• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Comment Policy
    • Disclosures & Disclaimers
  • Resources
    • Links, Essays & Articles
    • Fandomology!
    • CLAMP Directory
    • BlogRoll
  • Features & Columns
    • 3 Things Thursday
    • Adventures in the Key of Shoujo
    • Bit & Blips (game reviews)
    • BL BOOKRACK
    • Bookshelf Briefs
    • Bringing the Drama
    • Comic Conversion
    • Fanservice Friday
    • Going Digital
    • It Came From the Sinosphere
    • License This!
    • Magazine no Mori
    • My Week in Manga
    • OFF THE SHELF
    • Not By Manga Alone
    • PICK OF THE WEEK
    • Subtitles & Sensibility
    • Weekly Shonen Jump Recaps
  • Manga Moveable Feast
    • MMF Full Archive
    • Yun Kouga
    • CLAMP
    • Shojo Beat
    • Osamu Tezuka
    • Sailor Moon
    • Fruits Basket
    • Takehiko Inoue
    • Wild Adapter
    • One Piece
    • After School Nightmare
    • Karakuri Odette
    • Paradise Kiss
    • The Color Trilogy
    • To Terra…
    • Sexy Voice & Robo
  • Browse by Author
    • Sean Gaffney
    • Anna Neatrour
    • Michelle Smith
    • Katherine Dacey
    • MJ
    • Brigid Alverson
    • Travis Anderson
    • Phillip Anthony
    • Derek Bown
    • Jaci Dahlvang
    • Angela Eastman
    • Erica Friedman
    • Sara K.
    • Megan Purdy
    • Emily Snodgrass
    • Nancy Thistlethwaite
    • Eva Volin
    • David Welsh
  • MB Blogs
    • A Case Suitable For Treatment
    • Experiments in Manga
    • MangaBlog
    • The Manga Critic
    • Manga Report
    • Soliloquy in Blue
    • Manga Curmudgeon (archive)

Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

digital manga publishing

Manga Publishers on Fan Interest in Manga Online

April 18, 2014 by Justin Stroman 5 Comments

Welp, thanks Google! Credit to AnimeKon for that.

Um, I guess this is the best image I could find? Credit to AnimeKon.

It started this week, when Ash had posted a link to Kodansha’s Tumblr that weighed in on piracy. Interested in reading what they said, I checked it out, and after sitting on this idea for a day, I decided to get in contact with all the manga publishers in the US and basically asked them for a response to that query. So a shout-out to he or she who decided to ask the question, and to Ash for linking to it.

I should already preface this by saying that, after reading the responses by the publishers, feel free to discuss your overall position on the situation, because discussion is good, and especially for those who live on the side where you do read manga that has no chance of being published in English for a multitude of reasons, it may be something you want to know. Or maybe not know about!

Note: as a heads up, this post may be updated with publisher thoughts as the day goes on. It’s their choice whether to respond or not.

Anyways, here they are (let’s start with the one who started this chain off):

Kodansha’s Editor Ben Applegate:

Today, here’s how our process works. We read series as they begin serialization in Kodansha’s magazines, and we keep an eye on the promising ones. If it’s by an author or from a franchise we’ve had success with, that’s a major bonus. Kodansha Japan will come to us to with the series they want to push in the future. We also consider which series may get an anime presence. All of these factors are more important than fan requests online. Though there was a time when most publishers referred to scanlations during licensing, and maybe some still do, we don’t. The other manga publishers I’m familiar with don’t either.

This is not because we don’t pay attention to our fans. It’s because we’ve learned from experience that highly-requested series usually produce sales that come in under expectations. The biggest reason is that, unfortunately, heavy social media users are just not representative of a majority of English-language manga fans. But it can’t help that most of the target audience has already read the series online, and thus isn’t very motivated to buy.

When series, usually seinen series, that are frequently requested on social media as a result of scans do get licensed, sales might be okay for Vol. 1 and sometimes 2, but they drop far below expectations on Vol. 3+. My personal hypothesis here is that people who’ve read the scanlations maybe remember to buy Vol. 1 or 2 because they want to support the artist, but by Vol. 3 and later they either forget or feel they’ve done their part. But the publisher is still on the hook for five, ten, fifteen more potentially money-losing volumes.

So, given the choice (and we usually aren’t), I would rather start from zero with a series I strongly believed in and try to build an audience for the legal release than be forced to compete with illegal scanlations that people have already been reading for months or years.

It doesn’t mean we’ve given up on “fan favorite” series. Vinland Saga was highly-requested and highly-scanlated for years. We took lots of extraordinary measures to try to break the “seinen curse,” producing premium hardcover editions with a bonus story, exclusive author Q&A, and other extra content. We also made them 2-in-1 editions to reduce the number of volumes we’d have to release. Whether that has worked or not is still an open question. Though Vol. 1 is doing well, it is discouraging to see basically no change in the popularity of the scanlations since we licensed the series.

Finally, consider: We’ve received some asks about whether having a manga available in English on a legal manga site makes a print version less likely because people have already read it. Well, illegal scanlations have an impact that’s many times bigger than any legal manga site. Something to think about.

So, what can you do? Well, you can stop reading scanlations, and encourage friends to do the same. I have never read more than a single chapter of a series in scanlation, and I have read a lot of manga (not all of it in Japanese). There is enough excellent manga out legally in English to fill all of your leisure time. ALL of it. And it’s increasingly available digitally at an affordable price.

If you still need a little piracy in your life, the least you can do is stop reading series that have been licensed. If you want to see what happens next, wait for the official release to catch up. You’ll survive the wait, I promise. And please spread the word about licensed releases! It can be hard for publishers to get scan readers informed about the legal version.

Viz’s Vice President of Publishing, Leyla Acker:

— On whether it’s a bad thing to read manga that won’t be published in English online when they’ve been fan translated?

I don’t think it’s a “bad thing,” mainly because I don’t think that value judgments like “good” and “bad” are useful to the conversation. The assumption implicit in this question is that the legitimacy of scanlations should be measured primarily by their potential impact on sales. While that’s no small issue, it’s not the main one, which is this: with a few notable exceptions, every mangaka and doujinshika I have ever spoken to about their work being scanlated hates it. From the creator’s perspective, the point is not whether the work is officially released in English or any other language, but that their work has been appropriated by people they don’t know and then used in ways they never consented to, even if it’s being done with good intentions.

— If fan interest online ever compelled them to go back and take a second look at a title?

You can basically copy and paste Kodansha’s Tumblr post on scanlations here. In other words, no. As fans ourselves, we’re definitely aware of what people are talking about online, but in our market there’s not necessarily a direct correlation between what’s popular online and what people actually buy. In fact, sometimes there’s an inverse correlation, not only with seinen and josei, as the Kodansha post indicated, but also markedly with shoujo. Also, if a midlist or potentially more modest-selling title has been heavily scanlated that can act as a disincentive for us to publish it since we know we’ll be faced with diminished sales out the gate.

Digital Manga Publishing’s Sales Manager Yoko Tanigaki:

— On whether it’s a bad thing to read manga that won’t be published in English online when they’ve been fan translated?

When was it ever a good thing? This is not a good or bad thing. This is an issue of right or wrong. It is wrong to take un-consented or unlicensed materials, scan them, translate them and distribute them. This is stealing- YES, stealing. This is never OK. This is WRONG. Knowing this and you still want a “scanlation-like” action in your life? Come work for me at Digital Manga Guild, and we’ll pay you a portion of the sale. I could always use more translators and letterers.

— On whether it’s a bad thing to read manga that won’t be published in English online when they’ve been fan translated?

Not really. There is no magical publishing formula that says “this book will sell well because it has a huge fan interest on line.”


Justin is the Editor-in-Chief of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, an anime and manga blog. Currently is on an anime backlog adventure. You can follow him on Twitter @Kami_nomi.

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: digital manga publishing, fan interest online, Kodansha Comics, kodansha usa, Manga Publishers, viz media

Harlequin Manga: The Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress and Her Sheikh Boss

February 3, 2014 by Anna N

The Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress by Maya Banks and Nanao Hidaka

tycoon

The Tycoon’s Pregnant Mistress manages to hit some sort of Harlequin manga trifecta, because the pregnant mistress in question gets cast off, kidnapped, and develops amnesia in the first 30 pages! The woman with the eventful life is Marley, and her boss is a slightly dimwitted Greek tycoon named Chrysander. Marley finds out that she’s pregnant and attempts to have a meaningful talk about their relationship with Chrysander, only to be shut down and promptly kicked out when Chrysander discovers top secret business documents in Marley’s handbag only minutes after his extremely suspicious secretary pays him a visit at their home. While he might be successful in business, Chrysander has very little insight into human nature, as he kicks Marley out onto the street, where she is immediately scooped up by kidnappers, appearing four months later in an advanced stage of pregnancy!

Chrysander is very suspicious of his pregnant former mistress who has amnesia, but he is determined to Do the Right Thing and decides that he’s going to take care of her and her child. Marley attempts to get her memories back, all the while being slightly bewildered by the continued presence of Chrysander’s skanky secretary and his distant nature. The art for this title is about average for a Harlequin manga, it is attractive despite some slightly odd proportions, and while it doesn’t have the lush 80s retro vibe that I tend to love the most in these manga adaptations, everyone’s hair is glossy and there is a profusion of brooding greek tycoons.

Her Sheikh Boss by Carol Culver and Earithen

hsb

The story for this manga is fairly predictable, but I really enjoyed the art for this title, which had a loose sophisticated style that reminded me a bit of Walkin’ Butterfly. Claudia is a highly efficient secretary working in the United States for Samir, the prince of a country in the Middle East. She’s indispensible for his business, and he decides to take her along when he goes home to his country. Samir tends to view Claudia as an efficient piece of furniture, and when Claudia goes on her trip she is profoundly dismayed to find out that her boss his traveling back to his family in order to get engaged!

Claudia has developed a secret crush on her boss, and she struggles with her feelings as his family regards her with suspicion. As Claudia visits Samir’s country he begins to see her as a woman for the first time, as she throws herself into new experiences with enthusiasm. His fiancee seems very unenthusiastic, perhaps due to the handsome male servant that follows her about wherever she goes. The art captures Claudia’s transformations and shifts in moods easily and there’s plenty of billowing hair and the occasional camel. While the illustrations aren’t necessarily very detailed, there’s more variation with the paneling and I found myself just as entertained by the art as the story. The complications that keep Samir and Claudia are resolved nicely, and overall I found myself pleasantly entertained.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: digital manga publishing, emanga.com, harlequin manga

A Dark Fable of the Forest, Vols. 1 and 2

October 14, 2013 by Anna N

A Dark Fable of the Forest Volumes 1 and 2 by Yuriko Matsukawa

As I started reading A Dark Fable of the Forest I thought that the art style looked pleasingly familiar, and then I remembered that I’d previously read Matsukawa’s other books published on emanga.com, Late Advent and two collections of short stories. While I enjoyed her other books, I think A Dark Fable of the Forest is my current favorite manga by this author, simply because there are some enjoyably gothic elements in the book that are getting me in the Halloween mood.

Dark Fable of the Forest Vol. 1 is available on emanga.com

df1

Alyssa is a student who works at a reporting agency that specializes in paranormal and unexplained happenings. As she’s hunting down a myth about a particular type of rare bird that lives in a forest in Austria where young children frequently disappear, a strange brooding man dressed all in black seems to observe her. Black birds and dark feathers are interspersed with panels showing Alyssa’s investigations, creating a bit of a foreboding air. Alyssa and her companion are rescued by the mysterious stranger, who remains silent as he hosts them in his house, taking time out now and then to brush the hair of an elaborate porcelain doll. Alyssa is determined to investigate the silently mysterious Chevalier Bayard Gran d’Or, but there are events happening in the forest that are being caused more by human greed than the supernatural.

As the story progresses, Alyssa begins to learn more about her mysterious protector as she continues with her investigations into other unexplained phenomena. The porcelain doll ends up actually being a sentient being named Pineau Rouge, but it is amusingly over the top to see the brooding Chevalier carrying around what looks like a miniaturized Victorian girl who has no problem expressing herself.

df2

A Dark Fable of the Forest Vol. 2 is available on emanga.com

The series settles into a well-executed monster of the week manga, as the Chevalier keeps popping up just when Alyssa needs him if she’s investigating murderous plants, unexplained appearances of saints on castle walls, or issues with her own relatives. The episodic nature of the manga is nicely balanced by the developing relationship between Alyssa and the Chevalier, and the suggestion that they may share a connection other than happening to be in the same place at the same time far too often for coincidence. Matsukawa’s illustrations are detailed and attractive, and the Chevalier has enough bird like characteristics in his character design to seem quite otherworldly. Alyssa actually becomes the very type of thing that she’s investigating towards the end of this series, as the monster of the week type story ends up morphing into a climatic battle between good and evil. The ending felt a bit rushed, but that’s often the case with two volume series. Still, I enjoy reading the occasional shorter series like this just because it is nice to be able to read a complete series in a couple days. This is a fun manga to read in October, as the gothic elements are both amusing and creepy. I’m glad to see emanga continuing to translate the occasional shoujo title, as it is nice to be able to stumble across a more quirky story like A Dark Fable of the Forest.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: dark fable of the forest, digital manga publishing, emanga.com

Eat for Your Life vol. 1

September 9, 2013 by Anna N

eatforyourlife

Eat for Your Life Volume 1 by Shigeru Tsuchiyama

This book is available on emanga.com

I do enjoy food manga now and then, and since unfortunately this is a genre that we only get a small sampling of here I’m always interested in a new title. While there are plenty of manga that I’ve read devoted to particular dishes or types of food, eating with friends, or in the case of Toriko eating incredibly weird things, this is the first eating competition manga that I’ve read. I found the combination of sports manga plot structure and endless drawings of bowls of katsudon compelling.

Ohara is a salaryman with a reputation as a gourmet. Perpetually broke due to his habit of going on food tours, he stumbles across an eating competition and decides to try his luck. Ohara fails, but he catches the eye of a professional food competitor named George. I could tell at a glance that George was going to be Ohara’s eccentric mentor because he was wearing a fringed leather jacket, sunglasses, and a ponytail. George appreciates Ohara’s ability to savor what he is eating as well as his rudimentary but sound eating technique.

Ohara begins to be pulled into the world of competative eating, but with some informal coaching from George, he might be ready to take his love of eating to the next level. The situations and characters in Eat For Your Life follow the “try your best” theme of most sports manga, except here one tries to conquer insane serving amounts of food as opposed to facing an opponent on the sports field. Eat For Your Life was amusing. The art was well executed, but not particularly distinctive, and there wwas a decent amount of humor as Ohara reacts with a rookie’s amazement to the world of competitive eating. I recommended this title for foodie manga fans.

Electronic access provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: digital manga publishing, dmg, emanga

Takasugi-San’s Obento Vol. 1

August 11, 2013 by Anna N

Takasugi-San’s Obento Vol. 1 by Nozomi Yanahara

This title is available on emanga.com, and the print volume is available for pre-order.

I’ve always been a bit interested in bento, even though I haven’t made it yet. I like the idea of all the cute bento boxes and accessories you can buy, and it certainly seems like a healthy way to prepare lunch. Takasugi-San’s Obento will appeal to foodie manga fans and those who enjoy slice of life stories. Takasugi is a hapless newly minted professor who hasn’t been able to get a regular faculty position since getting his doctorate. While the manga says his subject area is geography, his research methods look a lot more like cultural anthropology to me. While Takasugi is in his early thirties, he gets blindsided with adult responsibilities very quickly when he gets word that his long-lost aunt has died and left him her 12 year old daughter Kururi.

Kururi ends up being a tiny, doll-like girl who mainly presents herself as a blank slate. She does however get extremely excited about grocery store bargains, as she and Takasugi mainly attempt to bond with each other through the process of making lunch for the next day. Along the way they explore favorite meals and how the preparation of a bento can take on a deeper meaning. Kururi shops around to find the ingredients for a lunch her mother used to prepare for Takasugi after he makes an offhand comment about remembering his Aunt’s lunches. When Takasugi observes the differences between Kururi and her classmates at school he concludes that the way to fix things is to put more ingredients in her bento.

Different dishes and geographic variation with food are addressed as Takasugi and Kururu slowly get used to living with each other. They communicate mainly through food preparation. There’s a bit of a humorous element to this slice of life manga, as Takasugi’s eagerness to prove that he isn’t creepy for being the guardian of a 12 year old girl comes across as somewhat creepy, and his colleagues are constantly talking about Takasugi’s lack of job direction. There are some glimmerings of romance, but the focus of the manga is on food preparation, and I hope it stays this way for the next volume. It was interesting to read about the various ways of making bento in the context of this slice of life story.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: bento, digital manga publishing, emanga.com

Don’t Tell My Husband, Vol. 1

July 14, 2013 by Anna N

Don’t Tell My Husband, Vol. 1 by Kei Kousaki

This volume is available from emanga.com

I have to admit that one of my main criteria for buying romance manga is often the title. So when I saw that Don’t Tell My Husband was josei manga, I decided to give it a whirl on my kindle paperwhite. This is a fairly hilarious housewife escape fantasy title that reminded me a little bit of Lady, Lady and the movie The Heroic Trio, just because the main character’s appearance is completely at odds with her inner resources and actions.

Minano spends her days as a sheltered housewife, practicing traditional Japanese skills like flower arranging. The first story features her going out to shop for dinner, over her husband’s objections. She goes to a bank where she’s taken hostage. Instead of panicking, she coolly manages the situation, giving first aid to a shooting victim and talking about the situation with the bank robbers. When one of the robbers slaps a bank clerk, Minano bashes his skull in with a pipe while commenting that she can’t stand men who hit women. Minano comments to her fellow hostage with a small smile that she’s “Just gotten a little angry.” She then proceeds to execute a divide and conquer strategy on the bank robbers, splitting them up and confiscating their weapons. The police detective on the scene is an old boyfriend who comments that “I bet you surprised everyone with your fragile housewife persona.”

The other chapters in this book follow the same general outline of Minano using her amazing abilities to perform sophisticated cat burglary and rescues a woman injured in the mountains with some impressive impromptu snowboarding skills. Minano’s antics are superhuman and the contrast between her meek persona and her actual abilities is pretty funny. This is definitely a manga to read for story and characters over the art. Kousaki has basically only two character types, and since almost everyone in the manga is blond it is sometimes really tricky to keep track of who is speaking. Minano’s husband basically looks identical to all the other men she encounters, so when he actually has a conversation with another man I was a bit confused as to who was saying what. There’s some slight weirdness about the noses of the characters in full face views that looked a bit odd. Overall, I enjoyed the story and the situations very much. The $7.99 price tag on this is a bit of a stretch given the quality of the art, although I realize that it costs just as much to translate manga with not-so-great art as it does a much more elaborately drawn title. If the first and second volumes were priced at the under $4.00 range of much of the digitally available Harlequin manga, I probably would have picked up both volumes and enjoyed them as a fun, disposable summer read.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: digital manga publishing, dmg, emanga.com

Weekly Astro Boy Magazine Vol. 1

June 19, 2013 by Anna N

Weekly Astro Boy Magazine Vol. 1

I was intrigued when Emanga.com announced that they would be releasing an Astro Boy magazine. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for manga magazines at this point, with the demise of print anthologies. I’ve read some Tezuka, but I’m definitely not familiar with all of his works. The magazine format for Tezuka works very well, because his art and storytelling style varies so much with the titles presented in the magazine, it is interesting to compare and contrast the differences between his different titles in this format.

I haven’t read much Astro Boy before, but the storyline for inclusion in the first issue of this manga magazine is a strong one, as it is “The Greatest Robot on Earth,” where the robot Pluto created to battle all the other great robots that exist, until he is hailed as the supreme robot. This storyline is what Naoki Urasawa used for his manga series Pluto. Astro Boy tangles with Pluto for a little bit, but his creator calls him off. Astro Boy responds to the existence of the new robot by requesting an upgrade of his own power. Astro Boy really displays the virtue of simplicity. The robot designs are so distinct, and the action in Astro Boy is so clear and easy to follow, it makes me think that some of the detail and opaque action in modern manga has really missed the mark.

Phoenix is the next title featured in this magazine, and this is a real treat because I believe some of the print volumes released by Viz are now out of print. The story comes from the fourth volume of Phoenix, called Karma. It is easy to see why Phoenix is often called Tezuka’s masterwork. This chapter featured the story of a boy who was injured just after being born, becoming a monster due to the harsh treatment from his fellow villagers. He encounters a sculptor in the woods and damages one of his arms. The sculptor finds refuge in a temple and begins to reach a different stage of consciousness as he attempts to take up art again. Reading Phoenix itself is a bit of a philosophical experience, as the characters encounter each other in this fable-like story, with stylized depictions of nature inter cut with both action and personal reflection.

The rest of the book is rounded out by shorter chapters for Dororo and Black Jack. It was a bit difficult for me to get a handle on Dororo just due to the small page count. Black Jack, I automatically read with feelings of affection, because the two-fisted surgeon is one of my favorite Tezuka characters. Overall, I really enjoyed the opportunity to read different Tezuka works back to back. It is a bit different than diving into a full volume of manga, but it really gives the reader an appreciation for the variations in art and theme that is expressed in Tezuka’s manga. This is definitely worth checking out if you don’t have an extensive Astro Boy collection and especially if you want an accessible way of reading Phoenix.

Electronic access provided by the publisher

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: digital manga publishing, emanga, Osamu Tezuka

BL Bookrack: February 2012

February 18, 2012 by MJ and Michelle Smith 11 Comments

Welcome to the February installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two offerings from SuBLime Manga, VIZ Media’s new BL imprint, The Bed of My Dear King and Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies, as well as Rainy Day Love from the Digital Manga Guild. In Brief: volume two of Only Serious About You from Digital Manga Publishing’s Juné imprint, and volume one of Love Pistols from SuBLime.


The Bed of My Dear King | By Sakae Kusama | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – This is my first SuBLime title—one of the first batch of digital-only releases, in fact. It appealed to me because it was described as “a suite of emotionally resonant, romantic stories.” Plus, the description included the words “unexpected” and “poignant.” So, does The Bed of My Dear King deliver on its claims? Well, mostly. Although, instead of “emotionally resonant” and “romantic,” the first words I’d use to describe the stories herein would be “quirky” and “memorable.”

The title story is about an electrician named Koga who visits the isolated mountain home of an initially surly sculptor to make a repair. The sculptor, who eventually reveals that his name is Takashi Tohno, gets a little more friendly and helpful as Koga attempts to get to the root of the problem, and when a sudden snow storm traps them together, a bit of booze leads to a “let me feel you up for my art” kind of encounter. I love Kusama’s use of big panels to evoke the wide open spaces around Tohno’s home, and though the pair decide to date pretty durn swiftly, the result is still an unforgettable story.

“Cherry” is about Ueno, an overachieving student council member who only slows down once his glasses get broken, and Tama, a boy who’s friendly to everyone in class but treats Ueno more formally than the rest. Ueno’s near-blind state results in a terribly cute “I’ll take you home by bike” scene and a promise that they can kiss or something after the school festival. You wouldn’t think a bike scene would make a story stand out so much from its BL compatriots, but it does.

The third and final story, “Flowers,” is the weakest of the three. Kumon, a runner, is curious about Ozu, his classmate. Rumors begin swirling that Ozu has impregnated a girl, and when Kumon asks him about it, Ozu trades the details for gradually escalating intimacy. This story has the potential to deal with some weighty issues, but doesn’t delve too deeply, and the ending is just kind of dumb. Kusama writes in her notes that these stories were serialized at different times, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an earlier effort.

All in all, this is an intriguing collection of stories and I’m glad I read it.

– Review by Michelle Smith


Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies| By Noboru Takatsuki | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – I’ll be honest, here. Looking over the list of SuBLime Manga’s debut offerings, my initial reaction was one of disappointment. As a BL reader whose preferences lean towards thoughtful, carefully-developed romance and long-form storytelling, it was depressing to note that the imprint’s first few titles seemed to fall mainly into the categories of short stories, fluffy comedy, and gratuitous smut. Oku-San’s Daily Fantasies could be described as all three, but to a far more satisfying end than I ever would have imagined.

Oku is a bored office drone, whose single joy in life is fantasizing about Sudo, a local delivery man from a popular shipping company. In order to see Sudo as often as possible, Oku constantly orders things online, each time fantasizing about what might happen when his dream man arrives to deliver the package. Eventually, his orders extend to porn videos and sex toys, which he soon discovers are being sold to him by the company his neighbor works for. Once this discovery has been made, the neighbor, Yokoshima, drops by often, interrupting Oku’s fantasies with overly-exuberant friendliness and requests to try out new products. Though Oku initially finds this annoying, little by little, he finds himself warming up to Yokoshima. But can a real relationship ever live up to Oku’s fantasies?

There are a number of reasons why this manga really works, not the least of which is the fact that Oku’s (often hilarious) fantasies provide the opportunity for the author to include a whole lot of deliberately over-the-top, porno-rific sex scenes that actually serve the story. While even in the most serious romantic tales, sex sequences have a tendency to get in the way of the storytelling more than anything else, here they are actually a significant aspect of Oku’s character development, and even help to forward the plot. Even more surprising, is mangaka Noboru Takatsuki’s ability to write sexually-charged comedy that is actually funny, which is not something I generally associate with humorous BL manga. Takatsuki’s artwork is a highlight as well, serving the story’s comedy and erotica with equal skill.

Though SuBLime may not yet be satisfying my desire for epic, nuanced BL romance, they’ve managed to win me over with this charming bit of humorous smut. Surprisingly recommended.

– Review by MJ


Rainy Day Love | By Satomi Konno | Digital Manga Guild | Rated M (Mature)- One rainy day, Yuta Yoshizawa is working at his family’s senbei shop when Shizuno stops by. Graceful and handsome, Shizuno was a first-year member of the shogi club when Yuta was in his third year, and soon they’ve rekindled their friendship. In the blink of an eye, Yuta confesses his feelings, whereupon Shizuno reveals that he’s been in love with Yuta since sixth grade. After a brief interlude, during which these lovebirds realize that they don’t actually know each other at all, they start focusing their thoughts on consummating their relationship.

It’s not that Rainy Day Love is bad, really. It’s just really superficial. This is what I get for routinely judging BL by its covers—and this is a really nice one—but I somehow expected, from the title, more of a melancholy story. Instead, this is fast-paced and a little frivolous, with love confessions that are so abrupt and unconvincing that they made me go “Pfft!” and many scenes where super-deformed characters have dialogue like “Eep!” There is nothing wrong with a romance being silly—and there’s certainly something to be said for a story that doesn’t take its own drama seriously—but there’s nothing really compelling about it, either.

After Yuta and Shizuno manage to get it on, their story ends and the volume is rounded out with a couple tales about Yuta’s brother, Shoichi, and his friend Seigo, who’s been in love with him since elementary school. There’s really not much to recommend this, either, honestly. I guess if you like comedic BL about horndogs, then you might like Rainy Day Love. If you like more serious BL, like I do, then you’re probably going to be bored and disappointed.

– Review by Michelle Smith


In Brief:

Only Serious About You, Vol. 2 | By Kai Asou | Digital Manga Publishing | Rated YA (16+) – If volume one of Kai Asou’s Only Serious About You impressed me with its ability to craft a real, moving love story out of well-worn genre clichés, what’s most impressive about its second volume is its ability to make me forget that they were ever clichés to begin with. Though this volume’s primary conflict is divorced dad Oosawa’s struggle to maintain custody of his young daughter, the deeper issue here is his decision to accept his feelings for former playboy Yoshioka, and come out as his lover. Though the “only gay for you” syndrome is one of the genre’s least appealing tropes, here, it barely reads as a trope at all. On the negative side, Oosawa’s custody battle is resolved a tad too easily, but this is not nearly enough to sink a title this strong. Enthusiastically recommended. – MJ

Love Pistols | By Tarako Kotobuki | SuBLime Manga | Rated M (Mature) – Among the first four titles offered up by SuBLime Manga, Love Pistols would appear to be the closest to “my kind of BL,” at least on the surface. It’s a steamy, dramatic romance, told in multiple volumes (seven and counting), with some pretty complicated world-building and supernatural themes. Unfortunately so far, it’s also got a dull, controlling love interest, stunningly unappealing sex scenes, and just enough exposition to drown in. And while the tragic rarity of multi-volume BL ensures that I’ll give this series at least one more chance to win me over, there’s no denying the fact that reading its first volume was a distressingly unpleasant chore. Better luck next time, Love Pistols? Let’s hope so. – MJ


Review copies provided by the publishers. Cover art: The Bed of My Dear King © Sakae Kusama 2011, Oku-san’s Daily Fantasies © Noboru Takatsuki 2011, Love Pistols © Tarako Kotobuki 2004

Disclosure: MJ is currently under contract with Digital Manga Publishing’s Digital Manga Guild, as necessitated for her ongoing report Inside the DMG. Any compensation earned by MJin her role as an editor with the DMG will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Other recent BL reviews from MJ & Michelle: I Love You, Chief Clerk! (JManga); Only Serious About You, Vol. 2 (Juné).

Filed Under: BL BOOKRACK Tagged With: digital manga guild, digital manga publishing, Juné, love pistols, oku-san's daily fantasies, only serious about you, rainy day love, SuBLime, the bed of my dear king, yaoi/boys' love

Going Digital: January 2012

January 8, 2012 by MJ and Sean Gaffney 4 Comments

Welcome to Going Digital, Manga Bookshelf’s monthly feature focusing on manga available for digital viewing or download. Each month, the Manga Bookshelf bloggers review a selection of comics we’ve read on our computers, phones, or tablet devices, to give readers a taste of what’s out there, old and new, and how well it works in digital form.

This month, we’ll take a look at Digital Manga Publishing’s new iPad app, as well as a couple of manga published for viewing in your web browser. Device, OS, and browser information is included with each review as appropriate, to let you know exactly how we accessed what we read.


Apps

Digital Manga Publishing | iPad app | iPad 2, iOS 5.0.1 – Though most manga publishers have been playing catch-up when it comes to digital manga, Digital Manga Publishing has been in the game all along. While other publishers have struggled with user-unfriendly systems and disappointing selection, DMP’s eManga store made it all look easy, with its slick, robust viewer and large collection of titles.

Given DMP’s forward-thinking business model, it’s a bit surprising to note that they are one of the last English-language manga publishers to embrace iOS as a platform for digital comics. Fortunately, they’re well on their way to getting it right.

(click images to enlarge)

DMP’s storefront is extremely promising, at least at first glance. Buttons across the top indicate a wealth of available genres pulled from each of their BL imprints, as well as standard shoujo and other “mainstream” manga, though clicking on any of these quickly reveals the weaknesses of their iOS catalogue. Several of these tabs lead to pretty much the same small mix of instructional manga and other random titles, with nearly the entire current catalogue coming from their Juné, 801 Media, and Digital Manga Guild imprints. Price point is a weakness here, too. As with eManga, DMP counts on the willingness of BL fans to pay premium for their content, but with most titles going for nearly double the price of single volumes from publishers like Viz and Kodansha, these purchases do feel a bit painful.

I rather reluctantly plunked down $8.99 for the second volume of the two-volume BL series Seven Days, the first of which I’d enjoyed quite a bit, and while the value of a volume downloaded to my iPad definitely feels weightier than an indefinite rental at eManga, it’s disheartening to note that I could have picked it up for less in print from the publisher’s own online store.

Fortunately for DMP, I’ve discovered that I rather like reading on my iPad, perhaps even better than print (thanks largely to inadequate lighting in my small downtown apartment), and the reading experience is something they decidedly get right.

Like all the best apps for manga on the iPad, DMP’s runs smoothly and intuitively, flipping from page to page with no visual delay, and adjusting nicely between single and dual page views, with no reduction in readability.

(click images to enlarge)

The one initial oddity is the arrow tab that appears in the bottom left corner of every page. Though it does obscure a tiny portion of the page in view, the payoff is more than worth it. When touched, the tab reveals a smooth-scrolling view of each page in the volume, allowing for quick, easy access to earlier pages at a glance.

As a reviewer, especially, one of the downsides of digital is the lack of physical memory provided by a print volume. Our minds retain the sense of where something was in a volume based on sight and feel, so it’s always easy to find something, usually even after significant time has passed since the first reading. While it’s not possible to recreate this feeling entirely on a digital platform, the inclusion of thumbnail images to the simple scroll bar used by other manga apps goes a long way towards providing a real sense of flipping through a physical book.

Though minimal selection in non-BL genres combined with substantial sticker shock may make keep DMP’s app from performing as well as others, its top-notch manga reader makes it a winner, at least from a usability standpoint. Good going, DMP. – MJ


Web Browser

Nao Go Straight – Guide Dog Trainer Vol. 1 | By Yasuto Tamamoto | Futabasha, Manga Action | JManga.com | Windows XP, Firefox 8.0
There is a certain sort of manga seen over in Japan that doesn’t always make it to North America, and this series is an excellent example of it. You have the bright young protagonist, who is naive and perhaps tends to fail at a lot of things, but has a talent that is just itching to be taken advantage of. They find themselves at a new job, filled with energy and vigor. Then they begin to have second thoughts, as the job is much harder than they’d expected. Do they really have what it takes to keep up with this grueling regimen? And there’s that one guy, who’s their boss or manager or someone with authority over them, who *hates* the protagonist, and finds fault in everything they do. Of course, as the manga goes on the protagonist learns to find the joy in the job, and finds that guy was being extra harsh on them because they showed the most promise. All is well.

The job and the protagonist differ from manga to manga, of course, and here we have the word of dog training – specifically, training guide dogs for the blind. Our heroine is Nao, who keeps leaving or getting fired from jobs. Her problem is that she’s too empathic – which in a setting like Japan can be hideously detrimental. How creepy, she knows how I’m feeling! Then one day she runs into a brash young blind man, Yamazaki. He realizes that the traits she exhibits are a natural for working with guide dogs, and suggests that she check out a school he has a mysterious affiliation with. Of course, there are other, more experienced candidates there as well. This is just the beginning for poor Nao…

I’ll be honest – this first volume can feel really dull. It’s a slow starter, and that can be hard in a series you’re not reading from week to week. Nao is nice and plucky, but ’empathy’ is not exactly a quirk that reaches out and catches your interest. Likewise, the art is OK, but not great – the mangaka was able to put his bland style to better use in Ninja Papa (yes, it’s the same author), but here it’s merely bland. That said, if you’re at all interested in the actual subject of the manga – training guide dogs – the manga will interest you. There’s about 60 Labrador Retrievers here, all seemingly alike, yet as Nao grows to recognize their quirks they gain more personality – particularly Choko, the dog who no doubt will become Nao’s pet project (so to speak). So, to sum up: decent manga, but mostly for dog lovers.-Sean Gaffney

Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 | By Toya Ataka | Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. | JManga.com | Mac OS 10.7.2, Chrome 16.0.912.63 – In this supernaturally-charged version of London, some have attained the power of “Shadow Masters,” people who are able to use their shadows to perform super-human deeds on their behalf. One of these is teen sleuth Sherlock Holmes who enlists the power of his shadow to invisibly probe his surroundings, a talent that keeps him (and his cocky grown-up partner, Watson) in business.

Though I’m pleased to report that this is a mildly fun supernatural detective series in a not-quite-as-good-as-Tokyo-Bablyon sort of way, the question you may be asking is, “What on earth does it have to do with Sherlock Holmes?” The answer is, “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Though it has borrowed some names from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary tales (including Holmes’ landlady, Mrs. Hudson) and its leads make their living as detectives, that is the full extent of this manga’s similarity to any previous incarnation of Sherlock Holmes. This is unfortunate, for though this series does have some qualities to recommend it (crisp, detailed artwork and genuinely creepy villains, for instance), it suffers badly in comparison to its namesake, and even to most of the original series’ popular adaptations.

The series’ supernatural premise certainly shows promise, though its origins are so little explained in the first volume, it’s difficult to know now whether that promise will be fulfilled. And, unfortunately, a sloppy English adaptation makes for some unintentionally humorous moments, such as in this piece of dialogue, “He is Sara, the actress’ sponsor,” which makes it appear as if the man being spoken of goes by the name of “Sara” (he doesn’t).

Overall, this is not a bad little title, but it might have done better to avoid comparison with far superior works. Though the name “Sherlock Holmes” may certainly draw readers, it’s unlikely to keep them based on such unfulfilled expectations. Buyer beware. – MJ

Filed Under: Going Digital Tagged With: Digital Manga, digital manga publishing, JManga, nao go straight guide dog trainer, sherlock holmes

Flower of Life, Vols. 1-4

August 18, 2011 by Michelle Smith

By Fumi Yoshinaga | Published by Digital Manga Publishing

When Fumi Yoshinaga sets a series in high school, you just know that she’s not going to do it like anybody else.

Harutaro Hanazono is beginning his first year of high school thirteen months behind schedule due to a bout of leukemia. The manga begins as he introduces himself to his new classmates in a manner that communicates much about his character. He’s an honest, simple, and idealistic soul, so is very forthright with his classmates about his illness because he doesn’t like the prospect of keeping secrets from all of them or having to explain multiple times. What he fails to consider, however, is how this information will affect his classmates’ interactions with him, since they all treat him with more consideration than they might otherwise have done.

Harutaro quickly becomes friends with Shota Mikuni, a gentle, smart, and adorable overweight boy whose main flaw is his timidity. Mikuni is also friends with Kai Majima, an arrogant otaku who is such a fascinating character that he’s going to get his own paragraph later. Harutaro and Majima don’t get along very well, but this doesn’t stop Harutaro from joining Mikuni and Majima in the manga club, where he collaborates with Mikuni and gradually develops the ambition to become a professional manga artist.

Meanwhile, readers become acquainted with the rest of the class in the same organic way any new student would. The homeroom teacher is Shigeru Saito, who at first appears to be an effeminate gay man but who is actually a woman. (Yoshinaga fooled me there, I must admit.) Other classmates include Yamane, a mature student with a love for books; Sakai, a perpetually tardy girl with a knack for English; Aizawa, a girl sensitive to the feelings of others; Jinnai and Isonishi, close friends and nice, normal girls; Ozaki, a rather boisterous fellow; and Tsuji, a guy who looks so much like Ono from Antique Bakery that it’s disconcerting to see him nurturing feelings for a woman.

Because Yoshinaga introduces the cast of students in such a natural-feeling way, I found myself caring about them much more than I ordinarily do in a series set in high school. For one thing, I’m not sure there is any other series where I could rattle off the names and personality traits of seven supporting classmates. It doesn’t matter that these characters may not get tons of page time; they’re still fully realized people with their own problems and passions. I’ve written before about my weariness regarding school cultural festivals, but in Yoshinaga’s hands, the festival in the second volume of the series is the best I have ever read, hands down. For the first time, I really engaged with the excitement the characters were experiencing. The same holds true for the Christmas party they hold in volume three. (Plus, that dinky tree was genuinely amusing.)

One of the major things I love about Flower of Life is how Yoshinaga works in some subtle lessons on friendship into the story. Sumiko Takeda is not in Harutaro’s class but becomes friendly with them when her original shoujo manga is circulated around and becomes a hit. Takeda doesn’t care about fashion or clothes, and she’s at a loss when her mother gives her some money to buy an outfit for herself. While shopping, she runs into Jinnai and Isonishi, who decide to come along as consultants. Their first shopping experience is kind of a drag, as Takeda is unenthused by the clothes shopping and Jinnai and Isonishi are bored when Takeda geeks out in an art supply store, but on a second attempt, they’re able to work out an arrangement where everyone can pursue their individual interests and yet still have a good time together. This seems to say “You can like different things and still be friends.” Other lessons that crop up later include “You don’t need to try to impress your friends,” “There can be one-sided feelings even in friendship,” and “You might think it’s nice to be coddled, but is it really good for you?”

Another lesson, “You can disagree and still be friends,” is vitally important to Mikuni. He begins the series a timid guy, unwilling to stand out by expressing his opinion. When he gets passionate enough about something, though—and it’s usually manga—he will speak out. The first time this happens with Harutaro, Mikuni is worried that he’s damaged their friendship, but Harutaro is actually thrilled that Mikuni was able to express himself so honestly and their friendship deepens as a result. By the end of the series, Mikuni has gained enough confidence to express his vision to Takayama, the manga editor who gives their work a harsh critique, and rebound from criticism with a zeal to improve.

I’ve talked quite a lot about the student characters, but the adults figure into the story in big ways, as well. The manga club members discover early on that Saito-sensei is carrying on an affair with the very married Koyanagi-sensei, who used to be her teacher when she was a student ten years ago. Their troubled relationship dominates her thoughts until she finally calls it off in volume three, saying that she loved him because he was such a good father, and it pains her to see him sneaking around and betraying his family. Koyanagi’s unexpected successor is Majima, whose solution to Saito’s woes is to give her something else to be “moeh” about.

And now we come to Majima. I love that in painting this portrait of an otaku, Yoshinaga didn’t just give us a heavy-breathing perv with a penchant for maid costumes, but really shows us how he thinks and attempts to process the world. He is arrogant and a little creepy, with a large quantity of disdain for his fellow students. He seems to prefer 2-D representations of women with specific physical qualities over real women, whom he appears to resent. And yet… although initially detached and unfeeling in his relationship with Saito, he eventually comes a bit unhinged when her behavior—saying she loves him yet sleeping with Koyanagi—does not follow logical patterns. I don’t think he loves her, or is capable of really loving anyone, but he expected her feelings for him to stay the same—the only thing he knows about relationships he’s learned from manga and dating sims, where you win the girl and then she loves you always—and is completely thrown when this doesn’t turn out to be the case. I think the experience makes him a tiny bit more empathetic to others, and maybe it’ll be what he needs to become a better person, but man, how thoroughly unfair of Saito to embroil this poor kid in an adult love triangle that he was not remotely equipped to participate in. My opinion of her suffered a great deal as a result.

The plight of Harutaro’s homebound sister, Sakura, also plays a major role in the story, furnishing some surprisingly dark moments and eventually culminating in the revelation that Harutaro is not, as he had believed, fully cured. He takes the news hard, but once he’s had the chance to process it, he returns to school for his second year a changed man. For, you see, he has learned to lie. He has learned to consider the feelings of others before he speaks. Gone is the Harutaro that can’t abide secrets. Now we see that he has learned discretion—he might want to tell Mikuni the truth, but he will wait for a time when his friend is ready to hear it. He can keep it to himself for as long as it takes. He has grown up.

Lastly, I wanted to touch upon the art in the story, especially the nonverbal storytelling that Yoshinaga employs with such aplomb. The page below is from volume three, when Harutaro has gone to the hospital for his monthly exam. He speaks with the nurse about a fellow patient who has since died, and when he emerges from the hospital, he pauses to look up at the sky for a moment then continues on his way. He doesn’t say a thing, but it his thoughts are absolutely clear: “She will never see this sky again.”

Another trait of Yoshinaga’s art is the repetition of similar panels to highlight the evolution of a facial expression (see MJ’s example from Antique Bakery in a Let’s Get Visual column from last October) or situation. In the example below, from volume four, she not only uses this technique to show Majima as someone not fully invested in the drama of the moment, but also for simple humorous effect.


Flower of Life is really an extraordinary series. When Harutaro and Mikuni are working on their manga, they express the desire to include some universal truths about friendship and growing up in their story, and that is precisely what Fumi Yoshinaga has done. It’s funny, it’s touching, and it’s a classic. Go read it.

Flower of Life was published in English by Digital Manga Publishing and is complete in four volumes. I reviewed it as part of the Fumi Yoshinaga Manga Moveable Feast, the archive of which can be found here.

Review copy for volume four provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: digital manga publishing, fumi yoshinaga

The Color of Love by Kiyo Ueda

May 20, 2011 by Michelle Smith

For this month’s BL Bookrack, I decided to check out The Color of Love, which was among the BL titles Amazon recently removed from its store for (theoretically) violating its content requirements.

Did it deserve this fate? Not in my opinion! Check out my review for the details.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: digital manga publishing, Juné, Kiyo Ueda

Your Story I’ve Known by Tsuta Suzuki

May 20, 2011 by Michelle Smith

While I’d stop short of calling myself an actual fan of A Strange and Mystifying Story, it was at least interesting and I found Tsuta Suzuki’s distinct art style very appealing. When the opportunity to read another work from her arose, therefore, I was eager to seize it.

You can find my review for Manga Bookshelf’s BL Bookrack column here.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga Tagged With: digital manga publishing, Juné, Tsuta Suzuki

Right Here, Right Now! 1-2 by Souya Himawari

April 20, 2011 by Michelle Smith

This time travel historical romance is actually a lot more rational than one would expect. Unfortunately, the romance is the least successful element of the story.

You can find my review for BL Bookrack here.

Review copies provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Historical Fiction, Manga Tagged With: digital manga publishing, Juné, Souya Himawari

My Bad! by Rize Shinba

March 31, 2011 by Michelle Smith

I didn’t think I was interested in reading My Bad! at first, since I typically don’t enjoy BL comedies, but after reading Shinba’s Intriguing Secrets, I changed my mind.

I’m glad I did, because the stories in this collection are quirky and often genuinely funny. “Stamp Please!,” the story of a guy who falls in love with his amiable postman, is a particular favorite.

You can find my review—as part of this month’s BL Bookrack column at Manga Bookshelf—here.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: digital manga publishing, Juné, Rize Shinba

Inside the DMG, Week 8

March 22, 2011 by MJ 3 Comments

Actually, “Inside the DMG” is a misleading title, since there has been little action on that front since last month’s teleconferences. As members wait for their contracts (perhaps forthcoming in the next couple of weeks), most have been reluctant to ask too many questions, even on the Guild’s message boards. With DMP President Hikaru Sasahara visiting crisis-stricken Japan, the general sense around the forums has been very much wait-and-see.

That said, yesterday’s press release from the company suggests that its President has been hard at work overseas! Check out the full text below:


Gardena, CA (March 21, 2011) – Digital Manga is excited to announce the first acquisition of 487 titles from Japanese publishers for the Digital Manga Guild (DMG). That number is expected to grow exponentially, as publishers have shown an increased interest within the past few weeks to be a part of DMG.

While the names of the publishers must still be kept under wraps, the growing amount of titles has astounded everyone at Digital Manga Publishing (DMP). In addition, the genres have varied between yaoi, shojo, josei, and seinen, with more to come. DMG has been President Sasahara’s personal project over the past years, as he sought a new way to produce more titles quickly for manga fans. The Guild finally came to fruition in October of last year under the DMP umbrella, and has steadily grown with over 1,100 members joining to take part in this manga community initiative. With their help, DMG promises to be a guaranteed success.

The titles keep rolling in from Japan, further establishing the Digital Manga Guild as a serious business changing the way manga will be localized.


Personally, I’m a fan of the new counter graphic, which very much illustrates the vision presented to us all by Mr. Sasahara in the teleconferences (both of which can now be downloaded from the Guild’s main page).

Meanwhile, we continue in “wait and see” mode. I hope to be reporting on contracts in the very near future, and perhaps even on what’s next for the beta groups!

Filed Under: UNSHELVED Tagged With: digital manga guild, digital manga publishing, dmg, Inside the DMG

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Next Page »
 | Log in
Copyright © 2010 Manga Bookshelf | Powered by WordPress & the Genesis Framework