Welcome to the April Manga Movable Feast! This month's topic is a departure for us. In previous months, we've focused on individual artists, series, or genres; this month, however, we're tackling the VIZ Signature imprint, a catalog of forty-three titles that run the gamut from Kazuo Umezu's The Drifting Classroom to Natsume Ono's Tesoro. (I never thought I'd be mentioning Umezu in Ono in the same sentence ' that's the beauty of this month's topic!) For more information about the imprint's history, I encourage you to read the introductory post for our feast.
On to the first contributions!
Looking for a quick guide to the Signature imprint's most recent titles? Kristin Bomba compiles a handy annotated list of all the titles that she's reviewed at Comic Attack!, from 20th Century Boys to Tesoro.
Over at The Manga Otaku, Tiffany sings the praises of Hisae Iwaoka's Saturn Apartments, a sci-fi drama about a young window-washer who plies his trade 10 miles above the Earth's surface. 'With every dirty window there is a story of sadness or despair and with every cleaning layers of a person that are usually hidden are revealed,' she explains. 'Mitsu not only cleans windows but his soul and that of the soul of others. This becomes the compelling force of the manga.'
Connie of Slightly Biased Manga lists her top 10 VIZ Signature titles. It's a terrific, eclectic list that runs the gamut from Phoenix to Dorohedoro.
Ash Brown files brief reports on four VIZ Signature titles at Experiments in Manga: Children of the Sea, Dorohedoro, House of Five Leaves, and Kingyo Used Books.
Closer to home, Manga Bookshelf contributor and Okazu founder Erica Friedman profiles IKKI Magazine, home to such VIZ Signature titles as House of Five Leaves and Children of the Sea. 'Post apocalyptic life and murder sit comfortably next to unstable clones and gritty tales of survival in extreme circumstances,' she notes. 'A fan of Dostoevsky would be comfortable with the level of instrospection and conflict in this magazine.'
How Do I Participate?
To submit a review, essay, podcast, etc. for inclusion in the archive, please do one of the following:
- Send me an email with a link to your contribution. Please do not spam the MMFeast Google Group with your links.
- Post a link to your contribution on Twitter. Please make sure that you address it to @manga_critic and use the #mmf hashtag.
If you do not have a blog, but wish to contribute, please email me. I would be happy to post your essay here at The Manga Critic.
Older reviews and essays may be submitted for inclusion in the MMF archive, though they will not be featured in the daily link posts. Given how large the VIZ Signature catalog is, please be mindful in choosing older essays and reviews for inclusion in the archive; capsule reviews, press releases, or brief essays should be excluded. If your essay/review/podcast has been featured in one or more previous MMFs, please consider highlighting it at your own site during the MMF week, rather than resubmitting it for this month's archive.
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