Congratulations to Lorena (i ♥ manga) Nava Ruggero, who won a copy of Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)! What tops Lorena’s wish list?
“I would love, love, love to see Hataraki Man translated into English. I don’t care what anyone says — I love Moyoco Anno’s hyperactive artwork and frustrating, yet amazingly evolving characters.”
Renee (PopKissKiss) finds it hard to pick just one:
“Like you, my manga translation wish list is huge (Saint Young Men, Tokyo Crazy Paradise, most of Moto Hagio’s work, etc.), but I’ll go with Hotaru no Hikari, mostly because I’ve never heard you talk about it and it is josei (and excellent). It is also 15 volumes long, and will never, ever be translated. Ever. *cries*”
One of Sean (Kleefeld on Comics) Kleefeld’s wishes has already come true:
“The work I’ve most wanted to see translated into English is Bakuman, which I believe Viz is in fact going to start releasing later this year. Following that, I’d like to see the complete collection of Blueberry stories in English. The last several haven’t been translated at all, and none of them have seen print in English for almost 20 years. And the original Blueberry stories haven’t seen English-language print editions since the 1970s!”
Rin Mori makes it clear:
“A graphic novel that I would like to see published in English is the Japanese manga Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi Ni Sasagu by Kotomi Aoki.”
Matthew J. (Warren Peace Sings the Blues) Brady notes my tendency to beg, then heads to parts less known:
“Since The Manga Curmudgeon regularly covers Japanese comics that need to be translated, I wanted to think of something besides the usual manga suspects (any untranslated Tezuka/Hagio/Umezu/etc., Saint Young Men, Drops of God, Billy Bat, and so on), but no titles spring to mind immediately. I know there are tons of amazing French comics, and I’ve seen examples of fascinating-looking work from Mexico and South America. So, for lack of a title that I would be excited to hear any news about, I’ll say I would like to see a translation of the Brazilian comic Gara Tuja that Dash Shaw mentions in this post. Why not?”
Like me, Alexander (Manga Widget) Hoffman looks to the fabulous prizes:
“I’m really actually interested in your thoughts on the 1st annual Manga Taisho awards nominees. The Taisho awards are almost predictive, at least in 2008, of what is coming down the pipeline in the USA. The list is quite ridiculous, actually. Ooku, Kimi ni Todoke, Moyasimon, Natsume’s Book of Friends, Flower of Life, and Yotsuba&! all grace this list. I’ve heard speculation about Kinō Nani Tabeta? from Fumi Yoshinaga (Tabeta means eat, so I think it’s ‘What Are You Eating Today?’) being licensed, but perhaps that was just one of your license requests. Anyhow, I’m interested in two series off the 2008 winners list;
Umimachi Diary 1: Semishigure no Yamugoro serialized in Flowers; and
Gaku serialized in Big Comic Spirits (which actually won the award in ’08)”
Katherine Farmar takes us to Belgium:
“Your latest competition compels me to write; there is one title above all others that I’d like to see translated into English, though it would be difficult (for reasons that will become clear). That title is the autobiographical Belgian graphic novel Faire Semblant C’est Mentir by Dominique Goblet, which blew my tiny little mind when I read it two years ago and still constitutes a benchmark for how good the comics medium can be and what it can achieve that no other medium can manage. I wrote a blog post about it when I first read it, back when I still had a blog.”
Maré Odomo led a mini-wave:
“Pretty sure Ping Pong by Taiyo Matsumoto hasn’t been officially translated into English.”
With more Matsumoto love from Andrew hot on the heels:
“I’d personally like to see either Takemitsu Zamurai, or the rest of No. 5 by Taiyo Matsumoto translated into English.”
Jon Chandler notes that…
“anything by Manga Taro would be amazing. and Kizu Darake No Jinsei by the guy who did Tough would be high on the list too.”
Nick Muller weighs in:
“Took me a while to think up which Fukumoto manga I’d write up in this mail but since most of the other options are almost impossible to get licensed (Akagi & Ten are about Mahjong plus they move at a very slow pace, and while Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji is more likely to get licensed, content-wise, it’s more than 40 volumes long), I’ll pick Legend of the Strongest Man: Kurosawa.
“It’s basically a story about a 44 year old man who lives a miserable live and fails in all his tries to improve it, who ultimately even gets caught up in a fight with delinquents (the latter is where the story focuses on after a first couple of volumes of showing how miserable Kurosawa is and making the reader feel sorry for him). “
You can’t really argue with Tony Theriault’s general principle:
“I’ve been a fan of Astro Boy since I was too young to know it was Japanese. I recently picked up a biography/art book about Osamu Tezuka, and it made me realize how much stuff he did. Some of it isn’t translated into English, but most of the other translations are Italian or Spanish, which I can’t read. I would LOVE to read everything he’s ever written that’s been published in Japan. Some of the stories I’ve read blurbs about in my book sound so good.”
And Zoe (Manga Kaleidoscope) Alexander has a yen for more Ai Yazawa:
“I would love to see Ai Yazawa’s Kagen no Tsuki (Last Quarter) released in English someday. Quite frankly, I’m surprised it hasn’t been picked up yet, considering the popularity of NANA and Paradise Kiss. Geneon even released the live-action movie here a few years back. Seems like it would be a great licensing pick to me, especially since it’s only three volumes long, but maybe the powers that be feel it won’t appeal to Yazawa’s English fanbase? It is different from NANA and PK, since it’s a supernatural title with a mostly younger cast of characters, but it’s still really good. Perhaps after Vol. 21 of NANA is released, Viz will consider it while waiting for Yazawa to recover from her mysterious medical problems and (hopefully) get back to work on NANA. I have my fingers crossed, both for Kagen no Tsuki and Yazawa’s health to improve.”
Thanks to everyone who entered!
