complete with a trademark phrase — “Say farewell to your head!” — and a simple but effective premise that promises lots of silly, over-the-top fight scenes.

The Dolph Lundgren character — if I might be allowed to call him that — is Shimazu Toyohisa, a Satsuma warrior facing long odds at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). Just as Shimazu’s death seems imminent, he finds himself transported to an alternate dimension, one in which mankind’s greatest warriors — Hannibal, Nobunaga Oda, Joan of Arc — have been assembled for an elaborate game. The purpose and rules of the game remain elusive, but the primary objective seems to be mass destruction: the game’s organizer unleashes hordes of ghouls and dragons on Shimazu and his allies, in the process laying waste to cities, forts, and crops.

Like all good Schwarzenegger or Stallone vehicles, Drifters makes a few token gestures towards subplot and world-building. Shimazu helps a group of elves resist their oppressors, for example, teaching them the manly art of standing up for themselves. Hirano provides so little explanation for the elves’ marginalized status, however, that the entire episode registers as a stalling tactic for the climatic battle at volume one’s end, a half-hearted effort to show us that however unhinged or deadly Shimazu may be, he knows injustice when he sees it.

Drifters’ other shortcoming is the artwork. Hirano’s clumsy character designs make the entire cast look like Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, with huge, sunken eyes, large, triangular noses, and blocky torsos. Though one might reasonably argue that Picasso’s bodily distortions were a deliberate aesthetic choice, it’s harder to make the same case for Hirano’s work; his characters’ mitt-like hands and poorly executed profiles suggest a poor command of perspective, rather than an artistic challenge to it.

Hirano’s action scenes suffer from an entirely different problem: they’re riotously busy, bursting at the seams with too many figures, monsters, and weapons, overwhelming the eye with visual information. One could be forgiven for thinking that Hirano was trying to out-do Peter Jackson; not since Sauron flattened the forces of Middle Earth have so many warriors and monsters been assembled in one scene to less effect. Looking at the opening chapter, however, it’s clear than Hirano can stage a credible battle scene when he wants to: he depicts the Battle of Sekigahara as a churning mass of horses, samurai, and swords, effectively capturing the confusion and claustrophobia of medieval combat. Once dragons and orcs enter the picture, however, the action scenes begin to lose their urgency and coherence, substituting the terrible immediacy of hand-to-hand fighting for larger, noisier air battles where the stakes are less clearly defined.

It’s a pity that Drifters is so relentless, as the story certainly has the potential to be a guilty pleasure; what’s not to like about a manga in which Japan’s greatest feudal warriors fight alongside Hannibal, Joan of Arc, and elves? What Hirano needs is a little restraint: when the story is cranked up to eleven from the very beginning, the cumulative effective is deafening, making it difficult for the reader to hear the endearingly cheesy dialogue above the clank of swords and explosions. And if there’s anything I learned from watching old chestnuts like Commando, it’s that even the most testosterone-fueled script needs to pause long enough for the hero to utter his catch phrase.

DRIFTERS, VOL. 1 • BY KOHTA HIRANO • DARK HORSE • 208 pp.  RATING: OLDER TEEN

Show Us Your Stuff: The Loch Ness Manga

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Welcome to another installment of Show Us Your Stuff, a weekly column in which manga lovers share pictures of their libraries. This week’s featured collector is Ellie, who hails from across the pond. When she isn’t baking or drawing, Ellie documents her efforts to learn Japanese at the site 5kanjiaday.wordpress.com. Her taste in manga cants more heavily towards shojo than other demographics, though as you’ll see, her collection is pleasingly eclectic, encompassing everything from Keiko Nishi to Hiromu Arakawa to Katsuhiro Otomo. So without further ado, here’s Ellie in her own words! – Katherine Dacey

I’m another international contributor, as I live in Scotland. I became interested in manga through some friends I made when I started high school. As well as manga and anime, I’m also interested in music, cooking, baking, drawing, and trying to learn Japanese. I’m working at the moment, but I’m hoping to go to university next year to study music.

How long have you been collecting manga?
Since shortly after I started high school, so about 7-8 years now.

What was the first manga you bought?
Volume one of Chobits. It was one of about four manga volumes in the only bookshop in the small town I grew up in, and I bought it on a school friend’s recommendation. I still have it and I’ve never looked back since…

How big is your collection?
As at January 17th, 688 English volumes, including some artbooks, novels and guide books, and omnibuses (which I count as one volume, regardless of how many original volumes they contain). I have three Japanese volumes. I swear it doesn’t look like that much on the shelves, but when I sat down and counted one day, I gave myself a shock!

What is the rarest item in your collection?
Probably a Japanese Okane ga Nai doujinshi that a friend got me from a con. (Not pictured, as it’s still at my parents’ house.) There are several other things I own which seem to be rare — judging by new and used prices on Amazon — including some older BL published by June and BLU; Love Song, which is an early anthology of one-shots by Keiko Nishi and released by Viz in the 1990’s; and a first edition of Legal Drug, Vol. 1, which has the lovely acetates and colour pages.

I also have the complete run of After School Nightmare and Tenshi ja Nai!!, published by Go! Comi. This isn’t manga per se, but I have all but one of the Gothic and Lolita Bibles that Tokyopop published. I also have the first two Strawberry Panic light novel volumes that Seven Seas published before ditching the series years ago. I was so annoyed when the omnibus came out!

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
In terms of pure weird story content, probably Guru Guru Pon-chan and everything I own by Mitsukazu Mihara and Kaori Yuki . I’d say the series that deviate most from the rest of the collection in terms of story content are probably Tegami Bachi, Black Butler and Blue Exorcist, as the vast majority of my collection is shojo and romance, whereas those three are decidedly not…

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
When I first got into manga, I would buy literally everything I saw that even vaguely caught my eye, even if I ended up not really liking it that much. I’ve sold quite a lot of stuff because of that. My tastes have matured somewhat now, and I’m a lot more picky about what I buy, and I buy more stuff online (partly due to moving out and having to pay rent and bills!), and I’ll tend to check out reviews before I buy if I’m unsure about something.

I’ve also come to appreciate more mature works as I’ve gotten older, like Honey and Clover and Akira (which would have bored me a few years ago). Recently, I also seem to have got back into shounen series. I gave up on Bleach a few years ago (as you can see, the vast majority of my collection is shoujo) but within the last year I started buying Tegami Bachi, Blue Exorcist, Bakuman, Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Butler. When I’m caught up with a few more things, I want to buy the Rurouni Kenshin and Inuyasha VIZBIG editions, and possibly Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan. I tend to prefer shojo because it (most of the time) doesn’t drag on as long as shonen series. I’ll give anything a chance though.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
My favorite manga artists, in no particular order, are: CLAMP, Yuu Watase, Kaori Yuki, Arina Tanemura, Natsumi Ando, Mitsukazu Mihara, Ai Yazawa, Hiromu Arakawa and Masami Tsuda.This list is purely based on entertainment value, rather than me trying to be objective about quality… I don’t really read Western comics so I don’t have any favorite comic artists.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Again, in no particular order, Bunny Drop (although I’m not sure whether I will keep buying any more volumes, given what I know of the ending), the Haruhi Suzumiya novels, Sakura Hime Kaden, Kamisama Kiss, Tegami Bachi, Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden (as actively as anyone can collect that), The Story of Saiunkoku, Blue Exorcist, Arisa, Black Butler, Library Wars, Bakuman, Otomen, Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, Dawn of the Arcana, Honey and Clover, Loveless, Bad Teacher’s Equation, Border, Kare Kano, Ouran High School Host Club, the Love Hina and Tokyo Mew Mew omnibus rereleases, Sailor Moon, Kobato, Full Metal Alchemist, My Girlfriend’s A Geek, Dengeki Daisy, Black Bird, Lovephobia, Vampire Knight, Nana, Kimi ni Todoke, Natsume Yuujinchou, Sensual Phrase, Ai Ore!, and We Were There. If they ever get picked up in English again: Nodame Cantabile, Maid-sama, the Zaregoto novels, and the Secret Notes of Lady Kanoko. I’d say the ones I’m giving the highest priority to are Kamisama Kiss, Story of Saiunkoku, Bakuman, Arisa, Otomen, Black Butler, Sailor Moon, Blue Exorcist, Black Bird, Library Wars, Sakura Hime, Kimi ni Todoke, Vampire Knight, Black Bird, Dengeki Daisy, Ai Ore, Dawn of the Arcana and Natsume Yuujinchou. I also have quite a lot of series which I want to buy but just don’t have the money for at the moment!

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
Ikea is your friend when it comes to cheap shelves, and a well-organized collection takes up far less space than a messy one. Your books will stay in better condition that way as well. I organize my collection by complete and incomplete series, but if I know how many volumes are left in a series, I create space for it on the “complete” shelves. Once your collection gets above about 100 volumes, keeping a spreadsheet is definitely a good way of keeping track of it. I use it to make sure I don’t end up buying the same things twice etc.

Check the bargain bin of your local comic shop for rare gems; I found two copies of Basara volume 20 for significantly less than RRP each, which I then sold on for a reasonable price to people on the internet who were missing them. I couldn’t bear to see them disposed of when so many people on the Internet were clamouring for them. I ended up sending them both to the US from the UK. If they’d had volume 19 as well, I would’ve started collecting it myself…

Chain bookshops can occasionally unearth gems as well, just keep checking, but I’ve found most of my gems in comic shops all around the country when I’ve been visiting friends, so go and visit friends in other places and see what you can find! Second hand bookshops can occasionally unearth gems; I found two flopped volumes of Sailor Moon in one local to me for 3 pounds each (just before Kodansha announced it) so give your local second hand bookseller a visit sometimes.

As for buying new series, my local comic shop has a perpetual three-for-the-price-of-two deal on all manga, regardless of the publisher or price, so I’m quite lucky in that regard. Being in the UK, I don’t know anything about US based online stores like Right Stuf, but Amazon and eBay can be your friends as well, particularly for earlier volumes in a series. With eBay especially, watch out for the shipping charges though!

Also, don’t be afraid to have a prune once in a while. If you’ve not read something more than once or twice, and you don’t think you’ll miss it, let it go. That gives you more space, and more money to go and buy stuff you’re more interested in. Free listing weekends on eBay are wonderful for listing multiple volumes as a set. If you’re unsure about a series, see if your local library/a friend/ a local anime and manga club has it or see if the publisher has a preview online, so you can check it out before you buy. Read some reviews as well; see if you can find a reviewer who shares similar tastes to you and see what they thought of a series. If it has an anime, see if the anime is available on Crunchyroll or Netflix etc, then you’ll at least be able to see if you like the overall idea of the series. Plus the manga is (almost) always better than the anime (in my opinion) so if you like the anime, you’ll like the manga more!

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please send me an email.

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 1

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GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is loud and silly, the kind of manga in which the slightest misunderstanding between characters escalates into shouting matches, bone-crunching violence, or incarceration (or all three). It’s the kind of manga in which the hero is over-confident to the point of being dumb. And it’s the kind of manga in which the author trots out the same gags two or three times per volume, repeating them with the insistence of a ten-year-old who thinks no one heard him the first time he said, “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”

I loved it.

14 Days in Shonan — a sequel to the wildly popular GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka — follows the same basic template as the original stories, pitting the hellraiser-cum-homeroom teacher against a posse of troubled teens. This time, however, the action unfolds in Onizuka’s hometown, where he takes up residence at a group foster home after disgracing himself on national television. (“I just tried to tell a fun little story, and see what happened,” he fumes.) Hijinks and beatdowns ensue when one of the residents wages a vicious campaign to send Onizuka back to Tokyo — a campaign that repeatedly backfires, thanks to Onizuka’s cheerful determination and  strong constitution. (No one takes a baseball bat to the head quite like Onizuka.)

Though the hijinks are amusing, what makes 14 Days in Shonan work is its sincerity. In many stories told from the teacher’s point of view, the teacher is a sardonic observer of student behavior, bemoaning his charges’ lack of knowledge, manners, or interest in the subject. 14 Days in Shonan, however, offers a rosier picture of teaching, one in which a good educator plays a decisive role in improving his students’ lives, whether they be victims of bullying or survivors of parental abuse. At the same time, however, author Toru Fujisawa pokes fun at the conventions of the To Sir With Love genre, gleefully mocking Eikichi Onizuka’s unorthodox methodology, gullibility, and exaggerated sense of importance; Onizuka may get results, but they almost always come at the expense of his dignity.

And oh! those affronts to his dignity are hilarious. Onizuka is teased by teenagers and cops alike: they insult him, remind him that he’s a virgin, and Photoshop his image, placing him in suggestive situations. Though he tries to maintain a suave facade, Onizuka can barely contain his embarrassment at the way he’s treated; not since Mr. Bean has a character been able to contort his face into so many distinctive states of disgust, arousal, or surprise.

But the most surprising thing about 14 Days in Shonan is its ability to address serious social problems without devolving into an Afterschool Special. The hand-to-hand combat and barrage of condom jokes helps mitigate against didacticism, to be sure, but Fujisawa is skillful enough to make the students’ personal troubles a meaningful — and sometimes moving — part of the story, inspiring Onizuka to new heights of creativity (and silliness) in his efforts to reach them. It’s never entirely clear when Onizuka is deliberately playing the fool, and when he’s genuinely out of his depth, but Fujisawa is always generous in giving his brash hero credit for helping students, even when Onizuka looks ridiculous.

Highly recommended.

Review copy provided by Vertical, Inc.

GTO: 14 DAYS IN SHONAN, VOL. 1 • BY TORU FUJISAWA • VERTICAL, INC. • 200 pp. • NO RATING (SUGGESTIVE SITUATIONS, LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE)

GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, Vol. 1

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GTO: 14 Days in Shonan is loud and silly, the kind of manga in which the slightest misunderstanding between characters escalates into shouting matches, bone-crunching violence, or incarceration (or all three). It’s the kind of manga in which the hero is over-confident to the point of being dumb. And it’s the kind of manga in which the author trots out the same gags two or three times per volume, repeating them with the insistence of a ten-year-old who thinks no one heard him the first time he said, “Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?”

I loved it.

14 Days in Shonan — a sequel to the wildly popular GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka — follows the same basic template as the original stories, pitting the hellraiser-cum-homeroom teacher against a posse of troubled teens. This time, however, the action unfolds in Onizuka’s hometown, where he takes up residence at a group foster home after disgracing himself on national television. (“I just tried to tell a fun little story, and see what happened,” he fumes.) Hijinks and beatdowns ensue when one of the residents wages a vicious campaign to send Onizuka back to Tokyo — a campaign that repeatedly backfires, thanks to Onizuka’s cheerful determination and  strong constitution. (No one takes a baseball bat to the head quite like Onizuka.)

Though the hijinks are amusing, what makes 14 Days in Shonan work is its sincerity. In many stories told from the teacher’s point of view, the teacher is a sardonic observer of student behavior, bemoaning his charges’ lack of knowledge, manners, or interest in the subject. 14 Days in Shonan, however, offers a rosier picture of teaching, one in which a good educator plays a decisive role in improving his students’ lives, whether they be victims of bullying or survivors of parental abuse. At the same time, however, author Toru Fujisawa pokes fun at the conventions of the To Sir With Love genre, gleefully mocking Eikichi Onizuka’s unorthodox methodology, gullibility, and exaggerated sense of importance; Onizuka may get results, but they almost always come at the expense of his dignity.

And oh! those affronts to his dignity are hilarious. Onizuka is teased by teenagers and cops alike: they insult him, remind him that he’s a virgin, and Photoshop his image, placing him in suggestive situations. Though he tries to maintain a suave facade, Onizuka can barely contain his embarrassment at the way he’s treated; not since Mr. Bean has a character been able to contort his face into so many distinctive states of disgust, arousal, or surprise.

But the most surprising thing about 14 Days in Shonan is its ability to address serious social problems without devolving into an Afterschool Special. The hand-to-hand combat and barrage of condom jokes helps mitigate against didacticism, to be sure, but Fujisawa is skillful enough to make the students’ personal troubles a meaningful — and sometimes moving — part of the story, inspiring Onizuka to new heights of creativity (and silliness) in his efforts to reach them. It’s never entirely clear when Onizuka is deliberately playing the fool, and when he’s genuinely out of his depth, but Fujisawa is always generous in giving his brash hero credit for helping students, even when Onizuka looks ridiculous.

Highly recommended.

Review copy provided by Vertical, Inc.

GTO: 14 DAYS IN SHONAN, VOL. 1 • BY TORU FUJISAWA • VERTICAL, INC. • 200 pp. • NO RATING (SUGGESTIVE SITUATIONS, LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE)

Yakuza Cafe

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Yakuza Cafe is a pleasant surprise, a cheerful, smutty send-up of gangster manga that playfully mocks maid cafes, foodie manga, and yakuza culture.

The titular gangsters are the Fujimaki Clan, a once-feared crime syndicate who’ve launched a legitimate business: a yakuza-themed cafe, staffed by the clan’s former foot soldiers. Though the food is tasty, and the waitstaff comely, the cafe is all but deserted — that is, until Shinri, the clan leader’s only son, discovers the root of the problem: no one can brew a decent cup of tea! Not to worry: Shinri just happens to be an expert on the subject, thanks to his grandmother, a tea connoisseur so dedicated that she grew her own leaves.

Of course, Yakuza Cafe is yaoi, so there’s also a romantic subplot running in tandem with the shop’s rehabilitation. That storyline involves Shinri and a brooding, muscle-bound thug named Mikado, who’s famous for his fiery temper. Though others warn Shinri not to become emotionally or physically involved with Mikado, Shinri finds himself irresistibly drawn to Mikado and his elaborate dragon tattoo. (The tattoo, it should be noted, is almost a character in its own right.)

Yakuza Cafe has three things working in its favor: a cast of handsome men, a clever premise, and a deep affection for the genres it parodies. Shinano Oumi draws elegant, if generic, characters in a variety of pleasing shapes and sizes: broad-shouldered types for readers who prefer rugged men and slender, snappy dressers for those who favor metrosexuals. Oumi doesn’t just populate her story with attractive characters, she inserts them into a situation that’s ripe with comic potential: what could possibly go wrong when former hit men serve tea and pastries to teenage girls? Of course, none of these scenarios would be funny if Oumi overplayed them, but she uses a light touch throughout the story, whether she’s borrowing ideas from The Drops of God — grandma’s tea expertise could easily spawn a manga of its own — or putting a BL spin on a gangster manga cliche. (Mikado tries to slice off his own pinky in order to atone for his relationship with Shinri.)

The main drawback to Yakuza Cafe is the romance. Shinri and Mikado’s attraction is explained by means of a very tired shojo trope — The Handsome Senpai From My Childhood — and never properly developed. That’s a pity, because the other lengthy story in Yakuza Cafe, “The Crimson Seal,” achieves a much better balance between the main story and the budding relationship between a college grifter and a Fujimaki foot soldier. “Seal” also offers the manga’s only really emotional moment, culminating in a Tragic Death as sincere and silly as anything in Crying Freeman. (I say this with love.)

Whether you’ll enjoy Yakuza Cafe boils down to a simple test: do you read yaoi for the stories or the pictures? If the former, you’ll find it entertaining, with passably exciting bedroom scenes; if the latter, you may not find enough visual stimulation to hold your interest through all the maid cafe and yakuza jokes.

Digital review copy provided by Digital Manga Publishing.

YAKUZA CAFE • BY SHINANO OUMI • DMP • 168 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)

Yakuza Cafe

by

Yakuza Cafe is a pleasant surprise, a cheerful, smutty send-up of gangster manga that playfully mocks maid cafes, foodie manga, and yakuza culture.

The titular gangsters are the Fujimaki Clan, a once-feared crime syndicate who’ve launched a legitimate business: a yakuza-themed cafe, staffed by the clan’s former foot soldiers. Though the food is tasty, and the waitstaff comely, the cafe is all but deserted — that is, until Shinri, the clan leader’s only son, discovers the root of the problem: no one can brew a decent cup of tea! Not to worry: Shinri just happens to be an expert on the subject, thanks to his grandmother, a tea connoisseur so dedicated that she grew her own leaves.

Of course, Yakuza Cafe is yaoi, so there’s also a romantic subplot running in tandem with the shop’s rehabilitation. That storyline involves Shinri and a brooding, muscle-bound thug named Mikado, who’s famous for his fiery temper. Though others warn Shinri not to become emotionally or physically involved with Mikado, Shinri finds himself irresistibly drawn to Mikado and his elaborate dragon tattoo. (The tattoo, it should be noted, is almost a character in its own right.)

Yakuza Cafe has three things working in its favor: a cast of handsome men, a clever premise, and a deep affection for the genres it parodies. Shinano Oumi draws elegant, if generic, characters in a variety of pleasing shapes and sizes: broad-shouldered types for readers who prefer rugged men and slender, snappy dressers for those who favor metrosexuals. Oumi doesn’t just populate her story with attractive characters, she inserts them into a situation that’s ripe with comic potential: what could possibly go wrong when former hit men serve tea and pastries to teenage girls? Of course, none of these scenarios would be funny if Oumi overplayed them, but she uses a light touch throughout the story, whether she’s borrowing ideas from The Drops of God — grandma’s tea expertise could easily spawn a manga of its own — or putting a BL spin on a gangster manga cliche. (Mikado tries to slice off his own pinky in order to atone for his relationship with Shinri.)

The main drawback to Yakuza Cafe is the romance. Shinri and Mikado’s attraction is explained by means of a very tired shojo trope — The Handsome Senpai From My Childhood — and never properly developed. That’s a pity, because the other lengthy story in Yakuza Cafe, “The Crimson Seal,” achieves a much better balance between the main story and the budding relationship between a college grifter and a Fujimaki foot soldier. “Seal” also offers the manga’s only really emotional moment, culminating in a Tragic Death as sincere and silly as anything in Crying Freeman. (I say this with love.)

Whether you’ll enjoy Yakuza Cafe boils down to a simple test: do you read yaoi for the stories or the pictures? If the former, you’ll find it entertaining, with passably exciting bedroom scenes; if the latter, you may not find enough visual stimulation to hold your interest through all the maid cafe and yakuza jokes.

Digital review copy provided by Digital Manga Publishing.

YAKUZA CAFE • BY SHINANO OUMI • DMP • 168 pp. • RATING: MATURE (18+)

Show Us Your Stuff: Hamster428’s Shojolicious Library

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Another week, another awesome manga fan shares pictures of her stuff! Today’s featured collector goes by the handle Hamster428, and traces the beginning of her manga obsession to Doraemon. These days, her tastes run the gamut from Skip Beat! to Phoenix, and while she doesn’t actively collect rare titles, her library includes a unique edition of Mermaid Saga. (No word on whether that volume of Mermaid Saga is valuable…) So without further ado, I turn the floor over to Hamster428 so that she can introduce herself and her manga. – Katherine Dacey

Hi, this is Hamster428.  I majored in engineering and make a living doing design work now. But aside from my job and my manga, I’m generally a non-geek, I swear.

How long have you been collecting manga?
If you count my Doraemon days, it’d be since I was six. No, really, I saved lunch money to buy my own volumes of Doraemon and Chibi Maruko-chan. But those days didn’t last long because we moved to the US when I was in the third grade. And it wasn’t until Fruits Basket came out over here that I bought my next manga volume.

What was the first manga you bought?
Doraemon. I must have been six, or something like that, because I couldn’t read a word. And I really, really wanted to learn, because I really, really wanted to know what the book says. Yes, parents, comics can be beneficial to your child’s education!

Doraemon and Snoopy... together again for the first time!

How big is your collection?
700 volumes, give or take.

What is the rarest item in your collection?
To be honest, if they’re that rare, I probably don’t own them. (See the gaps in my Phoenix collection…)

What is the weirdest item in your collection?
I didn’t think I owned anything weird — that is, until I bought an upside-down and backward copy of Mermaid Saga volume 2. (VIZ somehow flipped the cover in production.)

How has your taste in manga evolved since you started your collection?
I used to to read anything and everything that was available, which means shonen like Ore wa Teppei and very young shojo like Chibi Maruko. Now I tend to favor older shojo/josei and little of everything else. I guess you could say I’m a sucker for all things romantic.

Who are your favorite comic artists?
I may have a CLAMP “shrine” and everything, but that’s only for organization purposes. I practically worship Fujiko F. Fujio and Yumi Tamura, the former for writing my favorite series ever, and the latter for consistently writing quality series.

What series are you actively collecting right now?
Skip Beat!, 13th Boy

Spotlight on shojo!

Do you have any tips for fellow collectors (e.g. how to organize a collection, where to find rare books, where to score the best deals on new manga)?
I’m always pressed for shelf space so I’ve had to double stack for a while now. For those who want to double-stack but don’t want to hide one series behind another, you could do what I do and hide half of one series behind its other half. I’m not exactly anal about seeing every volume of a series so this works out for me (although I am generally more anal about my stuff being in alphabetical orders). And I suspect most of us are already using these, but I really recommend IKEA’s Billy cases. They’re the best for manga because of the adjustable shelves. They’re not fancy but they’re highly functional.

Show Us Your Stuff is a regular column in which readers share pictures of their manga collections and discuss their favorite series. If you’d like to see your manga library featured here, please send me an email.

The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty

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Among the many books I read and loved as a child, few left as indelible an impression as Mary Norton’s The Borrowers (1952). The book featured the Clocks, a family of mouse-sized people who lived, unseen, in the floorboards and walls of an old English house, stealing small objects and transforming them into furniture, cookware, and decorations. Norton’s rapturous descriptions of the Borrowers’ home so enchanted me that I still view thimbles and buttons not as human tools, but as tea-cozies and dinner plates for tiny folk.

The Borrowers made a similarly powerful impression on legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, who saw in the Clocks’ resourceful gathering a metaphor for the way ordinary people were living through “chaotic, unsure times.” In 2007, he teamed up with Keiko Niwa to adapt Norton’s story into a screenplay. He then hired Hiromasa Yonebayashi to direct the film version, The Borrower Arrietty, which took nearly three years to complete. (N.B. For the North American release, the film has been re-titled The Secret World of Arrietty.)

Through concept sketches, movie stills, and interviews with Yonebayashi, The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty walks readers through the three-year process of making the movie. We see numerous sketches of Arrietty — sometimes as fierce warrior figure, other times as a round, soft-faced girl — as well as Miyazaki’s first sketches of the Clocks’ tiny home. In every chapter, these rough sketches are juxtaposed with finished images, allowing the reader to appreciate the important role that art directors Noboru Yoshida and Yoji Takeshige played in translating Miyazaki’s ideas into animated sequences. No where is this more evident than in their rendering of the Borrowers’ habitat: the rich color saturation, palpable textures, and intricate patterns make the Borrowers’ world seem utterly real.

Readers should note that the book covers the entire movie, revealing several important plot points. The book also reproduces the complete script — again, something that spoiler-phobes should consider in timing their purchase of The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty. (The film arrives in North American theaters on February 17.) For anyone who’s been impatient to see the film since it was first announced in 2009, or who read and loved Mary Norton’s novel, however, the lush, lovely images in Arrietty are the perfect “trailer” for this much-anticipated film. Recommended.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media LLC. The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty will be released on February 7, 2012.

THE ART OF THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY • BY HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp.

The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty

by

Among the many books I read as a child, few left as indelible an impression as Mary Norton’s The Borrowers (1952). The book featured the Clocks, a family of mouse-sized people who lived unseen in the floorboards and walls of an old English house, stealing small objects and transforming them into furniture, cookware, and decorations. Norton’s rapturous descriptions of the Borrowers’ home so enchanted me that I still view thimbles and buttons not as human tools, but as tea-cozies and dinner plates for tiny folk.

The Borrowers made a similarly powerful impression on legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, who saw in the Clocks’ resourceful gathering a metaphor for the way ordinary people were living through “chaotic, unsure times.” In 2007, he teamed up with Keiko Niwa to adapt Norton’s story into a screenplay. He then hired Hiromasa Yonebayashi to direct the film version, The Borrower Arrietty, which took nearly three years to complete. (N.B. For the North American release, the film has been re-titled The Secret World of Arrietty.)

Through concept sketches, movie stills, and interviews with Yonebayashi, The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty walks readers through the three-year process of making the movie. We see numerous sketches of Arrietty — sometimes as fierce warrior figure, other times as a round, soft-faced girl — as well as Miyazaki’s first sketches of the Clocks’ tiny home. In every chapter, these rough sketches are juxtaposed with finished images, allowing the reader to appreciate the important role that art directors Noboru Yoshida and Yoji Takeshige played in translating Miyazaki’s ideas into animated sequences. No where is this more evident than in their rendering of the Borrowers’ habitat: the rich color saturation, palpable textures, and intricate patterns make the Borrowers’ world seem utterly real.

Readers should note that the book covers the entire movie, revealing several important plot points. The book also reproduces the complete script — again, something that spoiler-phobes should consider in timing their purchase of The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty. (The film arrives in North American theaters on February 17.) For anyone who’s been impatient to see the film since it was first announced in 2009, or who read and loved Mary Norton’s novel, however, the lush, lovely images in Arrietty are the perfect “trailer” for this much-anticipated film. Recommended.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media LLC. The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty will be released on February 7, 2012.

THE ART OF THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY • BY HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI • VIZ MEDIA • 200 pp.

Hyakusho Kizoku, Vol. 1

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Drawn in a loose, improvisational style, Hiromu Arakawa’s Hyakusho Kizuko may remind readers of the gag strips that round out every volume of her wildly successful Fullmetal Alchemist. That’s not a knock on Hyakusho, by the way; like her fellow sister-in-shonen Yellow Tanabe, Arakawa’s omake are every bit as entertaining as her more polished stories, offering her a chance to riff on favorite characters, complain about her job, and reflect on her previous career as a dairy farmer.

In Hyakusho Kizuko, however, the focus is squarely on the joys and hardships of farm life, rather than the pressures of bringing a popular comic to press. Arakawa shares humorous anecdotes about her ongoing war with the Hokkaido squirrel, a skilled crop thief, as well as her family’s penchant for using animal medicines to cure their own ailments. She also waxes poetic about the temperament of cows — apparently, they make great pets — and celebrates Hokkaido’s important role in feeding the rest of Japan. (As she notes in chapter seven, Japan’s dependence on imported food would rise from 50% to 80% if Hokkaido stopped supplying the other islands with its agricultural products.)

Arakawa doesn’t neglect her life as an artist; throughout the stories, we see her interact with her editor, who’s decidedly skeptical about the marketability of agricultural manga. “How come you’ve written about poop two chapters in a row?” her exasperated editor asks. “In a farmer’s story, poop is your friend,” Arakawa cheerfully counters. Besides, Arakawa notes, her manga explores other topics: “I also mention cow teats,” she declares.

As these matter-of-fact exchanges suggest, Arakawa is eager to educate Japanese readers about where their food comes from. She drops facts about food consumption, discusses cow bloodlines, decries government interference in dairy production, and describes what happens to animals that don’t contribute to a farm’s bottom line. She does so with a light hand, however, interspersing the more serious discussions about sustainability with sight gags involving wild bears, foolish tourists, and barn cats.

None of these passages would be entertaining (or edifying) were it not for a solid adaptation. I’ve complained in the past about other JManga titles, which sometimes suffered from overly literal translations; witness Otaku-Type Delusional Girl, better known in English as Fujoshi Rumi. Hyakusho Kizuko, however, is a pleasant surprise; the translator has done an excellent job of rendering the text in fluid, conversational English that’s a genuine pleasure to read. In fact, the best compliment I could pay the translator is to note that I actually laughed out loud reading several passages.

I’d be the first to admit that Hyakusho Kizuko won’t be every FMA fan’s idea of a good read; folks who like Arakawa best when she’s staging magical combat may find the information-dense passages too didactic for their tastes. For curious city dwellers, however, Hyakusho Kizuko will be a revelation, offering them an entertaining look at the day-to-day operations of a working farm. Highly recommended.

HYAKUSHO KIZOKU, VOL. 1 • BY HIROMU ARAKAWA • SHINSOKAN PUBLISHING CO., LTD. • 139 pp. • NO RATING

Hyakusho Kizoku, Vol. 1

by

Drawn in a loose, improvisational style, Hiromu Arakawa’s Hyakusho Kizuko may remind readers of the gag strips that round out every volume of her wildly successful Fullmetal Alchemist. That’s not a knock on Hyakusho, by the way; like her fellow sister-in-shonen Yellow Tanabe, Arakawa’s omake are every bit as entertaining as her more polished stories, offering her a chance to riff on favorite characters, complain about her job, and reflect on her previous career as a dairy farmer.

In Hyakusho Kizuko, however, the focus is squarely on the joys and hardships of farm life, rather than the pressures of bringing a popular comic to press. Arakawa shares humorous anecdotes about her ongoing war with the Hokkaido squirrel, a skilled crop thief, as well as her family’s penchant for using animal medicines to cure their own ailments. She also waxes poetic about the temperament of cows — apparently, they make great pets — and celebrates Hokkaido’s important role in feeding the rest of Japan. (As she notes in chapter seven, Japan’s dependence on imported food would rise from 50% to 80% if Hokkaido stopped supplying the other islands with its agricultural products.)

Arakawa doesn’t neglect her life as an artist; throughout the stories, we see her interact with her editor, who’s decidedly skeptical about the marketability of agricultural manga. “How come you’ve written about poop two chapters in a row?” her exasperated editor asks. “In a farmer’s story, poop is your friend,” Arakawa cheerfully counters. Besides, Arakawa notes, her manga explores other topics: “I also mention cow teats,” she declares.

As these matter-of-fact exchanges suggest, Arakawa is eager to educate Japanese readers about where their food comes from. She drops facts about food consumption, discusses cow bloodlines, decries government interference in dairy production, and describes what happens to animals that don’t contribute to a farm’s bottom line. She does so with a light hand, however, interspersing the more serious discussions about sustainability with sight gags involving wild bears, foolish tourists, and barn cats.

None of these passages would be entertaining (or edifying) were it not for a solid adaptation. I’ve complained in the past about other JManga titles, which sometimes suffered from overly literal translations; witness Otaku-Type Delusional Girl, better known in English as Fujoshi Rumi. Hyakusho Kizuko, however, is a pleasant surprise; the translator has done an excellent job of rendering the text in fluid, conversational English that’s a genuine pleasure to read. In fact, the best compliment I could pay the translator is to note that I actually laughed out loud reading several passages.

I’d be the first to admit that Hyakusho Kizuko won’t be every FMA fan’s idea of a good read; folks who like Arakawa best when she’s staging magical combat may find the information-dense passages too didactic for their tastes. For curious city dwellers, however, Hyakusho Kizuko will be a revelation, offering them an entertaining look at the day-to-day operations of a working farm. Highly recommended.

HYAKUSHO KIZOKU, VOL. 1 • BY HIROMU ARAKAWA • SHINSOKAN PUBLISHING CO., LTD. • 139 pp. • NO RATING