The Manga Curmudgeon

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

Delayed reaction

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I read Hideji Oda’s A Patch of Dreams (Fanfare/Ponent Mon) over the weekend, and I was clearly pretty intrigued by it, because I later had a nightmare that seemed to be based loosely on the story. It’s not that the manga is especially terrifying (though there are moments), but it clearly planted enough food for subconscious thought that I could find my dream self being stalked in a Paris suburb and, immediately upon waking, come to the conclusion that the dream was all Oda’s fault.

It’s possible that I’m placing too much causality on A Patch of Dreams and that it could more likely be pinned on the egg rolls I had for dinner. Either way, it’s an intriguing book, one I’m not quite ready to review formally, but it certainly conveys dream logic effectively. It’s one of those books that puts you in a sort of mental loop – maybe your response to the initial reading isn’t overwhelming, but as you consider aspects of the story, more and more thematic possibilities emerge.

In conclusion…

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I seem to be going through a cycle where the end is nowhere in sight for most of the manga series I’m reading. There’s the occasional done-in-one story, but generally, conclusions are in fairly short supply.

That isn’t a problem, as most of these stories have plenty of potential plot and character developments still in play. But a little closure never hurts anyone, and a lot of the completed series I’ve read have ended quite beautifully (Paradise Kiss, Antique Bakery, Imadoki!, Chikyu Misaki).

So I was sort of pleased to hear that Anne Freaks (ADV) would be ending with its fourth volume. Much as I’ve enjoyed the series, it hasn’t given off the impression that this particular length would be shorter than necessary. It’s always seemed fairly tight in its narrative aims.

Having read the concluding volume, I think that all still applies. The story is complete in all the ways that matter and are possible, but there’s an element to the conclusion that really threw me.

(Spoilers below the cut.)

It’s the revelation about the priest. It isn’t that the twist is improbable or unfair, but it does strike me as unnecessary in the story’s larger context. It’s too tidy a summation of the books themes – that violence is ultimately pointless, adults will use children for their own ends, and, despite the occasional, accidental nobility of her motives, Anna will always find someone that she needs to kill simply because it’s her nature to do so.

It’s a theme hammer, and it’s unfortunate, because Yua Kotegawa has already conveyed these ideas much more organically.

There’s a lot to admire in the concluding volume. The switch from a propulsive, conventional narrative in the third to a more fragmented, asynchronous approach in the fourth is terrifically effective. Interspersing bits of the final confrontation with the Kakusei Group with subsequent fallout from the events is handled with real skill. And it’s not like anyone could have reasonably expected a happy ending to the story, so the places Kotegawa left the characters seem apt.

But that twist with the priest undermines the ultimate integrity of the storytelling. It reframes the story’s events in a way that doesn’t support the themes that they’ve evoked, because it overstates them. It’s a distressingly superfluous and simplistic element in a story that had consistently managed to avoid them.

Filed Under: ADV

And "L" is for…

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Just because I haven’t mentioned it lately, and in case there was any doubt, I still love Love Roma (Del Rey).

You would think that, after four volumes, the series would start to suffer from diminishing returns. I mean, every story boils down to essentially the same bones: Hoshino and Negishi successfully strive to understand each other a little better. “Conflict” seems like too strong a word to describe the stumbling blocks they encounter, because Minoru Toyoda has established such an endearing rapport between them that it’s impossible to imagine anything seriously threatening it.

But I’m still crazy about the series. Romantic manga are so often about the build-up to a relationship that it’s very refreshing to see an existing relationship progress. The protagonists are perfectly mismatched, which is hardly a new invention, but watching them adjust to their differences while respecting the other’s point of view is… well… it’s sweet. There. I said it.

It’s also incredibly charming, and I think charm is one of the harder qualities to pull off. It’s easy to go too far, and when I get the sense that a creator is intentionally trying to trigger warm fuzzies, I recoil. Maybe it’s the apparent effortlessness of Love Roma – the low-fi art, the small doses of narrative, the fluid cast of oddballs – that helps the charm carry over without conveying any sense of manipulation. It’s sweetness delivered bluntly, not over-packaged or sentimentalized.

"K" is for…

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Sometimes a review just grabs me:

“Meet Kino, a free-thinking, pint-size world traveler who cruises the globe on a talking motorcycle, fighting injustice wherever she finds it. She’s a cultural relativist, kinda, but she definitely knows the difference between right and wrong. She’s like Tank Girl meets Kant, only more butch than both. She’s my new personal hero.”

It’s of Kino no Tabi by Keiichi Sigsawa, one of the light novels being published by Tokyopop, and it sounds really intriguing. The question is, am I ready to throw even more money at manga publishers for prose? I’m not inclined to pick up novelizations of manga series, but stuff like this certainly catches my eye. Has anyone read it?

And oh, happy day! A listing for King of Thorn by Iwahara Yuji has shown up on Tokyopop’s web site. Sure, it doesn’t come out until June, but if it’s half as good as Chikyu Misaki (CMX), then I’ll avoid the rush and commence anticipatory hovering now.

Con jobs

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A dust-up seems to be brewing over the inaugural American Anime Awards, to be debuted this year at the New York Comic Con. At MangaCast, Ed Chavez takes a moment from his travels in Japan to look over the ballot, particularly the manga nominees, and he finds it wanting. Anime News Network interrogates ICv2’s Milton Griepp over the conception of the awards program and what could be construed as ADV’s undue influence.

The awards have struck me as a rather odd fit for this particular con since they were announced. Anime isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the NYCC, and the impression was reinforced by the closing remarks from this week’s PWCW interview with con organizer Greg Toplian:

“What I’m told is that we’re the literary show. This is New York City, and it’s about comics and book publishing. Editorial staff or the licensing departments can all stop by the convention for the price of cab fare. The Friday trade day also helps. We’re a more bookish show than others and getting Stephen King to attend as a guest of honor is the perfect illustration of that.”

(Dedicated conspiracy theorists will undoubtedly note that the interview is illustrated with a photo of Toplian and ADV’s Chris Oarr. The snark-centric will undoubtedly note the dangerous proximity of “literary” and “Stephen King.”)

Aside from the overcrowding issue, the general impression that emerged from last year’s NYCC was one of wider publisher interest in the category – book publishers scouring the con floor for talent and contemplating ways to slice off their own piece of the graphic novel pie. And while anime is certainly a driver in graphic novel sales, it doesn’t seem like an intuitive fit. Back at the ANN interview, Griepp provides some background:

“New York Comic Con was actively searching for an awards program from one of its categories to be associated with the convention, so a venue and supporting event became available. The association with New York Comic Con allowed the awards program to take advantage of the location in the media capital of the world, with a very large press corps already attending.”

The PWCW interview had plenty on its plate without delving into the new awards program, and Calvin Reid did address another issue that’s been simmering:

“We’ve heard some complaints about a lack of women creators being invited officially to be a part of the show. When I checked the guest list at the Web site, there was one woman out of about 31 invited guest artists. While I understand there are more women involved in some of the as-yet-unannounced programming, this still seems like an unfortunate message to send out. Particularly since the mainstream New York comics industry has a long history of excluding women.”

One out of 31? That’s an even worse percentage than San Diego.

Parcels

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I’ve been doing a lot of Amazon ordering, what with gift certificates and the like, and since I’m always trying to save more money for manga, I try and configure things so that I get the free shipping. Usually that means stuff takes a while as they bundle things to minimize the number of shipments, but this practice has apparently been abandoned during the post-holiday season. I swear I can’t open my in-box without finding a notification that another single volume of something is on its way while they wait to fill the rest of my order. It’s beyond me why, and I’m not thrilled with the quantity of cardboard they’re squandering, but the pacing is strangely pleasing.

As for comics delivered by other means, Thursday’s ComicList seems kind of skimpy at first glance. (That’s fine, honestly, as I’ve been bringing entirely too many comics into the house over the last couple of weeks.)

If I wasn’t behind the curve, I would probably pick up the fourth volume of Keiko Yamada’s VS. (CMX). I flipped through a galley proof and liked it, and Mely has given it the thumbs-up, but I’ve told myself that I need to delve into Oyayubihime Infinity first.

For whatever reason, Nicolas De Crécy’s Glacial Period (NBM) showed up at the local comic shop last week, though it’s listed this week as well. I found it intriguing and delightful.

On the Viz front, there are new volumes of Death Note (Shonen Jump Advanced) and Yakitate Japan! (roaming unbranded and free across the manga prairie). The first volume of Vampire Knight (Shojo Beat) also arrives. When I was in kindergarten, the elementary school offered morning and afternoon sessions. It never even occurred to me that the afternoon group might be filled with vampires. I was so naïve.

And while it isn’t coming out this week, I was happy to see a positive review of Aya (Drawn & Quarterly) in this week’s PWCW, because I’m really looking forward to reading it. All right, D&Q, I surrender. You’ve beaten me down with books like Get a Life and Moomin and Curses. I love you. Are you happy now?

Good reads

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At MangaBlog, Brigid interviews Kurt Hassler, former most powerful person in manga and current co-exec of Hachette’s upcoming Yen Press line of graphic novels. I like the guiding principle that Yen Press seems to have adopted:

“When we’re dealing with original stuff, maybe we’re developing more of a flavor of our own, but we have a variety of people who are working on the imprint. We want to give everyone a voice. We’re not ruling anything out. The rule is if it’s a good book, we are going to publish it.”

At Comics212.net, Chris Butcher notes that 2006 offered a merry little Christmas for graphic novel retailers:

“Anyway, from my vantage point this was the year that comics may have actually entered the mainstream, at least as far as gift-giving is concerned. It’s been gratifying for me because I’ve really wanted it, but it made for a particularly positive ending to a year during which I invested a lot of myself into the medium.”

And at The Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon asks readers to look forward to what they want from 2007.

Still more best

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Time Magazine‘s Andrew Arnold has listed his choices for the ten best comics of 2006:

1. La Perdida by Jessica Abel (Pantheon)
2. The Push Man and Other Stories and Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
3. An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons & True Stories, edited by Ivan Brunetti (Yale University Press)
4. Popeye by E.C. Segar (Fantagraphics)
5. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (Houghton Mifflin)
6. Cancer Vixen by Marissa Acocella Marchetto (Knopf)
7. Curses by Kevin Huizenga (Drawn & Quarterly)
8. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)
9. Kings in Disguise by James Vance and Dan Burr (W. W. Norton)
10. Absolute Sandman by Neil Gaiman and various (DC/Vertigo)

Posters at The Comics Journal Message Board are offering their choices as well.

And at recent blogroll addition TZG2.0, Myk has listed his choices for Best Manga/Manhwa of 2006 and Best Comics 2006.