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one thousand and one nights

Fanservice Friday: Intimacy porn

March 4, 2011 by Melinda Beasi 42 Comments

I’ve had fanservice on the brain quite a bit lately, most recently thanks to this article by comics creator Michael Arthur at The Hooded Utilitarian. In it, Michael discussed his perspective on BL manga as a gay man and an artist, and though reception was mixed (for the record, I have pretty much equal appreciation for both his points and much of the criticism he received from female BL fans) what it really got me thinking about is fanservice for women, which inevitably led to thoughts about fanservice for me.

Pretty guys in shoujo and BL? Sure, I like ’em. I like them (maybe even more) in Korean manhwa as well, where “blond and willowy” also tends to equal “kick-ass,” at least in the stuff we’ve seen imported over here. It’s well established that girls frequently like their male idols to be pretty as, well, girls, and that taste doesn’t necessarily vanish with age, at least when it comes to fiction. The muscle-bound hunk has never done much for me, and while that may lend itself in “real life” to a preference for nerdy guys, I’m perfectly happy with the rail-thin pretty boys offered up to me in girls’ comics.

Pretty boys aren’t my real hook, though, not even if we’re talking porn–and when I use the term “porn” here, it’s in the broadest sense of the word, the sense that includes things like “food porn” and “shelf porn” or basically anything that feeds our inner obsessions with powerful visual stimuli. My real “porn,” what services me as a fan the way eye candy does for many, is emotional porn. Intimacy porn, if we’re going to get specific.

What’s great about intimacy porn, is that it is able to manifest itself in a number of different ways, none of which is exclusive to girls’ and women’s comics, though you’ll find it there in abundance. Some of it is clearly romantic in nature, like this scene from Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss.

Read right-to-left. Click for larger image

The scene takes place in the first volume of the manga, when these characters, George and Yukari, are just barely beginning to explore their attraction. It’s the small bits of physical intimacy that really work for me here… George’s fingers circling Yukari’s, the soft kiss on the back of her hand, the tilt of his head as he leans in to kiss her–not the kiss itself (which doesn’t happen here, as you may know), but the anticipation of it, the electricity in the air between two bodies so clearly attracted to one another. The moment feels intensely intimate, though they’re standing outside where anyone could see them. That’s what I’m talking about here. That’s the way to service me as a fan.

With this in mind, I took another look at this scene from Jeon JinSeok and Han SeungHee’s One Thousand and One Nights. I’d mentioned in my discussion with Michelle that it was a ridiculously obvious image, and that its success in context was a testament to the artists’ skill with romance, but I think its success with me goes even further than that.

Read left-to-right. Click for larger image

Where indeed skill comes into play, is that the characters’ intimacy has been so well-established before this point, without the use of such blatantly erotic imagery, that when this stunning show of emotional and sexual intimacy is played out right in front of enemy Crusaders and the sultan’s court, it actually feels real. Sehera’s expression of devotion here is so honest, so utterly without embarrassment, its public intimacy feels not only appropriate, but genuinely romantic.

Intimacy porn doesn’t have to be romantic, though, and often the best of it isn’t. This scene from Kazuya Minekura’s Wild Adapter for instance:

Read right-to-left. Click for larger images

   

   

Though Wild Adapter is serialized in a BL magazine, the relationship between its two protagonists, Kubota and Tokito, is only subtly romantic. What the two really have is intimacy, and that’s what draws me so strongly to them and to their story. This scene has plenty of elements that might be typically used as fanservice–a shower, slouchy skinny guys, even nudity–but there’s no service here, not unless you count my kind, of which there’s service aplenty. This kind of intimacy–Tokito’s pain, unspoken, but acknowledged and understood between just the two of them–that’s my kind of porn, there.

To stray even further from romance, you can find this kind of intimacy porn far, far outside shoujo, josei, or BL. CLAMP’s xxxHolic, for example, was originally published in Young Magazine, a men’s publication, typically featuring bikini-clad women on its cover. Still, it’s filled with my kind of porn, including this scene:

Read right-to-left. Click for larger images



Here, Watanuki and Doumeki discuss the events of the day, while Doumeki makes his demands regarding the contents of rice balls. Their intimacy is apparent from the start… the verbal shorthand, the way the rice ball conversation weaves itself out of habit around the real issues at hand. At page 139 their surface banter comes to a halt, as Watanuki makes a rare, open statement revealing the true value of their relationship. It’s a gorgeously thick moment–you can just feel the weight of emotion in the air, all the unspoken trust and gratitude that Watanuki is usually unable to express–suspended just briefly in time, before Doumeki quickly swings things back into their comfort zone. The banter continues, no less intimately, but comfortable again for both of them. I probably read this scene ten times when I first picked up the volume. It’s exactly my kind of porn.

Intimacy porn doesn’t have to be between two characters, though. Sometimes an author is able to create this between a character and his/her readers. Going back to Yazawa for a moment, this time with NANA, note here how she’s used narrow close-ups of her characters’ eyes to open them up to the audience.

Read right-to-left. Click for larger image

Though the scene takes place between Reira and Shin, their circumstances make it difficult for them to connect with each other honestly. Instead, though they hide their feelings from each other, they’re sharing them with the reader, as openly and intimately as possible. This kind of intimacy has the effect of not breaking the fourth wall, but expanding it to include the reader, and can be even more powerful than something that’s established between characters. It’s difficult to do well, but Yazawa’s a master, and it most certainly contributes to my love of her work.

Is it fanservice? Maybe not, strictly speaking. But it services me better than a thousand pretty faces ever could on their own.


So, readers… what’s your porn?

Filed Under: Fanservice Friday, UNSHELVED Tagged With: nana, one thousand and one nights, paradise kiss, Romance, shojo, wild adapter, xxxholic, yaoi/boys' love

BL Bookrack on the road!

February 17, 2011 by Melinda Beasi 1 Comment

BL fans may have noticed this week’s glaring omission of our BL Bookrack column, but that’s because this month, Michelle & I took our Bookrack act on the road!

Today at The Hooded Utilitarian, you will find a post, One Thousand and One Nights with Melinda & Michelle, in which Michelle and I take on Jeon JinSeok & Han SeungHee’s Arabian Nights manhwa adaptation Off the Shelf style!

Premise: “About a month ago, Noah asked if we’d be interested in having a conversation about comics here at The Hooded Utilitarian, similar to our weekly manga discussion column, Off the Shelf (at Manga Bookshelf), and our monthly art-talk feature, Let’s Get Visual (at Soliloquy in Blue). He suggested at the time that we might try discussing a mutually admired series (as we once did with Ai Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss), and that the subject need not be manga.”

So go forth, BL fans, and check out this month’s special BL Bookrack, complete with jokes about sheep lovin’ and pretty, pretty pictures!

Filed Under: BL BOOKRACK, UNSHELVED Tagged With: bl bookrack, manhwa, one thousand and one nights, the hooded utilitarian, yaoi/boys' love

3 Things Thursday: Thanksgiving

November 25, 2010 by Melinda Beasi 5 Comments

It’s Thanksgiving day here in the US, a day in which we consume a great deal of pie. It’s also a time for us to focus on the gratitude we feel for the people and things that most enrich our lives. Over the past few years, manga has been a significant part of that enrichment in my life, along with the many friends and colleagues I’ve accumulated in its wake.

One of the greatest gifts bestowed upon me regularly by the people I’ve met through manga is, of course, the introduction to new manga, and there are a few of those introductions that stand out, not only for the manga themselves, but also for the role they’ve played in defining my tastes and even who I am as a manga blogger. So for this week’s 3 Things, I’d like to talk about three manga (or two manga and one manhwa) that have defined me as a blogger and the wonderful ladies who introduced me to them.

3 influential comics and the women who gave them to me:

1. Hikaru no Go | Viz Media | Aja Romano – I’ve told this story countless times, about the friend who finally convinced me to read manga and the elegant shonen series with which she achieved this truly incredible feat. What I often leave out of the story, though, is that she accomplished this by giving me some of her own Hikaru/Akira fanfic to read which, regardless of its canon-ness (or lack thereof) was filled with the same detailed characterization and deep sense of optimism that makes the series so very appealing.

I mentally thank Aja nearly every day as I gaze at my towering shelves of manga, and even more often as I engage with other manga bloggers on Twitter, in blog comments, and occasionally at conventions. I’ve thanked her directly many times as well, but there really isn’t any amount of thanks that could truly suffice. So today, I’ll thank her again.

Thank you, Aja!

2. xxxHolic | Del Rey Manga | The lady at Anime Ink – I was a bit lost after my original introduction to manga. Since I’d come into the medium through a shonen sports manga (sort of), I tried a few others of that kind, but none of them really grabbed me. I had better luck with shonen fantasy like Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Cat, but when I stood in the aisles of our local manga/anime shop, I was pretty much at a loss.

The shop was called Anime Ink, and one afternoon as I stood there staring helplessly at the shelves, the owner of the shop (whose name I regrettably don’t know) asked me what manga I liked so far. When I told her, she pondered for a moment, and then led me over to the end of the aisle. “I don’t like much CLAMP,” she said, “But this one is different.” She pointed at the first volume of xxxHolic, which I picked up and bought that day. The rest, of course, is history. Anime Ink is closed now, so I guess I’ll never know her name. But I’d like to thank her anyway.

Thank you, lady at Anime Ink!

3. One Thousand and One Nights | Yen Press | Katherine Dacey – At the end of 2008, in preparation for her departure from PopCultureShock, Kate Dacey cleared out the last of the manga review copies she had in her possession, sending out boxes to each of the site’s remaining writers. My box contained, among other things, the first six volumes of Han SeungHee and Joen HinSeok’s One Thousand and One Nights, one of the first Korean manhwa series I’d ever actually seen, and definitely the first I had the opportunity to dig into in bulk.

I was immediately enchanted by the series, which somehow managed to balance brutal violence, heady romance, and old-fashioned storytelling in a way that perfectly satisfied my most basic personal tastes. This not only began my love affair with the series, but also with manhwa in general, which has become a significant part of my comics collection as well as my identity as a blogger.

Thank you, Kate!


So, readers, what are some manga that have influenced who you are as a fan? And who introduced you to them?

Filed Under: 3 Things Thursday Tagged With: hikaru no go, one thousand and one nights, xxxholic

3 Things Thursday: Guilty Pleasures?

November 11, 2010 by Melinda Beasi 23 Comments

On midweek holidays like today (link provided for readers outside the US) I find myself clinging to each precious moment of free time, too anxious even to allow myself to get lost in a delicious book, lest the time waste away too quickly. Thing is, between the demands of my full-time day job and the demands of the job I wish was full-time, it’s days just like this that offer me my only real chance to slack off.

With that in mind, I thought I’d use today’s 3 Things to identify some ideal reads for days just like this one–what some might describe as “guilty pleasures.” This is a term I’m frankly uncomfortable with, since I rarely feel guilty about anything I read, but in this case I will use it to draw a sketchy line between re-reads I can justify for “work” reasons, and those I clearly can’t. For instance, though I’m currently re-reading Banana Fish, a series I enjoy very much, this is easily justified as “work” thanks to the upcoming installment of Breaking Down Banana Fish. Other series may still be currently running, allowing me to justify those reads as preparation for discussion of new volumes. Still others may offer “classic” or literary value necessary for my growth as a manga critic.

In short, my “guilty pleasures” can be identified as completed series that I would re-read purely for my own enjoyment, no more no less. For me, that breaks down to Korean boys’ love manhwa and Fumi Yoshinaga. Observe:

3 “guilty pleasures” for a cold November holiday

1. Totally Captivated | Hajin Yoo | NETCOMICS – It’s no secret that I have a weakness for Korean BL, and Totally Captivated is one of my all-time favorites. Here’s a short synopsis from my review of volume six: “Ewon Jung is a 23-year-old scholarship student in Seoul, whose curiosity over whether or not it is possible to have great sex without love (“It was possible.”) leads him to cheat on his boyfriend, Jiho. Devastated and yearning for revenge, Jiho persuades his new boyfriend, a small-time loan shark named Mookyul Eun, to force Ewon into service at his office where he is expected to run errands, clean, and balance the books, all without payment. Unfortunately for Jiho, Mookyul soon develops an interest in Ewon, and it isn’t long before Jiho ends up shunted aside once again.”

Like a lot of the Korean BL I’ve seen published, the story is often violent, but unlike most Japanese BL with an element of rape fantasy, the little blond guy can give as good as he gets. It’s smart, funny, genuinely sexy, and one of the few BL series I keep in my overflowing library.

2. One Thousand and One Nights | Han SeungHee & Jeon JinSeok | Yen Press – Speaking of Korean BL, though I’ve never felt the slightest guilt over my obsession with this series, now that it has completed its run, I have little excuse to revisit it. Trouble is, I just want to. From my review of the first six volumes: “Loosely based on the original tales told by Scheherazade to her mad Persian king, in this version of One Thousand and One Nights, “Scheherazade” is a bookish young man named Sehara who has joined Sultan Shahryar’s harem in his sister’s place, in order to save her from being raped and beheaded like a string of young women before her … It is then that Sehara asks to be allowed to tell Shahryar a story, after which Shahryar may kill him as he pleases.”

Though the overarching tale of Sehara and Shahryar is, honestly, to die for (it’s also a rare BL story written by a man), this series’ real draw is in Sehara’s stories-within-the-story, pulled from various cultures, including those far outside the story’s timeline. Both as a romance and as a celebration of human storytelling, this series is PURE WIN.

3. Antique Bakery | Fumi Yoshinaga | Digital Manga Publishing – Nobody should ever feel guilty for reading Antique Bakery, but until the Manga Moveable Feast finally sets its sights on Yoshinaga (pleeeeeease), I have absolutely no excuse to do so. Still, I’ve re-read this series multiple times, and I intend to do so again. From my review of the full series: “Yoshinaga utilizes all her greatest strengths in this manga, rich characterization, rambling dialogue, and a deep love of food. The descriptions of the bakery’s various specialties is enough to make any pastry-lover swoon (enhanced by DMP’s scratch ‘n’ sniff covers). Her gift for gab brings this corner of Tokyo alive–especially the bakery’s customers, who wander in from all walks of life. Where Yoshinaga really outdoes herself, however, is with her delightful quartet of male leads.”

I love this series for its over-the-top characters, its rambling dialogue, its stunning artwork, and its gorgeous humanity. I could read it a thousand more times. And I just might read it today.


So, readers, what are your “guilty pleasures”? Please feel free to define that however you want (as I have). Respond in comments or in your own blog!

Filed Under: 3 Things Thursday Tagged With: antique bakery, one thousand and one nights, totally captivated

One Thousand and One Nights, Vols. 1-6

May 30, 2010 by Melinda Beasi 2 Comments

One Thousand and One Nights, Vols. 1-6 | By Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok | Published by Yen Press | Rated OT (16+) – Loosely based on the original tales told by Scheherazade to her mad Persian king, in this version of One Thousand and One Nights (originally published in English by ICE Kunion, later picked up by Yen Press), “Scheherazade” is a bookish young man named Sehara who has joined Sultan Shahryar’s harem in his sister’s place, in order to save her from being raped and beheaded like a string of young women before her. When Sehara’s gender is revealed, Shahryar has him thrown into a prison cell, where Sehara meets the long-imprisoned Emir Jafar, former friend and confidante of Shahryar, who tells him the story of how the sultan went mad after discovering his beloved queen Fatima’s infidelity. Shahryar banished Fatima, and soon after began the daily execution of virgins from his harem. As Jafar finishes his tale, Shahryar bursts into the cell, along with his bodyguard, Maseru, promising to have them both killed for mocking him. It is then that Sehara asks to be allowed to tell Shahryar a story, after which Shahryar may kill him as he pleases. After listening to the story, Shahryar brutally beats Sehara but does not execute him, and instead declares him a bard of the court, thus beginning the thousand and one nights.

Before becoming the court bard, Sehara made his living translating books from China, India, and Greece, so he draws his stories from many sources, telling tales of Turandot and Calaf, Cleopatra and Caesar, and Socrates and Alcibiades, as well as fairy-tales and fables well-known in many cultures, such as “The Angel and the Woodsman.” Each tale is told beautifully, if with questionable historical accuracy (the story of Cleopatra, for instance, portrays her in an unusually gentle light, particularly as concerns her relationship with her younger brother and husband, Ptolemy XIII), but more importantly, Sehara’s stories, and indeed Sehara himself, begin to teach Shahryar how to love again, rescuing him slowly from the madness that has overtaken him. Shahryar may believe himself merciful for allowing Sehara to live, but it is Sehara’s mercy that will ultimately save Shahryar. Eventually, Shahryar begins to realize this, finally confessing to Sehara in volume five, “Jafar protects me from sly politicians, and Maseru protects me from enemies and assassins. You, Sehara, protect me from myself.” Their relationship is reminiscent of that between Ash Lynx and Eiji Okamura in Akimi Yashida’s classic shojo manga, Banana Fish (though more overtly sexualized), as both stories feature a pure, open heart coming to the rescue of a man with too much blood on his hands.

Though One Thousand and One Nights is clearly a love story between Sehara and Shahryar, it is first and foremost a good story, raising it above the ranks of trite romance. The many stories-within-a-story told by Sehara provide endless variations on the theme of love, with much attention given to the cultural differences between each story’s place and time. Cleopatra, after all, was required to marry her own brother by law, a practice still accepted in Sehara’s Persia, while Socrates’ relationship with his male lover, Alcibiades, though commonplace in ancient Greece, would be reviled by Persian custom of Sehara’s day. Sehara’s stories are told with a melancholy beauty, dark and sweet, and emerging from one of them is much like waking from a deep, hazy dream. It is the overarching story, however, that provides the heart that makes this series special. Its primary characters are richly drawn and idiosyncratic, and their relationships with each other are complex and delicately nuanced. There is very little black-and-white in these characters’ lives, despite what they may think, and it is a pleasure to watch their stories unfold, even when they are their worst selves.

In older versions of this tale, though Sultan Shahryar was ruler of the Sassanid Empire, which pre-dates the Islamic conquest of Persia, the stories made frequent reference to the teachings of Islam. In One Thousand and One Nights, writer Jeon JinSoek draws Sehara’s stories from all over the world and from many different eras, while preserving the Islamic focus in the main story. Though JinSeok is careful to portray a balanced view of Islam, particularly as it concerns women, he does not shy away from the inherent sexism and brutality of the time period, in which a mad ruler may indiscriminately murder his female subjects, who he rightfully (by law of the time) considers to be his property. Women are second-class citizens in this world, and this is not something even Sehara can change. He strives gamely to break through Shahryar’s damaged heart and re-establish in him respect and compassion for women, but, as Shahryar reminds him early on, if his own sister had been discovered to not be a virgin, it would have been Sehara’s duty by law as her brother to behead her. Not that there aren’t consequences for Shahryar’s misogynistic behavior. He faces threats from both inside and outside his empire during the course of the story, and volume six ends with his rule (and Sehara’s life) in peril, mainly thanks to his own weaknesses and poor decisions. Ultimately, however, the story has less to say about sexism than it does about the corruptive power of absolute rule.

Despite the unattractive covers of these volumes (unfortunately carried over from the original ICE Kunion editions), each page of One Thousand and One Nights is a pleasure to behold. Han SeungHee’s artwork is intensely beautiful and drenched in romance, from the period settings to the thick strokes of the character’s eyelids. All the characters, both male and female, are lovely to look at, though many lack beauty on the inside, which is what this story is about. SeungHee captures the story’s lush sensuality and fiery drama perfectly, as well as the unexpected moments of humor which crop up with increasing frequency as the series goes on.

One Thousand and One Nights is a beautiful, compelling series that is pleasurable both to read and to look at. With at least five more volumes coming, it has the potential to become a classic of its kind, as long as it continues with the same strength JinSeok and SeungHee have displayed so far.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock.

Filed Under: Manhwa Bookshelf, MANHWA REVIEWS Tagged With: boys' love, one thousand and one nights, yen press

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 7

May 30, 2010 by Melinda Beasi Leave a Comment

One Thousand and One Nights | By Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok | Published by Yen Press | Rated OT (16+) – Volume six ended with storyteller Sehara facing English invaders alone as Sultan Shahryar was lured away from Baghdad by his brother’s calculated betrayal. This volume picks up with Shahryar who races back to Baghdad to save the city (and Sehara) even though he must reveal an important secret to an enemy to do so—one that will threaten his own life from here forward. Meanwhile, Sehara does what he can to influence the invading king by telling him a story from the future about another western power invading Muslim land to “liberate” its people from a tyrant.

Any existing pretense of a linear timeline is thrown away completely in this volume and though this is a bit jarring at first, the payoff is substantial. This is also the first overtly political volume in the series, and though the rhetoric is simplistic and far from new (“Christians and Muslims differ in language and culture,” Sehara says, leading into his story, “but we call the same God by a different name and go to war over it.”), Sehara’s true message is clear. It is not the innocent who profit when countries go to war, though it is they who bear the heaviest burden and suffer the greatest loss.

This volume’s modern story is moving and well told, just as all of Sehara’s tales have been, though with so much momentum having built up in the primary storyline it is hard not to feel impatient by the time the volume approaches its end. The end itself, however, is wonderfully heart-wrenching and perfectly crafted to make the wait for the next volume excruciating for us all.

With its gorgeous art, fantastic storytelling, and emotional (and now political) resonance, One Thousand and One Nights continues to be a manhwa series well worth recommending.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at PopCultureShock

Filed Under: Manhwa Bookshelf, MANHWA REVIEWS Tagged With: boys' love, one thousand and one nights, yen press

One Thousand and One Nights, Volume 8

May 28, 2010 by Melinda Beasi 1 Comment

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 8 | By Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok | Published by Yen Press – At the end of volume seven, Sehara sacrificed himself to save his sultan by offering to accompany the crusaders out of Baghdad as Lord McCloud’s bard in exchange for the safety of Shahryar and company. This volume begins as the events are being relayed to Sehara’s sister, Dunya, revealing further details of the exchange including an unexpectedly touching (and unusually erotic) good-bye from Sehara in which he kisses the end of Shahryar’s sword. Devastated and filled with self-loathing over his inability to keep Sehara with him, Shahryar prepares to fulfill his promise to allow Ali to finally take his revenge. After hearing of Sehara’s departure, however, Ali’s desire for vengeance has been swallowed up by regret over his own inability to protect the woman he loved and he instead flees the palace, leaving Shahyar with these words: “Take him back if he is that precious to you.” This call to action shakes Shahyar out of his pitiful wallowing and he departs immediately to seek out the Caliph with the intention of raising an Islamic alliance to defeat the crusaders in Jerusalem. The rest of the volume follows Shahryar as he faces new treachery from his brother Shazaman, while also hearing, finally, the true story behind his wife’s betrayal.

Taking a step back from the previous volume’s political message, volume eight once again focuses on the story’s emotional center by reminding Shahryar what’s really important, and by that, of course, I mean Sehara. Sehara is the heart of this story both for Shahryar and for us, and though he barely appears in this volume after the first few pages, those pages are honestly luminous. The scene in which he kisses the end of Shahryar’s sword (yes, I really do mean his sword) is erotic–probably intentionally so–yet the purity of Sehara’s intentions keeps it from becoming at all lascivious. This quality of Sehara’s is actually the secret to the series’ real beauty as it washes over all of Shahrayr’s ragged anger and pointless cruelty, restoring what is best in everything it touches. The kiss is a perfect example of this–an act of love pacifying an instrument of violence. It is a powerful image, truly, besides being one of the most romantic things I have ever seen.

Though the volume as a whole suffers a bit from Lack of Sehara (a potentially deadly condition) the story of Shazaman and Fatima is important indeed, leaving Shahryar in an uncertain place on every level–something that seems necessary if he’s to ever become a man worthy of Sehara’s devotion. It’s difficult to feel the level of sympathy I think is intended for Shazaman and Fatima, even after their story has been told, since vengeance is rarely an attractive quality. But revenge is a staple of this story’s setting and of course Shahryar’s own hands are soaked in more blood than anyone’s.

This series’ art continues to capture my heart, with its elaborate costuming, lush backgrounds, and dreamy character designs. The characters’ potent beauty and expressive, thickly lined eyes are undeniably characteristic of Korean comics–a style clearly not to everyone’s taste, though I’ll never quite understand why.

Despite the fact that this volume’s greatest impact is made in its first few (glorious) pages, it is by no means uneven and remains thoroughly compelling to the end. With just three volumes yet to come, One Thousand and One Nights continues to be one of my greatest reading pleasures–intensely moving and gorgeous to look at. No fan of storytelling or dramatic romance should miss this series.

Volume eight of One Thousand and One Nights will be available on August 4th, 2009. Review copy provided by Yen Press.

For more of my ramblings on this series, check out: One Thousand and One Nights, volumes 1-6, Ash vs. Shahryar, and One Thousand and One Nights, volume seven.

Filed Under: Manhwa Bookshelf, MANHWA REVIEWS Tagged With: one thousand and one nights, yen press

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 9

May 28, 2010 by Melinda Beasi Leave a Comment

1001nights9One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 9 | By Han SeungHee & Jeon JinSeok | Published by Yen Press – With the disgraced sultan Shahryar on the run and brother Shazaman hot on his trail, the Caliph names Emir Jafar as temporary sultan of Baghdad, passing on to him the task of taking back Jerusalem from the western invaders. Though he has no choice but to comply, Jafar has other matters on his mind such as uncovering the truth about Shazaman and Fatima. Thankfully, with a bit of luck and a bit more stealth, Jafar stumbles upon a horrifying secret which reveals that Shahryar is, stunningly, the sane brother, despite his history as a misogynistic serial murderer. Meanwhile, Shahryar and Shazaman face off in the desert as raging storms turn the terrain into a flash flood zone. Over in the western camp, King MacLeod is putting the moves on Sehera, by which I mean giving him books, namely 14th-century Chinese historical novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms which becomes this volume’s story-within-a-story.

Like volume eight, this volume suffers a bit from the affliction I like to call “Lack of Sehera,” but there is plenty of plotty goodness to fill the void, particularly concerning the history of Shahryar and Shazaman’s relationship with each other and with their childhood friend Jafar. With current events juxtaposed against scenes from their childhood, it’s hard not to feel pain for both brothers and impossible to avoid the question of just how both of them became so irretrievably twisted as adults. Though, thanks to Sehera’s influence, Shahryar has begun to seek a kind of personal redemption, Shazaman’s emotional wounds remain open and untreated, infecting him to the core.

Aside from this volume’s drama between brothers, a real highlight is Sehera’s retelling of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which ends the volume with a painful lesson for MacLeod who may be about to learn that despite Sehera’s devotion to duty, his loyalty ultimately belongs to another. Though what appears here is obviously just a tiny fragment of the original Chinese epic (which stands at 800,000 words and 120 chapters) it is more than enough to entice readers to seek out the source material for more. This was, apparently, a strong motivation for its inclusion in the story, as the volume’s endnotes reveal writer Jeon JinSeok’s desire to introduce the testosterone-heavy novel to a new generation of female readers who may not have been otherwise encouraged to check it out. Though I’m unable to speak for the young women of South Korea, I can certainly confirm that his plan has worked on me.

With several characters’ lives hanging in the balance (really) by the end of the volume, the tension in this series shows no sign of letting up anytime soon, and with only two volumes remaining, readers face a single burning question: how to survive the wait until the next volume.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Manhwa Bookshelf, MANHWA REVIEWS Tagged With: one thousand and one nights, yen press

One Thousand & One Nights, Vol. 10

May 28, 2010 by Melinda Beasi Leave a Comment

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 10 | By Han SeungHee & Jeon JinSeok | Published by Yen Press – While reading Sehara’s translation of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it becomes clear to McLeod that Sehara is leaving him, though this realization comes too late for him to stop it. Unfortunately, as Sehara rushes back to Baghdad, he is met with the news of Shahryar’s death, throwing him into a state of deep despair. Meanwhile, Shahrayr (not quite dead) finds himself in the care of the Nauar Gypsies, one of whom beseeches him to travel east to seek out his “other half,” whom Shahryar now recognizes to be Sehara.

Though Sehara and Shahryar spend the entirety of this volume apart, the volume is a gift to BL fans and anyone else who might be hoping against hope that their highly eroticized relationship actually turn to romance. Not that anything happens, of course, but there is a sense that if our story’s heroes ever manage to find their way back to each other, it will be a warm reunion indeed.

Fortunately, the romance is well-earned and should hold up nicely, even with Shahryar’s bloody past as an obvious moral obstacle. “You were already dead, drowned in a whirlpool of sin,” a gypsy tells Shahryar. “And then someone brought you back to life.” It’s a tricky business–letting a character with so much blood on his hands realize happiness–but writer Jeon JinSeok has worked hard to create a situation in which this could be palatable. Now with only one volume remaining, we’ll soon find out what Jeon really has in store for the characters he’s so carefully tortured. Er. Nurtured.

With the stakes so high in the main story line, it might be easy at this point to dismiss Sehara’s stories-within-the-story, but fortunately The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (even in such an abridged state) is far too compelling to allow it. Part of what makes this series work so well is the fact that Sehara’s stories consistently move the primary tale forward, rather than acting as diversions. And part of the series’ charm is the fact that these stories are at least as important to their storyteller as they are to the sultan they are meant to entertain–a truth delightfully accented at the end of this volume as Shahryar sets out disguised as a bookseller in hopes of luring a distraught Sehara out of hiding.

Every aspect of this series remains engaging–storytelling, plot, characterization, artwork–crafted into a kind of ultimate fantasy with its lush, period settings and unapologetic violence. Fans of escapist romance could hardly find an escape more delicious than One Thousand and One Nights.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Manhwa Bookshelf, MANHWA REVIEWS Tagged With: one thousand and one nights, yen press

One Thousand & One Nights, Vol. 10

April 10, 2010 by Melinda Beasi 3 Comments

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 10
By Han SeungHee & Jeon JinSeok
Published by Yen Press


Buy at RightStuf | Buy at Amazon

While reading Sehara’s translation of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it becomes clear to McLeod that Sehara is leaving him, though this realization comes too late for him to stop it. Unfortunately, as Sehara rushes back to Baghdad, he is met with the news of Shahryar’s death, throwing him into a state of deep despair. Meanwhile, Shahrayr (not quite dead) finds himself in the care of the Nauar Gypsies, one of whom beseeches him to travel east to seek out his “other half,” whom Shahryar now recognizes to be Sehara.

Though Sehara and Shahryar spend the entirety of this volume apart, the volume is a gift to BL fans and anyone else who might be hoping against hope that their highly eroticized relationship actually turn to romance. Not that anything happens, of course, but there is a sense that if our story’s heroes ever manage to find their way back to each other, it will be a warm reunion indeed.

Fortunately, the romance is well-earned and should hold up nicely, even with Shahryar’s bloody past as an obvious moral obstacle. “You were already dead, drowned in a whirlpool of sin,” a gypsy tells Shahryar. “And then someone brought you back to life.” It’s a tricky business–letting a character with so much blood on his hands realize happiness–but writer Jeon JinSeok has worked hard to create a situation in which this could be palatable. Now with only one volume remaining, we’ll soon find out what Jeon really has in store for the characters he’s so carefully tortured. Er. Nurtured.

With the stakes so high in the main story line, it might be easy at this point to dismiss Sehara’s stories-within-the-story, but fortunately The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (even in such an abridged state) is far too compelling to allow it. Part of what makes this series work so well is the fact that Sehara’s stories consistently move the primary tale forward, rather than acting as diversions. And part of the series’ charm is the fact that these stories are at least as important to their storyteller as they are to the sultan they are meant to entertain–a truth delightfully accented at the end of this volume as Shahryar sets out disguised as a bookseller in hopes of luring a distraught Sehara out of hiding.

Every aspect of this series remains engaging–storytelling, plot, characterization, artwork–crafted into a kind of ultimate fantasy with its lush, period settings and unapologetic violence. Fans of escapist romance could hardly find an escape more delicious than One Thousand and One Nights.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: manhwa, one thousand and one nights

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 9

December 10, 2009 by Melinda Beasi 4 Comments

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 9
By Han SeungHee & Jeon JinSeok
Published by Yen Press

1001nights9
Buy This Book

With the disgraced sultan Shahryar on the run and brother Shazaman hot on his trail, the Caliph names Emir Jafar as temporary sultan of Baghdad, passing on to him the task of taking back Jerusalem from the western invaders. Though he has no choice but to comply, Jafar has other matters on his mind such as uncovering the truth about Shazaman and Fatima. Thankfully, with a bit of luck and a bit more stealth, Jafar stumbles upon a horrifying secret which reveals that Shahryar is, stunningly, the sane brother, despite his history as a misogynistic serial murderer. Meanwhile, Shahryar and Shazaman face off in the desert as raging storms turn the terrain into a flash flood zone. Over in the western camp, King MacLeod is putting the moves on Sehera, by which I mean giving him books, namely 14th-century Chinese historical novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms which becomes this volume’s story-within-a-story.

Like volume eight, this volume suffers a bit from the affliction I like to call “Lack of Sehera,” but there is plenty of plotty goodness to fill the void, particularly concerning the history of Shahryar and Shazaman’s relationship with each other and with their childhood friend Jafar. With current events juxtaposed against scenes from their childhood, it’s hard not to feel pain for both brothers and impossible to avoid the question of just how both of them became so irretrievably twisted as adults. Though, thanks to Sehera’s influence, Shahryar has begun to seek a kind of personal redemption, Shazaman’s emotional wounds remain open and untreated, infecting him to the core.

Aside from this volume’s drama between brothers, a real highlight is Sehera’s retelling of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which ends the volume with a painful lesson for MacLeod who may be about to learn that despite Sehera’s devotion to duty, his loyalty ultimately belongs to another. Though what appears here is obviously just a tiny fragment of the original Chinese epic (which stands at 800,000 words and 120 chapters) it is more than enough to entice readers to seek out the source material for more. This was, apparently, a strong motivation for its inclusion in the story, as the volume’s endnotes reveal writer Jeon JinSeok’s desire to introduce the testosterone-heavy novel to a new generation of female readers who may not have been otherwise encouraged to check it out. Though I’m unable to speak for the young women of South Korea, I can certainly confirm that his plan has worked on me.

With several characters’ lives hanging in the balance (really) by the end of the volume, the tension in this series shows no sign of letting up anytime soon, and with only two volumes remaining, readers face a single burning question: how to survive the wait until the next volume.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: manhwa, one thousand and one nights

Let’s Talk About Manhwa, Yen Press Edition

September 22, 2009 by Melinda Beasi 14 Comments

I’ve made quite a few manhwa-heavy posts in the past six months or so, starting with Let’s Talk About Manhwa, in which I declared my love for Korean BL comics and asked for recommendations for all kinds of manhwa. The comments to that post were fantastic–filled with recommendations upon recommendations, only a fraction of which I’ve managed to get to at this point. I’m reading as fast as I can!

The truth is, I’ve really fallen in love with manhwa. It has many of the traits I most love in Japanese manga–lots of epic, dramatic, character-driven, single-creator stories with lovely art and well-paced, finite plots–but each these traits has its own particular quality unique to manhwa. I believe that even if I was presented with flipped manhwa (reading right-to-left like Japanese comics) I would be able to tell at a glance that it was made in Korea–something that has been proven to me already, actually, in the case of one of my favorite single-volume Korean BL stories, U Don’t Know Me. Some of this has to do with the art, particularly the character designs which favor a a particular kind of cheek and chin, full lips and heavily lined eyes, but the storytelling has its own flavor too, with its spunky, outspoken (often even violent) girls and arrogant, swaggering boys.

…

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Filed Under: FEATURES Tagged With: 13th boy, comic, goong, manhwa, one thousand and one nights, sugarholic

News in Brief

June 26, 2009 by Melinda Beasi 8 Comments

Reviews have been appearing here in short bursts lately, but I should be back to a more rigorous schedule soon. Shouldn’t the summer be relaxing? :) A few short items:

– For those curious about my non-manga-related activities, I have joined the staff at Act Too Studio, coaching young singers and actors alongside two incredible teachers who also happen to be my parents. I’m pretty excited. Here is some information about us, and here is a page full of people saying we (and by “we” I mean mostly my folks) are great. We are also developing our website as we go, so if that’s your kind of thing, keep an eye out for new content!

– Just yesterday, I got myself on the list to review 801 Media titles, so look for a little more yaoi content here from time-to-time! They also introduced me as a new reviewer in their blog!

– As a testament to my deep love for Yen Press’ One Thousand and One Nights, my review copy of volume eight arrived on my doorstep just yesterday and was immediately pushed to the front of the line (and believe me, it’s become quite a long line). Don’t miss my review!

– On a very different note, I reviewed a new volume in another of my favorite series this week–volume seven of Mushishi. I suppose the contrasting nature of these two series should put aside any lingering worry I might have about this blog not representing me (or my tastes) fully. :) ETA: Also, translator William Flanagan has linked to my review on his Facebook page, filling my fangirlish heart with glee!

– The ever-fabulous Danielle Leigh posted a shojo round-up a day or two ago, and we ended up rambling on together in comments about NANA. Look for more of this to come. /cryptic

I wonder how much of this actually constitutes “news”? Ah, well. More reviews tomorrow!

Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: act too studio, manga, mushishi, nana, one thousand and one nights, yaoi/boys' love

One Thousand and One Nights, Volume 8

June 25, 2009 by Melinda Beasi 1 Comment

One Thousand and One Nights, Vol. 8
By Han SeungHee and Jeon JinSeok
Published by Yen Press

1001nights
Buy This Book

At the end of volume seven, Sehara sacrificed himself to save his sultan by offering to accompany the crusaders out of Baghdad as Lord McCloud’s bard in exchange for the safety of Shahryar and company. This volume begins as the events are being relayed to Sehara’s sister, Dunya, revealing further details of the exchange including an unexpectedly touching (and unusually erotic) good-bye from Sehara in which he kisses the end of Shahryar’s sword. …

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Filed Under: REVIEWS Tagged With: manga, manhwa, one thousand and one nights

One Thousand and One Nights, Volume 7

May 11, 2009 by Melinda Beasi 3 Comments

I have a mini review out at PCS today for volume seven of manhwa series One Thousand and One Nights. This is such a beautiful and well-crafted series, and I could easily have written a full-length review of this volume so I will add some things here that I did not have room to say in my mini. Bonus: I get to say them here with wholly unprofessional abandon. :)

First of all, let me address the new political turn the series has taken, because that’s probably the thing that most sets this volume apart from the others. Though politically and theologically I’m sure it would be easy to poke at some of the author’s statements made through the characters (Sehara, mainly), but to do that would be missing the point. Fiction is all about expressing ideas, which is what the author does here–and very effectively at that. His notes at the back of the book are incredibly revealing, too. “There are always greedy people who have profited from war. They create a reason for war, and the rest of us go along with it. Young and innocent lives are uselessly sacrificed,” he says, mentioning too that at the time of his writing, Korea had the third highest number of soldiers in Iraq (after the US and England). …

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Filed Under: MANGA REVIEWS Tagged With: manga, manhwa, one thousand and one nights

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