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 Manga Chat: Dark Horse's Mail v1
Written by Barb Lien-Cooper
First we watched the Japanese made-for-TV movie of MAIL. Then Barb wanted me to read Dark Horse's MAIL, volume 1, so I did. Then she wanted to discuss it. But hey, we thought, why waste it-- let's share this informal chat about a horror manga with the world.
For some reason.
Park: Okay, I liked it. I think it needs some species of A
Barb: Well, I did too, with reservations. I was thinking of a B plus for me.
Park: What are those reservations?
Barb: Well, it's the episodic, chapter structure that really isn't the creator's fault...
Park: Listening... or should I counterargument for you? The to-the-camera bit is weak, but we start growing out of it I HOPE... the stories are too short... But better too short than too long, MAYBE
Barb: It's just how manga is, as it first appears in magazines.
Park: Ye-es... but real manga always appears in magazines... but the catch here is he doesn't overlap to next issue
Barb: I think we can agree that the 70s horror show host talking to the camera thing is about the weakest part of it.
Park: um yes.
Park: At least he does it funny, but it would be better if he didn't do it at all. he's the main character. it's why we have a HOST for those 70s horror comics is because if the main character quips to the camera, it ruins the horror. and the fact that he doesn’t do it DURING the case doesn't help enough
Barb: But because manga is chapter/magazine form, the stories are yurei of the week stories in form. There are at least a couple that don't benefit from that.
Park: Ah. Yeah. They love them some urban legends over there. About ghosts.
Barb: Well, he's Rod Serling AND he's an actor in things, which doesn't work for me.
Park: Right, no worky. And while when I was nearly done I was like "well he hardly did it in the last one..." Now I have a bad feeling he'll keep doing it... Perhaps I'm trying a little too hard to be positive because except for the length and the occasional camera awareness this is exactly what you ordered
Barb: See, there were two stories---the apartment ghost and the sister ghost---that needed more room to really be scary... I was just getting freaked out over the apartment ghost when it was suddenly all over. No chance for build up. And while in the film of Mail, I had no problems with the ghost gun, in the manga, it was a tad more gimmicky. I do like the lead character per se, although I liked him better with backstory, as in the film. In the manga, he sort of came off as a friend of Master Keaton's, you know?
Park: Really? I didn't think the gun was so bad here
Park: I bet you mean the way his little speeches are so long each time. That... is sort of a problem. Manga characters are sort of not meant for long speeches. And this guy goes on longer than Belldandy
Barb: Yeah. The speeches, mostly. But I want variations on the gun...and on the mood of the ghost when shot. Is he/she thankful? Outraged?
Park: Except that his mentor, Old Whitey, got to give more exposition in less time here, i did sort of appreciate that. I could say that maybe that will improve next volume, but I'm also aware we're judging this one right now
Barb: Well, I know I'm being picky. It is exactly what I wanted. It reads like a J-horror combined with a Charlton Horror comic of the 1970s. And of course, I like those things a lot.
Park: Oh and as long as we're on here we should officially go on record as saying that it is bad to stick what the sound effects mean in the footnotes.
Park: yes you're being picky, because this is your field. You're a podiatrist in a shoe store.
Barb: But manga is about more than stand alone stories. Manga is about learning what makes the characters tick. And J horror, what makes it so good, is also about learning about the characters. Remember what the Lone Wolf and Cub writer said in the back of Samurai Executioner---it's all about characterization. There's not enough room to care about anyone in these stand alone stories.
Park: Ah. Yes. And if that doesn't change... if we don't start getting 2-parters and 3-parters... then it's a permanent standing flaw
Barb: That's why one of the better stories is when we get a bit of backstory on the lead character. Part of me wants to get 2 and 3 just to see if we get more backstory on the guy...and part of me would be let down if there wasn't.
Park: hhm, I just confirmed... looks like only 3 volumes. what a shame.
Barb: C'mon, even Master Keaton, he of the enigmatic, episodic nature manga/anime, has an evolving backstory.
Park: right-- Master Keaton has 8 dvds. But here, I'm not sure there'll be much time...
Barb: I want the stories to add up to something.
Park: Now I understand why Mr. Maily just gets a made-for-tv movie.
Barb: Something that matters to the lead character. I think that's why the movie version went so far to give us a lot more backstory on the character---because someone like that needs a backstory.
Park: Yes.
Barb: To me, our lead only has an origin story---and that's so American comics---not a potentially evolving backstory--
Park: --Actually, it's funny that most of the flaws we're having are so typically western--
Barb: Yup.
Park: wow, great minds think alike. except for the SFX in the back, what we don't like about this is that it's basically a 70s DC horror comic back-up feature that never got to go anywhere. ...Except it's not thank goodness, but you see what i mean.
Barb: One more complaint before I talk about the good stuff. At times, the art goes from realistic to the traditional Hino Horror type art. While miles better than a lot of manga horror, I was hoping for something, I dunno, more subtle.
Park: if it was, someone would have brought it back, killed this guy, undone his whole continuity, had his son take over, and then restarted the whole thing again in some newer stupider way
Barb: I especially felt that way about the first story, which I admit, read like a TV pilot.
Park: Mm, well... it's an urban legend book. That's what Urban Legend Ghosts look like... kinda RINGU meets UZUMAKI (you buy that?)
Barb: I know, it's a cultural thing, but it's just a personal complaint.
Park: Oh, I think it's valid enough to mention.
Barb: It's a little over-the-top for me, a little old school art. I mean, The Ring and Dark Water mangas went for a newer art style that I think served the stories well.
Park: uh huh
Barb: But mostly, I liked the art.
Park: mostly. he himself was the worst drawn really. Oh and sometimes people's faces had Mobile Oval syndrome.
Barb: Now on to the good stuff: Yeppers, those are some scary stories all right.
Park: yep
Barb: I mean, the apartment ghost and the highway ghost ones creeped me out like no one's business.
Park: the gun lets us end the story FAST.
Barb: Yeah. When the story's done, it's done.
Park: and for certain. each those factors is normally a big headache for a ghost story.
Barb: There's a lot of imagination with these stories.
Park: But with his (and Japan's) penchant for cell phonery, suspense was brought in sometimes by the client about to be eaten by the ghost-- and Maily hasn't quite arrived yet!!! the gun is super-easy, but he DOES have to be in the right place at the right time, so we emphasize the elusive nature of ghosts.
Barb: I'm jealous that there are small presses in Japan that put out J horror type manga, but you can't find the type of ghost story manga I like coming from the global manga community. I mean, I lobbied and lobbied Tokyopop to let me do a J horror book, but they went for The Hidden instead. While I was happy to get anything in there at all, I just felt, "Let me try J horror! I'm good at it. Honestly!"
Park: Yes... Well, maybe someone else will take you up on it.
Park: Hmm, remember Block 6 though? Of course the thing with Block 6 was that you had to tell all your stories in Block 6. while Mr. Maily can feel free to move about the country
Barb: I'm a little sad that Queenie Chan never finished Block 6. That had urban horror written all over it.
Park: it's like a telethon. "Let's not forget, ladies and gentlemen, that while this is very entertaining, that we're doing it all for the cause of increasing American scary ghost story research." Yes, sometimes I forget it's how we started liking Queenie Chan.
Barb: Anyway, yeah, I liked the stories. Yeah, some scared me. Yeah, it's a page turner.
Park: And of course if it went on for 20 volumes, it'd get old having such short stories. The only solution is to start drawing the stories out. But that's moot since there's only 3 volumes. Wah.
Barb: It's very close to what I like. I will be picking it up when you go get Yotsuba & or Whistle or Hunter X Hunter again. I'm just not going to go crazy and order it from Amazon or have to drive to a store and get them the way we did Death Note!
Park: yep okay
Barb: And the B plus is partly because of a certain low re-readability thing on its part. It's like a roller coaster. Great while you're on it, but once it's done, it's done.
Park: that's a good point... it's like Game Informer's replayability factor. I still can reread Yotsuba, and have done so with Naruto and GTO. and Hunter X Hunter, actually.
Barb: See, if there was more of a backstory, which, heck, there might be for all I know, the re-readibility factor would be higher. I could almost re-read Hunter X Hunter before finishing all the volumes I haven't read yet, it's that good.
Park: Yes... like where did Old Whitey come from and how did we come to bless the Holy Luger... although it does occur to me that Lupin uses a luger... or is that Jigen... I think it's Lupin... it's probably the most famous gun that gun duffers know about...
Barb: More along the line of How's the lead character feel about the job? Does he like or resent having to do it? Do people think he's a nut case? ...I do have to admit that if I had to be a ghost hunter, my ghost gun of choice would be a blessed luger.
Park: Right... you don't get that this time because he's so cute and smirky to the camera... like "it's all a story," which horror should totally not be...
Barb: Exactly. Unless you're trying to be old school, which isn't really what I like. It brings a sort of old feeling into some really up to date stories.
Park: of course I could also say that the ease of the ghost gun paints the creator into a corner... if you can just SHOOT THEM when they show up, i think it makes it harder for him to even potentially draw stories out
Barb: Like I said, variations on the gun's effectiveness might work.
Park: That's true. And, like Two-Face in Batman Adventures making more sense than in the comic, the movie came up with a good innovation as far as that goes now and then
Barb: Personally, the series reminds me a bit of when I used to read Ogre Slayer. The set ups were always fairly similar and the Ogre Slayer always dispatched 'em in an instant, yet whenever I'd see one in Dark Horse's Manga magazine, I'd always read and enjoy the work.
Park: yes... except Ogre Slayer felt like it had an ongoing plot. which may have been mostly illusion, but it felt like it. But it didn't really---at least not one that mattered.
Barb: I like the movie. Cheap special effects, I grant you. Looks like a low budget BBC telefantasy show from the 1970s, but it was good, especially the acting and the backstory.
Park: I thought it was excellent for tv. Except maybe for the digital right-up-in-the-actor's-face cameras.
Barb: Oh, an the cheesy, I can totally tell this part was filmed on an empty sound stage times. There were five or six of those.
Park: um, you mean the Doorway To Hell flashbacks with Old Whitey?
Barb: Yep.
Park: Yeah, but somehow I went with it
Barb: Yeah, me too. That's the thing about Mail, the movie. It's sincere.
Park: yes, more than the manga
Barb: If you give it a chance, the stories and acting make up for a lot of things that were low budget. But the viewer has to be sincere, too.
Park: yes and the acting helped. Both the guy and his assistant. AND the two child actors.
Barb: If you get a viewer that just cynically watrches movies to laugh at and MST 3K them, they'd get nothing out of the movie.
Park: yes. hope i wasn't like that.
Barb: oh, you were totally into it, which I liked.
Barb: Oh, anyway, final thought on Mail the manga---- Mail 1 had about one too many kid ghosts in it.
Park: uh, mm, well... but kids make such good... y'know.
Barb: The first story could have done just as well with an adult set of bones, you know?
Park: true... well... but that would be less pervy. they were working the pervy i'm afraid.
Barb: When you do a ghost story with a kid, you have to feel both sympathetic and scared at the same time. That's why the highway story worked best for me. I could have just about cried for what happened to the kid, but a ghost is a ghost and when a yurei starts killing people, my sympathy is about at an end.
Park: yeah... they wanted, in the twin story, to play "she was too young to understand" but what it came across as was EVIL! REALLY evil!
Barb: I disagree that it would have been less pervy, but since I don't want to spoil the story with too many spoilers, I'll stop talking about that.
Park: understood
Barb: The sister story worked because, for once, my rule about having sympathy for a child ghost too totally goes out the window. That was one bad girl! Rules can be broken if done well. I'm just saying in most J horror, kid ghosts are as sad as they are scary---until they rip your heart out of your chest, that is.
Park: Uh huh.
Barb: Well, that's all I've got to say. Oh, don’t forget to mention that with horror, you prefer subtitled sound effects...?
Park: Yes, I feel that's the best way. Please don’t stick what the sound effects mean in the back of the book. If you slap someone’s face, you don’t even NEED an explanation of that sound. But if someone hears something coming from back behind him, maybe it’s a hissing cat, or maybe it’s a moaning ghost! Either could be startling the character, and I don’t want to flip to the back to check—that ruins the suspense! And I don’t want people to tell me “well just turn the page and look at the next panel—” If that was the point, then why have a sound effect there in the first place? Maybe I need another example, um... maybe a villain with awesome power is snickering at the hero behind his hand over his mouth, or maybe he’s trying not to throw up because he’s so sickened by the stench of humanity he smells... who knows? And so, that is why I say that subtitling the sound effects is best. [Bows to audience] Thank you.
Barb: Well I had to consult the back of the book, and I’m still not sure if something referred to a baby crying or an approaching ambulance.
Park: That sounds more like an adaptation/editing thing.
Barb: No, I’m just saying that it was all so small, I’m not sure I glanced at the spot for the right panel.
Park: And so, the moral of the story is: don’t do that with sound effects. Ever. [Both bow to audience] Thank you.
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