Review: The Quest for the Missing Girl

One of the greatest problems with Japanese comics today is the  lack of graphic novels. I don’t mean the phrase in a pretentious, “everything-should-be-serious” sort of way, but I’ve found that many recent manga appear almost reluctant to tell a story. Characters have been reduced to types and plot has been marginalized, turning the medium into what can at best be called TV on paper. It’s not that these TV-books are bad, mind you, it’s just that I don’t always want that. Sometimes I want to read a comic with a plot that begins and ends, relatable characters with complex motivations, and maybe even some meaning beneath the surface. A novel told in graphics, if you will. As uncommon as they are, the Japanese graphic novel is not impossible to find. There are many dependable and unique artists with plenty of work in translation who tell stories worth immersing oneself in. One of these artists is Jiro Taniguchi. Best known on these shores for quiet, restrained comics such as A Distant Neighborhood and The Walking Man, both of which are excellent and worth reading, Taniguchi has also done a number of genre stories with an emphasis on action and conflict. The Quest for the Missing Girl is one of these stories.

Twelve years ago, a mountaineer named Shiga declined an offer from his best friend, Sakamoto, to join an expedition to climb a mountain in the Himalayas. Sakamoto died on that expedition, and Shiga, feeling guilt over his friend’s death, has rarely left the mountains since, but vowed that if Sakamoto’s wife and daughter were ever in danger, he would return to the city and protect them. When Sakamoto’s teenage daughter, Megumi, goes missing, Shiga leaves the mountains for Tokyo to find for her. However, Shiga soon discovers that life in the city is more complex than it once was, and the teenage Megumi may not be as innocent as the young girl Shiga knew.

Despite being very different from many of Taniguchi’s other translated work, Quest was actually originally serialized around the same time as titles such as A Distant Neighborhood, and features many familiar themes. In fact, like in A Distant Neighborhood, a central theme of the story is of youth viewed through adult eyes. This theme was presented quite literally in Neighborhood, with the middle-aged protagonist time-traveling back to high school, experiencing his past with new insight. In Quest, the theme is more metaphorical, shown through Shiga’s investigation in Shibuya, the biggest shopping district in Tokyo. The area is crawling with teens, mostly delinquents, going to nightclubs, shopping with “borrowed” money, being “bad”. On the surface, these teenagers are liberated and completely independent of adult authority, perhaps even to a worrisome extent, but in reality these people are confused, lonely, and afraid to look for help. That’s how life is for a teen, and for better or worse, that will never change. This message is conveyed through a number of interesting characters, such as Yoshio, a man whose observations on youth culture inform much of the story, and Maki, a Shibuya frequenter who was Megumi’s best friend and may have unintentionally caused her disappearance. However, one of the most important characters in this story is the missing girl herself. While Megumi makes few actual appearances, her presence is felt throughout the entire narrative. Her personality, the choices she made, and her connections to the other characters are central to the unfolding events. Without the missing girl, there would be no quest.

As much as these reflections on adolescence are intriguing, the most memorable element of the story is its protagonist. While Shiga’s search for Megumi may be the stuff of pulp, his single-minded determination to atone for his guilt over his friends death is genuinely moving, real stuff. As the story progresses, we’re really given a sense of why Sakamoto was such an important person to Shiga, and why Shiga wants to help the people around him. Shiga isn’t superhuman, but a man deticated to being part of something larger than himself. Taniguchi does a fantastic job examining his character over the course of the story, particularly in the gripping final chapter. Many thrillers, both good and bad, build to a climactic metting between the hero and villain, either a conversation, a fight, or both. The important thing is that the two meet, and only one walks away. And while there is a hero and a villain, rather than have them confront each other, Taniguchi crafts a tale of Man Vs. Himself, a tense spectacle of pure motivation. We see Shiga for who he truly is, his hopes, his regrets, his desperation, made physical in beautifully drawn and downright architecturally designed pages as thrilling as the fiercest of battles. Unfortunately, this leaves little room to truly develop the villain as more than a cardboard cutout, but that hardly matters, as the comic already features some extremely powerful graphic storytelling.

Of course, Quest could have easily been a straight-forward exercise in genre, which, in a way, it is. However, Jiro Taniguchi is above that sort of thing. Taniguchi has been a working cartoonist for a good 30 years now, and over those years has refined his style, becoming a genuine auteur of the medium. Taniguchi’s style is very dynamic and realistic, dating him as a member of the Gekiga movement (Gekiga= Dramatic Pictures; a bit like the term “graphic novel”), but at the same time the art has a certain warmth, a “cartoonish” quality, reminiscent of early Osamu Tezuka. These different styles become one under Taniguchi’s penmanship, creating a mood of somber nostalgia. At the same time, the work is never boring; Taniguchi can really draw a fight scene. Often, a scene with two characters sitting and talking in a café will be a tense and exciting read, and action sequences have a hint of brooding and restraint. The world presented in Taniguchi’s work is both consistent and unexpected, and always worth reading.

In conclusion, The Quest for the Missing Girl is an excellent addition to the Taniguchi canon. The comic features many of Taniguchi’s trademark nostalgic themes and styles, but is unique for its portrayal of modern-day urban life. As I alluded to earlier, a handful of characters are poorly fleshed out, but most of the central characters are extremely well-written. The final chapter is especially well-executed, and is easily one of Taniguchi’s finest sequences. For those who found A Distant Neighborhood too culturally specific, The Quest for the Missing Girl is a great introduction to this extremely productive artist’s works.

October MMF: The Museum of Terror Volumes 1 and 2 - Tomié

Even in an allegedly enlightened and feminist modern world, people hold “beautiful” women as examples of purity, completely untainted by the world, living as nurturing icons of goodness. Be it in American Barbie dolls or Japanese moé pillows, there is still a market for a nonexistent ideal of good in both physical and mental behavior. However, many people agree that the idea of perfection is just that: an idea, and an unattainable one at that. But what if the ideal woman was real? What if there were a woman who naturally possessed both the perfect body and the perfect soul? In his debut work Tomié, manga-ka Junji Ito answers the question as anyone working in the horror genre would: If there was a perfect woman, she’d be pure evil.

It begins as a simple tale of comeuppance theater. Tomié is a very cute sixteen-year-old girl who was killed in mysterious circumstances, her body found cut to pieces. However, a few days after “death”, she’s back at school as if nothing happened. Eventually, we discover the truth behind Tomié’s murder, and she gets her revenge. The end. It’s after this opening story that things get really interesting. See, Tomié isn’t merely attractive. “She” is a supernatural force that drives normal people to obsess over her to the point of insanity. She cannot become ugly, so any time an imperfection (such as a lost limb) appears, her beautiful form regenerates in grotesque detail. She travels around Japan, fickly toying with and ruining the lives of once honest men and women, finding a new way to exploit the most base desires of humanity in every chapter.

Tomié, like all of Ito’s work, showcases storytelling that straddles the line between humor and horror, too bizarre to take completely seriously, yet too nauseatingly human to ignore or make light of. In one story, Tomié herself does not appear, but instead a box full of her silky, still growing hair, which after being found is cultivated and worn by plain school girls who want to look pretty, and then die when the hair shoots out of every pore of their skin. In another, pieces of Tomié’s flesh are dumped at the bottom of a waterfall, growing underwater, as suicides among young men mysteriously increase. Quite obviously, this is the stuff of B-movies. The events that transpire are almost always conceptually implausible, making little to no sense when thought about. And yet, Ito manages to craft the stories with such skill that they make emotional sense, told with such a straight face that one cannot even doubt the author’s sincerity. Unlike artists such as the great Kazuo Umezu (an artist to whom Ito is frequently compared) there is little hyperbole in even the most bizarre stories. Drawn in a moody, realistic style, and paced with slow deliberation, the mood of Tomié is that of building dread. It isn’t quite at the level of madness depicted in the later Uzumaki: Spiral Into Terror, a comic about evil spirals, but it deserves credit for some genuinely rewarding and unlikely chills.

 From reading a description, one may be left with the impression that Tomié is a “femme fatale” or “bad girl” type character, a glamorized (and sexualized) depiction of a beautiful, man-hungry woman who ruins the lives of good men, simply taken to the furthest extreme possible. While this is a valid interpretation, and may even be what the author intended, I would argue that Tomié transcends the concept of femme fatale.  To demonstrate, I would like to compare Tomié to a character from Koshun Takami’s controversial Lord-of-the-Flies-meets-Kill-Bill franchise Battle Royale, Mitsuko Souma. Mitsuko uses her sultry body (as well as her trademark scythe) to win “the game,” only to die near the end. For most of the story, Mitsuko is portrayed as either being sexy, evil, or both, but in a later chapter Takami attempts to humanize her with an almost comedically dark flashback sequence. It does not work. Instead of making us think of Mitsuko as a real human being, the ideal of beauty is actually enforced. The reader is manipulated by the horridness of her past into thinking, “If only Mitsuko had never been tainted by those bad men, she’d still be pure. If only she’d met some good people to restore her faith in beauty and goodness, like me.” Unlike Battle Royale,Tomié never falls into this trap. For better or for worse, the very idea of humanizing Tomié has been thrown out the window, because Tomié is not sympathetic, not human, and certainly not a femme fatale. Instead, she is a force of nature, one that destroys lives by toying with the weak, lustful, obsessive side of human nature. We are meant to sympathize not with her, but the people around her and I think that is for the better.

I realize now that I have given the impression that Tomié somehow transcends the format of short horror stories, growing organically from simple vignettes of comeuppance theater into something far more meaningful. It doesn’t. While much of Ito’s manga does edge into unknown territory (or should I say, terror-tory), Tomié stays within the boundaries of genre work. Tomié  is simply a series of self-contained stories with the same central character and themes. Many of the stories are excellent, some are just OK. Having seen what Ito has done in later work such as Uzumaki, this is almost disappointing. There is so much complexity to Tomié and the world she inhabits that is never quite delved into for the sake of format. We never, for example, see Tomié at a moment of true weakness, or in fact, at any level of nuance beyond pure evil. Yet even though Tomié could have been much more, what there is remains impressive. Taking a fascinating premise, Ito crafts stories that follow a deceptively simple template that once repeated enough becomes secondary to the author’s vast imagination. Sometimes we laugh, like in Moromi, the chapter where ground up bits of Tomié are stirred into saké by madmen, sometimes we cry, like in the surprisingly poignant Little Finger; but with the stories in Tomié, and all of Ito’s comics, we also scream. 

Review: Peepo Choo

*WARNING! Coarse language in this review! Probably some spoilers too!*

The Insult Humor genre is a staple of cartoons. Gross, immature, irreverent parodies of real life date back at least to Mad Magazine, a periodical I and at least one of my readers have fond memories of reading every month, and the tradition can be found continuing in web comics such as Penny Arcade and animated series like South Park. One of the most unarguably impressive modern additions to this classic staple of the medium of caricature is Peepo Choo, american artist Felipe Smith's bitter three-volume "fuck you" to Japan, America, and everything in between.

The manga is basically about people who put trust in the idea that a better place for them conveniently exists on the other side of the world, somewhere over the rainbow if you will, and what happens when they go there (hint: it ain't pretty). Milton is a self-proclaimed otaku living in Chicago, who watches an anime called Peepo Choo from a magical fairy land called Japan where everyone cosplays and buys Peepo merch in Akihabara. Well, lucky for Milton, the owner of his local comic shop (one of those shitty ones with "Game" in the store name) has business with Yakuza, so he's just won a free trip to JAPAN!!! Accompanied by Jody, an employee at said comic store who hates comics and went along in hopes of losing his virginity (he also has the single best line in the first volume), Milton makes a harsh discovery upon landing in Tokyo - Japan is no different from America! No-one cosplaying in the streets! Drunken salarymen! The Peepo-Speak he learned in preparation for the trip wasn't normal Japanese! And after meeting a real otaku, Miki, and her jaded English-speaking friend Reiko, Milton learned the cruelest truth of all: Peepo Choo was never popular in Japan! Running parallel to Milton's horrible wake up call a young Yakuza calling himself Rockstar raises hell on the streets in imitation of an obscure american TV show.
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Smith uses his story as a launch pad for violent criticisms of everything popular culture, generally expressed in the most insulting way possible. Gone is the lie of the relatable, friendly misfits we've come to know and love though franchises as varied as Glee or Densha Otoko. Gone is the "cool" Japan fed to us by jerks like Stu "DJ Milky" Levy and Danny Choo. Redeeming qualities are all but absent in this world of cruel fact. Want to live the dream in Akihabara and meet all the cool cosplayers? Too bad, because Japan and America are exactly the same when it comes to treatment of geeks! Want to make friends by learning another language? Too bad, because all the american boys think you're a slut! Wanna get the sexy asian girl and be rid of your virginity at last? Too bad, because no-one takes gaijin seriously in Japan! The brilliance of Peepo Choo is that rather than settle for mere righteous anger (not that there isn't plenty), Felipe Smith actually turns the bitter material into successful comedy, frequently pointing out the absurdity of our own delusions. A good example of this humor is in the second volume, where we are shown how Peepo Choo became popular in america. At Wizard World Chicago, the bombastic CEO of a manga/anime company called Japa-Tastic (basically Tokyopop) convinces a crowd of confused teenagers to buy lots of copies of the manga through waxing poetic on Japan, a country where a nerd’s “wildest dreams were a reality.” He then goes offstage, takes off his gaudy costume and reveals himself as the greedy corporate super villain he really is, gloating about how easy it is to fool otaku. MUAHAHAHA! Get it? It’s funny because it’s true. These nods to brutal reality within a thoroughly unreal story is one of the many things make Choo so great.

One of the other things that makes Peepo Choo work is the art. While Smith’s style is incredibly crude, it effectively manages the difficult feat of telling us everything we need to know about the story in the most humorously exaggerated manner possible, with liberal application of dynamic panel structures, bold speed lines, and even some mild surrealism. In the world of Peepo Choo, no-one is ever happy, sad, or mad; they are ecstatic, depressed, or enraged. But it’s not just posturing - Smith uses his over-the-top style to add to a well-thought out story with interesting characters, rather than distracting from their absence.

However, sometimes Peepo Choo goes too far. As great a comic as it is, it’s riddled with problems like a yakuza riddled with bullets. It’s not that I mind shock value, mind you. I did not mind that Rockstar was killing people, or that Jody’s immature fantasies were almost always illustrated. Stuff like that did bring both shock and value to the story in interesting ways, not to mention surrealism. But I draw the line at pointless shock value. This side of the story manifests itself in the yakuza subplot, especially in the first volume. The most blatant example is Gill, the man-mountain of an assassin who also happens to own the comic store in Chicago. Though carrying a lot of the plot twists, it seems Smith never found the time to give Gill a real personality, aside from his habit of getting aroused by graphic violence. There’s some attempt to fix this in the third and final volume, but by then, it’s too late. The damage has already been done, and roughly a third of the whole series has been dedicated to useless “look at what I can show” posturing.


Despite the manga’s angry exterior, Peepo Choo is definitely a story told with the characters in mind. Though the first two volumes do a very good job hiding it, the third volume brings a lot of character-focused, maybe even coming-of-age storytelling that I could connect with and relate to from my own experiences. I have never been to Japan, but learned the easy way about the reality of what japanese comics really are from the convenience of knowing smart people and reading smart writing on my favorite topic. However, Milton never got that. He got a crappy comics store where he met people who knew about as much accurate information about Japan as a nine year old knows about sex, and was dumped into a world he thought he understood but in fact ever knew a thing about. But in the end, he does make friends, and despite his disillusionment still manages to work up the courage to cosplay and be an otaku, not because of any country, but because of who he is and what he wants to do.
NNNNn

An Open Letter to Ed Chavez: 6 Manga Vertical Should Licence

Dear Ed Chavez and Vertical Inc,
I see that you were taking suggestions for manga licenses on your twitter (are you still doing that?), which is really nice. I thought I would put a few suggestions on my own twitter, but you know what? 140 characters is not enough for the Cat Demon Spirits. So, here are 6 manga that you and Vertical should take a look at:

Plastic Girl Usamaru Furuya
One of Usamaru Furuya's more interesting creations, Plastic Girl is a comic created through unusual mediums such as stained glass, and (apparently) features Furuya's usual quirky surrealistic imagery; in one scene, a girl gives birth to a teddy bear. I'm not totally sure who published this manga, as it isn't even listed on wikipedia (my main resource; I learned of Plastic Girl at the recent TCAF), but I have the impression that Vertical wants to publish more Furuya, and I think this would be a good place to start, even if it has to be a $40 art book.

Jungle Emperor (aka Kimba the White Lion) Osamu Tezuka, Kodansha
It's be hard to think of Vertical without thinking of Tezuka. The publisher has brought over the some of Manga God's most famous creations, works such as Dororo, Buddha, Ode to Kirihito, and (later this year) Princess Knight. It will be a long time before I won't be able to think of an unlicensed Tezuka gem, but one of the most obvious is Jungle Emperor, the classic story of a little cub named Leo and his struggle to become king of the beasts. The series is already moderately known among western audiences (though overshadowed by the success of Astro Boy) for its animated adaption that was brought to the US under the name Kimba the White Lion, and may have even inspired for The Lion King! And besides, it's Tezuka, so do I really have to say anything?

Devilman Go Nagai, Kodansha
Go Nagai is one of Japan's most famous mangaka, a pioneer of the shonen genre, creator of such untranslated classics as Cutey Honey, Shameless School, Mazinger Z, and of course, Devilman. Nagai's psychedelic magnum opus, Devilman is the story of an apocalyptic world infested with demons, hippies, and destruction. There have been several attempts to bring Devilman to the english market, but sadly, not counting the rare Kodansha Bilingual Edition, all have failed. Devilman (and, in fact, any other Nagai) makes a lot of sense for Vertical to publish, for its edgy, barrier-breaking content, mainstream hit potential, and famous (in Japan) but poorly represented (here) creator.

Makto-Chan Kazuo Umezu, Shogakukan
The Drifting Classroom may have shown the world the primal terror of Kazuo Umezu's imagination, but there's one side to him the english language still has yet to see: his sense of humor. Makoto-Chan is Kazz's most famous foray into gag manga, stars a kindergartner named, well, Makoto-chan, who gets into all sorts of third grade humor-type trouble. I personally have a strong tolerance for gag comics like this so long as they are unique and crafted with skill, and Umezu's manga tend to be both. Umezu's work seems to have been an influence on Usamaru Furuya, so it does make sense for Vertical to publish a work like Makoto-Chan (though maybe Fourteen would make more sense? Please license that too, please!). Anyway, it's dumb fun, and who needs an excuse for more dumb fun?

Hataraki Man Moyoko Anno, Kodansha
There have been plenty of bloggers decrying the underrepresented awesomeness of Josei manga lately, so I figure it makes sense to mention one here. Though serialized in the seinen magazine Morning, Hataraki Man is undeniably josei, a romantic comedy about a workaholic Office Lady (the japanese title translates as Hardworking Man) whose devotion to her job is rivaled only by her boyfriend's. Moyoko Anno is one of Japan's most famous contemporary josei artists, and also created Happy Mania (which received critical acclaim here from its Tokyopop localization) and the popular shojo manga Sugar Sugar Rune. (She is also married to Hideaki Anno, the man behind Evangelion! Not that it matters...) Anyway, Vertical has had much success bringing previously niche genres like seinen to english readers, so I'd love to see the same happen with josei, and Hataraki Man would be a good place to start.

Tomodachi 100 Nin Dekiru Kana/I Wonder if I can Make 100 Friends? Minoru Toyoda, Kodansha
Love Roma is my favorite manga. It's a sweet, simple, slice-of-life story that I can't talk about without my words turning into gibberish about how good it is. (I'll try to re-write my  review of it at some point, though) As you can imagine, I'd love to see more manga by Minoru Toyoda, the manga's artist, in english, and 100 Friends seems to be the most notable of his other series, as sweet as Love Roma, but with a sci-fi twist. According to ANN,

The science fiction story centers on a grade school teacher who stumbles into an alternate world on the day his wife-to-be would be born. According to the magazine's advertising blurb, "the fate of humanity rests on an important vow."

 Sounds cute, right? I think this manga would look very good as a Vertical title. Despite being the publisher of "edgy" manga like Peepo Choo and Lychee, Vertical has put out some of what I would call the best cute manga of all time. Twin Spica. Chi's Sweet Home. Couldn't you imagine something by Toyoda sitting next to those? It would be fantastic!

Thank you for (hopefully) reading my open letter to you, Mr. Chavez. I sincerely hope you and Vertical can make my dream reading list a reality, and thank you for publishing so many wonderful Japanese books and manga already! We all appreciate it.
-N

PS: While you're at it, please also license Doraeman.

Review: GEN Issue 1

[Note: Images from Genmanga.com and are (c) Gen Manga Entertainment Inc.]

GEN Manga is an intriguing new self-published online anthology magazine of translated original works by Japan's top dojinshi artists. The (free) first issue features four very different stories by members of the so-called "Tokyo Underground." As you can imagine, I absolutely HAD to take a look; I am always looking for a different look at contemporary Japan, and when said look happens to come in panels (and for free/next-to-nothing), all the better! While not exactly AX for the internet, GEN is a fine look at the good fans who love and love to work in their medium of choice, and has a lot of potential. I wish the magazine's staff luck in culturing a fantastic magazine. Now, here are 4 bite-sized reviews of the first 42 pages of each story in the publication.

WOLF Chapter 1 by Nakamura Shige
Story: Naoto seeks heads to the big city in search of his absent father, a professional boxer, and befriends Shota, a nice kid with dreams of becoming a sumo wrestler in this charming sports manga.
My Thoughts: One word: Eh. This is a really nice story with lovable characters, simple, vintage-style artwork, but not a lot of ambition. There's not really anything that compelling going on in this story, but on the upside, there aren't really any big problems with it. Just plain old, straightforward GOOD. Wolf is the kind of comic made for anthology format; alongside another, stronger series, it can just be itself and leave a big smile on the reader's face, if not anything more.
Later Chapters Should: Give Shota a bigger role. His constant optimism is a big part of what makes this manga shine.

VS ALIENS Chapter 1 by Suzuki Yu
Story: One day, normal kid Kitaro is confronted by Aya, your standard eccentric girl type with glasses, claiming that Sana, the cutest girl in the school, is an ALIEN! Wacky hijinks ensue.
My Thoughts: VS Aliens is a really entertaining comic. Basically K-On with UFOs (UF-On?), this issue's chapter is formulaic mush at its best: similar enough to everything else, but including some special qualities that make it unique. Of course, it makes no sense that this appears in a magazine that calls itself "underground," but whatever. VS Aliens is a fun read, and I wouldn't be shocked if Suzuki ends up being a major mainstream mangaka (say 10 times fast) in the near future.
Future Chapters Should: Build on the sci-fi. Am I the only person who wants to see cute anime-style girls beat the crap out of space dudes? I think not!

KAMEN Chapter 1 by Mihara Gunya
Story: A man wakes up with a mask. He tries to take it off. Then the mask tells him that he will die if he takes it off. Meanwhile, a group of soldiers with a caravan carrying prisoners spot him and take him as an enemy.
My Thoughts: I can't really say that much, as not a hell of a lot happens in this chapter, but Kamen could be the strongest feature in GEN at this point. The comic employs a leisurely pace in what could easily become a fantasy epic, drawing the reader in without showing or telling us much, but hinting at enough to give the feeling that the story will go interesting places. Gunya also deserves credit for some incredible artwork, reminiscent of series such as Vagabond, and on a whole other level compared to the rest.
Future Chapters Should: Show us a bit more, but slowly. This is a great comic so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next!

SOULS: Empty Shell Chapter 1 by Arisa Karino

Story: A mystery woman comes to take the soul of a young woman named Harue, who is abused by her controlling mother.

My Thoughts: Souls is the exact worst possible kind of fan comic. Within the first two pages alone, we are given hackwork purple prose (Cry rain...cry for me...), and ugly, chunky artwork, with screen tone splattered all over the pages like gooey phlegm. The story seems to be going for a melancholy traveller-type tone like Mushishi on Mermaid Saga, which I don't mind, but to do a story like that, you need to be able to tell a coherent story, a skill this artist seems to not possess.

Future Chapters The Artist Should: Get a mentor of some sort. Karino is not talentless, but really needs someone to help her (or him? GEN doesn't have any author bios) focus said talent better.

List: 5 More Manga For People Who Don't Read Manga

5: Emma by Kaoru Mori (10 volumes)
 Set in Victorian London, Emma is the story of a forbidden romance between William Jones, a young man from a wealthy family, and Emma, a maid. Though the British setting is meticulously researched, Emma is undoubtably still a very Japanese comic; the style and pacing rush with life in a manner hard to find in most contemporary western cartooning. The main story is 7 volumes long, with 3 volumes of side stories.

4: House of Five Leaves by Natsume Ono (3 volumes, ongoing [8 in Japan] )
In my last post of this kind, I mentioned Lone Wolf and Cub, a period drama set in feudal Japan. House of Five Leaves is also a period drama, but unlike Lone Wolf, is not a pulpy masterpiece, but an emotional one. Akitsu, a traveling ronin whose shy nature prevents him from being good at his job, becomes entangled in the criminal organization "Five Leaves" after working as a bodyguard for Yaichi, the mysterious leader of the Five Leaves. Like Lone Wolf, the true strength of the series is not in the (well written) story, but in the artwork; Ono's style is very different from Kojima's, but also elegantly captures the mood of its historical setting with a unique style that is clearly Japanese without being "manga-style".

3: Genkaku Picasso by Usamaru Furuya (3 volumes)
For current North American audiences there are basically two sides to what we call "manga": manga of the popular, Naruto-ized variety, and edgy contemporary works labeled gekiga in big letters. For this reason, new readers may want to check out Genkaku Picasso, a JUMP manga created by an artist who got his start in Garo. The story follows Hikari "Picasso" Hamura, a neurotic teenage artist who dives into his own surrealist artwork with the aid of his dead friend Chiaki (reincarnated as a tiny person with angel wings) to help the people the drawings are based on. The insanity of Furuya's art is dialed down a bit (just a bit) for his JUMP debut, but the emotional focus is stronger than ever, as the characters clearly have strong emotional connections to the author. At a recent event at the Toronto Comic Art Festival, Furuya had only one thing to say about his creation: "I am Picasso!"

2: Paradise Kiss by Ai Yazawa (5 Volumes)
Smart, sexy, and genuinely stylish, Paradise Kiss is the story of a young woman who risks everything for a dream. The young woman in question is Yukino "Caroline" Hayasaka, a high school senior who abandons her mom's plans for her future after a chance encounter with Paradise Kiss, a small fashion label run by a group of art-school eccentrics. Yukino becomes good friends with the people of ParaKiss, and maybe a bit more than friends with the bisexual designer George, and begins to pursue a new career in modeling.  Along with very strong writing (for once, the couples are allowed to have *realistic* sex before the last volume), Ai Yazawa is a very good artist. The artwork is crisp and pleasantly gothic, and, as you would expect in a comic first published in a fasion magazine, all the characters are immaculately dressed. Highly recommended for those who like their romance stories with some class.

1: Honey and Clover by Chica Umino (10 volumes)
Like Paradise Kiss, Honey and Clover is a Josei manga about art school students, but the similarities end there. Honey and Clover is a delightful rom-com about two love triangles, a circle of friends, and a dash of mono no aware. Takemoto is a directionless art school student who live in a boarding house (like Maison Ikkoku!) with fellow students Mayama and Morita. When they are introduced to Hagumi, the second cousin of their professor, Takemoto and Morita both immediately fall in love with her, though they have difficulty expressing it. This is only one of the love triangles in this sweet story about colledge years. And sweet it is - it's hard to read a volume of Honey and Clover without having a big smile on your face by the end. The early volumes have a slightly off-kilter pace, but as the series goes on both the reader and the author form a strong attachment to the characters, and both every-day moments and major events are treated with caring grace. Honey and Clover is not the best comic in the world, but portrays the joys and woes of youth beautifully.

List: 5 Manga For People Who Don't Read Manga

I have many friends who don't read manga. Some are put off by the stylized artwork. Others are scared off by 50+ volume gargantuan series like Naruto. Still others are confused by the right to left page orientation. I am always game to evangelize my favorite medium, so here are 5 manga, in no particular order, for the non-fans reading this to go run to a store or library and read right now.

Antique Bakery by Fumi Yoshinaga

This delicious comedy by Fumi Yoshinaga is only 4 volumes long, and features only slightly stylized artwork, making this a fantastic gateway drug. However, it's the characters that make this series worthy of your purchase; I could spend god know how long just reading about their daily lives.


Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka

 My first experience reading manga was the second volume of this beautiful, mind blowing series of interconnected stories by manga god Osamu Tezuka. The stories see-saw from philosophical historical fiction to experimental science fiction, but all stories center on the Phoenix, the mythical bird of fire whose blood grants immortality. Aside from being amazing, the artwork is carefully flipped by translator, and is only 11 volumes long, making this series new reader friendly. The second volume features an article about Tezuka, a short afterword by the manga god himself, and an interview with the translator Fred Schodt, who also happens to be one of the most important scholars in the manga community, and knew Tezuka personally.


Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima

This pulp-tastic yet delicately beautiful saga of a father and son's feud with the Yagyu clan in Edo Japan holds an important place in american comic books- that cover is not by Goseki Kojima, but by Frank Miller (Sin City, 300, The Dark Knight Returns), whose work was heavily influence by Lone Wolf and Cub. Dark Horse's english adaption is very good, the artwork is flipped with care, and the realistic artwork will be appreciated by those with more western sensibilities.


Love Roma by Minoru Toyoda

I have spoken on the greatness of Love Roma on this blog before, but allow me to repeat. It's short. It's unique. It will charm your socks off. There are some cultural in jokes here and there, but the translation notes are of the highest caliber, and overall, this series can be enjoyed by anyone.


Clover by CLAMP

Admittedly, Clover is not a good first book for everyone, but if you happen to enjoy gorgeous artwork and were scared off by the big foreheads of Dragon Ball Z, this is the manga for you. Plot wise, Clover isn't quite revolutionary, but Clover's real strength lies in the lavish artwork, some of CLAMP lead artist Mokona's very best, which is saying something. Also, the new Dark Horse edition is 1 volume long, making this an easy purchase.

Manga Industry 2011: Five Predictions

Looking towards the future.


 Recently, Zac Bertschy declared on ANNcast that the manga industry is the anime industry two years earlier. If this is the case, then this year will be a very difficult year for english manga, as the current structure will implode, and publishers will scramble to find a new business model before it's too late. Warning shots were fired last year with the closure of CMX manga (closely mirroring the collapse of Geneon Entertainment) and, more shockingly, the major layoffs and budget cuts of industry giant Viz Media. This is a major year of change, and here are 5 things I think will happen:

1: Vertical becomes the new industry giant

This is incredibly obvious, as the once-underdog company Vertical was the only manga company last year to report major profits, but it deserves note. Once upon a time, I thought that Vertical's artsy format, small number of titles, and emphasis on classics barred them from being major, but in reality, this is what will save the company from the coming downturn. Their small roster of titles means each and every one of them gets a huge marketing push, and what I had previously interpreted as a focus on "classics" and an"arty" format was really a important skill at presenting their material for a larger audience. And these skills will protect Vertical from financial trouble while licencing major titles from across the spectrum of very different manga titles, from Chi's Sweet Home to Lychee Light Club.

2: Tokyopop dies

The fact of the matter is, T-Pop has been publishing too much, and the only big hit they've had outside of the out of print CLAMP titles now published by Dark Horse was Fruits Basket, a title that may very well be eventually forgotten in a sea of already read that. Well, Hetalia is pretty huge, but the series is basically a ton of internet memes, and it's origins as a web comic make it ripe for scanlation. Also, let's face it, anyone who's ever bought a volume of Karakuri Odette can tell you that their marketing sucks, (Hot robot? I think not!) a bad sign when it will soon be a fight to get people interested in your titles.

3: Naruto to fall from grace, One Piece to replace it

The Naruto franchise has been going on too long to sustain itself. This is not meant to demean the title, nor do I think it will ever disappear. What I mean is, there is no way this one title can sustain an entire industry anymore, not even if it teams up in sales with Bleach. But there is one that can. I am of course referring to One Piece, once a side note, but now a record breaking example in sales figures, popularity from reviewers and the public alike, and volume numbers (61 and counting). I don't know if it's level of phenomenon can ever match what it is right now in Japan, especially with this being the first english attempt at starting up the franchise, but it could potentially be the industry's savior.

4: Viz restructures

Viz is doing too much. It hurts to say this, as Viz's various imprints are all great, but they will have to cut down, or otherwise face a big backlash in the near future. At risk are the non-manga New People Films and Haikasoru Books imprints, not to mention the already unprofitable Signature imprint. Fans- show your love for your favorite line before it disappears!

5: Shonen Jump goes online

With the (relative) success of Yen+ Online and the death of print magazines, SJ taking an online initiative is probably the biggest no-brainer of everything on this list. Who knows- maybe it could stop the Naruto-Bleach-One Piece scans once and for all. No, wait, it won't, but oh well.

My Favorite Manga: Love Roma

God, am I a sucker for stories like this. Slice-of-life romance, particularly of the Seinen and Josei kind (not that I have anything against Shoujo, and if a Shonen slice-of-lifer that isn't by Mitsuru Adachi exists, please tell me now) is possibly the very best kind of manga, and this book was my first brush with these. I also happen to be partial to horror and psycho-thriller. The grouping together of these two genres may seem random at first, but take a look at what was popular in american comics (besides super hero) before the Comics Code stunk up the room: ROMANCE AND HORROR. As most manga fans would like to think of manga as the road not taken in American comics, it makes perfect sense that such once omnipresent genres would find a strong place in our Japan-centric communities. But that is not what I am here to discuss. I am here to tell you about my favorite manga, Love Roma, by Minoru Toyoda.

Hoshino, an overly honest teenage boy, is in love with Negishi, a cute girl in class 2. The manga opens with Hoshino bluntly admiting his feelings to Negishi, in a very funny scene that sets the mood for the rest of the five-volume series. After some time (by some, I mean less than a chapter), Negishi and Hoshino are going out, exploring the ups, downs, and inbetweens of being young and in love. Every chapter shows the two making a new discovery about life and sharing it with another, in witty, charming everyday adventures.

As you can imagine, this book really made me swoon. I was dragged along in the character's romance heart skipping along the way. Accompanied by this blushing and swooning is first-rate humor. The combination of believable characters and unlikely-yet-familiar scenarios creates a light, fun mood certain to give any reader a little chuckle. And speaking of believable characters, Toyoda has a very interesting way of setting up his cast. They each have only one trait, but their personalities are fleshed out in a remarkably human way to reflect said traits. Accenting all this is quirky, indie-style artwork that just keeps getting better with each chapter.

However, the series is not perfect. A common shortcoming of slice-of-life storytelling, the plot can get really repetitive. The stories have a very specific structure, and there's not exactly much room for dramatic tension. But Toyoda knew when to stop, and at only 5 volumes, Love Roma is a perfect length.

Recently Del Rey Manga, the company who published Love Roma in english, have (essentially) folded/rebranded itself Kodansha USA, meaning that this title may soon be out of print. Whoever is reading this, go snatch up a copy of this beautiful title while you still can. Everyone should read this.

Zyword of the Week episode 5:The Manganime Conundrum

Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto
I'm sure you know this guy up there. I'm not recalling his name at the moment, but he's kinda famous. This boy ninja has had an incredible amount of success over the years, with plenty of well deserved fans, and wouldn't you know it, they made an anime! Oh yes, now I remember his name. Ramen. Anyway, the anime is more popular than the manga OK moving along...WHA?

Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece
I have never understood this, and likely never will. Manga adaptions of anime or video games are often overlooked, and video game adaptions of popular series are often hyped heavily, but are soon forgotten. But an ANIME? Stop the presses! This is big and historic! Who give a sh** about the manga now! This is...

Haruhi Suzumiya, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
I don't want to be a prude, but most anime adaptions are boring if you've already read the manga of played the game or read the novel or whatever. The problem is that with some exceptions (Fullmetal Alchemist, Akira, Ghost in the Shell), nearly every adaption follows the original to the letter, except for when they want to cram in ten episodes of boring filler arcs that are easy to skip.

Son Goku, Dragon Ball
The fact of the matter is, these shows are made for TV. It's fun to tune in once a week with your friends to see Goku come to life in gorgeous animation. But the problem is, that is not what happens here. Nothing is shown on TV. Rather, we are given DVD box sets and simulcasts to watch alone. I don't wish this didn't exist, exactly, but it's kinda too bad.

Conan Edogawa, Case Closed
I think the answer to this issue is more anime movies. This seems to be the general path that the anime industry seems to be going in anyway, but the fact remains that nobody ever takes the risk of changing the original to create something new unless it's a movie. Plus, no filler. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

The Otaku's Best of 2010

So, 2010 is almost over, and I must say what a terrible year. That whole "market crash" thingie, all the scanlators, frickin' Quasar of Stigma! But, I digress. There were plenty of good things that happened this year, good things that did NOT, in fact, involve breast-feeding alchemists. Of course, no one actually read Quasar of Stigma, and I only read a chapter to sample and see if it fell into (almost wrote "feel into") the So Bad It's Good category. It did not. So anyway, I guess it wasn't THAT bad a year... oh HI, Hetalia! Whatever, here's what I enjoyed this year.

Best_New Manga A DRUNKEN DREAM AND OTHER STORIES By Moto Hagio

Haunting, beautiful, and charming, the short stories in A Drunken Dream feature many popular tropes of Shoujo manga, but are told quietly, with a short, wistful execution, like a melancholy dream. Highlights include the bitter-but-still-wistful "Girl on Porch with Puppy" published in the Tezuka-founded COM magazine, which also published Phoenix, and "The Willow Tree" a beautiful example of the power of visual storytelling.

Best New Anime EDEN OF THE EAST directed by Kenji Kamiyama

An incredible piece of speculative  fiction, Eden of the East tells the story of Akira Takizawa, an amnesiac man with nothing from his past except for a cellphone with 8.2 billion yen and a contact with a woman named Juiz, and a gun (this is literally all he has; when we first meet him, he is standing around in front of the White House naked with no clue what he is doing). The story also centers around Saki, a directionless college graduate who gives the story an emotional core in a manner alike to the "companions" in Doctor Who. Surprisingly warm-hearted, there is something in this for everyone. Bonus points for the film references.

Best Reprint CLOVER by CLAMP

Clover is CLAMP's most challenging work, a steampunk shoujo opera of doomed romance in three acts. The brand-new Dark Horse edition puts the entire epic together in a single volume, with high-quality images that do far better justice to CLAMP lead artist Mokona's high contrast experimetation.

Best Finale SCOTT PILGRIM by Brian Lee O'Malley

I probably don't have to tell you, but Scott Pilgrim is so epic. However, what many people have lost in the sea of internet memes is that SP has a genuine emotional core. This is a story about learning to live with yourself and live a happy life, an important moral for the often socially inept comics/animation/games world. Plus, there are epic fight scenes and great lines like "Ramona earned the Power of Love! The Power of Love heals all wounds!" So take another look at this book that you probably already own, and think about it for a good, long time.


Best Continuing Series One Piece by Eichiro Oda


As we approach (or reached already, if your Japanese) volume 60 with no sign of stopping, this is one commercial gargantuan where all I want to say to the artist is "Good for you!" and give him a HIGH FIVE!

Best Guilty Pleasure Demon Sacred by Natsumi Itsuki




That's right, freaks and geeks! I actually bought this goddamn thing! It may be cheap, disposable entertainment, but Tokyopop had a good idea for a change, and sold the first two volumes at a price point of $5.99 a volume, meaning I could enjoy this for what it was and not be distracted by my sudden lack of cold, crisp ca$h money.

Best Webcomic/Best Thing Ever AXE COP by Malichi (6) and Ethan (30) Nicholle


He is a cop. With an axe. And a dinosaur. Who can fly. And has Gatling guns for arms.What more do I have to say? Oh yes. Book edition now in print.

Best Dub Tales from Earthsea directed by Goro Miyazaki and dubbed by Disney

Now, most people agree that Earthsea kinda sucked. Goro Miyazaki's theatrical attempt at getting his famous father to notice him, the film has every element of a classic Ghibli except, well, the magic. However, I would argue that this is a fitting adaption of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle (you know that old guy, Sparrowhawk? The first book chronicles his youth). Anyway, Disney has once again done a fabulous job with the dub, possibly improving the Japanese original. Willem DeFoe steals the show as Cobb.

Most Anticipated of 2011(Anime) EVANGELION 2.0 directed by Hideaki Anno and MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM directed by  Yoshiyuki Tomino


As readers of this blog may know (do you exist? Tell me in the comments PLZ!), I am an uber-fan of Eva, and, while disappointed that Anno doesn't want to do anything new, am really looking forward  to seeing how he can change things up a bit. Plus, it's showing in a theater where I live. Hooray!
Also, after watching five episodes or so dubbed on ANN, I am really psyched for the re-release of  the historic Mecha show Mobile Suit Gundam, with the Japanese included for the first time! (I still like the dub though)
Update: Anno is not the Director of 2.0, rather it is Kazuya Tsurumaki, co-director of most of the TV series. Anno is the supervising director, however, as well as the screenwriter.

Most Anticipated of 2011 (Manga) THE BOOK OF HUMAN INSECTS by Osamu Tezuka and ONWARD TOWARD OUR NOBLE DEATHS by Shigeru Mizuki

These are, of  course, very different selections. "Insects" is one of Tezuka's titles from his experimental period, and is being released, as always, by Vertical. Vertical has done a fantastic job with every Tezuka title they've published to date, and if the cover design is even close to the level of quality of Ayako, it will be a real treat.
I am also quite pleased to hear that Drawn and Quarterly has seen fit to publish Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, the first North American translation of a title by Gekiga and Youkai master Shigeru Mizuki.While it is too bad that his classic GeGeGe no Kitaro couldn't come out first (it is available in french, like every other manga I want to read), but I have been anticipating this ever since I read a description of it in Dreamland Japan.
Anyway, both of these (and Eva 2) are coming out in March, so I guess that will be a busy month for me.