The Manga Curmudgeon

Spending too much on comics, then talking too much about them

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Digital delivery

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How unfair is it that, when reading the PWCW interview with Digital Manga’s President Hikaru Sasahara, I kept thing, “Yeah, Mr. Edgier Brand of Manga. Where’s the rest of Bambi and Her Pink Gun?” I like to think it isn’t entirely nitpicking, and I’m pretty sure there are Worst fans out there who asked essentially the same question.

I also thought it was kind of funny (and irritating) that Kai-Ming Cha framed what distinguishes DMP as offering titles that are an alternative to market-dominating “formulaic shojo titles aimed at teen girls,” then went on to talk about DMP’s massive success with arguably formulaic shônen-ai and yaoi, which is… well… really popular with teen girls, right? (Not just teen girls, obviously, but shôjo’s audience isn’t entirely homogenous either.) I mean, the Juné site is subtitled “Where Girls Gather & Boys Play.”

It’s weird to think how DMP has reinvented itself from a purveyor of off-kilter seinen to a BL-yaoi house with a scattering of interesting fringe titles like the Project X series. And I’m all for publishers finding underserved niches and successfully popularizing them. Heck, it’s what the publishers who initially started licensing shôjo did, and now that category’s getting knocked for having a stranglehold.

I think Simon Jones makes an excellent point about the comic-shop potential of more mature yaoi, like DMP’s new 801 imprint. Books from Juné and Blu already do incredibly well in comic shops, just judging by the graphic novel sales lists at ICv2. They handily outsell just about everything else in the manga category when they show up, unless it’s a mega-hit or a comic-shop favorite from a publisher like Dark Horse.

February debuts

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Here are the manga, manhwa, and global manga debuts from the latest Previews, covering titles shipping in February. Whenever possible, I’ve linked directly to title information. As always, if I’ve missed something, let me know.

ALC

Works, by Eriko Tadeno

CMX

The Time Guardian, written by Daimuro Kishi and illustrated by Tamao Ichinose
Go Go Heaven!!, by Keiko Yamada

Dark Horse

Appleseed Book 1: The Promethean Challenge, by Shirow Masamune

Del Rey

Mamotte Lollipop, by Michiyo Kikuta

Digital Manga Publishing/Juné

The Moon and the Sandals, by Fumi Yoshinaga
Wagamama Kitchen, by Kaori Monchi

Drmaster

Chinese Hero, by Wing Shing Ma

Icarus Publishing

Taboo District

Ice Kunion

You’re So Cool, by Young Hee Lee

Kitty Press

Thunderbolt Boys Excite

NBM

Unholy Kinship, by Naomi Nowak

Netcomics

In the Starlight, by Kyungok Kang

Tokyopop

Divalicious, written by T. Campbell and illustrated by Amy Mebberson
Kedamono Damono, by Haruka Fukushima
Metamo Kiss, by Sora Omote
The Twelve Kingdoms, by Fuyumi Ono

Tokyopop Blu

Innocent Bird by Hirotaka Kisaragi

Viz Shojo Beat

Backstage Prince, by Kanoko Sakurakoji
Gentlemen’s Alliance, by Arina Tanemura

Yaoi Press

Yaoi Volume 1: Anthology of Boy’s Love, by Izanaki, Wilson, and Studio Kosaru
Desire of the Gods, by Insanity Team

Quality dark chocolate is also always a good choice

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There’s a special feature in this month’s Previews: a Valentine’s Day Merchandise Checklist, compiling “a host of titles that are perfect to share with a loved one.” Okay, there’s more than a whisper of Team Comix to it, and some of the choices are a little odd, but many of them do provide extra exposure for some great books up at the front of the catalog, so I won’t complain.

The one that makes me happiest is the inclusion of Rebecca Kraatz’s House of Sugar from Tulip Tree Press (p. 344). I guess when Diamond reconsiders a rejection, they go all the way. That’s a good thing, as I like this book a lot.

ALC’s books (Yuri Monogatari 3 and 4 and Works, p. 208) make the cut. I thought the third YM book was kind of a mixed bag, but I do find the work of Rica Takashima hard to resist, and she brings her characters from the charming Rica ‘tte Kanji back in the fourth, so I might have to cave. Works, a collection of romantic shorts by Eriko Tadeno, sounds appealing as well.

If you missed it the first time, Diamond humbly suggests you consider the one-volume edition of Jeff Smith’s Bone (Cartoon Books) as a Valentine’s Day gift. Heck, just keep it, because you have to love yourself before you can love anyone else.

Moving on to the romantically unsanctioned, I’m taken with the premise of Keiko Yamada’s Go Go Heaven!! (CMX, p. 98). After her untimely death, an unhappy teen gets “49 days to relive her life and resolve unfinished business.” Sounds morbid, but fun!

What’s this I see on the Featured Items page? A collection of the intriguing Elk’s Run from Villard Books (p. 347)? It started out self-published, got picked up by a publisher who went bust, and never got to finish its run as a mini-series, despite general critical acclaim. Now, Villard’s offering the whole shebang, and high time, I think.

Juné lures me with the promise of more Fumi Yoshinaga in the form of The Moon and the Sandals (p. 264).

Marguerite Abouet and Clément Ouberie’s Aya (Drawn & Quarterly, p. 270) offers intriguing subject matter (the everyday life of young women in the Ivory Coast) and an excellent pedigree (the 2006 Best New Album award from Angoulême).

The Comics Journal devotes #281 to the best of 2006 (Fantagraphics, p. 275). I’m a sucker for lists.

My favorite bit of solicitation text in the catalog is found in the blurb for Cantarella Vol. 6 (Go! Comi, p. 280). Young Chiaro “finds comfort and warmth within the confines of a monastery.” Oh, I’ll just bet he does.

It’s nice to see a full-page ad for Viz’s Signature line, especially one that focuses on Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix. Given the well-deserved attention Vertical’s production of Ode to Kirihito has received, it’s smart, too.

So what looks good to you?

The suspense is killing me!

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Well that was a pleasant surprise. I thought NBM was only shipping a new printing of Rick Geary’s The Borden Tragedy, but a copy of the paperback version of The Case of Madeleine Smith showed up in my reserves yesterday. New installments of A Treasury of Victorian Murder are always gratefully accepted.

Speaking of the accused Glaswegian, she’s made her way onto the list of nominees for the American Library Association’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens. (Yes, I’m still obsessively tracking those. Thanks for asking.) Nominations are now closed with a projected drop date for the final list in mid-winter of 2007.

It’s a little hard to tell what joined the list when, but accounting for my shaky memory, recent additions include:

  • Action Philosophers: Giant-Sized Thing #1 (Evil Twin)
  • American Born Chinese (First Second)
  • Brownsville (NBBComics Lit)
  • Chocalat (Ice Kunion)
  • Crossroad (Go! Comi)
  • Fables: 1,001 Nights of Snowfall (Vertigo)
  • Infinite Crisis (DC)
  • Inverloch (Seven Seas)
  • The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (Dark Horse)
  • Livewires: Clockwork Thugs, Yo! (Marvel)
  • Pride of Baghdad (Vertigo)
  • Same Cell Organism (DMP)
  • To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel (Simon and Schuster)
  • Young Avengers Vol. 2: Family Matters (Marvel)

I hope the nomination list is still available after the final roster is chosen, because there are some great books on it. But barring some bizarre failure of decision-making, it’s hard to see how the final list could be anything but excellent.

(Edited to note: If I missed anything new to the nominations, let me know, and I’ll add it to the list.)

Millions of tourists are churning up the gravel

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The subsidiary industries of manga just keep expanding. This time it’s tourism, according to a piece in the Daily Yomiuri. Sure, Tokyo has its butler cafes and otaku ghettos, but Kyoto has history:

“The Kyoto municipal government and the university have played important roles in establishing the nation’s first comprehensive manga facility. The museum collects cartoons of historical value and other materials, cultivates people wishing to work in the animation industry and offers lifelong learning courses for local residents.”

In other news of cultural exchange, ICv2 picks up on part of the Times Clamp interview:

“As Clamp spokesperson Agetha Ohkawa put it, ‘It used to be difficult to find American comics in Japan, but they’ve become more accessible. As creators in Japan, we’re very curious about American work and are pretty sure we’re influencing each other.’”

Now I’m picturing Japanese children cluttering the floors of the local equivalent of Barnes & Noble, reading Identity Crisis, and putting it back on the shelf.

Comics in the wee hours

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My tendency to become distracted by supporting characters has cropped up in Monster (Viz – Signature). I don’t mind dogged Dr. Tenma, though I find him too perfect. (Even his flaws seem calculated to make you sigh, “Oh, that poor, decent man.”) But I find any sequence featuring Nina, the sister of a serial killer who’s determined to do the right thing regardless of the cost, absolutely riveting. Nina gets lots of play in the fifth volume, so I’m a very happy reader.

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Jog notes one of the things that makes Golgo 13 (Viz – Signature) so special: the extras.

“Only in the pages of Golgo 13 could you possibly run into anything like what’s in this volume’s File 13 bonus section: a short essay by Horibe Masashi, ‘founder of the Hakukotsu School of Japanese Martial Arts,’ devoted entirely to the physiology of being kicked in the nuts. Seriously; you’ll learn the science behind what exactly happens in the body during an assault on the family jewels, some fun facts about testicles in Japanese folklore, and even the secrets behind a legendary lost karate skill of temporary bollocks retraction.”

That’s right. A Viz book features a comprehensive look at racking.

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At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson swings by the carry-out for a look at Project X – The Challengers – Seven Eleven – The Miraculous Success of Japan’s 7-Eleven Stores (Digital Manga Publishing).

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At Keromaru, Alex Scott offers more details on Books-A-Million’s Mature Graphic Novel section and gets confirmation from an employee at another B-A-M outlet.

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I’m glad to see that The Damned (Oni Press) is being received well. Mobsters and demons aren’t exactly my protagonists of choice, but I thought this book made interesting use of both. Jeff Lester at Savage Critics called it “surprisingly Good,” and Paul O’Brien at The X-Axis gave it an A-.

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After a couple of heavy weeks at the comics shop, this Wednesday is comparatively subdued. Despite a smaller number of titles of interest, the quality promises to be really, really high. I need to catch up with Josh Neufeld’s The Vagabonds (Alternative Comics), as I really enjoyed A Few Perfect Hours. Fantagraphics releases the second issue of the second volume of Linda Medley’s wonderful Castle Waiting.

But the undisputed pick of the week is Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirohito (Vertical), 832 pages from the God of Manga for the ridiculously low price of $24.95. If you need more convincing, check out Jarred Pine’s review at Anime on DVD.

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I document the next step in Dark Horse’s continued (and successful) attempts to woo me in this week’s Flipped. First it was the thoughtful sci-fi of Eden: It’s an Endless World! Then it was the nostalgia-triggering charms of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. Now it’s indie-flavored Ohikkoshi.

What will they roll out next? New shôjo?

From the stack: ANTIQUE BAKERY Vol. 3

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I’ve been enjoying Fumi Yoshinaga’s Antique Bakery (Digital Manga Publishing) a great deal. It’s beautifully drawn, gently funny, and has a cast of engaging characters, plus lots of pastry. I haven’t quite understood why it merited the Kodansha Manga Award, though.

Now that I’ve read the third volume in the four-book series, I get it. The rather slight sweetness of the earlier installments is used to build something more complex and challenging, with interesting twists and a quirky but layered look at sexual identity (plus lots of pastry).

Yoshinaga’s approach is very similar to the one Natsuki Takaya takes with Fruits Basket (Tokyopop). Moments that seemed like oddly pleasant little grace notes in previous volumes recur with greater impact or clarity. You see where they fit in Yoshinaga’s bigger picture. More significant past events are reframed in different ways as well, giving them more dimension and revealing more about the characters involved. It’s structurally impressive and, more importantly, very effective on an emotional level.

And the book is still very funny. A big chunk of the volume is devoted to the trials and tribulations of “busty female announcer unit Haruka & Tammy” as they try to maintain their dignity (a lost cause for this tier of television personality), balance the pulls of career and personal life, and manage to give some valuable advice to gifted pastry chef Ono in the process. Satire of popular media, gender stereotypes, and even yaoi fangirls mingle with nice character moments.

On the gentler end of the spectrum, Yoshinaga provides more of bakery owner Tachibana’s back story. Past and present intersect through some creative storytelling, and Tachibana gains a great deal more depth in the process. At the same time, it’s consistent with everything that’s gone before; it’s just richer, and it makes me more eager to know what happens next.

There’s just so much to like about this book. Much as I enjoyed Antique Bakery when it seemed like an amiable, meandering workplace comedy, I’m really impressed with the way Yoshinaga’s seemingly disparate story elements are coming together as things move towards closure. It’s work that’s worth an award.

From the stack: DMP boys

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Every genre of graphic novel has its standard elements and tropes, but most at least try to transcend them and cook up something new and specific from familiar ingredients. When they don’t, you get something like Yukine Honami and Serubo Suzuki’s Sweet Revolution (Digital Manga Publishing).

It’s a generic bit of yaoi about two pretty boys from another dimension who decide to attend high school on Earth. Tatsuki is the seme, and Ohta is the uke. Not only is that all you need to know, it’s just about all there is to know.

Tatsuki is the prince of a mystical realm, and Ohta is a diffident and devoted spirit who handily recharges Tatsuki’s chi with sex. Classmate Kouhei doesn’t really care for Tatsuki, and who can blame him? Tatsuki is cold and entitled, and Kouhei sees his domineering behavior towards Ohta as abusive. It is, but the pair manages to convince Kouhei that it’s what they both want, and the potential triangle dissolves as Kouhei vanishes from the narrative.

This is just shy of the halfway point, so the story moves on to Tatsuki’s family troubles. Tatsuki’s royal father’s health is failing, and he wants his son to return home and marry so he can assume leadership of the kingdom. Tatsuki doesn’t want to, because he’s not prepared to give up Ohta, though he still isn’t very considerate of the sprite.

And then things are resolved. No, really. A friend of Tatsuki’s father points out that dad’s being a selfish hypocrite, and Tatsuki gets his way. The end.

The characters are dull, the premise is flimsy, and the art is attractive but unexceptional. It’s like soup without any seasoning.

Kyoki Negishi and Yuki Miyamoto’s Café Kichijouji de (DMP) isn’t much more ambitious, but it’s a lot more entertaining. It’s a fluffy workplace comedy about the wacky staff of the title eatery, and it doesn’t really have anything on its mind but entertaining the readers. It succeeds.

The cast is an appealing mix of personalities. There’s officious supervisor Kurihara, defensively boyish Ichinomiya, ladies’ man Okubo, and goofball Tokumi. Spooky Minagawa runs the kitchen, and owner Mitaka just tries to stay sane and keep his crew from driving him out of business.

They squabble, flirt with customers, and land themselves in a variety of absurd misadventures. That’s all, really, but it’s plenty, because Negishi and Miyamoto pile on plenty of quirky charm and keep things bustling along. It’s like a perfectly good sitcom that you might not specifically set out to watch, but you’re happy to catch it when you’re idly surfing channels.

All that said it’s a bit slight for $12.95. It would be an ideal library choice, a lucky swap, or an excellent selection for a “get one free” bookstore deal.

(The Café Kichijouji de review was based on a complimentary copy from DMP.)