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Based on the hit manga…

November 16, 2006 by

Speaking of Nodame Cantabile, it seems to be enjoying a bump from the release of its TV drama adaptation. ComiPress shares the latest Tohan Top 10, and Nodame occupies three spaces on it, with the most recent volume just ahead of the first and third. It’s like the Cartoon Network Effect, only with live actors.

And what does the Daily Yomiuri think of that program?

“[I]t displayed potential for the first 15 minutes.”

In other multi-media news, Anime News Network notes the joyous arrival of the Sgt. Frog anime in February, and that the invasion began a little early.

And last but not least, that trailer for the Death Note sequel is really, really creepy. But so is the trailer for the first one.

Filed under: Del Rey, Media, Sales, Tokyopop, TV, Viz Leave a Comment

From the stack: 12 DAYS

November 14, 2006 by

As “Best of 2006” lists start rolling out, some have noted that 2006 isn’t exactly over yet. June Kim’s 12 Days (Tokyopop) is a solid argument for waiting until January 1 to assemble such lists, because it’s one of the oddest, loveliest books I’ve read all year.

A one-volume piece of global nouvelle manga with a pronounced josei flavor, it’s the kind of book a lot of people have been hoping for since the promise of “Manga After Hours” flickered briefly. It’s an elegantly minimalist examination of love and pain, executed with serious craft by Kim.

Jackie’s ex-lover Noah has died in a car accident. Blindsided by grief, Jackie isolates herself in her apartment with her cat and enlists the help of Noah’s brother, Nick, to complete a ritual she feels will help her move on. She wants to consume Jackie’s ashes over a period of 12 days.

It’s a bit grotesque, but Kim focuses more on the feelings that drive Jackie’s decision than the mechanics of the ritual. Those feelings are portrayed with potent understatement through Jackie and Nick’s elliptical conversations and carefully placed flashbacks of Noah’s life. Kim is a sharp observer of small but telling moments; nothing in 12 Days feels overwrought, but nothing is trivialized either.

And Kim doesn’t reserve her sympathy for Jackie. Nick is an equal partner in grief, mourning his sister’s life and perhaps what he sees as his failures. We’re given glimpses of Noah’s father, devastated for his own reasons. And Kim manages the difficult trick of capturing the things about Noah that would drive a person to both leave her and mourn her. It’s a very graceful presentation of character, emotion, and mood.

Kim’s illustrations are largely ideal for this material. As with the writing, she avoids a tendency to overstate, going for elegant realism for the most part. I was initially put off by her use of some chibi elements, highly stylized bits of cuteness, to lighten transitional moments, but it grew on me as the book moved on. I’m still not entirely sold on the lettering, done in a flat typeset, but it isn’t too distracting. And some of the tone work in the early chapters seems a bit sloppy. On the whole, though, Kim’s strong line work and inventive paneling carry the book through the few rough visual patches.

12 Days is such a lovely and surprising book. I worry that it will get lost on the ever-swelling manga shelves. But if you’ve been hungry for more josei, or any book that takes an imaginative, pointed look at interpersonal relationships, you really should make a point of reading it. It’s a very rewarding experience.

Filed under: From the stack, Tokyopop 2 Comments

You're always a day away

November 7, 2006 by

Another week, another opportunity to ponder the mysteries of the ComicList. Some weeks I get lucky, and Del Rey titles show up earlier than they do from Diamond (as with the excellent Genshiken vol. 7). Some weeks I’m left to writhe in jealousy as everyone else gets Love Roma vol. 4 before I do. MangaCast has a preview of Del Rey’s shôjo version of Train Man, which I believe is due in bookstores today, if not in comic shops tomorrow.

I’m curious about Project Romantic from AdHouse, but it wasn’t a book that I was confident in buying sight unseen. I’m sure I’ll get the chance when I hit Columbus for the holidays.

The concept for Hero Heel (Juné) tickles me, focusing on unexpected romance among actors in a super-hero TV show. Pick your favorite Heroes actors and play along!

Looking for something in a chic, josei, nouvelle manga style? Fanfare/Ponent Mon is releasing a new printing of Kan Takahama’s Kinderbook.

Mmmm… Greek food. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey travel to the cradle of democracy for Action Philosophers #7: It’s All Greek To You.

Oni releases the second issue of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt’s The Damned, a solid fusion of mob drama and supernatural weirdness.

I’m intrigued by 12 Days from Tokyopop, either in spite or because of its faintly nauseating premise. Here’s a preview from editor Lillian Diaz-Pryzbyl.

And of course, there’s always Death Note vol. 8 (Viz – Shonen Jump Advanced). MangaCast notes that the first volume of this series keeps popping up on Japanese best-seller lists.

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It seems that John Jakala is not alone. At Read About Comics, Greg McElhatton looks at the first two volumes of Drifting Classroom (Viz – Signature) and finds them really, really loud:

“With The Drifting Classroom two of its eleven volumes are now translated, and I can’t help but wonder if publishing the other nine books could somehow result in a worldwide shortage of exclamation points thanks to its relentless intensity.”

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And in this week’s Flipped, I take the really ill-advised step of reviewing Osamu Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito (Vertical), in spite of the fact that tons of people have already done it really well. Here are some more successful examples:

Filed under: AdHouse, ComicList, Del Rey, Evil Twin, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Flipped, Juné, Oni, Tokyopop, Vertical, Viz 3 Comments

Regional specialties

October 31, 2006 by

The Mature Graphic Novel section has not yet reached north-central West Virginia. I swung by Books-A-Million last night to see. It did look like there were fewer Juné and Blu titles than usual, so maybe they’ve been sorted out and it’s in the works. (The manager, who’s an acquaintance, wasn’t on hand to ask.)

One thing did strike me as I was browsing. It’s too bad Viz didn’t put out a Bleach box set in time for the holidays, like Tokyopop did with Kingdom Hearts. A conveniently bundled, nicely packaged chunk of the early volumes might entice the curious.

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I’m kind of baffled by the ComicList for the week. The list itself says the only Del Rey offering for the week is the second volume of Basilisk. Jog seems to think that the fourth volume of Love Roma is arriving. The e-mailer from the local comic shop suggests that the seventh volume of Genshiken will arrive. Should I focus on the happiness of new Genshiken, or wallow in the bitterness of delayed Love Roma gratification?

There does seem to be general consensus that this week will see the arrival of the second volumes of Off*Beat and The Dreaming and the fourteenth of The Kindaichi Case Files from Tokyopop. Okay, so maybe it would be nice if these suspenseful stories had dropped the day before Halloween instead of the day after. But it’s close enough.

Not to be outdone in the second volume category, Seven Seas releases the sophomore installment of Inverloch, a web-to-print fantasy story from Sarah Ellerton. I liked the first a lot.

It seems like it’s been weeks since a new volume of a post-apocalyptic survival manga showed up. Dark Horse leaps into the breach with the fifth volume of Eden: It’s an Endless World! For more science fiction, you could always check out June from Netcomics.

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There seems to be a mad flurry of manga reviews of late, and MangaBlog’s Brigid has been staying on top of them.

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So I’m glancing at the Taiyosha Top Ten over at MangaCast, and I can’t help but notice that Nodame Cantabile has really parked itself there. Volume 16 debuted at number one, with a special taking eighth place the same week. And it’s still in the top 10.

No particular point to that observation, aside from the fact that I like the book and its success makes me happy.

Filed under: Blu, Bookstores, ComicList, Dark Horse, Del Rey, Juné, Sales, Seven Seas, Tokyopop, Viz 6 Comments

No-ruto

October 27, 2006 by

There isn’t much in the way of sequential art in the latest top 150 best sellers from USA Today. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories Vol. 1 (Tokyopop) drops from 112 to 134.

I had briefly hoped that the National Book Award nomination for Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese (First Second) might land it somewhere on the list, but no. Hell, a Nobel Prize for Literature doesn’t get you any higher than 94, and poor Orhan Pamuk is barely hanging on at 150, so I don’t know what good I thought a mere nomination would do.

And besides, Wired copy chief Tony Long insists that “the comic book does not deserve equal status with real novels, or short stories. It’s apples and oranges.” Long comes to this conclusion without having read American Born Chinese, and I find that depressing. I was sort of hoping that people would say, “How good must that graphic novel be to earn a National Book Award nomination?” and then perhaps read it to find out instead of dismissing it out of hand. (There’s no word as to where the copy chiefs of Cat Fancy, Town & Country Travel, and Cigar Aficionado will come down in the controversy. File it under “developing.”)

At least poor Captain Underpants hasn’t been unduly damaged by the recent unpleasantness. The Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People is nestled comfortably at #72. (Though it was at #66 last week.)

Filed under: Awards and lists, First Second, Media, Sales, Tokyopop Leave a Comment

If you like…

October 16, 2006 by

Chris Butcher at comics212.net (no dot!) notes that Tokyopop is trying its hand at the “If you like…” game in favor of some of its global manga titles. It’s not a bad idea, though Chris notes some of the flaws in execution in this particular example.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that a number of these titles have more in common with the books that Oni Press, or Image Comics publish (and I’m sure both of those companies are really excited by the prospect of competing with Tokyopop for shelf-space and dollars in comic stores) than the Japanese- and Korean-originated titles they publish, but several of them really aren’t very ‘indy’ at all. Some of these books are exactly what the average person thinks of when they think of manga; relationship-oriented drama and teen-boy adventure stories. Nothing wrong with that, but I think it muddies the waters of your promotion somewhat…”

In some cases, I think comics shoppers view any manga in the same way dedicated super-hero readers view books from Oni or Fantagraphics or Top Shelf; it’s all undiscovered country, even if the content is very mainstream (romances, mysteries, zombies, what have you). That isn’t a criticism – everyone should read what they like and what gives them the best return on their investment.

It’s surprising to me that Tokyopop didn’t include I Luv Halloween (written by Keith Giffen) or Boys of Summer (written by Chuck Austen), though the latter would probably appeal more to the morbidly curious who’ve missed having Austen to kick around. Of course, the ILH comparisons would probably pain me. I can just see it being categorized with Ted Naifeh’s Courtney Crumrin books, and that would be agony, because Courtney doesn’t deserve that kind of company.

And speaking of Oni books, they’ve always struck me as the company best able to straddle the indy-manga divide, if in fact there is one. Their books cover a lot of the same narrative territory, and while the illustration styles don’t necessarily scream “manga-influenced,” their trim size and packaging frequently do.

While the effort is flawed, it’s good to see Tokyopop reaching out to local comic shops, particularly after they generated ill will with the recent on-line exclusive initiative. I do think publishers like Del Rey or Dark Horse might be better positioned to make a pitch like this. Del Rey’s Love Roma, Eternal Sabbath, Genshiken, and other titles strike me as having strong crossover potential. Dark Horse has always done well with manga in the Direct Market, and some of their recent releases (Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and next week’s Ohikkoshi spring to mind) would rest quite comfortably in the indy comic section.

But, as last month’s LCS sales figures (ably examined by Brigid of MangaBlog) demonstrate, Dark Horse doesn’t really need a comic-shop specific initiative. (Full figures for the month are at Comic Book Resources.) Neither, apparently, do Digital Manga’s Juné books, which is great in one sense, but bad because the line’s momentum makes me wonder even more if we’ll ever see more books like IWGP or Bambi and Her Pink Gun (in other words, books you’d think would have flown off the comic shop shelves).

Filed under: Comic shops, Linkblogging, Oni, Tokyopop 2 Comments

Listing

October 4, 2006 by

Ah, the ComicList… some weeks are famine, others are feast. Guess which kind we have this week?

  • CMX releases the eagerly anticipated Emma, which I had reviewed in proof form a while back. The finished cover is quite lovely with an appealingly antique-y paper stock.
  • Pantheon brings the new Marjane Satrapi book, Chicken with Plums. The book made Entertainment Weekly’s Must List without any mention of it being a graphic novel.
  • Tokyopop offers the fourth volume of the little book that might, Dragon Head.
  • Viz has the fourth volume of Ai Yazawa’s Nana, which gets better with every installment. And it started really well.

Okay, that isn’t quite as burdensome as it seemed at first glance, but there’s still lots of nice stuff. The MangaCast of characters hit the highlights of the week’s manga releases. And folks like Jog and Daves Carter and Ferraro take the week’s shipping list out for a spin.

If you’re still looking for reasons to part with your hard-earned cash, there are lots of well-written reviews floating about the blogosphere:

  • Johanna Draper Carlson covers two of my favorite books (Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators and Girl Genius) in her latest column for Comics Unlimited.
  • Dirk Deppey thoughtfully examines the excellent American Born Chinese and continues his scanlation tour.
  • Lyle keeps watch on Shojo Beat previews with a look at Tail of the Moon.
  • Updated to add: Steven Grant reviews two Del Rey books, Ghost Hunt and Q-Ko-Chan, in the latest installment of Permanent Damage. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first volume of Ghost Hunt, but it sounds like it may be worth another look.
Filed under: CMX, ComicList, Del Rey, Fanfare/Ponent Mon, Linkblogging, Pantheon, Tokyopop, Viz 1 Comment

Monday, Monday

September 18, 2006 by

This week’s Flipped will be delayed slightly. Given the recent debut of the Bleach anime on Cartoon Network, I thought it might be time to actually, you know, read the manga. And since John Jakala has been recommending it to me for ages, I asked him for back-up. So basically you’ve got two people rattling on about a given book as opposed to the usual one. I’ll post a link when it goes up.

Update: Here it is.

It was a lot of fun, and I’d like to do more of these. I’d particularly like to find someone who really disagrees with me about a given series and do a similar back-and-forth.

In other Jakala-related developments, John sent me the first three volumes of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Tokyopop), and I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would. I think I had been expecting something louder and coarser, but it’s really a very easygoing book.

There’s some aggressive quirkiness at work, but it doesn’t overwhelm the general good nature that the book exudes. It isn’t headed in any particularly obvious direction, and it’s taking its time about going anywhere. The characters are almost all interesting and likable, and the dynamics among them are engaging.

I’m not entirely sold on Harold Sakuishi’s artwork. It can seem a little lazy at times, though there are lots of sequences that are rich in detail and clever composition. Some sequences look rushed, though. The look of the book doesn’t entirely cohere for me.

But it’s a pleasant, sometimes surprising read. If anything, it’s a really nice companion piece for Del Rey’s Nodame Cantabile, though with a contemporary soundtrack instead of a classical one.

Filed under: Flipped, Tokyopop, Viz 4 Comments

Graphs and charts

September 12, 2006 by

Dave Carter follows up on a question Lyle asked regarding different public perceptions of Tokyopop and Viz, despite a similar volume of releases. Dave’s approach to the question is intriguing, and the results are equally so.

Filed under: Linkblogging, Tokyopop, Viz Leave a Comment

Drama unfolds…

September 9, 2006 by

Can you stand any more Tokyopop sales talk? Just a little, I promise.

At MangaBlog, Brigid uncovers a Tokyopop title that’s going to be a Diamond exclusive.

At Crocodile Caucus, Lyle wonders why Tokyopop gets labeled as flooding the market while Viz doesn’t, even though both release a similar volume of product. In the comments, Dorian wonders if that isn’t a function of timing.

At Sporadic Sequential, John Jakala wonders if Tokyopop’s initiative might not be a golden opportunity… for someone else.

Part of this week’s comics shop haul was Tokyopop’s Kamen Tantei, a teen sleuth comedy that’s got a nice premise but thoroughly average execution so far. It came with one of the glossy quarter-folds inserted.

On one side of the flyer is a promotion of some of the on-line exclusives (Atomic King Daidogan 1, Neck and Neck 6, and One 10). “And best of all, we will shop the books directly to your home – so no need to leave your computer chair!”

The flip side features titles that aren’t on-line exclusives but a priced at a 20% discount if you order them directly from the publisher. The books are Innocent W 1, Rozen Maiden 1 and 2, Star Trek – The Manga, and Mitsukazu Mihara: R.I.P. Requiem in Phonybrian.

Filed under: Sales, Tokyopop 1 Comment
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