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 What I’m Keepin’ Track Of: Yen Press, June 10th, 2009
Written by Park Cooper
“Man, I hate this. I wanna go teach _nowwww_,” I said.
“I know, you’re always like that at the start of a new semester, including summer semesters. Why don’t you do your manga pile there? Write a new ‘What I’m Keeping Track Of.’”
I liked the name and the idea so much, I went with both. And so, as the theme to Lupin plays in the background, here we go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZJYxy2060c
First up, some stuff from Yen Press.
Cirque Du Freak v1: Better than I thought it would be, but I didn’t think I’d like it at all. Basically, take the two boys from SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and make them both love spiders, then, when the vampire circus comes to town, have one boy, the one we’re following around narratively, give in to the dark side and become a quasi-vampire, with his friend vowing to become the world’s best vampire hunter and someday lay his friend to his eternal rest. I would have adapted it differently, though—it feels too much like what some people think manga has to sound like, with lines like “There is a monster inside of me ... a monster that will not obey my commands.” Dude. It’s a kid. Kids use contractions. Y’know, like I’m doing. There’s no need to be so formal. In fact, it takes away from the verisimilitude. Barb says: “You’re not the target audience—it’s for kids, which we know because it’s based on the popular horror series, and if you like the series, it’s probably for you, dear readers!” Yes, wifey, but my point is, there’s a sample of the series in the back, and the writer has the first-person narration using contractions and talking like a real boy. “Well are the boys CUTE?” I don’t know, you tell me, wifey. “Cute enough... I’m more impressed that the name of the main character is also the name of the author, just like Ellery Queen. But that does point out, even more, the discrepancy in narrative style...”
The History of the West Wing: I liked it better than MangaLife reviewer Joy Kim did, but I understood the problems she had with it, too. http://www.mangalife.com/reviews/TheHistoryoftheWestWing.htm She gave it a C+. What you have to understand is that, to put it in a nutshell, is that the art is an A++ and that it’s the plotting that drags it down to a C+... but come on, for a story that’s more than just a few hundred years old, it’s held up pretty well. Although... yeah, again, I would have adapted it more liberally (not a shot at the English-language adapter, but against the actual choices made by the original writer of this manhwa)... Barb: “Yeah, but the art is soooo beautiful... you could just choose to not read it at all, but just flip through it like a small coffee-table book... ooohhh, color art so pretty...” Yes, I’m sure that that’s what many will in fact do, wifey.
Jack Frost v1: Now THIS is how to do a rather average manga. Jack Frost is a rather poor manga that totally rips off the look of HELLSING, down to the semi-religious phrases etched into the pistols. But... but it’s ADAPTED so well. I’d like to tell myself I could do an even more entertaining job, but this sure is, generally speaking, exactly how I would have approached this manga adaptation job. Good on you, Arthur Dela Cruz. I take off my hat to you. Please feel free to come hang out with me the next time I’m at a bar with Jake Forbes or Jo Duffy (like that’s ever happened—would that it could), because you made me snicker a number of times while I read this. Oh, right, so anyway, guess what the afterlife/limbo is like? Yeah, just as you feared: it’s a huge high school. Jack Frost and his Extremely Reminiscent of Lady Integra headmistress are in charge of the North Wing of this school of the damned, and the arrival of our girl protagonist, a girl who is the chosen one whose blood can heal wounds, allows us more than ever to resume killin’ other dead folks who need even more killin’. The fights are the sorts of slugfests of over-the-topness that I grew tired of in Bleach, and the fan service is plentiful, but the adaptation kept me entertained. Ho ho! Again, just to be clear: as an adapter myself, when I read manga, I often notice that a skillful adapter can make the difference between a manga that is enjoyable and one which is not. So, again, kudos.
Welcome to Wakaba-soh v1
Kentarou is a boy who loves a girl, Karen. The series is all about how fate goes way, way, way, way, way, way out of its way to foil his attempts to profess his love to her. In the meantime, Arai, a different childhood friend, kind of loves Kentarou. Kentarou has no idea that Arai was his toddler-era childhood sweetheart... although he, too, is super-attracted to her when she takes her glasses off. Otherwise, all he can see is the typical manga girl-with-glasses stereotype, sort of like a gender-reversed Lois and Clark situation. There’s some fan service, and the series as a whole is a little over the top, but this is actually kind of funny. There are two or three times when we become insanely self-aware that we’re a manga, like when we go out of our way to make a joke about how closely certain parts of the setup seem like Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku... This one isn’t, perhaps, a good choice for anyone’s FIRST manga experience ever, but I sort of liked it... like I said, there is some fan-service, but for someone who’s had to put up with the likes of Kurohime or Najica Blitz Tactics, it seemed almost sweet and innocent, I’m afraid...
Ichiroh! v1
Hey, kids! Remember Azumanga Daioh? Yeah, well, so does Japan. Fortunately, it’s led to the creation of other vertical-strip-type manga, and Ichiroh! isn’t a bad one. Basically, it’s the story of three girls who are friends, the key one being Nanako. Nanako and Akane just failed their exam to all get into the next school of their choice, so they have to spend a year at cram school to do better next time. That’s where the problems start: Everyone who knows Nanako, though not through any sort of supernatural means, just happens to love her so much they don’t know what to do. This malady is most full-blown in the third friend, the wealthy Shino, and also in Nanako’s own brother, both of whom’ll do practically anything to be able to keep hanging around even though Nanako’s moved out. Next problem: Nanako’s accidentally roomed herself and Akane in a shrine instead of a dorm, so they’re the newest shrine maidens who have to help sweep up the temple as part of their room and board. Throw in new friends, and Akane’s video game addiction, and hilarity actually does ensue a bit, along with a strong element, for those of us who’re already grown up, of “yeah, that’s what being thrown headlong into college on a budget and a curriculum designed to hurt one’s wittle brain was like, all right...” Ichiroh! isn’t EXCEL SAGA OMG funny, but it’s gently funny, along with being a well-needed lesson to today’s youth that sometimes you gotta save your game, put down the controller, and work on your future... for a while, anyway...
Next time: More Yen, and some Viz, too.
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