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Orphan refugees

May 21, 2010 by

I know I’m getting my Kübler-Ross all out of order. I started with anger, then moved on to depression, and now I’m going to backtrack to bargaining. These are confusing times. And while it seems kind of ghoulish to be looking for new homes for orphan titles, one does what one feels one must, you know? Everyone has their own unfinished CMX title that they’d most like to see rescued, so I’m going to focus on three.

First up is Usumaru Furuya’s 51 Ways to Save Her, which generated a lot of excitement when it was announced. It’s a survival drama, which is always promising, but more important is the fact that it’s by the gifted, bizarre Furuya. There just isn’t enough of his manga available in English, and while I would have loved to see CMX be the one to rectify that, I’d be equally happy to see Vertical swoop in on a rope, cutlass clenched in its teeth.

The other two titles are CMX’s classic shôjo offerings, Kyoko Ariyoshi’s Swan and Yasuko Aoike’s From Eroica With Love. The most logical target for these titles is Fantagraphics. They’ve tasked shôjo scholar Matt Thorn with establishing a manga imprint, and Dirk Deppey was just bemoaning the fact that Swan would go unfinished. I’m not asking them to start over again, and Swan’s Shueisha origins might be tricky for Shogakukan-affiliated Fantagraphics to navigate, but it would be a lovely gesture to fans of classic shôjo. It would also seem like an enticing opportunity for Fantagraphics to clean up some of DC’s messes and then gloat about it. I’m just saying. Aside from the fact that classic shôjo doesn’t sell very well, it seems like a solution with no down side.

I don’t even know where to start with awesome Hakusensha shôjo like My Darling! Miss Bancho and Stolen Hearts that really just began, but maybe Yen Press would like to beef up its shôjo offerings? They could put those profits from Twilight and Black Butler to really good use.

Filed under: CMX, Fantagraphics, License requests, Vertical, Yen Press 12 Comments

All over the map

May 10, 2010 by

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!

Filed under: Contests and giveaways, License requests, Linkblogging 2 Comments

License request day: Noriyuki Yamahana

May 7, 2010 by

In this week’s installment of The Seinen Alphabet, I wondered about the dearth of licensed titles from Shueisha’s Business Jump. Sean (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Gaffney was kind enough to chime in with an assessment of the anthology:

“Business Jump has a lot of beloved romantic comedies that have never been licensed over here, mostly as they’re more mature, have many volumes, and are realistic rather than wacky, all of which adds up to high risk for Viz.”

Sean (who you should follow on Twitter) went on to mention some of his favorite Business Jump titles, including two works by Noriyuki Yamahana that sound particularly appealing.

First up is Yume de Aetara, which chalked up 17 volumes during the last half of the 1990s. It’s about a salaryman who falls in love with a kindergarten teacher, and the description at Wikipedia calls to mind Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku (Viz):

“As the series progresses, it becomes more thoughtful and mature, with many of the problems evolving out of the character’s personalities rather than being imposed artificially by circumstances.”

I’m not having much like finding it on Shueisha’s web site, but here’s a link to an Amazon listing for what I believe is the first book in the eight-volume bunko collection of the series.

Yamahana’s other enticing Business Jump series, Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie, is a little easier to find, but it’s a more recent offering. Its eight-volume run concluded in 2005. This one sounds like blended-family romantic comedy along the lines of The Brady Bunch, but without the associated nausea.

It’s about a single father of two boys and a single mother of two daughters who wind up living in the same house thanks to an unscrupulous real estate agent. Based on the preview pages posted by Shueisha, it looks pretty cute. (By the way, those preview pages are rather discreetly linked. Click on the hyperlink at the end of the biggest block of text on the page on the listings for the first, second, and third volumes, and you can see some samples.)

Yamahana’s current Business Jump series is Noel no Kimochi, which seems to be about a talented figure skater who’s in love with her older brother, as near as I can figure. I’ll hold off on requesting that one.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging 5 Comments

License request day: Filament

April 30, 2010 by

A Manga Moveable Feast is always a good opportunity to see what else the creator has to offer. The weeklong look at Iou Kuroda’s Sexy Voice and Robo (Viz) led me to request for Japan Tengu Party Illustrated, and I’d already asked for Kuroda’s Nasu. By the time the feast focused on Kaoru Mori’s Emma came around, I’d already issued a plea for Otoyomegatari, which is her only other major ongoing work. (Note to self: look into Violet Blossoms at some future date.) So let’s see what’s in store for fans of Yuki Urushibara.

The answer is “Not a whole lot,” but what’s there certainly seems to be worth a look. Filament is a collection of Urushibara’s shorter works that was published by Kodansha in 2004.

“She Got off the Bus at the Peninsula” is about a single mother who takes over the family’s isolated grocery store (conveniently located next to a popular suicide spot). “The Labyrinth Cat” is about a helpful feline who helps humans navigate their baffling apartment complex. “Bio Luminescence” was created under her pen name, Soyogo Shima. I’m not having much luck figuring out what the collection’s title story is about, but the book also contains two of what might be described as Mushishi-verse tales, moving the action into contemporary times and featuring different characters.

Based on the episodic nature of Mushishi, I think it would be fascinating to see a grouping of Urushibara’s shorter, unconnected works. Plus there are apparently several color pages in Filament, and I’d love to see her work in that state, since the Mushishi covers are so gorgeous.

She also has a new ongoing series, Suiiki, which is running in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine. It’s about a girl who mysteriously travels to a different world every time she dozes off. I don’t think it’s been running long enough to generate a paperback just yet.

Filed under: License requests, Manga Moveable Feast 5 Comments

License request day: Bambino!

April 23, 2010 by

Given the performance of Oishinbo, is it reasonable to request another cooking manga from Big Comic Spirits? Perhaps not, but what can I tell you? I love pasta. That’s why Tetsuji Sekiya’s Bambino! caught my eye.

It’s a 15-volume series (here’s a link to the publisher’s listings) about an enthusiastic amateur cook who goes to work in an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s fashionable Roppongi neighborhood. I don’t really have any more compelling reasons to want it than that it’s cooking manga set in a high-end Italian restaurant in Tokyo. Isn’t that kind of enough?

The art is attractive in a contemporary kind of way. The hero looks like a smirking know it all, but it seems fairly certain that he’ll be reminded of his place on the culinary totem pole, even as he rises in the ristorante pecking order. You can check out some preview pages in Japanese for the following volumes by clicking the green button under the cover image on these pages: first, second, third.

Bambino! tied for the 2008 Shogakukan Manga Award for seinen/general manga with Big Comic Spirits neighbor Kurosagi, written by Takeshi Natsuhara and illustrated by Kuromaru (it started in Shogakukan’s Young Sunday). Sekiya is at work on a sequel, Bambino! Secondo, in Big Comic Spirits. The sequel has three collected volumes so far.

While I still live in hope that we’ll get more Oishinbo from Viz (one of the reasons I’m begging people to vote for it in this year’s Eisner Awards), I’m always game for more cooking manga. What are some of your unlicensed favorites, or which ones just sound cool to you?

Filed under: License requests 5 Comments

Perpetual anticipation

April 16, 2010 by

If there’s a single story in all of manga journalism that qualifies most as unproductive drudgery, it’s trying to dig up something about Kodansha USA. So kudos to Gia (Anime Vice) Manry for actually speaking to a human being, the initiative’s general manager. It’s been ages since we’ve had a scrap of anything new to use as fodder for speculation.

As you may recall, right before the official announcement of the effort (or “effort”), Kodansha withdrew all of its properties from Tokyopop. Before that, they ended their first-look agreement with Del Rey. The Random House imprint has still been licensing new Kodansha titles, but, as Lori (Manga Xanadu) Henderson notes, their hearts don’t really seem to be in it lately.

Vertical has two Kodansha properties coming up. The first volume of Kanata Komani’s Chi’s Sweet Home is due June 29, and the first volume of Felipe Smith’s Peepo Choo is due July 13. (Chi’s is serialized in Kodansha’s Morning, and Peepo runs in Morning 2.) Dark Horse is in the process of releasing handsome new collections of some of Kodansha’s CLAMP properties. And the creators of that much-covered wine manga seem to think an announcement of English-language publication is imminent. But aside from these, all’s relatively quiet on the Kodansha front.

So I thought I’d take the opportunity to look back at some of my most-desired Kodansha properties.

The Manga Moveable Feast on Sexy Voice and Robo has made me even hungrier for more comics by Iou Kuroda, so Japan Tengu Party Illustrated certainly makes the cut.

On the classic front, an English version of Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro would be more than welcome.

I may not have a burning desire to know more about the history and practices of Vikings, but I do desperately want to read more manga by Makoto (Planetes) Yukimura, and that means I want Vinland Saga.

I love it when awesome women creators create comics for seinen magazines, and it’s unlikely to get more awesome than Moyocco Anno’s Hataraki Man.

Unless of course we bring Fumi Yoshinaga into the conversation, specifically referencing her What Did You Eat Yesterday? Given Yoshinaga’s demonstrable fondness for food-obsessed gay men, I am certain we would totally be best friends. Or she’d file a restraining order against me.

It should be evident by now that I’m a huge fan of quirky, slice-of-life titles, so Hitoshi Ashinano’s Yokohama Kaidashi Kikô is high on my wish list.

What’s on your Kodansha wish list? Would it be a new edition of Naoki Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon? Do you hunger for something more contemporary, like Hitoshi (Parasyte) Iwaaki’s Histoire, Fuyumi (E.S.) Soryo’s Cesare, or Natsume (House of Five Leaves) Ono’s Coppers? Don’t let the apparent futility deter you. Share your hopes.

Filed under: Kodansha Comics, License requests 16 Comments

Neaud in translation

April 15, 2010 by

And we almost immediately take a break from Press Release Thursday for a license request update! You may remember me carping for someone to publish an English translation of Fabrice Neaud’s Journal. In the comments, Travis McGee pointed to a script translation he had done of Neaud’s work, which drew the interest of Neaud’s publisher, Ego Comme X, and not in a cease-and-desist kind of way.

The make a long story slightly less long, McGee and Ego have worked together to create and share an English-language version of Neaud’s “Émile” on the Ego Comme X web site:

“Who will finally publish one of Neaud’s astonishing works in English ?… English readers, contact your favorite editors, make them read this English version of Émile !”

Yeah, who will finally publish one of Neaud’s astonishing works in English? Huh? HUH?

Update: At The Comics Reporter, Bart Beaty makes the case for Neaud.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging, Previews 4 Comments

Break out the bubbly?

April 9, 2010 by

Deb (About.Com) Aoki spotted this and posted it on Twitter: an article from CNN on that much-covered, yet-to-be-licensed wine manga, Kami no Shizuku. As is only natural, Deb’s sharp eyes focused on this particular snippet:

“According to the authors, the long-awaited English version will be out by the end of this year.”

(The emphasis is mine.)

Is our long wait over? Has the title had sufficient time to breathe, having been covered in virtually every major English-language venue? A search of the Amazon Canada site yielded no results, but I’m sure many folks are tirelessly seeking additional confirmation.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging 2 Comments

License request day: two from LaLa land

April 9, 2010 by

In his “Know Your Publishers” segment, Sean (A Case Suitable for Treatment) Gaffney describes Hakusensha as “the largest Japanese publisher that does not have a strong relationship with any one publisher over here, preferring to sell its shoujo (and occasional seinen) titles to whoever wants to license them the most.” This makes Hakusensha an extremely viable source of license requests, as does the fact that they publish really good shôjo in magazines like Hana to Yume (the source of series like Fruits Basket, Skip Beat!, and V.B. Rose) and LaLa (which gave us books like Jyu-Oh-Sei, Vampire Knight, and Venus in Love). (Hakusensha isn’t all shôjo; they’ve also given the world Detroit Metal City and Ôoku: The Inner Chambers.)

Recent conversations have alerted me to two titles from Hakusensha’s LaLa line that I’d love to see licensed, as they’re by creators who already have very appealing work available in English.

First up is Yoroshiku Master, written and illustrated by Sakura Tsukuba. Tsukuba is the creator of the very charming Land of the Blindfolded and the very funny Penguin Revolution, both from the LaLa line and published in English by CMX. Beyond Tsukuba’s credentials, Yoroshiku Master has the additional advantage of focusing on Japan’s endearingly fluid take on the Christmas holiday.

It’s about a young girl who is suddenly thrust into the role of Santa Claus, accompanied by a young boy who turns into a reindeer and calls the girl “Master.” It may be a little too soon after Snow-a-thon 2010 to start thinking about stories built around a winter holiday, but this series sounds too endearingly bizarre to wait. Plus, if someone starts working on the license now, perhaps we could have it in our hands by November when we’re in more of a mood for it. Click here to view some preview pages of the first volume.

Next is Faster than a Kiss, written and illustrated by Meca Tanaka. Tanaka, one of a tiny handful of male shôjo creators to be published in English, if not the only one to date, is responsible for Omukae Desu (another LaLa title from CMX) and Pearl Pink (a LaLa title from Tokyopop, just to mix it up a bit). I like the quirky sense of humor and low-key sentiment that Tanaka brings to his work.

Faster’s premise is a little worrying for those of us who have been burned before by “hot for teacher” subplots in our shôjo, but I’ve been reassured that Tanaka’s take isn’t icky in the slightest. The comic is about a pair of orphans who are shuttling from unwilling relative to unwilling relative. The sister contemplates dropping out of school to provide for her brother. When her teacher tries to dissuade her, she says she’ll stay in school if he marries her. She’s kidding, but he agrees, and the secret-relationship shenanigans commence. Click here to view some preview pages from the first volume.

Neither of these titles is likely to blaze new and innovative trails in the shôjo category, but both creators have a track record for charming work, and that’s good enough for me.

Filed under: License requests, Linkblogging 7 Comments

License request day: Jirilove

April 2, 2010 by

Sometimes the license requests just fall into your inbox via news alerts. Take a look at this review from The Daily Yomiuri, and feel the want:

“Utaguwa is an ordinary salaried worker in his 40s, but Gei Desu, Hobo Fufu Desu (We’re gay, and mostly married), a Web site illustrated with manga in which he talks about his life with Tsure-chan, his gay partner, caught public attention soon after its launch thanks to his depiction of their life in an open, free and warm manner with a lot of jokes. Jirilove is a comic based on the blog’s manga, but it consists of newly written episodes.”

It’s a review of Jirilove, a blog-based manga written and illustrated by Utaguwa and published by Shueisha.

The problem is that I’m having no luck whatsoever in finding any relevant links aside from the review. Help me, Japanese-fluent nerds!

Update: Lys passes along the link to the book’s Amazon listing and the original blog. These helped me find the listing at Shueisha, which is not on the publisher’s comic site.

Filed under: License requests 6 Comments
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