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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

Going Digital: January 2012

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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.

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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.

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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

BL Bookrack: December 2011

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Welcome to the year’s final installment of BL Bookrack! This month, MJand Michelle take a look at two offerings from the Digital Manga Guild, Climb On To My Shoulders and The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe, as well as Pet On Duty from JManga.

Climb On To My Shoulders | By Yuhki Takada | Digital Manga Guild | Rated T (13+) – Teen computer programmers Trey and Paul want to make a splash with their tic-tac-toe program, but a chance meeting with wheeler-dealer MJcatapults their hobby to a new (questionably stable) level. Can their budding business (or their longtime friendship) survive MJ’s “help”?

This title represents very well the greatest advantage to the Digital Manga Guild, at least for readers. Though it’s probably one of the most interesting and unique BL titles translated into English to date, it’s not difficult to see why Climb On To My Shoulders might have been an unlikely choice for traditional licensing. On one hand, so few of the genre’s usual tropes are present in this book, it’s almost inevitable that it will fall short of some fans’ expectations. And while the absence of those precise elements would doubtlessly make the book more appealing to others, there is one tricky issue that may turn those readers off as well. In the end, it’s hard to say exactly who this story’s audience is, though there’s a lot to recommend it.

While 1960s high school computer nerds may not seem like obvious BL fodder, Climb On To My Shoulders proves they emphatically are, as long as you’re on board for more bromance than sex. As its “Teen” rating suggests, this manga offers virtually no sexual content, but it also steers clear of the syrupy hearts ‘n’ flowers that often accompany teen-rated BL fare.

Unresolved sexual tension and socially-awkward adolescent male bonding are what you’ll get here, written with a level of insightful nuance that sets my UST-loving heart a-flutter. The only caveat here, is that 9th-grader Trey is drawn to resemble a curly-haired elementary schooler (so much so, that it’s part of the plot), inserting a serious element of squick into what would otherwise be one of the best comedic teen love triangles to ever hit the (virtual) shelves.

Frankly, though, the squick is worth it. While pondering Trey’s burgeoning crush on MJ(and Paul’s long-standing devotion to Trey) may be genuinely discomfiting alongside Takada’s cutie-pie artwork, this book is far too compelling and quirky to miss. Thanks, DMG, for making this kind of oddball release possible. I hope to see many more like it. – Review by MJ

Pet on Duty | By Nase Yamato | JManga | Rated Mature (18+) – When twenty-something Mizuki loses his job (and subsequently, his housing), he turns to his older brother for help. Unfortunately, all his brother has to offer is a covert existence in his company’s dormitory which doesn’t allow guests. Reduced to life as a forbidden housepet, Mizuki finds himself drifting (much like a real-life cat) towards the dorm’s least friendly resident, his brother’s roommate, Kudou.

Released in print by the now-defunct Boysenberry Books, Pet on Duty represents one of the manga community’s greatest hopes for digital publisher JManga—the license rescue. Though the book is available on the Kindle by way of its Japanese publisher, Libre Shuppan, JManga’s platform makes it once again widely available to new readers.

Is Pet on Duty worth rescuing? My verdict: probably.

There’s nothing special or unusual here, and the book’s house cat metaphor gets old fast (nothing cements an unbalanced seme/uke relationship like the insinuation that the uke is actually a pet). But Mizuki’s relationship with Kudou is genuinely sweet, and the author takes care to avoid the questionably-consensual sex that so often pervades these kinds of titles by consistently making “pet” Mizuki the aggressor in all sexual situations. And though there’s little going on outside of the story’s primary romance, that tends to be a plus in a single-volume manga, where so many authors bite off more than they can chew.

Nase Yamato’s artwork is sweetly expressive, with a mix of reality and fantasy elements that work together surprisingly well. She spends a lot of time on detail around her character’s eyes, giving them a level of real-life shading and contour one rarely encounters in quick-fix romance manga, while also maintaining a kind of doll-like beauty that anchors them firmly in a fantasy space. It’s an effective combination, and it suits her story well.

Though Pet on Duty is far from original, it’s a decidedly enjoyable one-shot, suitable for most fans of the genre. – Review by MJ

The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe | By Puku Okuyama | Digital Manga Guild | Rated YA (16+) – Having enjoyed Okuyama’s short story collection Warning! Whispers of Love, I was eager to try The Rule of Standing on Tiptoe, a volume-long one-shot nicely translated/adapted by the DMG group Cynical Pink.

This is the story of a mismatched pair of high-school boys: small and hyper Kosuke—who earns the nickname “Ham-chan” (hamster) through a combination of looks, behavior, and an alternate reading of a character in his name—and tall and popular-with-girls Raku, who has wearied of standing out due to his ethnicity (he’s only half-Japanese) and is therefore disguising himself with hair dye and black contact lenses. They become close friends and, actually, the entirety of the book is basically their interaction as friends up until the moment they decide to become something more, complete with many comedic episodes (many of which are actually funny) and a supporting cast of quirky classmates that put me in mind of Flower of Life, even though they can’t really rival that group for sheer awesomeness.

Overall, the story is very cute and innocent—there’s really no reason this couldn’t qualify for a Teen (13+) rating, though perhaps 16+ is as low as one can currently go for a love story involving two boys. There are a few things about it that could’ve been better, though. The emphasis on comedy frequently calls for Kosuke to behave in an antic and rather immature way, making it difficult to see him as someone who is mature enough to embark upon a relationship. Perhaps it is this lack of romantic tension between the leads that forces Okuyama to employ the old oops-I-tripped-and-fell-on-you maneuver multiple times in order to get her characters to consider smooching one another.

Neither of these issues prevents me from recommending the manga, however, and I think it would probably make an excellent “gateway manga” for anyone interested in BL but averse to explicit content. – Review by Michelle Smith

Review copies provided by the publisher.

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.

PR: JManga offers free Sherlock Holmes

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Until December 27th, sign up for a paid subscription at JManga, and you’ll be awarded with the free first volume of Toya Ataka’s adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, now available on the site.

About Sherlock Holmes (from JManga’s website):

Story
Holmes is the master of deduction. His partner is just as keen. He is Watson.

About Volume 1
In a London cloaked in darkness, the Shadow Masters and their nightmarish crimes run rampant. Up against them, as they use the shadows to commit impossible crimes, is none other than the handsome young detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson. In a city controlled by evil, an overwhelming battle of logic unfolds as Holmes takes on the ethereal-like shadow creatures one by one!! Is Holmes’ shadow really his own!?

I suspect very few of you are unfamiliar with Holmes and Watson, nor is this the first graphic novel adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels. How well does this one hold up? There’s only one way to find out!

Click here for all the details from JManga.

JManga Slashes Prices! (Well, Temporarily at Least)

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Even though I grumbled a little at JManga’s prices, I was mostly okay with paying the equivalent of $8.99 for a manga that would likely never get licensed for a North American print release. Still, because I wanted them to do well enough to stick around for a long time, I hoped they would reduce their prices, perhaps emulating VIZ’s $4.99-per-volume pricing strategy.

Well, happy news! JManga is having a “sale” where they’re doing exactly that. Not only that, they’re making the surprising goodwill gesture of refunding users 50% of the credits they spent under the old pricing structure. “Holy crap!” I said aloud, when I read that part.

The one drawback to this is that they haven’t been adding many new series lately. I’ve pretty much bought all the ones I wanted and am waiting for either new stuff or some second volumes to become available. I now have a hefty points balance without much to spend it on.

Anyway, if you’ve been holding back on JManga before, now’s a great time to check it out. And hopefully increased interest will show JManga that $4.99 is the way to go and this will become a permanent thing.

Ekiben Hitoritabi, Vol. 1

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By Jun Hayase | Published by Futabasha | Available in English at JManga

Even if JManga didn’t offer anything else to interest me, I think I would still love them forever for introducing me to Ekiben Hitoritabi. (The ekiben in the title refers to the boxed meals sold at train stations throughout Japan, while hitoritabi means “a trip undertaken alone.”)

Ekiben Hitoritabi is a slice-of-life story about an ordinary 35-year-old train enthusiast named Daisuke Nakahara whose wife gives him a ticket to Kyushu by special express sleeper train for their tenth anniversary. Once he gets to Kyushu, Daisuke begins making his way north by taking a variety of local and little-used rail lines. He’s accompanied throughout most of the first volume by a journalist named Nana, whom he educates on railroad history and exposes to the wide variety of tasty ekiben to be found at the stations they visit. When they’re not rhapsodizing over the contents of these ekiben, they’re admiring the scenery or the trains themselves.

I don’t think this is a manga for everyone. The biggest source of tension, for example, is worrying whether Daisuke and Nana are going to miss their train when it’s taking longer than expected to procure ekiben. Daisuke likes everything he tastes—and, indeed, his love of ekiben has inspired him to open a bento shop of his own in Tokyo—and is in perpetually good spirits. There’s always a page turn before the contents of the bento are revealed, so that each always appears on the upper right-hand side, with each component identified. Someone is bound to make a remark about the taste permeating his/her mouth, too.

But it’s just so charming. (One learns a lot about Japanese geography, too.) Daisuke is content with his life and with taking his leisurely time, and he makes it look so awesome that I am frankly envious. Now I want to travel Japan by local rail and sample a bunch of ekiben! I must admit, though, that I’d be reluctant to try some of them. And the one that looked the best to me was the only one Daisuke had anything even slightly negative to say about. Here it is, the Shaomai Bento:

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Shaomai is the Kyushu term for shumai, and after noticing that many of the ekiben contain kinshi eggs, I had to look them up and I WANT SOME ON RICE RIGHT NOW. That, of course, is the danger with Ekiben Hitoritabi: reading it while hungry is sheer torture.

What’s not torture is the translation, which is better than I expected. I did get the sense that the work was spread between several people, however, because treatment of sound effects was inconsistent and some errors (like “bento’s” instead of “bentos”) cropped up only intermittently. I never had any issues with comprehension, though, and JManga welcomes feedback, so I did leave them a few notes about the minor problems I noticed. Splitting a word between two lines seemed to be an issue, for example:

On the whole, however, I am utterly delighted that I got to read Ekiben Hitoritabi. I doubt it would’ve sold too well in print format, so if digital is the only way I can get it, then I am just grateful to have the chance. Grateful and yet impatient, because I am going to need volume two pretty soon. And some kinshi eggs.

Ekiben Hitoritabi is up to volume thirteen in Japan and is still ongoing.

Pick of the Week: JManga

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With only one volume of new manga shipping to Midtown Comics, this week’s pick looked bleak. Fortunately, David came to the rescue, by suggesting a new way for us to spend our money. See below!

MICHELLE: The big news in the manga sphere this week was JManga‘s launch on 8/17. I have already spent more money than I’d intended snapping up first volumes of some intriguing-looking series. All look potentially great, but I am perhaps most interested to read Ekiben Hitoritabi, a seinen series from Futabasha in which a train-loving man receives a trip around Japan from his wife on their tenth wedding anniversary. He proceeds to travel around, sampling the bentos available at the various stations. Like Sean mentioned in his recent review of Urameshiya, what I was really looking for out of JManga was a title I’d never heard of before that probably wouldn’t have sold well in a print edition. Ekiben Hitoritabi seems to fit the bill perfectly, and I’m really looking forward to reading it.

SEAN: As has been noted, I’ve already reviewed a manga from Futabasha, Urameshiya. I therefore wanted to highlight something new by another company. Shonen Gahosha has only free previews (in Japanese) of its titles best known here in America – Excel Saga, Hellsing, and Trigun). But it does have Volume 1 in English of a title that has not been released here – Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, which translates approximately to ‘And Yet The Town Turns’ and is generally referred to as ‘Sore-Machi’. It’s about a maid cafe in a small town, and our plucky hero who tries to deal with events as best she can despite being not a particularly good maid. The manga also got an anime in Japan in late 2010, which might be why it’s available here, and is still running in Young King OURS, Shonen Gahosha’s best known magazine. In amongst all the worthy josei and seinen manga that my colleagues will no doubt be pushing, it’s nice to see a goofy, weird, slice-of-life maid comedy popping up as well to cater to slice-of-life fans and maid otaku (though I suspect this might be a bit too strange for the typical otaku).

MJ: With so much to choose from, I hardly know where to start! But I do have my eye on Hyakkiyakoushou, one of the site’s josei series from mangaka Ichiko Ima, previously licensed (but never published) by Aurora Publishing. I’m always a sucker for supernatural manga, and this one has lured me in with its free preview. There’s no new ground here, really, in terms of ghost stories, but it looks genuinely creepy and a little melancholy, both of which tend to appeal to me. It’s award-winning, according to the internet, with expressive artwork and some nice period details. The names of the first three chapters (“The Voice Calling from the Darkness”, “The Sea-Hare” and “Cherry Tree Sparrow”) appeal to my sensibilities as well. Looks like my kind of manga!

DAVID: One of my personal fascinations is fixated on comics that explore the way people work and the way that activity factors into their lives. I love just about any comic that’s set in a workplace in a meaningful way, and I think there are far too few of them. So the first offering to really grab my attention would have to be Anesthesiologist Hana by Nakao Hakua and Kabbei Matsumoto. The title is about as literal as you can expect from manga, offering a realistic depiction of the challenges of a young woman working as an anesthesiologist, an often-under-appreciated medical profession. The manga does not seem to offer a particularly realistic depiction of boobs, but you’re cutting out a lot of seinen if you use that as a limiting factor. I also find myself writing tag lines for the series: “She can put you to sleep, but her adventures will keep your pulse racing!”

Readers, have you checked out JManga? What looks good to you?