The Manga Curmudgeon

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

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Drama, drama, drama

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Over at Comics Should Be Good, Danielle Leigh once again demonstrates her great taste, listing her top five current shôjo series. This reminds me that it’s time to make a few more Great Graphic Novels for Teens nominations.

The sixth volume of Setona Mizushiro’s After School Nightmare (Go! Comi) features some juicy forward plot motion and some ruthless character development. Back when I used to watch soap operas and participate in that branch of online fandom, many of us would decry what we called “Knight in Shining Armor Syndrome.” Mizushiro thrills me to no end by ripping one of her characters to shreds for indulging in this kind of behavior. Seriously, you won’t find a more psychologically acute melodrama in this category.

The 19th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s Fruits Basket (Tokyopop) makes me geek out a round of “The Gang’s All Here.” After some extensive focus on individual characters, Takaya rounds everyone up for what feels like the beginning a very satisfying endgame. It’s a testament to the excellent work she’s done developing her cast that I’m delighted to see so many of them return and that their complex dynamics are still so clear and emotionally effective. As usual, threads that previously seemed extraneous are woven into the story’s larger tapestry, which tells me that I should just assume that everything matters. It’s a marvel, and it really shouldn’t be dismissed on the basis of its commercial success.

“Mature Content” rating be damned. Teens are probably reading Ai Yazawa’s Nana (Viz) anyways, so I’m throwing the ninth volume into the mix. More to the point, if there’s a better portrayal of the fallout of capricious behavior, I can’t think of it. The happy, shiny world of the entire cast has been thrown into disarray by an unexpected turn of events, and friendships, romances and careers are fundamentally changed. Yazawa doesn’t give the material anything resembling a punitive quality, but hard choices and hurt feelings abound, taking the well-crafted soap opera to a higher level. And Yazawa even reveals the secret origin of Trapnest. (I have to watch the movie, as Kate Dacey swears they’ll seem less cheesy. I don’t know how that will alter the reading experience, to be honest.)

Mergers and acquisitions

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There’s so much food for thought today.

  • I agree with Tom Spurgeon that the notion of an unholy alliance between Borders and Barnes & Noble is not displeasing. There are significant differences between the two chains that I wouldn’t like to see lost, though. I wouldn’t want to see Borders follow suit with Barnes and Noble’s approach to graphic novel buying. I’d much rather see Barnes & Noble’s offerings expand than Borders get trimmed.
  • I could be wrong, but when a key part of a comic publisher’s marketing strategy seems to be the plugging of unsanctioned leaks of future plot developments, there’s a problem.
  • That said, I would probably favor Marvel’s Secret Invasion over DC’s Crisis thing if I were still reading American super-hero comics. Of course, the fact that Secret Invasion is being written by the person who made most of my favorite Marvel characters unrecognizable to me in the first place would probably mute my enthusiasm, as opposed to if it were someone else cleaning up after that person. That whiff of apologetic desperation would be as irresistible as sautéing onions. (I couldn’t stop myself from taking a look at the preview pages at Entertainment Weekly, and wow, some of that dialogue is hilariously awful.)
  • Okay, speaking of that hilariously awful dialogue, Luke Cage’s “Hey, man, I need a solid, ASAP” prompted a friend to wonder if I wasn’t quoting slash fiction. I am deeply disappointed that there don’t seem to be entire sites devoted to Power Man/Iron Fist slash, but maybe it’s too easy.
  • Steve Bennett’s ICv2 column on Marvel’s and DC’s reluctance to embrace a manga aesthetic (and Direct Market retailers’ varied willingness to stock the product at all) is interesting, but I think it overstates things a bit. I agree that Marvel and DC show a bunker mentality with regards to their franchises, but I think Marvel’s project with Del Rey for a separate line of manga-style X-Men treatments is a promising model for the kind of product Bennett is talking about. I think a lot of the Marvel’s and DC’s existing audience would scoff or howl at the strategic introduction of a perceived manga aesthetic to the product they buy with such regularity, and I’m unconvinced that either company could convincingly bring successful elements of whatever that aesthetic might be to the table to begin with. That leaves the Marvel-Del Rey outsourcing model as the obvious solution – don’t change your primary product, but offer targeted side products to a different audience with the assistance of people who already know how to reach that audience. It just seems much more likely that the target audience for a shôjo-styled treatment of the X-Men or Wonder Woman would be prompted to pick up the “real” version than the other way around.
  • As for the Direct Market missing the manga bus, I’m decreasingly of the opinion that all retailers are fools if they don’t stock manga. Entrepreneurs seem to function on something of a financial razor’s edge to begin with, and there are probably plenty of places that already sell manga in their communities. It seems like it would take a remarkable amount of strategizing and effort for a local comic shop to compete with a Borders or Barnes & Noble. Do I like to walk into a comic shop and find a healthy selection of manga? Sure, but only if someone on the staff is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the category. Token efforts lead to neglected stock, which seems worse than not bothering with manga at all. (I do think such retailers are dumb if they don’t make it a widely-known practice that they’ll order any kind of comic their customers want if they don’t see it on the shelves, but that applies to all kinds of comics.)

    • Best. Analogy. Ever.

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    Tom Spurgeon on Osamu Tezuka’s MW (Vertical):

    “It’s like Vincent Minelli’s Taxi Driver, or Frank Capra’s Deer Hunter; I had a hard time taking my eyes off of it, although I can’t say I enjoyed every minute of the reading experience.”

    If he’d likened it to Ethel Merman’s disco album, that would obviously have been going too far, but as it stands…

    Warren words

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    K.D. Bryan offers thoughtful commentary on the third volume of Adam Warren’s Empowered (Dark Horse), and extrapolates the discussion to consider contemporary super-heroines in general:

    “So my major problem here isn’t that Empowered vol. 3 has taken a misstep because an intelligent, thoughtful writer tried to deepen the series – taking the comedy out of the equation in two of the chapters to provide contrast between how she is treated and the true potential she wields. No, my real problem is that so many more well-known superheroines aren’t being given the same basic consideration as Empowered.”

    Well worth your reading time, as is Bryan’s comment on my reaction to the book.

    In other Adam Warren news, Marvel editor Tom Brevoort counts Warren’s Livewires (Marvel) among his “Unknown Greats.” I agree that this is a terrific comic, and it’s fascinating to read about just how meticulous Warren was in the process of creating it.

    Don't make me beg

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    There are lots of books I love included in the recently released list of nominees for the latest round of Tezuka Cultural Awards. I can’t wait for enough of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku to be in print for someone to license it. (I hear it’s a fairly drastic creative departure for her, but it’s Yoshinaga, and I think there’s some international law that requires all of her work be made available in English. I have no problem with such a regulation. I also want her new restaurant manga to be licensed as quickly as possible.)

    But North American manga publishers, if you love me, and you often act like you do, one of your number will license Moyashimon (Tales of Agriculture) at your earliest convenience. It sounds kind of like Mushishi (Del Rey) and Honey and Clover (Viz) got drunk one night and conceived an insane child.

    Yoshinagarama

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    At Manga Recon, Kate Dacey and Erin F. take an entertainingly thorough (and thoroughly entertaining) look at the translated works of Fumi Yoshinaga. I’m a big fan of Yoshinaga’s work, and I’m thrilled that so much of it is available in English. And since I never pass up a chance to lazily develop blog content, here’s my list of her works ordered from favorite to least:

    1. Flower of Life (DMP)
    2. Antique Bakery (DMP)
    3. Tie — Ichigenme: The First Class Is Civil Law (801 Media) and The Moon and the Sandals (Juné)
    5. Gerard and Jacques (Blu)
    6. Don’t Say Any More, Darling (Juné)
    7. Garden Dreams (DMP)
    8. Tie — Lovers in the Night (Blu) and Truly, Kindly (Blu)
    10. Solfege (Juné)

    I’ll probably annotate these at some point, but I haven’t had enough coffee yet, and as I said… lazy blog content development.

    Give me land, lots of land

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    In linking to the Comics Worth Reading discussion of available josei manga, Simon (NSFW) Jones asks a really interesting question:

    “Given the generally poor understanding of manga genre terms (which more often than not reflect marketing and publication roots than actual content) in the U.S., how haphazardly these terms are used by publishers, and how some books simply cannot be marketed the same way here as in Japan because of differing cultural limitations and tastes, should we even bother using these words?”

    There are plenty of relatively recent examples of books where the original demographic designation (shôjo, shônen, josei, or seinen) isn’t really useful or doesn’t translate. Particularly fluid is the seinen designation, which can certainly be applied to violent and/or sexy action epics but is actually a lot more inclusive in terms of genre, tone and style.

    (Q: What do xxxHoLic, Eden: It’s an Endless World!, Vagabond, and Gon have in common? A: All were originally serialized in seinen magazines, or at least that’s what Wikipedia would have me believe. I’m certainly open to correction by people who know better, though I’d also bet I could find four equally diverse examples from the seinen category.)

    So, yeah, I think I tend to agree that these demographic designations lose something when they’re applied in a system that isn’t driven by the same kind of publishing structures. It’s not exactly a “this way lies madness” problem in the grand scheme of things, but the categories don’t always stand up to that much scrutiny. And seriously, I hope people take the original demographic categorizations with a grain of salt, because there are great books in all of those categories, and I think you’d be cheating yourself if you didn’t read something just because it’s “for girls” or “for men.”

    Here are some moments in questionably useful categorization:

    Translucent, by Okamoto Kazuhiro (Dark Horse): romantic dramedy about school-aged kids originally published in a seinen magazine, Comics Flapper, but marketed by Dark Horse (quite appropriately, I think) for people who enjoy books from the shôjo category.

    Emma, by Kaoru Mori (CMX): period romance originally published in a seinen magazine, Monthly Comic Beam, which is also home to Yuji Iwahara’s King of Thorn (Tokyopop).

    ES, by Fuyumi Soryo (Del Rey): character-driven science fiction, originally serialized in a seinen magazine, Weekly Morning, by a creator probably best known for her shôjo work, like Mars (Tokyopop).

    Antique Bakery, by Fumi Yoshinaga (DMP): character-driven workplace comedy, originally serialized in a shôjo magazine, Wings, that skews slightly older than you might expect (16 to 20) and seems to have a boys’-love bent. Often categorized as yaoi or shônen-ai because it one of its main characters is gay and because a fair chunk of Yoshinaga’s work has been in the yaoi category, it’s also been tagged as josei by some (including me) who hadn’t taken the time to look too deeply into its origins.

    Andromeda Stories and To Terra…, by Keiko Takemiya (Vertical): character-driven space opera by a creator who is part of the Year 24 Group of pioneering women manga-ka who essentially redefined shôjo manga and gave birth to the boys’-love category. To Terra… was originally serialized in a shônen magazine, Gekkan Manga Shônen. (Does anyone know what the original home for Andromeda Stories was?) Personally, I think that Takemiya’s crossover success is just another reminder of how awesome she is, and that shônen can be just as emotionally nuanced as manga from any other category.

    The Drifting Classroom, by Kazuo Umezi (Viz): hyperactive horror originally published in Weekly Shonen Sunday, released in English as part of Viz’s Signature line with a “Mature” rating. I swear, all you need to do is lovingly render the indiscriminate slaughter of children, and suddenly it’s not suitable for kids any more. Seriously, this does illustrate (in a somewhat extreme fashion) the fact that age ratings do tend to bump up when a book is licensed for release in English.

    Omissions corrected

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    Okay, I wasn’t used to the Previews shipping list format, so I missed a couple of items by assuming that “with mature items” meant “with the kind of comics Simon Jones tirelessly champions” instead of just… well… items with mature ratings.

    Anyway, two additions to yesterday’s rundown:

    One is volume 9 of Nana by Ai Yazawa, the most popular manga-ka in Japan (at least according to a survey at Oricon). I was pleasantly surprised when it showed up at the comic shop. Me: “Wow, it’s thicker than usual and wrapped in plastic!” Adorable shop employee, without missing a beat: “And still only $8.99!” I love her.

    My skepticism always kicks in when a wildly enthusiastic press release shows up, but this one from Tokyopop (a leading provider of wild enthusiasm) does succeed in piquing my interest in the work of Hee Jung Park. Her stories sound intriguing, and Blog@Newsarama’s Kevin Melrose had a positive initial reaction to the art in Fever, which came out yesterday. Will Tokyopop be able to build a brand around a creator?

    They’ve tried before, most notably with the works of Erica Sakurazawa, which come up in Johanna Draper Carlson’s run-down of “The State of Josei Manga.”

    Blurbs

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    Over at Comics Worth Reading, Johanna Draper Carlson ponders the etiquette of review pull-quotes on book covers. Should the publisher notify the reviewer that their quote is going to be used and maybe send a comp of the finished product?

    I haven’t been quoted that often, and I really don’t mind when it happens. I’ve written the reviews for public consumption, and I stand by them, so if the quote is an accurate reflection of my overall sentiments, I’ve got no problem with that kind of use. I wouldn’t mind an e-mail from the publisher in those instances, but it doesn’t bother me when I don’t get one.

    I do find it kind of alarming to see myself quoted on a book cover. It’s kind of like hearing recordings of my voice, which always make me wonder if I really sound like that and why people don’t beg me to stop talking or just punch me and run away. I guess the most usefully quotable parts of my reviews end up sounding either mawkish or pompous to me out of the context of the full review, so I tend to cringe a bit.

    As for reviewing in general, I’ve been wondering lately if I might write more negative reviews. I tend to focus on books that I like, and there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that there are lots of choices out there, and I think it’s more useful to focus on the noteworthy than the forgettable. Another is that I find writing a positive review more challenging than writing a negative one. (I’ve been sarcastic and critical roughly since the point I started speaking in full sentences, so those rhetorical muscles are reasonably well developed.)

    I do think I might add more pans to the mix. If I’m excited by a solicitation and say so, then find the actual book kind of dreadful, I try to say so at least briefly, if only to set the record straight. Any thoughts either way on my balance of positive and negative responses? Should I bring more hate?

    Shrinkwrapped

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    I was working on a long-ish piece, and it was going pretty well. I took a quick break to do some blog hopping and noticed that Danielle Leigh had done a terrific job covering almost exactly the same material in her column at Comics Should Be Good. So it’s back to the keyboard.

    Speaking of manga for grown-ups, I finally got around to reading the second volume of Hiroki (Eden: It’s an Endless World!) Endo’s Tanpenshu (Dark Horse). Overall, I found the content of the two books to be excellent overall, but I think I’ve developed an allergy to anything Endo writes about organized crime. The two-part “Platform” just made me tired. Why are creators so fascinated with mobsters, and why do so many of their otherwise admirable sensibilities go out the window when they dramatize them? I’ve seen Endo pose a thousand interesting questions about the human experience in his science fiction and slice-of-life stories, but pieces like “Platform” read as depressingly literal. I’m thrilled that Dark Horse is committed to delivering more Eden, but Endo’s gangster stuff leaves me utterly cold.

    On the brighter side of Dark Horse, the opening story of the sixth volume of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (written by Eiji Otsuka, illustrated by Housui Yamazaki) left me slightly giddy. Anyone who can craft a funny, creepy, strangely sweet story around the privatization of the postal service has won me as a lifelong fan.