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UW7S

The Manga Review, 7/1/22

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Good news: The United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S) achieved a major victory this week when the company agreed to recognize their union. Though management has not yet spoken to the press, the UW7S Twitter feed posted the following statement on June 24th: “This decision by Seven Seas eliminates the need for an NLRB conducted election and will pave the way for a more expedited path to bargaining a first contract. At a time when many employers continue to fight the unionization of their employees, we appreciate that Seven Seas decided to respect the voices of the majority of staff and recognize us. We look forward to developing a mutually beneficial relationship and reaching a collective bargaining agreement in the near future.” The path to a better contract and better working conditions, however, is a long one. As OASG contributor Krystallina notes, “Bloomberg Law estimates the average length of time for initial negotiations to be 409 days — in other words, 1 year, 1 month, and 2 weeks. One analyst says there’s only about a 50-50 chance of reaching an agreement in a year, with additional estimates calculating it will take about a year and a half.”

NEWS

After 247 chapters, Yuki Suegetsu will bring Chihayafuru to an end. The series, which has been running in Be Love since 2007, proved so popular with Japanese readers that it spawned three live-action films and three anime series. [Anime News Network]

Looking for a manga industry job? VIZ is currently advertising four positions in its publishing division: Copy Editor, Editor, Editor of Original Graphic Novels, and Publishing Production Assistant. [VIZ]

The American comics market is booming, according to industry experts Milton Griepp and John Jackson Miller. They report that “total comics and graphic novel sales to consumers in the U.S. and Canada were approximately $2.075 billion, a 62% increase over sales in 2020.” Comics performed well at many types of retail outlets as well. As Griepp observes, “Sales through comic stores were up 60% vs. last year and 34% vs. 2019; sales through the book channel, including book fairs (which were back in operation) grew at a blistering 81% pace. Digital growth, while slower, was coming off a gangbuster year in 2020 during the shutdowns.” [ICv2]

FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, AND PODCASTS

As Pride Month comes to a close, Okazu reader Meru explains how reading yuri manga played an important role in their decision to come out as transgender. “When I look at Yuri, I see myself: I see the soft butches that could, in another series, be they/them or even they/he,” they note. “I see bodies and ideals and identities that mirror myself. I feel less alone. I feel natural in a country that would rather me turn my back on playing at soft masculinity and gender ambivalence in exchange for kitten heels, a lack of body hair, and legs crossed at the ankle. When I crack open a volume of Yuri and see tomboys and boyish girls and girls straddling the lines of socially acceptable gender and being themselves.” [Okazu]

If you’re a fan of Daytime Shooting star, Deb Aoki thinks you might like Mika Yamamori’s latest series, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk. [Mangasplaining]

On the newest installment of Manga Mavericks, Colton and Lum check in with ongoing series Haikyu!! and Magu-Chan!, and look at new offerings from VIZ, Manga Plus, and Azuki. [Manga Mavericks]

The Manga Machinations crew discuss three series that explore different facets of the LBGTQ experience: New York, New York; Catch These Hands!; and I Want to Be a Wall. [Manga Machinations]

Kory, Helen, and Apryll dedicate the latest Manga In Your Ears podcast to My Solo Exchange Diary and Yuri Is My Job! [Taiiku Podcast]

Paul Semel and Anne Ishii interview Gengoroh Tagame about Our Colours, a coming-of-age story that centers on a queer teen artist. “It’s something I’d wanted to read as a middle and high schooler myself, so decided to write for my own self,” Tagame explains. As I’m now in my 50s, I think of it as a gift to myself 40 years ago.” [Paul Semel]

Also of interest: Cayla Coates talks to Okura about I Think Our Son Is Gay, a gentle comedy about a woman who begins questioning her son’s sexual orientation. “I’ve always felt that gay people in manga and drama are often portrayed as either comic relief or someone with struggles and hardship.,” Okura observes. “I wanted to draw what I consider to be natural, ordinary gay people.” [Crunchyroll]

REVIEWS

Erica Friedman delves into the latest installment of Even Though We’re Adults, singling out the translation and lettering for special praise. “Jocelyne Allen’s translation is outstanding, in providing the nuance and ‘adultness’ this series needs,” she notes, while the “lettering and retouch by Rina Mapa lets’ me feel in the story in exactly the same way as I do when I’m reading the Japanese.” Meanwhile, Megan D. explores the forgotten corners of Tokyopop’s BL catalog with a look at Innocent Bird, “a limp, shallow romance… illustrated with an indifferent and murky hand,” and Christopher Chiu-Tabet continues his retrospective on Sailor Moon with a look at issues 15-20.

The Manga Review, 6/24/22

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Hi, all! Its been a relatively slow news week manga-wise and a crazy week for me work-wise, so I’m going to dispense with the snappy introduction and get right to the links! As always, if there’s a great blog, podcast, or YouTube channel that you think should be featured in The Manga Review, leave a comment below or contact me through Twitter. Your suggestions have already helped me make this a more inclusive and representative space, so keep ’em coming!

NEWS AND FEATURES

The folks at J-List have posted a thoughtful article explaining the steps the United Workers of Seven Seas will need to take in order to unionize. If you don’t know much about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its role in “mediat[ing] between the employer, union, and other parties to iron out all the details,” start here. [J-List Blog]

Erica Friedman’s latest Yuri Studio episode is now live, and focuses on sports in yuri anime and manga. [Okazu]

After a brief hiatus from blogging, Allison Ziebruh has revived Bloom Reviews with a raft of new reviews, as well as a thoughtful reflection on the current isekai manga boom. [Bloom Reviews]

Kelli Ewings posts a sneak preview of new works by Gengoroh Tagame, explaining why she’s excited to see more of his ground-breaking work available in English. [Panel Patter]

Wondering what’s new at Seven Seas? Carrie McClain has you covered with licensing news, unionization updated, and brief reviews of The Muscle Girl Next Door, Until I Meet My Husband, and more. [Women Write About Comics]

Laura Grace continues working her way through the shojo manga alphabet with a look at her favorite titles that begin with the letter D. [Beneath the Tangles]

Buckle up, Ryuko fans: Andrew Osmond just sat down for an interview with creator Eldo Yoshimizu. When asked why all his manga feature tough, sexy women in leading roles, he responded, “I like the strong woman, maybe that’s the reason. Especially when I started writing Ryuko, I wanted a lot to have female readers. I had that idea in my head. Especially in Japan, the woman is treated as vulnerable, kawaii… For child readers, that’s fine, but I wanted to provide something more sophisticated, better for the adult readers. Asura [the protagonist in Hen Kai Pan] and Ryuko, they make mistakes and they suffer a lot, and they’re going to grow up… That’s the kind of story I wanted.” [Anime News Network]

REVIEWS

Over at The Guardian, Rachel Cooke posts a thoughtful review of Yamada Murasaki’s Talk to My Back, due out from Drawn & Quarterly this summer. “Murasaki captures her character’s every mood shift and internal contradiction, her guilt as well as her longing (more than once, other people tell Chiharu she should be “grateful” for her life – as if she didn’t know this herself),” Cooke observes. “But Murasaki leavens this by recalling, too, the quotidian pleasures and rituals of home: the jokes, the teasing, a delicious (“slurp”) bowl of noodles. The result is a cross-cultural book about female self-worth – about where it comes from and why it sometimes disappears – that stands the test of time in the most remarkable way.”

Also of note: The OASG’s Justin and Helen offer their perspectives on the latest volume of Witch Hat Atelier, while ANN’s Lynzee Loveridge gives Hideshi Hino’s The Town of Pigs a solid grade of B, and Solrad’s Helen Chazan posts capsule reviews of several new releases.

 

The Manga Review, 6/10/22

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After Kentarou Miura passed away last year, fans feared that they would never see his long-running saga Berserk reach a proper conclusion. Then on June 7th, artist Kouji Mori announced that he would take the reins from his friend and complete the final story arc. Ryan Dinsdale reports that Mori pledged to “only write the episodes that Miura talked to me about. I will not flesh it out. I will not write episodes that I don’t remember clearly. I will only write the lines and stories that Miura described to me. Of course, it will not be perfect. Still, I think I can almost tell the story that Miura wanted to tell.” The Fantasia Arc/Elf Island Chapter will begin serialization in the June 24th issue of Young Animal magazine.

NEWS

Over at The Comics Journal, Ian Thomas interviews members of the United Workers of Seven Seas about their unionization effort. “At Seven Seas Entertainment we never received basic benefits such as healthcare or 401ks in the first place,” organizers note. “Even with the staff roster going from 10 full-time employees in 2018 to over 40 today, we are stretched to our limit trying to keep up with the volume of work. Like workers in every sector of the entertainment industry, we are burnt out, and unfulfilled promises of “imminent” benefits have worn thin.” [The Comics Journal]

Are you following the UW7S on Twitter? If not, you should; in addition to regular updates about their unionization efforts, they’re also posting great threads about the important work that other labor organizations do. [Twitter]

Brigid Alverson takes a closer look at the May 2022 NPD BookScan chart for the top 20 Adult Graphic Novels. [ICv2]

Kodansha Comics announced that it will be releasing a new edition of Princess Knight and a first edition of Bomba! [Anime News Network] 

Kodansha is also sponsoring a Humble Bundle that includes volumes of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, Grand Blue Dreaming, Initial D. Peach Girl, Tokyo Revengers, and Until Your Bones Rot. All proceeds will benefit The Trevor Project, a non-profit that focuses on suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ youth. [Humble Bundle]

New title alert: VIZ just began serializing Fusai Naba’s Aliens Area on its Shonen Jump website. [VIZ Media]

And speaking of Shonen Jump, Netflix just posted a sneak peek of its forthcoming live-action adaptation of One Piece. I’ll let you decide for yourself if this project looks good:

FEATURES, INTERVIEWS, AND PODCASTS

Shimada Kazushi profiles the late Abiko Motoo, who, with Hiroshi Fujimoto, created some of postwar Japan’s most popular manga under the pseudonym Fujiko Fujio. [Nippon]

In honor of Sailor Moon‘s thirtieth birthday, Christopher Chiu-Tabet begins an arc-by-arc exploration of the beloved series. [Multiversity Comics]

Tony Yao deconstructs a favorite storyline in Tokyo Revengers, using it to meditate on friendship, self-love, and vulnerability. [Drop-In to Manga]

The dynamic podcasting duo of Elliot and Andy compare notes on two popular romantic comedies: How Do We Relationship? and Ouran High School Host Club. [Screentone Club]

Mike Toole and Joey Weiser join the Manga Mavericks to discuss Akira Toriyama’s under-appreciated masterpiece Dr. Slump. [Manga Mavericks]

If you’ve been on the fence about reading Blue Giant, let the Mangaplainers persuade you to try this entertaining, engaging series about a young saxophonist’s quest to become the next John Coltrane. (Seriously, this series is great–something I almost never say about music manga!) [Mangasplaining]

Looking for a good read? Anna Williams recommends five underrated seinen manga. [CBR]

The folks at Yatta-Tachi just posted a comprehensive list of this month’s light novel and manga releases. [Yatta-Tachi]

Matthew Hill interviews Japanese artist Kyo Machiko about Essential: My #stayhome Diary 2021-2022. “Being a cartoonist is not an ‘Essential’ profession, but imagining, creating, talking to each other, and living an ordinary life are ‘Essential’ things that are essential to living like a human being,” she explains. “I chose the title because I have been thinking about this for a long time with the COVID-19 Disaster. Most people are not ‘Essential’ in their professions, but there is no such thing as a person who doesn’t need to be in this world. By depicting the ordinary lives of ordinary people in the city, I hope to convey the message that all people are indispensable to each other.” [The Comics Journal]

REVIEWS

At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson posts reviews of I Want to Be a Wall and the “weird but strangely attractive fantasy” The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again, Today. Erica Friedman praises the twisty plot of Summer Time Rendering. “Its 374 pages have enough twists to appeal to the most hard-core of suspense readers,” she notes. “It made me gasp out loud – more than once! – and kept me glued to the page right through the astonishing end of the volume.” TCJ contributor Leonel Sepúlveda looks at Hideshi Hino’s The Town of Pigs, praising Hino’s ability to create the “feeling of being trapped in a nightmare,” while the crew at Beneath the Tangles posts short reviews of Fangirl, Crimson Prince, Deadpool Samurai, and more.

The Manga Review, 6/3/22

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Two weeks ago, Seven Seas’ employees formed the United Workers of Seven Seas (UW7S). Their goal? To negotiate a standard benefits package that includes health insurance, retirement plans, parental leave, and paid time off. UW7S is also pushing for higher wages and better working conditions; in particular, the union’s mission statement emphasizes the importance of ending “both at-will employment and unnecessary ‘permalancing.'” On May 29th, management declined to voluntarily recognize the new union. In a press release, Seven Seas stated:

We respect the rights of our employees to choose or not choose union representation. While we have been requested by a number of employees to voluntarily recognize the Communications Workers of America as their legal representative—without a National Labor Relations Board conducted election—we have decided to respect the right of all eligible employees to vote on this issue. Since unionization would affect more members of staff than those who have already come forward, an election will ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn about their rights and the details of this process before they cast their vote through a governed process.

We have notified the [National Labor Relations Board] that we are prepared to move forward with an election among an appropriate unit of employees, and we will, of course, abide by the outcome of the election.

The company’s next move was to hire the law firm of Ogletree Deakins, which has represented clients such as Boeing, Duke University, and IKEA in labor disputes. (Adding insult to injury: Ogletree Deakins counts former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio among its clients.) I’m not sure what’s next for UW7S, but as someone who belongs to a union, I fully support all of the staff at Seven Seas in their fight for a better, more secure workplace. For updates, follow UW7S on Twitter.

NEWS

Diamond Comic Distributors just released its Top 400 Graphic Novels list for April 2022. Manga made a strong showing in comic book stores, with three titles–Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Kaiju No. 8–among the month’s best sellers. (For a little perspective, these three books sold between 3,369 and 5,944 copies each.) Scanning the top 100 titles, there were another 37 manga on the list, ranging from the final volume of The Rose of Versailles to the new edition of Apollo’s Song. [ICv2]

J-Novel Club unveiled five new manga licenses at its Anime Boston panel, including Tearmoon Empire and Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! [Anime News Network]

Dark Horse will be publishing the sixth and final installment of Neon Genesis Evangelion-The Shinji Ikari Raising Project Omnibus this December. [AiPT!]

After social media users criticized the Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) for inviting artist Pink Cat (Saba Moeel) to appear at this year’s event, TCAF withdrew the invitation. In a statement posted to its website on May 31st, organizers explained that “TCAF initially extended a programming invitation to Moeel on the basis of their daily digital comics work on Instagram, and the personal importance that work had to one of our team members. At the time of this invitation, the organization was unaware of Moeel’s online conduct, plagiarism, or allegations of tracing. We apologize for programming and promoting this artist.” [Toronto Comics Art Festival]

Heidi MacDonald has the full scoop on the TCAF/Pink Cat controversy. [The Beat]

FEATURES, PODCASTS, AND INTERVIEWS

Erica Friedman files a report on this year’s Anime Boston convention, where she was a featured panelist and author. [Okazu]

Deb Aoki explores the secret history of Unico, Osamu Tezuka’s lonely little unicorn. [Mangasplaining]

Elias Rosner previews August’s best new manga, from Rooster Fighter to The Poe Clan. [Multiversity Comics]

BuzzFeed shares a list of 15 LGBTQ+ Comics, Graphic Novels And Manga To Read After Watching Heartstopper. [BuzzFeed]

It’s that time of the month again: Walt Richardson and Emily Meyers do a cover-to-cover roundup of Shonen Jump‘s May issue. [Multiversity Manga Club Podcast]

The Manga Mavericks assemble an all-star team to discuss Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater. [Manga Mavericks]

On the latest installment of Shojo & Tell, Ashley and husband Asher Sofman jump in the WABAC machine to look at one of the weirder shojo titles Tokyopop published: Yuri Narushima’s Planet Ladder. Beware the giant chicken! [Shojo & Tell]

Claire explains why you should be reading Kageki Shojo!! The setting “is fascinating, with copious details about Japanese traditional arts interspersed with contemporary (otaku) cultural references that will delight manga and anime fans,” she notes. The author “gives her story and the girls room to breath and develop at an organic (and thus, often hesitant) pace. There is substance to each of these girls, and I for one am delighted that the series survived the dissolution of its original publisher so that we get to see what happens next. These girls are going places.” [Beneath the Tangles]

REVIEWS

Looking for a good beach read? The staff at Beneath the Tangles just posted brief reviews of the latest releases, from Ghost Reaper Girl to Summertime Rendering.

Also of note: Kate Sánchez declares I Want to Be a Wall “one of the most beautiful takes on a relationship I have ever read,” while Helen recommends Summertime Rendering for manga lovers “who want a read that they can’t put down late into the night.”