The Manga Curmudgeon

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

Monstrous women

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Naoki Urasawa’s Monster (Viz Signature) improves with each volume, and the fourteenth book in the series is marvelously tense. Urasawa plays around with his timeline, jumping back and forth, and the chronology is a bit hard to construct at times, but that barely matters in the face of the sheer quantity of revelations and twists that emerge.

In my opinion, the series is never as good as it is when it focuses its attention on Urasawa’s female leads. Nina Fortner, good-hearted twin of the titular beast, and Eva Heinemann, bitter ex of the manga’s saintly protagonist, Tenma, bask in the limelight in this volume. This makes me a very happy reader, and they’ve both achieved almost Shakespearean heights by this point.

Nina is an updated, self-actuated Cordelia with a sprinkling of Ophelia in the mix. Kind and honest, often to her disadvantage, it’s impossible not to fear for her even as you appreciate her resourcefulness (which neither Cordelia nor Ophelia ever possessed). Her hunt for the ruthless Johan parallels Tenma’s, but while Tenma is utterly resolute, it’s difficult to predict precisely what Nina will do if she finds the fiend. To me, that’s a lot more interesting, and I hope she wins the scavenger hunt.

I’ve loved the wildly soap operatic Eva from the beginning – her contempt, her bitterness, her utter self-absorption, mixed with just enough trashy abandon to keep her from being entirely unsympathetic. Miserable as she is, she can still laugh (drunkenly, acidly, ruefully) at her circumstances. In recent volumes, she’s risen from Regan-and-Goneril level (admirably conniving but ultimately monotonous) to that of Lady Macbeth. Formidable as Eva’s rage is, void of compassion as her value system may be, there’s a tiny core of decency and compassion, and oh, how she hates that. It’s increasingly clear that her fury at Tenma stems not from what he cost her in terms of status and security but what he’s done to her steely, amoral certainty. She’s a tragedienne of the highest order.

Slack and slash

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Lars Brown’s North World (Oni Press), a collection of Brown’s webcomic, is a sometimes frustrating collection of strengths and weaknesses. Brown displays some good instincts in the development of concepts and characters, but his grasp on pacing and structure needs work.

He’s constructed some concurrent narrative elements that are mutually supportive in smart ways. Young adventurer Conrad wants to move to the next level of his profession; he’s stuck at the “giant beasts” plateau and wants to face the kind of menaces that “get the bards to come to [him] for a story.” Just such a challenge comes his way, but it forces him to return to his hometown after an absence of several years, just in time for his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. He’s also estranged from his family to some degree, particularly his disapproving father.

So Conrad is juggling career issues, possibly unwanted romantic closure, and unfinished emotional business that ties into his autonomy as an adult. The book has promising architecture, thematically linked but tonally varied. Unfortunately, I don’t think Brown is enough of a juggler to keep things in balance. There’s a lack of focus. It’s a book where everything almost works, but the storytelling is nowhere near as tight as it needs to be to succeed.

Conrad is a promising protagonist, and he’s at a believable impasse between adolescent self-indulgence and fully realized adulthood. Conrad isn’t so immature that he can’t listen to people who care about him, like his father, but he’s not so confident that he can figure out when his ex is jerking him around. (She’s always jerking him around in punishing, passive-aggressive ways, flirtatiously flaunting her current happiness when she isn’t trying to reel him back in.) It’s unclear as to whether a life as a bard-magnet adventurer would be Conrad’s best happy ending, and that’s all to the good. (He’d definitely be better off if he bought his ex a nice place setting and skipped the wedding.)

But Brown can’t quite seem to shape scenes in ways that give the story momentum. Sequences always feel like they’ve run too long, to the point that the concurrent narrative elements lose energy. A subplot that could have been illuminating and even mildly amusing – Conrad runs afoul with some present-day punks who are just as obnoxious as he used to be – goes on for what seems like forever. The subplot provides some fight sequences, but those aren’t really Brown’s forte as an illustrator, so they don’t really serve to change the pace of the proceedings.

It’s a book that’s badly in need of some rigorous editing. I don’t mind a story unfolding casually when that approach serves it, but there’s too much going on in North World to allow this much lingering. It’s somewhat against my nature for me to call for fewer slices of life and more plot, but this story needs to move farther and faster than it does.

(This review is based on a complimentary copy provided by the publisher.)

(Updated to note that I can type the same wrong thing over and over, even though some part of my brain knows better. I don’t know where “Caleb” came from.)

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.

Upcoming 3/19/2008

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Before I get into this week’s releases, let me just note that there could not be a worse time for Anime News Network to experience server problems than on the day when there’s news to be read about a new series called “Detective Puppy,” as was noted at MangaBlog. Since this is manga, chances are only about 50-50 that the comic will actually feature an adorable canine solving crimes, but I must know more. (As an example of this kind of misleading cuteness bait-and-switch, Penguin Revolution = cute + funny – actual penguins.)

Okay, I’ll shift my focus to the nearer future, as in Wednesday.

My pick of the generally strong week is the second volume of Keiko Tobe’s With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child (Yen Press). In addition to having the really admirable intentions, the first volume combined documentary and dramatic elements quite well.

It’s a strong week for Del Rey, or perhaps more accurately for me as a reader of Del Rey titles. There are new volumes of Fuyumi Soryo’s sci-fi psychodrama, ES: Eternal Sabbath, Ai Morinaga’s screwball sports-manga parody, My Heavenly Hockey Club, and Tomoko Ninomiya’s funny and charming look at music students, Nodame Cantabile.

Fans of Andi Watson’s Glister (Image) should definitely give Princess at Midnight (also Image) a look. It was originally published in the first Mammoth Book of Best New Manga, and Image is releasing it as a stand-alone with some additional material.

Oni offers the second trade paperback collection of Maintenance, a funny look at custodians at a mad-scientist think tank, written by Jim Massey and drawn by Robbi Rodriguez.

Tokyopop ensures high placement on the month’s sales chart with the release of the 19th volume of Natsuki Takaya’s extremely moving, often emotionally raw fantasy-romance, Fruits Basket. The story itself is still going strong, even if Takaya has been forced to resort to members of the student council for her cover subjects.

Fruits Basket might get edged out of the top sales spot by the 16th volume of Hiromu Arakawwa’s Fullmetal Alchemist. I’ve almost gotten used to bestsellers also being really entertaining comics. At least in this context.

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.

Secret secrets

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There are plenty of reasons to be happy that Tokyopop has rescued Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret from the licensing limbo to which it was consigned after ADV published a single volume in 2004. Among them is a glorious new opportunity to nitpick. I can’t read Japanese, so I can’t comment on the quality of a translation, but now I can look at two English versions of the same script side by side and be a great big nerd about it.

On the whole, I marginally prefer Tokyopop’s version, translated by Yuya Otake and adapted by Jay Antani, edited by Paul Morrissey with assistance from Jessica Chavez and Shannon Watters. (ADV’s was translated by Kay Bertrand with supervision by Javier Lopez. I can’t really pick out any specific credits for editing and adaptation.) Both are solid, but Tokyopop’s script seems slightly more conversational; it flows just a little bit better.

Tokyopop’s reproduction of the art is cleaner on the whole, and I think the lighter paper helps as well. Tokyopop’s lettering is a bit easier on the eyes, though ADV’s use of varied type weights does a better job of communicating the emotional content of scenes. On the flip side, I prefer the simplicity of ADV’s cover and logo design. ADV also gets points for providing translation notes.

There are a couple of pages in particular where it’s really fascinating to look at them side by side and compare choices, tone, and other elements. ADV fairly consistently translates sound effects and keeps the kanji in place with a few exceptions. One example in particular helps to communicate a sight gag, and it looks like it would have been impossible to leave both kanji and English in place and still be able to read it. Tokyopop’s approach is inconsistent. Sometimes, they leave kanji untranslated, and thy replace it entirely with English at others. I appreciate the added nuance of ADV’s amendments, but I like the less cluttered visuals of the Tokyopop pages.

The sequence contains a fairly major plot development that communicates a lot about the characters, and it’s such a funny reversal that I’m reluctant to spoil it. But at some point, after my scanning skills improve, I’ll definitely try and post scans of both sets of pages, because I’m a big nerd and think it’s really interesting.

(As an aside, it would be great if publishers supplemental translation materials on cultural references and alternate readings on the web. If they don’t feel like popping for the extra pages in a print version, and many don’t, it would be a nice extra feature and would drive more traffic to their web sites.)

(As another aside, hey, who’s publishing Morinaga’s The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry Chan?)

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.

Powerless

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If you’ve read either of the first two volumes of Adam Warren’s Empowered (Dark Horse), you know that the series was born from commission work that Warren did for fans with what one might delicately refer to as “specialized interests.” Early in the third volume is a story more directly inspired by those pieces. It struck me as a misstep in an otherwise really effective series.

(Spoilers after the jump.)

In the introduction to the story, the title character warily notes the difference in style. Instead of the loose, friendly pencils used in the rest of the book, it’s “inked with markers, for that chiaroscuro-riffic kinda look.” Empowered is kidnapped by thugs, used as a bet in a poker game, is discarded, and later breaks down while having car sex with her boyfriend, sobbing and begging for affirmation.

It’s creepy as hell, visually and tonally antithetical to just about everything else in the book. Or maybe “antithetical” is the wrong word. It’s the rest of the book stripped of satirical wit and generosity of spirit, and I can take a stab at what the point might be. “This is what you’re laughing at when you get right down to it… humiliation and suffering.”

Warren doesn’t waste pages, so the story works on those terms. But wow, it sure leaves an aftertaste. It’s like brushing your teeth, then drinking orange juice. I can’t really say I enjoyed the return to business as usual – fumbling heroics, loyal friend, loving boyfriend – after that early screed.

Upcoming 3/12/2008

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First, I must reveal how pitifully easy it is to manipulate me. Echo has a new home! Echo has a new home! Well played, Pedigree. You make Grant Morrison look like Mark Millar.

Okay, now we will move on to this week’s comics, before I become dehydrated from the tears a dog-food company has wrung out of me.

Fortunately, my pick of the week is a wonderful piece of satire that will surely cleanse the palate. It’s the third volume of Adam Warren’s racy, funny Empowered (Dark Horse). For those of you just tuning in, a young super-heroine gets by with a little help from her friends, in spite of a singularly unreliable costume and the sexist contempt of just about everyone else in her line of work. Here’s my review of the first volume.

Kaoru Mori’s Emma (CMX) concludes with the seventh volume. After the absorbingly languid pace of the previous six books, this one felt almost hyperactive by comparison. It’s still lovely and extremely moving, though.

I really loved the classic feel of the first volume of Yuu Asami’s A.I. Revolution (Go! Comi), so I’m really looking forward to reading the second. A young girl helps prototype robots learn about human behavior in smart, sensitively conceived stories.

Maintenance (Oni) is one of the few series I still buy in pamphlet form, and the ninth issue arrives today. Custodians at a mad-scientist think tank encounter a wide range of mangled genre ambassadors, making for observant, odd workplace comedy. The first trade paperback is available, and the second is on its way. Here’s my review of the first issue.

Suppli (Tokyopop) is a great change of pace, following a twenty-something advertising exec as she tries to cobble together a new personal life after the end of a lengthy relationship. The art is lovely, and the observations are sharp and specific, and I’m looking forward to the second digest. Here’s my review of the first.

I already have the first volume of Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret, from way back in the days when ADV published it. Now Tokyopop has rescued the series from licensing limbo, and I might just love Morinaga enough to buy it all over again just to add one more to the sales column (and to spare myself a hunt through my shelving “system”). Kate Dacey summarizes all the reasons you should give it a try over at Manga Recon.