Announcing the Manga Moveable Feast

Inspired by The Hooded Utilitarian’s roundtable on CLAMP’s xxxHoLic (Del Rey), a bunch of people who talk about manga on Twitter though it might be fun to do what Matt Blind suggested we call a “Manga Moveable Feast,” where a bunch of bloggers write about a single title over the course of a week. For the inauguration of this experiment, we’ve settled on Iou Kuroda’s Sexy Voice and Robo (Viz), and we’ve set it for the week of Feb. 8.

Here’s how it will work this time around: I’ll track all of the individual posts over the course of the week, posting daily updates on who’s written what. You can focus on a specific aspect of the title, write a general review, or simply repost a review you’ve already written. I’d also be happy to host pieces if the writer would prefer.

At the end of the week, we’ll set up a chat session at Manga Views for anyone who wants to discuss the book further to add a book-club aspect to the project. (We considered doing this on Twitter, but the character limit and scrolling seemed unfriendly to fostering a conversational quality.) We’ve tentatively selected Kaoru Mori’s Emma (CMX) for the second round, though we haven’t set a date and another blogger will host and ring-lead that effort.

So if you’re interested in participating, drop me an email at davidpwelsh at yahoo dot com, and we can work out all of the details.

License request day: Manga Taishou nominees

Gia (Anime Vice) Manry recently shared this year’s nominees for the Manga Taishou Awards, a new-ish but well-regarded program. For this week’s license request, I’ll just point out the three that sound most interesting to me. These choices are admittedly based on very little evidence, but they look and sound desirable, at least superficially.

Otoko no Isshou, written and illustrated by Keiko Niishi, Shogakukan, flowers, two volumes available so far. Nishi’s work was included in Viz’s Four Shôjo Stories, and they published Promise in 1994 and Love Song, a collection of her short stories, in 1998, so any work by her is a lock. Since I’m on the subject, it would be really lovely for Viz to put Four Shôjo Stories back in print.

Thermae Romae, written and illustrated by Mari Yamazaki, Enterbrain, Comic Beam, one volume available so far. I should probably start a category dedicated entirely to how much I love comics that were originally serialized in Comic Beam, which sounds like a wonderfully idiosyncratic magazine to me.

Mushi to Uta, written and illustrated by Haruko Ichikawa, Kodansha, Afternoon, one volume total. I like collections of short stories, and the cover is really lovely. That’s all I’ve got, but that seems like it’s enough. Also, I keep fixating on manga originally serialized in Morning and Morning 2, so I felt like I should throw some love to Afternoon. Update: Jog has some absolutely gorgeous samples of Ichikawa’s work in this post.

Standards and practices

I’ve been enjoying the xxxHoLic roundtable at The Hooded Utilitarian, and I have to confess that most of that enjoyment comes from the back-and-forth about critical standards that has blossomed in the comments of various posts. I quoted Ng Suat Tong yesterday, and I’ll do so again:

“For some reason, I’ve found that western readers seem to be far kinder to commercial dreck from the shores of Japan, lacing their reviews with only the mildest of reservations. Is this representative of a certain indifference to the qualities of commercial manga or is there some sort of cultural forbearance and variation in standards at work here?”

And add a bit of an expansion from the comments here:

“It’s something which I notice in manga reviews throughout the web (there are exceptions of course). It may have to do with the thrill of the “new” or it might just be that manga reviewers in general are just ‘nice’ people…”

If you’re me, all roads eventually lead to Sondheim, and I can’t help but hear the derisive purr of Bernadette Peters in Into the Woods… “You’re so nice… You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just nice.”

Now, if you suspect that I’m going to launch into some defense of online manga criticism and decry these observations, let me hasten to assure you that I’m not. In fact, I’m going to cop to their accuracy, at least as they pertain to me. It’s not just comics from Japan, though. It has more to do with context and creator intent.

Not too long ago, there was some discussion on Twitter of tips for manga bloggers, and I remember the development of a consistent rating system (numerical, alphabetical, stars, what have you) coming up in conversation. I don’t use that kind of system due to a combination of laziness and, I frankly admit, inconsistent critical standards. What I almost always try to convey when reviewing a book is how much I enjoyed it, which I know is not a particularly rigorous or ambitious approach to criticism. But when it comes to comics, enjoyment my first priority as a consumer, so it makes sense to me that it’s also my first priority as a reviewer.

It’s entirely possible that, if I had a one-to-five-stars rating system, five being the highest, I could give both Red Snow and Kimi ni Todoke five stars. Should you conclude from that that I think that these books are equal in quality in terms of the pure mechanics of their creation, their respective levels of artistic ambition, and their impact on the medium? I hope not, and I hope (really, really fervently) that the reasons I enjoy a given book are sufficiently evident that people who read my reviews can tell the difference between the reasons behind an enthusiastic evaluation of Little Fluffy Gigolo Pelu and an exuberant review of The Lapis Lazuli Crown, or for Asterios Polyp, or for Underground.

A lot of comics are created with the simple intent to entertain, and I think that’s fabulous. It’s one of the reasons that I read so much manga – it’s a functional, diverse entertainment industry that allows me to cherry pick the kind of stories and styles I enjoy and that provide the kind of enjoyment I seek when I pick up a comic. And since it’s a large enough industry, I can also enjoy comics created with less of an obviously commercial or populist intent, books that were conceived and executed with ambition and daring. But for me, it’s important to accept books from the various ends of the commercial spectrum on their own terms. Some comics are conceived in hopes of taking their places among fine works of literature, and some are created to help you pass the time while you’re riding the train. And this is true of comics industries all over the world. Even individual creators can move along that spectrum, and to me, those are the most exciting creators of all. There are those creators who, no matter how disposable and commercial the venue for their work is, demonstrate remarkable ambition and craft.

Should I apply equal levels of critical rigor to every book I review? I don’t really feel any obligation to do so, to be totally honest. For one thing, that’s not really why I got into blogging. Aside from the fact that it’s just a hobby, my desire to blog stems from a general enthusiasm for comics, an enthusiasm for writing and conversing about them, and a desire to identify the ones that give me pleasure as a reader and to find others that might yield the same results. I certainly admire critics who apply that level of effort to everything they write, and I’m hardly averse to trying to engage a challenging work on its own ambitious terms, but that’s never been my default setting.

Lots of links

Publishers Weekly Comics Week gets into the license request game with the launch of its “Found in Translation” column. Jonathan Bethune contributes the inaugural installment, which focuses on Berry Dynamite, by the creator of Love*Com, rounded out by a request for more Golgo 13.

Speaking of license requests, you know how I love to mine awards programs for likely candidates, so thanks to Gia Manry for sharing the 2010 nominees for the Manga Taishou Awards.

Over at comiXology (which really has one of the finest line-ups of columns of any comics site on the web), Kristy Valenti looks at the conclusion of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket:

Fruits Basket is what I personally define as a ‘fat’ text: something that can support discourse on its themes and engender different (but germane) responses in its readers. (As opposed to a “thin” text, in which the author lays it all out for you on the surface, with no real entry point for interpretation: for example, I find Neil Gaiman’s novels to be disappointingly ‘thin.’)”

The Hooded Utilitarian crew and friends are in the midst of another roundtable discussion, this time on the first three volumes of xxxHoLic by CLAMP. Thus far, most participants seem to find it visually striking but not as well-written as they’d like. I admit that this is my usual reaction to work by CLAMP, though I think xxxHoLic improves as it goes along and has become my favorite CLAMP work available in English. I’ll point you to the contribution by Ng Suat Tong, which links to all of the pieces thus far and includes this intriguing and provocative statement:

“For some reason, I’ve found that western readers seem to be far kinder to commercial dreck from the shores of Japan, lacing their reviews with only the mildest of reservations. Is this representative of a certain indifference to the qualities of commercial manga or is there some sort of cultural forbearance and variation in standards at work here?”

And to wrap up, a few links to reviews I enjoyed:

  • Danielle Leigh on Natsume Ono’s not simple, because glowing reviews of that excellent book cheer me
  • Kate Dacey on Kou Matsuzuki’s Happy Café, because Kate’s writing is always a pleasure to read and because she gives a shout-out to the underrated Cafe Kichijoji de
  • Nina Stone on a blind date with manga, which is almost certain to trigger some lively chatter in the comments.
  • Upcoming 1/20/2010

    I’m sorry, but that page from Natsume Ono’s not simple just haunts me. And the book is on this week’s ComicList, so I have an excuse. But I wrote about the book at length yesterday, so I’ll move on to the other fine offerings due to arrive in shops on Wednesday.

    Jason Thompson, author of Manga: The Complete Guide, noted comiXology columnist, and webcomic creator is back making comics in the form of King of RPGs (Del Rey), illustrated by Victor Hao. It’s about a recovering online gamer who gets drawn into the old-school dice-and-graph-paper version of the titular pastime. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read of the review copy Del Rey sent, and I plan to finish it today between bouts of self-medication. Because I really feel gross. Heal me, satirical comics.

    I don’t specifically know what blend of unsettling medical oddities, low comedy and crazed melodrama lurks in the ninth volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack (Vertical), but it doesn’t really matter. I know that all three of these ingredients will be present in sufficient volume to make the purchase of said book entirely worthwhile. As long as there’s at least one totally unnerving sequence with Pinoko, I’ll feel my money has been spent well.

    I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever again read a Yuji Iwahara comic that’s as good as Chikyu Misaki (CMX), and Cat Paradise certainly isn’t it, but it’s pretty enjoyable all the same. The third volume arrives Wednesday, promising more mayhem at a cat-friendly boarding school where the student council fights an insurgence of gruesome demons. Iwahara mentioned in a text piece that he wanted to do a straightforward school adventure, but it’s Iwahara, so the definition of straightforward is somewhat loose.

    And now for the Viz portion of the program, where this publisher leaves us impoverished but stocked with quality comics. Yes, it’s Signature week. As I mentioned, I’ve already blathered on about not simple and Fumi Yoshinaga’s All My Darling Daughters, and you’d think those two comics would be enough for any publisher in a given week, but wait, as the purveyors of kitchen appliances of questionable utility claim, there’s more!

    Instead of dwelling too much on the incipient loss we’ll all suffer, I’ll just point you to this press release about the final A la Carte volume of the excellent culinary manga, Oishinbo. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that Viz re-launches this series at a later date, because there’s certainly enough material in the wings.

    We’re nearing the conclusion of Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto, with the penultimate volume due Wednesday. (There’s lots more of Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys yet to come, just to ease the imminent separation anxiety.) And surely, after all of my incessant nagging, you’ve all caught up on the previously published volumes of Takehiko Inoue’s Real and are poised and ready to buy the seventh, aren’t you?

    Go, vote: last chance!

    Today is the last day to vote in Deb Aoki’s 2009 Manga Readers Polls. I’ve already voted, and I’ll resist the urge to stuff the ballot box in the service of my favorites, but I do like to call up my “Polls” category and look at all the covers of my chosen candidates.

    Choice words from 2009

    Maybe I’ll indulge in just one more look back on 2009. The bloggers at The Hooded Utilitarian assembled a list of their choices for the Best Online Comics Criticism for the year. I won’t claim I psychically predicted that Johanna Draper Carlson would notice that there are no articles by women on the final list, but I was sitting next to her during the critics’ panel at SPX, so it’s not like there’s no precedent for this observation. And it inspired Melinda Beasi’s warm tribute to some of the many women who write regularly and brilliantly about comics, manga and manhwa in particular.

    To my way of thinking, that’s always the most desirable outcome of lists like these… people tossing in their two cents. And while I haven’t approached this with anything resembling rigor, here are some of my favorite comics-related think pieces of the last year:

    “I Am Cynical (Orange)” by Chris Butcher: If you’ve just discovered Butcher through his excellent pieces on “10 Manga That Changed Comics” (here’s #8), let me reassure you that he’s been brilliant for ages. Case in point is this piece on the vicissitudes of distribution to the Direct Market.

    “The Manga Hall of Shame” by Kate Dacey: Sometimes, manga hurts. And when that happens, it’s good to have a writer of Dacey’s caliber to speak up on behalf of the wounded. Here are this year’s inductees.

    Matthew Brady’s pieces on Shojo Beat: Among the many reasons to miss Viz’s anthology of comics for girls is the fact that it also meant the end for this series of informative, enthusiastic, persuasive examinations.

    “The Nana Project” by Melinda Beasi, Danielle Leigh and Michelle Smith: Three of my favorite manga critics geek out over one of the best shôjo titles ever published in English.

    “The Patrick Swayze Manga Recommendation Guide” by Shaenon K. Garrity: Picking only one great piece by Garrity is like trying to choose the prettiest tulip in Holland. It’s just impossible. This one strikes me as emblematic of what I love about her writing: a great hook in service of some wonderful comics with her enviably flawless prose throughout.

    The “Rethinking the Box” articles by Matt Blind: If Butcher is the go-to analyst on comic shops, Blind covers the general bookstore front in an equally astute manner. The link above points you to many of the articles in the occasional series.

    “Reviewers Can’t Win” by Johanna Draper Carlson: I always enjoy Johanna’s writing, but I have an unflattering confession to make. I tend to enjoy her writing most when she’s indignant about something. Now, I know I shouldn’t wish for life to fling irritations in anyone’s path, but I do love the results.

    “You And I Until The Day We Die” by Tucker Stone. Stone was one of the judges for The Hooded Utilitarian’s poll, so he wasn’t eligible, which is too bad. I think he’s an amazing writer.

    So what are some of your favorite essays from 2009? Remind me of my egregious oversights, please.

    Quote of the day

    “I’d like to offer congratulations to the nominees and a guided tour of the back of Previews to the nominating committee.”

    — Sean T. Collins on this year’s comics nominees for the annual GLAAD Media Awards.

    Go, vote: book about manga

    I can’t believe we still don’t have a serious piece of popular scholarship dedicated to manga for girls and women. When such a tome is published, and if it’s any good, I’ll certainly vote for it in Deb Aoki’s Best Manga Book poll. In the meantime, I have no qualms voting for…

    Go, vote: classic or reissued

    It isn’t actually necessary to really love a comic to deeply admire the way it’s been presented. Case in point: my choice for Deb Aoki’s Best Classic or Reissued Manga poll:

    I may have found the song lyrics unforgivably bad, but Dark Horse did a magnificent job on this book.