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Manga Bookshelf

Discussion, Resources, Roundtables, & Reviews

Glacier Bay Books

The Manga Review, 10/28/22

October 28, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Over the last year, The Comics Journal has been translating essays by prolific manga critic Natsume Fusanosuke. The topics have run the gamut from Taiyo Matsumoto’s distinctive visual style to the enduring appeal of Sazae-san and Rumiko Takahashi’s role in bringing romance to shonen manga. The latest installment focuses on Miyaya Kazuhiko, a key figure in the gekiga movement who’s not particularly well known to Western readers. In their helpful introduction, translators John Holt and Teppei Fukuda compare Natsume’s essay to Tatsumi Yoshihiro’s A Drifting Life, arguing that both Yoshihiro and Natsume write their “autobiograph[ies] as a history of gekiga. For Natsume, Miyaya’s gekiga form the pivotal ‘chapters’ in his own life as a ‘manga youth’ (manga seinen), coming of age in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s.” That’s a helpful way of understanding the essay’s mixture of self-reflection and analysis; Natsume uses his personal experiences to show the reader what Miyaya’s work meant to Japanese readers during a period of immense social, cultural, and technological change.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Seven Seas announced that it will be publishing LUPIN III (Lupin the Third): Thick as Thieves – Classic Manga Collection, “a curated collection of some of Monkey Punch’s best stories and chapters of Lupin III from throughout the classic manga’s history.” The book will be available in digital and hardcover editions next summer. [Seven Seas]

If you missed the first issue of Glaeolia, fear not: Glacier Bay Books is currently raising money for a reprint. (N.B. The crowdfundr page is not yet accepting pledges; the site should go live this weekend.) [Glacier Bay Books]

Jocelyne Allen sings the praises of Japanese SF Comics, a collection of sci-fi stories by Keiko Takamiya, Osamu Tezuka, and Junko Sasaki. Someone license this, please! [Brain vs. Book]

Found on Twitter: Kiuchi Niboro’s manga memoir about his time in a Soviet POW camp. It’s a fascinating look at a forgotten chapter of World War II history. [tara_chara]

What does Space Brothers have in common with M*A*S*H? The Mangasplainers are big fans of both, and divide their latest episode between a discussion of Chuya Koyama’s sci-fi drama and a discussion of the beloved seventies sitcom. [Mangasplaining… er, M*A*S*Hsplaining]

Tom and Joe, a.k.a. the Anime Sickos, sit down with one of Twitter’s most popular manga influencers, Minovsky Article. [Anime Sickos]

The Manga Machinations crew dedicate their latest podcast to Franken Fran, Wonderland, and Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation. [Manga Machinations]

Scholar Kathryn Hemmann explores the relationship between dojinshi and Western zine culture, drawing on their own experiences “both as an indie zine maker and as someone who has participated in big anthology fanzines.” [WWAC]

REVIEWS

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, this week’s featured review analyzes Junji Ito’s Black Paradox, just out from VIZ. Christoper Farris argues that the book isn’t “especially ‘scary’ in a traditional sense, noting that “[t]here aren’t a lot of page-turn jump-scares included, and even the idea of gnawing, anxious dread is tied more to a character’s interior development rather than tangibly imparted to the reader. Black Paradox instead mostly thrives on general conceptual weirdness, letting Ito cut loose with body horror in time with the broadening of the plot.”

Also worth a look is Megan D.’s review of Happiness, a vampire manga by Shuzo Oshimi (Blood on the Tracks, Flowers of Evil). “Happiness is at its best when it tries to visualize the terror and confusion of a vampiric transformation against one’s will,” she observes, “but it’s hard to shake the feeling that from this point onward Oshimi was starting to rely on a story formula that was starting to get a little repetitious and questionable in its gender politics.”

  • Beauty and the Feast, Vol. 4 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • CANIS Dear Hatter, Vol. 1 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Dai Dark, Vol. 2 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Dandadan, Vol. 1 (Caitlin Moore, Anime News Network)
  • Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 6 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Hi, I’m a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion, Vol. 1 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • How Do We Relationship?, Vols. 6-7 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Vol. 10 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)
  • Magical Explorer: Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)
  • Moriarty the Patriot, Vols. 8-9 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • No Longer Heroine, Vol. 1 (Renee Scott, Good Comics for Kids)
  • Parasyte, Vol. 4 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, Vol. 1 (Brett Michael Orr, Honey’s Anime)
  • Moriarty the Patriot, Vols. 8-9 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Spy x Family, Vol. 8 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Toilet-Bound Hanako, Vol. 6 (Sara Smith, The Graphic Library)
  • Undead Unluck, Vols. 8-9 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 1 (Josh Piedra, The Outerhaven)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: Doujinshi, Glacier Bay Books, Horror/Supernatural, Junji Ito, Kazuhiko Miyaya, Lupin III, Seven Seas, Shuzo Oshimi

The Manga Review, 7/15/22

July 15, 2022 by Katherine Dacey Leave a Comment

Do you know about Azuki? This year-old company is working hard to make it easy for you to read your favorite manga on a phone, tablet, or laptop. Founded by a quartet of manga enthusiasts, Azuki currently offers a variety of titles from Kodansha as well as smaller publishers such as Glacier Bay Books, Kaiten Books, Star Fruit Books, and SOZO Comics. Best of all, it’s free to get started; all you need is a little patience with pop-up advertisements. Folks who want ad-free, unlimited access to Azuki’s growing library can sign up for a monthly membership that costs about the same as a grande Frappucino.

Wondering what to read? I highly recommend Pop Life, a short series about two single mothers who create their own blended family. In a 2020 review, Morgana Santilli praised Pop Life for being a “gentle, down-to-earth manga, happy and meandering. It takes women thrown into a difficult situation, one that is likely a blow to their self-confidence and ideas of self-sufficiency, and proves that they can overcome hardship by helping each other.” For younger readers, Hikaru in the Light! is great choice, offering tweens a first-hand look at what it takes to become an idol. The series is refreshingly honest about how cutthroat the music industry is, and how much hard, unglamorous work goes into being a popular entertainer. Hikaru is a little too tame for the 13+ set—how ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm when they’ve read Hot Gimmick?—but for kids in grades 5-7, it’s just right. (Special thanks to Azuki for sending me a review copy!)

NEWS

Love Hina creator Ken Akamatsu will be joining Japan’s House of Councillors (the upper chamber of the Japanese Diet) this summer. Akamatsu has been an outspoken critic of proposed changes to Japanese copyright law, as well as a critic of various anti-pornography measures. [Anime News Network]

ICv2 just published its quarterly list of the Top Manga Franchises. Not surprisingly, Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, and Spy x Family made the cut, as did perennial favorites Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia. [ICv2]

At its Anime Expo panel, Yen Press unveiled an extensive list of new acquisitions including Your Forma, Kakifly, Honey Lemon Soda, and Doomsday with My Dog. [Yen Press]

In other licensing news, Azuki announced that it would be adding three new titles to its catalog: Turning the Tables on the Seatmate Killer!, a romantic comedy; My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files, a Taisho-era mystery; and Invisible Parade, a short-story collection by MISSISSIPPI. [Azuki]

Jennifer De Guzman offers an in-depth look at Tuttle Publishing’s efforts to bring Filipino komiks to American readers. Over the next four months, Tuttle will publish seven graphic novels by Filipino creators, from Arnold Arre’s The Mythology Class, “a foundational work of contemporary Filipino comics ,” to The Lost Journal of Alejandro Pardo, a collaborative work that focuses on the “dark creatures of Phillipine mythology.” [Publishers Weekly]

FEATURES AND PODCASTS

Over at The Comics Journal, readers can preview the third volume of of Glaeolia, “a curated variety of compelling, stylistically varied, and completely self-contained (at least, so far) works, many from artists that have never before had their work read or published outside of Japan and their local small press scene… Glaeolia 3 contains stories reacting to very contemporary circumstances such as the early pandemic regulations and BLM protests or unexpected pregnancy, SF-tinged comics in uncertain worlds, surreal dramas about grief, coming of age, love, and beyond.”  [The Comics Journal]

Also worth a look: Sean McTiernan’s lengthy essay on the weird beauty of Taiyo Matsumoto’s No. 5. [The Comics Journal]

Ashley and Dee discuss The Story of Saiunkoku, “a semi-supernatural, extremely feminist manga adaptation of a light novel series” set in a fictionalized version of Ming Dynasty China. [Shojo & Tell]

Elliot and Andy devote the latest episode of Screentone Club to Ciguatera and Sensei’s Pious Lie. [Screentone Club]

This week’s Mangasplaining podcast focuses on Hiroki Endo’s All-Rounder Meguru, a manga about two childhood friends who become bitter rivals in the world of mixed martial arts. [Mangasplaining]

REVIEWS

Manga Librarian Ashley Hawkins is pleasantly surprised by the first volume of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. “I expected this manga to be bad,” she notes. “But what this manga does is that it basically takes the character designs and essential threads of the show, and fixes a lot of the problems with the anime.” Writing for No Flying No Tights, fellow librarian Adam gives Samurai Deadpool mixed marks, observing that “this particular book makes a very odd choice: it takes an incredibly simple story that would be a great entry point for newer/younger readers and then adds just enough violent gore to make this book inaccessible to that age group.”

At Women Write About Comics, Masha Zhdanova posts brief reviews of Kaiju No. 8, My Love Mix-Up!, and Devil’s Candy, while the Beneath the Tangles crew weigh in on the latest volumes of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Penguin & House, and A Silent Voice.

  • The Apocathecary Diaries, Vol. 5 (Helen and Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Beauty and the Feast, Vol. 3 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Black Butler, Vol. 31 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Catch These Hands!, Vol. 2 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)
  • Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 10 (King Baby Duck, Boston Bastard Brigade)
  • The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, Vol. 3 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • Hinowa ga CRUSH!, Vol. 6 (Richard Gutierrez, The Fandom Post)
  • The Holy Grail of Eris, Vol. 1 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • I Want to Be a Wall, Vol. 1 (Library Girl, A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions)
  • Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible, Vol. 2 (Jos Piedra, The Outerhaven)
  • Lost Lad London, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Maniac Road (Megan D. The Manga Test Drive)
  • Mieruku-chan, Vol. 5 (Justin, The OASG)
  • MonsTABOO, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)
  • Murciélago, Vols. 18-19 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)
  • The Music of Marie (Helen Chazan, The Comics Journal)
  • The Music of Marie (Jeff Provine, Blog Critics)
  • My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World!, Vol. 2 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • My Next Life As a Villainess Side Story: Girls Patch (Erica Friedman, Okazu)
  • Orient, Vol. 6 (Onosume, Anime UK News)
  • Otaku Elf (Megan D., The Manga Test Drive)
  • Soul Eater: Perfect Edition, Vol. 7 (Krystallina, The OASG)
  • Talk To My Back (Ashley Hawkins, Manga Librarian)
  • Talk to My Back (Jeff Provine, Blog Critics)
  • Welcome Back, Alice, Vol. 2 (Demelza, Anime UK News)
  • The Witch and the Beast, Vol. 8 (Sarah, Anime UK News)
  • Yuri Espoir, Vol. 2 (Matt Marcus, Okazu)

Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: Akiko Higashimura, Azuki, Glacier Bay Books, Kaiten Books, komiks, SOZO Comics, Star Fruit Books, Taiyo Matsumoto, Tuttle, yen press

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