The interview is here.
I hope you'll check it out if you have a moment (or, uh, twenty). And if you're a woman who writes about comics (or a man who has our backs), take a look at the blog carnival in general and how it works. It's a great opportunity for us to really expand our conversations, blog-to-blog, and I'm hoping to participate soon myself. The latest topic is Harassment in the Geek Blogoshere, which will be running through July 7-8. You can also check them out on Twitter and Facebook.
I've got a few more Inoue-riffic links to share with you today!
First up, Lori Henderson at Manga Village looks at volume 22 of Slam Dunk, the most recent volume to become available in English, and points out that this is one sports manga where the sport itself is perhaps more important than the typical shounen theme of striving for improvement.
Next, Melinda and I devoted last night's Off the Shelf column to a discussion of Inoue's seinen wheelchair basketball series, Real, which we pretty much rave about unreservedly.
Lastly, my lovely cohost Anna contributes another review (love the Peter Sellers reference in the title!), wherein she shares her thoughts on the first six volumes of Slam Dunk. You might recall from our introductory post that she had yet to try the series, but I am happy to report that she likes it! She also writes really good concluding paragraphs, like this one:
One of the reasons why I liked it so much is that there's a general feeling of warmth that you get when reading this manga. Sakuragi is often made fun of, but he's portrayed with affection. He even inspires a bit of grudging respect from his teammates as his basketball skills keep getting better. As a bonus, the reader also gets treated to a variety of '90s fashions and hairstyles. Inoue's enthusiasm and love for the game informs the manga, making it seem more personal and interesting than a shonen manga that is developed by committee with the aid of magazine polls. After reading Slam Dunk, I can understand why it was one of the top-selling manga in Japan. If you haven't tried reading Slam Dunk yet, don't be an idiot like me and wait for several years'just pick up a few volumes as soon as possible.
What she said!
It's that time of the week again: I checked out the list of this week's new manga releases at MTV Geek, and Lissa Pattillo gave her take in her latest On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Sean Gaffney has a look at next week's new manga, which look absolutely stellar, with new volumes of Wandering Son and Drops of God, as well as the manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters per Second.
Digital Manga's Kickstarter drive reached its goal of $20,000 to publish Osamu Tezuka's Unico, so the second new license has been unlocked: Tezuka's Atomcat, a feline spinoff of Astro Boy. And if they reach $26,000, which looks likely, they will have yet another license to announce. Christopher Butcher and Johanna Draper Carlson voice some concerns about Digital using Kickstarter this way, but at the newly revived Manga Widget, Alex Hoffman argues that it's an appropriate way to market a book, although not really necessary with a Tezuka property.
With the year half over (that was fast!), Kate Dacey asks her readers: What are the best new manga of 2012' so far? You can vote for up to five in her poll.
At Soliloquy in Blue, Michelle Smith presents the first roundup of posts in the Takehiko Inoue Manga Moveable Feast, and at Manga Bookshelf, Michelle and Melinda Beasi devote this week's Off the Shelf column to Inoue's Real.
Jason Thompson devotes this week's House of 1000 Manga column to the samurai manga Satsuma Gishiden.
Matt Blind has another list of manga best-sellers, this one for the week of April 29. Sailor Moon is still going strong, but it has a bit of competition.
Hey, all of a sudden it's summer con season! Anime Expo is this weekend, and Deb Aoki has the manga highlights for you. And plan ahead, because Arina Tanemura is going to be the guest at AnimeFest in Dallas at the end of August.
Manga Therapy posts a video of author Helen McCarthy giving the history of manga in just nine minutes.
Ash Brown is giving away a copy of vol. 1 of From Eroica With Love to one lucky reader.
Three Steps Over Japan takes a look at Monthly Gessan, the monthly cousin of the weekly Shonen Sunday.
BIG news from Japan today: Chiho Saito, the creator of Revolutionary Girl Utena, will launch a new series, Torikae Baya, in the next issue of Shogakukan's Monthly Flowers.
Reviews
Sean Gaffney on vol. 3 of Alice in the Country of Hearts (omnibus edition) (A Case Suitable for Treatment)
Sesho on vol. 1 of Flowers of Evil (Sesho's Anime and Manga Reviews)
TSOTE on vol. 1 of Kitaro Collection (Three Steps Over Japan)
A Day Without Me on vol. 1 of Kitchen Princess (omnibus edition) (GAR GAR Stegosaurus)
Anna on vols. 1-5 of Real (Manga Report)
Erica Friedman on Yume Yori Sutekina (Okazu)
Erica Friedman on Yuri Anthology Dolce (Okazu)
By Quin Rose and Soumei Hoshino, based on the game by Quin Rose. Released in Japan as 'Heart no Kuni no Alice ~Wonderful Wonder World~' by Mag Garden, serialized in the magazine Comic Blade Avarus. Released in North America by Yen Press.
I have a sad confession to make. You see' I forgot to spoil myself for the end of this manga. I know, it sounds unusual. After all, you are my faithful readers, and know me well. You know that I traditionally spoil myself rotten. And indeed, later on in this review I will be discussing 'the big spoiler', be warned. But when Tokyopop released Vol. 5 of this series, they hadn't yet gone under, and there wasn't as big a need to find out what was going on. Afterwards, well, I just forgot to. What this means, though, is that for once I came at an ending with no idea what would happen, and thus managed to be both surprised and pleased. Which is especially surprising given the ending's hardly happy'
In a previous review of this series, I had noted that what I enjoyed most about it was that all of Alice's choices for her 'reverse harem' were so broken. And even though there was a good deal of 'and she changes them with her pure heart and friendship' to it ' this is still an adaptation of an otome game, after all ' many of them stayed pleasantly psychotic and bloodthirsty anyway. Indeed, Ace was probably my favorite character, as he recognizes and is actively fighting against what Alice represents. There's also some good backstory given throughout, especially regarding Blood Dupre, Vivaldi, and Eliot March. You get the sense that life actually happened before Alice arrived, which is hard to achieve in a setting like this.
I understand, having spoiled myself NOW, that fans of the games were a little annoyed at the opaqueness of the manga, especially towards the end. There's apparently a whole lot left out about the nature of Peter White, etc. (Which doesn't seem to bother me as much, mostly as I loathe Peter White. The manga apparently turned up the 'jerk' level on several characters, and he was the worst of them.) This is the nature of such adaptation, though, and I recall Higurashi fans being similarly annoyed with the anime. The question is whether one can get a gleaning of what actually happened from what the manga writer givens us. And I think the answer is yes, though it's only a gleaning. (Apparently the manga writer didn't understand the game's ending.)
Here's where I talk spoilers, by the way.
We've had Alice in Wonderland for most of the manga series, but occasionally she gets these pangs of conscience that she really should 'wake up' and return to the real world, as her big sister is waiting for her. And as she interacts with the others, the vial she was given at the start fills up with liquid. When it's full, she can return. And so she does, despite some misgivings, and others telling her not to, and those strange headaches she gets sometimes. And when she returns, she finds' well, actually, she doesn't. Blood Dupre goes screaming off grumpily into the 'real world' after her and forces her to return. Having gotten approval to do this by Nightmare, who can now 'Seal Off' Alice's memories again. And then we see her older sister in a coffin.
And suddenly the entire premise is thrown on its ear. Suddenly instead of 'a teenage girl lands in a magical fantasy land where she must decide which hot guy she likes best', it would seem that the land itself is attempting to prevent Alice from sinking into what is presumably hopeless despair in the real world, and that her sitting with her sister having tea and talking books is actually the dream. And that the vial which fills up as Alice interacts with the others is likely to be filling with ALICE'S feelings, not the guys falling for her. And we see why she gets so upset when all the others in Wonderland keep trying to murder each other (well, besides the usual reason anyone would).
So what we have here is a bunch of sociopathic clockwork people attempting to rise above their station and change themselves, even though that is completely impossible, and also help to heal the heart of a broken and damaged young woman devastated at a death in the family by sealing off her memory and keeping her in a fantasy world filled with blood and chaos. And that's fantastic. Discomfiting, but fantastic. In short, this manga is more for Higurashi fans than for, say, Ouran fans. Highly recommended, and re-reading all 3 omnibuses in one stroke definitely helps as well.
Comparative Rankings Based on Consolidated Online Sales
last week's charts
about the charts
##
Manga Bestsellers
1. '0 (1) : Sailor Moon 5 ' Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [494.8] ::
2. '0 (2) : Sailor Moon 4 ' Kodansha Comics, Mar 2012 [455.0] ::
3. '0 (3) : Sailor Moon 3 ' Kodansha Comics, Jan 2012 [442.0] ::
4. '0 (4) : Sailor Moon 1 ' Kodansha Comics, Sep 2011 [408.1] ::
5. '2 (7) : Black Butler 9 ' Yen Press, Jul 2012 [399.0] ::
6. '-1 (5) : Negima! 34 ' Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [394.4] ::
7. '-1 (6) : Sailor Moon 2 ' Kodansha Comics, Nov 2011 [384.8] ::
8. '6 (14) : Naruto 56 ' Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [361.9] ::
9. '1 (10) : Naruto 55 ' Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [335.0] ::
10. '6 (16) : Black Butler 8 ' Yen Press, Jan 2012 [310.2] ::
[more]
Top Imprints
Number of volumes ranking in the Top 500:
Yen Press 80
Tokyopop 75
Viz Shonen Jump 74
Viz Shojo Beat 56
Kodansha Comics 43
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 38
DMP Juné 17
Dark Horse 16
Vizkids 15
HC/Tokyopop 12
[more]
Series/Property
1. '0 (1) : Sailor Moon ' Kodansha Comics [1,205.4] ::
2. '1 (3) : Naruto ' Viz Shonen Jump [875.2] ::
3. '-1 (2) : Black Butler ' Yen Press [849.2] ::
4. '0 (4) : Maximum Ride ' Yen Press [604.8] ::
5. '2 (7) : Warriors ' HC/Tokyopop [588.5] ::
6. '0 (6) : Negima! ' Del Rey/Kodansha Comics [580.6] ::
7. '-2 (5) : Highschool of the Dead ' Yen Press [545.3] ::
8. '9 (17) : One Piece ' Viz Shonen Jump [478.5] ::
9. '-1 (8) : Rosario+Vampire ' Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [442.4] ::
10. '-1 (9) : Blue Exorcist ' Viz Shonen Jump Advanced [423.5] ::
[more]
New Releases
(Titles releasing/released This Month & Last)
1. '0 (1) : Sailor Moon 5 ' Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [494.8] ::
6. '-1 (5) : Negima! 34 ' Kodansha Comics, Apr 2012 [394.4] ::
8. '6 (14) : Naruto 56 ' Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [361.9] ::
12. '5 (17) : The Betrayal Knows My Name 3 ' Yen Press, Apr 2012 [295.3] ::
13. '5 (18) : Warriors SkyClan & The Stranger 3 ' HarperCollins, Apr 2012 [294.6] ::
15. '-7 (8) : Rosario+Vampire Season II 8 ' Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2012 [279.5] ::
23. '-1 (22) : Highschool of the Dead 6 ' Yen Press, Apr 2012 [239.9] ::
24. '96 (120) : One Piece 62 ' Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [235.6] ::
28. '-7 (21) : Durarara!! 2 ' Yen Press, Apr 2012 [223.3] ::
29. '-4 (25) : Skip Beat! 27 ' Viz Shojo Beat, Apr 2012 [212.6] ::
[more]
Preorders
5. '2 (7) : Black Butler 9 ' Yen Press, Jul 2012 [399.0] ::
14. '-2 (12) : Sailor Moon 6 ' Kodansha Comics, Jun 2012 [288.9] ::
16. '3 (19) : Sailor Moon 7 ' Kodansha Comics, Sep 2012 [274.1] ::
19. '7 (26) : Sailor Moon 8 ' Kodansha Comics, Nov 2012 [256.2] ::
27. '84 (111) : Ouran High School Host Club 18 ' Viz Shojo Beat, Jun 2012 [223.5] ::
51. '-12 (39) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder ' DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [163.0] ::
67. '102 (169) : Skip Beat! 28 ' Viz Shojo Beat, Jul 2012 [129.9] ::
71. '9 (80) : Negima! 35 ' Kodansha Comics, Jul 2012 [126.9] ::
72. '3 (75) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 ' DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [124.3] ::
83. '-11 (72) : Dance in the Vampire Bund 12 ' Seven Seas, Jun 2012 [113.0] ::
[more]
Manhwa
307. '-62 (245) : Priest Purgatory 1 ' Tokyopop, Aug 2010 [38.4] ::
348. '-39 (309) : Bride of the Water God 9 ' Dark Horse, Oct 2011 [32.8] ::
496. '164 (660) : Black God 16 ' Yen Press, Apr 2012 [20.9] ::
506. '124 (630) : Color Trilogy 1 The Color of Earth ' Macmillan First Second, Apr 2009 [20.4] ::
618. '-99 (519) : Ragnarok 1 ' Tokyopop, May 2002 [14.8] ::
829. '-80 (749) : Bride of the Water God 10 ' Dark Horse, Jan 2012 [8.0] ::
838. '-60 (778) : Toxic (anthology) 1 ' Udon, Jul 2012 [7.9] ::
942. '29 (971) : March Story 3 ' Viz Signature, Oct 2011 [5.5] ::
1131. '-122 (1009) : INVU 5 ' Tokyopop, Nov 2009 [2.8] ::
1237. '401 (1638) : Bride of the Water God 11 ' Dark Horse, May 2012 [2.0] ::
[more]
BL/Yaoi
51. '-12 (39) : Finder Series 6 Passion within the View Finder ' DMP Juné, Jul 2012 [163.0] ::
68. '10 (78) : Private Teacher 3 ' DMP Juné, May 2012 [129.8] ::
72. '3 (75) : Only the Ring Finger Knows (novel) 5 ' DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [124.3] ::
87. '64 (151) : Gravitation vols 3-4 collection ' Tokyopop, Aug 2009 [112.0] ::
90. '-11 (79) : Ai no Kusabi (novel) 7 ' DMP Juné, Sep 2012 [109.0] ::
96. '186 (282) : Private Teacher 2 ' DMP Juné, Jan 2012 [100.7] ::
122. '83 (205) : Love Mode 1 ' Tokyopop Blu, Nov 2005 [86.3] ::
142. '-28 (114) : Vassalord 3 ' Tokyopop, Sep 2009 [76.8] ::
158. '69 (227) : Good Morning ' DMP Juné, May 2012 [71.4] ::
162. '-12 (150) : Finder Series 5 Truth in the View Finder ' DMP Juné, Dec 2011 [70.9] ::
[more]
Ebooks
8. '6 (14) : Naruto 56 ' Viz Shonen Jump, May 2012 [361.9] ::
9. '1 (10) : Naruto 55 ' Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [335.0] ::
11. '0 (11) : Maximum Ride 5 ' Yen Press, Dec 2011 [297.1] ::
20. '4 (24) : Maximum Ride 1 ' Yen Press, Jan 2009 [254.9] ::
31. '-4 (27) : Blue Exorcist 1 ' Viz Shonen Jump Advanced, Apr 2011 [212.3] ::
40. '-8 (32) : Naruto 54 ' Viz Shonen Jump, Mar 2012 [182.5] ::
44. '10 (54) : Maximum Ride 2 ' Yen Press, Oct 2009 [169.8] ::
50. '1 (51) : Maximum Ride 3 ' Yen Press, Aug 2010 [166.1] ::
54. '-1 (53) : Naruto 53 ' Viz Shonen Jump, Dec 2011 [154.3] ::
57. '-10 (47) : Maximum Ride 4 ' Yen Press, Apr 2011 [149.6] ::
[more]
Now that we've reached the official half-way point of 2012, I thought it would be fun to take stock of what's been released so far. As I started compiling my list, I was surprised to discover how many great new titles debuted in the first six months of 2012; I can already imagine a Best of 2012 list that includes A Devil and Her Love Song, The Flowers of Evil, GTO: 14 Days in Shonan and NonNonBa.
What titles would make your short list? Now's your chance to tell everyone! Below is a list of major new releases from January 1, 2012 through June 30, 2012; you may vote for up to five titles. Please note that this list does not include reprints or new editions of previously published material, nor does it include any JManga titles. (Given how much JManga has released this year alone, that seems like a poll in its own right!) If there's a great new manga that I forgot to include, let us know about it in the comments!
My Queen is a 2009 idol drama. For an explanation of the meaning of the Mandarin title Bài Qu'n N'wáng check out Jade's post at Wai-Taiwan.
Story Overview
So, Shan Wushuang is a hard-working journalist who, at the age of 33, is ' single. Actually, 'Shan' can also be read as 'dan,' which means single, and 'wushuang' means 'not in a couple,' so her name pretty much means 'SINGLE!!!!!!' in Mandarin. At work, she overhears her co-wokers make snide remarks about how men don't want her because she is so career-oriented. Meanwhile, there is a handsome man, Lucas, who works odd jobs. Through a series of ridiculous events related to her job, Shan causes Lucas to lose the pay for one of his gigs, which means that Lucas can't pay his rent. Understandably, Lucas is pissed off at Shan.
Shan feels bad about causing Lucas to lose the money he needs to pay rent, so she lets him stay at her place. She sees having a handsome man in her apartment as an opportunity, so she puts on her sexiest dress and tells him that she won't let him refuse her. He does not, in fact, refuse her, but being a responsible person, he wants to fetch a condom before things go too far. While he's searching for his condom, Shan sees the birthdate on his ID card ' and realizes that he is 8 years younger than she is! That's it for her'she does not want to get in bed with a man 8 years younger than she'which is pretty frustrating to Lucas.
Oh, and then Lucas get a new job ' at Shan's company.
This is of course just the beginning of the story (and I didn't even talk about Shan's big scoop), but it should be pretty clear that this is a romance between Shan and Lucas, and that the major obstacles are a) Shan's reluctance to date a younger man and b) Lucas' propensity to get irritated by Shan (often due to misunderstandings).
Location
My father enjoys watching re-runs of The Streets of San Francisco. It is not a show noted for great storytelling. However, unlike some TV shows 'set in San Francisco,' The Streets of San Francisco actually was shot in San Francisco. The main reason he watches so much of it is that he enjoys trying to identify the various locations in the episode, and comparing 1970s San Francisco with present day San Francisco. Location-spotting is also one of the reasons I enjoy watching idol dramas (though the storytelling tends to be much better in idol dramas than in The Streets of San Francisco, thank goodness).
The idol drama and Taiwanese tourism industries are aware of their symbiotic relationship. Idol dramas are mostly shot in Taiwan*mdash;filming abroad is rather expensive'but since idol dramas are mostly escapist, they try to find locations which allow viewers to get their minds off of their everyday lives. Sometimes they even try to sell a drama based on the location. For example, there is an idol drama called Love in Alishan (Alishan is one of the most visited tourist spots in Taiwan). Likewise, tourism companies try to use idol dramas for their own benefit. A tour operator I talked to said that they try to get the places where they offer tours shown on TV so that 'everybody knows how beautiful Taiwan is' (and of course to get more business). Taiwanese tourism bureaus offer brochures based on idol dramas, and I have seen one travel book dedicated entirely to locations shown in idol dramas.
To me, the most notable locations in My Queen are the ones close to home'quite literally. A few scenes in My Queen were shot in Taoyuan City, where I live. The first episode in My Queen has a scene shot in Hutoushan Park, which I can walk to from my apartment in under and hour. There is also a scene shot in the Taoyuan City Night Market, which I can also walk to in under an hour. For the record, I like the Taoyuan City Night Market more than most of the famous night markets (Shilin Night Market and Liouhe Night Market, this means you). The Taoyuan City Night Market has a chill, relaxed atmosphere, and has a nice, humble, neighborly feeling. While they don't show it in My Queen, there is a nice comic book rental shop right next to the Taoyuan City Night Market. If somebody out there is wondering how I got ahold of some of the out-of-print manhua I reviewed in my The Condor Trilogy in Manhua posts, there's your answer. I used to think that I would never see Taoyuan City shown in an idol drama, so it was nice of My Queen to prove me wrong.
There are also some scenes shot in what I think is Miyuewan (Honeymoon Bay) in Yilan County, though I have not confirmed this. Miyuewan is one of the most popular spots for surfing in Taiwan. One of my guidebooks claims that Miyuewan has a nickname among the locals, 'Killer Bay.' This is supposedly because some fatal accidents happened there. In the story of My Queen, somebody does die there.
What I Liked and Disliked
These are the parts of the story I liked the most 1) whenever Shan used sneaky tricks for the sake of her job 2) whenever Shan and Lucas engaged in silly activities or witty banter with each other. In short, I liked My Queen when it acted like a romantic comedy.
As a romantic comedy, it works quite well'Shan and Lucas are very good foils for each other. Shan is overall a very serious person, but she lengths she goes to in order to fulfill her journalistic duties are quite funny. Her boss' attitude'that she is the jewel of the company who must be protected so she can keep on getting the best scoops'is also amusing. Lucas, on the other hand, has a sense of humor, and while Shan's attention is often very focused, Lucas is more broad-minded. This turns out to be pretty fertile ground for friction and sparks between the two. At the same time, it's clear that they are good for each other. Lucas helps Shan chill out and make work just one part of her life instead of the overwhelming totality her life, whereas Shan helps Lucas focus on getting his own life together.
What did I dislike? Mainly, I disliked most of the parts where it did not act like a romantic comedy.
For example, one of my least favorite scenes is (trigger warning) the attempted rape scene. This was not because it was an attempted rape scene per se. For example, The Outsiders has a rape scene. But The Outsiders is a dark drama which, among other things, has women who are kidnapped, pushed into sexual slavery, and forced to take strong recreational drugs so they are dependent on their captors for their next fix. A rape scene fits thematically in The Outsiders. A rape scene'even just an attempted rape scene'does not fit thematically in My Queen. What's worse, shortly after the scene happens, the victim recovers very quickly and it does not seem to affect her very much. The scene was so brutal that it should have had some tangible effect on her for the duration of the drama. But really, the scene just should not have been there in the first place.
I also generally disliked the subplot around Shan's fiancé. I recognize that the drama needed to let Shan show some vulnerability, that the story needs some gravitas, and that, this being an idol drama, she needs to have a romantic alternative to Lucas. But for some reason, this subplot rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not sure why. Maybe I just did not like the fiancé.
That said, I did not always dislike it when My Queen played it straight. After all, the best comedies have some seriousness. However, I liked the serious parts best when they were well-connected to Shan and Lucas' relationship and foibles. For example, I liked the arc where Lucas is accused of a committing murder and Shan has to use her journalistic prowess to clear his name.
Feminism?
One of the reasons I was interested in this drama is that it supposedly discusses feminism. In the first draft of this post, I talked about how the show failed to meet my expectations on this matter. But I was disappointed because I had forgotten this is an idol drama.
This is escapist entertainment shown late at night on TV when people are tired. This is not where cultural attitudes get challenged. This is where you see how the culture has already changed.
Even though the age gap felt more like a gimmick to me than a launching point for serious examination of Taiwanese notions of age, gender, and romance ' the fact that an idol show would have the main couple be a woman and a man 8 years her junior shows that Taiwanese culture is changing. And Shan's mother gets to pursue romance herself'it's played for laughs, but it is still very unusual to see a woman her age to find new romance in an idol drama. And while Lucas does turn out to be the son of a man with a lot of power and influence, at least Shan is not economically dependent on his family and she does not play his Cinderella.
Of course, one could also look at this drama and see how far Taiwanese culture has to go when it comes to gender equity. Ultimately, it does not question the attitudes held by Taiwanese people 30 or younger, it just shows that that the attitudes of the young people are in fact different from the attitudes of their elders.
Availability in English
Dramafever offers My Queen with English subtitles for streaming in North and South America. If you don't live in North or South America, if it's any consolation to you, I don't live in North or South America either.
Conclusion
My feelings about this drama are mixed. Some parts are very entertaining ' and some parts fell flat for me. I think I would have had a better attitude about this drama if I had entered it with lower expectations. However, people in North and South America can try this drama for free. If that is you, I recommend trying this drama to see if it hits your spot.
Next week: Special Tuesday-Friday Double Feature about a Really Popular Wuxia Novel That Was Not Written by Jin Yong
Sara K. has a love-hate relationship with idol dramas. On the one hand, they have jaded her by recycling the same plot over and over again. On the other hand, they still make her laugh, and, when she's caught off guard, make her cry. She keeps on telling herself that she'll quit idol dramas after she has finished drama X, or at least take a long hiatus ' and then she picks up another one at the DVD rental shop.
The Takehiko Inoue MMF is underway and submissions are beginning to come in! I've got three of them to share this morning.
First up is a post from Matt at Matt Talks About Manga , where he talks about the first VIZBIG collection of Vagabond, comprising the first three volumes of the series. I have to admit that my favorite quote is, 'The art. Oh, God, the art. It's beyond fantastic.'
Next up is Ash at Experiments in Manga, who looks at the first two volumes of Inoue's Slam Dunk for the My Week in Manga column.
Lastly, my cohost Anna checks out the first five volumes of Real at her site, Manga Report. She's written the post as a volume-by-volume synopsis, pointing out the particular highlights of each, but my favorite observations are right at the end:
While Real centers around the wheelchair basketball world, it uses that setting as a way of exploring the underlying psychological issues of the protagonists. Nomiya desperately searches for a form of redemption. Hisanobu's toxic habits of personality and thought patterns threaten to derail his rehabilitation. While there is no question that Togawa has the drive and personality to be an elite athlete, his lack of people skills while playing a team sport might threaten his bright future. Real is just an absolutely gripping manga, and I know I'm going to be seeking out the remaining translated volumes of the series as soon as possible.
Thanks to all contributors! And remember, if you want to participate' the MMF is running through June 30th and you can email me (swanjun at gmail dot com) with links to your submission!
The June Manga Movable Feast begins today, with Takehiko Inoue ' one of Japan's most commercially successful manga artists ' as the subject. I don't think I'll have a chance to write a new essay for this month's MMF, but I did want to take a minute to sing the praises of my favorite Inoue manga, Real. As I noted back in 2009, Real is an all-too-rare example of a sports manga with broad appeal:
It's a sports story for those of us who care more about good writing and good artwork than the inner workings of a zone defense. But if you like to wax poetic about the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of yore, Real is your kind of series, too, as it will remind you just how beautiful the game can be when played with passion.
I haven't always done my best to keep current with the series ' the release schedule is painfully slow ' but I'm finally up to date with the English edition, and can say with confidence that it's still one of the best manga being published right now.
Comics | Looking for a good summer read? Gina Gagliardo, Marketing Associate for First Second Books, offers a few suggestions, from A.L.I.E.E.E.N. to Whiteout. [First Second Books]
Comics | Jocelyn Allen reviews Feynman, Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick's bio-comic about the late, great physicist. [Brain vs. Book]
Comics | In honor of the much-discussed Astonishing X-Men #51 ' in which Northstar marries his long-time boyfriend Kyle ' Midtown Comics hosted its very first wedding. [The New York Times]
Japanese Culture | Mark your calendars: the fourth annual J-Pop Summit Festival will be held in San Francisco on August 25th and 26th. This year's event will feature a special tribute to the Evangelion franchise, as well as a variety of concerts and screenings illustrating the theme 'Cyberpop Overload!' [New People]
Manga | The folks at Comics Alliance have a special treat for Moyocco Anno fans: a generous preview of Sakuran, which Vertical, Inc. will be releasing on July 17th. Note that the pages deal with adult subject matter, even though they're not explicit. (Translation: don't read it on the subway!) [Comics Alliance]
Manga | Big news from JManga: customers now have the option of buying points on an as-needed basis, no subscription required. [JManga]
Manga | Speaking of JManga, Deb Aoki posts mini-reviews of six new Houbunsha titles that are making their debut on the manga portal. The titles run the gamut from culinary comedies (Cafe Dream, Wasanbon) to yuri dramas (Himitsu: Secret Love). [About Manga]
Manga | Is Naruto entering the home stretch? Recent comments by Masashi Kishimoto suggest that he plans to end the series soon. [Anime News Network]
Manga | Shunjo Auono's bleak comedy I'll Give It My All' Tomorrow is slated for a big-screen adaptation. No word on casting or a potential release date yet. [Anime News Network]
Manga | Spotted on Amazon: cover art for Drawn & Quarterly's upcoming edition of GeGeGe no Kitaro. [The Manga Critic Con't]
Manga | In case you missed it: David Brothers posts a thoughtful appreciation of Shotaro Ishimonori's Cyborg 009, focusing on the team's black member, 008. 'Even though Ishinomori is using explicitly racist iconography, he isn't bringing the same baggage to it that Eisner or others did,' Brothers notes. '008 isn't a Stepin Fetchit type, and there's not a hint of the 'yassuh boss, we's sick!' garbage that makes Ebony White such a Strong Black Character. He's just a regular dude, and he acts like it. It's like Ishinomori adopted the art style but missed out on the baggage that goes along with it.' [4th Letter!]
By Ume Aoki. Released in Japan as 'Hidamari Sketch' by Houbunsha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat. Released in North America by Yen Press.
As I have noted many times before, there are certain manga that I like *because* I can go into them and not be surprised. Most 4-koma style manga fall into that category, mostly as plot development, if any, is glacial. In the case of Ume Aoki's Sunshine Sketch, I have a limited pallette I want to see. Will Sae and Hiro have not-quite-yuri moments? Will Miyako be extremely silly and weird? Will Yuno be adorable? And indeed I got all of these things while reading the 6th volume of this series. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that I did also get some character development, as well as a sense that Vol. 7 may be the final one (at least for our favorite third-years).
First off, it has to be said that Yoshinoya-sensei, the girls' teacher, has never particularly been a favorite of mine. She's there purely as comic relief, and the exhibitionist and boob jokes have always seemed vaguely out of place in a moe blob series like this. And indeed, we still get both of those here. But I was also pleased to see signs that she is a good teacher at heart, as well as a few strips showing her bonding with her own generation of friends. And her advice to Hiro at the end is spot on, seeing through all of Hiro's stress right to what's really going on, and soothing her while letting Hiro understand the solution has to come from her. It's a nice thing to see.
Speaking of Hiro, I was rather surprised by the final collection of strips here, as I figured that if anyone was going to freak out about graduation and losing her best friend, it would be Sae. Hiro has always seemed to be the more mature and together one in our favorite pair. That said, the desire to have a beloved situation stay exactly the same is a well-known one. Hiro's choice of career, as Sae notes, is an excellent one, and has been quietly signposted through the previous volumes. But most of all, there's Sae's reassurance that things will be OK, even if the two are separated that finally soothes Hiro and gives her resolve. They are a wonderful couple (except they aren't a couple), and everyone around them knows it.
As for the rest, Nazuna has the cover with Yuno this time around, and I'm slowly getting used to her and Nori. She seems to be funniest when horrible things are happening to her, sad to say. As for the art style, well, it's Volume 6. If readers disliked the art I'm sure they would have dropped it by now. I have noticed a lot less 'squashed SD' style in these latter panels, as the girls seem to be drawn more 'normally', presumably as Aoki has gained confidence in her work.
Sunshine Sketch 6 gives readers exactly what they want from this sort of series: more of what they like about it. And, as an added bonus, there's some additional depth as well. An excellent quick read.
Welcome to the June installment of BL Bookrack! This month, Michelle takes a look at Honey Darling, a rare print release from SuBLime Manga, while Melinda checks out Juné's recent reprinting of fan favorite Only the Ring Finger Knows. In Brief: Kaoru Kun from the Digital Manga Guild, and an early look at The Young Protectors from Yaoi 911.
Chihiro Takahashi is a young man 'just drifting through life.' He doesn't have any goals or aspirations, and he's never had a serious relationship. When he happens past an abandoned kitten, however, he can't just ignore her, and ends up becoming a well-intentioned, if uninformed, pet owner. When the kitty (Shiro) develops a cold, a frantic Chihiro takes to the streets where he conveniently runs into Daisuke Kumazawa, gruff but kind veterinarian. Kumazawa gives Chihiro a stern lecture about the responsibilities of pet ownership, and after Chihiro tears up at the enormity of his error, offers him a job as a live-in housekeeper, saying, 'You'd be like' my wife.'
I was fully prepared for Chihiro to be incompetent at the tasks assigned, but he actually does a good job and works hard. Over time, he decides that he'd like to become a veterinary nurse. And really, it's the amount of weight given to this plot point that really makes me love Honey Darling. Sure, a romance is slowly developing between Chihiro and Kumazawa, but the story reads like the main point of it all is Chihiro finding a place where he belongs, and discovering something to be passionate about. And that will always, always be my favorite plot ever, no matter how many times I read it.
There's no crazy, out-of-left-field drama in Honey Darling. Sure, it's not the most realistic thing ever, but it's sweet and cute and cheery. I'm not fond of Daisuke referring to menial labor as the wifely role, true, and the character designs are a little bland, but I enjoyed this oneshot very much and honestly wish there were more of it.
- Review by Michelle Smith
The setup is typical of standard high school romance. There's a fad sweeping through Wataru's high school, in which students indicate their relationship status by the placement of (sometimes matching) rings on their fingers. Various configurations indicate friendship, availability, or (of course) love. When Wataru discovers that his own ring (bought on a whim) matches that of a popular upperclassman, Yuichi Kazuki, the situation is primarily annoying, as every girl in school wants to know where he got his ring. Furthermore, Kazuki himself is inexplicably hostile to Wataru, though he seems to be kind to everyone else.
Of course this is BL, so we know that all signs point to love, but as with all romance, the story's success depends on its execution, and here's where my opening question comes up again. What makes a romance story work? I've stated many criteria in the past, including compelling characters, believable relationship development, emotional truth, blah blah blah, but what is it really that makes the difference between a perfectly pleasant tale of romance and the kind that sweeps us away completely, filling our hearts with joy and a sweet, sweet anxiety that lingers long after we've turned the last page?
I tend to be a big-picture thinker, but in this case, I suspect that the devil is in the details. Within this questionably original setup, it's the little things that matter. The tilt of a chin, a hurried glance, the tentative movement of a hand'these are the details that accent the story's most significant emotional beats. With these perfect details, the tension between Wataru and Kazuki is thick and volatile from the start, far ahead of Wataru's own understanding of what's happening in his own heart and mind. The combination of intense interest and awkwardness between the two main characters seems so real, to continue reading almost feels like an intrusion. It's painfully delicate and honestly breathtaking in a way that only romance can be, and to a great extent, it's reminded me why I like the genre so much in the first place.
Satoru Kannagi's original light novel is no longer in print in English, but as much as I'd like to read it, I must admit tha Hotaru Odagiri's expressive artwork does so much of the heavy lifting here, it's difficult to imagine the story playing out so gracefully in prose. If, like me, you missed Only the Ring Finger Knows the first time around, don't let this reprinting pass you way. Joyfully recommended.
- Review by Melinda Beasi
In Brief:
Review copies provided by the publishers.
Disclosure: Melinda Beasi 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 Melinda in her role as an editor with the DMG will be donated to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
Other recent BL reviews from Melinda & Michelle: Honey Darling (SuBLime)
When I first spotted the cover for Olympos, I had a nagging feeling I'd read something else by Aki, but couldn't remember the title. A quick surf of the internet and presto! I had my answer: Aki also wrote Utahime: The Songstress, which DMP released in 2009 to strong reviews. In preparation for reading Olympos, I tracked down a new copy of Utahime. I had a vague notion of reviewing both books, then decided that the two-books-one-author concept would make a swell basis for a Short Takes column.
Which title did I like better? The answer might surprise you.
OLYMPOSHave you ever spotted a stunningly attractive person at a party, only to discover that he or she was a crashing bore? (Or worse, a boor?) If so, you may experience a few pangs of deja-vu while reading Olympos, a beautiful manga with a shapeless script.
Early in the volume, Apollo kidnaps Heinz, a human whose dearest wish is to marry his childhood sweetheart. Apollo offers Heinz a chance to perform a task in exchange for Maria's hand ' a task far more difficult than it initially seems. That sounds like a decent starting point for a cat-and-mouse game between Apollo and a plucky mortal, but Heinz soon disappears from the narrative altogether, creating a vacuum that's never satisfactorily filled. Other gods wander in and out of the story ' Zeus, Poseidon, Artemis, and Hades all pop by for a cup of coffee and a little prophecy ' but the endless stream of chatter grows tiresome.
That's a pity, because Aki's sensual linework is ideally suited to the material. Olympos is one of the few graphic novels in which the gods are so physically perfect, so pansexual in their appeal, that one can imagine why the gods bristled at the suggestion that any mortal might surpass them in beauty. Consider Hades, god of the underworld: Aki renders him as lithe man with goat horns, cloven feet, and a long mane of hair. For all his animal parts, however, Hades is undeniably attractive, moving with the grace of a Bolshoi dancer and meeting the other characters' gazes with eyes that are both terrifying and alluring. The other gods are executed with similar care; even Poseidon, who's portrayed as a bearded buffoon, has a handsome, agreeable face.
Some readers may find the drawings so appealing that the aimless script won't spoil their enjoyment of Olympos. Others may find ' as I did ' that no amount of sensual imagery can hold their interest while the gods hold forth on the meaninglessness of their existence.
Review copy provided by Yen Press.
UTAHIME: THE SONGSTRESSIs gender destiny? That's the question at the heart of Utahime: The Songstress, which takes place in a kingdom in which utahime, or 'song princesses,' preserve the fragile peace through the power of their singing.
The story focuses on a trio of characters: fraternal twins Kain and Maria, whose mother is an utahime, and Thomas, whose father is the head of the nearby village. Kain, Maria, and Thomas' relationship is shown at several stages, beginning with Kain's return from a self-imposed exile of ten years. We then jump back in time to explore the characters' childhoods, watching them come to terms with the ugly truth about Kain and Maria's mother: she's a virtual prisoner, jealously guarded by the local townspeople to ensure that their village remains safe and prosperous.
If you can soldier through the first few pages ' which, I grant, are a mess ' you'll find an intimate story that focuses as much on the characters' interior states as their actions. Aki allows her characters room for growth and reflection; though Kain and Thomas have a predictably antagonistic relationship as children, their shared concern for Maria overrides that hostility in adulthood. Aki also makes good use of her setting to explore the relationship between gender and destiny; if only women are allowed to be songstresses, what happens when a young man is born with the requisite voice?
If the artwork isn't as lush as Olympos', it nonetheless makes a strong impression. Aki devotes the most attention to character designs, giving each cast member a distinctive appearance and an elastic, expressive face capable of registering subtle shifts in mood and energy. Her backgrounds, by contrast, are very sparse, making use of an occasional prop to establish the setting: a table and a few rickety chairs for a saloon, a high window and a iron frame bed for the utahime's home.
That artistic restraint serves her story well, firmly establishing the characters' emotional states without excessive reliance on dialogue and thought balloons. As a result, Utahime's script is leaner and more focused than Olympos', gently but insistently leading the reader through a series of effective (and affecting) scenes that help us appreciate the utahime's plight. Recommended.
My very favorite thing in all the world is a bowl of raw blackberries on a hot July day, but a very close second to blackberries (never cooked, straight off the vine) is a good Stephen Sondheim musical. And my very favorite quote about Stephen Sondheim is a quote from Frank Rich, who, writing in the NY Times of the flop that was Merrily We Roll Along, said:
I've held this quote close to my heart, but I never equated it to the actual act of being a fan until a month ago, when I was reading about creator Dan Harmon's exit from NBC's Community, scrolling past endless wailing and wearing of sackcloth on Tumblr (read: gifs of Abed and Troy having freakouts).
If you've never watched Community, then you've probably still heard from Community fans talking about how great it is. The diverse cast includes PHDs, Oscar-winners, rap stars, Betty White, and Omar from The Wire, and if that isn't enough to sell you, it's also an ongoing geek dream in meta-riffic serial narrative form. It's every bit as good a show as you've heard it is, but what's most important to its ultimate success or failure as a tv product is that its tailor-made for you. Yes, you, the person reading this article. You like smart, savvy stories that are steeped in meta-awareness of their own conventions but still have a deep emotional core. You access shows via all kinds of methods, and you never pay attention to ads on the rare occasion you're accidentally suckered into watching one. At any given time, you're probably mainlining 2 or 3 shows at once. Community knows this about you, and it loves you just as you are.
Which, of course, is the problem.
Tumblr has a large swathe of die-hard Community fans who've only recently gotten over the trauma of cancellation rumors, and the eleventh-hour notice that Community would return for at least a final half-season, and perhaps more. In the middle of celebrating a truly flawless 3-ep season finale that many feared would be a series finale, fans learned that Harmon, the show's creator and show runner, who exerts a huge influence over the show and its direction, had been fired and replaced by two dudes from another statistically 'quirky' show called Happy Endings. The immediate fan feeling was that the departure of Harmon, who's spoken in the past of his incredibly hands-on relationship with the show, would kill everything that makes it special and unique. Writing bitterly on his Tumblr Saturday morning after the season finale, Harmon said, 'I'm not saying you can't make a good version of Community without me, but I am definitely saying that you can't make my version of it unless I have the option of saying 'it has to be like this or I quit' roughly 8 times a day.'
NBC and Sony view Harmon's forced departure as a chance to 'broaden' the show's appeal to a 'wider' audience.
'Wider Audience' is a Lie
These are words that will send every Community fan into a blind panic, because if you've ever been on the internet, you know that Community already has a huge audience. On May 17 during the finale, two show references trended worldwide on Twitter; Saturday during the outcry over Harmon's departure, 'Dan Harmon' trended for hours in the USA and even worldwide.
The internet tells me that even though Twitter has roughly half a billion users, it only takes somewhere between 1200-1500 people tweeting about a topic for it within a short period of time to become a 'trend,' and that specifically the topic has to reach people who haven't normally tweeted about it before. So the famous Community hashtag #sixseasonsandamovie can only become a worldwide trend if it starts reaching a new segment of Twitter's active population. Presumably, all of this makes a 'trend' in roughly the same way that a Nielsen rating makes up a quantifiable percentage of America's tv-watching population: that is, if 1500 people are tweeting about watching Community, then presumably at least that many millions of people are watching Community.
The problem with this analogy is that the people tweeting about Community are not the same group of people Nielsen is tracking. There are 115 million tv owners in the US, but that doesn't mean that all of us actually watch tv. In fact, recently released Nielsen data reveals that 17% of Americans never watch tv at all. I'll be the first to admit that my own ambivalent relationship to my tv has created a bit of a cultural gap for me, but that gap shrinks all the time, because with the advent of the internet there's been a huge generational shift in how people use a tv set. It's become just another tool for many people. It's one of many ways in which we control access to what we want to watch, and how/when we watch it:
People use television sets for watching tv, screening films, for surfing the web, recording things, listening to music, and for gaming.
People get access to television shows from Hulu, from iTunes, from Netflix, from their Roku, from the dvd-rs their friend burnt, from TIVO, from live streaming sites, from tv sets, from the box sets they bought at Best Buy, from Amazon, from torrenting and file-sharing hubs, from Youtube, from network websites, from Crunchyroll, from other sources that are probably being invented as I type this.
How many of these avenues make it into Nielsen ratings? Two'Live + Same Day: the viewing from your actual tv set, and the TIVO, or 'time-shifted' view (but only if the time-shifted viewing occurs before 3am the day the show airs). According to the Nielsen website, it has an 'extended screen rating' that allows it to track certain streaming sites, but this is a dubious claim with very little affect on ratings numbers. So 115 million people owning a tv set no longer means that 115 million people are going to be using it as their primary source of access to shows, but even though Nielsen hasn't figured out how to quantify this huge cultural behavior change, Nielsen ratings are the only things networks care about.
The reason for this, of course, is advertising.
Advertising and Content Control.
Along with the huge disconnect that goes along with the assumption that means of access haven't changed is that the means of control over content hasn't changed. A TIVO-less or DVR-less television set gives you no control over when you view the show. While I have fond memories of college Thursday nights when my BFF & I would convene for Will & Grace come hell or high water, it's no longer possible for everyone to carve out weekly, regularly scheduled time for sessions with their favorite TV shows. And what's more, the number of people I want to watch tv with is also expanding. For the last several months a few of my online friends and I have been gathering in Campfire chat to watch Avatar, Korra, and Due South whenever we have free moments. It's harried, irregular, and tv-set free. Of these three shows, only Legend of Korra is currently airing. We streamed Avatar from Netflix, and bought DVDs of Due South. Each of the networks who provide these shows has profited from our consumption of them; but none of these modes of access are part of an advertiser's business model.
It's not as if any of us made a conscious choice to reject exposure to ads in these shows when we got together to watch them. But we are located, respectively, in Philadelphia, Indiana, and Glasgow. We're not going to prioritize company ad revenue over our ability to watch shows easily together'to form a community and have amazing bonding experiences around those shows. A Nielsen-compliant, advertising-friendly distribution model literally can't give us that. We are part of the generation of people who, along with rejecting corporate-controlled content, are also rejecting advertiser-dictated content, as well as the ads themselves.
On the rare occasions I find myself watching tv'usually when I'm home visiting'I always mute commercials. This actually has caused fights with family members before, because even though turning the radio dial when commercials come on is something they don't question, they don't understand why I don't want to watch the ads. The reason for me is that advertising is sexist, homophobic, gendered, ethnically profiled and stereotypical. When I watch tv, I have control over what I listen to and am exposed to, in a way that I don't when bombarded with highway billboards, wall flyers, pamphlets on my car, and other advertisements in public spaces. And I have no problem with making the choice to filter the kinds of ads and harmful messages I'm exposed to. Why not? I make it in every other area of my life.
This fight family members and I keep having over my refusal to listen to advertisements is directly relevant to why Dan Harmon was fired. The networks and the advertisers who sponsor their shows want my mom to believe the only content she can have is the content that's filtered through the box in her living room. But the price of accepting that content is that it comes with regular advertising that reinforces all kinds of harmful heteronormative shit about the world we live in'that girls like pink and baking and boys like action figures and building things; that women want to lose weight and find a better laundry detergent and wear makeup, and men want to objectify women, drink beer, bulk up, and live charmingly privileged lives. That queer characters don't exist except as comic relief, and genderqueer and disabled people don't exist at all.
It's a bit wondrous that shows that actively question these types of stereotypes are able to sell to advertisers at all. (Mad Men is undoubtedly genius in this regard, with real-world companies lining up for ad space and major product placement on a show that's actively critiquing everything their marketing companies are meant to do to begin with.) It's possible that Community's ability to exist at all in these circumstances is a modern miracle, because as a show it sits at the crux of an entire generational and cultural gap. People who've killed our figurative television sets have also rejected the world advertisers try to sell us, because it doesn't line up with reality, and because we actively operate within this culture of questioning and scrutinizing the content we intake'ads included. This description definitely applies to the audience of Community, which is a show that is 100% built around the concept that pop-culture-savviness and a pervasive rejection of outdated sociocultural values go hand in hand. As hard as NBC tries to make Community fit the mold that will allow advertisers to reach its audience in real time on Thursday Friday nights, it's never going to happen.
To put it bluntly, you can get TV-set-controlled culture to watch bland, unironic, problematic shows like Whitney and Big Bang Theory, and you can get those shows to land significant advertising revenue, because the vast majority of people who still watch tv, much like the vast majority of people who use Facebook, are not a part of the culture of consumer-controlled content, genre savviness, remix culture, talking back, and active participation that makes up the rest of internet culture, the culture of fans who watch Community. Producer-controlled, ad-controlled-media is only as sustainable as the unreflective, unthinking, passive 'couch potato' mentality people have about the act of media consumption, and that culture that is fast eroding. Community represents a paradigm shift. Community's success lies with an entire generation of people who don't even register on Nielsen ratings because they don't intake shows in ways that expose themselves to advertisers.
In order to make sure their message gets across to this 'invisible' group of people, advertisers are demanding product placements directly within shows. When Community had to do this, it lampshaded the whole thing by naming a character 'Subway,' turning him into a villain, and promptly disposing of him. The show that NBC wants Community to become is a more broad, bland, 'mainstreamed' comedy, one that the Facebook set, the passive box-in-living-room-watching audience, can enjoy. That show is dying. That show is unsustainable. That show is dreck.
That show looks like this.
TV Shows Will Break Your Heart
I was watching the incredible outpouring of grief on Tumblr over the loss of Dan Harmon to Community, and thinking about how one of my internet friends has this tag for the media posts she makes on her journal, and it's called 'tv shows will break your heart.' For years this tag has puzzled me, because my own tv-less background has left me extremely disconnected from the culture built around following and investing in a tv series. In addition to Avatar, the only other Western television series I've watched until the end of their runs are Buffy and Gilmore Girls, and I discovered both series late in their runs and caught up after the fact. For a long time, it was just so utterly foreign to me, this concept that you could invest so heavily in a serial tv storyline that it could impact you this way. That tag made me want to understand what television had to offer that I'd somehow missed all my life. I've watched a lot of tv shows since in an attempt to plug into that feeling.
Then I watched Community. And then I spent most of April and all of May in a frenzy of dvd-buying, reading about Nielsen ratings, trying to understand why this show that's so popular isn't popular at all, trying to race home from work on Thursday nights to make sure my measly little tv set is turned on at 8pm, ready to mute commercials, but mostly just wanting to be counted.
And I understand, now, that it's not the serial storytelling that breaks your heart. It's the mode of storytelling. It's the knowledge that a story being packaged and produced this way is only as good as the advertisers who support it and the execs who allow it to have its own voice without stifling it because of their fears that it won't appeal to the 'mainstream.'
It's the knowledge that you aren't who they think they're making this show for. It's the knowledge that your active, questioning, challenging, critique-filled, collectively-tuned-in fannishness are all qualities that the show's producers don't want you to have, because they're the same qualities that drive you to want control over your own content, that drive you to reject shitty advertising, that drive you to seek alternative avenues of content consumption. 'Being a fan of Community is so emotionally draining,' one frustrated fan said the night after the season finale. And I'm remembering all the outrage that still exists over shows like Beauty and the Beast, Firefly, Stargate: Atlantis'how it's not just that the storylines were killed, but that the fanbase wasn't the right fanbase'too female, too geeky, too old, too all of the above.
And maybe this gets at the heart of what being a fan is about, ultimately: holding your heart in your hands and investing in something that's ultimately out of your control'with trepidation, because maybe your faith is totally misplaced, maybe the thing you're allowing yourself to love will let you down, maybe the creator will go on a bender or fuck off for 6 years mid-series *cough* or quit halfway through the best arc, or die before it's done; and maybe, perhaps even more likely, the people on the other side of that ugly consumer/production wall will let you down by refusing to see your value, or even refusing to acknowledge that you exist, that you matter.
________
MB, I have a confession to make: you could have had this post 5 weeks ago when I originally wrote it if I hadn't been angstily sitting on it all this time, as if I hoped the circumstances would change and Dan Harmon would magically return to Community, and television networks would realize that the way to get people to watch tv again is to stop treating tv like it's still a cultural source and start treating it like it's just another tool for people to access media they want to watch.
But we live in a world where constant innovations in technology and an increasingly savvy, selective consumer culture are constantly battling corporate interests who are just trying to get the shows you love in front of your dad's football buddies and your stay-at-home grandma'i.e., the only people who still watch tv like tv is the only thing they have to watch.
Several times during the furor over Dan Harmon's firing, fans only-half-jokingly suggested, 'Can we start a Kickstarter for Community?' Oddly enough, that's what this conflict may boil down to: will fans of creative projects be able to directly support those projects financially in the future? Or will they continue to see the artistic and cultural merits of shows they love pitted against the priorities of advertisers who want 'brand-safe content'?
The positives here may be that when push comes to shove, we can start a Kickstarter for Community'or, at the very least, for shows like it. (There actually already is a Kickstarter for a Community spinoff, the adorable Dr Who parody Inspector Spacetime.) The nature of creative consumption and production/distribution/profit from creative works is shifting so quickly that it's difficult to say what the limits are. In fact, let's just go ahead and assume there are no limits. As bleak as the current outlook for Community's future as a network television franchise may be, the outlook for consumer-generated content is brighter than ever.
And although the outlook for television and advertising companies is arguably bleaker than ever, this is the kind of cultural paradigm shift that can pave the way for a whole new kind of marketing, based on entirely new ways of reaching people where they live. And maybe the simple solution is for television networks to stop asking shows to conform to an idea of what's 'mainstream,' and instead start thinking of all streams of human contact, creativity, identity; to stop insisting that consumers of shows be advertiser-ready and start insisting that advertisers be consumer-ready: ready to deliver products for all people and speak to all people, without attempting to fit them into binaries, stereotypes, and socio-cultural pigeon-holes.
Maybe then advertisers would understand exactly how valuable a show like Community, with its ability to embrace diversity and still deliver a quality narrative product that everyone loves, can be.
Though Osamu Tezuka is famous in Japan as a creator of children's manga, almost none of his kid-friendly titles are available in English. The folks at DMP are hoping to change that, however, with a Kickstarter campaign to publish Unico, a full-color story that ran in the pages of Sanrio's Ririka magazine in the late 1970s. Describing the story as equal parts 'Quantum Leap and classic Disney,' editor Ben Applegate summarizes its plot:
Unico is a little unicorn who possesses the magical power to help those who love him. His story begins in the Greece of mythology, with Tezuka's take on the story of Psyche. In his version, Unico brings great happiness to the mortal Psyche, who in return cares for him and loves him. But the goddess Venus is jealous of Psyche, tricking her and ordering Zephyrus, the West Wind, to kidnap and banish the unicorn to someplace far away after wiping his memory. Before Unico can spend too long in one place, Zephyrus returns to carry him away again.
The campaign, which runs through July 21st, has already raised $3,972 in its first few hours. A pledge of $35 or more guarantees you a copy of the book; higher pledges come with more perks, from Unico stickers ($45) to a limited-edition Unico poster ($125). More information ' including some sample pages ' is posted on the project's Kickstarter page.
By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.
Things are beginning to pick up a bit in this third volume of Love Hina. Yes, there is still a lot of Keitaro seeing people naked and Keitaro getting hit, but it's far less than in the first few volumes. Akamatsu is finding he can indeed do things other than ecchi comedy, and is also starting to realize something important: he has no idea where to go with this once his heroes achieve their goal.
Yes, surprise, Keitaro, Naru and Mutsumi all make it into Todai in this collection. Admittedly, it takes 2/3 of the omnibus for this to happen, including a visit to another turtle-infested South Sea island. The reason for this being that Keitaro, convinced he failed, has run away. Except' he didn't fail. He's in' provided he submits his paperwork on time. This is what drives most of the comedy here, a fast-paced race against time chase with increasingly ludicrous situations. Something that should be very familiar to Negima readers. Yes, Ken can still bring the ecchi comedy, but the difference between this and the start of the series is the *pacing*. The first volume is glacial, and you only realize how much after seeing these volumes.
Speaking of realization, as I noted, Akamatsu has realized he does not really want Keitaro in college stories. This is what leads to the broken leg that keeps him sidelined most of the last third of the book. And kudos to Akamatsu for lampshading this heavily, given the amount of abuse he's taken from Naru. Everyone jokes that they had thought he was immortal. Admittedly, making him physically vulnerable does undercut the 'comedic sociopathy doesn't hurt' rules of this universe' I suppose I should be lucky he didn't get the broken leg via a Naru punch. Anyway, getting back to my point, Keitaro as a hapless college student, worrying he and Naru are growing further apart is kinda boring. But Keitaro the competent archaeologist, using his bad luck for good rather than for evil? That works. Keitaro on the island is the most likeable we've ever seen him. (Akamatsu will go too far with this, but we aren't quite there yet.)
On the romance front, Keitaro has at last confessed to Naru. Who takes her own sweet time in answering him, mostly as she's just as bad as he is in most respects. This gets contrasted with Seta and Haruka, who not only turn out to have dated when they were students, but also have many similarities to the current Keitaro and Naru. In fact, Haruka's enraged beating of Seta after embarrassing her one too many times could easily have been a typical Keitaro/Naru farce. It's a really sweet chapter, though, and one hopes that they can resolve things soon' especially as our heroes seem to realize the parallels with their own situation.
Motoko and Shinobu also get some short arcs towards the end. Shinobu proves to be a fairly mediocre student, and most of her story is spent trying to teach her to study properly while showing off her crush on Keitaro. (Naru doesn't help by still being in the 'who likes that idiot?' phase of her life.) And Motoko's sister, Tsuruko shows up, supposedly to test Motoko's allegiance to her sword art, but in reality to try to make her mature more and get over some of her worst hangups. Of course, this being Love Hina, Tsuruko goes about this via some tough love. This gives us an iconic image of Motoko dressed as a maid, determined to become the perfect feminine woman since she can't please her sister by her sword mastery. The anime would take this and run with it, I seem to recall.
So things look almost ready to wrap up here. Keitaro and Naru aren't together, but both know their feelings for each other. And they got into Todai. Looks as if this series is ready to wrap up. Of course, it's not. There's 2 more omnibuses to go. Join us next time when we introduce the second most controversial character in all of Love Hina (Naru being first, of course.)
Deb Aoki takes a closer look at two recently announced manga: Knights of Sidonia, from Vertical, and Kitaro, from Drawn and Quarterly.
Digital Manga has confirmed some new yaoi and hentai licenses.
Lissa Pattillo looks at this week's new manga releases in her On the Shelf column at Otaku USA. Lissa also has the PR on Viz's newest shoujo manga, Jiu Jiu.
At Blog of the North Star, Milo continues his look at wrestling manga with a peek at the historical series Cestvs.
News from Japan: Kotaku reports the results of a recent poll asking people what their favorite manga was. Ultimate Venus manga-ka Takako Shigematsu is launching a new series, Nekozuka-san'chi no Goky'dai, in the July issue of Gekkan Princess. ANN has word of two new Shonen Jump series: Ansatsu Ky'shitsu (Assassination Classroom) by Yusei Matsui (Neuro ' Supernatural Detective) and Takamagahara by J'z' Kawai.
Reviews: Carlo Santos rounds up the best, the worst, and the meh in his latest Right Turn Only!! column at ANN. Other reviews of note:
Kate Dacey on vol. 1 of Drifting Net Cafe (The Manga Critic)
Ken Haley on vols. 8 and 9 of Erementar Gerade (Sequential Ink)
Ed Sizemore on NonNonBa (Comics Worth Reading)
Anna on vol. 28 of Skip Beat! (Manga Report)
Sesho on Tekkonkinkreet (Sesho's Anime and Manga Reviews)
Lissa Pattillo on Three Wolves Mountain (Kuriousity)
As in the original series, the story begins with a snapshot of the hero's daily life: 29-year-old Toki has an argument with his pregnant wife, Yukie, then goes to an office job he dislikes. On impulse, he stops in an Internet cafe on his way home from work, where he bumps into Tohno, a girl he loved in middle school. The two begin comparing notes on their current lives when an earthquake plunges the building into darkness. When no one arrives to lead Toki, Tohno, and their fellow customers to safety, the group makes a terrifying discovery: the cafe has been transported from Tokyo to a wasteland from which all evidence of human civilization ' roads, buildings, people ' has been expunged.
To his credit, Oshimi takes enough time to establish Toki's routine and personality for the reader to appreciate what's at stake if Toki doesn't find a way to return to his old life. None of the other characters, however, are fleshed out to the same degree. Yukie is portrayed as a howling grotesque, at the mercy of her hormones; Tohno is saintly and brave; and the other cafe customers are assigned one or two defining traits, depending on their gender and age. Thin characterizations are a common problem in disaster stories; authors are often reluctant to bestow too much humanity on characters who are destined to become monster food or cannon fodder, lest the audience find the story too dispiriting. Oshimi, however, takes that indifference to an extreme, creating a supporting cast of repellant, one-note characters whose comeuppance elicit cheers, not tears.
The other great drawback to Drifting Net Cafe is Oshimi's lack of imagination. Though Oshimi is a competent draftsman, he shows little of Umezu's flair for nightmarish imagery. Consider the way Oshimi renders the cafe's final destination:
The wasteland, as imagined by Shuzo Oshimi in Drifting Net Cafe.
It's not a badly composed image; Oshimi makes effective use of the tilted camera angle to convey the characters' disorientation, and uses a few charred trees to suggest that something powerful scoured the landscape clean. When contrasted with the original version, however, it's clear that Oshimi's image elicits a much tidier, less emotional response than the repulsive, molten moonscape that Sho and his teachers discover just beyond the school gates:
Umezu's vision of the wasteland, from The Drifting Classroom.
Oshimi's monsters, too, betray his tendency to favor blandly polished imagery over inspired, if sometimes crudely rendered, boogeymen. Late in volume one of Drifting Net Cafe, for example, a creature resembling a typical Star Trek parasite attacks a female character, latching onto her thigh. It's a memorable scene, tapping a similar vein of body-violation horror as Alien and Prometheus, but the monster's quick defeat makes it seem more like a pretext for fanservice than a genuine menace. Umezu's monsters, by contrast, take a variety of forms ' giant insects and lizards, creepy aliens with bulbous foreheads, giant metallic serpents with grasping hands ' all of which seem like the products of a feverish child's imagination, rather than something copied from a TV show or straight-to-DVD movie.
The characters' conflicts, too, seem smaller and less compelling than they did in Umezu's original, which pitted Sho and his classmates against adults deranged with fear and grief. The speed with which the adult society comes unraveled is genuinely terrifying. By the end of the first volume, the teachers and school employees seem intent on proving Hobbes' famous dictum that life is 'nasty, brutish and short' in the absence of a strong central authority, forcing Sho and his friends to defend themselves from the wasteland's deadly fauna.
In Oshimi's version, however, the characters are adults. They challenge one another's leadership, squabble over resources, and indulge their worst impulses, sexual and otherwise. Though some of these scenes pack a visceral punch, most simply reinforce the idea that Toki and Tohno are the only decent folk among a group of unpleasant, self-interested urbanites ' not exactly the stuff of high-stakes drama, even if one character finds himself on the business end of a pocket knife.
Where Drifting Net Cafe improves on the source material is pacing. The Drifting Classroom unfolds at a furious clip; characters are maimed or menaced in every chapter, and speak at decibel levels better suited for the Bonnaroo Music Festival than everyday conversation. Oshimi, on the other hand, varies the narrative tempo of Drifting Net Cafe: some chapters are packed with important revelations and dramatic confrontations, while others are more leisurely. These quieter chapters are among the most unnerving, however, as we watch the characters size up each others' weaknesses, like sharks circling a wounded seal.
Though conceived as a tribute to The Drifting Classroom, Oshimi's work is more likely to appeal to readers who haven't read the original, or who find Umezu's distinctive artwork dated and ugly. Long-time fans of Classroom are likely to find Oshimi's update slick but soulless, as it relies more heavily on low-budget disaster movies than the original source material for its characters and conflicts.
DRIFTING NET CAFE, VOL. 1 ' BY SHUZO OSHIMI ' JMANGA ' 251 pp. ' RATING: MATURE (18+)
Hailing all shojo manga lovers! VIZ will be unveiling a new series next week: Touya Tobina's Jiu Jiu, a supernatural drama about a demon hunter who raises two shape-shifting wolves from pups to hotties. (It almost goes without saying that these two wolves can assume the form of impossibly good-looking teenagers, no?) Hilarity and romance ensue when the two wolves decide to repay their mistress by acting as her body guard while she attends high school.
A quick glance at forums and blogs around the web suggest that folks find Jiu Jiu good, fluffy fun, even if the artwork is a little clumsy. I'm certainly looking forward to reading it; what's not to like about a series featuring werewolves and a vampire piglet? More details below.
PR: LEAP INTO THE FANTASY AND ROMANTIC INTRIGUE OF A TEENAGE GIRL'S DEEPENING BOND WITH TWO WOLF SHAPESHIFTERS, IN JIU JIUHigh School Gets Complicated For A Girl From A Family of Demon Hunters In A New Shojo Series From VIZ Media
San Francisco, CA, June 19, 2012 ' VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, unleashes the demon-hunting romantic fantasy of Touya Tobina's shojo manga series, JIU JIU, on July 3rd. The new series will be published under the company's Shojo Beat imprint, is rated 'T+' for Older Teens and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.
Born into a family of 'Hunters,' Takamichi's destiny is to pursue and slay demons. When her twin brother is killed, she is saved from despair by a pair of Jiu Jiu ' shape-shifting familiars ' in the form of two wolf pups named Snow and Night. Now Takamichi is in high school and an active Hunter. Snow and Night can't wait to attend school in their human form to 'protect' her. But are they ready to go off leash'?
'JIU JIU is an intriguing new series that offers a strong combination of romantic drama, supernatural action, and humor centering on the deepening bonds between a girl and two wolf shapeshifters,' says Annette Roman, Editor. 'Growing up in a family of demon hunters isn't easy. Things become more complicated when the pair of cute wolf pups grow up into her bodyguards, learn to shift into (hot!) human form, and decide to follow their mistress to school. Don't miss this new rhapsody of swords, fangs and romance from Shojo Beat this summer!'
Manga creator Touya Tobina is originally from Tokyo. In 2005, her series, Clean Freak Fully Equipped, won the Grand Prize in the 30th Hakusensha Athena Newcomers Awards. Her series Jiu Jiu originally debuted in Japan as a one-shot manga in the shojo magazine, Hana to Yume.
For more information on JIU JIU, or other shojo manga titles from VIZ Media, please visit ShojoBeat.com.
About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular monthly manga anthology SHONEN JUMP magazine and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages. VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products. Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.
