Venus Capriccio v1``xYsabet``xTakami is tall, attractive and funny. But when one more guy she was interested in dumps her, she's at her wit's end to figure out what she's doing wrong. Maybe it's because she's interested in the wrong kind of guys--boys who want their girlfriends to act more "girly" than Takami. So she turns to her musical prodigy friend Akira for support. They've known each other since they started taking piano lessons as kids. Will their long time connection develop into something more than friendship?


Venus Capriccio is Mai Nishikata's first published manga volume, and its plot, as outlined in the back cover copy, is fairly standard shoujo fare. But there's a lot to like in here: Takami is a tomboy heroine, but not inflexibly so, and while Akira doesn't push back aggressively when people tease him for his pretty looks, he's also not passive or unable to speak up. Both of them act against the usual gender roles, but in a fairly relaxed "what you see is what you get and it's your loss if you don't like it" way, rather than stressing about it. It's also nice to see that they're both very comfortable with Akira being a piano prodigy and Takami being perfectly average, without either of them thinking less of her for it.

There are some challenges for them to face, of course, but they're believable instead of blown all out of proportion. Other people are interested in Akira, and Takami herself isn't really sure how she feels about him--after all, he's two years younger than her, and she thinks of him more as a little sister than a brother. (Akira has remarkable equanimity about this, given that he's not at all subtle about letting her know how he feels about her.)

Visually, Nishikata's style noticeably improves over the course of this first volume (although the art isn't bad to begin with), which makes me think that later volumes will be even more attractive. Overall, this debut volume didn't blow me away, but it has promise.

Volume 1 of Venus Capriccio includes brief character profiles and two pages of role-reversal bonus manga.

Review copy provided by CMX.``xEkuVkZuulZUXOaLHch``x1245274487``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1401220614``xMai Nishikata``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xSheldon Drzka``xSheldon Drzka``xDC/CMX``xTeen``xB-``x9.99``x150``x225``xVenus_Capriccio_1_cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Detroit Metal City v1``xrasmussen``xThere’s all kinds of content in the world. There are titles that surpass time, space, and known existence to become the greatest reads you’ll ever come across, titles that are quirky and fun and beautiful and so recommendable all at the same time (Azumanga Daioh). There are reads that are for the fandom, reads for the die-hard purists of a genre or series, and reads that appeal to one group or another.

Then there’s whatever the hell Detroit Metal City is.

I really don't want to compare this with Metalocalypse... I hope I never see them both on the same channel...

How the hell did this title get published?! It’s your standard double-life gone wrong... Soichi Negishi is a sweet (if you call potential psychotic freakmonger sweet) well-mannered (hidden psychological break twisted personality disorder) boy who loves Swedish pop music, trendy boutiques, and apparently has his hormones set to overdose because he somehow ends up the front man of a death metal band called “Death Metal City…" and it has all the charm of Metalocalypse… not. With people who should die, in a world that is
disturbing even when it’s supposed to be sweet (there’s SO nothing redeemable about the world) with a guy whose problems couldn’t be less interesting even if he tried to make them so uninteresting. I really couldn’t care less how freaked he is or why he seems to want to whine about being this Krauser II personality (when in fact he seems twisted to the point that Krauser II seems to be the logical conclusion to his existence since he is already repressively deranged on his own, which just leaps out page after page despite the fact he’s supposed to be a nice guy… could have at least stood to be a NORMAL guy at least, which he doesn’t do very well).

Violence, cussing, swearing, gay rape, insults to your intelligence by trying to make you actually care about a guy and the people around him which are not the slightest bit engaging at all… which you so won’t. Yeah, Metalocalypse is freaked but at least the characters are engaging and riveting (like a plane crash or train wreck or a Sarah Palin speaking engagement, where it’s too gory and gruesome to watch yet you do all the same). This title… might be gruesome, but just not in that context. It’s gruesome in a I’m going to fall asleep if I
ponder this one more minute than I have to kind of way. Bleah. Now of course if the characters really had that intense edge AND they really grabbed your attention like the characters of, say, Metalocalypse, then this would be a highly-recommended alternative read that really bends the boundaries and makes you totally want to read no matter what is going on in the pages… sadly, the cast is nowhere near being so engaging, and in fact go out of their way to drive you away. Really, this couldn’t be harder to read if the title tried to be hard to read (much less to absorb long enough to review).

Don’t care if it looks indy-alternative, don’t care if the cover looks interesting, if you want something hardcore from a talent who really knows how to bend the art form in strange twisted new realities that really grasp you tight and give you shaken manga reader syndrome… then go back and re-read your Hellsing. Yeah. Hellsing. I like that better than this. This blows.

Detroit Metal City, a title not about the failing big 3 automakers in America, drags its death metal carcass (wait, wait… isn’t death metal so 90’s or something?) in to a sad, sad, sad, sad, sad score of a D-. D is for Death, Detroit Metal City (your death), and that’s good enough for me. Bleck!``xEkuVkZFlpFwLntFqhB``x1245273803``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421527420``xKiminori Wakasugi``x``x``x``xDrama``x``x``x``xAnnus Itchii``xViz``xMature``xD-``x12.99``x150``x225``xDMC1_500.jpg``x``x``x``x What I’m Keepin’ Track Of: Yen Press, June 10th, 2009``xParkCooper``x“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.``xEkuuyZklplnkdIxkSX``x1244672808``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xjackfrost_1.gif Sand Chronicles v5``xYsabet``xHonestly, I love so much about the way Sand Chronicles presents its web of relationships that it's always a little hard for me to know where to start. The characters are beautifully three-dimensional, and Ashihara writes in a way that allows them to make plausible decisions and mistakes without the narrative either demonizing or excusing them. (The other characters can be a different matter, of course.)

Volume 5 picks up three months after Daigo and Ann's last conversation, which ended with him telling her that he'll call her once he figures his feelings out. Three months is an eternity even in a stable long-distance relationship, and Ann is fully aware that, among other things, Shika has fallen in love with Daigo and intends to pursue him.

This volume devotes most of its focus to different characters being interested in each other and figuring out their feelings, and it'd be easier to start drawing a diagram than to simply list them all, but that would be too spoilery and miss the point. This isn't a soap opera, and despite the layers of one-sided and mutual-but-difficult loves, the story never gets bogged down or hard to follow.

Instead, it raises questions: what does "first love" really mean? What happens when the love you've always relied on isn't necessarily as steady as you thought--especially when it's you who's wavering? When is it time to back away from the relationship you want? And how do you keep living your life when you stop recognizing it?

This series continues to be one of the best things I'm reading, hands-down.

Volume 5 of Sand Chronicles includes a two-page glossary of terms and cultural notes at the end of the book.``xEkuuyZkFpyBeeHfyOC``x1244672306``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421524635``xHinako Ashihara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xKinami Watabe``xJohn Werry``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA+``x8.99``x150``x225``xSand Chronicles 5 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea``xYsabet``xI wanted to like Genghis Khan more than I did (how often does one get to say that?), and the reasons it didn't really click with me have more to do with the limitations of its form than its actual content. This is Nakaba Higurashi's one-shot manga adaptation of Seiichi Morimura's novel about Genghis Khan's life, To the Ends of the Earth and Sea, which also inspired a film which shares its title with the manga version. (The film, which I haven't seen, is available domestically through FUNimation.)

Unfortunately, compressing a life--any life, never mind that of a dramatic historical figure who has become mythic in the centuries since his death--into one slim manga volume requires that many events are skimmed over and that most emotional consequences are condensed, and both of those are significant losses. Higurashi does good work within these restrictions, but it kept me from being really engaged. On top of that, one of the things that's missing strikes me as vital to fleshing out the story: the development of the "blood brother" relationship between Temujin, the boy who grows up to be Genghis Khan, and Jamuqa, a boy from a neighboring tribe.

At their first meeting, early in the book, something about Temukin piques Jamuqa's interest, and he suggests swearing an oath as blood brothers. On the very next page, years have passed and the two have become sworn enemies, and that is the relationship that defines them as they compete for domination of all Mongolia. We're given no hint of how their connection developed in the intervening time, no chance to see them bonding in any other way, and that weakens the epic scope of what follows. This sort of story is usually meant to be a tragedy, where two people who once loved--or still love--each other have become enemies, but as a reader I can't grieve for what I've never seen.

Otherwise, Genghis Khan is an enjoyable book: it's beautifully illustrated and packed full of politics, intrigue, and self-sacrifice, and Temujin himself is presented as a dedicated leader who truly wants the best for the people he rules and wants to rule. I'd say it's a flawed retelling but still worth checking out.

Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea includes early character design sketches and a brief essay on the development of the story in its various incarnations.

Review copy provided by CMX.``xEkuuyZElZFjCnwoCeG``x1244671873``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1401222145``xNakaba Higurashi and Seiichi Morimura``x``x``x``xAction``xAdventure``x``xSheldon Drzka``xSheldon Drzka``xDC/CMX``xOlder Teen``xB-``x9.99``x150``x225``xGenghis Khan cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Yokatta Ne``xNibley``xIt's not very often that we get a little insecure about how well we translate stuff, but we happened to be in one of our rare(?) funks the other day when we came across something that made us Think. We were reading the subtitles to something where the Japanese had been translated from “yokatta ne” (or “na,” I can't quite remember which) to “Can I have your autograph?” The context was that a girl had just done a bunch of awesome stuff, proving herself to everyone, and her friend who had faith in her the whole time was basically congratulating her. “Yokatta ne” literally means “(that) was good, wasn't it?” and we probably would have translated it as “Good for you,” “That's great,” or, if we were really thinking outside the box, “I'm happy for you.” We probably would have added an exclamation point, because we like them. There might have been one already, but I couldn't say for sure.

We never would have been so original as to have the friend ask for the girl's autograph. Normally, we probably would have thought, “Whaaat? Why you gotta go and make it different like that?” But this is actually something we wondered about when we first started translating--would our translations be better if we had the creativity to come up with lines like that? And since we were feeling insecure that day, it became time to reflect on our career.

One time, Ysa was commenting on the differences between our translation of Fruits Basket and her friend's translation that she read a few years before the TokyoPop version was published. She pointed out that translating is like acting--different people interpret the same role different ways, and that comes out in their performance. We thought about it and decided that she's absolutely right. But the tricky thing is performing the role in a way that's still entertaining to the audience. And translating adds a new level of trickiness, because the translator has to ask herself what they want to do with each character.

There are a bunch of anime/manga/etc. about budding actresses who, at some point in the series, are given a role that someone else is famous for, and they have to learn to take the role and make it their own instead of just copying the previous actress. I think some translators and English adaptation writers use this philosophy in their work. On the other hand, we take what we call the Kingdom Hearts philosophy. We call it the Kingdom Hearts philosophy because that game has the best example of where the first philosophy doesn't always work.

See, one of our favoritest Disney characters is Hercules, for his cute, innocent farmboy personality. But in the first Kingdom Hearts game, instead of getting the original voice of Hercules, they got Sean Astin to play him. Now we've only seen Sean Astin in a few roles, but he seems to be a really good actor. I don't know if it was an effort to make the character his own or maybe bad directing? but at any rate, his portrayal of Disney's Hercules was a little more... New York boxer? It wasn't our Hercules, and we were sad. (Needless to say, we were very happy to hear Tate Donovan as Hercules in KH2.)

It's true that if you're doing a revival of a play or a remake of a movie, you probably want to make something new and therefore make the character your own. But if you're getting a replacement for the voice of Mickey Mouse, you're going to want to get someone who sounds as close as possible to the Mickey Mouse that we all know and love. You're not making a new character--you're expanding the first character's role. And that's our philosophy on translation. We're not making new characters--we're just making the same characters more available to an English-speaking audience. So we want to stay as true to the original author's intent as possible.

It's true that inevitably we'll be putting a lot of ourselves into our translations, but what makes translating a little bit more complicated than acting is that you're portraying all the characters at once. If we add too many of our own “Nibley-isms,” we run the risk of making all the characters sound exactly like us. And while we think that we are quite amusing and adorable, “amusing and adorable” does not match the description of every character we translate. We're not confident that we can add jokes without ending up giving all the characters the exact same personality. And so we think it's okay if in our own translating style, we don't change “yokatta ne” to “can I have your autograph?”

And thus we overcame our brief moment of insecurity. Yokatta ne?``xEkuFAyEAlZDLXzEixX``x1243961987``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg We Were There v4``xYsabet``xI've enjoyed We Were There since the first volume, but as I continue reading I find I'm appreciating the story even more as it progresses. Nanami and Yano's relationship rings remarkably true to me: both the ordinary growing pains of a new (or first) romance and the ways they each try to deal with Yano's painful history are very believable, and the line between the everyday and the extraordinary challenges they face as a couple is realistically blurry.

Vol. 4 covers a lot of ground, or at least more than I've started to expect from this series, which usually feels slow-paced (but not draggy!) even when things are happening quickly. Nanami has decided to act on her feeling that she's ready to have sex with Yano, and while love scenes between inexperienced girls and very experienced boys can be very clichéd, Obata writes the opening chapter in a way that acknowledges and sidesteps that pitfall.

It's Yano's past that gets most of the focus in this volume, though: Yano himself has started to think more about his history and previous behavior and how it affects Nanami. His last girlfriend, Nana-san, may be dead, but her younger sister is a constant, pointed reminder of things he's starting to wish he'd done differently--some of which he'd really rather keep Nanami from ever finding out about.

Throughout the book, there's a feeling of unwanted momentum, of "it's too late now"; Nanami thinks she can't change her mind about sex once she's agreed to it, and also that she can't stop wondering and asking about Yano's past even if she wants to. She reads as hopeful but worn down, a sharp contrast to how young she seems, especially when she's acting out of insecurity. Yano's variety of ways of acting out continue to hurt both of them, although he's becoming more aware of his actions' impact on her. The cumulative effect is one of a heartfelt but precarious relationship, and both characters know it. We Were There is unlike most shoujo romances in its awareness that the relationship is more likely to be torn apart by the main characters themselves than by any external influences, and yet it avoids the feeling of a doomed romance.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkuFAyEZAuONjyPRGd``x1243961794``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520214``xYuki Obata``x``x``x``xDrama``xRomance``x``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``xNancy Thistlethwaite``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA``x8.99``x150``x225``xWe Were There 4 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x 13th Boy v1``xjoykim``x13th Boy is the story of Hee-So Eun, an eighth-grader who has been spectacularly unlucky in love. Despite her tender years, she's already had--and lost--eleven boyfriends. So one can't blame her for being reluctant to give up on boyfriend number 12, Won-Jun, when he wants to break up after a month of dating. After all, their relationship began with her dramatic confession of her feelings for him on national television: it must be destiny! But reigniting their romance isn't going to be easy for Hee-So, especially with Won-Jun's best friend Whie-Young offering obnoxious commentary on the futility of her efforts every step of the way.

High school romances in shojo manga and sunjeong manhwa are a dime a dozen, and any series that hopes to find an audience will have to find some way to stand out from the crowd. Some attract readers with unusual spins on the usual formulas, while others rely upon their skillful storytelling or gorgeous art. The best, of course, do a combination of all three. 13th Boy doesn't even manage to do one.

The story's biggest shortcoming is the characterization. Most romances succeed or fail on the appeal of their leads, and none of the major characters in 13th Boy give readers a reason to come back for volume two. Won-Jun has almost no personality, and this reflects poorly on Hee-So and her obsession with reuniting with him. Whie-Young is not quite as boring as Won-Jun and Hee-So--which is good, since he is obviously the true male lead of the series--but he certainly doesn't have the charisma to carry the series by himself.

The addition of some fantasy elements also doesn't do the story any favors. I am willing to overlook Hee-So's talking cactus sidekick as random (and not very funny) comic relief, but a certain character's magical powers feel like a plot point that took a left turn at Albuquerque and ended up in the wrong story. There just doesn't seem to be a place for magic in a story that is otherwise firmly grounded in the humdrum details of contemporary Korean life.

As a reader who would like to see more manhwa licensed and published in the US, I really wish I could recommend this series widely. Unfortunately, I think even the most devoted readers of sunjeong manhwa can safely give this series a pass. There are just too many other high school romances out there which are more deserving of their time and attention.

Review copy provided by Yen Press. The volume features an insert of color pages at the front of the book and a page of translation notes at the end of the book.``xEkuFAVlEEVJeJwlUgz``x1243958115``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759529949``xSangEun Lee``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xJiEun Park``xNatalie Bean``xYen Press``xTeen``xD``x10.99``x150``x225``x13thboy_1.jpg``x``x``x``x Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka v3``xrasmussen``xThis collaboration is like the ultimate pairing of talent. Urasawa, preeminent manga artiste, inspiring long-time plot collaborator Takashi Nagasaki, and bring forth onto the world (with the help of Osamu Tesuka’s son Macoto Tezuka) a “daring” revision of Osamu Tesuka’s classic Astro Boy... Oh-kay, not to cause a major uproar in the manga community but... I see this is important, but as of this day and age, it’s not groundbreaking or innovative.

Right now, just about everyone is going back to the wellspring on their classics and revisioning them in some way. The most recent example is Star Trek. It just got a fresh revisioning at the hands of J.J. Abrams in the eleventh Star Trek movie (just called Star Trek, of course). So yes, this is important, and yet... and yet I can’t say it’s innovative because, well, it’s a common thing. Everyone is trying to see the classics in bold new ways (which will also cover Astro Boy sooner or later).

In this new world, a world with humans and machines co-existing, there’s a lot of hate going on towards robots. There’s a robot killer on the loose, hunting down and killing those who aren't human by nature, then (later in the volume) a KKK kind of robot hate group surfaces with their own anti-robot agenda...

Oh, and Astro Boy? Totally human-looking… he’s not supposed to be totally human-looking, right? I remember that much... Hmm… well, anyway, people are driven to hate by what robots did to their families. For instance, one man driven to hate when a robot falsely accused his father of theft, which drove him to depression and later suicide. Or those driven because of war in which robots fought, and killed many, leaving the survivors with horrific memories of the inhuman things that killed in the name of another country’s false sense of patriotism or a 9-11ish fear of violence against them if they do not do unto others as done unto them.

In fact, a great deal of the volume covers just this one hate group and their members, which includes what drives some of them to hate so and why they feel that that hate is justified.

Uran has a moment where she befriends a homeless amnesiac robot with a penchant for artistry and bringing flowers back to life… too bad he also seems to be a ghost in a borrowed shell burdened with much too much for his story to be a happy one… oh, but on one ominous note, he knows the name of a mysterious mega war machine that seems to haunt the memories of a survivor of a village massacre, a thing called “Bora”… oh, and in the end of the volume, Pluto, namesake of the lord of the Underworld, arises with orders to put Astro down once and for all.

And that's your cliffhanger ending, folks. Tune in next time with Volume 4.

Overall, it’s a finely-written piece of manga that's a must have for any Astro Boy fan. The world of Astro Boy couldn’t be more relevant and pertinent now in our time. Finely crafted storytelling with beautiful artwork, a fine edge of character creation of development, and an overall solid performance combine to give you a title that should (if you are like me, a newbie to the works of Tezuka’s Astro Boy) want to dig back into the original series and really get to know about it first hand.

I’ll say it one more time just to clear the air: this revisioning is unique, but these days even I can’t say "innovative," because everyone is doing the whole revision thing. But still that doesn't make it bad... A really nice page-turner, and if you can, don’t forget to snap up the first two volumes... Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka gets an A for being all that and a bag of cybernetic wafer chips.``xEkuFAVkVEZKGXnXhku``x1243952517``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519208``xNaoki Urasawa``xOsamu Tezuka``xMacoto Tezuka``x``xSci-Fi``xDrama``x``xJared Cook and Frederik L. Schodt``xJared Cook and Frederik L. Schodt``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA``x12.99``x150``x225``xpluto 3.jpg``x``x``x``x Dogs Prelude (volume 0)``xYsabet``xDogs: Prelude (vol. 0) is a volume containing four individual stories; each has its own distinct plot, but they all share a setting, and there's a bit of character overlap here and there. This gives the book the feel of an anthology, which is appropriate for a collection which is--I gather--the precursor to a full series (Dogs: Bullets and Carnage, coming out this summer).

None of the individual storylines are groundbreaking, but between them they show glimpses into a dark, intriguing world. The lead characters in the stories are, respectively, a former hit-man confronting his past; an "information broker" who sees something he shouldn't have; a girl who takes up the sword to avenge her parents' murder; and a boy with unusual powers who tries to help a winged girl escape from pimp and finds himself in a messy situation. It all sounds like relatively standard action/fantasy fare, but the execution is fast-paced and interesting.

The worldbuilding is particularly good, especially for a first volume. This series could almost be set somewhere in our world, but there are plenty of indications that its science is or has been more advanced than ours. (In that respect--but only that respect--it reminds me a little of Saiyuki, with its unpredictable mix of impossibilities and gritty reality.)

As a one-shot, Dogs: Prelude has enough going on to catch my interest. Between this first look at the story and the things I've heard from current fans, I'm looking forward to seeing how it expands when the series proper gets going.

VIZ has really gone all out to give Dogs a gorgeous release: the book is larger than standard (similar to VIZ's Signature line) and has a rock-solid script from translator/adapter Alexis Kirsch. The book also earns its shrink-wrap, with generous helpings of bloody violence and strong language.


``xEkuFFpFAEyxodWoMEs``x1243303916``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421527022``xShirow Miwa``x``x``x``xAction``xDrama``x``xAlexis Kirsch``xAlexis Kirsch``xViz``xMature``xA-``x12.99``x150``x225``xDogs Prelude cover.jpg``x``x``x``x The History of the West Wing``xjoykim``xA young scholar sleeping in a temple courtyard encounters the beautiful daughter of a government official. It's not quite love at first sight, but both parties are intrigued; before long, a clandestine second meeting is arranged. So begins The History of the West Wing, a manhua adaptation of a classic Chinese play (Xixiang Ji by Wang Shifu).

Every so often I will come across a volume of sequential art and wonder, "How on earth did this get licensed?" I don't always ask this question because the work itself is unworthy of such attention; I am just a realist about the fact that the most marketable works get licensed quickly, while niche works tend to languish in licensing limbo. Yet every so often, a lower-profile work will sneak through the system and end up on US shelves. The History of the West Wing is one of these works. There is a little in this manhua that will appeal to the Naruto and Vampire Knight fans that drive a lot of the graphic novel market. It's a standalone volume based on a classic Chinese play that is not particularly well-known on these shores. There are no wuxia touches, nor are there vampires or shinigami: just a small love story unwinding along fairly predictable lines.

As a published work, it is impressive to look. The slim volume's interior is printed in full color, explaining the higher-than-usual price point. The sweetness and pastels of Guo Guo's art aren't precisely to my personal taste, but her work is undeniably pretty. The attention to detail in the period costumes is particularly nice.

Unfortunately, the story is less compelling. I suspect it inherits its flaws from its source material; the flatness of the characterization is very reminiscent of the style of similar traditional tales. And as reader, I am probably too accustomed to the storytelling methods of shojo manga, where there is generally an intense focus on the inner lives of the characters; the lack of such character development here is very frustrating.

The History of the West Wing will probably appeal most to readers with an interest in the art or the source text; others may not find the rather superficial story to be worth the $12.99 retail price.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkuFFpFyVpQkVdUdUq``x1243303650``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759529922``xSun Jiayu``xGuo Guo``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xJ. Gustave McBride``x``xYen Press``xTeen``xC+``x12.99``x150``x225``xwestwing.jpg``x``x``x``x Words Of Truth And Wisdom: Japanese Terminology PART TWO``xNibley``xSome of you may remember that last time, we started a big rambling essay on whether or not it's a good idea to leave Japanese terms in Japanese, or to translate them aaaaaall into English. Just talking about titles (-san, -sama, -chan, etc.) took up the whole column, and we didn't get a chance to talk about actual vocabulary type things. Just like last time, it's important to remember that this is all our own opinion and doesn't mean that it's the only right way to do anything.

Now it's time for a story. Don't get your hopes up; it's not that great. But once upon a time, the Twins were working on the Fruits Basket fanbook. They decided that in order to better match all the stuff in the fanbook to the stuff in the actual series, it would probably help to reread the series, because it's long and therefore nigh impossible to keep every little detail stored inside their brains of arguable size. And so they picked up the English version of the manga and started reading. When they got to volume three, they read the word “onsen,” and were like, “What!?”

The onsen thing was actually completely our doing. We had different ideas back then. Of course, we've had a change of heart since, but I can imagine what we were thinking. Sometimes, when you're studying another language and partaking of the entertainment from that culture, you get so deeply immersed in it that changing certain words into English feels somehow wrong. It's like when we watch an anime series without subtitles, and then we have no idea what the English version terminology is. Like what do they call the Gurren-dan in the English version of Gurren Lagann? So we figured we could just leave it as onsen, and tell everybody what it is, and no one would be confused, and it would all be good.

But! Now we think that was kind of dumb, frankly. And that's because “onsen” is easily translated to “hot spring,” and everybody knows what a hot spring is. So these days we would tell ourselves, “Just type hot spring and deal with it!”

That being the case, our general opinion on Japanese terminology is that if there's an English equivalent, it should be translated. Of course, there are several cases where there's not an exact English equivalent, and that's where things get tricky. Now, if it's a cultural thing, or something that originated in Japan, it's probably fine to leave it in Japanese--like karate and karaoke. There are some things that Americans aren't necessarily going to be familiar with, like tabi. For those of you who don't know, tabi are the Japanese socks that are forked so that your big toe can move independently of your other toes. They're very convenient for wearing traditional Japanese footwear that has straps like flip-flops. One of our Japanese professors once told us of a translator who translated it as bifurcated footpads, which probably doesn't make much more sense than the word “tabi” itself. So in cases like that, it's probably better to leave it in Japanese and add a note. The same applies for some foods, but not all. It's a discretion thing. I think someone once said you should leave dishes in Japanese but translate ingredients. So sushi is fine, but okome (rice) should be translated. That seems like a good rule of thumb.

Then there are things like eki-ben. Eki-ben, as My Heavenly Hockey Club fans might remember, is a kind of lunchbox you buy at the train station, to eat while you're on the train. It easily translates into “station lunch,” and yet we chose to leave it in Japanese. Now why would we do that? The answer is simple: eki-ben sounds way better than “station lunch.” Also, when I hear “station lunch,” for some reason, I think about sitting down at like a restaurant at the train station, which isn't really what it is. So another rule of thumb is: if the English translation brings to our own minds a picture that's different than the one in the manga, we add a note. Whether or not we leave it in Japanese depends on what we think sounds better.

And that just leaves specialized terms, by which we mean terms specific to a certain series. When the discussion came up (as I mentioned in the last column), Bleach was brought up as an example of having a million non-English, specialized terms that you have to know in order to understand what's going on. This is where you have to look at it from the readers' point of view. From what we know of Bleach, a lot of the special terms are all explained within the series. In that case, it's not important to know what the words mean, because you still know what they are. If you can read a word like zanpakuto and know it refers to the swords the Soul Reapers use, you don't have to know that it means “soul-cutting sword.” (Incidentally, Bleach is another anime we watched in Japanese without subtitles, so we had to get those terms off of Wikipedia. We didn't know they were translating shinigami!)

But at the same time, you don't want to leave stuff in Japanese if it's going to get too confusing. There was an anime series we watched where they left a lot of terms in Japanese, and since there was a lot of narrating and exposition and stuff, we relied pretty heavily on the subtitles. Unfortunately, there were so many specialized terms made up for the series (so we didn't know what they were from our Japanese studies) that it was really hard to remember all of them. And it wasn't uncommon for us to be like, “Wait, what was that thing again?” When there was time to think about it, it wasn't too hard to come up with English equivalents, and those would have made the series a lot easier to follow.

Also, sometimes it just sounds cooler to use English (in our opinions, of course). For example, in Nabari no Ou, they use the (actually pretty common) ninja technique of konoha-gakure. It sounds kind of cool in Japanese, too, if you pronounce it right, but it's one of those things that we think is neater if you know what it is. So we translated it to Leaf Veil (which some of you might recognize as a Pokemon move). Actually “konoha” means “leaf,” and “gakure” means “hide” or “cover,” but since a veil hides things, it works. And “veil” is a cool-sounding word. Plus, it gives you the image of a leaf covering, which “konoha-gakure” (in Japanese) probably wouldn't do, unless you happen to know Japanese.

So in conclusion, it's all kind of arbitrary. The end.``xEkukZVAkluukdgEUix``x1242759284``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg High School Debut v9``xYsabet``xHigh School Debut may be an exceptionally awesome specimen of the high school romance genre, but it's still in that genre, and as such there are certain things it pretty much has to do--such as follow the Japanese school year. Happily, Kawahara has opted to shake things up a little bit by having Haruna and Yoh's school have a cultural festival one year and a sports festival the next. Apparently this isn't really conveyed to incoming students, though: Haruna, now an eleventh-grader, doesn't seem to be the only student who's not really familiar with the upcoming sports festival, which gives Kawahara a convenient reason for breaking it down for the readers.

The festival is a huge event, with students dividing up responsibilities and being part of teams that cross grade lines, which means that Haruna and Yoh are able to be on a team together despite being in different grades. (In fact, it's such a huge event that the entire volume is devoted to it, which makes the book less episodic than usual.) Our leads respond to the festival in their usual fashion: Haruna throws herself into it, overflowing with excitement, and because of her enthusiasm Yoh finds himself taking more of an interest in it than he usually would. This is one of the things I really like about their relationship: the give and take between them is very well done. When Yoh winds up with extra responsibilities and less time to spend with Haruna during the festival preparations, it's clear that he's partly putting so much energy into what he's doing because the festival matters to Haruna.

They each have plenty of great moments in this volume. As many other readers have noted, what Haruna's years of reading shoujo manga have actually taught her is how to be a good shoujo hero, giving us a starry-eyed heroine who's more than happy to defend her boyfriend's honor with her fists. Meanwhile, although Yoh is easily embarrassed when Haruna occasionally notices just how much he cares about her, his affection is really endearing.

Volume 9, like the rest of the series so far, is a lot of fun and well worth checking out.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkukZuFlVADRFrjHrC``x1242743859``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421521911``xKazune Kawahara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xGemma Collinge``xGemma Collinge``xViz``xTeen``xA``x8.99``x150``x225``xHigh School Debut 9 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Kaze Hikaru v13 ``xYsabet``xKaze Hikaru continues to be a series I don't think about much in between volumes, yet I really enjoy each new installment. As volume 13 opens, the Shinsengumi have just relocated to a new home inside the city proper, attracting plenty of suspicious attention from their new neighbors. Sei, despite being reminded that they're now living in enemy territory, attempts to win the locals over with her friendly, open attitude, but Okita is less than encouraging about her tactics. In fact, he's being harder on her than usual in several ways, and she finds herself commiserating with and becoming friends with Miki, the intellectual Ito's younger brother. In the process, Watanabe gives readers a look into Ito's past, and reminds both readers and Sei herself that her secret life as a girl in a men's world is always risky, and that she can't afford to be complacent about it. The dynamic that creates is an interesting one, and Watanabe handles it very well: Sei trusts the people around her with her life (and they trust her), but she can't risk trusting them with the truth about her. It seems as if she always remembers that intellectually, but not emotionally, and the contrast is understated but clearly presented.

This volume is driven more by the characters than the politics and historical events, which tends to be my preference (although I have a lot of appreciation for the detailed backdrop they provide for the story). Sei herself is a very sympathetic, determined character, and while I sometimes have trouble with relentlessly cheerful protagonists, I always enjoy reading about her.

Kaze Hikaru has a very genuine feel to it; the comedy is rarely over the top, and it provides a good balance for the serious events surrounding it.

As usual with this series, VIZ has done a great job with the new volume. Historical and cultural terms are clearly explained, and Mai Ihara always turns out a solid translation and adaptation.

Volume 13 of Kaze Hikaru includes a three-page glossary of historical terms.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkukZuFZFFYCvATNOd``x1242743733``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421524163``xTaeko Watanabe``x``x``x``xAction``xRomance``x``xMai Ihara``xMai Ihara``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xKaze Hikaru 13 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Yakitate!! Japan v13-14``xrasmussen``xLately I’ve added a cooking video game review Epublication into my list of things I work on a monthly basis… so, well, now I no longer have an excuse not to read this no matter what I think of it.

Yakitate!! Japan is a title about bread… but not the bread you spend as much as the bread you eat. That kind of bread… yeah, and here I thought only cooking video games could get away with these kind of plot devices. My bad.

As of the 13th Volume everyone is over at the Monaco Cup dueling baking style… wow, isn’t this the kind of thing that only happens on the Food Network… no… yes… something… anyway after a rather short embarrassing confusion of words where somehow words of coup and revolution get mistaken for ideas of gay marriage… no, really? Anyway (and this is why I so didn’t touch this for so long), the first 50 or so pages is unfathomable drama… mostly because I am such a late comer to this title I have no clue what’s going on. This is, what, Volume 13? Yeah. Volume 13. It’s no wonder I am not the slightest bit versed in who’s what, what’s where, and why I should care what’s going on is going on. This is probably why I always suggest starting from Volume 1, not this far (so despite the fact I’m reviewing Volume 13 to 17 here during the next batch of weeks I would want you to start from Volume 1 when you go to the store or online to buy… it’s going to be far easier on you that way).

Anyway after some drama about the characters and the angst they have over bread making or their personal demons (one character even going so far as “becoming a demon”… more or less) it’s back to Round 2 of the Monaco Cup and the tournament is on once again. Yeah, back to the bread-making battle, everyone...

Sure, if you aren't addicted to cooking games or their puzzler equal then you are probably not going to swing on a title about baking bread… except that we’ve seen titles already run with the cooking theme and make great leaps in fan base appeal (the names presently elude my memory but there are a few… Iron Wok Jun I think though if I misnamed the title you can forgive me, can’t you), so this title is just another in a string of series that is looking to appeal to that audience… of course having gotcha like one of the major principals of the competition being stabbed near the 90th page works too… doesn’t it…? Well, don’t worry, that person who got stabbed will get better… then get worse and have to be carried off, all to make a point about “liberation” and drive the theme of that particular bread home… say what? Did we have to go the long round about, merry-go-round way to bring us back to the point of liberation in the bread and all that?!?

Let’s see… then there’s hallucinations about hot looking women in Playboy bunny motifs and the lion who would be king… then the one who was stabbed (Pierrot) does get better and the title… meh.

Yeah. OK. I know we’re halfway through but I have one big gripe about this read, and that is this read is a long slow slog when a short and snappy set of scenes would have worked better. I mean oh my god, did we have to go through so much context just to get to the point about Liberation in context of the bread?!? And then the next long long long drawn out sequence which… argh…

Volume 14 wraps up the Monaco Cup and Team Japan has to fight hard to win, which isn’t easy as they still have Team USA to go through and more bread making… and more taking forever to make a point that could be said far easier with less context… wow, how did this series get to be so long in the tooth again? I mean come on!! It’s a series about people competing… in a bread-making contest!! No, really, where did this get it’s charm?

My theory is that the charm lies in the complexity. Sure, it could be more to the point, but the depth of character and plot is probably one of its driving forces that keeps the title rolling loaves off the assembly line volume in and volume out for as long as this series lasted. A melodrama with sprinklings of humor about one person (and ultimately one team’s) quest to make bread nobody will ever forget, and all the many characters that cross their paths (each
with their own stories and destinies that unroll before the reader as much as the stories of the main cast). That, I take it, is the drive and charm of the series. Why it went on for so long, why it is still probably going on to this day, and why it is as popular with its fan base as it is. I can’t think of much else but that, but that is reason enough for me to say its worth checking out… but not from this point.

You’d probably be far more attached to the series if you went back to its origins, and started your journey at Volume 1. Sure, sure, I’m sure VIZ wants the present on sale volumes to move but this is not a series that you’ll be able to jump into at such a late point in the game, so to speak. You’re not going to like it unless you really make a connection to the series, and to do that you need to spring back to its beginnings and start there.

Of course, if you're already a fan of cooking style manga, then hooking up with this is just the next step, you shouldn’t have any problems getting into this if you’ve done it before with other cooking-themed series. But then again, if that's you, you already knew that and didn't need me to tell you...

So it’s not a runaway hit score, but it has a spark of possibility. Love the idea of cooking mangas, hate 'em, that’s up to you. But one more time make sure to start at the very beginning (or I have a feeling the series will just roll on without you as you won’t find any real good reason to get attached to the series if you have zero idea what’s going on in the series). C.``xEkukZuFukVfmWaQabQ``x1242743425``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421517094``xTakashi Hashiguchi``x``x``x``xDrama``xComedy``x``xNoritaka Minami``xJake Forbes``xViz``xOlder Teen``xC``x9.99``x150``x225``xyakitate_japan_vol_14_super 1.jpg``x``x``x``x NANA v15-16``xYsabet``xIt's hard not to read parts of NANA as an object lesson in "if you become famous, the paparazzi will try to ruin your life". Some of the things the "reporters" in this series sink to, and the ways they try to shape--or create outright--the story they want to tell on Blast and Trapnest make them some of the most manipulative characters I've read about in quite a while. Witness the opening of vol. 15, when they send Nana O. a photo of Ren and Reira hugging each other and call it an "engagement present". That right there is a pretty sick piece of manipulation.

The fallout from that one event is extensive. Takumi uses his own impressive powers of manipulation to keep the picture from going to press and salvage the situation as best he can, but for several characters it drives home how vulnerable their positions are. Since bands are a group effort, each individual's actions affects many people's futures, and some of the choices that result don't make anyone happy.

Nana spends a lot of time in these two volumes trying to come to terms with herself and her goals, and trying to be honest about what it is she actually wants--from herself, from Ren, and from Hachi. While she works at figuring things out, Weekly Search magazine is busy digging deep into her past, and for readers who're rooting for her it's more than a bit nerve-wracking to see how many internal and external forces are conspiring against her.

But to me, Hachi's the understated star of these two volumes. She's much more pragmatic than I ever would have expected after seeing how she starts out, and it's fascinating to see her handling her life. For all that she's presented as flighty and self-absorbed, her determination to make the best of things and do what she can for the people in her life is incredible. She knows that by accepting Takumi's offer to be a father to her child she's put herself in a gilded cage--and it's very shiny, no doubt about that--but while she's obviously enjoying the perks she's equally aware of the downsides, including the loss of her relationship with Nobu. But here she is, building a life for herself and her baby while simultaneously reaching out past the constraints that her new life tries to place on her. She's a joy to read, honestly, even though the way Takumi usually treats her--in this case, using their relationship as a bargaining tool to deal with Trapnest's impending scandal--frustrates me to no end.

Yazawa continues to dole out glimpses into and hints about the future and how the characters get there, and that framework serves to guide readers' interpretation of the events in the "present". Most of the main supporting cast (...as opposed to the newer supporting cast) have their own moments to shine in these two volumes; I'm always glad to see that their own lives and worries aren't being neglected while they're facilitating the telling of the two Nanas' story.

One of the treats about this series is that bonus stories don't replace part of a volume's usual length, resulting in an extra-long book as opposed to having the main story unexpectedly give way to the bonus material long before the book runs out of pages. (It's also nice that VIZ doesn't raise the cover price on these occasional hefty volumes.)

Each volume of NANA is sold shrink-wrapped, and includes the bonus "Junko's Place" story as well as The Family Times, a "newspaper" devoted to upcoming (at the time of Japanese publication) books/CDs/movies based on Yazawa's work. Vol. 16 also includes a 52-page bonus story focusing on Nobu.

Review copies provided by VIZ Media.
``xEkukkyVEVltXvttcwR``x1242265158``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421523752``xAi Yazawa``x``x``x``xRomance``xDrama``x``xTomo Kimura``xAllison Wolfe``xViz``xMature``xA+``x8.99``x150``x225``xNANA 16 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya v3``xjoykim``xWhen Haruhi enters the SOS Brigade into a local baseball tournament, the club members once again find themselves scrambling to cater to her whims. Winning isn't everything to Haruhi; it's the only thing. And it's up to Kyon and the others to make sure she goes home happy, lest the universe suffer the consequences.

In other words, it's just an average day with the SOS Brigade in volume 3 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This volume represents my first taste of the manga series, but I am familiar with the franchise via the anime version (licensed in the US by Bandai). Both the manga and anime are adapted from the original light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa. So it was easy for me to follow the story here despite having skipped volumes 1 and 2.

Readers who are already fond of these characters will find them in fine form here. Kyon and Haruhi take center stage, of course, but time-traveler Mikuru and alien Yuki also have some priceless moments. The opening baseball story is quite funny, though a bit predictable; the real treats are the two later chapters, "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody I" and "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody II," which give Kyon and readers an interesting new perspective on some earlier moments in the series.

Unfortunately, like many manga adapted from anime or light novel franchises, this isn't particularly noteworthy as a work of sequential art. The art is bland and forgettable, while the story lacks some of the zip that it has in other versions. For example, Kyon's exasperated narration is one of the funniest things about the anime version, yet only a little of that narrative voice comes through here.

Recommended for die-hard fans of the media franchise; newbies may find the light novel or anime versions to be better starting points.

This volume includes an insert of color pages and a page of translation notes.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkukkyVppFanKajVqu``x1242265003``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759529469``xNagaru Tanigawa``xGaku Tsugana ``xNoizi Ito ``x``xComedy``xSci-Fi``x``xChris Pai for MX Media LLC``x``xYen Press``xOlder Teen``xB-``x10.99``x150``x225``xharuhi_3.jpg``x``x``x``x Rosario + Vampire v7``xYsabet``xI didn't have a chance to read vol. 6 of Rosario + Vampire, but since a) the series helpfully includes detailed recaps before the story properly resumes and b) the story itself includes plenty of references to what's just happened, I didn't feel at a loss when reading volume 7.

Our Everyman hero, Tsukune, hasn't been having an easy time of it since I last saw him in vol. 5. He's had a brief stint as a flesh-eating ghoul (the side effects from vampire blood are hell!) and has been returned to mostly-normal by the "spirit lock" that's been chained to his wrist. Unfortunately, the monstrels are still determined to see him dead, and have a variety of ways to go about reaching that goal in this volume. One of them takes the straightforward approach of injecting Moka with a controlling serum and dispatching her to kill Tsukune, which has the added bonus of making the other characters distrust her, especially since she later can't remember what happened.

While Tsukune spends the book trying to stay alive, he also has to deal with his own sudden craving for blood, not to mention the shadowy figures who're conducting a smear campaign against the News Club. It's a very busy volume, even when Tsukune himself isn't on the scene; he's almost completely absent from a chapter halfway into the book, which gives a couple of the female characters more of a chance to shine. (Although given the sort of book this is, their motivations and conversations center almost entirely around Tsukune. There's some superficial lip-service to the girls having some degree of friendship, or at least a relationship that doesn't revolve around their collective interest in Tsukune, but...it's a harem manga. As characters, they basically exist so that he can have an array of pretty girls who're unreasonably fascinated by him.)

As I said when reviewing vol. 5, this series is clearly not aimed at me, but it's a decent, readable example of its genre. Tsukune and Moka are likable and the rest of the cast is generally pleasant enough (and would probably make more of an impression on me if I'd read more than two non-consecutive volumes).

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkukkyupZVhcZsvUyi``x1242264075``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519097``xAkihisa Ikeda``x``x``x``xDrama``xSupernatural``x``xKaori Inoue``xGerard Jones``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB-``x7.99``x150``x225``xRosario Vampire 7 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x O-Parts Hunter v14``xrasmussen``xIn the not-so-distant future mankind battles over O-Parts, powerful relics from an “ancient civilization”… so, how much worse can the future get? Maybe if we roll out the generic cast! First off it’s the young boy with the tragic past (every near-future story needs a young boy with a tragic past in it)! And did I also mention he’s a skeptic until he discovers his hidden potential with O-Parts, upon which he decides to scour the wastelands of the world looking for O-Parts with his female partner Ruby? Yeah… I think I heard that one before.

Wow… first volume out and it’s crappy halfway through because the main female lead loses her soul to a whackjob named Jio, and then loses her body to some whacked out government… wow, could this possibly get any worse… wait, wait…it gets worse. My bad. Somehow Jio ends up with a new female partner (a really clingy clingy clingy female partner), and a new quest and no Ruby because she’s restraining Satan who really isn’t Satan and is in Jio and… wow… I just saw x amount of hours of my life vanish by reviewing this title… that’s harsh.

Cliché to a point, offering nothing of real innovative thought or storytelling, it’s a post future world yarn that is about as not interesting as I feared it would be. Lord knows at times I wish better of these titles, but I never get what I wish for… why, oh, why? I’d say me going back and re-reading the first 13 volumes might help, but if I found myself turned off here, I doubt going that far back in time is going to make me any more of a convert than reading this. Still… y’know… you might like it. Don’t just take my word for it, read it yourself and judge for yourself. So, with that said I’m going to give this one a C- with wording that, well, you should sample it yourself (get a volume from the library and read it) and if you like it then dig in and get the set… if not? Well, nothing lost. You tasted it’s offerings and it didn’t appeal. VIZ has like a gazillion other titles for you to try out so you’ll find something (more than one hopefully) that VIZ puts out that is your cup of tea. C-. Nuff said.``xEkukkyFlFkZtURieST``x1242263832``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x142151995X``xSeishi Kishimoto``x``x``x``xAction``x``x``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``xDavid R. Valois``xViz``xOlder Teen``xC-``x9.99``x150``x225``xopartshunter14.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Japanese Terminology``xNibley``xThe other day, a friend of ours (MangaLife's own Ysabet, actually) started a discussion about retaining Japanese terminology in manga translations. We didn't participate much, because we tend to be lurkers, but we did think it would make a great topic for a column! Tadah! Of course, the very important thing to keep in mind about a column like this is that it will be purely our own opinion, and there's probably not really a right or a wrong, even if we really are right *grin*

Let's start with titles like -san, -kun, -chan, etc. We're all for leaving them in, for the very important reason that leaving them makes our job easier. For example, in DN Angel, there's a scene where Riku Harada, part of a set of twins, tells the main character, “Stop calling me Harada-san--I don't know if you're talking about me or my sister.” Fortunately, since we weren't adapting this series, we didn't have to come up with an alternative to make up for the fact that he had been calling her Riku the whole time.

Actually, Riku Harada leads me into a tangent about whether or not to westernize the order of the names. I'm sure most of our readers know that in Japanese, the name order is actually surname/given name, while in western cultures, it's given name/surname. Some manga companies specifically tell us to westernize the names, but we tend to do it anyway, just out of personal preference. This comes from the fact that when all of our favorite Japanese voice actors write their names out in Roman letters, they just about always westernize the order of their name. There are exceptions, though. For example, in Saiyuki, the characters are mostly based on Chinese legend, and it just sounds better to leave the names in eastern order. Doesn't Son Goku sound way better than Goku Son? It does to us, anyway.

So back to the whole titles thing. A lot of the time, the English equivalents don't quite sound right. In the discussion I mentioned before, someone said that it sounds really off to have tiny children going around calling everyone “Mr.” or “Miss.” We actually don't think that's quite true, because when we were in second grade, we had some friends who had just moved to our school from the south, and they would call adults Miss Cindy or Mr. Tom all the time. But when we thought of second-graders referring to each other as Miss and Mr., then it seemed pretty weird. Also, we don't really have equivalents for -kun and -chan. We could probably come up with nicknames that might (emphasis on might) get the idea across, but first, if the character is the type to make variations on someone's name, they will, even in Japanese, and second, that would make our job harder.

But there are exceptions to our policy on this, too. Most manga obviously takes place in Japan, or has main characters who obviously grew up speaking Japanese, but there are some titles that have a very western feel to them, and the characters don't even have Asian-sounding names. In those cases, we think it's usually better to either translate the titles or take them out, where appropriate. If the series takes place in a specific country, we think it's neat to have that country's equivalent, like how the subtitles in Gankutsuou translate -san to Monsieur or Madame or Mademoiselle. When we were translating Aqua, we wanted to have Alicia call Akari “Akarina” instead of “Akari-chan,” because we think “-ina” is the Italian equivalent of -chan, and we thought it sounded cute. Unfortunately, it didn't work for all characters called [fill in the blank]-chan.

I guess another thing that's important to point out here is that we don't make the final calls, especially when we're not adapting titles. A lot of the time, we'll leave notes stating our preference, and someone else will make the decision. When we are adapting, we do this if we can't decide what we like best.

Okay, so let's move on to other forms of address! They're all over the place in Negima!. Like Oji-san, Ojou-sama, Onee-san, and all the variations thereof. Usually, we like to translate these. For example, if a guy tends to call girls “Ojou-chan” (a friendly form of address meaning “young girl-chan”), it's fun to have him call them “little lady.” But sometimes, we like to leave them, for all kinds of reasons that may or may not be consistent. For example, we just like the sound of “aniki” better than “bro.” But if “aniki” doesn't show up that much, we'll translate it, because making the reader look up the meaning in the back for something that only shows up once or twice doesn't seem very nice. We've been considering readability more and more these days.

We recently had a run-in with “Ossan.” “Ossan” is a contracted form of “Oji-san,” which literally means “uncle-san,” but is generally used in referring to or addressing middle-aged men, whether there's any blood relation or not. The term had been showing up for a while, and we had been translating it as “Mister,” but then a different character started using it, and he didn't seem like the type to call anybody “Mister,” and it was a series with Japanese forms of address running around all over the place anyway, so we decided to keep it. We did consider some alternatives, like “buddy,” or “dude,” but they all seemed a little over the top.

And I knew this topic would lead to a lot of rambling! We haven't even gotten started on vocabulary type thingies. So tune in in two weeks for the exciting(maybe?) part two!``xEkuEVZlZyVoDiSpXyi``x1241578765``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Nightschool: The Weirn Books v1``xjoykim``xSarah Treveney has a new job as part of the staff at a high school for vampires, werewolves, and witches. For reasons not yet explained, her younger sister Alex, a talented weirn (a type of witch in the series), is not attending the nightschool and is instead being schooled at home. When Alex sneaks out one night in defiance of her sister's orders, she has a strange run-in with a group of humans who hunt supernatural beings. And unfortunately for the Treveney sisters, that's only the first mysterious happening of the night: the second one has even more serious consequences and sets the plot in motion for the chapters to come.

Nightschool is the new series by Svetlana Chmakova of Dramacon fame. It's being serialized in the magazine Yen Plus, and this volume marks the first collection of those chapters. As series openers go, it's promising but far from perfect.

The series's biggest asset is Chmakova's assured and polished art. In the past I've often avoided OEL manga because they felt too amateurish and half-done. That is not the case here. Chmakova makes skilled use of the storytelling techniques we see in Japanese manga. Her chibis are particularly adorable and fit smoothly into the rest of the art. I was also pleased to see that this series has a very multi-racial cast of characters, which is all too rare a treat in manga and manga-style sequential art.

As the first volume in a longer series, these chapters are heavy on worldbuilding. Chmakova introduces a lot of ideas and characters, and this is the main place where she stumbles. The deluge of names and faces is a bit overwhelming; the details of the setting are less so, but only because they are too familiar, with echoes of everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Supernatural. Frankly, in this post-Twilight era, the mere mention of vampires is enough to make me a bit weary, and their appearance here makes me wish Chmakova had paired her fresh art with a few fresher ideas. Hopefully in future volumes the original aspects of her story will be more prominent.

Overall, this first volume isn't quite compelling enough to sell me on the series yet, but there are just enough grace notes in the art and the story to leave me interested in reading some more before making a final decision. Readers who are already fans of Chmakova's work have probably already picked this up; others could do worse than to give this series, either in volume or magazine form, a try.

Volume 1 of Nightschool is printed in the larger 5.75" x 8.25" trim size and includes one insert of color pages.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkuEVZlyZZGOxKoCEX``x1241578677``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759528594``xSvetlana Chmakova``xDee DuPuy``x``x``xFantasy``xSupernatural``x``x``x``xYen Press``xTeen``xB-``x10.99``x150``x225``xnightschool_1.gif``x``x``x``x B.O.D.Y. v5``xYsabet``xI have a very up-and-down reading relationship with B.O.D.Y., although the ups are never all that high. (I gave vol. 3 a B- and noted in my vol. 4 blurb--no letter grades in my "what I'm reading" round-ups--that each volume seems to get a bit more palatable.) So why does vol. 5 get my lowest score for the series yet? Because almost the entire volume is one endless round of "oh, I can't possibly tell him the truth because OMG he'll hate me forever, so instead I'll complicate our lives immeasurably!", and while there are certainly other things that drive me crazy as a reader, this is very, very high on the list. I don't like the steady parade of icky guys who wander into Ryoko's life and mess with her, but I'd deal with it better if lying about it weren't almost always her immediate response.

On the other hand, I'm actually starting to be fond of Ryunosuke, which I wasn't expecting to happen. He seems to have developed a "well...that's the way she is" response to Ryoko's habitual dishonesty, since he has sense enough to realize she's lying in a sincere-if-misguided effort to protect him/their relationship. (Dear heroine: your boyfriend is an ex-host. He can probably deal with some random guy kissing you without asking you, much as that sucks. He probably has the sense to not be angry at you, unless it's because you can't figure out that wandering off with creepy guys is possibly not the best idea.)

This volume's list of things Ryoko gets manipulated into include: a second unwanted kiss; a clandestine meeting; and a cringe-inducingly awkward trip with Ryunosuke, icky guy of the week, and her friend Asuka, who's still oblivious to the fact that she's fallen for a pretty scummy guy. Distrust and chaos ensue. B.O.D.Y. is, at heart, a melodramatic soap opera, so none of this comes as a shock. It's had stronger moments as a series, but it's quite possible that later volumes will make me circle back to looking at it a little more kindly.

Volume 5 of B.O.D.Y. includes a page of editor's notes and several
bonus pages from the creator.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkuEVZlEAuKylGQLiY``x1241578194``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421523604``xAo Mimori``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xJoe Yamazaki``xKelly Sue DeConnick``xViz``xOlder Teen``xC``x8.99``x150``x225``xBODY 5 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Animal Crossing: The Movie``xrasmussen``xUsually I don't push myself onto VIZ, since usually I don't have much to recommend to them (they seem rather well-stocked in both the manga and anime dept. even if at times I am not the most ardent fan of some of their decisions), but today is different and I'm going to tell you why... because, well, if I (not to mention the rest of the fans of the title in question) were to actually wait for Nintendo to tell us when we're ready for the following? We'd be, like, dead. So, you know, VIZ? Get the rights to these right away and release them in theaters and DVD and in manga... because we're your audience and we're so ready for these, even if Nintendo thinks otherwise.

Dōbutsu no Mori, aka "Animal Forest: The Movie" aka Animal Crossing the Movie.

You of course are probably highly aware of Animal Crossing, the game series that adults are not afraid to admit to being addicted to. From its origins on the GameCube (formerly a Nintendo 64 release in Japan), then onto the DS (and a second advanced version in Japan on the GameCube) and finally onto the Wii, Animal Crossing has grown (and with it its fanbase)... however you probably didn't even know you were craving an Animal Crossing movie... until one December night in 2006 theaters in Japan released Dobutsu no Mori, aka Animal Crossing the Movie, and suddenly your unspoken need became a clear and present
reality.

Animal Crossing the Movie is, of course, an anime film (and reminds us again that we also have a craving for something else that American animated movie makers are woefully neglecting... a craving for traditional animation movies (or at the very least movies that has that traditional animation flavor even if it's all done on computers).

The movie is based on the first DS outing of the series, Animal Crossing: Wild World, holding onto the most basic premise of the game series as its driving motivator as new girl (Ai) moves into town and quickly befriends her new animal villager neighbors (and thus growing from her experiences with them as they become solid friends). Right off the bat she makes friends with the hyper-cute bundle of cat named Rosie (of course all names in the movie are the Japanese names, but for my sake I'll us the American character reference names for comparison... though to be honest a few, like Apollo, are named the same both in Japanese and English) and aspiring fashion designer Margie. Right off the bat she gets into weird adventures as she becomes the delivery person for Tom Nook, ends up making a brief enemy of Apollo, goes on a fossil hunt with neighboring village human Yu and his pal from that village Alonso, and gets involved in preparing the village for a winter miracle as instructed to her through a series of messages in bottles that pop up on her walks along the beach (leading to a most wonderful ending)!

Opening up in Japan on December 16, 2006 (Christmas), the movie pulled in about 1,800,000,000 yen (approximately $5,000,000) at the box office -- yeah, yeah, it could have done better, but considering both VIZ and Nintendo have had their own taste of bad karma releases (Nintendo with Super Mario Brothers the Live Action Movie and VIZ with... Pokemon the Third Movie count? No? Never mind then). Well, VIZ has had its failings too, but why is it we (the Animal Crossing playing community) have to be punished because not enough people went to see a movie released during the busy holiday season! Come on! As Animated Movies goes it could have had a far better release than a few days before Christmas! Talk about instant death sentence!

The movie has a lot of heart, and is really a great piece of work if you'd just like to sit down and see something really touching and pretty and just cute beyond all meanings of the word KAWAII! And did I mention this movie is a gold mine of Animal Crossing appearances? Besides the aforementioned there's villagers like Antonio, Cesar (or is that Violet?), Champ, Whitney and Hopper. All the major cast like the mayor, Pelly & Phyllis, Mr. Reset(ti), K.K. Slider, Crazy Redd, Tom Nook and the Able Sisters also show up. Also we see guest characters like the crazy beaver Pascal, not to mention a ton of Animal Crossing item/furniture/clothing/tool/event/holiday/etc references that only a true blue fan would know! Basically it's an Animal Crossing bonanza here. Also, if you want more information on the movie, or the Animal Crossing Manga that nobody has yet imported for English release (hint, VIZ, hint) check out "Dobutsu no Mori (film)" on Wikipedia for more info!

Now why again with VIZ, and pitching this to them? Mostly because you should not be holding your breath for Mighty Nintendo to come and bring this to you anytime soon, because it so won't happen. Now here's word from "GoNintendo" about the possibility of bringing this movie to non Japanese speaking audiences as relayed by a rep of Nintendo to a fan asking them about it.

Go Nintendo, October 17th 2007:

"No plans to bring Animal Crossing move to North America"

"The following is a response that reader Mike got from Nintendo of America when he asked about the Animal Crossing movie heading our way."

"Currently, there are no plans to release the movie you asked about here in North America. For the latest Nintendo news, be sure to check our website at www.nintendo.com. Sincerely, Nintendo of America Inc."

"Dervin Camden got this from Nintendo of America."


So I'm bringing this one to you, VIZ, and telling you that... well... truth be told we can't even expect VIZ to even consider it until the economy straightens out and there's a guaranteed audience and cash flow of sales which even I admit I couldn't promise now even if I wanted to.

So... sadly... I'm bringing this to you, VIZ, and telling you that (when the economy is right and money is guaranteed) we, the Animal Crossing fans, would like you to consider acquiring the release rights to Animal Crossing the Movie and Animal Crossing the Manga under the VIZ banner at a future date... yeah, it may be a long while before the economic elements are all in the right place, and things are go for at least considering the release... but when that day comes and Animal Crossing the Movie gets the translated release (both dub and sub) it so richly deserves then that is going to be a good day for all of us who are fans of the series, double kudos if the manga gets a release as well.

All we need is someone to come to bat and bring us this movie in a release more fitting the title, hopefully VIZ is the one we can count on to save us from the slow grinding painful wheels of non-progress Nintendo intends to grind us down under in their procrastination. OK. That's all I'm going to say. Back to mangas in the morning. (And that's all I have to say on this, my latest pet project.)``xEkuEVZZuyleWvZOKDm``x1241577468``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x``xNintendo EAD``xJōjin Shimura``xAya Matsui``xYui Horie``xFantasy``x``x``x``x``xNintendo``xAll Ages``xA``x8.95``x150``x225``xanimalcrossing_movie.jpg``x``x``x``x What I'm Lookin' At, PART THREE``xParkCooper``xA review of the popular-culture-related imported things Barb and I have been lookin’ at lately...



--EARTH-SHATTERING BREAKING MANGA NEWS!

While I was busy networking at NYCC, some companies, like, actually made announcements about important things! Why in the world would anyone announce anything at a convention? All the journalists are on the con floor trying to get jobs/get their pet projects published! But sure enough, that's what Yen Press did, and boy is this one important, seriously:


Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma - Starting with volume 6, Yen Press will be picking up this comedy series from the creator of Azumanga Daioh. For those not familiar with the series, it’s the story of an energetic girl named Yotsuba and her encounters with everyday objects. Her enthusiastic curiosity is both hilarious and heartwarming, and we are very pleased to be releasing the rest of this fantastic story.


WOW! (What they don't say is "Because ADV Manga has proven unable to do so for reasons no one is privy to." Go ahead, try to call ADV and talk to them about this. Ask them about volume 2 of Blue Inferior, too, I dare you. But Yen Press is stepping in to continue the magic!) YAY! Librarians and people who like fun stories, rejoice!



--Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit
Viz

Like Battle Royale meets Confidential Confessions... only more of a downer. A terrible, horrible, evil country (Battle Royale started this trend of allowing Japan to vent about things it doesn’t like about... gee, I don’t know, could we be thinking of North Korea maybe?) inoculated everyone against diseases... but because of something intentionally added to the syringes, one in one thousand is going to die suddenly sometime in their very late teens or very early twenties... Partly to make us realize how precious the gift of life is, but mostly to underscore what it’s like to have a government that’s ready to kill you at any time if you get out of line—which they also do, any time anyone gets out of line and speaks up against the government. Depressing, and so far there’s no way out in sight.




--Bat-Manga: The Secret History of Batman in Japan; Pantheon Books, 2008

Guess what yet again: back in the day, Batman existed in manga form in Japan. Here is a collection of some of it. This is a pretty cool book, actually, if you like dated camp... and I am capable of liking dated camp, to a point (we own six copies of Bride of Deimos in this house, after all). But there is one noticeable flaw: it gets boring whenever they make up bad guys, and is therefore only interesting when they are doing their take on Batman’s usual rogues’ gallery, such as Clayface.



--The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels
by Danny Fingeroth with some illustrations by Roger Langridge
Rough Guides Ltd, 2008

Better than one might think.

Every time I pick up any sort of guide or index to graphic novels these days, they tend to marginalize, put down, slight, and/or ghettoize manga. Or else they just do it wrong. They certainly show that they don’t approve of manga and that mention of manga is only there because their publishers/money-loving hearts made them include manga so that the book would sell better.

But THIS book doesn’t seem to have that problem, or at least it’s not jumping out at me on very casual inspection (I’m afraid to sniff too closely at each sentence, since I don’t WANT to find such an attitude), thereby putting this guide very very very much in the noble minority these days.

I do wonder about listing Megatokyo in the manga chapter, though... so much for 10 million American manga fans (and Chynna Clugston, as I seem to specifically recall) telling me that “manga is defined as comics created and originally published in Japan”. I always disagreed anyway, but... Megatokyo, eh? I’m on your side about this IN GENERAL, Danny, but did you run this idea past the last 10,000,001 American manga fans I talked to?

Of even more interest to me was: the “included graphic novel!” that comes with this book—Fingeroth and Langridge did a little graphic novel about making graphic novels. What fascinates me is that the artist is a dude but the writer he finds to work with is a female! Why, it's as if Fingeroth respects the concept of women who can create-- indeed, WRITE-- comics and graphic novels! Golly, wotta concept.

It is a little odd how they show that the big companies want to ruin the creators’ work, so they self-publish, and immediately are picked up by a small indie company... there were a few cases where I wanted to say “what’re you trying to say, Danny?” but I have to admit... that’s about as realistic of a hypothetical example as one can probably get...



--Disappearance Diary
by Hideo Azuma
Fanfare/Ponent Mon 2005 (Japan)/2008 (in English)

The artist/creator has had three times in his life when he just couldn’t take the pressure any more and dropped out of his own life.

Part 1: He can’t stand the manga industry any more and becomes a homeless man, eating stuff he finds on the street and smoking the best cigarette butts he can find.

Critique: This is the least likable part. Azuma, stop that and get back to work. People aren’t supposed to choose to do this until they have absolutely no other options. You could have gotten manga work, or even other work, and you weren’t on drugs, and you weren’t insane enough to be an insane homeless person, so just cut that out.

Part 2: He drops out of his life again and gets a job in the natural gas/pipe fitting/utilities industry.

Critique: This is better than last time, and yet, at the same time, boring. Azuma, if you’re going to chuck your manga career, that’s up to you, but if your new job isn’t interesting, don’t make a manga about it later.

Part 3: He drops out of his life again, this time to go into rehab for being a truly, seriously sick alcoholic.

Critique: Well, it’s the best section... First of all, he gives us a lot more about the wacky, irritating workings of the manga industry, somewhat establishing what comes next, which he really didn’t do in the other two parts. (He’s still a PROLIFIC MANGA CREATOR IN JAPAN, of course, so you have my permission to have absolutely zero sympathy with him, especially when he talks about knowingly doing a half-assed job, but at least he tries to set things up this time to a certain extent.) Second, he’s actually got a reasonable excuse for leaving his life this time: say what you want about the foolishness of his BECOMING an alcoholic, but he sure enough FULLY QUALIFIES as an alcoholic—the guy from LOST WEEKEND wasn’t this close to dying (plus, that only took one weekend). Third, therefore, we get his adventures in rehab, rounding out this section and helping to make it the above-and-beyond least-boring section of the whole book.

So, if you want to see a guy ruin his life while drawn in a cute, halfway-to-chibi style, come on down to Hideo Azuma’s Disappearance Diary, and watch a storyteller with every intellectual and emotional faculty at his disposal except for Wisdom and Shame tell about the most embarrassing parts of his life. I hope his nice little wife gets some of the proceeds...







Note: For an extended, more-non-manga-filled version of this column, see here:
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/pb/124085056287584.htm``xEkupAulApydgsWsHEw``x1240948906``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xYotsuba 6.jpg Beauty Pop v09-10``xYsabet``xAlthough a truly gifted hairstylist, Kiri Koshiba has no interest in using her talent to pursue fame and fortune, unlike the three popular boys in the "Scissors Project" at school. Determined to become the best makeover team in Japan, they give showy makeovers to handpicked girls. As much as Kiri tries to shy away from the Scissors Project spotlight, she finds herself responding to beauty's call...

Beauty Pop sat on my "to read...sometime" list until I was sent review copies of the last two volumes, at which point I finally put in the effort to track down vol. 1-8 and catch up. It's a shoujo title I've heard mentioned often enough that I always figured I should check it out, but what I knew of the premise (which turned out to be fairly accurate) made me suspect it wouldn't be my thing. And sure enough, I'm really not the ideal target audience for a manga about the pursuit of an exciting career in hairstyling, even with the clear focus on how nice it is to make people feel better about themselves.

Making people feel more comfortable with their appearance--"adding a little magic", as she says--is the main reason Kiri seems to ever do anyone's hair at all, despite the buckets of raw talent she's inherited from her genius stylist father (who is by far my favorite character. I have a tremendous soft spot for laid-back manga dads who adore their kids). But she's still been sucked into unending schemes and competitions with the SP guys, and in these last two volumes they're participating in a contest with some ludicrous goals and some really nasty sabotage. Unfortunately, Narumi and Ochiai are both getting pretty interested in her (not that Kiri shows any signs of noticing), which creates conflict the group can't really afford.

There's a lot to like in these two final volumes of the series: fans will already be familiar with the cheap tactics that Narumi's detractors stoop to, and they're no more over-the-top than usual. There's some real tension in here as the SP group tries to overcome external opposition and their own limitations, which are fairly believable--for example, Narumi's habit of pushing himself to the point of injury has been a constant theme for several volumes now, and that kind of thing takes its toll. Meanwhile, Kiri's attachment to the group is still developed and shown in nicely understated ways.

Other than the actual subject matter not being up my alley, the one thing that kept distracting me from the story was some of the characters' similarities to characters in Ouran High School Host Club (a later series, but one I'm much more familiar with). It wouldn't be so striking if Ochiai weren't creepily like Ouran's Kyoya in many ways, but once that comparison was established it was hard to not read Narumi as being a bit like Tamaki, only hot-headed instead of charming. A small thing, but distracting, as I said.
Vol. 10 has some solid extras tucked away at the back to wrap up the series. In addition to a couple of bonus side stories and a flash forward after the main story's action concludes, VIZ editor Nancy Thistlethwaite assembled a favorite-scenes collection from the English version's team. It includes a comment from Kiyoko Arai as well as notes from the translator, adapter, editor, touch-up artist/letterer, and design artist, and it provides a particularly nice touch.

Review copies provided by VIZ Media.``xEkupAulEAlzsSMRIXN``x1240948198``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421525941``xKiyoko Arai``x``x``x``xComedy``xRomance``x``xMiho Nishida``xAmanda Hubbard``xViz``xTeen``xB``x8.99``x150``x225``xBeauty Pop 10 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class v1``xjoykim``xGA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class is a yonkoma (4 panel) manga that follows five friends--Kisaragi, Miki, Namiko, Tomokane, and Miyabi--during their days in a high school art department. Each strip collected in this volume captures a different moment in the girls' lives, from the frantic rush to complete an assignment to not-so-peaceful lunches in the cafeteria.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should begin by noting that I generally avoid picking up yonkoma series, as I mostly read manga for the rich character and plot development made possible by the multi-page chapters of lengthy serialized stories. Yonkoma obviously can't tell those kinds of stories, and in general their individual strips tend to rely heavily on one-note gags. Such gags can certainly be very funny, occasionally even sublime, but they usually aren't enough to inspire love in this particular reader.

So I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed the strips collected in this first volume of GA. This is not to say that GA is by any stretch of the imagination a ground-breaking work: the character moments it captures are mostly small ones, and the five girls are straight out of central casting. But at its best GA is zany, even a little charming, and is good for more than its fair share of laughs.

The Yen Press edition of this series features color pages scattered throughout the book, not just at the front. The color pages are a particular treat here because so many of the strips feature mini-art lessons about color (though a cheerful author's note does warn readers not to place too much trust in the art information contained within). There are also several pages of detailed notes at the end of the book regarding cultural and artistic references in the volume. Much of humor of the book is very culturally-specific, and readers without some basic knowledge of Japanese culture may weary of flipping to the back to make sense of every other joke.

In conclusion, GA may be disposable entertainment, but it's still well worth reading. Fans of other yonkoma, like Shoulder-A-Coffin Kuro (by the same creator) or Azumanga Daioh, should definitely investigate it, and it may also appeal to fans of school stories or readers with a particular interest in art.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkupAuZlyExclOdDla``x1240947861``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759529035``xSatoko Kiyuduki``x``x``x``xComedy``x``x``xTomo Kimura``x``xYen Press``xTeen``xB``x10.99``x150``x225``xga_v1.gif``x``x``x``x Black Lagoon v4``xrasmussen``xImitation is supposed to be the height of flattery, though in Black Lagoon’s case it’s not really imitating as much as it wants to be the next something... I think it’s the next Cowboy Bebop. Not so much the whole space cowboy future bounty hunter thing as in the popularity and high fan approval of Bebop; it wants to inherit that (and probably Bebop’s fan base too while it’s at it). Can it do it? Well it is M for Mature (and Bebop had a very prominent spot on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim back in the days when they weren’t all anally “American Animation First” with Anime exiled to Saturdays only… come on now, as much as I appreciate Family Guy and sometimes Robot Chicken, and put Anime back on the menu seven days a week, Cartoon Network -- we can actually live without a majority of the stuff you now keep showing nightly you know...).

What else (that I won’t go into a long rant about)?
Black Lagoon is about “the baddest group of mercenaries ever to hit the high seas of Southeast Asia!”… wow, usually when a title says something like that I get this whole “Danger Will Robinson! Danger!” alert in the back of my head, because titles that usually blow their horn like this end up sucking… this doesn’t suck, but it’s not Cowboy Bebop memorable either. Anyway, where was I... oh. Right. Anyway they have an old WWII torpedo boat called the Black Lagoon, while Bebop had an old ship called the Bebop I think… yeah. Bebop had a mixed cast of strange eccentric characters, this title has a Boss (Dutch, no relation to Schwarzenegger’s Dutch from the first Predator movie), a Mechanic (Benny), someone named Revy Two Hands (the token female) and Rock (the salaryman from Japan… you’re kidding me, right? Rock the Salaryman?!? Damn...)

They, like the crew of Bebop, tend to mix themselves up in the affairs of people you shouldn’t mix yourself up with. In this case it’s the Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Colombian drug cartels, crazed (but not Deadpool-funny-crazed, just crazy-killer-crazed) assassins, and other mercs of the trade... it’s like Law & Order only without JP Waterhouse pitchman Sam Waterson.


In this volume, Rock is supposed to be an interpreter for hire, with gal Revy as bodyguard. And from there you are off to the races. Two sides (it’s the Japanese Yakuza and the Russians with a severly-disfigured killer-woman on their side and the obligatory breakouts of violence, action and violence between the drama and attempts to be Bebop cool… so, does it work?

As an action title it delivers well enough, but doesn’t contain that extra oomph to make it perfect 5 out of 5 material (aka that A+ grading over here… did I ever mention I dislike the letter grade system? My usual rating is a 1 to 5 out of 5 [5 levels])... What’s important here is that the title is an average action drama and it’s all right, but I never really connected with its characters to the point of saying I really want to rave about this. That, by the way, has to be important to really get a high score... I, as a reader, should really bond with the characters and really feel some great motivation to want to keep reading the title. I don’t feel that here.

The title is a decent enough action drama yarn, but I could hardly care less about the four stars of the book. They just don’t grab me as they should, and that’s bad news. Because of that, I floated away, from being interested in the read to just saying yes, yes it works… and that’s it, it works, and nothing else. Maybe it’s just me, so I’m going to give this title a B- because if you pick this up from the start (not here, but Volume 1) and roll from the word go to now? I presume tht you may pick up that all-important connection with the characters, and make that synch that makes you want to keep on reading and keep on following this title. Me? I didn't come in for volume 1... this just didn’t do it for me. You might have a different response though, so if you’re curious and want to give this a spin, then pick up Black Lagoon (preferably Volume 1) today and try it out... perhaps you'll be pleasantly surprised by it.


Next week?
Right now if you’re following my video game reviewing you may know I’m gearing up for a competition between cooking/puzzler games with cooking themes this year. So why don’t I just bite the bullet and review the title about... yes... making bread! (VIZ WHY!! Please VIZ get the rights to Cooking Mama the Manga or Cake Mania the Manga or Diner Dash the Manga... SOMETHING THAT IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING BUT... BREAD?!? AND WHY THE HELL IS A SERIES ABOUT BREAD SO DAMN LONG?!? WHY!?!)

Uh… yeah. Next week is a very long review of Yakitate!! Japan (featuring all the volumes I’ve received to date, which is quite a bit of review right there). Stay tuned.``xEkupAuZupyDxEXDYAc``x1240947406``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421518937``xRei Hiroe``x``x``x``xAction``xCrime``x``xDan Kanemitsu``x``xViz``xMature``xB-``x12.99``x150``x225``xblack lagoon 4.jpg``x``x``x``x Words Of Truth And Wisdom: As You Like It``xNibley``xIn our last column, we talked about... what did we talk about again? Right. The Anime Detour panel about making anime/manga a profession as opposed to keeping it as just a hobby. We mentioned to a friend of ours that there was one point I forgot to mention last time (it just didn't go with the flow of the rest of it), and she said she'd like to hear our thoughts on it, so we said we'd try writing them up and see if they filled up a whole column. And the point was this: As a translator going into anime and manga translation, you WILL have to translate something you don't like.

That was the statement the panelist made. While we do think it's very likely, and you really ought to be prepared for that eventuality if you are considering translating manga (we can really only speak for manga, since we have yet to branch out into anime (though of course we would like to, should the opportunity arise)), we don't think it's necessarily true. Of course, this opinion could come from the fact that we're pretty eclectic in our anime/manga tastes, so we're not turned off by, for example, mecha. And so in six years of translating manga, we haven't had to translate anything we don't like. ...Okay, so there have been some scenes that we didn't like, but never an entire series. And of course, there are some titles we like better than others. But we enjoy all of them.

Anyway. All the manga companies we work for will ask us if we'll do a title before making us the official translators on it. In other words, if they offer us something we don't like, we have the option of saying no. I'm pretty sure most people would agree that saying no can often be a very very bad idea, especially when you're just starting out. If you want to get your foot in the door to manga translation, you have to agree to do something. We actually have been known to turn down titles, but only very rarely, and usually because of content that we don't feel comfortable translating. We don't like translating “adult” titles, for example.

And that brings me to my next point. When you're looking for companies to offer your services to, check out the kind of stuff they do to see how likely you are to have to translate something you really would hate. For example, there are some companies that specialize in hentai and the like that we would obviously not want to work for. If you hate mecha with a mad, unbridled passion, you probably don't want to apply to work at Bandai.

But more than anything, we like to have an attitude of loving what we work on simply by virtue of the fact that we work on it. For example, when TokyoPop offered us Ai Yori Aoshi, they said, “What do you know about Ai Yori Aoshi?” And Athena said, “It's a lot like Love Hina, only more boring.” (We sincerely apologize to all the Ai Yori Aoshi fans out there; we had only seen a little of the anime at the time.) And they said, “Well you can translate it anyway and get money. So there.” (That was actually almost literally how it happened; it was when we were working as interns, so there may have been some formalities dropped.) And now we like it a lot (though there are some scenes that make us blush; such is the problem with titles like Ai Yori Aoshi).

We recently discovered that there's some sort of wiring in our brains that causes us to fall asleep during long action sequences in movies, but even those aren't a problem when we're translating manga! In fact, they actually mean less work, because in manga, action scenes mean big pictures without a lot of text. There have been times when we'd be translating an action manga on a hot day (it's always hard to work when it's hot), and they'd be all over the place with tons of exposition, and we'd be like, “Will you just start killing each other already!?” Good times.

So anyway, I guess it all comes to there being two surefire ways to completely and thoroughly get out the possibility of translating something you don't like. First, be so super awesome at translating that people are falling over themselves to get translations from you. That one's going to be really hard (we're still working on it ourselves), and we'd imagine it's pretty difficult to prove that you're that good without having actually translated a bunch of stuff first, so it's much safer to go with method number two: just like everything.




``xEkupFVAFuuhFXLYnWO``x1240359344``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Love*Com v12 ``xYsabet``xRisa and Ôtani's high school days are rapidly drawing to a close, and while Ôtani waits for his college entrance exam results to be posted, Risa is still trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Her main interests--video games and her favorite musician, Umibôzu--don't exactly lead the way to an obvious career. Given her total lack of ideas, it's not surprising that she pounces when Nobu makes a suggestion: she thinks Risa's taste in clothes might mean Risa has a future in fashion. They're both thinking along the lines of choosing clothes for other people, but then Risa stumbles across an unexpected opportunity to try modeling. (The first chapter is handled in some refreshing ways--Love*Com is comfortably within the typical high school romance/comedy parameters, as opposed to playing around with them the way High School Debut does, but it's still full of little touches that make it an above-average example of the genre.)

Exam results are this volume's main focus, though: Risa is deeply worried about Ôtani's chances of getting into his school, and meanwhile, other friends are dealing with the results of their own entrance exams. But despite the characters' tension, this volume finds plenty of room for lightheartedness in the form of weird dreams and teasing Risa's co-worker, Kohori, whose inappropriate handling of his crush on Risa has somehow still not resulted in her smacking him silly.

This volume introduces a new translator and adapter for the series. I tend to check credits before reading new manga volumes, so I don't know whether the change would be noticeable if I hadn't known that in advance. Love*Com has always had a nice English script, and that hasn't changed, but the rendering of the characters' Kansai dialect feels slightly different.

Volume 12 of Love*Com includes a standalone bonus story, "I'll Love You Even If I Become a Star".

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkupFFVllVOSUsauSz``x1240335885``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421523701``xAya Nakahara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xJN Productions``xShaenon K. Garrity``xViz``xTeen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xLove-Com 12 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Oninagi v1``xjoykim``xFifteen-year-old Nanami is looking forward to starting high school, since it will give her an opportunity to be closer to her long-time crush Kazuto Sanjouin. But her hopes for a normal springtime of youth are promptly derailed by the arrival of a mysterious swordswoman, Tomotaka Onogoroshi. Tomotaka accuses Nanami of being a demon and tries to kill her. And when the dust finally settles, Nanami learns things about her family history that will change her life.

Oninagi is basically supernatural action by the numbers. Every element in the story is a familiar one, and there's no twist that makes the series distinctive or noteworthy. The plain-Jane lead, the tough swordswoman, the shadowy organization of demon slayers, the random assortment of demons--readers have seen all this before. Even the fan service feels perfunctory. When one fight ended with Nanami's sailor fuku being torn to pieces by a blast of magical power, it was so predictable that I didn't even bother to roll my eyes.

The story also suffers from a somewhat scattered focus. It can't seem to decide whether its main character is Nanami, who is sweet and bland, or slightly more interesting Tomotaka, who fights with the sword Oninagi that gives the series its name. By the end of the volume, I was leaning toward seeing Nanami as the lead, but she hardly seems compelling enough to carry a series. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast falls into their respective sidekick or villain roles so quickly that any introductory conflicts feel like going through the motions.

There are so many great supernatural and action manga out there--try Kekkaishi if you like the high school angle, or Claymore if you want strong women characters--that I can only recommend Oninagi to those reading for the fan service. Everyone else can safely give this one a pass.

This volume features a color page insert featuring the main characters and a page of translator's notes at the end of the book. Sound effects are left untranslated, but are accompanied by romanizations and translations in small print on the some page.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkupFFVuVuQOHNTvWr``x1240335454``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759530343``xAkira Ishida``x``x``x``xAction``xSupernatural``x``xKaori Inoue``x``xYen Press``xOlder Teen``xD``x10.99``x150``x225``xoninagi1.jpg``x``x``x``x Pokemon Platinum``xrasmussen``xYes, it’s still the same tried and true series we’ve known from the early Game Boy days with Blue/Red/Pikachu Yellow, but as it's gone along it’s grown and evolved and (because of the constant growth of the series) maintains itself as both an old reliable franchise we know will always deliver 100+ hours of solid enjoyable addictive gaming, and a series that earns its stripes edition after edition as 5 out of 5 (A material here) perfection. Platinum is no different.

The latest of the collection series (after the duo release comes the game that collects both games, in this case the highly recommended Diamond and Pearl, into a single release for those of us who missed Diamond & Pearl) it’s the same story but with new elements... but before we cover what’s new, let’s cover what’s good about this.

As always, the series is a solid bet for your collection because it’s just well made. You are out on a great Pokemon adventure, gathering Pokemon while following along a storyline to gather Gym Leader Badges, all the while being faced with a mysterious enemy while on your journey of self discovery (while having a friend/rival to go against). Here, you find yourself pitted against the inheritors of the legacy of Team Rocket, Team Galactic, and their plot to use and abuse Pokemon and humans alike to achieve a nefarious scheme of epic size.

But you’re here to capture Pokemon... I haven’t played a Pokemon game since Crystal back in Game Boy Color, but it seems to me this time out you’re capturing Pokemon... at a rather slow rate. Considering the Pokemon count is at several hundred by now, why does it seem I’m catching fresh new ones at a rather lethargic pace? By now (after 20+ hours of gameplay) I should have a fairly decent roll call of Pokemon I’m shuffling through/retiring from active service as they reach their full potential... maybe it’s just me. Not a downer, mind you, in fact it’s a plus since you’ll definitely be working your rear off for every capture here.

Another plus is the addition of new modes.

--Two on two mode - I think that started back in the GBA era, and it returns as you are at times teamed up with an AI partner to fight two on two battles (with either wild Pokemon or twin trainers).

--New Pokemon Center content - Like the Chat rooms (you can chat with people around you or online), new games like the one where trainers put their eggs on a spinning disc, give it a spin and randomly take an egg for a surprise hatching. Oh, and of course battle modes of course now that you can battle trainers online as well as nearby, if you can find them.

--The Poketch - Taking up the lower screen (once you get it), the Poketch is a modifiable "watch" with several functions (which is added onto the longer you play as new applications are plugged into it). It’s still not a replacement for the old radio attachment to your Pokegear from Crystal (because of Talk Radio, Pokemusic, and the contest to win stamps you turn in for stuff), but I am still working to add new content to my Poketch so I might yet find stuff I like (right now I just use the clock so I know what time it is).

--New Berry trees - Instead of just plucking berries off of trees and waiting a day for the tree to regenerate, you have a hand in growing your own trees (and working them up to multiple berries before you pluck them). That’s cool. New functions for old gear - Bikes now are used to access certain areas that only bikes can enter (jump certain rocks). Certain HM (Flash) have been relegated to TM mode (one use) while new HM are available. No more hunting down Pokeball fruits in order to make special Pokeballs (they’re purchasable from the word go once you reach a certain level).

--New gear - Makeup kit to model up your Pokemon for Tyra(nt) Banks glamour model shots. New Pokeballs like Heal Ball (heals a Pokemon you capture with it so you can use it right out of the ball once captured).

And there’s probably more, but I am (after all) only 20+ hours into the game and I am not even scratching the surface on the game depth.

So, now the new content of Platinum.

--New story elements exclusive to Platinum

--Platinum can communicate with both past Diamond and Pearl versions of the game, as well as with Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii), as well as Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, Fire Red, Leaf Green and Emerald from the GBA... which means you can so forget using this option if you were suckered into buying a Nintendo DSi, there’s no GBA slot on the DSi. Stupid DSi.

--New expanded content thanks to the Wi-Fi Plaza and the Battle Frontier area.

--Different types of Pokemon not seen in either Diamond or Pearl.

--Add to that the simple control function which makes the game a fast learn right out of the book, the all-consuming gameplay and story, and the over 100 hours (one day to come to 200 hours) of gameplay you can squeeze out of this? Oh, right, right now we’re getting 100+ hours of gaming already, what are the odds we’ll eventually see a Pokemon RPG style game pack upwards to 200+ hours if this keeps up! Who knows, it might happen... it might happen.

--Otherwise what is there not to approve of this game! Now if you’re like me and totally missed out on Pokemon Diamond or Pearl? Go straight to this version and buy it now. Go on, this is an addictive gaming experience (it’s a wonder I can tear myself away from this long enough to review anything else these days)!

If you do own either Diamond or Pearl, however? Well... if you can you should grab it up (but only if you can). It’s a great game, but it’s not much different from Diamond or Pearl, so there’s no need for it if you already own Diamond or Pearl (but if you can, then do so since there’s enough fresh content here to make it a great addition to your collection).

But for now, I declare Pokemon Platinum one of the best Anime/Manga gaming experiences you can be having right now. A.






[Editor's Note: I, the editor, am perfectly aware that the art shown is from the Japanese version, but as I have observed before, it is often not easy to find good representative visuals for certain things, and with a non-manga, it is often even harder to find such visuals that are taller than they are wide...]``xEkupFFuVyuqvAydQfX``x1240334564``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x``xSatoshi Tajiri``x``x``x``xFantasy``xSci-Fi``x``x``x``xNintendo``xAll Ages``xA``x34.99``x150``x225``xpokemon_platinum_s08.jpg``x``x``x``x Prince of Tennis 26-31: A MangaLife Spotlight``xParkCooper``xRecently, Erik, the man who sends me review copies of manga from Viz, sent me a new package, and he wrote:

“Hey Park--I recall you dug a lot of Viz sports manga so I thought you might like a retrospective of Prince of Tennis...”

Well, yes and no. Yes, that was quite true of Whistle! And I’d count Hikaru No Go for a while (I read a spoiler I greatly, greatly disliked about the end of the series). Harlem Beat/Rebound was also a favorite of mine. More recently, I have greatly enjoyed Real and Slam Dunk.

But I’ve never really liked Prince of Tennis.

I certainly didn’t like the anime, and I didn’t love the manga, although I could see that it had some good qualities.

Because I gave Prince of Tennis a chance. A real chance. I got out a whole bunch of volumes from the local library and started chewin’ my way through ‘em. Around volume 7... 8... certainly 9... I started having alls I could stands and I couldn’t hardly stands no more.

The guys in Prince of Tennis are way, way too pretty. OBNOXIOUSLY pretty. The moves, as I have mentioned recently elsewhere, have fancy names and are overly gimmicky. The drama... oh, the drama. Remember the start of Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety, where his plane lands, and all sorts of bizarre things happen to him as he’s on his way out (while the credits are rolling), and he finally steps outside and goes, “Wow! What a dramatic airport!” Remember that? That’s how I feel about Prince of Tennis: Wow, what a dramatic series of tennis matches.

But, far be it from me to look six comp copies in the mouth, and so I gave PofT a new shot.

And it was so pretty and gimmicky and dramatic that it broke my brain so bad that I think I had a breakthrough and I GET PoT now.

It’s... it’s... it’s the perfect sports manga for those of you who like Rurouni Kenshin.

Allow me to explain.

Let’s talk about another sports manga I have disliked: Eyeshield 21.

Recently, in reference to what I find the insane gimmicky-ness of the plays in this football manga, I uttered this phrase:

“Eyeshield 21 has slightly less relation to real football than Shaolin Soccer has to real soccer.”

Okay, here’s the thing. I LIKED Shaolin Soccer (although my need for its existence in my life dropped sharply as soon as Kung Fu Hustle came out). But it wasn’t a SPORTS movie. It was a flamboyant contemporary martial arts movie.

I have also recently claimed that sports manga are just fighting manga with a lot more rules. What I don’t like about Eyeshield 21 is that it doesn’t follow the rules, by which I mean the conventions of the football story genre, ENOUGH. It’s all... very, very unreal. (Also I don’t like the art or the characters or much of anything else, but the gimmicky plays/moves are among the worst parts).

But let’s jump back and look at Prince of Tennis again.

Volume 26: Ryoma Echizen vs. Genichiro Sanada

We open with one of Ryoma’s teammates playing mostly-blind because of a recent shot by his opponent which hit him in the head.

AND HE’S STILL WINNING.

His senses, as the guy once said on Sports Night, have COME ALIVE.

I shouted an unpleasant expletive expressing my disbelief when I was informed of this.

My wife Barbara asked me what so disturbed me, and made me tell her. I told her. She tried to believe it. “Well, he IS the PRINCE OF TENNIS...”

“No, no,” quoth I, “This isn’t even the Prince of Tennis--this is just one of his TEAMMATES. This is merely a LOYAL VASSAL in the court of the Prince of Tennis.”

“Okay, I don’t believe it,” said she.

Okay, but determined to keep going, I kept going, and nothing so horrible happened again right away. Ryoma stepped onto the court, and he exuded a BATTLE AURA, but after Kenshin and Hunter x Hunter, I’m perfectly able, these days, to believe in people, even in real life, exuding a battle aura, so that didn’t faze me.

Volume 27: Until the Very Last Shot

Okay, so Genichiro is playing Ryoma, the Prince of Tennis, and they are each having a heck of a time trying to out-badass each other in a tennis-flavored way. AND THEN...

Genichiro is playing Ryoma, the titular Prince of Tennis. And Genichiro is noting that Ryoma just keeps getting faster even though you’d think he should be getting tired about now. And he knows there’s something... special... about Ryoma. And he looks at him extremely carefully to try to puzzle out what this thing might be. AND THEN...

You turn the page and the whole double-page spread is darkened, like when Naruto talks to the 9-tailed fox that is sealed inside him. But what we see, from Genichiro’s view, behind the tennis net, is no racquet, no ball, but a sword-wielding samurai. With white pupil-less eyes like he’s The Batman.

You turn the page yet again and there’s Ryoma. And Genichiro narrates mentally: “WHAT... WAS THAT?!”

And I GOT IT. I GOT IT.

For the first time, I understood the LEVEL OF REALITY upon which the creator of PoT was working, had been trying to work, or perhaps rather had BEEN TRYING TO WORK UP TO ALL THIS TIME.

By doing this weird, weird thing, the creator of this manga suddenly showed me this teeny, tiny, teensy-weensy grain of sand the size of a molecule of the SUPERNATURAL, or at least the PRETERNATURAL, in this sports manga.

And why not? There’s a ghost in Hikaru No Go, in which we all seek the perfect zen-like nature of satori as it might be found in the game of Go.

But PoT has worked its way more slowly up to this sort of revelation, so as not to overwhelm it. Just like how, by the time leaves and blades of grass that blew into Kenshin Himura’s battle aura would snap in half all by themselves, and those that blew into Lord Shishio’s battle aura would simply self-ignite, you said to yourself, “I BELIEVE IT!!!”

After this moment, I was fine with reading the rest of the volume, and of all the other volumes I got today of PoT. When Genichiro tried a super top-spin lob, so high that Ryoma couldn’t possibly hit it, and when, instead, Ryoma ran up and partially climbed the judge’s tower and leapt off it into the air in order to slam the ball back down to spin madly along the ground in a way that practically bent the laws of physics like light through a prism, I didn’t say, “Dude, is jumping off the judge’s tower even a legal move?”

Okay, I did say that, but when he wasn’t disqualified or penalized, I was able to accept it and deal with it.

THIS MANGA IS NOT ABOUT TENNIS.

This manga is, like all sports manga, about the Love of the Game, it’s true. But there’s also something else, something further happening here. It’s about Loving the Game BECAUSE the game, in this case the tennis court, is the contemporary battlefield, which allows a warrior to test himself again and again until he achieves his own ultimate level of personal perfection.

It’s Hikaru’s Divine Move all over again, only with way more physical action. It’s an allegory, just as Tohru Honda is the Buddha (I’ll explain THAT one to you some day, but I assure you that on a certain level it is true).

Prince of Tennis strains credulity less than Shaolin Soccer. I Can Cope With It.

Volume 28: Hyotei Rhapsody

This volume starts out with finishing the previous volume’s completely stupid beach volleyball tournament that Dear Old Tennis Gang started during their summer vacation/training camp... even the back-cover text is ashamed of this part of the story and tries to pretend it doesn’t happen.

A highlight of this volume, instead, is how a cute girl shows up to be Ryoma’s newest fan! Heck, she’s all ready to be his new girlfriend! He’s not interested, though, and when she leaves, he knows she’ll never be back--he’s realized she’s just a spy sent to try to figure out what his weakness might be, so he’s faked one, just to throw her off and display some disinformation for her to report back...

Volume 29: The Nationals Begin!

It’s time for the Nationals, where we start out against a team so evil, they “accidentally” let a stray shot peg the old man coachy guy who hangs around with Dear Old Gang right in the face! These baddies are from Okinawa, so they’ve come a long, long way and brought their Okinawan martial-arts tennis moves with them! Can Ryoma ever return a serve by a big huge guy that’s so strong that at one point it knocks the racquet out of Ryoma’s hand?

Volume 30: The Boys From Okinawa

It’s more tennis against those no-goodniks from Okinawa, who are so hardcore they picked their starting lineup by dunking all their heads underwater and the starting lineup was composed of the guys who kept their heads under the longest--clearly those with the most stamina! They’re so hardcore that their will to win is stronger than that of their own coach!

Volume 31: A Surprise Strategy: Eiji Plays Singles

The highlight of this volume is Eiji, a teammate on Dear Old Team who loves playing doubles, but his usual partner still hasn’t totally recovered from an injury, so he decides to try his hand at playing one-on-one singles against one of the bad guys, instead. When he’s unable to succeed that way... he just goes back to playing doubles against the guy. Over and over, everyone sees him in two places at once, like he’s playing both positions, doubles-style. How is this explained? It isn’t. Oh, you tell yourself it’s like he’s just that FAST—but I don’t think the manga ever SAYS that that’s what it is. He’s just sort of used his powerful battle-energy to sort of create a duplicate visual version of himself, mentally and spiritually covering both positions. Naruto can do it, so why not Dear Old Tennis Gang?

See what I mean about this title? But now that I understand that this is really sort of a spiritual samurai epic of the modern day, I can live with stuff like this. Go ahead, Erik-who-sends-me-manga-from-Viz. I no longer fear this gambit from you. I have pushed myself even beyond my limits and have discovered power I never knew I had--potential that was always inherent within me, unlocked now for the first time!

Because that’s how the court rolls in Prince of Tennis.

If you think that you’re ready for a sort of Kenshin Himura recast by the threads of fate into a 7th-grade tennis prodigy, maybe you might enjoy Prince of Tennis in spite of itself. It happened to me, just this evening...``xEkFAZFZFEFisQRyOFM``x1239737313``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xprince of tennis 26.jpg MangaLife Second Opinion: Naruto v38-39``xbarblien``xI am no fan of battle manga. Oh, it’s not that I don’t like the action-adventure genre. It’s just that fight manga are all fight and not enough actual plot. They tend to forget the adventure part of action-adventure. You know the typical battle manga: some yahoo with powers stands around talking about his (it’s usually a he) powers while the opponents talk about their powers and eventually you get speed lines. And as the series progresses, the hero trains more and more and the powers get more and more over the top as do the opponents and their powers and pretty soon it takes more than one volume to even get one fight over with and...

Eventually battle mangas all end up reading way, way too much like superhero comics. You know what I mean, don’t you? Too little characterization, too little actual plot, too little about the characters’ psychological journeys, too much about how their powers work and world domination and all that crapola that just indicates that there’s never going to be an end to it.

Yet somehow Naruto hooked me from volume one. Unlike most fight manga, I got to know and like every character in Naruto, and each of their backstories-- I had an emotional stake in every one of their stories (Choji, Rock Lee’s, and Gaara’s especially). I got to like the world-building aspects of the series. I got to like the “politics” of the series and the promises of explanations concerning all the secrets involved in the village hidden in the leaves.

Then somewhere after the Naruto “two year gap” (two year gaps in manga are never a good thing, IMHO---I mean, just look how it messed with Kare Kano), my aversion for battle manga kicked in and I couldn’t read Naruto any longer. Everything I hated about battle manga was there without the character interaction or the sense of adventure that hooked me on the series in the first place.

However, my husband still loves Naruto and likes me to follow the manga he follows. Out of husband-love, I came back for Naruto volumes 38 and 39. I’m glad I did. I’ve sort of missed that little bushy-haired kid and his orange costume. I liked these two volumes so much, I’m going to start reading the series again. Now, if you’re at all like me, and you were getting a little frustrated that the plot of Naruto just seemed to be getting nowhere, with too many manufactured missions that didn’t move the plot forward enough, come back. Stuff is starting to happen again.

Cool stuff.

Sasuke stuff.

You’re going to kick yourself if you don’t see the showdown between Sasuke and Orochimaru, one of the best manga villains ever. You’re also going to kick yourself if you don’t see Sasuke’s plans to finally go after his murderous brother. Sasuke, who I used to think of as bit of a pouty baby (I know, a darling looking one, but still) has officially hit anti-hero status.

Finally, Adventure has returned to Naruto.

Oh, and (sigh) Naruto’s learned a new power, which might kill him if he keeps working with it, but at least you know that the power is there to try and deal with Sasuke’s increasingly-obsessive revenge fantasies. I mean, c’mon, Naruto is rapidly becoming about the following:

--Naruto versus Sasuke.

--Naruto’s nine-tail fox demon and what will happen to it, Naruto, and the Hidden Leaf Village if he doesn’t stop those who want to steal that power for their own ends.

--Ninja kid Shikamaru’s increasing wisdom and coolness factor, which was dealt with more than adequately in the two volumes proceeding these two. I’m not reviewing those because other than ol' Shadow Teen’s cleverness, it was mostly a couple of big fights and the death of a character that I frankly don’t feel really had to die. It’s complicated and I don’t want to get into it. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t bet money that, with Shikamaru in the picture, Naruto’s dream of taking over leadership of the village will necessarily come to fruition...

Having said some nice things, there are also things I’d officially like to complain about, even though I’m a returning Naruto fan and will probably keep being so in spite of fights that last up to three volumes. Rock Lee is now officially underused. Oh, yes, he was in the puppet-master story arc, but not in a really characterization-driven way. And are we ever going to see Naruto’s wonderful grade-school teacher again? And what of Rock Lee's always-entertaining Sensei? Will he ever get to best Kakashi?

To me, those are the things that make me still read Naruto. I hope that we can at least get back to them someday. Because all the cool ninja monster types in the world and how they can manipulate chakra can’t make up for backstory or frontstory or STORY, period...

But... still. I guess if this was a normal review, I'd give these a B+, although like my husband, I find that the fight at the end of v39 certainly is boring... good thing he tells me it's over by next volume. The important thing is: the game is afoot again-- everyone back into the pool.

Oh, and Park says for everyone to note that Viz has put Naruto on the website Hulu, too, which he likes better than the website Joost, for its visual clarity as well as because it's a plot by aliens to take over the world. So go watch Naruto and Shikamaru beat up the bad guys... it's even slower than the manga, but you get to actually see stuff blow up in sound and color. Enjoy.``xEkFAZFyVVVantMMIGi``x1239736555``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xnaruto v39.jpg Otomen v2``xYsabet``xOtomen has a simple premise with charming execution. If you haven't read volume 1, here's a quick rundown: our hero, Asuka, has grown up with his mother pressuring him to never have any remotely feminine traits, because his father abandoned them after deciding he really wanted to be a woman. Asuka, who attempts to live up to his mother's expectations via adopting a stoic manner and excelling in martial arts, has no interest in being a woman. Unfortunately for him, given the situation, he has lots and lots of girly interests that would break his mother's heart if she ever found out.

Enter the love interest, Ryo, a girl with no girly traits whatsoever (and total cluelessness when it comes to Asuka's feelings for her), and Juta, a womanizing new friend who wants Asuka and Ryo to get together--not so much because he has altruistic concern for their feelings, but because he needs good material for Love Chick, the shoujo manga series he secretly writes. Asuka, oblivious to Juta's side career, adores the series, not realizing that he himself is Juta's inspiration for the female lead.

Where the first volume of the series spent a lot of time on Asuka's realization that it didn't do anyone any good for him to pretend to be someone he wasn't--at least around the girl he likes--volume 2 deals with some of the complications of his double life. Asuka has done such a good job of perfecting his image as an ideal man that a younger, too-cute-to-be-manly student wants to study his every move and become more like him; meanwhile, everything from the weather to the discovery that he has a fiancée seems to be conspiring against his unofficial relationship with Ryo.

Otomen is a lot of fun to read, and I attribute that to Asuka's utter sincerity and to the fact that Kanno manages to make Juta's blithe stalking of him over the top without being ridiculous. To some extent Juta is toying with Asuka, but he also comes to really like both Asuka and Ryo, and is cheering them on in a warped sort of way. The dynamic between the three characters is mostly played for laughs, and so far there isn't much depth there, but it's somehow endearing.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Asuka's mother, who makes her first appearance in the second half of the volume. She's a very one-note character so far, and if she continues to be largely out of the picture she may not get developed much further, but it would be nice to see if Asuka is ever able to open up to her at all. The combination of her absence (she works out of town) and Asuka's need to hide his real self from her offers the potential for interesting conflict if she's ever around long enough to have a real conversation with him.

Volume 2 of Otomen includes a one-page glossary of Japanese terms.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFAZFuAVZhNpCAYbR``x1239734957``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421521873``xAya Kanno``x``x``x``xRomance``xComedy``x``xLindsey Akashi``xLindsey Akashi``xViz``xTeen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xOtomen 2 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Pig Bride v1``xjoykim``xWhen eight-year-old Si-Joon, the spoiled son of a senator, is lost in the mountains during summer camp, he meets a strange woman who tells him that he must marry her (literally) pig-faced daughter to atone for the sins of his ancestors. He stupidly agrees to participate in the wedding ceremony just so he can have something to eat. (Well, he is only eight!) It's such a strange adventure that he grows up thinking that it was only a dream. But on his sixteenth birthday, his bride shows up in his dorm room, ready to consummate their marriage, and Si-Joon finds himself in a very awkward situation.

Pig Bride is a sunjeong manhwa (the Korean equivalent of shojo manga) that superficially has a lot of things going for it. Though Kim's art won't necessarily be to everyone's taste, it is well-executed. The character designs are intricate and distinctive--this is not one of those series where all the light-haired characters look exactly alike--but the details never overwhelm the page. The action and paneling always remains easy to follow. Meanwhile, the premise is ridiculous, but also ripe for the type of romantic hijinks that readers find in the best sunjeong manhwa and shojo manga.

Unfortunately, much of this promise is undercut by the characterization of the two leads. Si-Joon is an annoying twerp at age eight, happy to flaunt his father's influential position, and he does not improve much with age. This would not be a problem if so many characters weren't inclined to worship at his feet. Alas, Mu-Yeon, his unwanted bride, spends most of the book being blandly sweet and protective toward him despite his lack of interest of her. By the end of the volume, I wasn't rooting for the lead couple. I was actively rooting against them and hoping that Mu-Yeon might show signs of having a personality or spine.

The most interesting characters in the series thus far are actually Ji-Ho, Si-Joon's best friend and roommate, who has already shown himself to be rather perceptive about other characters, and Mu-Hwa, Mu-Yeon's sister and bodyguard, who likes eating cake when she's not busy waving her sword at people's heads. There are some hints of a potential Ji-Ho and Mu-Hwa romance down the line, which I suspect could actually be fairly entertaining.

The book features a foldout color insert of the two leads wearing traditional Korean wedding costumes, and the English lettering avoids the overcrowded look that sometimes mars other licensed comics. The original Korean sound effects in Hangeul remain intact, and small romanizations and translations appear next to them on the page. Normally I would cheer this sort of production decision; however, the romanizations here are very sloppy. They don't conform to any of the accepted systems and are also internally inconsistent. Let's hope the copyeditors do a better job with them in future volumes.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkFAZkpEEuKCjNwhjH``x1239720114``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0759529566``xKookHwa Huh ``xSuJin Kim ``x``x``xFantasy``xRomance``x``xJackie Oh``x``xYen Press``xTeen``xC``x10.99``x150``x225``xpigbride1.jpg``x``x``x``x Words Of Truth And Wisdom: Hobby Or Profession``xNibley``xWe just got back from Anime Detour! Tadah! (Have I used the random “tadah” in this column before? I tend to do it a lot...) I don't think we did enough to justify a full con report in this column, but there was a really good panel we went to that has given us a lot to ramble on that would be appropriate here. It was presented by Evan Miller, a translator for Aurora Publishing and Crunchyroll, and columnist at Anime News Network, and it was called “Hobby or Profession?” It was basically a discussion of whether or not making anime/manga a career is right for you, or if it would be better to keep it as a hobby instead.

The panel focused on various possibilities, like art and maybe other skills that could be useful in anime or manga companies (for example, just about all anime/manga companies have accountants), but since we're translators, I'm just going to focus on that part. And actually, I didn't ask permission to discuss the panel, so mostly I'm just going to talk about our own experiences as to the pros and cons of making translating a career.

To be honest, we love our job so much that we rarely consider the cons, but we have experienced some of them. The main one, of course, would be that it's actually not easy to make a living off of translating alone, especially with the industry the way it is right now. We had been told that the industry is dying since almost before we even got into it, but it has managed to survive thus far (barely), so we think it'll probably be around for a while. Manga is still popular, after all. But right now, it does seem to be in need of some serious life support. Regardless of that, we've found it to be pretty hard to get enough work from any one company. That in itself is a con, and it brings up another con: you have to be brave enough to market yourself, or at least to go to the companies that might be hiring and offer your services. We're both pretty shy, so this was really hard for us, and we went through a long period of poverty before we managed to kick ourselves enough to do it anyway. Fortunately, now that we've done it and it's worked, it's easier to work up the courage to contact more companies when we want to (like if we see a company getting a bunch of titles we want to work on, and think, “We want to work for them!”).

We have reason to believe that not all translation work for anime/manga companies is freelance, but we have yet to experience any in-house positions, so we have reason to believe that it's harder to get those. (Or we're just horrible at finding them.) But the truth is that a lot of companies hire freelancers. Working freelance is super fun, because you can make your own hours. It's like when Shigure shows up in Fruits Basket and says, “Good morning everyone!” and Yuki says, “It's four in the afternoon. Get a normal sleep schedule,” and Shigure says, “I became a novelist so I wouldn't have to.” You don't have to wake up early, and you don't have to go to the office--you don't even have to change out of your pajamas. But it also means that your taxes aren't automatically deducted out of your paycheck, so instead of getting a refund at the end of the year, you pay it all, and sometimes, it's not pretty. Make sure you haven't spent everything as you've gotten it. Also, there are no benefits, like health insurance. So you have to make sure to buy your own.

You have to be able to motivate yourself. It's nearly impossible to make a living doing freelance work if you can't get yourself to put down the video games every once in a while. Or, y'know, more than once in a while, since you'd want to work as much as people with “normal” jobs in order to make a living. That being the case, one of the things Mr. Miller pointed out was that your hobby will become “work.” For us, this is actually a pro. We eat, sleep, and breathe anime and manga, and when we've worked all day on a manga translation, we'll put it down and go read more manga. We think of it as getting paid to do something we're doing all the time anyway. But we also know some people who get tired of doing the same thing all the time, and some people who will immediately think of something as “work” in the hard labor sense as soon as it becomes their official job. In that case, you would definitely want to consider whether or not making your hobby into your job is really right for you.

And wow, it seems like there are a lot more cons than pros in this case. So what it all comes down to is how much you love what you do. If you love anime and manga enough to spend every waking hour on it, all the cons probably won't seem like much. We find that not only the manga we translate, but the translation process itself, is very rewarding. It's really fun to try and come up with just the right combination of words that mean the right thing but also sound like someone would actually say them. It's kind of like putting together a puzzle, and it's good exercise for the brain. I think I've quoted this here before, but someone (we have a planner that attributes it to Confucius) once said something like, “Find something you love doing, find a way to get paid doing it, and you'll never work a day in your life.” So for us, that's the biggest pro of translating manga. We don't work--we just get paid to have fun.


``xEkFAEFulEZkqyMZyXf``x1239134817``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Captive Hearts v4``xYsabet``xCaptive Hearts' plot gets more streamlined with every volume, as the characters get more and more determined to figure out a way to break the curse that makes Megumi literally live to serve Suzuka. The curse is interfering with their relationship more and more as time goes on, and Suzuka is unable to keep herself from feeling jealous over Megumi's relationship with Rui, his childhood friend who's filling in as a maid while his (Megumi's) father is away doing research on how to break the curse.

It's not just the uncertainty of knowing where the curse ends and Megumi's real feelings begin that's causing difficulties, either (especially since one refreshing note in the series is that neither of them has any doubt that Megumi really does love Suzuka, curse or no curse). For one thing, his inborn drive to protect her tries to protect her from him regardless of whether either of them sees any need for it--awkward, to say the least.

Volume 4 takes several steps in the direction of understanding and/or breaking the curse, and it's nice to see it advancing so quickly. (We're just over halfway through the series at this point.) I don't feel that the story is strong enough to sustain a long run, but if things continue happening at this speed it's entirely likely that it'll wrap up without meandering too much, which was one of the things I disliked when I first started reading the series (with volume 2).

This volume includes three bonus stories, a short feature about the creator's research trip to China, and a one-page glossary of terms and cultural notes at the end of the book.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFAEkVuluTJMPqLQR``x1239125484``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x142152158X``xMatsuri Hino``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xAndria Cheng``xAndria Cheng``xViz``xTeen``xC+``x8.99``x150``x225``xCaptive Hearts 4 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x St. Dragon Girl v2``xYsabet``xLike the first volume, volume 2 of St. Dragon Girl is very episodic, with each of the four chapters standing almost entirely alone. Despite the constant reiteration (in the text as well as the back cover copy) that Momoka and Ryuga use their respective skills as a martial artist and a magic master to fight together, they almost never actually team up in any meaningful way. Instead, Momoka does things on her own when she feels like she can't talk to Ryuga (which happens regularly, for a variety of reasons), which means that the chapters follow a predictable pattern of Momoka getting involved in whatever's going on, her not talking to him about it, and the two of them still both winding up involved in the story's resolution.

The individual plots are fun despite the recurring pattern, and they cover a fairly wide variety of material, but I wish the author would stop having each and every story make it painfully obvious that Ryuga knows how Momoka feels about him and having Momoka constantly react as if she can't possibly let him know. It's also clear that Ryuga likes her and is just messing with her, which gets old pretty fast.

The central plot point of Momoka being possessed by the dragon spirit Ryuga called up is surprisingly irrelevant so far; the dragon makes appearances from time to time, but it always seems more like a nod to the fact that she's possessed rather than being particularly necessary. Hopefully the creator will do more with this as the series progresses.

My verdict is basically unchanged since volume one: St. Dragon Girl is entertaining and has some good points, but it's also frustrating. Still, a lot of series take a while to get warmed up, so there's still potential here.

This volume includes a bonus story, a bonus feature about the creator's work process, and a page of cultural/translation notes.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.




``xEkFAEkVElpypXTUqnZ``x1239125180``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520117``xNatsumi Matsumoto``x``x``x``xRomance``xComedy``x``xAndria Cheng``xHeidi Vivolo``xViz``xTeen``xC+``x8.99``x150``x225``xSt Dragon Girl 2 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo Volume 2``xrasmussen``xWell in these trying times, we all could use a good title to distract us from our worries; luckily for you, VIZ consistently packs quality reads that take your mind off your woes, if only for a wee bit... case in point, the humor read BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo… Volume 2, containing material originally published in Shonen Jump #66 through #76. I thought it was enough when I heard there was a one-shot, then I was intrigued by a new Volume One on an ongoing basis... and now? Well, we roll ever forward with new content.

They still seem to be fighting the same DragonBall-Z-attired weirdo from last time (aka Giga) for the first half of the volume, once again engaging the same senseless slapstick humor from before... and really right now we need any humor we can grapple onto... so a title that is unafraid to be totally out of control and out there is a good thing in this day and age. Thanks VIZ.

Nothing is sacred, everything is fair play, and have at it-- anything can and probably will (or has already happened and you’ll have to buy the last volume to see it) happen here. Nothing seems to be beyond Yoshio Sawai’s mind as everything including a full kitchen set is thrown at the reader... in this one battle. There’s more past it, and more chances to be odd... or weird... or disturbing... or all three. Now if only Weird Al will write a song about him. That’d be nice. VIZ, hire Weird Al to write a song about Bo. I dare you.

Of course just fighting one DragonBall-Z-suited-nut-job will seem like a cakewalk (even if it was a really hard cakewalk that took like forever) after the mucho-bizarre events which leave everyone fighting an entire large amusement park... and something about hair hunters from 100 years ago or something... yeah, let’s not make it any easier to grasp, huh, Sawai, just keep hurling the madness... oh, next volume it’s a world at war... or however much of a world you can jam into a large amusement park filled with BoBoBo-Bo and allies and their 100 year old enemies from the past... didn’t I see that in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine once...? Whatever.

Right now we need more things of high quality (hitting low below the belt with low-brow humor that actually entertains) to give us respite from the way the economy is now; thankfully VIZ, will always be there to give us that helping hand... just, you know, don’t let it go to your heads, VIZ.

So, looking for a non-stop train running over you filled with not-so-cutting-edge (yet workable) humor that can really entertain and be satisfying going down? Here you go, enjoy. B+.``xEkFAEkuZyEKahnafis``x1239124761``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421521946``xYoshi Sawai``x``x``x``xComedy``x``x``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``x``xViz``xTeen``xB+``x7.99``x150``x225``xBobobo20Bo20Bo20Bobo20Volume201.jpg``x``x``x``x Step v1``xjoykim``xStep is the story of Mr. Han, a professional monster hunter, and Dynasty Tang, the orphaned vampire girl that he has taken in. When Mr. Han is not busy fending off vampires and three-headed dogs, he focuses on lighter pursuits, such as getting Dynasty Tang off to school on time and reading her bedtime stories. But Mr. Han has some secrets of his own--secrets that he'd very much like to avoid sharing with his young ward.

It's still unusual enough to see licensed manhua in the states that I greeted the arrival of Step in my mailbox with some pleasure. And at first glance, it looked promising enough with its attractive cover and color interior pages. Unfortunately, after reading the first few pages, I immediately had to lower my expectations for the rest. And nothing in the rest of the volume gave me a reason to bring those expectations back up.

The first strike against Step is its rather hideous art. The character designs are unattractive and inconsistently executed; it's sometimes difficult to recognize the recurring characters from chapter to chapter until they start speaking because the drawing style is so different. Also, the paneling and layout are very unpolished. Though some pages are well-drawn, for the most part this volume feels like a rough draft rather than a final published work.

The fairly generic premise and story do little to balance the weakness of the art. The case-of-the-chapter structure used here has been done better before by other series, largely because the episodes never succeed in being truly funny or truly scary. And though a couple of the episodes do open up possibilities for a more extended story arc down the line, it seems unlikely that the flat characterization could sustain that kind of storytelling.

I'm glad to see licensed manhua hitting these shores, but I suggest giving this particular series a pass.

Review copy provided by Yen Press.``xEkFAEkFppkQlbEQKVG``x1239123002``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x075952940X``xYanshu Yu``x``x``x``xHorror``xFantasy``x``xJ. Gustave McBride``x``xYen Press``xTeen``xD``x10.99``x150``x225``xstep1.jpg``x``x``x``x Hunter x Hunter the anime series: Box Set 1``xParkCooper``xI’m giving this series an A. Please keep in mind that this isn’t because it’s A-level animation—it’s the plot. It’s not exactly the dialogue itself, either, it’s the writing as a whole. It’s certainly not the English voicework... it’s the story in general.

But oh, what a story. Or, to be way more precise, what creativity. And I don’t mean creativity the way you often see it singled out and overdefined in reference to things-that-are-meant-to-be-of-reference-to-the-young so often, like where they mean “so creative” as a synonym for “quirky!” No, I mean creative as in ORIGINAL. And I don’t mean “original” like it is usually meant these days, as a synonym for “like a wild drug trip.” I mean GOOD.

But it certainly isn’t the animation or the English voicework.

Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

Hunter x Hunter is about a boy, Gon. Gon lives... on an island. I don’t know what the freakin’ heck kind of world Gon lives in... my best guess is that it’s like a million years in the future, but it’s really, really hard to pin it down, because it matters about as much as it matters in Saiyuki—just go with it, go with it. (My wife Barbara thinks they live about three dimensional islands down from One Piece, if that helps.)

IN this world, there are super-duper people called HUNTERS who can do anything, fight anything, go anywhere, find anything. There are cuisine Hunters who find rare ingredients and recipes. There are naturalist Hunters who find and preserve rare species. There are archeological Hunters who find rare historical sites and buried treasures. There are badass Blacklist Hunters who are just the worst kind of bounty hunters.

One day, Gon, a child of nature, at home rasslin’ with wild animals, a kid who’s never without his fishin’ pole, meets a man who tells him that Gon’s dad is a long-lost Hunter.

Gon decides to become a Hunter, and search for his dad, whom he’s never met (he was raised by his young aunt).

And THAT’s the start of the wildest adventure you’ve seen in a decade’s-worth of Sundays, as Gon sets out to take the insanely complicated Hunter exam, where finding the exam and getting there is as hard as some of the exam itself. Along the way, he meets:

Leorio: wants to be a doctor so he’s taking the exam because Hunters get special bank loan consideration (for med school)

Kurapika: wants to be a Hunter to track down and kill the Phantom Troupe, a mysterious collection of badasses who killed his tribe

Killua: The coolest of all, Killua is the 12-year-old scion of the world’s most famous family of assassins, who recently ran away from home ‘cause he got sick and tired of training for the family business and don’t wanna be no natural-born killer no more.

Hisoka: A crazy magician clown. Who, on his best days, knocks The Joker into a tipped hat. Unlike the three members of Dear Old Gang above, Hisoka is NOT a member of Dear Old Gang, but a delightful bad guy who just likes to go wherever the killin’-folks action is. And in the Hunter Exam, almost anything goes.

This isn’t a series for little infinks! It’s for older teens and up. But it’s really, really good. It’s from the guy who brought you Yu Yu Haakusho, okay? Watch it in Japanese with subtitles, and commit to it, and you might even like it even if you haven’t read the manga. If you HAVE read the manga, that’ll help way more. This box set of three DVDs brings you up to the middle of the Tower part of the Hunter exam.

You see, the creator is not the most organized guy in the world. Plot elements last as long or as quick as he wants. But since that doesn’t translate into TV very well, the TV people have added material so that there’s a beginning-feeling, a middle, and a feeling of closure (usually with a bit of a cliffhanger) in every episode, which actually usually really helps with the pacing.

It’s no, say, Cowboy Bebop, I’ll give you that. But if you like adventures that progress roughly on the level of a Yu Yu Haakusho, then I think you will really enjoy this series. It’s got rather more depth than DragonBall Z did, I’ll tell you that for free... For what it is—the best adaptation of Hunter X Hunter you’re likely to get (in Japanese) for the TV—I say they’ve done an A-level job. Enjoy.


``xEkFlVEEyupfUlYWuSc``x1238511640``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421521385``xYoshihiro Togashi``x``x``x``xAdventure``xAction``xComedy``x``xAngelo Eidse``xViz Media``xOlder Teen``xA``x44.99``x150``x225``xhunterxhunter anime box set 1.jpg``x``x``x``x MangaBible v5: Prophets, Captives, and the Kingdom Rebuilt (2 Kings-Nehemiah)``xbarblien``xIn spite of my feeling that manga as a medium shouldn’t be exploited to espouse ANY particular dogma or spiritual point of view, somehow the Manga Bible has become one of my favorite manga guilty pleasures. Actually, to be more accurate, it’s one of my fave Mahnwa guilty pleasures, as its country of origin seems to be Korea.

Why? Well, it’s certainly not the art. Oh, it’s serviceable, in a scratchy sort of a way, but it’s not going to keep Rumiko Takahashi up at night in terms of competition, if you get my drift.

Instead, the Manga Bible has several good points going for it. The first is that the blessed thing takes an incredibly complicated subject (the Old Testament) and makes it understandable to kids and adults alike. So if you’re like me and you’ve always wanted to read about the history/mythology/spiritual beliefs of Jehovah’s Chosen People but were too lazy to bother getting beyond Exodus, this series offers what you’re looking for in a simple to understand Cliff Notes version.

Secondly, while of course any book about The Bible is going to be preachy, The Manga Bible doesn’t actively oppress you with its dogma. It’s very straightforward, very well paced all things considered, fairly engrossing in places, and a breeze to read.

Finally, the series is smart enough to know that most good manga has a sense of humor about itself. I’ve actually gotten a few (intentional on the author’s part) chuckles out of the series because the author understands that if manga doesn’t entertain, manga doesn’t get read.

Now, this series isn’t for everyone. If you have no interest in the rather Oxymoronic term “Biblical History”, this series isn’t for you. If you’re looking for deep characterizations or deep analysis of the meanings/symbolism of these Bible stories, sorry, it doesn’t happen here. But the series delivers what it delivers in a painless, fun-to-read sort of a way. (Seriously, it's comedic... Isaiah has the burning coal touch his lips, preparing him to speak God's words, and then God asks "WHO SHOULD I SEND TO MY STUBBORN PEOPLE AS A MESSENGER?" and Isaiah's all got his hand raised: "Pick me! Pick me!" This sort of humor is rampant...)

If you’re the type of person who has people in their family who question why you like manga because they can’t understand it or think that it must be bad or somehow morally suspect or what have you because it’s a relatively new medium to them or you have Christian friends who wouldn’t usually let their kids read manga, The Manga Bible might be your first step in (dare I say it?) making unbelievers (in manga, that is) into converts.



[EiC's note: although I have labeled this "all-ages," the reading level probably stops down at about age 9, vocabulary-wise... in other words, the vocabulary might be pretty challenging for a 7 or 8 year old (interpret, decree, proclaim, captivity, etc), but I called it all-ages anyway because I wanted us all to understand that there's nothing in here that your kids' grandmother would object to if you left it lying around where your kids could find it... quite the opposite, really.]``xEkFlVEpZypOWlfwdRi``x1238510760``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x0310712912``xYoung Shin Lee``xJung Sun Hwang``x``x``xDrama``xComedy``x``x``x``xZondervan``xAll Ages``xB+``x6.99``x150``x225``xmangabible 5.jpg``x``x``x``x Black Jack v3-4``xParkCooper``xWell, it’s time to review two more Black Jacks. I feel like not going back and cribbing my own previous reviews, so here goes:

From the old master, Osamu Tezuka, the guy who gave the world ASTROBOY, BUDDHA, and DORORO (see previous MangaLife reviews), Black Jack is the story of the world’s most brilliant and often-noble, sometimes-Chaotic-Good-Teach-You-A-Lesson-You-Won’t-Soon-Forget surgeon, Black Jack.

Black Jack has a weird, semi-discolored, stitched-up face and multi-colored (some is white) hair, due to intense childhood medical trauma, that makes him extra weird and intimidating, although technically he’s still handsome. Those who aren’t intimidated by that are often put off by his reputation as an unlicensed surgeon who charges insanely mercenary fees (to those who can afford it, that is, but most people never hear about his generosity).

Black Jack is good. Read it. It’s usually as good in its own way as the Old Master’s other works. But to give just a hint of a few of the stories in store for you:

Vol 3:

“Dingoes”: While in the Australian outback, Black Jack gets the same disease that’s starting to sweep the remote countryside... and he can’t get back to civilization! In his inflatable plastic bubble of an emergency sterile surgery space that he carries in his doctor’s bag, Black Jack must self-diagnose and operate on HIMSELF... by the side of a stretch of lonely road! Oh no... HERE COME THE DINGOES!!!

(My wife Barbara: “I read that one while you were in New York! It was nuts! I was like “Black Jack is HARDCORE! Ya never see House do that! I’d still be watching if stuff like that went down!”)

“Baby Blues”: A member of a bad girl gang gets a bus locker key that a member of her girl gang pickpocketed from a random secretary. But when they open it up, inside they find... a baby! In the early 70s, in a bizarre wave of baby-abandoning, Japanese girls and women did so in coin-lockers, and this story plays off that. All the other girls want to shut the door and run away—can this girl get Black Jack to believe her and save the baby before her parents catch her and send her off to boarding school like they’ve threatened?

Vol 4:

“The Sea Smells of Romance”: A young sailor with a really bad attitude has fallen in love, and he wants Black Jack to remove his tattoos, because he feels this step is necessary to telling his love that he loves her... Black Jack, typically, could care less. But the sailor has a letter of reference from the person he loves—the ship’s doctor who used to be Black Jack’s love, long ago! Can Black Jack get over his mixed emotions long enough to help the young sailor? And when the sailor’s life is in grave danger after helping save people from an oil tanker fire... will he be _forced_ to help?

“Tetsu of the Yamanote Line”: Tetsu (who looks a LOT like Astroboy’s teacher Mr. Mustachio) is a pickpocket on the Yamanote subway line. He’s not really a bad sort, but he has a (secretly kinda sweet) rivalry with the local police inspector, who’s constantly trying to catch him in the act and put him away forever. But before he does, Tetsu picks a gangster’s pocket—and gets caught. Can Black Jack help the police inspector someday fulfill his dream of catching a pickpocket who just had two of his fingers cut off?

That ought’a give you an idea of the thrills you’re missing...

Now, these are 16.95 each, but they’re very nicely done, a bit larger than average, and they’re each over 300 pages—so for your dollar, you’re really not paying all THAT much more, and by the pound or kilogram, you’re really only paying a LITTLE bit more, if anything. So if you have the dosh, please help out America’s economic recovery via Vertical, Inc. and redistribute some Osamu Tezuka from the bookstore (or Amazon or whatever) into your home.``xEkFlVpAApEtUiKqHOo``x1238509901``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1934287415``xOsamu Tezuka``x``x``x``xDrama``xThriller``x``xCamellia Nieh``x``xVertical, Inc.``xOlder Teen``xA-``x16.95``x150``x225``xblack jack 3.jpg``x``x``x``x Whistle! v22``xParkCooper``xThe latest volume of soccer manga Whistle! certainly didn’t disappoint, though if you opened it and flipped through it, you might have thought it would.

“You know what they did this issue? Played a game of soccer,” I told my wife after it was done. And yet it elicited an out-loud “Wow!” from me while I was reading it.

The Wow came from our team big guy (size matters a lot in soccer—but both ways—little guys can be some of your most useful players) getting red-carded—not to be a jerk, but because the only way to stop a shot that he could tell was gonna go in was to kinda accidentally also kick a kid in the shins. A penalty... but not one he thought would also get him thrown out of the rest of the game. So he’s pretty mad about that... and madder when he finds that they’re playing better now that he’s gone. But when a spectator points out that they’re playing better because they’ve been spurred on by his noble sacrifice—it changes his whole perspective about what it means to be on a team.

But not in a PREACHY way where they go on and on about it. That’s not the POINT. The POINT, as in ALL sports manga, is about THE LOVE OF THE GAME. And that’s not lost here, as Dear Old Gang fights hard against a team that has love and righteousness in their hearts much as Dear Old Gang does, with each side’s special moves (but not over-the-top ridiculous moves—I’m looking at you, Prince of Tennis), amazing teamwork, and star characters, like the other team’s kid who used to play basketball but has converted to being a soccer noob—yet his body’s instincts are so good, he starts moving to successfully block you even before his brain actually registers you’re about to get past him if he doesn’t.

You know, the usual collection of qualities that make Whistle! a standout manga even when all they do is play a really intense game of soccer.

If you like sports manga at all, you will like this one. If you haven’t tried sports manga yet... well... sports manga are just fighting manga with lots more rules... and often with rather more characterization. Does that help?``xEkFlVpAVyZtWgCGFSK``x1238509567``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421524457``xDaisuke Higuchi``x``x``x``xSports``xDrama``x``xNaomi Kokubo``xHeidi Alayne``xViz``xAll Ages``xA``x7.99``x150``x225``xwhistle vol22.jpg``x``x``x``x Monkey High! v5``xYsabet``xHaruna and Macharu take to the stage once again when their class decides to do a rendition of Romeo and Juliet. Haruna's uneasy about acting in front of the entire school, especially since her father might show up for the performance. Will the play bring Haruna and Macharu closer together or end in absolute disaster?

If you've read previous volumes of Monkey High!, you already know that this is a very straightforward high school romance story with charming characters. There are really no surprises in the plot; vol. 5 marks the one-year anniversary of Haruna's transfer to Kita High, and includes the standard time-markers you find in most shoujo school manga. The school festival is coming up, and Haruna and Macharu's class decides it would be funny to have them play the leads in a somewhat unorthodox production of Romeo and Juliet. Unsurprisingly, Haruna disagrees. Later in the volume, things get awkward between the pair when Macharu has to spend the winter break in study hall and Haruna has to work on Christmas Eve.

Despite the story's relative predictability, I continue to find Haruna and Macharu's relationship a lot of fun. The combination of a serious girl with a rough home life and a bubbly, energetic boy isn't exactly new, but it's well-handled here. The two have a believable connection to each other, rather than being paired off for the convenience of the story. Other characters, like Macharu's friend/rival Atsu, are also filling familiar roles without being boring.

I also like that the relationship is allowed to progress. Macharu and Haruna have been going out for some time now, and while they're still a bit tentative about doing anything more than kissing or holding hands, they're actually talking about that and other aspects of their relationship. They're both somewhat naive in different ways, but the lines of communication are more open than I'm used to seeing. It's a nice change.

This volume includes the creator's comments on this volume's stories and a page of cultural/translation notes.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFlVplAyunUdRDFdq``x1238508964``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421524600``xShouko Akira``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xMai Ihara``xMai Ihara``xViz``xTeen``xB``x8.99``x150``x225``xMonkey High 5 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Translating Prose``xNibley``xOh hey, it's time to write a column! But our minds have kind of been running around in circles the last several days, and so we haven't really had time to consider topics. So let's just talk about the translation trials we've run into today and see if that gets us anywhere!

Today we've been working on fixing up a rough draft. There was a time, not as long ago as it should be, when we didn't bother with multiple drafts. We would just translate a book, highlight the places that sounded too weird but we were too eager to move on to make it sound better, or the places where we needed more context, or more research, or the places that we'd need to write a note about. When we were done with the first draft, we would go over just the highlighted places and fix them up, and then we'd send the translation off. Tadah.

But then one day, we were sent the usual e-mail asking for clarifications and translations of missing sound effects and the like, and we realized that some of the things that needed fixing were things that wouldn't have been there if we had just been more careful in typing up the script. Typos and missing verbs and the like. We hope that it's a relatively rare occurrence, but as it turns out, when I start typing the translation of a sentence, and then stop to look up the rest of the sentence, I'll sometimes accidentally leave out important words in the sentence. This is Very Bad. I mean, what if I accidentally left out a “not”!? Hopefully Athena caught most of them, but we decided it would be in everyone's best interests if we were to, y'know, proofread our scripts before we turned them in. So now that's what we do! (Though actually, when working on I Hate You More Than Anyone, we would always proofread [even though we didn't proofread anything else], because that thing is kind of crazy and we wanted to make sure we were getting it right.) And it's good, too, because now we're working on light novels, and those can always do with a good once over to make sure everything sounds natural.

So that's what we've been doing today--proofreading a light novel. And that is where we realized something very interesting about Japanese. They kept talking about this one character smiling, so the word “smile” appeared in the document a lot. But we have been instructed to avoid repeating the same word too often, so off we went to Thesaurus.com to help us come up with different words to use. Of course, in the Japanese, they have a bunch of different words to describe a smile: egao, nikoyaka, nikoniko, hohoemi (or hohoemu), warai, bishou, etc. etc. But when we went to Thesaurus.com, we got “smile,” “grin,” and “beam.” There were some other phrases that expressed more emotion, but unfortunately, this particular smile was specifically emotionless. And you can't exactly say, “Looked emotionlessly cheerful.” Well, I guess you could, but it seems like too much of an oxymoron. And besides, that's not what the Japanese said.

Another problem that tends to come up when dealing with prose, though we haven't had it so far today, is passive verbs. I think this is something that always gets brought up in discussions of translating prose from Japanese, but in Japanese, they use passive verbs a lot. You don't do things--things happen to you. The way Japanese works, that seems to make the action more engaging, but more than anything, it probably helps to distinguish who or what exactly is doing the action, since they tend to just skip over pronouns. For example, if a knife were to come flying at the main character and they were to jump out of the way, in English, you could say, “A knife flew at him and he jumped out of the way.” But in Japanese, they wouldn't use the “he” pronoun, so it would then be possible to interpret it as the knife coming flying and then jumping out of the way. Of course that wouldn't make any sense, so the readers would probably be able to figure it out from context, but to make things easier on them, in Japanese it would probably be more like, “Being flown at by a knife, [he] jumped out of the way.”

Of course, that example is one that would be pretty easy to recognize as completely unnatural and therefore change to something better, but there are much trickier ones. I just can't think of any right now, so you'll have to take our word for it.

One of the really fun things about Japanese is that they can take a whole sentence and stick it in front of a noun to modify it, and then go on with more sentence to tell about what that modified noun is doing, or what is being done to the noun. And what makes it fun is translating it literally, because no one would ever talk that way in English, and it sounds really funny. For example, “She listened to the strangly peaceful paper-bag-falling-from-the-luggage-rack-sending-onions-rolling-down-the-hill sound.” That's actually not the best example, but we didn't think to write down any of the ones we came up with last week. Unfortunately, it can be much less fun when you have to reword it so it makes a reasonable amount of sense. But at least the laughter keeps us sane. I think.``xEkFZAFEAEkxMAcwNmL``x1237931912``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Real v3-4``xbarblien``xAs an adult who reads her share of manga and comics, I sometimes have a difficult time finding titles that “fit” with my tastes and needs as a reader. Back when I read comics, I did so because of imprints such as Vertigo, which appealed to mature readers, especially ones like me with a taste for suspense and horror. But comics have become rather repetitive and derivative in these days of mainstream “events”, franchise titles (i.e. titles based off of television, movies, or video games), and “alternative” titles that seem to me to be nothing more than what I term “plotless wonders,” odd slice-of-life style comics with no dramatic structure whatsoever.

Manga appealed to me because of its infinite variety, its multitude of titles, and its fresh, original storytelling. Each manga is some manga-ka’s “baby”; a pet project they’ve worked on years to get right. That love and quality often shows in the best manga. But as an adult reader, many titles just weren’t for me. I don’t read much shoujo, in spite of my gender. And as good as many manga titles about teenagers are, I’m not a teen, so sometimes I felt a little left out.

Fortunately, astute manga publishers such as Dark Horse and Viz started publishing manga for the “mature” audience out there. Look for the OT (older teen) and M for Mature titles and you’ll find quite a few. However, not all of them are good. Much like when I see the Mature label on many comics, all it means is that the storytelling is immature, but the body count is higher. Now, I’m not against blood or guts or even full frontal nudity if the story works, but I’m not fond of such things if they’re there to replace the story.

So far, I’ve only found a couple of series that really, really fit my needs as an adult reader. The first one, not surprising, since I mentioned that I like horror and suspense titles is my much beloved DEATH NOTE. I’m also quite fond of OLDBOY and MAIL.

The newest OT/Mature title that has really done it for me, which surprised me more than I can say is a slice-of-life-title/sports-manga entitled REAL.

Now, as you may have gathered, usually I HATE slice-of-life comics. They bore me, they’re devoid of action, they almost never have any decent type of dramatic structure, and usually, they’re depressing as hell.

REAL is different. Boy oh boy, is it different.

REAL is the answer to the prayers of OT and Mature title readers everywhere: a smart, emotional (but never sentimental or trite), fast paced, compelling, incredibly well-structured, dramatic manga that draws you in from page 1 and makes you long for the next volume as soon as you finish the one you’re reading.

REAL is a story of struggle, survival, and self-acceptance. It’s about finding your dreams after they’ve been crushed by fate.

REAL is about wheelchair basketball. But it’s really about so much more. Manga creator Takehiko Inoue takes the story of survivors of terrible diseases and accidents and makes the whole enterprise a metaphor concerning rebuilding one’s life after fate turns cruel. It’s about whatever it is inside of us that goes through all the anger and depression and why did it happen to me? sort of questions, then finally accepts and moves on to whatever else we can get out of life. Maybe it’s courage, maybe it’s just the realization that life can either defeat us or we can work with what’s left after a major set back and try and make something of worth out of what we’ve got left.

While this manga can be very sad, while it can be incredibly harrowing, I must tell you that it is never, ever, EVER depressing. For instance, even when we know a character in the series won’t live all that long, instead of the fact depressing us, we love that character for living each day to its fullest.

I usually don’t go on much about art in manga or comics, unless it’s really good or really bad. In the case of REAL, the art is EXCELLENT. If some ignorant comics fan ever gives you one of those “all manga art looks alike and it’s all too damned cute” lines like I so often hear, pull out REAL. The realistic, athletic art is understated, yet absolutely perfect in sort of an East Meets West sort of a way.

In REAL Volume Three, we meet Hisanobu Takahashi, a high school athlete who is crippled in a moment of foolishness. The guy had everything. Now, it’s a triumph even to stand. His story is a fierce one. Right at the moment, he’s not exactly feeling very heroic, to say the least. He’s not one of these movie of the week heroes who’s nothing but brave. He’s got a lot of anger and justifiable self-pity in him. And yet…and yet. There’s just something about the guy that tells me that he’s going to find a little hope. And then more. And then more. And then more.

I’m looking forward to seeing him slowly but surely rebuild his life.

Which leads to REAL Volume 4, about a former track star who is a little bit further down the getting hope and getting on with his life department. Kiyoharu Togawa was a track star who lost one of his legs, destroying all of his dreams of being a runner. He was going to go a long, long ways in athletics, you could just tell. Now, he’s often in a wheelchair. But, after a pretty severe battle with depression, he’s now as determined as ever to continue with athletics. He’s an amazing character. He’s not all noble or all good, but he’s resolute as hell about doing what he wants with his life. Your heart just leaps a little every time he gains a little more independence, every time he reclaims a bit of his world, every time he reaches a goal.

In fact, in REAL, I think the guys in the wheelchairs are going to be okay. It’s the guy who ISN’T in a wheelchair but quit high school that I’m most worried about. He’s got no goals, no determination, no self-esteem, no direction in life…like I say, he worries me. As a side note, REAL makes a compelling case for staying in high school. To wit: stay in school because once you’re in the outside world, it gets really hard to find gyms to play sports in, teams to compete against, or even time to be an athlete. So even if you’re no fan of school, if you like athletics in the least, try and graduate. Oh, the series doesn’t preach at you, but when you see a character who wants to play basketball in this series but can’t because he quit school, you feel really, really bad for the guy and hope he finds his way.

At the risk of repeating myself: REAL is REALLY special.

While in totally a different genre, REAL is the best manga for OTs and adults I’ve read since DEATH NOTE.``xEkFZAkAEuueMQzKOlR``x1237929144``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519917``xTakehiko Inoue``x``x``x``xSports``xDrama``x``xJohn Werry``x``xViz Signature``xOlder Teen``xA+``x12.99``x150``x225``xReal 4.jpg``x``x``x``x Slam Dunk v3``xbarblien``xBeing a big fan of creator Takehiko Inoue’s manga Real, a more realistic, adult take on the sport of basketball, I also got hooked on his basketball saga for teens, Slam Dunk. Slam Dunk kicks it old school (it’s been around since the 1990s), but kick out the jams it does. This is manga that consistently delivers the goods.

In this volume, our loutish, lovable, arrogant, loud, yet somewhat noble hero Hanamichi Sakuragi learns the basics of basketball. Specifically, he learns the art of the lay up, a relatively simple, common way to make sure the basketball gets in the basket. Until he tries it, that is. Then he learns the hard way that what looks simple actually takes almost as much skill as the flashy shots. The problem is that Hanamichi thinks that he’s God’s gift to basketball. He thinks that learning the grand master of all basketball tricks, the slam dunk, will make him a star and get him the girl. And, knowing this sort of series, it just might. But also knowing this kind of series, Hanamichi is going to have to learn to walk before he can run. He’ll have to learn to NOT be a hot shot and a wanna-be superstar before he can be one. He’s gonna have to pay his dues and learn to just be a member of the team.

Perhaps the metaphor of the simple lay up, the “common shot,” might be a helpful one in explaining to the non-manga half of sequential storytelling (i.e. comics fanboys and the non-manga related American comics industry in general) why manga readers read manga instead of American comics. American comics have become all about the “slam dunk,” the show-off shot that really doesn't help the team or win games. In the case of comics, the “slam dunk” consists of big, violent events, “continuity porn” so thick and cumbersome that only long term fans can even understand a story arc, and plot twists that claim that they’ll change the superhero’s life forever, but never really do. The slam dunk of comics is admittedly show-y, but it leaves behind almost every other aspect of what makes a story work for a reader: great dialog, astute pacing, character interaction, characters we care about, and the characters’ psychological journeys. In fact, the slam dunk of American comics even precludes interesting plots because everything has to be so big and gaudy. The slam dunk might look good and might be impressive, but in the end, it just doesn’t get the job done.

Now take a manga such as Slam Dunk. Ironically, Slam Dunk is all about the simple lay up. It’s not the flashiest manga out there. It’s not the most action-packed (let’s give that one to Naruto). It’s not the coolest manga out there (let’s give that to Death Note). But Slam Dunk knows what works in terms of great storytelling. The creator knows exactly when to be funny, when to be dramatic, when to dwell on a scene and when to up the pacing. He also knows how to make his characters both average (i.e. just like you and me) and memorable at the same time. He also knows that a simple story about a common guy who never catches a break FINALLY getting a bit of good luck and starting to come into his own can be just as compelling as a $170 million dollar superhero movie. He knows that sequential stories need to be somewhat self-contained and self-explanatory in order to catch the casual reader who might come in at volume three or five or even ten or twelve. And most of all, Takehiko Inoue knows that when you love something as much as he loves basketball and you show exactly what it is that makes the sport or the art form or whatever you like so special to you that by showing that love, you can easily bring other people into the fold. Even those who don’t initially share your interest in that hobby or sport or subculture you love, which is quite a feat.

One of the many reasons that manga sells is that it’s obvious to manga readers that most manga creators just seem to love doing what they’re doing. Love might be a trite word to use here. But love is the common shot; the shot that makes the audience happy and satisfied and coming back for more. You can impress people for awhile with the slam dunk, but the common shot, while not glamorous, is what wins the game.

Using the common shot, creator Takehiko Inoue’s Slam Dunk has sold over 100 million copies worldwide.``xEkFZAklZkkhrSddDCr``x1237928722``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519852``xTakehiko Inoue``x``x``x``xSports``xComedy``x``xJoe Yamazaki``xKelly Sue DeConnick``xViz``xTeen``xA``x7.99``x150``x225``xslam dunk 3.jpg``x``x``x``x We Were There v3``xYsabet``xVolume three of We Were There turns out not to be all that easy to talk about. Partly that's because of my aversion to discussing plot points that come up after the first chapter or two of any given volume, and partly it's because so little happens. The entire book is basically about the ongoing development of Yano and Nanami's relationship, with a side order of "what shall I get my boyfriend for Christmas?"

The only other significant factor is the presence of Yano's dead girlfriend's sister, who Nanami gets along with and Yano doesn't. Or does he? Nanami keeps getting mixed signals from his behavior towards the other girl and, not being all that secure about their relationship yet, it makes her start to wonder if there's more going on than she knows about.

This is a fairly slow-paced volume, but it's introspective and interesting to read. Yano's issues are still front and center, although he seems to be trying hard to be a good boyfriend (despite really wanting to get laid, which Nanami isn't ready for yet). I still don't quite know how I feel about Yano, but Nanami is growing on me. She doesn't really know what she's doing when it comes to Yano, but that would be believable in the most ordinary and baggage-free of relationships, which this most certainly is not.

We Were There continues to be a quiet, thoughtful story, and is still recommended.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFZAklFVyCSmZEWbH``x1237928356``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520206``xYuki Obata``x``x``x``xDrama``xRomance``x``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``xNancy Thistlethwaite``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA-``x8.99``x150``x225``xWe Were There 3 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x What I'm Reading - March 2009 ``xYsabet``xIt's been a busy year for me so far, and VIZ is extremely generous with review copies (which is great!), so I'm taking a break from regular-length reviews to do another round-up of new and upcoming installments of titles for which I've recently read and reviewed earlier volumes. This batch includes: vol. 8 of Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden (Yuu Watase), vol. 10 of S.A. (Maki Minami), vol. 3 of Captive Hearts (Matsuri Hino), vol. 10 of Crimson Hero (Mitsuba Takanashi), vol. 12 of Inubaka: Crazy For Dogs (Yukiya Sakuragi), and vol. 10 of La Corda d'Oro (Yuki Kure).

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Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden vol. 8

Yuu Watase

Translated by Lillian Olsen (no adaptation credit given)

I'm still enjoying this series much more than anything else I've read by Yuu Watase (in the "wow, this is surprisingly good" way, not the "still not great, but at least not bad" way). It has incredibly spoilery back cover copy, unfortunately, but I guess that may be influenced by the series being a prequel to the original Fushigi Yûgi; I'm given to understand that anyone who's read that understands how this story is going to end. Or maybe not--I don't actually know the ending, and I'm glad of it, even if there are some very heavy-handed clues. Anyway, I don't really want to discuss any significant plot points here, for the sake of anyone reading this batch of mini reviews who may still want to read the series from the beginning, so I'll just say "still good!" to the people who've been reading it all along and "worth checking out!" to the people who haven't. This volume will be available in early April.

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S.A. vol. 10

Maki Minami

Translated by JN Productions and adapted by Amanda Hubbard

Just when I thought S.A. was never going to move Kei and Hikari's relationship forward at all, volume 10 proved me wrong. It's a halting sort of progress, since Hikari is still Hikari (read: not very bright, and determined to turn absolutely everything remotely connected to Kei into a challenge of some sort), and most of the volume's plot developments are as predictable as always, but...finally having actual momentum made it kind of endearing. Other notes: the back cover copy is unusually misleading, and from context I think the first chapter suffers from Hikari and Kei having a misunderstanding that doesn't translate well (the eternal problem of "suki" meaning both "like" and "love"--I think the translation challenge there is self-evident). Overall, while S.A. still really isn't my thing, this might be my favorite volume so far. It'll be available in May.

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Captive Hearts vol. 3

Matsuri Hino

Translated and adapted by Andria Cheng

I enjoyed volume 3 of Captive Hearts quite a bit more than volume 2. I still don't think it's a remarkable piece of work, and it still doesn't have the draw of Hino's later Vampire Knight (which isn't a series I'm into, but I see its appeal), but this volume delves deeper into the characters' reactions to the curse binding Megumi's family to Suzuka's, and into the conflict between their unnatural, involuntary connection and their real feelings for each other. It also has fewer distracting subplots, so the focus remains more on the main story; even the two-chapter flashback to the curse's origins is informative rather than distracting. Volume 3 is available now.

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Crimson Hero vol. 10

Mitsuba Takanashi

Translated and adapted by Naoko Amemiya

I don't generally get caught up in manga about sports or games (Hikaru no Go is the only really striking exception--I like that one a lot), but there's still something special about a series where the creator really nails a character or team's real passion for whatever they're playing. In Crimson Hero it's volleyball, and while I haven't read enough of the series to follow all of the characters' different relationships, I think Takanashi has nailed that aspect. There's a romantic element here too, which is developed successfully without it overshadowing the importance of the game. This is one of the few times when I've read a manga where two characters are in love and aren't getting fully involved with each other for reasons that actually make sense. Volume 10 deals a bit with Nobara and Yushin's handling of their unofficial feelings for each other while still keeping the readers' attention firmly on the girls' volleyball team's upcoming matches (particularly against one very tough opponent)--very nicely handled indeed. Available now.


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Inubaka: Crazy For Dogs vol. 12

Yukiya Sakuragi

Translated by Maya Robinson and adapted by Ian Reid

The main storyline in this volume centers around Suguri and her dog, Lupin, participating in a K-9 freestyle dance contest, mainly to promote Woofles. Unsurprisingly, her main competition, a talented dancer named Yasmin, is similarly backed by Woofles' competition, Wan Kaw. (A more serious storyline starts towards the end of the volume.) This is only my second volume of Inubaka, and my impression of vol. 11 had been that it was almost entirely about the cuteness of dogs (and really, the dogs are still the main draw), so I was kind of surprised by casual references to Suguri taking a pole dancing class and the blatant use of sex appeal during the contest; neither of these things is handled graphically, especially by manga's usual standards, but...they had nothing to do with dogs. Ah, thwarted expectations. There was also a reference to Suguri having once been kidnapped, which was mildly intriguing. I doubt I'm ever going to go back and read the first ten volumes of this series, though, so I guess it'll be a mystery forever. But the important thing is: the dogs are still cute. This volume is scheduled for release in April.

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La Corda d'Oro vol. 10

Yuki Kure

Translated and adapted by Mai Ihara

This isn't the final volume of La Corda d'Oro, but the end is clearly on its way; the entire volume is devoted to the music competition's Final Selection, and more importantly, to the characters' inner thoughts as their time bonding with and competing against each other draws to a close. There's only one small (very small) twist in here, so I won't spoil it. Like so much of the series, this is basically a reflection on the love of music; there's no compelling drama, but it's enjoyable enough. Available in April.``xEkFZupVkpAKDiwXpGs``x1237405209``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xFushigi Yuji Genbu Kaiden 8 cover.jpg 20th Century Boys v1``xjoykim``xEven in the US, where most of his work is still not yet available, Naoki Urasawa is something of a manga superstar. When his work Monster, a suspenseful thriller about a doctor on the trail of a serial killer, first began to be published in the states, it was greeted by rave reviews and not one but two Eisner nominations. So it's not much of a surprise that the publication of Urasawa's 20th Century Boys has been accompanied by very high reader expectations. Could 20th Century Boys really be as good as Monster? Could it even be better?

One volume's worth of story won't be enough to answer those questions; the verdict on that will have to wait. Nevertheless, fans of Urasawa will be happy to hear that so far, at least, the hype seems to be right on the mark.

20th Century Boys is a sprawling, ambitious story set over several decades in the lives of a group of childhood friends. When they were boys, Kenji and his gang had big imaginations and bigger dreams, but as adults they've settled into quiet and unexceptional lives. Instead of growing up to be astronauts and rock musicians, they've become store owners, salarymen, and high school teachers. Kenji himself just seems to be scraping by, as he struggles to run his family's convenience store while raising his sister's kid. But a mysterious cult leader known only as Friend is gathering followers in Tokyo, and somehow his cult has something to do with Kenji and his friends' childhood games.

This is a complex story, but fortunately we're in the hands of a master storyteller. Urasawa smoothly takes the narrative back and forth between the present and the past (and, in a couple of intriguing scenes, possibly the future) as he begins to lay out the story. What immediately sets this apart from a lot of other manga is the sheer attention to detail, as dozens of images, clues, and allusions work to tie everything together. We, the readers, may not know where this story is going, but it's clear that Urasawa does.

The art is also a particular pleasure and worth highlighting. I especially love Urasawa's character designs. No one is fantastically pretty--which is fitting, because this is a story of average Joes who just might be heroes--but all the faces are very expressive and distinctive. It is easy to see which boy grows into which middle-aged man, even before the dialogue identifies them.

Viz is giving 20th Century Boys the deluxe treatment. Their edition comes in the larger 5-3/4 x 8-1/4 format and has an embossed cover with French flaps. Two pages of cultural notes can be found at the back of the book, for those of us who don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese pop culture from the sixties and seventies. The translation and adaptation are also pleasing; the slang and casual speech feel very natural and are not overly Americanized, which is unfortunately not something one can say about all Viz manga.

20th Century Boys is many things: a mystery, a psychological thriller, an epic adventure, a love letter to rock music, a meditation on childhood and growing up. It's also a manga for people who love manga, just as the protagonists did when they were boys reading Shonen Sunday in their secret base. If that sounds like you, this is definitely not a series to overlook. Run, don't walk, to the store to get a copy of your own. Highly recommended.``xEkFZupVpkuGsoLMrzL``x1237405024``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1591169224``xNaoki Urasawa``x``x``x``xThriller``x``x``x``xAkemi Wegmuller``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA``x12.99``x150``x225``x20thCenturyBoys01.jpg``x``x``x``x High School Debut v8``xYsabet``xI suppose it's not really a proper review to simply say that reading volume 8 of High School Debut was both touching and downright glee-inducing, or to add that this is also true of the entire series so far, or that you should all run right out and start reading it if you aren't already.

No?

How about if I add a completely shallow note about the awesomeness of Haruna's adorable skull-shaped hair clip in the first chapter? (Seriously, where can I get one?)

But no, the truth is that it's what's under the hair clip that matters. So: Haruna. I complain periodically about shoujo heroines who appear to have no sense (or brains) whatsoever, and in some lights Haruna could be seen as leaning in that direction, but the reality is that she's one of those rare characters who's written in such a way that even her clueless moments make sense; rather than making her seem unintelligent, those moments reinforce her good-heartedness and trusting nature...and, yes, that she sometimes seems to be living in a slightly different world than everyone around her.

Case in point: her behavior when three freshmen guys making their own "debuts" begin following her around. She's grown enough to realize that something's not right, and to agree with Yoh when he tells her to be careful, but doesn't really get it. The situation that unfolds is one you could find in almost any manga, but the way it's handled is part of why I like this series so much. Why drag a misunderstanding out for pages (or chapters) when you could cut to the chase and still have a funny-but-heartfelt demonstration of why Haruna and Yoh are so well-suited for each other? It's incredibly refreshing.

In the second half of the book, Haruna's seventeenth birthday is coming up, and the entire supporting cast does their part to make sure it's a good one--and more importantly, that Yoh makes it memorable for her. (Haruna's Christmas plans from earlier in the series are a tough act to follow, as Yoh is painfully aware.) It's still mostly about the lead characters, but there are a lot of good moments for the others--Kawahara has a great sense of comic timing.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFZupuZFkYaEAiLtE``x1237404732``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421521903``xKazune Kawahara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xGemma Collinge``xGemma Collinge``xViz``xTeen``xA``x8.99``x150``x225``xHigh School Debut 8 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Honey Hunt v1``xYsabet``xLife's not easy when you're living in the shadow of your famous parents. Can shy Yura, the daughter of an award-winning composer and a world-renowned actress, find the courage to step out on her own now that her super-celebrity parents are getting divorced?

The media is abuzz when word gets out that Yura's mega-famous parents are splitting up. Already accustomed to the daily pressure of being the child of celebrities, Yura's frustration explodes in a rant against her parents--and her heated words end up being broadcasted live on national TV! When a powerful talent scout hears her impassioned declaration, he offers to represent her. The door to showbiz is now flung open for this timid wallflower--will she try to become an actress in her own right?

I'll say up front that I was carrying some baggage from Hot Gimmick when I opened Honey Hunt, Miki Aihara's new series. Hot Gimmick has the dubious distinction of being the only complete series I've purchased solely out of morbid fascination; the premise and execution made me twitchy and I loathed all of the characters pretty much equally, but I wanted to see how the trainwreck ended badly enough that I kept shelling out for each new volume. (Not so with the novel--I checked it out from the library, read two pages on the spot, and returned it.) Not for nothing is it called the "Manga of Deep Feminist Shame" on LiveJournal (and possibly throughout the blogosphere).

So, with that being my entire previous exposure to Aihara's work, you can see how I was a little tentative with this new story. On the other hand, she's obviously capable of pulling people in even if they don't like the kind of story she's telling; I'm hardly the only person I know who had serious issues with Hot Gimmick and yet stuck with it to the bitter end.

First impression from volume 1 of Honey Hunt? It has a much less skeevy premise, although there isn't a healthy relationship in sight, and its heroine, Yura, is shy but not a doormat. Those are two big steps up, and I can deal with Everyone Having Issues, because hey, that's where the drama comes from. The back cover copy provides a good summary of the overall plot, although it doesn't mention the prospective love interest (whose interest in Yura is...unusual, but potentially interesting).

In terms of the presentation, Honey Hunt has a particularly smooth script; it's nice to see Liz Forbes adapting again, after I enjoyed her work on Suppli.

At this point I don't particularly trust Aihara to give me a story that won't make me cringe, but I'm willing to be proven wrong. Taking it on its own merits (insofar as I can do that), Honey Hunt seems to be off to a decent start.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFZupukFpTyxNUDuw``x1237404230``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421523477``xMiki Aihara``x``x``x``xDrama``xRomance``x``xAri Yasuda``xLiz Forbes``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB``x8.99``x150``x225``xHoney Hunt 1 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Love*Com v11 ``xYsabet``xFor the main characters, Risa and Ôtani, volume 11 of Love*Com involves a lot of preparing for What Comes Next. They've been officially dating for a little while now and seem to have overcome their first major hurdle, but there's no time to simply enjoy it. Despite his recent admission that he loves Risa more than he thought, Ôtani has to study like a madman for his college entrance exams. Risa, meanwhile, hasn't figured out what she wants to do after high school, and she's quickly running out of time.

Risa's best friend, Nobu, and her boyfriend, Nakao, get a lot of attention in this volume, which is a nice opportunity for them to shine (I've been enjoying them through the entire series). Nobu has choices of her own to make, and unlike Risa, she has a clear idea of what her options are: go to a nearby college and stay close to Nakao, or go to college in Hokkaido, where her beloved grandmother is moving for health reasons. These two have been presented as a picture-perfect couple all along, and they both badly want to go the right thing.

Nobu and Nakao have been helping Risa and Ôtani since the beginning, and our heroes want to help them in turn, so this volume does a nice job of putting the spotlight on the supporting cast without shoving the main characters aside. Nakahara has a knack for balancing the series' humor with serious events, which keeps Love*Com funny but not fluffy.

Still fun, and still recommended.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFZupFAVVOukCSSaA``x1237403955``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421523698``xAya Nakahara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xPookie Rolf``xPookie Rolf``xViz``xTeen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xLove-Com 11 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Ace Attorney``xNibley``xIt was recently pointed out to us that the second volume of Ace Attorney manga is already out in bookstores (it seems like already to us, because we never pay enough attention to release dates; come to think of it, it's been a really long time since we translated it), so I thought we would indulge ourselves in talking about Ace Attorney, because translating that manga was a little bit unusual for us.

The thing about Ace Attorney is that the manga is based on the game, so there was a little more pressure to get things to match than usual. Normally, the manga we translate is what came first, so we actually don't really worry too much about how close our translations are to whatever other thing reached the State first. For example, we didn't go out of our way to make sure our translation of Fruits Basket matched FUNimation's subtitles. Our reasoning is that the manga came first, and the anime is usually tweaked a little for whatever reasons, so we'll just stay true to the manga. Also, we don't want people to think we're faking it and just copying the subtitles. We have strange neuroses.

But anyway, as I said, with Ace Attorney, the game came first. Not only did the game come first, but the game was already out in the States, and had been localized, meaning all the super Japanese stuff was changed to more American stuff so that it would be “more relatable” to an American audience (like with the ramen being changed to burgers). Our instructions were to make sure the manga had as close to the same feel of the game as possible. So our next order of business was to... go out and buy the games. Eheh.

I'll admit it! We hadn't played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney when we got the assignment. But we're dedicated to doing our job right, so we were also glad we had gotten Nintendo DS's the Christmas before. Of course whenever something like this happens, there tends to be a little twinge of guilt for taking on the assignment when there are clearly big fans out there and we're not among them, but! as we learn from I Hate You More Than Anyone (a fantastic manga that everyone should check out! (published by CMX)), just because you start loving something later than someone else doesn't mean you love it any less. And that is the case with us and Ace Attorney.

As it turns out, playing the games was very very important, because, as anyone who's familiar with them knows, there are a lot of very unique characters with unique speech patterns. I shudder to think what might have happened if we hadn't played the games first. Gumshoe would have lost all his pals and Armstrong certainly would not have been speaking French. Incidentally, before we turned in the final translation of the first volume of Ace Attorney manga, we played through the case with Jean Armstrong several times to make sure we were getting his speech pattern right. Also incidentally, fake French accents are really fun to do, and we should think about doing them more often. In fact, Ace Attorney is another one of several games and game-related things (namely, Advent Children) that has us wanting to be more creative in dealing with dialects. A friend of ours recently went to a writers' convention type thing with a workshop that told writers never to write out accents, but it really is sad to have everyone talking exactly the same way. I say if Mark Twain pulled it off, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to! Of course, that doesn't mean we actually can, but well...

Anyway. Because of the localization of the Ace Attorney games, there were some interesting challenges in translating the manga. Del Rey likes to have translation notes whenever there's a Japanese cultural reference, but we had also been told to stay as true to the games as possible, and we weren't sure what they would want to do. Things were kind of complicated all around, so when something came up that might need localizing, we just came up with two scripts. For example, there's a scene when a client comes and asks Phoenix's help suing his wife for making bland lunches. In Japan, the series takes place in Japan, so the lunches are pretty much nothing but white rice, and the man wants his wife to at least add hot dogs. For Del Rey titles (and actually for any company we work for), we would just translate it and provide a translation note, because he specifically calls the lunches something referring to the Japanese flag (we translated this a looooong time ago, so I don't remember the details), which is the first thing we did.

But in the American version, the series takes place in Los Angeles, so we thought that maybe peanut butter sandwiches would be more “local,” and he would want his wife to at least add jelly. Plus I think it's funny. So we had an alternate script with sandwiches instead of rice. And even though we have copies of the final English version of manga, they're in the other room and I'm too lazy to get up and find out which version they ended up using. Plus, now I can say, “Go to your local bookstore and find out!”

Oh! That reminds us! We got to come up with names for characters! We were very pleased with the ones we came up with, but again, I can't just tell you all about them, because that would spoil some of the surprise (or have you all already read them?).

Other than that, I think the biggest challenge was dealing with Maya's love for miso ramen. I've already mentioned that they changed her favorite food to burgers for the North American version, but now that they were talking about her favorite food in manga, with lots of pictures of ramen and not burgers, it was pretty interesting to deal with. We had a bunch of alternate scripts for those scenes, too: the “the game actually takes place in Japan and her favorite food is actually ramen” version, and the “this is the American version but miso ramen is Maya's new craze” version. I actually think it was kinda fun.
Jake Marshall was a challenge, too, because we realized how lacking we are in knowledge of cowboy speak. But really, challenges are what make life fun.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun working on this manga, and we hope all the fans enjoy it just as much as the games!
``xEkFyZFEyEFUJkJprfC``x1236731613``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg MangaLife Spotlight on: Naruto v34-v40!``xParkCooper``xOkay so here’s what happened: I got sent a review copy of Naruto volume 30. Which I reviewed. Then I was sent a review copy of Naruto volume 36. This was way, way ahead of where I was, even though I’m reading along in Shonen Jump monthly. Then I got sent a review copy of Naruto volume 40. So I had a problem. What to do? I asked the guy who sends me Viz comp copies if he could send me the ones in-between, and nothing happened. So, I bought the volumes from just-after-Shonen-Jump-wasn’t-catching-me-up-yet and filled in from 30 to 40.

THEN most of them showed up from the review copy guy.

Oh well. It’s never a mistake to buy Naruto.

And so, moving on: Me talking about Naruto 34 through 40 in ways as spoiler-free as I can manage! But there will be SOME spoilers so be aware of that!






--Naruto v34: The Reunion

This is entitled “The Reunion” because, for the first time since that battle at the waterfall, Naruto finally runs into Sasuke again. Naruto and company find out whether or not they can trust their new ally Sai (the ninja with the art to draw things, such as animals, and then bring them to life to attack and stuff... him). However, Sasuke, as will probably not surprise you, does not feel like coming back to the Hidden Leaf Village with Naruto and company.

Results: I enjoyed this volume, although it would have irritated me if I’d had to read it more slowly out of Shonen Jump, because it’s just a little slow-moving in certain ways. Also, Naruto, get a clue! Sasuke is only interested in killing his big brother, he is NOT interested in coming back with your guys until that happens! Geez.

On the other hand, we learn that Sasuke has developed the ability to enter into magical mental areas such as that caged area where Naruto sometimes meets with the Nine-Tailed Fox... for example, when the Fox decides to talk to Naruto during this meeting, Sasuke shows up there, too, much to Naruto’s surprise, and even a little to the surprise of the Fox. The Fox makes mention of how Sasuke has developed to the point where he reminds the Fox of ANOTHER member of the Uchiha clan... and Sasuke is super-unsurprised that the Fox has encountered the Uchiha clan and the Sharingan Eyes before now. What the heck?

Finally, the Fox warns Sasuke that he’d better not kill Naruto... that if Sasuke does, he’ll regret it. This strange scene is really the highlight of the volume.



--Naruto v35: The New Two

What this title refers to is two new members of the Akatsuki, Big Brother Uchiha’s gang who’re trying to control the power of all nine legendary Tailed Beasts. They capture the woman who’s the host to the Four-Tailed Cat, even though she tries hard to do ‘em in.

The more important part of this volume, though, is that Kakashi finally explains what’s up with all these Earth-Style, Fire-Style, Water-style jutsus and so forth. Sort of like in Hunter X Hunter, everyone has a particular style they’re best with... and each one is better or worse than others. It runs: Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Lightning, Lightning beats Earth, Earth beats Water, Water beats Fire. And, we find out which one Naruto is best at!

Kakashi also has a brilliant idea on how to train Naruto... and only Naruto... if he makes a bunch of shadow clones, and they all train, and then they all pop back to him... it’s like multiplying 10 minutes of training times the number of clones, since he experiences everything they did! This allows Naruto to start working on an incredibly powerful new destructive jutsu based on his element-type affinity!

Results: Finally, someone explained the elemental-types of jutsus to me. I’m so happy.



--Naruto v36: Cell Number 10

Cell Number 10 is that of Shikamaru and Choji and Inu and their teacher, and in this volume they go up against the two Akatsuki mentioned last volume—One of them is especially hard to kill! In fact, if he can draw a pattern on the ground and stand on it, any damage done to HIM happens to YOU instead! Also, whether he’s standing there or not, he seems unkillable—when his head gets sliced off, he just has a teammate sew it back on!

SOMEONE DIES IN THIS VOLUME! It’s just about the right level of tragedy, but gosh, someone who you didn’t think would, one of the good guys, dies for real, permanently. That hasn’t happened since the old Third Hokage passed away! Dang!

Results: Although not much else happens this volume, it’s still pretty exciting, and emotionally packed.



--Naruto v37: Shikamaru’s Battle

Shikamaru leads his team, along with Kakashi, to go deal with the two Akatsuki from the last volume. Shikamaru’s brilliant strategic brain deals with the guy who is seemingly immortal, but the guy’s partner turns out to be a pretty tough customer, too. But just when we’re starting to wonder how we can handle this guy—Naruto shows up to demonstrate the fruits of all his new intensive training!

Results: Not the best Naruto volume ever, but pretty good—Shikamaru was in pretty decent form in the last volume, but he’s really on fire this time.



--Naruto v38: Practice Makes Perfect

First of all, it’s up to Naruto to finish off the bad guy from the last volume. He’s really reminding Kakashi of the mysterious 4th Hokage these days, and that’s given Naruto a new goal—the 4th Hokage came up with the Rasengan, but he was never able to perfect it into an elemental-style jutsu. So now, Naruto doesn’t just want to be Hokage someday—he wants to be able to surpass the 4th Hokage!

But wait, there’s much more in this volume: Right when Orochimaru can’t wait much longer and it’s time for him to switch bodies and find a new host body for himself... that’s pretty much exactly the time when Sasuke decides that Orochimaru has nothing more to teach him. TIME FOR ONE OF THEM TO GO! This change in the nature of things is extremely sudden... there’s no long foreshadowing of hints that this day is coming... one day, THAT’S IT SWEET BABY.

But wait, things get worse—the 5th Hokage informs everyone that Naruto’s cool new jutsu not only attacks every cell of its victim’s body... it’s also a little dangerous for Naruto himself! And he’s already practiced it, and used it once... she demands that he NEVER use it again! But you know how Naruto is... he’ll do what he has to do.

But wait, things get worse—Whether Sasuke was victorious, or whether Orochimaru is maybe deep inside his brain somewhere, everything’s changed now—there’s certainly only one of them in body, and that body has decided to go take on Itachi Uchiha of the Akatsuki. To this end, he starts putting together an all-star team of guys to help him—he frees one of Orochimaru’s imprisoned experimental subjects, who seems to be a younger, billion-times-badder-ass version of Zabuza (remember him? The guy Haku worked for, so long ago? Well he’s taken up that same big sword that Zabuza used to use, too [from Zabuza’s grave], and he knows what to do with it!), and then they pick up a chick who has the hots for Sasuke—her exact jutsu powers aren’t quite clear yet. Then they head off to find the 4th and final member of the new team...

Results: The most amazing part of this one is the fight between Sasuke and Orochimaru... you can’t say that nothing happens in this volume!



--Naruto v39: On The Move

The final member of Sasuke’s all-star team to take down Itachi Uchiha is a guy so weird, his body is where Orochimaru got the stuff to give people the Curse Mark that boosts powers... He’s a friend of Kimimaro (the boney guy that it took both Rock Lee and Gaara to finally finish off... remember that guy?), who told him that Sasuke Uchiha was a guy worth trusting, since he’s pretty much Kimimaro’s successor. Jugo, the 4th member, has a little problem—an incredible bloodlust that makes him want to kill people. Since he’s really extremely qualified to kill people, this is quite a problem. Sasuke promises that he’ll fill the role of Kimimaro—the only other guy capable of stopping Jugo. Jugo agrees to join the all-star team, which Sasuke names Hebi, which means The Snake.

Meanwhile, since Naruto is completely incapable of giving up on his dream of getting Sasuke to someday come back to the village, we decide that the best way to find Sasuke again is to find Itachi! So... it’s a hard time to be Itachi... especially since the 5th Hokage decides that the best way to help find him is with a team that Naruto’s worked with before!

You THINK it’ll surely be Rock Lee’s team, or maybe Shikamaru’s team, but no, she sends Team Naruto out with Hinata, Kiba (and his dog Akamaru of course), and that Bug specialist guy (I never really memorized his name...)!

Kakashi breaks out his pack of ninja dogs, and it’s on!

Soon, Sasuke is in trouble as that Akatsuki member who makes explosive animals out of clay finds him and decides to take him on!

Meanwhile, since it’s Take-Down-The-Akatsuki Day, Kabuto, the perpetually-up-to-no-good-ninja-doctor, gives Team Naruto a notebook with everything he and Orochimaru have ever been able to find out about the various members of the Akatsuki... and we learn of the messed-up thing that Kabuto’s done to himself in the name of his new hero—Naruto!

Man, will Naruto NEVER stop inspiring people?

Results: Not quite as awesome as the last volume, but that’s still saying quite a bit. One isn’t really drawn in by Sasuke’s new fight, though, so you can’t wait for it to be over, that’s the weakest part.

Mostly, this one is just setting up future awesomeness...



--Naruto v40: The Ultimate Art

The title refers to that clay-creature jutsu guy that Sasuke was fighting last volume, so there’s no need to go on about that... it keeps going on for over 60 more pages.

Finally, when it’s over, creator Masashi Kishimoto cuts loose with all KINDS of interesting (and spoilery) information and hints... like about Naruto’s parents. And about the secret mastermind manipulating the Akatsuki... who is a very bad-news person that a very unexpected source has mentioned in a previous volume...

Meanwhile, the Toad Sage Jiraiya investigates a certain other heretofore unknown Akatsuki member... once upon a time, there was a guy so powerful he looked down his nose at the legendary three great shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village... Jiraiya learns that the Akatsuki member he’s investigating killed that guy... and his family, and his friends, and everyone he knew or was remotely connected to...

Results: The fight between Sasuke and Deidara the clay master went on for much too long, but the rest of the issue is pretty awesome... things really are moving along.



So there you have it. I didn’t bother to grade them as usual, because each of them is some class of A, be it plus or minus or right in the middle... especially for Naruto’s fans, of which I am one. I’m very happy that, albeit in sudden spurts, the plot is truly moving forward. Issue 41 is out now, and 42 and 43 will be out in a matter of days, not weeks and weeks. Please look forward to next time... I know I will... now to hope that Santa sends me Naruto volumes 40 through 42 in the mail soon... I’ll try to be more patient this time!






``xEkFyZFpuukoYsgeclG``x1236730442``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xnaruto38.jpg Gantz v2``xbarblien``xI remember hearing about Gantz back when I was looking around for more "mature title" anime. I wanted something that was sort of horror-oriented, like Boogiepop Phantom was. I'd heard that Gantz was violent, but imaginative. So after some hesitation concerning my husband's low to moderate tolerance for violence, we rented Gantz from Netflix. After watching five episodes or so, we decided it wasn't for us. Oh, it wasn't the violence. It wasn't even the slight filth factor. It was just...

We saw from the way the series was set up that we were never, ever going to get a good explanation of what the hell we'd just seen.

Now's the time to talk about the set-up of Gantz. A bunch of dead losers...and believe me, they really are losers, in the main...are snatched from certain death. At first, it seems like they've died and gone to hell (always intriguing). They're trapped in a room with other losers. In the middle of the loser room is a round computer like ball named Gantz. Gantz has a potty mouth and a sarcastic nature on him/her/it. In case you think that eternity consists of being told you're a loser by a big black ball (reason enough to quit your low down ways), Gantz isn't just an insult machine. Gantz makes the losers go out and kill space demons, some of which seem to have a fondness for onions (the demons, not the losers). If the losers can kill a demon, they get to survive until the next round. It takes a bloody (and I mean bloody) long time to kill a demon/alien. And most of the losers just lose their arms, legs, heads, and (it seems) their lives.

Wait, it might not be hell after all. It might be some alien cloning experiment or...

Gantz is the type of experience that could drag on volume after volume like an open-ended Battle Royale without getting you any closer to the truth. Oh my God, it's the video game version of No Exit. Actually Gantz would make a super fantastic video game. I'd play it in a second. Because maybe just maybe if I played it, I'd find out why my loser character is forced to hunt down demons in the first place.

Now, I don't have a lot to say about Gantz the manga because it has the same problems as Gantz the anime. The characters are slightly more likeable in the manga, but you still don't have all that interest in whether they survive or not. The demons still take so long to kill (or be killed, as the old saying goes) if you're the impatient type, you're tempted to skip ahead. The art itself is fantastic in a post-Sin City sort of a way. One is reminded of that line from SPINAL TAP about whether a product could be more black. Answer: No. I always complain to my husband that in most so-called violent comics, the artist always skimps on the blood. When I want a violent comic, I want the reenactment of Hamlet in the film THE ADDAMS FAMILY level blood. Gantz FINALLY gives me what I asked for. And I gotta admit, it's impressive.

If you're the type that thinks the bloody journey is all the fun, Gantz is for you. I'm not kidding or being sarcastic. I do see its worth. If you're a bit of a sci-fi-tinged horror gorehound, this is way cool. If it's not how we stop Michael Myers but how many characters in the movie he kills before we do that impresses you, Gantz is for you. In fact, for those who are into such things, I'd give it an A PLUS.

Only if you're the type who can get into the gore and get into the story but demand (like I did) an eventual explanation to all you've seen, you'll probably get really frustrated really fast.

I stopped watching Gantz the anime when I heard rumors online that it wasn't going to give me the "why am I watching this?" solution of what is Gantz and why should I care? Gantz is the type of work that I could see myself reading for seven or eight volumes, getting sick of because I want answers, dammit, and then spoiling for myself on Wiki just to get over with.

But to Gantz's credit, if the manga periodically fell out of the sky at my feet like Death Note did for Light Yagami, hell yeah, I'd read it. I'd read it, enjoy the heck out of it, then kick about the frustration I felt about not being told what the heck Gantz is.

Like the Elvis Costello song once put it, "I'm in hell." But it's cool. ``xEkFyZklyZkWTuRHbJc``x1236728672``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1595821880``xHiroya Oku``x``x``x``xSci-Fi``xAction``x``xMatthew Johnson``x``xDark Horse``xMature``xB``x12.95``x150``x225``xGANTZ-V2.jpg``x``x``x``x S.A. v9``xYsabet``xFor the record, I haven't read volume 8 of S.A., so my assessment of vol. 9 isn't taking the most recent developments into account. I'm fairly sure vol. 8 ended with Hikari receiving a letter from Kei's grandfather summoning her to London, however, since vol. 9 begins with a memory of it as Hikari is collected at the airport.

I'd like to think there was at least a moment of hesitation on Hikari's part when she got the letter, but if there was, vol. 9 doesn't show any sign of it. And there aren't any straight answers to her questions once she's in London, either, although it quickly becomes obvious that Kei's grandfather hasn't called her there to talk: instead, she's dressed up and introduced to a rapid succession of very eligible men, in hopes that she'll fall for one of them and forget Kei.

Hikari, a girl of action, runs off and is immediately whisked into hiding by Finn, one of the men she was supposed to meet. Finn, a half-Japanese prince, is smitten with her on the spot--to the extent that when Hikari leaves London, he follows her home to Japan and claims to be engaged to her. But before she goes, Hikari finally has a phone conversation with Kei's grandfather, who comes clean and tells her that the reason he's so worried about her relationship with Kei is that she makes Kei push himself too hard. Hikari, being Hikari, immediately concludes that she's a burden to Kei and he'd be better off without her.

Here's one of the things that bothers me about this series: the whole point of the "Special A" conceit is that these seven students are supposed to be the very smartest in their school. Now, I know this is supposed to refer mainly or exclusively to book smarts, but Hikari is apparently the second smartest student at this very elite school, and she is DIM. She's hardly the first romantic comedy shoujo heroine to mix cluelessness with a good heart, but I just can't get past the disconnect here. Unfortunately, she and Kei are supposed to be carrying the series, and while their feelings for each other are obvious, that's only true because they're hitting all the signposts manga readers have been trained to recognize: Kei is superior, Hikari is so determinedly competing with him that it must be love, Kei is overprotective and convinced he knows best, Hikari runs away from him "for his own good"... And on and on it goes.

Anyway. The main subplot in this volume has to do with Finn, who's trying to fulfill a prophecy by his country's oracles (!) which requires him to get married by the time he turns eighteen. Hikari has no intention of being his bride, but she does feel obliged to help him out, so she and the SA group begin trying to find Finn's dream girl. In the process, Ryu, who's always been close with Megumi and Jun, starts to feel a deep attachment to Finn (and some anxiety over his relationship with the twins).

While the second half of the volume shifts its focus away from Hikari and Kei and more onto the supporting cast, there does also seem to be some actual development in Hikari and Kei's relationship--but I thought that during vol. 7, too. S.A. still has plenty of volumes left to go, so time will tell whether Minami decides to move things forward or maintain their status quo for a while longer.

Volume 9 of S.A. includes a side story and other bonus pages.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFyZkZlllTmuOXykn``x1236727888``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520397``xMaki Minami``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xJN Productions``xAmanda Hubbard``xViz``xTeen``xC``x8.99``x150``x225``xSpecial A 09 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Spotlight on: Oishinbo A la Carte``xParkCooper``xOkay, so... here’s the deal.

Oishinbo A la Carte, which I will now refer to only as Oishinbo for my own convenience, is a cooking manga brought to us by Viz.

There are some unusual things about it.

1. It’s old... like the 1980s. But it’s hard to tell HOW old, because we don’t seem to start at the beginning. The credits list this as Oishinbo 20. This makes sense in many ways, because:

This manga is all about a guy, Yamaoka, a medium-level journalist whose newspaper (magazine?) is putting together the “Ultimate Menu” –representing the best selections possible out of all of Japanese cuisine. His supporting characters are his buds from the mangazine (newspaper?). But as of what’s being called Chapter 1, they’ve already started this, and you only have it explained to you in the notes in front, as well as who Dear Old Journo Gang are.

I think what happened is that in Chapter 1, we meet, seemingly for the first time, Yamaoka’s DAD, a big important artiste and gourmand who doesn’t get along well with Yamaoka at all, or vice-versa. Most chapters deal with Dad or Yamaoka trying to outdo one another Iron-Chef-style in some way. They each have about a 50% success rate, which makes you hate them both. If Dad was ale, which makes you hate them both. If Dad was always right, you’d feel that Sonny had a lot to learn still from the old master. If Yamaoka was always right, you’d feel like Dad is an ogre and his son is a saint for having to be raised by him. The fact that neither is consistently right means they’re on the same footing as equals, and thus you hate them both for being such mule-heads chapter after chapter. Also, when Yamaoka left home, he trashed all the pottery Dad had made, and Dad is a famous ceramicist, so I felt like, what a bastard! You just ruined a small percentage of Japan’s rich cultural heritage! I hate you Yamaoka! On top of this, Yamaoka is usually in a bad mood when he’s not helping out timid, budding chefs or other unfortunates, so he’s really not terribly likable.

Anyway, the manga makes it clear that they’re cherry-picking their chapters, but here’s how I think it happened: I think they were running this manga about Yamaoka for a long time, and then one day they decided to write Dad into the storylines, and that’s when things really took off, and so that must be where and why we’ve started importing it at this point—this must be where we all agree it got really good.

Another indicator of 80sness is things like the line “You gossipy female!” Uh, okay...

2. Which brings us to another indicator of the 80sness—the art. It’s kind of manga-primitif... People’s faces look a lot like a souped-up version of Egyptian tomb paintings and Norman tapestries... the pupils are fine (unlike I sometimes see in indie comic books), but the eyes are usually noticeably off-alignment from one another in height. That’s not... exactly good...

So, as for the cuisine part... it’s interesting, and its details make for some good stories, but while it’s made me think that if it was done extremely well, I might actually like sushi... it’s also made me never want to try sushi, because there’s always a line like “Let me show you a mistake many chefs in even good restaurants make with sushi” or “Oh my! This tastes so superior to the sushi one commonly eats in restaurants!” If it’s THAT hard to get it right, surely my chances of eating delicious sushi in an AMERICAN restaurant are extremely slim...

So, if you want to learn more about the amazingness of Japanese cuisine, then you may well favor Oishinbo over the eating-endangered-species antics of Iron Wok Jan. But if you demand satisfying stories for this cultural tour to be couched in, Oishinbo might not be the perfect manga experience for you.``xEkFyZkAlAZXLaiPeKD``x1236661261``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xoishinbo.jpg Hunter x Hunter v25``xParkCooper``xWell, the storyline which I call “The Bugs That Wouldn’t Stop It” continues... but, even more than last time, you can tell it won’t last forever, because in this volume they launch their attack to finally make them stop it. That’s right. No more foolin’ around. It’s time to bring it, face to face, man to man, no more guerilla warfare, just a mass assault to destroy the king of the bugs.

This review contains many spoilers, although in another way, it hardly tells you many details at all...







Team Kill The King Bug = Old Man Netero and Killua’s grandfather, and boy are they surprised to find that their opponent doesn’t act like the horrible monster they expected—they find him leaning over his chess (or whatever that super-strategy boardgame he plays with that blind girl) partner, seemingly concerned for her welfare after the first initial attack.

Meanwhile, after the first assault was enough of a success to get at least some other members of the attack team into the palace... other than that, everything starts going... well, not WRONG, but totally not as expected. So much for planning—it’s think-on-your-feet time, as Killua finds himself dashing around protecting innocents, whereas Gon is focused like a very thin laser on the guy-monster-who-looks-just-like-a-catgirl who damaged Gon’s friend Kite. Role reversal surprise!

And in the middle of this, where IS that girl named Palm, anyway?

In the midst of all this, creator Yoshihiro Togashi does a couple of interesting things. First of all, he backs up and tells a short little story of Old Man Netero’s training in his youth (a long, LONG time ago), which feels a lot like the sort of classic tale of martial arts training that you’d get back in the days before Bruce Lee modernized the kung fu movie... more like something from Kung Fu Hustle. It’s really nice.

The other, very related thing, is that Togashi frequently, in this volume—more than he has ever done before—stops the action, or turns the speed down to seconds-per-page, or indeed milliseconds-or-nanoseconds-per-page, in order to explain exactly what given characters are thinking and feeling at those moments. And it’s often, again, to emphasize the old-school, samurai-like character traits of emotion in the face of honor. Fire and death and horror suddenly cut loose from 100 directions at once, and only two people remain focused like a laser on the fight at hand—Gon, and Gon’s bug opponent who we’re all supposed to be fighting so we can get into the palace. The guy standing BEHIND Gon, watching all of this in a split second, tears up and cries. Because he sees Gon’s not-being-even-one-bit-distractedness, continuing to barrel forward full-tilt toward the enemy, and he is deeply emotionally moved. So THIS, then, is dedication. He RESOLVES TO BE A BETTER PERSON in the face of this display of mental/emotional power, the power of Gon’s warrior’s soul.

Now that, my friends, is some serious samurai-mindset characterization. If the guy wasn’t in the middle of a fight, he might have stopped and arranged some flowers and written a haiku on the subject, because the old-school days of War involved some serious philosophical exploration of unashamedly finding beauty in spite of all the death and destruction surrounding one.

After Excel Saga, Hunter x Hunter is the most self-indulgent manga of all time, going to whatever strange and experimental places Togashi feels like going. But he continues to sometimes think of some really INTERESTING experiments.``xEkFyuypyEpkQilFeYh``x1236460610``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421525887``xYoshihiro Togashi``x``x``x``xAction``xAdventure``xSci-Fi``xLillian Olsen``xLillian Olsen``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA-``x7.99``x150``x225``xhunter x hunter v25.jpg``x``x``x``x What I'm Lookin' At, PART TWO``xParkCooper``xEyeshield 21 23 and 24 (Viz): Eyeshield 21 is not for me, but I can explain to you what to expect: Eyeshield 21 has slightly less relation to real football than Shaolin Soccer has to real soccer. If someone had explained that to me from the start, I might have dealt with what I found in Eyeshield 21’s pages a little better... except that the art is crowded and overly intense. The poses, faces, and anatomy are extremely unreal and cartoonish in a harsh way. Also... why are Japanese guys playing football instead of soccer or baseball? Isn’t that kind of like kids in Dallas playing hockey? Sure, there are rinks in Dallas—it even has its own team (or did last I checked). But... Uh... I mean... I’m trying to picture a bunch of different official teams of kids in France playing each other at baseball... uh... You can’t help but ask yourself... do they do that? “And that’s why it can sometimes be very difficult to jump into something on volume 23, no matter how good it is,” says Wife Barbara.

Gimmick 4 (Viz): Wife Barbara and I got into a long talk, at least part of which involved Gimmick, over men and women and a love of world-building vs. a love of characterization. In the end, men and women can have these loves in any quantity, but there may be a slight statistical leaning in men for world-building, James Bond gadgets, and super amazing abilities and talents, and a slight statistical leaning in women for characterization, personalities, charisma and how charisma is reacted to, and communication. When compared with each other. Slight. Small. Very tiny. Only noticeable when you look at large groups and tendencies, not at all valid on a case-by-case individual basis. Having said all that, I like Gimmick better than Barb does. It’s about a special effects and makeup genius and his stuntman buddy who solve problems for people like the series/movie FX, increasingly involving the OTHER apprentice of the make-up artist who taught our hero his craft, who has apparently turned to eeeevil. I must admit, however, that there could be more of an emphasis on characterization, and that this trait does not decrease after 3 volumes.

Berserk 25 (Dark Horse/DMP): Okay, Berserk is a strange beast. It’s a very normal fantasy, except it’s INSANELY AND EXTREMELY FOR MATURE READERS ONLY AND NO ONE ELSE. AND I MEAN THE KIND OF MATURE READERS WHO ONLY LIKE THINGS THAT ARE FOR MATURE READERS. It’s like if they had, I dunno, say, an outer-space story, and you’re watching it la la la and suddenly it turns into outer space Snuff Porn. That’s not exactly what happens in this volume, quite, but it does pretty much capture the disconnect one feels. Near the end of Berserk I was like “well this is all right fantasy with some very intense art, but why is there a Mature sticker on the fro-OH SO THAT’S WHY HOLY COW. I’m still not sure how to review Berserk, but I don’t think I’ll request any more... Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I was personally traumatized. It was the unexpected gear shift that startled me. On one hand, it’s exactly as bad, no better and no worse, than the worst stuff that happens in Battle Royale. EXCEPT FOR ONE THING—in B.R., it’s the teenagers doing horrible stuff to each other, regardless of gender, so what I saw in Berserk volume 25 seems particularly misogynistic. Wife Barbara says: “He came to that decision all on his own, folks, I didn’t help one bit—I stayed the heck out of the potential debate on this one.”

Kurohime 8 (Viz): A supernatural fighting manga that’s mostly here to provide fan service, I find Kurohime to be more likable than Bleach but not actually worth paying 8 dollars a volume for. It’s true that it could just be coming in on volume 8, but while a female fighter on an Orpheus-type quest whose price for power is forgetting various memories of her lost loved one is indeed poignant enough, the execution, storytelling-wise (or is it just story-wise?) just doesn’t grab me.

Hunter x Hunter the anime box set 1 (Viz): I WILL review this. But suffice to say, I like it. It is worth watching. The fact that every episode has to have some sort of structure makes them add to the creator’s original work in a variety of pleasing ways. Barb liked it too. I was very sad when we watched the whole thing, because the best is yet to come in box set number 2. I will add, however, that it’s not so worth watching in English—go for Japanese with subtitles. But that’s about the worst thing I can say for it. It’s imaginative, sometimes whimsical, but also people die real deaths and stuff (but not Dear Old Gang! They’re just way too cool!), unlike many kiddie adventure shows with no sense of danger. Watch it! But while the violence is a lot less than in the manga, it does have an Older Teens type label on it, so parents should be advised to consider the relative merits of this content before watching it with younger viewers. Okay, that’s it, just bein’ responsible because that’s how we roll! Enjoy!

Update: I decided what to do about my Naruto review copy problem I mentioned last week: went out and bought some copies to fill in the gaps. I’m now up to volume 37, with more coming soon via Amazon. Expect reviews soon.``xEkFyEFpkZyBkiTYsrL``x1236130276``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xgimmick04.jpg The Magic Touch v1``xYsabet``xThe star of her high school's Massage Research Society club, Chiaki Togu is otherwise a normal, quiet girl until she falls in love at first sight with a gorgeous back--a back that happens to belong to Yosuke, the hottest guy at her school! Unfortunately, Chiaki's attraction to Yosuke is thwarted by her own insecurity and the scheming of other girls--especially her twin sister Sayaka!

Although Yosuke seems out of Chiaki's league, she would do anything to give him a massage. The two eventually strike up a deal in which she will be allowed to touch his back...if she can make him fall in love with her!
The Magic Touch certainly has a different take on "love at first sight", with its heroine, Chiaki, falling for Yosuke before she ever sees his face. Mind you, "falling for" isn't quite right, since what she wants isn't romance but the chance to give his poor, tense back a proper massage. And she'll do just about anything to (literally!) get her hands on it.

It's not a deep plot by any means, although there's some groundwork laid for later developments: Chiaki's older brother, who's still in high school himself, has left the family home and is determined not to go back until he's proved himself as a respected masseur. Yosuke, meanwhile, has a younger brother he's very protective of. The sibling status quo would be just fine if it weren't for Chiaki's identical twin, Sayaka, who's a cringe-worthy specimen of the Evil Twin. Masquerading as her sister? Check. Spiteful and cruel for no apparent reason? Check. No one even knows she exists? Check, and right about there my head metaphorically hit the desk. Sibling dynamics can be extremely interesting in fiction, and there's a reason twins are a popular choice, but in this case it's by far the low point of the book.

I haven't seen a lot of information about this title, so I'm not sure how far the story will go; if it's a short series and continues in the same vein, it'll be enjoyable enough, and if it's on the longer side and Tsubaki weaves in some more dramatic material, that could be good too. Given that ambiguity, it's a bit early to comment on the series as a whole, but volume 1 is a quick, fun read.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFyEklAVAPzdsESNq``x1236128959``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421516713``xIzumi Tsubaki``x``x``x``xRomance``xDrama``x``xNori Minami``xLorelei Laird``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB-``x8.99``x150``x225``xThe Magic Touch 01 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Rosario + Vampire v5``xYsabet``xAll-around average teenager Tsukune can't get accepted to any high school save one...but on his first day he finds the rest of the student body doesn't appear average in the least. Best of all, the cutest girl on campus can't wait to fling her arms around his neck! Wait a sec'--are those her teeth around his neck too...? Tsukune's going to have one heck of a hickey when he gets home from Monster High! But does he have a chance in H-E-double-hockey-sticks of raising his grades at a school where the turf war isn't between the jocks and the nerds but the vampires and thewerewolves?
This is my first volume of Rosario + Vampire, so the first thing I did--after reading it--was take a quick look at the two earlier reviews of the series here on MangaLife.com (for vol. 1 and 3). First lesson: we only review odd volume numbers. Second lesson: opinions vary quite a bit.

My first thought is that this isn't the most original premise ever: the protagonist, Tsukune, is a normal human boy who winds up attending a school for monsters, where he tries not to blow his cover. Tsukune is involved (to an extent I can't quite figure out from this one volume) with a vampire girl named Moka, whose powers are kept in check by a rosary, and who has shared her blood and power with Tsukune; the effects of this sharing are temporary, but may be having more of an effect on him than either of them had realized. Meanwhile, a classmate who's been absent returns for the new term, and is much more interested in Tsukune than he's comfortable with.

None of the plot twists are terribly surprising, but some of them are interesting despite that. Tsukune and Moka's relationship doesn't get a whole lot of development in this volume, but it seems like there's a solid foundation there. There's quite a bit of fanservice, as you'd expect from the cover art, but the female characters are at least flashing their panties while being magically powerful, rather than being caught by stray gusts of wind.

Tsukune himself is a sympathetic character, an ordinary guy caught up in a bizarre situation but doing his best to make a go of it. As is often the case with this kind of story, he's somewhat hapless but also has things he's particularly good at; he's unassuming and kind, but able to step up and be brave when the situation calls for it. In short, he's exactly the sort of fictional guy that makes every fictional girl within a hundred pages want to either jump him or be his best friend. We've seen this plenty of times before (I'd make a list of titles I've read with similar male leads, but I really doubt I'm the only one who can come up with five or fifteen off the top of my head), but the reason so many creators go with this formula is because it works.

I can't say Rosario + Vampire is jumping up and grabbing me, but since I don't usually go out of my way for stories about lone guys surrounded by a growing circle of female characters, I don't think it's a flaw in the series. I'm just not really its target audience.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFyEklZkFZmGpSfyO``x1236128723``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519070``xAkihisa Ikeda``x``x``x``xDrama``xSupernatural``x``xKaori Inoue``xGerard Jones``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB-``x7.99``x150``x225``xRosario Vampire 05 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Death Notes: The First Names (or at least a couple of them...)``xbarblien``xI think that my husband Park and I were two of the first fans to notice Death Note in the USA, but it was totally by accident. It happened because I'm such a fan of Asian horror films. I've seen all of the best of them (Tale of Two Sisters, Dorm, etc.) and many of the worst of them (I'm not even going to mention any of those). Well, like all good things, the eventual supply of good Asian horror films came to an end. As I was looking through the dregs of what was left at my local video store, almost out of the sky itself, plopped Death Note. Now, as I said, Death Note hadn't even appeared as a manga in America yet. It was just a live action horror film that my husband and I liked but weren't in love with. But something about the concept of good vs. evil and life vs. death made us agree that we'd look into the manga that inspired the film if it ever hit the US. We looked online and while kids all over Europe and Asia were going Death Note crazy, it didn't look like it was ever going to hit the US. "Aw, c'mon, it's so controversial! I mean, it's cool, but there's a Death Note cult out there. Do you really think any company will bring it over here? Forget it!" I said to Park, in one of my rare instances of being totally, totally off base in one of my predictions about industry trends.

So we forgot about the manga that we were jonesing for because of the film. We didn't think of it again until about the third volume of Death Note came out in manga form. Thank you, Viz! My husband received about seven volumes of Death Note for his birthday that year. And it was one of the best gifts I ever got him. We were both addicted to it from the second were started reading it. Yeah, we did jump ahead a bit to where the film left off, but from that point, we were hooked. Death Note is an intellectual puzzle, a nail biter, a far fetched supernatural horror that goes strangely and further afield in each volume...

It's profound and silly and smart and dumb and logical and stupid and astounding and full of improbabilities and...

Death Note is just cool. I've got no other words for it.

As the old song goes, "Whatever you've got, it's got me."

So after being ahead of the wave of Death Note love, we sort of missed the first crest of the manga by a few volumes. But at that time, while Death Note was getting more and more attention every volume, it wasn't the "you're not cool if you're not reading this" phenom it later turned out to be.

In fact, with the exception of my husband, I could not find a single male Death Note fan amongst my circle of acquaintances. Instead, I found lots of female fans, some of which were more shojo than shonen in their tastes, some of which were shonen fans like I usually am. I knew that Death Note was my gender's neat little secret when I mentioned to a busy shojo editor I knew that I loved Death Note. I expected to be blown off, but instead she said, "Yeah, isn't it good???"

It's not the cute boys of Death Note that got the gals. It's not Misa Misa's bondage cutie cutting edged fashions. What Death Note has that attracted the females I talked to:

1/ A terrific supernatural theme
2/ Great art (by the genius behind Hikaru No Go's art, no less)
3/ Smarts and lots of 'em

Well, eventually, Cartoon Network got ahold of the anime, and suddenly guys were all over it like lint on a cheap suit. That didn't bother me, as I believe that geek culture should be INCLUSIVE, not EXCLUSIVE in the way that American comic book culture so often is. But I think what may be lost in the craze is that, while not an exclusively-female-oriented manga by any means, a lot of the readers that discovered it first were female ones. Okay, I'm sure that a lot of guys read the Death Note manga before the anime series. I'm just telling you what I observed. I'm afraid that so many guys enjoying it now will think that isn't not for gals, but nothing could be further from the truth.

But why does it matter that when it comes to Death Note fans, you'd be well advised to cherez la femme? Because so many people have no idea what female readers want. And yet it's so clear, if one looks from the right perspective...

While the Death Note phenom first started passing from the female manga fans to anime fans in general, American comics decided to try and capture the hearts of said readers by launching a comics imprint called Minx. Minx was mostly a bunch of slice-of-life graphic novels with cartoony art that in some instances seemed meant to pass for manga. Librarians loved Minx. You can find Minx titles in just about every library in the nation, I think. Unfortunately, librarians often seemed to be its greatest fans. To be blunt, Minx did not succeed.

If you look online, you can find a number of great blog entries about why Minx failed. I won't go too into the details right now. But I will tell you that while Minx was trying to attract females with slice-of-life comics, I did some investigating of my own. The New York Observer said in an article last year about young adult female book audiences that supernaturally-themed books were about the only ones selling big time (Vamps, Twilight, etc.). I also asked a manga editor or two what sold. The answer: action-adventure, magical adventures, supernaturally-themed works (but not strict horror per se), and romantic comedies. What didn't sell? Pure slice-of-life titles.

But in a way, it was information I already knew. You want a geek girl audience? Dump the preconceptions about what girls like and write something supernatural like Death Note. But if a woman had written Death Note and taken it to Minx, would they have said "just what we need!" ...or would she have been told that female readers don't like death, action, intellectual puzzles, or adventures? I don't say this because I had a Death Note in my back pocket, but just because I've had so many dealings with the American comics industry... which, in general, often still thinks girls wear pink pinafores, shriek at the sight of blood, and are waiting to be rescued by the handsome prince.

My husband recently went to the New York Comics Convention. There, he saw Minx titles which were already cut-outs, marked for clearance. He then sent me, using his cell phone, a picture of a young woman cosplaying at NYCC as Near from Death Note (if you're reading this and you see your picture, we know Park said that he might use it for his internet column, so hope you don't mind! If you do, let us know!).

I have her picture on rotation on my desktop slide show. Every time I see her, I think, "You're the NEW face of women in comics."

Comics publishers ignore the New Face at their peril because, metaphorically speaking, she has a kind of Death Note in her Sanrio backpack and she's not afraid to use it: it's called a checkbook.``xEkFyEkZFFEEhicdQCX``x1236127331``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xnear but even better sized.jpg DragonBall Z (for Sony Lovers, PS2 & PSP)``xrasmussen``xIt's here, people, it's finally here. It's March. It's 2009. And that means Dragonball: Evolution hits theaters shortly. And no, nothing to pressure you fans of the series or Anime in general to march in full force to see it... it's only going up against Watchmen... lord knows it won't be that bad (massacre) when they are both in theaters together (Slaughterhouse Goku) and Anime/Manga fans fail to represent by showing up to support Dragonball: Evolution (doom)... so, while we're still in a hopeful mood (or denial mode depending on your POV), let's talk two Sony Dragonball games worth your time and effort to own: Dragonball Z Budokai 3 for the PS2 (if you are one of the many people who still own a PS2, like most of us) and Dragonball Z: Shin Budokai for the PSP (my one moment when somebody actually decided to send me a game to review... wow, that was nice of them.)

Dragonball Z Budokai 3 for the PS2
Publisher: Atari
Genre: Fighting
B+

The first thing I noticed about this game is the ton of options you have for it... but then again I noticed that too about Shin Budokai and later Naruto: Ultimate Ninja so, take that as you see it.

--Dragon Universe - Story mode. Play this to unlock new playable characters in dueling mode.
--Dueling - One on one gameplay. Use all the characters you unlock in Dragon Universe mode in this mode.
--World Tournament - It is exactly what it sounds like.
--Practice - This is where you can learn the basics of playing the game, as well as practice what you learned.
--Skill Editing - Here is where you edit your skills (capsules), and purchase new skills (capsules) from the Skill Shop to add onto those skills you already found in Universe mode (I so missed this mode when it didn't show up in the PSP Dragonball Z game).
--Options - Adjust the game settings. They'll stay the same once you set them (autosaved once you’re done tweaking the settings).

The Universe storymode is pretty easy. Starting at the beginning of DBZ (the Saiyans arriving on Earth) and going through the whole series, you fight your way through the story as one of six characters: Goku, Gohan, Krillian, Vegeta, Piccolo or Trunks. Depending on who you play, the story is different for each, which is great for replay value since you can play the game over and over again and have different experiences each time. And, as you no doubt have guessed, that experience changes as you increase the difficulty level! The harder it is the more fights and the longer some fights are! Cool, huh?

Overall gameplay is rather easy: you look for Dragonballs, and the occasional area to find money, stuff or event scenes, and then look for places to fight. The fight areas are easy to find, it's the other areas you need to search for. (Of course maybe it was because I stuck to the normal setting and didn't experiment higher, I bet if you cranked up the difficulty the game would get more challenging).

Fighting is slick and pretty easy to pick up on the PS2 controller, and thus is way way interesting! Your main drive of the fighting is the techniques you can use, which is represented by capsules you can "Equip". The capsules, which handle your special techniques, armor, gear and so forth, are all purpose (easy to get ahold of, easy to master with practice, easy to use overall. Gotta like that.) Fighting itself is easy, yet challenging at the same time. If you need to learn it (and you will since there are brand new things to learn in this game) there's a whole section of the game that is there just to teach you the ins and outs of combat. You earn bonuses for completing each lesson, so that’s a good incentive to do them even if you think you can get the system down pat without practice.

As for the smackdown? Well fortunately for you there are a whole lot of ways to visit pain and suffering onto your opponent: lots of moves, techniques, and ways to struggle it out include a new teleportation move and the "beam struggle" which (as you and your opponent lock power attacks) means you'll have to spin both analog sticks fast to land a blow (this also happens when you are locked in fast and furious hand-to-hand combat). The major thing in this game is the ki meter, which governs the useage of your powers. As it reaches a certain level you can power up, reach Super Saiyan level, and even pull of major attacks called "Dragon Rushes”... but even this has a nice balance in that, as the rush begins, you'll have to hit one of the four buttons (X, O, triangle and square) in a bit of Jan Ken Po to see if the full attack lands. If your opponent doesn't hit the same button you do in three attempts you land the attack, but if your opponent DOES match up with you just once then the attack is blocked. Keen. (Of course later on variations of this pop up like the button mashing move pattern to pull off special attacks in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja for instance).

Because of all the moves, and all the ways you can attack/defend, this is a well thought out and quite balanced fighter if I do say so myself. And, heck, it's fun too as you can even devastate the battlefield during the battle! I've seen it happen! Cool! Oh, yeah, and if you chose New Game during a game you're already playing with a character? You can choose to restart the game with that same character WITHOUT losing levels and such... so power up quite a bit, and start again to build up levels, work on technique, find money, etc. (something you might remember from games like Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for instance, the ability to replay the game with your saved stats). The Dueling mode is good, and even good just to watch as you can either pit player vs. player, player vs. computer or computer vs. computer (just to watch the fighting)!

The Skill Shop, where you spend your earned money during your Dragon Universe gameplay, is the place to add on new techniques and stuff for your fighters! And each capsule can only be used by certain players so that add another level of depth to the game. You can also edit capsules (skills) in this section, but I haven't done that yet so I don't know how that works (but it sounds good). And for fan service? Besides the fact you're going to be spending quality "time" with the major characters? You can even play as female fan fave Android 18... And I think you can play as Videl too but I haven't gotten that far to find out. I wonder... nope, sorry, Bulma is just a NPC character. Then again she didn't do enough in the series to warrant her as a playable character, so go figure... uh, fan service is not much actually, but if you always wanted to play as your favorite female characters from the series? Well... here you go.

When it comes right down to it, and you combine all the elements of this game together? You have yourself a good game that should be considered for your collection. Why? Because you don't need to be a DBZ fan to see that this is playable, and even kind of good to boot, that's why. Of course the same can be said of certain Nintendo games (certain DS & Wii releases) but again I just didn't have the budget to review those... sorry.

As for the PSP version?

Dragonball Z Shin Budokai
Publisher: Atari
B

Sure, sure, there is a "sequel" (Another Road) but I'll stick to this one review-wise since it is, to date, the only time ever somebody from a video game publisher PR firm sent me one of their titles for review... I appreciate it!

When Atari did this they took what I thought then was a fresh new gamble as they rolled out their first DBZ game for the PSP, and while it did not live up completely to my expectations it was still good enough to get a good score from me all the same. Yes, first off, this is another fighter just so you know. Yeah, I guess one day we‘d like to see a different flavor of DragonBall Z like RPG style DBZ (actually they did that when they released Dragonball Origins on the DS but I have yet to snap that one up yet, which is odd considering the cheap price it was sold for new) but I digress, this is so not the time to talk about the merits of different genres for DBZ games (or my lack of a good game reviewing budget), we‘re talking the first taste of DBZ on the PSP.

Clocking in at 18 playable characters, Shin Budokai follows in the “lovable” past of the franchise (counter attacks, high speed bouts, and seven gaming modes to go through, etc)… just as long as it IS the “lovable” part of the past, and not the part that made gamers and reviewers cringe at the thought of it all… aka the Budokais and Sagas that failed to be good games. The first thing on our plate of reviewing is the single player mode. Shin Budokai’s story mode (known as the Dragon Road) is the first sign of departure from the also-ran format of previous DBZ games by having an all-new story (as opposed to recycling the long story plot from the DBZ TV Series over and over again), mainly Shin Budokai being based on the DBZ: Fusion Reborn movie (never saw the movie but got the gist of it from playing Shin Budokai).

Dragon Road mode mixes a series of bouts intermixed with tales of sparring, world domination and the usual DragonBalls thing (you know, collect all seven and get a wish or two from a large dragon thing). Ah, as for “tales of sparring” I take it that means the fights between cutscenes. One downer, though, just so happens to be the cutscenes, mainly the return of the static screen cutscenes with talking blurbs. Sure, I guess I could have seen that coming seeing how this is a PSP game, but still... disappointing! Dragon Road mode splits the game between a number of chapters, set between a batch of fights per chapter and a piece of the overall story to go over. Now I know you probably don't want me to say another bummer again, but If there is anything that is once again a bummer about this mode it’s that (unlike DBZ: Budokai 3) you can’t pick your flavor of fighter for this mode to see the story in different lights (Damn!). Instead the story mode of Dragon Road will have you playing as specific fighters for each chapter, which means you’ll need to learn the specific quirks of each fighter in turn as you play each of them, since each and every one of them has his or her own specific list of moves to master and fighting styles to adjust to, providing you a solid list of 30 or so techniques per character to master going from the up close and personal short rangers to the long range “I like you better the farther you are from me.” moves. This is not good because it limits the replay value of the game, as you will no doubt play Dragon Road the same way over and over again without hope of variation ala Dragon Universe mode from Budokai 2.

As for the characters you’ll be… uh… “compelled” to control in the order given to you during this mode? Sadly I only managed to find out about 1/3rd of the available characters in the game before I traded the title off (sure I keep saying I'm really happy I was picked to review this but what can I say, I needed to move on and find new things to review). Characters I found out about while reviewing this were characters like Gohan, Gohan again (as a teenager), Goku (duh), Gotenks(fusion character), Android #18 (va-va-va-voom!), and Piccolo. If there are more I didn't unlock them in time before I stopped reviewing this, sorry.

Next mode, after Dragon Road, is Arcade mode. Basically it's a fast quick dirty way to get your game on when you want a quick brawl while on the bus or crosstown train. Here is where you’ll have full access to the playable characters, and take your out of your element road rage out against AI opponents run by the computer. It’s quick, it’s fast, and barebones, I.e. you’ll have nothing fancy to look forward in this mode, but then again who needs fancy schmancy. As long as the Arcade mode provides solid gameplay I think it will surpass any desire for “bells and whistles” in this mode. Heck, it should be all good to go for the immediate pleasure of beating someone else into the ground without risking jail time for your desire to have a beatdown while on the crosstown.

Next up is Z Trial, the third mode available on this game, which is sort of like Arcade but provides you abit of challenge with restrictions and/or rule modifications you have to struggle against in each battle. That spices things up, and offers some variation though again replay value is not increased very much even with it in the game.

Finding out that you’re forgetting your special attacks? Can’t get your Kamehameha going, or keep forgetting how to Spirit Bomb your rival? Keep kicking when you should be punching or blocking when you should be throwing (and you might have that problem as the PSP layout controls are not as great as a PS2 controller)? The next mode, Training, is there to make sure you don’t forget your… well… training by having a place to practice your 30+ moves each and every character has to unleash which is good since you’ll need a place to safely work out your fighting techniques (or just how you deal out your fighting technique on the PSP's controls).

The Profile Card mode, however, was a disappointment. I thought the idea of creating your own personalized DBZ cards would be fun... but it wasn't, it was boring, so if you're buying this game don't buy it for this mode because it sucks, my one severe complaint about the game. This mode, sadly, drags down the Shop mode as the Shop now sells stuff for making trading cards instead of stuff to boost your character stats (like in Budokai 3), another sadness. Gameplay overall is solid, and fairly easy to pick up, but the lack of capsules (and the waste of the shop to cover the trading card gimmick) brings down the game a bit from what should have been a better release. Still it was a good release, and while I can't speak from experience concerning DBZ Shin Budoaki Another Road (haven't reviewed it yet) I'm sure that game should be as good as this one (hopefully knock on wood).

So there you go, two games to keep you occupied while you wait for Dragonball: Evolution (one you can even take with you for the wait in line for tickets). Enjoy the movie (and don't whine if the movie does get mauled over by the Watchmen movie, I did say that everyone has to represent or it's going to fall to the wayside ticket saleswise before you can scream "KAMEHAMEHA!!!")``xEkFypAFkkAtJOKYZtA``x1236093229``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xdbz budokai 3.jpg Words Of Truth And Wisdom: Foreshadowing``xNibley``xA few weeks ago, there was an interview here where Park was talking with another English adaptation writer about how one of the fears involved with manga translations is getting something wrong in such a way that will cause problems later on. For example, when we translated volume... seventeen? I think it was seventeen, but it might have been sixteen... of Fruits Basket, MangaLife's Ysa, who adapted the Fruits Basket fanbook, saw one of the lines and, since she had read further on in the series than we had, she pointed out that it needed to be changed because of something you find out later on. As a disclaimer, I agree that it was probably better off changed, but we had a very good reason for translating it the way we did, and we could have defended our choice if the need arised. She caught it before it went to print, though, so it wasn't an issue.

Anyway, the point is not to be defensive, it's to talk about how we avoid those problems. The simplest way to avoid them, of course, is to translate as accurately as possible. If the English version matches the Japanese version exactly, regardless of whether or not the translator or adapter knows what happens later, all the foreshadowing and everything will be in the right places. Problems mostly only come up when you change stuff. For example, I'll refer to my “So's your face” column from... however long ago that was. Brief recap: the robot in Gundam Seed has a line that literally translates to, “you, too!” and repeats it often. It could also be translated in many instances to “so's your face.” Translating Haro as saying “so's your face” may have worked in the first few places it showed up (and would have been hilarious), but later on, when Haro meant “you, too!” to be encouraging, “so's your face” wouldn't work so well. In that case, it's really good that it was never translated as “so's your face,” because that could have messed up the story.

Another good example is in the Ace Attorney games. In the Japanese version, Maya's favorite food is ramen, but in the American version, her favorite food is burgers, so when Apollo Justice has a case involving the ramen stand where Phoenix and Maya used to eat all the time, the American fans might not get the same sense of nostalgia that the Japanese fans would. But they can't change it to a burger stand, because all the visuals are full of noodles. Still, we love the Ace Attorney games and their translation/localization, so we forgive them.

We've never translated video games, so I can't say for sure, but I imagine the Ace Attorney example came about because video games need (or are thought to need) to be localized, so the American players can relate better. That makes sense to us, because our brother-in-law plays a bunch of video games but has no interest in anime or manga. Fortunately, in the world of manga, we can get away with leaving things that may not be so familiar to American fans, and writing up translation notes. And so we can get away with changing as little as possible.

Unfortunately, Japanese is not a language that corresponds well enough to English that there's only one possible translation for each line. (I actually doubt that any language is, except for English itself, of course.) For example, they don't always use pronouns in Japanese, which can cause problems when you don't know how many people are being talked about, or if only one person is being talked about, what gender they are. So when everyone's talking about a character who hasn't shown up yet, sometimes we have to guess what gender they are. You can avoid giving definite pronouns to an extent, but sometimes it really just doesn't work, and you have to pick one.

There are other examples where a Japanese word has more than one possible English meaning, or it would be better to phrase something differently depending on what exactly it is they're talking about. One of the things we learned in college is that Japanese is a language built around being as indiscreet as possible. Vagueness equals politeness. But vagueness also equals needing more information.

So for cases where you don't know how to be completely accurate, obviously the best thing to do would be to read ahead. We don't like to read ahead, because we have some weird sense of honor or something that depends on us reading it as we translate (though we don't do that with everything, because sometimes we were reading a series before it was assigned to us, or we have to turn in a summary or something), and sometimes it's impossible because we don't have next the book, or the next book's not even out in Japan. Fortunately, most of the contextual problems are solved within one volume. So what we do as we translate is this: When an issue like the ones I mentioned above comes up, we highlight it, so when we come back to it, we'll know that we wanted to check the context before finalizing it.

And that seemed like a lot of build up for a simple solution.

Of course, sometimes there are times when we don't get the information we need in the book we're working on. For that, we just try to match vague with vague.``xEkFVVpkkEFCGkjqWgC``x1235502213``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg MangaLife Spotlight On: The (First) Live-Action Death Note Movie``xbarblien``xIf this was a review instead of a spotlight feature, I think I might give Death Note The (first) Live-Action Movie a B, but don't take the relatively low grade for this version of the classic manga Death Note as some sort of indication that I'm not a fan of the series. I am. My husband and I think that the Death Note the manga is about as fine a mind messer-upper as you're going to find out on the market. I say that because the last thing I'd want is to have some of my brother and sister Death Note fans to write MY name down in their faux-Death Notebooks, for Pity's sake.

Actually, Death Note makes a really pretty good live action film. Honestly it does. Only, it pales in comparison to its incredible sequel Death Note: The Last Name. I hear that you can skip the last installment, Death Note 3. I'm telling you, though, that The Last Name is The Bride of Frankenstein or Godfather II of manga to live action movies. To wit, a rare sequel that is about 1000 times better than the first one, even though the first one has worth. I cannot say enough good things about Death Note II, even though a couple of reviewers on Netflix would probably disagree with me (and if you do, just remember, it's just one person's opinion). What I love about the sequel: it takes the whole second half of the manga and rewrites it into two hours surprises and suspense. To me, the sequel is thoroughly yummy. So getting a review copy of Death Note I in the mails, therefore, is like playing Final Fantasy VII after playing its sequels. It's still fun, but you know that the best is yet to be.

For those of you living in bio domes or only reading American comics (the only two acceptable reasons why the comics reading world has for not knowing the plot of Death Note), Death Note concerns a college student named Light Yagami. Light, at first glance, is the perfect guy. He's studying law, he plays a heck of a game of basketball, he's got a killer smile, and seems to be the perfect son, brother, and boyfriend. But Light's got a secret. The truth is, he's an arrogant, pride-filled, cold-hearted dude with a bit of an unfulfilled God complex. Until the Death Notebook drops out of the sky one rainy evening, that is.

A Death Notebook is just what it seems to be. The owner writes the name of his victim down in it and the victim dies. Oh, there are plenty of rules concerning the hows and whys of how to use the notebook, but that's it in a nutshell. The notebook belongs to a God of Death named Ryuk, a ten or eleven foot mofo who looks like The Joker with rabies. Ryuk is an easily bored immortal whose idea of fun is seeing what Light's gonna do with his new godlike powers over death. At first, Light, acting not unlike Batman, in a weird way, decides to use the Death Notebook to kill criminals who slip through the cracks of the justice system. As the mysterious "Kira" as his alias, Light becomes an internet sensation. Half the world thinks he's the Messiah come to save the world, half thinks he's as bad as the criminals he kills. And you can see both points of view. The crime rates do go down big time, for instance. But there's something in Light's eyes that tells you that he doesn't want so much to save the world as to subjugate it.

Naturally, the police would like to track down Kira. A special task force headed by Light's own father (if you're a Death Note fan, you soon become well used to such wild coincidences) starts trying to track down a killer that they're not even sure exists. Enter L., one of the weirdest, wisest, best looking, and just plain odd sons of Sherlock Holmes you're ever going to meet. L. is like a teenaged, skinny as a rail version of Columbo except with a serious sweets habit. He's also hilarious, compelling, and just plain fascinating. One of the saddest things about the otherwise well done Death Note anime is that neither the English language version nor the Japanese version quite captures what a kook L. really is. One of the great joys of Death Note the movies is that actor Kenichi Matsuyama makes a heck of a good L., even down to that weird cat-like way L. jumps onto furniture.

The two movies become a grudge match between L. and Kira. To say more would be too much of a spoiler.

The best thing about Death Note I is the acting. Tatsuya Fujiwara brings incredible charm but also a certain necessary glassy eyed malice to Light. One of the most fun things to watch for in the first film is the exact moment when you finally stop sympathizing with Light and start wondering if he isn't just a little, you know, insane. It's a tricky thing to pull off as a feat of acting and the impish Fujiwara does it well.

I also liked how Viz films managed to shoe-horn series lovely Misa Misa into the first Death Note. Um, I saw this film way before the manga was even out in the USA and I don't remember her in it (not that I'm complaining!). So either my memory is poor or these scenes were added later. Either way, while Erica Toda doesn't look all that much like Misa Amane, she ACTS just like her, which is what really counts for us Misa fans.

So why the lowish grade?

Really, it's just that the film is just a little too slow in some places, and a bit too improbable even for a sometimes far fetched manga like Death Note in others. So, as much as my heart wants to say B PLUS, I'm sticking with my B. Did I mention that I adore Death Note II? Honest and for true I do!

Death Note I is either for people who love Death Note so much that they want to see it done up right live action wise OR for geeks who can't stand anime or manga but have been bugged by their manga/anime loving friends into at least trying out the movie before making with the unfair manga/anime putdowns. If you're in either of those categories, I can heartily recommend the film. For everyone else, read the source manga first. You'll get more of a buzz out of that way.

Because, you know, finally getting to see a CGI'ed Shinigami with sharp fangs as big as your hands chomping into an apple and making with that sickening "Ryuk, Ryuk" laugh as he mocks humanity... well, it might be an acquired taste to some. But it's definitely one I have, thanks to the Death Note. ``xEkFVVpEZZkICBExuGm``x1235501772``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xlight5nm.jpg What I’m Lookin’ At, PART ONE``xParkCooper``xSome things I’ve been sent to review have piled up recently (so much that I’ll run the next part of this feature next week), so let’s take a look at what’s left:

Hunter x Hunter 25 (Viz): I have written the review and will run it very soon. To summarize: I like Hunter x Hunter, and this volume is better in some ways than the last few volumes.

Oishinbo A la Carte (Viz): I have written the review (it might be long enough to be a spotlight feature, actually) and will run it very soon. To summarize: Good if you like learning about food, not so good if you like art or characterization.

Black Jack 3 (Vertical): I WILL review this. But for now, suffice to say, it’s more adventures of the world’s greatest--and most outlaw--doctor. I do notice that Tezuka is getting more existential in this volume, as Black Jack’s suffering starts dovetailing with the suffering of the world, of mankind, and of what kind of god would allow this kind of stuff to take place...

Death Note the movie 1 (Viz): Barbara has reviewed this just finely (http://tinyurl.com/theylikeapples), so I guess I shall back up everything she’s said on the subject. Death Note the live-action movie is enjoyable enough, and even has the bored God of Death Ryuk in it, and they seem to have gone back and added more Misa Misa scenes than I remember from the first time I watched it, but Death Note the live-action movie 2 is way, way better, and not just because it actually brings the whole concept to a satisfying end—although that’s a big part of it.

Real 3 (Viz): I WILL review this. Suffice to say, it’s more soul-searching involving how you go on with your life as stuff you always took for granted, stuff that other people would have told you, yeah, walking, that’s pretty okay to expect that to always be there, is suddenly not there. Nomiya crosses paths with his former basketball-team rival and they attempt to literally shake some sense into one another, with so-far limited results, but the seeds may well have been planted for the next volume... it’s good. Go read it.

Ral Grad 2 (Viz): Ral Grad... has the same artist as Hikaru no Go and Death Note, so the art is very nice, but if manga readers only cared about art, they wouldn’t have started reading manga in the first place. The fantasy story isn’t that well-thought out nor told. It’s hard to decide if the very obvious fan service all over the place drags the title down a notch it didn’t need to lose, or actually drags it up a notch to serve as one bonus reason it’s entertaining. It depends on if you think Najica-Blitz-Tactics-style “how much fan service is it possible to work into this story?” question-answering is entertaining or not.

Naruto 36 and 40 (Viz): Haven’t read yet because although I’m trying to also read it via Shonen Jump, the last actual volume I got was 30, so I’m still way behind, and I haven’t decided what to do about it yet... I plan to review them, of course, but how shall I best catch up on the story? Whatever else goes on, the story is still important enough to me that I’m not comfortable simply skipping ahead...

Okay, Barb has told me to stop this and save the rest for next time, so that's what I'm doing, so please look forward to next time, possibly including some of the reviews I mention above...``xEkFVVpEVlZPdWoIpHb``x1235501587``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xral-grad-manga-volume-2-cover.jpg Hayate the Combat Butler Volume 10``xrasmussen``xAh. Parents. Can't exist without them, can't figure out why some parents have children when you see the children... and let's not go there with that mom that just bred enough children to form her own sports team (of whatever sport can use... what... 14? 15 Players?) Let's talk Anime/Manga parents!

Some are allergic to cats (poor Sakaki). Some don't mind their children going out at a young age to earn a living capturing and training creatures for badges and competitions and whatever (Ash). Some have adopted parents (or had adopted parents in some cases depending on who the character was and what life altering event made said adopted parents go bye-bye).

And finally some are absent (what, half of the characters in Anime/Manga have absent parental units?), while others, the children wish were absent.

Case in point: Hayate's no-good gambler parents who are constantly in debt to the Yakuza. It seems since he was nine he's been running his rear off at various part time jobs (because apparently Japan doesn't observe that whole illegal to use child labor in part time jobs thing) to support his retard parents. Oh, did I mention they're evil since they eventually just up and sold their son's vital organs to the Yakuza to cover their debts... gee, how special.

Well that should be it, once the organs are removed it's no more Hayate, and the show comes to an abrupt end at the length of a public service announcement sized skit that basically says "Just Say No To Gambling, Lest You End Up Selling Your Children's Vital Organs To Pay Off Your Debt" ...or something like that.

I say show since, as of this volume, the (now rather old news since this volume came out how long ago in Japan) news of Hayate the Combat Butler coming to Anime is made... hmm... maybe VIZ can buy stock in Anime Network and start showing all their stuff on it (it's apparently still around, seemingly bulletproof since ADV has been dunked into recession red at least once yet the channel they made is still on TV... though I have to take On Demand's word for that since Oceanic Time Warner Cable never did add The Anime Network to their line-up as far as I know).

Anyway, I did some research on Wikipedia for what came next after "removal of vital organs"... which is odd since usually nothing comes after "removal of vital organs" short of the recycling of the remains into Soylent Green... according to Wikipedia, after Hayate's loser parents run away from home (which is not as rare in Japan as you think if Anime/Manga is any indication of the rampant parental running away from home epidemic) he ends up on the run from debt collectors (or maybe just the Yakuza looking to pick up his vital organs), and runs into a young girl named Nagi Sanzen'in (sole heir to the Sanezen'in
Estate). Somehow wackiness ensues and she ends up falling for Hayate, after he goes and saves her from kidnappers (some manga version of Helsinki Syndrome I think). Anyway she hires him as her new butler (since nothing quite says love like hiring the love of your life/savior as you personal live in butler), and his life becomes more complicated (than it already is). Besides cleaning after her he must also protect her from harm, since it seems she is a danger magnet
because of everyone's desires to off her and take her family fortune... oh, and he's totally dim to her feelings for him, yeah, didn't see THAT one coming.

According to Wikipedia the series (as of late Wiki-Update) is up to Volume 16 (and this is 10) so, well, this isn't going away anytime soon (that and sooner later if it hasn't happened already... VIZ is rolling out the Anime Series on DVD and BluRay. Lucky you.)

As for this volume?

First up it seems Hayate is late, he's late... for some hot chick to beat the heck out of him because of some duel... what the... Oh, then he flips out and starts hallucinating about ancient master chipmunks!

Then it gets all touchy romantic up in high places... but that doesn't last. Wow, that really doesn't last long. Then we remember all about Nagi and her manga work (which we can't help but notice since it's the focus of the 100th manga Episode.) Then we find out that final exams are close and Hayate just can't ignore his studies anymore... so many what he needs is a robotic duplicate of him to sit in for him on his duties while he studies... which is all well and good until it looks like the robot may be well on its way to replacing him in the series, then it's not so good. Yeah, everyone likes the robot double until it begins to replace them in everyday life, then the robot so must die.

Actually I really enjoyed reading this, though right now it's too cold to go into every last detail of what I liked about it. Hmm... I'm going to dig back into the series when I have the budget for it and review previous volumes when capable, just so I have a more complete collection (or hope VIZ rolls out an Omnibus of the first volumes soon). Until then, I can see why interest eventually rolled into an Animated Series for this title, as it is a nice read with good humor and a nice cast of characters you can really dig. Great job. A- for winning me over on review one. Bravo.``xEkFVVpplFZUdurcQpI``x1235500837``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x142152208X``xKenjiro Hata``x``x``x``xAction``xComedy``x``xYuki Yoshioka & Cindy H. Yamauchi``xMark Giambruno``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA-``x9.95``x150``x225``xHayate the freaking Combat Butler seriously 10.jpg``x``x``x``x Nightmare Inspector v6``xrasmussen``x"For those who suffer nightmares, help awaits at the Silver Star Tea House, where patrons can order much more than just Darjeeling."

Yes, it's another title of the supernatural headed your way. First up? Let's once again plumb the depths of Wikipedia for some answers to what we're about to review...

The investigator in question, one Hiruko, is a baku… no, no, you're thinking of "baka!" ...never mind. Anyway Baku (a dream eater... like a tapir only without the big honker of a nose) it seems the nastier the dream (nastier as nightmare, not nastier as in Adults Only content), the more he likes them.

He'll take you into your nightmares, help you solve them, then he'll eat the dreams in question (though he doesn't seem to quite care if you're 100% satisfied with the results or not as long as he gets fed). Oh, did I mention he sleeps all day (you may have family members capable of doing this) and can't eat anything but dreams (lest he cough up blood). Hiruko had a horrible life himself before becoming a Baku (amongst other little revelations that we probably don't need to go into just to review this volume).

He might hang at the Silver Star Tea House, but it isn't his. Mizuki, whose father bore them through his mistress and gave them the place after their mom's death, runs it. She used to have an elder brother (who was the Baku before Hiruko) but he's not anymore... wonder why.

Then there's the wealthy boy of weirdo bizarre tastes named Hifumi Misumi (does his name actually rhyme?) who has a thing for Mizuki and likes to piss off Hiruko. He lives at the Tea House as secondary plot mover/relationship muddler... I mean boarder.

Then there's the elder brother Azusa, who walked out of the tea house one day and never came back... oh well. Finally we have the man named Kairi who runs a joint called The Delirium in the land of dreams, and Shima, the odd little girl who assists Kairi in the Delirium.

Today's menu of meals being served up? First on the menu we have a woman who seems to dream she's tied and bound to the darkness... seems she has this sad life with a sickly older brother (who turns out isn't sickly), and she's apparently tied to him (but she's not) and in the end everything ends happily ever after... yeah, right. Total basketcase, though it'll all make sense (the rope and her being bound to darkness and the circular path she's in and
everything). Didn't say I liked it, but it makes sense.

Next up is a rich girl who seems to dream in travel monologue of all the places she's leaving or entering or whatnot... yeah, that doesn't end well either, and we have two dead girls in two volumes.

Next up freeloading loafer Hifumi uses a fingerless hand-looking vase to break a metal case used by Hiruko holding something horrible and terrible. Personally I would have dropped the heavy fingerless hand vase on the jerk's head. (Oh, madness ensues involving the bending of time and space and whatever just for a metal suitcase... dang, man!!)

Next up a scarred-woman who no longer feels like herself comes for help. Apparently she didn't hear about the last two women who came for this guy's help... yeah, this might not be good. Well, in her nightmares she's doing a body part swap with a flawless doll because apparently something is cursing her body, scarring it so she'd have no choice but to swap body parts (then it consumes her so she begins to think she's becoming a lifeless motionless doll)... weird. Oh, apparently it's all in her head and she'll get better (but not before it gets worse, then it gets better...

After that, Hiruko is confronted by a rival Baku whose track record actually makes Hiruko's look good, especially since he seems to make nightmares WORSE than better... then you find out the truth about Hiruko's past, and finally Hifumi goes and messes up epic fail time... yeah, so what else is new.

So what if the title creeps me out? That's what the title is supposed to do! Creep you out! It is in the horror genre, isn't it? And if you like dark twisted play with your head mind games that leave you wondering what's coming next, and how gruesome it's going to be? Well, here you go. Epic success. Me? Not into it, but that's just me, go figure. Unless you have the same aversion to horror (in manga only, though you and I both seem to gravitate towards survival horror video games), then we'll pass, but for the rest of you this little gem should keep you locking your doors extra tight and leaving the nightlight on until the next great batch of horror movies and survival horror games comes out. B.``xEkFVuAlZuVbhcSgEqW``x1235498745``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421517639``xShin Mashiba``x``x``x``xDrama``xSupernatural``x``xGemma Collinge``xKristina Blachere``xViz``xTeen``xB``x9.99``x150``x225``xnightmare inspector 6.jpg``x``x``x``x What I Did During My Husband's Vacation: I Read Dororo and Real``xbarblien``xWhile my husband was away at the New York Comic Convention, I was stuck at home. Not such a bad thing, as New York in February is COLD compared to where we live. Well, I missed him a lot, so to make myself feel better, I picked up some manga that he likes that I haven't bothered reading yet.

I tried Black Jack, but it was a bit too old-school for me. Inventive, yes. Wildly imaginative, heck yeah. A classic, probably. But definitely old-school.

Much more successful on the Osamu Tezuka old-master scale for me was Dororo (Vertical). Now, I knew of this manga before, because Park insisted I watch the live-action feature based on it with him awhile back. Now, if you're looking for a blockbuster that's light, goofy, and fun, instead of grim and gritty like, say, almost every comic-book movie adaptation that came out last summer, you might like this slightly campy, exciting, supernatural samurai flick. In other words, if you liked Hellboy and The Great Yokai War, then Dororo's your film.

Anyway, Dororo the manga series is also pretty neat. After I got used to everyone in the book looking like Astro Boy, it went down smooth as a sundae. Dororo is about a young thief who teams up with a demon-slaying swordsman with an interesting secret about himself. Okay, it's not exactly a secret--it's the main set-up of the book. Dororo's best buddy is made up of artificial parts because years back demons stole his body. To get his body parts back, one by one, he must kill demons he encounters. Kinda like Inu-Yasha, except unlike those pesky sacred jewel shards, which went on and on and on until everyone was frustrated, Dororo knows not to overstay its welcome. The story is quick-paced, quick-witted, fun, a little goofy, a little poignant here and there, very engrossing, and just plain good. Definitely a cut about the normal sword-and-sorcery fight manga.

But the cherry on the ice cream of my manga reading the weekend my husband braved the cold was Takehiko Inoue's Real (Viz). Now Takehiko isn't quite an old master, but he's definitely an old pro at writing top-notch manga. Note that I'm not into sports manga, in the main. My husband is, but the genre is often a tad repetitive and formulaic for my tastes. But when I read the first volume of Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk (Viz), I have to admit, I got into it, as old school as it was (Slam Dunk, perhaps the best selling manga of all time, came out in the 1980s, I think). Anyway, if you're into basketball, Slam Dunk's cool.

But I'm not talking about Slam Dunk, I'm talking about Real. Now, you might wonder why, if I liked Rebound, I didn't pick up Real when it first came out. I didn't because I found the subject matter of the series to be intimidating at first.

Real concerns wheelchair basketball.

My mind went several places when I saw that. Would it depress me? Would it be faux-inspiring, like an after-school special? Would the characters all be brave and bold and unrelentingly cheerful and never let their physical problems get them down? Would I be preached at by the series? Would my emotions be deliberately wretched and played with in a way that made me feel manipulated?

So I decided not to read the series, in spite of my husband's obvious interest in it and enjoyment of it. But while he was away, I got curious and dragged down a volume of the series. And soon after that, another. And soon after that, another. By the time I was finished, I was angry and disappointed that I didn't have any more of it to read!'

So the answers to my questions above were all No. I wasn't depressed at all by the series. Real can make you sad, but it never asks you for the sort of pity that some books use because the author thinks pity will hook you, when usually it just alienates. Real refuses to sentimentalize or idealize its characters. Instead, we see the physically-challenged members of the team go through the stages of grief, especially anger and depression. Knowing that they'll eventually work through this grief so they can deal with their physical, mental, and emotional challenges makes the process both interesting and, as strange as this is to say, entertaining. There are no easy answers with this series, no fake tales of inspiration with chipper heroics. There's also no preaching in the series. We're here for the stories, not for the after-school-special message that some less experienced authors might bring to the work. We're not told that differentially-abled people can and do lead fulfilling lives. We know that already. Instead, we get to see HOW they get to that point. We get to see the process of moving toward acceptance and moving ahead. It's not an easy process, it's not a fast one, but it can and is done.

To me, Real isn't about sports or handicaps. Instead, it's about how people find hope to cope after their dreams have been put seriously off-track by tragedy. And the fact that dreams can be delayed, deferred, disabled, but never totally crushed unless we allow them to be is what gives this manga its universal appeal.

Real is real life. It's also real, real good.

As a side note, one thing I'd like to see at the end of Real's editorial notes every volume is one simple link. It's to the official website of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. It's kind of a cool sport, amongst other things. But since Viz hasn't done that (yet!), let me:

http://www.nwba.org/``xEkFuAEEFVyZIdLvmpv``x1234911356``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xinoue_real.jpg Captive Hearts v2``xYsabet``xCarefree Megumi Kuroishi was living a life of luxury until the day a girl named Suzuka Kogami walked into his life. All of a sudden, Megumi finds himself kneeling at Suzuka's feet and prostrating himself like a servant! What Megumi doesn't know (until that very moment anyway) is that his family is cursed to follow the orders of the Kogami family.

Megumi decides he wants to become a formal servant of the Kogami family so he can be worthy of Suzuka's love. But when wealthy heir Hiryu arrives to claim Suzuka as his bride, can Megumi even compete?

I haven't read the first volume of Captive Hearts, but just before I sat down to review vol. 2 I discovered that vol. 1 was actually a collection of three stories. Volume 2 is, for the record, the continuation of the first story.

Captive Hearts is an older work than Matsuri Hino's wildly popular Vampire Knight, and it shows. Her art style is recognizable here, although I don't think it's quite as pretty as it is in her current work, but more significantly, I don't think she's yet developed the knack of hooking readers that she has in Vampire Knight.

This volume has Suzuka and Megumi trying to deal with the curse that binds them together: Suzuka recognizes its unfairness to Megumi and wants him to be able to love her--or not--of his own free will, while Megumi himself seems to have come to terms with the situation and just wants to be close to her, curse or no curse. Complications arise on all sides, though, ranging from the appearance of possible competitors for Shizuka's love to Megumi finding his loyalty divided against his will.

It's a bit of an overload of plot twists, actually; none of them annoyed me too much individually (although some of them were a bit too predictable), but they kept taking the focus off the characters' attempts to work through their situation, and there were so many plot twists that I didn't really feel like any of them got enough development time before we were taken off to the next one.

All in all, Captive Hearts is readable but shallow, and would be improved by less distraction from the characters' feelings about each other and their situation.

This volume includes a one-page glossary of terms and cultural notes at the end of the book.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFuAEEVZkZqtTfGhZ``x1234850521``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x142151933X``xMatsuri Hino``x``x``x``xRomance``xSupernatural``x``xAndria Cheng``xAndria Cheng``xViz``xTeen``xC``x8.99``x150``x225``xCaptive Hearts 02 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words Of Truth And Wisdom: Soul-Crushing``xNibley``xOne of the questions we get asked a lot as twins is whether or not we fight a lot. In our case, the answer is no, not a lot, but we do sometimes, and almost every time it has something to do with translation. And to illustrate my point, Athena amends that it's about translation about 80% of the time. You might think that Athena's argument actually disproves my point, since I just said we mostly fight about translation related stuff, but it actually supports my theory (which was previously unstated and therefore it's unfair for me to expect the readers to have any clue what I'm talking about) that we fight about things that we very much want to get right. We'll see if this paragraph has any connection with the column I'm about to write.

I was thinking that this week, I would write about the translations we have the hardest time dealing with. This is a topic I've actually sort of avoided, because we really do love our job very very much, and we don't want to give anyone the impression that we might feel otherwise. And when we describe the more difficult translation jobs as “soul-crushing,” I think it would be pretty easy to jump to that conclusion. “Soul-crushing” is, however, our term of choice for translations that we feel, well, kill our souls. But we also firmly agree with the idea that “that which does not destroy us makes us stronger,” so we look back on the soul-crushing translations and smile. Especially when we reread some of our journal entries from when we were working on them--those can be pretty funny. For example, when we finished our very first soul-crushing translation, I wrote a journal entry that started like this: EAT IT!!!! HA! HA HA!!! We have finished!! Take that, insane rush translation! And it's only 12:30!!! Aaahh, life is good.

So anyway, it's true that sometimes we'll come across a line in manga that will be a little hard to convey in English, and Athena will toss the manga onto the desk while I drop my hands off the keyboard, and we'll both declare, “I quit!” And then, since the CD we were listening to while we worked isn't over yet, we'll pick up the manga and get back to the keyboard and get right back to translating. That can happen with anything. But fanbooks... oh, the fanbooks. Fanbooks are scary to translate. Like super crazy whoa scary.

See, fanbooks tend to have all the same content as manga, only much smaller and with paragraphs that like to summarize and/or analyze what's going on. So not only is it manga plus prose, but the kind of vocabulary you get in the prose is much different than what you get in the manga dialogue, and can have really long sentences. Long sentences are the hardest, because you have to hold so many words in your head while you try to arrange them into a comprehensible sentence. That's why finally, in a stroke of brilliance (or figuring out the obvious), we started working on them in parts.

Of course, we're very possessive of all our titles, and so if a fanbook of something we worked on, say Fruits Basket, gets licensed, we want to translate the fanbook, too! Besides, we're always up for a challenge.

Here's another big translating challenge. We saw a commercial for the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament registration last night, and one of the kids said, “It's like arm-wrestling, for your brain!” And we're like, “No. Translating a lexicon entry in Negima! is like arm-wrestling for your brain. Jeopardy! is more like an aerobic workout.” For those of you unfamiliar with the Negima! series, apparently the manga artist did a lot a lot a lot of research building the world of Negima, and there are a lot of references to magic and mythology and such, and each chapter has a lexicon explaining the magic spells or other things and how they relate and stuff. They're actually quite fascinating. But they also really do feel like arm-wresting with your brain, because they have a lot of new vocabulary about mythology or linguistics or history, and they have a lot of quotes from Important Historical Works. So as we read them, it feels like we're making a little progress maybe, but then we get hit with the Japanese term for something like “subjunctive mood,” and since we don't know what that is, we have to fight to figure it out (by looking it up in dictionaries and stuff). The quotes tend to be really hard though, because they're from such old material, and because they tend to use specialized terms (oh yeah, the lexicons have a lot on psychology, too!). We're just very grateful that we live in the age of the internet, where we can look everything up on our computer. If we had to do all that research in a library... I shudder to think.

Still, while we joke and say the translating crushes our souls, I think they really do help us to improve and all that good stuff they talk about in the cartoons. So I want to reiterate that we're really happy to work on everything we work on, regardless of its difficulty level. And I want to end this on a joke, but nothing's really coming. Um... cheese?``xEkFuFEuyklbIbRBNxk``x1234314628``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Sand Chronicles v4``xYsabet``xGoing into its fourth volume, Sand Chronicles immediately delivers a reminder that its focus is on the inexorable passage of time--that life goes on, no matter what happens. Ann receives a call letting her know that Fuji has vanished without a word to his family, and the story lingers on that briefly, while she remembers their last conversation and talks to other characters about his disappearance, but time is already passing and her world is changing without him--and without her, back home. When she arrives back in Shimane for the winter holidays, Fuji's absence isn't the only noticeable change. Shika has become part of Ann's group of friends there, and more significantly, people are starting to notice that she might be interested in Ann's boyfriend, Daigo.

The two key plotlines in this volume are the mystery of where Fuji's gone (and why he's not contacting anyone) and the stresses that Ann and Daigo's relationship is under as they continue living in different places. Ann's holiday visits home from Tokyo are long enough for them to feel the distance between them but not be able to do much about it, and they're having trouble communicating. Meanwhile, Shika--who's bearing up under pressure from her family's secrets and her brother's absence--is finding it harder to deny her feelings for Daigo when she perceives Ann to be treating him badly.

The relationships in Sand Chronicles continue to be beautifully developed. The story doesn't shrink away from following characters' emotional progressions, and doesn't reduce anything to black and white. Ann and Daigo are both presented as genuinely struggling and hurting, as well as sometimes hurting each other, and while it's clear that they care about each other, it's also not treated as inevitable that their romance will survive the literal and emotional distance between them. Similarly, Shika is never written as being a bad person or a bad friend for her interest in Daigo; she doesn't get as much 'onscreen' time as Ann, Daigo, or Fuji, but her crush is treated believably.

Still highly recommended. This is an incredible piece of work.

Volume 4 of Sand Chronicles includes a two-page glossary of terms and cultural notes at the end of the book.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFuFpEZAAjlflFHXe``x1234301799``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x142151480X``xHinako Ashihara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xKinami Watabe``xJohn Werry``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA``x8.99``x150``x225``xSand Chronicles 04 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x After School Nightmare v10``xjoykim``xThe tenth volume of After School Nightmare marks the end of the series and finally offers some answers regarding Ichijo's mysterious experiences in the dream class. Readers who've stuck with this fascinating series through all its earlier twists and turns will not be surprised to discover that Mizushiro has a final shocking revelation up her sleeve.

Reading the final volume of a beloved manga series is always a slightly scary proposition. A strong ending can redeem a weaker series, while a weak ending can retroactively ruin everything that's come before. (Kare Kano, I am looking at you.) I won't spoil the story (or the entire series) by detailing the secrets revealed in this final volume in my review. However, I can happily report that this ending, while not quite perfect, does not leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

The main revelations of the volume are centered around events in the dream world: we learn more about the class, the school, and most importantly, Ichijo. That said, my favorite moments of the volume are actually a series of small but warm character interactions. One of the great and pleasant surprises of the series is the way it treats its supporting cast. Although the series is ultimately Ichijo's story, both Sou and Kureha are fully developed characters; Kureha's growth is a particular joy to me as a reader, as she transforms herself from a broken and frightened girl into a symbol of strength. These last three chapters are full of great moments between Ichijo and Sou, Sou and Kureha, and Kureha and Ichijo that show the reader how far the trio has come from the characters introduced way back in volume one. It doesn't hurt, of course, that several of those moments are funny enough to make me laugh out loud. (Three words: Black Rose Princess. It will make sense when you get to it.)

The last major twist of the series is so daring that most readers will want to reread the entire series to see if it really was hinted at all along. I haven't done my own reread yet, but I can definitely remember several things that suggest that it was. While I wish the final pages offered a little more resolution for a certain character, it gets the most important thing right: Ichijo's final understanding of identity, gender, and self does not feel like a cop-out, nor does it leave my inner feminist wanting to throw the book against the nearest wall.

Go!Comi has done a great job with this series since day one, and this volume is no exception. I've particularly valued the cultural notes at the end of each volume; the note here sheds some very welcome light on the final twist. (Don't read it until you've finished the volume! It will give away the entire story!)

In a time when so many manga series are content to cover familiar and easy ground, After School Nightmare is a real treat: a very original mystery with intricate plotting, complex characters and ideas, and gorgeous art. Both this volume and the series as a whole are highly recommended.``xEkFuFpEuklrjAlPOPL``x1234301428``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1933617713``xSetona Mizushiro``x``x``x``xMystery``x``x``xChristine Schilling``xMallory Reaves``xGo!Comi``xOlder Teen``xA-``x10.99``x150``x225``xafterschool10.jpg``x``x``x``x St. Dragon Girl v1``xYsabet``xMomoka Sendou (nicknamed "Dragon Girl") and Ryuga Kou are childhood friends. Momoka is a martial artist, and Ryuga is a Chinese magic master who banishes demons. In order to increase his power, Ryuga calls on the spirit of a dragon to possess him, but the spirit enters Momoka instead. Now the two must unite forces and fight demons together!

A demon serpent king who appears once every hundred years to select a bride has abducted Momoka's friend Shunran. Will Momoka and Ryuga be able to defeat the demon before Shunran is lost forever?

Volume 1 of St. Dragon Girl is evidently the beginning of a substantial body of work, with eight volumes and a spin-off series, St. Dragon Girl Miracle. This is my first exposure to Natsumi Matsumoto's work, and my initial impression is that this is a fairly even mix of predictable and fun.

Momoka and Ryuga are, as the cover copy says, childhood friends who each have their own unusual talents. Early on in the book Ryuga performs a ritual to summon a dragon spirit to possess him, in order to be strong enough to save Shunran, who's his cousin as well as Momoka's friend. It goes wrong; Momoka gets the power; they team up to face first the serpent king and then other assorted antagonists. All of the individual stories are fairly tidily wrapped up.

There are a couple of things which don't really get addressed, though; for example, I'd like to know what happens to the serpent king's previous brides. And more significantly, I'd like to know whether Ryuga would have had full control over the dragon spirit if it had possessed him, or if he would have had to keep it sealed the way he keeps it sealed in Momoka. The presentation of that bothers me a little. Momoka comes across as very self-sufficient and strong in her own right, so having him be in control of when she can access the dragon's power is off-putting. I imagine it's meant to be a result of him being a trained magic user, unlike her, but it results in some contrived situations.

The two of them (particularly Momoka) also spend a fair bit of time dancing around their feelings for each other, which are blindingly obvious to the readers and to other characters. The story does make a couple of nods in the direction of them getting the back-and-forthing out of the way, but then backpedals. I'm not sure whether to take that as a sign that it's more or less likely to get dragged out for multiple volumes; it's more actively frustrating than the also-clichéd stories in which the protagonists are as dense about their own feelings as the other person's.

The artwork is also a bit of a mixed bag: the characters themselves look pretty generic, but Matsumoto is obviously a real fan of the Chinese aesthetic, and she tries hard to incorporate the look in the costuming. (There's some very enthusiastic discussion of her research, which is fun to read.)
So far St. Dragon Girl is on the predictable and episodic side, but the characters are likable and the story is very readable. It's not uncommon for first volumes to be more episodic than subsequent ones, and if Momoka and Ryuga actually sit down and discuss their feelings and are given plots that last longer than a chapter, this could be a very fun series.
This volume includes a page of cultural/translation notes and a bonus feature about the author's trip to Hong Kong.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFukAZuEuJhKnDUGt``x1234297414``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520109``xNatsumi Matsumoto``x``x``x``xRomance``xComedy``xSupernatural``xAndria Cheng``xHeidi Vivolo``xViz``xTeen``xC+``x8.99``x150``x225``xSt Dragon Girl 01 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Tail of the Moon v15``xYsabet``xTail of the Moon comes to a satisfying conclusion with volume 15, and I continue to be glad I've had a chance to read some of the series (exactly a fifth, which is nice and tidy, but not the same as reading the whole thing). It's always especially pleasant to be able to say that a series ends well, which is something I try not to count on with manga--or with stories in any medium that lets them be drawn out, for that matter. Any form of serialized storytelling runs the risk of getting too long or too tangled, or of the writer(s) simply not knowing how to end it.
Usagi is thrilled that Hanzo is alive, but less happy about his plan to assassinate Oda Nobunaga in retaliation for the destruction of Iga; she believes that taking revenge will do no one any good, least of all Hanzo himself. She finds herself in the peculiar position of being in Nobunaga's service and trying to protect his life despite how he's hurt the people she cares about, and despite the fact that he's just stripped her friend, the loyal Mitsuhide, of his lands. Action ensues! And that's all I'm going to say, since I don't want to give anything away.
Roughly half of the book is devoted to wrapping up the main storyline, and there's quite a lot packed in there. This series has some strong feel-good elements to it, but there's tragedy, too, and Ueda does a good job of maintaining the balance between them.

The second half of the volume gives us a brief look into the future and a short side story, Promise of the Moon, which takes place several years after the conclusion of the main story and focuses on a supporting cast member. In the way of such things, it's a little predictable, but it's also pretty sweet.

Volume 15 of Tail of the Moon includes two pages of cultural/translation notes.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFFZEVpuZqvPtuTny``x1233715047``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421523779``xRinko Ueda``x``x``x``xRomance``xAction``x``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xTail of the Moon 15 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x CONCLUDED: The Works And The Key: The Chynna Clugston Interview``xParkCooper``xI interviewed Chynna once before...

http://tinyurl.com/chynna1stinterview

And then I interviewed her and ran it last week:

http://www.mangalife.com/features/TheWorksAndTheKeyTheChynna.htm

And, y'know, like often happens, my wife Barb was there too. So yeah. It's like that.

Here is the conclusion of that interview, suckas.


Chynna Clugston's BLUE MONDAY: THIEVES LIKE US is on sale now.



Park Cooper: How has the comic book industry changed since you first got involved with it? Do you think, for example, that if you, with your style and approach, were starting out fresh right now, it would be easier to get the industry’s attention now than when you did start out?

...and, like, any other ways it has changed over the time period would also be interesting to hear...

Chynna Clugston: It seems to have exploded since there's so many people trying to break in, even more than when I was sitting in the portfolio review lines a decade ago- as a result it's even more competitive than before. There's more women to be sure, and that's great, considering how disproportionate it was previously. We were there, but the numbers have increased drastically, it's fantastic. I don't know if I would have broken in as fast as I did (and it was a slooow process back then) if art-wise I was back where I was 10 years ago. BUT, webcomics would have been how I put my stuff out there instead of so many ashcans, or the use of ashcans only. The use of the internet has changed so much for everyone, and webcomics have evolved so much, it's really amazing to see. And of course, I’m pretty pissed there's so many great How-To books now on manga and so on, you had to learn by trial and error when I was starting out, I mean, no one helped me at the very beginning. It was like pulling teeth just to find out what kind of paper comic artists worked on, let alone the dimensions for the comic pages when I asked several guys. What dicks they were. How to Draw The Marvel Way didn't cut it, it was outdated and well, geared for Marvel. Now you can look in any art store, book store, or on the internet and find a how-to for anything. I can't tell you what trouble it was just getting going in the early nineties.

PC: I have your wiki page here... whatever happened with that Bloodletting thing...I ask you, fellow vampire-creator person?

Chynna: I put a stake through its ass. And then through its heart. And then I ran over it. and then I blew it up. And then I buried what was left, and then I had some dude go pee on it.

PC: Bad memories? A harsh self-appraisal? Both?

Chynna: A lame book. It's an example of letting people tell you what they think you should do with your original story and then adjusting it to become even more lame than it originally was. You know what I learned from it, though?

PC: Wha wha

Chynna: Create the story that you want to read, the way you think it should be done. Sometimes people suggest good things, but other times they suggest really stupid shit that still manages to make you doubt your own ideas. The only way you're going to be original is if your following your own ideas, not what you think everyone else wants you to do or will buy. But then sometimes you have to do the unoriginal stuff just so you can survive, so you need to pick your fights wisely. : D

PC: I don't even remember Fantaco. I sorta kinda remember Tundra, of course... although I can think of very few other things that they published...

Chynna: I don't even know what Tundra is. Fantaco was okay, they were pretty uninvolved. I was referring to my own friends at the time, telling me I should do this or that.

PC: Holy crap.

Okay, having said all that, rushing forward by a million credit hours from the school of hard knocks... how's the reception been on Queen Bee? You told me about its origin more or less... now how about the happy ending

Chynna: Well, it's been shelved, so...

PC: Shelved you say. ...Does shelved mean what it means in Hollywood?

Chynna: It means in comic terms, it sold really well. But it did not sell even remotely close to anything like say, what Scholastic’s used to, like Harry Potter. Though that's a really extreme contrast.

Barb: And here I thought this was the most interesting book for young women that had come out for some time now... not like the typical slice-of-life stuff that is so often aimed at girls etc.

Chynna: I get fan letters and lots of people telling me in person that they or their kids loved it, asking what happens next (I'm sure they could guess, it's geared for kids 9-13) but there's likely no more Queen Bee on the horizon. And Barb, thank you. I could hug you for that. ...Aw, I’d hug you anyway.

Barb: I saw somebody doing something different and I was happy about it. I thought it was a lot braver than what people have been doing...

Chynna: You want to know the truth? One major problem lay in bookstores. They didn't know where to put the book. They simply didn't know how to classify it. So Scholastic I think was a bit muddled by that, and I don't blame them...

PC: Uh huh.

Chynna: They felt it was a good book, they wouldn’t have released it otherwise.

PC: I’m sure they did, they made you write it just like they said...!!!

Chynna: They weren't nazis on the book, I think you might be misunderstanding what I’d said earlier. Sure there was a committee, but I got my ideas through without a hassle... they'd only had a general idea of the kind of story they wanted, and let the creators they found loose on them.

PC: Oh, that's not so bad.

Chynna: Certain points they'd meet over, discuss, and some things would be changed... but mostly minor points. These companies invest a lot in their image and get scrutinized pretty harshly, I understand the anxiety they get over some things.

PC: Okay, I absolve them.

PC: Okay... Hey how about that Strangetown.

Chynna: It's not dead, honest. It's going to be released as an OGN since it's been so long since the first issue came out. I’d missed something and wanted to go back and research it, luckily I did before issue two never came out, life and other projects got in the way.

PC: When shall it be released as an OGN? Do we know? Can we say? Can we predict? Guesstimate?

Chynna: It'll be released some time after Blue Monday: Thieves Like Us ends and before I start the following Blue Monday series. I do still have to draw several issues...

PC: Right... Just trying to whet the public appetite
So last thing, maybe... DC. Legion et al. Tell about that

Chynna: Pretty simple really, they contacted me and asked if I wanted to do the first issue of the new series, I said sure, so I did it. Now I’m going to do one of the Johnny DC Super Friends books, but just one at the moment. The kiddie books are actually really fun to work on.

PC: Illustrating, eh?

Chynna: Just the doodles, yeah.

PC: Any chance of you writing one? Any desire to write one? Barb says you'd be great at it...
So would she, but that's me saying that, not her.
So would I, for that matter.

Chynna: Sure, I enjoy writing. I had an idea for another Legion book, but I don't know what happened with that. I thought it was pretty cool though.



PC: Okay, what did we skip that needs to be covered... You're obviously doing Blue right now... What else do you need to plug though, anything?

Chynna: All my other projects in the works are either secretive or not yet pitched, so I think that about covers it! I’m trying to imagine if there's anything else...! I do have two original stories I’m doing for different Image anthologies coming soon, though I don’t know whether they’ve been announced yet or not. But if you keep an eye out on my blog or less active Livejournal, you’ll be sure to read about it in the near future. http://newwavezombie.blogspot.com/ and http://girlmod.livejournal.com/ respectively. I’m also on Facebook and Myspace and will post somewhere on those two about it as well.


PC: Barb keeps saying "make sure you mention about posting it both the column and at mangalife"

Chynna: Why?

PC: Me: "I think she's gonna be fine with me posting it both places! Why in the world would she have a problem with it?"
My first guess is in case you don't want to be associated with manganess

Chynna: No no no, see, I love manga

PC: No, yeah, just... Barb's like... if Chynna does not exactly call her own stuff manga, maybe she does also not want to be at Mangalife.com

Chynna: I don't really care if people classify me as manga, I personally don’t and I also think that there's so much resistance to it [in American comics] that the instant association verbally puts fanboy types off.

PC: Well Barb WANTS to post it there too because she feels you are like a role model. A role model who can draw, which is not what Barb is...

PC: I think it’s part of why I think barb feels so strongly about posting at Mangalife, because heaven knows young idealistic female creators just starting out are rather more likely to read that than the Comics Bulletin column

Chynna: This is true. Manga really is the number one way to get female readers, especially young ones. Sausage parties don’t cut it, we typically need to feel comfortable in new environments that are inviting to both genders, not just one. Manga’s the best thing that's happened to the American market in so long. Before it was popular, I kept bitching about how comics and creators in Japan were treated so differently... 80% of the Japanese population reads manga, that’s a hell of a lot of people, of both sexes, enjoying the art of visual storytelling together, even if they were reading different stories in particular.

PC: she'd really like to make a living writing her own work, but if there's room in the shopping basket, she'd gladly toss in "Hope For Females In Comics" as well, in a heartbeat.

Chynna: Yeah, of course. Well, one day the new crop of readers are going to take over and there'll be a shitload more opportunities out there.

PC: Yes, Barb has sometimes lately (I say lately because I think we came to manga a bit later than you... although heaven knows we're up to our hair in it now) rued that she was not born in Japan...

Chynna: Oh man, I know. Look how many books Takahashi has sold worldwide...

PC: But it's good to hear someone else say it. And so we were like "let's interview Chynna again"

Chynna: I heard that they were treated like superstars, the really popular ones anyway. I can’t imagine _not_ being treated like a leper for being a comic creator.

PC: "Were"? Aren't they still? ...You mean in the good old days when there were fewer of them, but just a few super-stand-out-stars like Rumiko?

Chynna: Well, I originally heard that they were treated like superstars back in the day, I imagine they still are : P

PC: Ah. Yes, I assure you they are. Still.

Hiromu Arakawa-- I have MEMORIZED her name-- creator of FullMetal Alchemist... I believe the numbers are 25 million volumes sold. Um... I think that's just Japan, too

Chynna: WAAAH

PC: Yeah. And a chick.

Chynna: Once I finally latched on to manga entirely (I was resistant for a while myself as a teenager after my initial interest faded - it was a short period though and soon returned,) I wanted so desperately take help bring the enthusiasm for manga to America somehow... the same sort of books, but geared for Americans or English-speakers in general... same with Anime. I think I ended up being lumped into the second wave of American fans of manga doing Japanese-influenced comics, it was nice not being alone at the party, but it was still a pretty sad-assed, lonely party. Now it’s all over the place. I was worried for a while that it wouldn’t succeed at all here and remain under the radar, but things are changing dramatically. Have changed.

PC: Well you two sisters must keep fighting... I hope to inspire her with your example and stories...

Chynna: We’ll make it happen. We’re still just in the beginning. Thank the gods for Sailor Moon and Yu Gi Oh getting the little kids... they're all infected now... I can't tell you how many little girls are coming up to me with their own comic art, including my little half-sisters... it’s just so exciting.
I'm sorry if I sound so... I don't know what, idealistic, but I rarely get to talk about this with anyone...

PC: DUDE I KNOW

Chynna: I’m yapping your eyes out.
I _should_ be telling everyone I meet who wants to get into the business to run screaming in the opposite direction.

PC: Yeah, well... NOW, sure... But you really are trying to sound a note about the future...

Chynna: Yeah. If we can get it to Japanese standards of readership...
Do you have any manga suggestions, btw?

PC: Heh.
Yes.

Chynna: I see so many books on the shelves...

PC: Okay--

It's hard to suggest for another person... here are our best guesses for you though...

Manga:
--GTO
--Yotsuba&! (extra strong recommendation)
--FullMetal Alchemist
--Azumanga Daioh (extra strong recommendation)
--Death Note
--Forget About Love (we're the adapters, so it's actually pretty funny...)

Anime:
--Most episodes of Cowboy Bebop
--FLCL
--Azumanga Daioh (extra strong recommendation)
--Fruits Basket (extra strong recommendation)
--Trigun
--Master Keaton (extra strong recommendation)
--Hare and Guu (extra strong recommendation)

And then these are good but we don't know if they'll be to your taste or not:
--Both Anime and Manga: Naruto
--Anime: Full Metal Panic and Full Metal Panic: FUMOFFU
--Anime: Witch Hunter Robin
--Anime: Dai-Guard
--Anime: Rurouni Kenshin


Chynna: Haven't seen Cowboy Bebop, though I always intended to. Got FLCL and Fruits Basket; I’ll have to check the others out!

Been wanting to check out Yotsuba and I do want to read Fullmetal Alchemist.

Usually I’m not a fan of fantasy at all (unless there's comedy involved), and these days I’m ridiculously picky when it comes to the supernatural, but I’ll read almost anything so long as it's got good storytelling.

Thanks for the list!

PC: That’s what we do.





Once again, Chynna Clugston's BLUE MONDAY: THIEVES LIKE US is out now.


``xEkFFEZFFpAetvxTXLN``x1233173309``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xchynnabwjpg.jpg Words Of Truth And Wisdom: You're Welcome!``xNibley``xI think we've finally gotten over our columnist's block, especially thanks to some suggestions from a faithful reader. But as I said last time, I still have some ritual expressions to talk about this week, so I think I will follow up on that. We just know you've been dying to read about “dou itashimashite.”

I think that as foreigners trying to remember everything there is to learn about Japanese, it's pretty common to read more into the kanji than the average Japanese person would. We didn't do it very much ourselves because of our boring, mathematical brain workings, but some of our classmates in our college Japanese classes pointed out some interesting things (I think it helped them remember the kanji). For example, there's a word in Japanese: “komaru.” It means “to be worried or bothered,” like when you can't get to work because you just found out you have a flat tire, you would komaru. The kanji for that is 困, which is the character for tree (on the inside) surrounded by the character for mouth. One of our classmates pointed out that you would definitely komaru if you had a tree in your mouth, and we had to agree.
Another example is the word “sensei.” I'm sure most of our readers know that “sensei” is the title attached to the names of teachers, doctors, politicians, writers, etc. Another of our classmates pointed out that the kanji for it, 先生, is “ahead” and “life,” which makes sense, because most senseis have “lived ahead” of the average person, knowing more in their chosen field. So one time, we were talking about who all gets referred to as “Sensei” with our Japanese penpal, and I said, “I can understand that teachers and doctors are kind of ahead of the rest, but why would manga artists be referred to as sensei?” And he said, “It's just a title; it doesn't really mean anything.” And thus I learned that mnemonic devices are not to be taken too seriously. Although I do wonder if maybe the etymology is close to that reasoning, and the words lost those nuances throughout the ages. Like how “smart” used to be an insult referring to a cunning, tricky person--or so our father has told us.

Anyway, the reason I bring that all up is that I thought it might lead well into an experience I had with “arigatou,” but thinking about it now, maybe I was wrong. But I'm going to talk about it anyway. “Arigatou” is not something you see kanji for very often, so when I came across the kanji for it once, I thought it was pretty fascinating. “Arigatou,” of course, means “thank you,” and it it comes from “arigatai.” When I saw the kanji for “arigatai” (有り難い) it looked like they formed the verb construction combining “aru (to be)” and “katai(difficult),” making the word's literal meaning “it's difficult to be.” It made me think of those times when someone does you a huge favor, and all you can do is say thank you over and over and over, and you feel kind of awkward because you can't express your gratitude enough--it's difficult to be.

Come to think of it, that goes along with another Japanese term of gratitude, “sumimasen.” When you learn “sumimasen” in Japanese class, you usually learn that it means “I'm sorry” or “excuse me,” which is basically what it means. Not literally, but the literal version doesn't make a whole lot of sense--something like “it will not end.” I think we discussed it in a few of our Japanese classes, but I can't remember what we learned about why that's what they would say. At any rate, for the casual learner “I'm sorry” or “excuse me” is all you need to know. But “sumimasen” is used in a lot of cases where normally here in America, we would say “thank you.” If someone held a door open for you, for example. Our Japanese linguistic professor's theory is that in America, the language focuses more on the speaker: “I thank you.” But in Japan, the language focuses more on the addressee, and thus they would apologize for troubling the addressee, with an “excuse me.” If you ask me, either one could be focusing on the speaker or the addressee--it just depends on the speaker's attitude. I wonder if that makes any sense.
So after all that talk about “thank you,” I finally get to “you're welcome.” We were talking with Ysa (a reviewer here at Manga Life, and an adapter of manga), and for some reason, “dou itashimashite” came up (Athena reminds me that it was because we were talking about “arigatou” versus “sumimasen”). “Dou itashimashite” is one of the first phrases you learn as a way to say “you're welcome.” It was then that we realized that none of us knew why on earth it would mean that. And so we decided it was time for another Native Speaker Check!

We asked our penpal about it, and his reasoning followed about the exact same lines as ours. “Dou” means “in what manner” or “how,” and “itashimashite” is the humble polite form of “shite,” which is from “suru (to do).” So it becomes “in what manner I humbly do” (itasu, being humble, usually means it's the speaker doing the... um... doing), which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So he did a little bit of research on it, and ultimately found out that if anybody knows what exactly it means or why it means that, it would be an expert on Japanese etymology. Athena's new theory is that it's short for something that means, “Whatever it is I humbly do, it is no concern of yours, so do not bother yourself with the minor troubles of someone such as my humble, unworthy self.” But then again, “doushite,” which comes from pretty much the same words as “dou itashimashite” means “why” or “how.” So maybe it means, “Whatever did I do to deserve your thanks?”
But anyway, the general consensus was that you can use it without knowing exactly what it means, or that you could also use one of the several other Japanese expressions meaning “you're welcome,” “no problem,” “don't worry about it,” etc.

This has been another installment of The Twins' Languistic Geekery. We hope you enjoyed it! (Or at least didn't fall asleep *grin*)``xEkFFEZkuFkXdKxyGOb``x1233172432``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Best of 2008... Best/Worst Handheld Games (and more)``xrasmussen``x
Best:


Animal Crossing : Wild World (Nintendo DS)

At long last this game reaches its full potential now that its companion (City Folk) is now out on the Wii. Buy both and make a matched set of fun!


Chrono Trigger DS (Nintendo DS)

What is it with me and retro RPGs ported to the DS & PSP, in this case it's Chrono Trigger (on my plate already for review ASAP).


Cooking Mama 2 (Nintendo DS)

What? Bummed that there was no Cooking Mama: World Kitchen release for the DS? Me too... well, at least we have the 2nd release from sometime back to console us.


Disgaea : Afternoon of Darkness (Sony PSP) and DS (Nintendo DS)

Actually I still have to play these but I've been eagerly anticipating these ever since I first got hooked on Disgaea from the PS2 version.


Dragon Quest IV (Nintendo DS)

Hmm... not so much easy as people have claimed but not too demanding (you do end up taking your time leveling up and getting all the gear you need to move on to the next area). Quite fun as old school RPGs go and I'm looking forward to playing V and VI in 2009.


Final Fantasy IV (Nintendo DS)

The second translation onto the DS (apparently nobody felt you needed to relive Final Fantasy I & II on the DS, especially since they were already released on the PSP), it counts you down to Final Fantasy VI (...and who knows, maybe they'll try and port Final Fantasy VII onto the DS, doubt it though since the PSP has slowly been milking the FFVII franchise with the UMD movie and then Crisis Core and who knows what's next).


Popolocrois (Sony PSP)

From the people who made the RPG Maker series, it might not appeal to many with its old school retro look combined with its Anime cut scenes but it is an addictive little RPG that could, so I recommend it if you can pick it up at your nearest GameStop or some other well stocked game place.


BONUS BEST

Personal Trainer: Cooking (Nintendo DS)

Wow! This is so easy and fun it could even teach ME to cook! ME! And that's saying something if something can teach ME to cook!! Not a game but a real cooking instructor, this thing has it... ooohhh... cheese pancakes from Russia! Yum!! Now that truly is From Russia With Love!!


Worst:

Harvest Moon DS & Harvest Moon : Cute DS (Nintendo DS)

Look, taking a game that looks like it should have been put on the GBA prior to its collapse as a present gen handheld (with minimalistic touch screen action) is one thing, but tricking us into buying the female version with all the same bells and whistles as the first? That's just downright mean! Play Island of Happiness and Rune Factory 1 & 2 if you must play a DS Harvest Moon game!


Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon (Sony PSP)

You'd be surprised to see a Harvest Moon game on my worst list... unless you've played Save the Homeland (PS2) then you know there is such a thing as a bad Harvest Moon game.


Every single game trying to cash in on the original Nintendogs craze (Nintendo DS)

And-- by the abyss!-- has that list ever grown terribly terribly long, with enough cannon-fodder games to choke Sin (Final Fantasy X)!!!


Consoles (NOTE : Unless I can play the game myself I'll just recommend it without comment).

Best:

Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo Wii)
At long last a brand new Animal Crossing for the new system! Hooray!!


Cooking Mama : World Kitchen (Nintendo Wii)
Did you see the lightyears jump in graphics and gameplay in this latest version? It looks far better than it did the last time, and considering how much fun the last two versions were, this should be aces!

Harvest Moon : Tree of Tranquility (Nintendo Wii)
Taking its lessons from past GameCube versions, this newest Harvest Moon packs all that was great in past games and skips the flaws of past games (though be warned this game has its own little plateful of glitchy glitches, though a lot of times those glitches actually work for you instead of against you!)

Infinite Undiscovery (?)
I'm not sure how you undiscover things but it looks good, and reviewed well as I recall...

MGS4: Guns of the Patriots (Sony PS3)
Come on! It's MGS!! You know you can't live without this latest incarnation of the franchise! You must have it! You must!

Okami (Nintendo Wii)
Come on, once we saw the PS2 version with the calligraphy brush action we knew it had to get a port to the Wii! And it did!! "Wii" did it!!


Worst:

Dragon Quest (the game with the incredibly long title)
Wow, well I guess now I know why the Sony PS3 passed on this one... it sucks! Only 10 hours or so of gameplay, and not very rewarding gameplay at that! Dang! Well, good thing Tales eventually came along and saved us from bad RPGs.

Iron Chef America : Extreme Cuisine (Nintendo Wii)
OK, I do plan to review this so I may yet pull my negative comments with more positive ones... but again since 90% of games from TV Series usually suck I am not holding out hope for this one.

Wii Play (Nintendo Wii)
Worst game tied to a Wii gimmick (free Wiimote) ever...


``xEkFFEZEVVZqpjAraNP``x1233171557``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xdisgaea01te.jpg NANA v13-14``xYsabet``xTwo volumes of NANA at a time seems to be my magic number--I don't mean to hoard them, but it isn't usually until I add a second volume to my unread manga stack that I start peeling off the shrink-wrap. (The Explicit Content warning isn't uncalled-for on this title, but I sometimes worry that it'll put some readers off.) I suppose it's because I already know what's going to happen, so opening each new volume is a chance to take a fresh look at something I already love, and to remind myself of details I'd missed or forgotten.

Volume 13 has some of my favorite moments between Shin and Hachi, whose relationship I absolutely adore. Most of the other relationships in NANA are full of layers and complexity, but these two have such an uncomplicated, playful affection for each other, and accept each other so unquestioningly, that I smile just seeing them together on the page. This volume is largely about reaffirming old connections and forging new ones, as if Yazawa is reminding the characters and readers of what's at the heart of the series before she forges off in new directions.

In volume 14 things are back to business, with Blast heading out to do a publicity tour while trying to keep their personal lives afloat. But the past is alive and kicking, too--instead of the series' increasingly-common flashforwards, vol. 14 shows glimpses of Reira, Takumi, Ren, and Yasu's past, deconstructing their current relationships with each other by revealing their foundations. Meanwhile, Blast has both old and new fans to deal with, and one of those new fans has a familiar name and a stranger's face.

The addition of new characters around this point (starting a couple of volumes ago) changes the feel of the story somewhat; I find that the intensity of each individual character's arc is diffused a bit by the broader scope, since we have less time with each person, and it's a bit harder to keep track of what everyone is feeling at any given moment. I don't think that diminishes the story, however--the emotional moments still pack an impressive punch, and there are still plenty of them. The mystery about what happens between "now" and the future Yazawa shows us is deepening, although there are more hints all the time.

Very highly recommended, as usual.

Each volume of NANA is sold shrink-wrapped, and includes the bonus "Junko's Place" story as well as The Family Times, a "newspaper" devoted to upcoming (at the time of Japanese publication) books/CDs/movies based on Yazawa's work.

Review copies provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFkVZAZVEXySPBBjO``x1232579751``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421518805``xAi Yazawa``x``x``x``xRomance``xDrama``x``xTomo Kimura``xAllison Wolfe``xViz``xMature``xA+``x8.99``x150``x225``xNANA 13 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x The Works And The Key: The Chynna Clugston Interview, PART ONE``xParkCooper``xI interviewed Chynna once before...

http://tinyurl.com/chynna1stinterview

But I wasn't involved with MangaLife then. So here she is over here, too. We talk quite a bit about manga and stuff in this interview, so... so that oughta make you happy...


Chynna Clugston's BLUE MONDAY: THIEVES LIKE US is on sale now.





Chynna Clugston: Hey!

PC: How's it goin'?

Chynna: Okay, pretty tired

PC: Why so tired?

Chynna: Up late drawing

PC: Ah ha
Drawing what

Chynna: Blue Monday!

PC: Now we're getting somewhere... and how is THAT goin' for ya?

Chynna: It's going well.
It's always strange getting back up to speed as far as drawing goes.

PC: Barb is singing Red Rockers' "China" "Chiiiinnaaaa, Chiiinnnaaaaaaaaa..."

Chynna: That's my jam!

PC: Which I say because you're one of the only other humans I can expect to keep up with her tastes...

Chynna: I’m going to put it on.

PC: So it's exciting, I presume, the Blue drawing? Is there a hello dear old gang vibe or what

Chynna: spinning
Absolutely. I miss them when I’m not tormenting them.

PC: Yeah we know a little bit about that sort of thing in this house...

Chynna: ha ha ha I can imagine.

PC: Barb, too, is tired. But first she helped generate some questions to ask... Shall we?

Chynna: Go for it.

PC: Who are your influences?

Chynna: The usual suspects, Rumiko Takahashi, Evan Dorkin, Adam Warren, Charles Addams, Edward Gorey, Dan DeCarlo... blah blah

PC: Why/how did you come to start drawing in your style (I mean, you were doing it before manga got popular!)? What about it appealed to you as a creator? One of the things Barb noticed about your art style right from the beginning was the simple, clean lines... not too liney, would look good in digest form—so how did you come to have this style?!?!?

Chynna: I always thought I was really a combination of styles I was attracted to early on, people like the Deadline artists, Philip Bond and Jamie Hewlett in particular (who I stupidly forgot to mention in the previous question) and Los Hernandez Bros., who were a very major influence as well- but what got me most were, yeah, clearly the manga artists, who I was introduced to by friends and ex-boyfriends who happened to be into it. Rumiko Takahashi's work was just so mind-blowing to me, that she could do such perfect comedy- it's the manga influence that makes comedic books even funnier, you have so much more room to work with art-wise. It's all right to make someone's head go from a normal size in one panel to the size of a hot-air balloon in another to convey anger, and so on... and as far as the format goes, it just happens to be my favorite. I always appreciated the neat look of a manga compilation on a bookshelf, aesthetically it's just more appealing to me.

PC: Do you ever call your stuff manga? Do people ever call your stuff manga? (Actually in preparing for this interview I saw one guy call your STYLE manga, so that’s an extra impetus for asking)

Chynna: I don't call my style manga. What is manga? It's Japanese comic art. I’m American, but I’m an anglophile who also loves Japan and everything about it. Especially the comics. I’m an art-mutt.



PC: So what Adam Warren does is not manga? Or just you?

Chynna: Adam has his own style. I don't care what people call it.

PC: THERE you go, that's a good answer... What manga, then, besides Rumiko, do you read? All-time favorites? Current reads?

Chynna: Not much these days. Hmm...

PC: No?

Chynna: I’ve been reading classics more than anything lately, fiction- let me think for a second about my old favorites in the manga department... Peach Girl is a recent one that I liked... I used to be into Masamune Shirow quite heavily... still love him. Read Mai The Psychic Girl back in the day, that was great. I can get pretty OCD about books, if I like something I’ll read it over and over again. Sometimes it's hard for me to embrace new books unless I happen across it by chance. I’m sure that sounds terrible. Please Save My Earth! Almost forgot-- loved that one. I have all of them in Japanese but was dying for it to be translated and now eons later I have them all, in both Japanese and English. Now if only someone would translate ITSUDEMO YUMEWO by HIDENORI HARA I’ll be really happy.

PC: Back to your style for just a second-- Has your style changed over the years, would you say?

Chynna: Totally. I’m constantly trying to improve; I hope that shows.

PC: Manga or not, because it was rather different, doing Blue Monday’s style of comedy when comics weren’t as receptive/hadn’t particularly considered such a thing, did you have a lot of trouble finding a publisher? What were the reactions to it? What made Oni take a chance on something that there were comparatively few examples of out there already? Did they... “get it”?

(Barb says when she first saw your stuff it kind of reminded her of Lum incidentally. In spirit if nothing else anyway)

(Lum, because that's all we knew about back then. Sigh, how long ago that was)

Chynna: LUM is the fucking best. Good choice. : D

Chynna: I did have a lot of trouble finding a publisher at first, but I think my main problem was that my art was still pretty weak. I was lucky enough to make connections with kind editors who would look over my stuff every year and give really good advice, so I’d go back to the drawing board and work on it some more. I do think that the manga influence put a lot of people off, though, to be honest. I know it was far heavier in the beginning because I was so obsessed with it at the time, and no, a lot of people didn't get it. It wasn't a xerox of what came from Japan, but it wasn't like alternative comics here, either. But if they gave my work a read, that's when they started to understand why it worked for me. Jamie S. Rich got it, and he was likely why I got my chance with Oni. Bob Schreck liked me and saw that I’d improved with Jamie's advice, and so did Joe Nozemack, so they gave me a shot. After the short story in Oni Double Feature I ended up lucking out and getting my own series, I imagine because the feedback was good.

PC: Who is your target audience for your work (these days, anyway)? And of course you aren’t hoping to get only certain types of people and drive others away, but if you had to explain it to a new publisher...?

(Barb also thought that it was "the most comfortable east-west mix I had yet seen, it had confidence to it in that regard... the lines were confidently drawn and not busy)

[so really you're having two conversations at once... >rolls eyes<]

Chynna: My target audience is anyone who's ever felt alienated. I think that sums up most people if they're honest with themselves. Music references and weirdos aside, most of my stories still cover the basic of all human needs. There's a reason you see different takes on the same themes over and over again throughout the ages. We all want to be loved and accepted for who we are. If people give me a chance, they see that they can identify on some level, even if they don't think dick jokes are funny.

(thanks!!! most just want to classify it as one thing or the other, period. which is fine, really, but I think it puts the wrong idea into other people's heads and closes it off to them)

PC: Has the Oni stuff been able to get the “Casual Reader” that everyone’s trying to get—you know, getting people who don’t read other comics to read yours?

Chynna: I think so. A lot of people come up to me at conventions saying "I couldn't get my friend to read any comics at all, but then I handed them yours and now they read L&R and this and this," no kidding. It's my favorite thing I can possibly hear.

PC: What about the manga audience?

Chynna: What about them? They're welcome to come party with me. Everyone's invited. You mean do they go on to read manga after my books?

PC: No... I mean, do those who would identify themselves as Manga readers seem to accept you any faster

Chynna: I think that depends on their Otaku level. The less fanatical they are, the more open they seem to be to other versions.

PC: Makes sense... If you owned your own company, how would YOU go after the casual readership?

Chynna: I’d try to buy a slot of time on the Jack Benny show and advertise there. Then I’d realize that he's been dead for a while, and give up and sell the company.

Okay seriously, Marketing. I’d advertise the shit out of it, that's all. Slogans, huge ads in major shopping centers, product placement, the works. Am I irritating you yet? I’m kidding about product placement.

PC: And tell our studio audience WHERE you would advertise...

Chynna: I thought "the works" covered that. If money wasn't an obstacle? Obviously I’d have banners all over the place on the internet, TV, before movie screenings. The Goodyear blimp, biplanes, bus stops, stickers in the urinals, soda cans, magazines, you name it.

PC: And now please lean into the mike and try to explain why you think the industry chooses not to market/slogan/product place/advertiselikecrazy now/already. Money?

Chynna: Or stupidity, but probably money.

PC: What would you like to see done in comics, if anything, to attract more female readers? Are there things about the Casual Female Readership that comics just doesn’t quite get yet or are being overlooked?

Chynna: Manga is the key, and not just the art. It seems to get more women interested in comics than anything. It got me really into comics. Why? Because many deal with human interaction, not just ass-kicking and super-villains, which is what most Americans assume comics are all about, as we know. We need more well-written character pieces to get women in here. I don't mean lame romances or popularity contests, bitch fights and more of that crap. We need a good balance of everything, and for the record we're not usually shy about someone getting punched in the face, since many of us have the urge to punch plenty of people in the face. If some people could see that we're not all that different, that we just tend to enjoy stories with substance and characters we give a shit about, we'd get more women in here.

PC: How did you get involved with Scholastic, and how was that different from working with the comics industry?

Chynna: I was approached by Sheila Keenan, then editor at Scholastic who was putting together Graphix with David Saylor and she'd read Blue Monday. She asked if I’d be into doing something with them, and of course I said yes, and that was that. Working with Scholastic is a larger scaled version of working with one of the big two, a lot of input on stories and your work is taken in front of a committee and gone over and fine-tuned until you get it right. They were very kind and had a definite idea about what they wanted, so it was a really good experience. My editor was great, so I lucked out.

PC: Do you ever worry about being pigeonholed as being someone associated with just one genre of storytelling (say, teen comedy)?

Chynna: Absolutely, I loathe the thought. I have such a wide variety of interests and ideas, but so far I’ve only shown people teen comedies, kid books and one twenty-something black comedy.

PC: What would you like to be doing in the next five years that you aren’t doing now?

Chynna: Producing books that are sort of social histories, also historical fictions, and screenwriting. I love film, as a separate but similar medium, but who doesn't? I’d also like to learn to animate, still.

PC: Slowly but surely, things are starting to change for female creators in comics. Sometimes it doesn’t feel a bit like that, and sometimes it’s hard to find any change, but it is there. The industry is in a rough period of transition regarding female creators... It’s kind of an old saw, but in light of this, what’s your advice to female creators trying to do stuff now?

Chynna: Don't fucking give up. Ever. If you really want to do this, don't mind eating ramen one night and gorging on anything you want the next because you finally got paid for something; if you eat, breathe and sleep stories or art, or both, then you just stick to it and keep working at it. Be stubborn, you belong here just as much as anyone else does. Just work on your craft and produce the things you want to see out there. That's all.



Next time: The conclusion.



Once again, Chynna Clugston's BLUE MONDAY: THIEVES LIKE US is on sale now.


``xEkFkulZZlFJDAlQpvl``x1232487783``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xbluemonday_tlu 1.jpg Inubaka: Crazy For Dogs v11 ``xYsabet``xThings heat up for the Woofles pet shop when a rival shop opens up across the street. The folks there are "strictly business" and aren't afraid to use dirty tricks to get ahead. In fact, someone at Woofles may not be who they seem!

I'm a cat person. I feel that's something I should say up front when reviewing this manga, which is so clearly written for people who love dogs; I do like dogs, but they're not usually what reduce me to cries of, "Oh, so cute!"

This was my first volume of Inubaka, but I found it very easy to jump into. It's the story of Suguri, a young pet shop employee with an incredible affinity for dogs, and her co-workers. At this point in the series, the focus is on the store's competition with another dog-focused pet shop across the way (from the back cover copy, I assume that hasn't always been the case); within this single volume, that competition takes the form of corporate espionage, an attempted merger, and training for a K-9 freestyle dance contest, so there's a lot going on.

Despite all that, the highlight of Inubaka is the depiction of the dogs. Suguri is a perfectly enjoyable heroine, although vol. 11 on its own wasn't enough to make me feel invested in her story (nor should it have to be). But the dogs are beautifully drawn in painstaking detail; each breed that appears is immediately distinctive and shows the touch of an artist who really loves her subject matter. If they make an avowed cat person smile so much, imagine what they'd do for dog fans.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkFkulyyplDGYkuuMs``x1232486608``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421521628``xYukiya Sakuragi``x``x``x``xComedy``x``x``xHidemi Hachitori``xIan Reid``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB-``x9.99``x150``x225``xInubaka 11 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Yoroshiku! ``xNibley``xLately, we've been having a really hard time coming up with column ideas. I'm not entirely sure why this is--I kind of think it shouldn't be all that hard. At any rate, if anybody has anything they'd like us to talk about, we'd be more than willing to consider it! Anyway, I decided last night that part of the problem is that I'm not sure how much of what I say will be stuff that all you readers already know. Nevertheless (that's a fun word!), we've decided to talk about Japanese ritual expressions today, and what kind of experiences we've had translating them. I feel like a lot of fans will already know about a bunch of them, so hopefully we'll be able to give some new, or at least interesting, insight.

Let's start with “ittekimasu” and “itterasshai,” just because. A long time ago, a friend linked to a blog entry where someone had gone through volume one of Fruits Basket and pointed out all the differences between the original Japanese version and the final English (TokyoPop) version. He was still learning Japanese, so he was right that some places ended up different, and wrong about others, but there were a few that ended up in debate. Most specifically was his comment on “itterasshai.” Most readers are probably familiar with the scene in Fruits Basket where Tohru regrets not getting to say a certain phrase before her mother left on that fateful morning, and that was the phrase. We had translated it to “come back safe,” which indicated that Tohru might think that by not telling her mother to “come back safe,” she might share in the blame for her mother's failure to do so. This is based a lot on our own psychological hangups, because that's exactly how we'd feel about it. But the blogger's argument was that “itterasshai” is no more than a ritual expression, and wouldn't have that kind of significance.

So the question then becomes this: what does itterasshai mean? The “itte” part comes from “iku (to go),” and “rasshai” is the command form of “irassharu,” a very polite way to tell someone to come (or go, or be, but in this case, come). So together, because of all the grammar stuff that I don't want to explain right now, it means “(please) go and come.”

Incidentally, we know that “irassharu” means “come” in this case, because “itterasshai” is the response to “ittekimasu,” which means, “I will go and come” (“kimasu” comes from “kuru,” which definitely means “to come”). Ittekimasu is what someone says when they're about to leave, usually for school or work, and, in our translations, usually ends up as, “I'm off!”

So back to itterasshai. Our reasoning was that if you're telling someone to go and then come, the requirement would be to stay safe long enough in order to make it back, so “come back safe” would be an accurate translation. The blogger was adamant that that wasn't significant though, so we did what our Japanese professors always told us to do in cases like this: we asked a native speaker. I wrote our Japanese pen pal, and he agreed that the meaning of “itterasshai” wasn't really as important as the act of saying it, so we had to concede the point. Still, we think it's not a bad translation for “itterasshai” for the most part. These days, we usually go with “take care,” because that's what we think most people tell someone who says that they're off.

Another ritual expression that got brought up was “yoroshiku onegai shimasu” (or “yoroshiku” for short). Yoroshiku is a translator's bane. Or at least it's ours; I guess I can't speak for other translators. So I want to explain what it means, and when you see the kind of situation where characters are saying something that kind of goes along with this, maybe you'll be able to accurately think, “Oh! That must be a yoroshiku!”

“Yoroshiku” is the -ku form of “yoroshii,” which is the honorific (or polite) form of “yoi” or “ii,” meaning “good,” or rather “well,” because -ku makes it an adverb and “good” is an adjective. “Onegai shimasu” means “I (humbly) ask,” and, when it doesn't come with a “yoroshiku,” is often translated to “please.” So, as far as we understand it, “yoroshiku onegai shimasu,” or “yoroshiku,” loosely means “please regard me kindly” or “please be kind.” We've mostly seen it in situations where people have just met, or where people are about to work on something together, or when someone is about to receive a favor of someone else--places like that. But because it's used in so many different contexts and by so many different characters, it's difficult to come up with just one translation that works in all of them, and it's one that tends to trip us up a lot. I can just imagine Goku from Saiyuki saying “yoroshiku” and how hilarious it would be to have him say “regard me kindly!” (I picture him with a big grin, making a peace sign.)

Incidentally (I like that word, too), we took “yoroshiku onegai shimasu” to the translator thingie at Infoseek, and the translation we got was “thank you in advance.” This kind of works, because I know usually when we use it, it's in e-mails asking people (usually people we've never met before) for help. In my head, it's a “please be nice to me!” because we're actually quite terrified of people, and also kind of a “please forgive me for being so forward as to ask this of you!”

But in some cases, it just sounds weird, like in My Heavenly Hockey Club, when they basically blackmail Hana into joining the club, she says “yoroshiku onegai shimasu,” and why on earth would she be thanking them for forcing her into a club she doesn't want to join? Of course, the term was being used ironically, but it still just wouldn't sound right. We tried to use “please regard me kindly,” but the higher-ups at Del Rey said that didn't make any sense (and they were right), so it was changed to “I'm looking forward to playing hockey with you,” which really works much better.

I'm not sure I managed to explain “yoroshiku” as well as I'd have liked, but I hope it made some amount of sense. We've thought of a few more ritual expressions and other Japanese words that would be fun to explain (why they make life so hard), but I think I'll save those for another column. Yay for having material in advance! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!``xEkFElAlVyFbkxXUZQQ``x1231898563``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Dragon Ball Z VizBig edition v1``xParkCooper``xTo be clear: It’s the first three normal volumes of Viz’s Dragon Ball Z, all in one volume.

I’ve talked a lot, relatively lately, about Dragon Ball Z, and the reason for that is that I read it all... but the reason for that is that Viz sent me this thing.

So it’s high time I reviewed it.

It’s good. I give it an A.

As for WHAT Dragon Ball Z is... okay.

There was a series called Dragon Ball. Basically, Son Goku was a top-notch powerful martial artist who went around doing good, and mostly tried getting ahold of the 7 powerful Dragon Balls. You get ‘em all in one place, a dragon appears, it grants you a wish. Wow! Of course, since there was also a few bad guys, and one particularly powerful bad guy, the demon king Piccolo (don’t look at me that way, I didn’t name ‘im), we spent most of our time not so much rolling in money like Uncle Scrooge as trying to keep the Dragon Balls out of everyone ELSE’s hands.

Well, that was fun while it lasted, but finally Son Goku defeated those what needed defeatin’, I gather, settled down, married his girlfriend, had a kid, etc.

WELL! One day, your favorite origin happened—it turns out that Goku was sent to us by another planet! Yeah, he was supposed to take over, but he hit his head real hard when he was tiny, and so grew up Not Evil. Lucky us!

Yes, you’ve seen it in Superman Elseworlds, you’ve seen it in Image Comics’ title Invincible, but here’s where it was ripped off from—Dragon Ball Z.

Well sure enough, the planet of origin finally gets around to checking on Earth, and it’s up to Son Goku... and Piccolo, because no one pushes around the planet Piccolo’s got dibs on except Piccolo... to defend it! Because these invaders, one in particular, are way better than us... at the start, anyway. And then after THAT beginning, A MILLION AWESOME THINGS HAPPEN. It is not an accident that I, over there on the right, have classified this story as being in the categories of ACTION, SCI-FI, and ACTION-- I did that on purpose. ACTION needed to be in there (at least) twice.

Gerard Jones, as I’ve mentioned before, does a good job adapting all this, as he has in fact done for America with the work of Rumiko Takahashi (and much more—see my recent interview of him) for years... the art is nice and clean and a few pages are even in color (like about 24).

So anyway, in this giant volume, the bad guys show up... and we drive them away temporarily... but they do manage to KILL SON GOKU! Piccolo decides that when round two gets here, Son Goku’s kid needs to be ready to fight, and therefore Piccolo had better start training the son of his old enemy right away! But it’s hard to die forever in a world where seven balls with stars on ‘em means you can get a wish... so the action’s just getting warmed up!

Seriously, there’s lots of details I’m not spoilin’, here.

So, it’s exciting, it’s big, it’s classic, if you’re a guy born after 1987 or so it’s probably something you grew up on... “Or a gal, maybe, in some cases,” says Barbara. “We can like battle manga too.”

It’s Dragon Ball Z, it’s 17.99 for 3 volumes’ worth, so that’s like almost 500 pages, woo hoo. And it all moves VERY fast, particularly in this VizBig edition.

Barb says to mention again, one more time... I went to the library and got ALL the other volumes after reading this, and that I ate ‘em up like candy, and that that doesn’t happen with every manga that comes along.``xEkFElAlEyEVhRIAfoK``x1231898161``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520648``xAkira Toriyama``x``x``x``xAction``xSci-Fi``xAction``xLillian Olsen``xGerard Jones``xViz``xAll Ages``xA``x17.99``x150``x225``xDragonBallZ_Big1_500.jpg``x``x``x``x Silver Diamond v3``xjoykim``xIn Silver Diamond, Rakan, an orphaned teen with an affinity for plants, has his life turned upside down when a series of unexpected guests from another world turn up in his garden. Chigusa arrives first; he initially mistakes Rakan for someone else, but soon realizes his error and vows to protect Rakan. Narushige and his snake companion Koh come next, bringing Rakan more information about his strange connection to their world. Finally Tohji appears on the scene, intent upon assassinating Rakan on the orders of the imperial prince of his world. As volume three begins, Rakan, Chigusa, and Narushige have captured Tohji and must decide what to do with him and, ultimately, what to do with themselves.

Silver Diamond is one of the most promising new series that I've encountered in 2008 because it combines interesting fantasy worldbuilding with warm character moments. Both of these strengths are evident in this volume, which feels very much like a transition point in the series. Rakan learns more about the world that the others come from, including his own importance as a Sanome, a person who can make plants grow at will, and the structure of the society that has labeled Chigusa as a criminal, Narushige as a bad omen, and Tohji as an unwanted child. And halfway through the volume, there is a moment of creepy revelation when a very unusual tree grows in Rakan's garden.

Meanwhile, the characters continue to be charming and often hilarious. Much of the comedy in the first two volumes came from the characters' fish-out-of-water antics; each of the visitors from the desert world reacts to unexpected things in Rakan's world--like televisions, gas stoves, and blue skies--in their own characteristic ways. Unfortunately, there are not as many of such moments in this volume, but that does not mean the character interactions are any less entertaining. Chigusa still fails to understand most basic human discourse, leading to some very funny moments, and Rakan still copes with strange events by clinging to the trappings of domestic normality, like making curry. Meanwhile, Koh, the talking snake who is sometimes a sword, continues to be reliably amusing. He spends most of this volume wrapped around Tohji's neck, acting as a very smug guard for the prisoner.

Sugiura's art is also very appealing. As one might expect in a shounen-ai series, it is filled with bishounen. (Even the characters comment on how pretty Narushige is!) However, there is more to Sugiura's art than beautiful men. She does an excellent job of conveying the characters' emotions through their facial expressions, and her chibi drawings make the comedic moments that much more effective. Her depictions of the other characters' reactions to Chigusa's strange comments are particularly priceless. And the panels filled with flowers and unearthly plants help make the fantasy elements of the story that much more immediate.

Tokyopop's edition of Silver Diamond retains at least some of the original Japanese honorifics and includes a page of cultural notes at the back of the volume. Unfortunately, volume 3 does not include the attractive color pages found in earlier volumes, but that's not a huge loss.

My only real complaint with this series so far is how slow it has been to really get started. These first three volumes have featured a lot of setup, introducing characters and plot elements, but not much has actually happened. Fortunately, one major event at the end of this volume promises to change that, and I am hopeful that subsequent volumes will include more action to complement the series' other strengths. I'll definitely be looking forward to reading future releases.``xEkFElAZpAyquhzgCwi``x1231897096``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1427809674``xShiho Sugiura``x``x``x``xFantasy``x``x``xShirley Kubo``xKaren S. Ahlstrom``xTOKYOPOP``xTeen``xA-``x9.99``x150``x225``xsilverdiamond3.jpg``x``x``x``x 2008 Otaku Video Game Observations``xrasmussen``xPart 1 : Nintendo DS 10 Recommendations

Animal Crossing : Wild World

If you haven't yet picked up the DS version of the 24/7/365 addiction then now is as good a time as any (now that you can link it to the Wii version for added gameplay options).

It was a long time in coming (and long promised), but Nintendo finally came through and brought out the companion to this game, the one we were long promised we could link this game to but had to wait a few years before it finally came to pass (though in the end even I have to admit from what I know of it that the whole thing could probably have been just a wee bit better though I have yet to do the connection thing yet to verify my suspicions). Basically if you want to get your feet wet with the whole concept of Animal Crossing and only own a DS and not a DS slash Wii this is a good chance to get your first real taste of the village life (if you didn't already play this game way back during the GameCube era).

Of course if you are not into long-term-investment games, then you probably won't be checking into your village anytime soon. Too bad. For an all-ages-friendly game of "life" that lives by a real time clock (I can't think of any other game that is played in real time like Animal Crossing), this is worth having.

Recommendations: If you don't mind the all-ages fare, and want to just find something to play that lets you kick back and relax with your "pals"? This is a good recommendation. Try it. (And yes, that recommendation works with both the DS & Wii versions of Animal Crossing).



Bleach: Blade of Fate

Simple matter of elimination, really. Amazon marks this one at 4 ½ stars, marks Dark Souls at 3 stars. Guess which version of Bleach on the DS got the better score and recommendation!

I guess I can put this on my future menu of reviews for the new year. Let's see what this version offers that makes it so recommended.

The game features "exciting multiplayer fighting action" as up to four players can rumble via the DS Wi-Fi connection. The game also supports the Download Play feature (which just doesn't seem to get used often enough at times) which means the four players in question don't need to own copies of the game in order to fight each other head to head to head to head.

A smattering of 2D fighting arenas are offered to brawl it out in; players can switch between the foreground and background battle lines (fighting areas) in order to either pursue an opponent or flee from one.

There're 28 selectable characters with the voice talents from the series providing dialog for all the characters (a treat for DS game players, to be certain)!

The game promises seven "thrilling" gameplay modes (though quite familiar modes, if you know your Anime/Manga fighting game set ups): Story mode, Arcade, Versus mode, Training and Challenge plus two unlockable modes should keep you brawling it out on this game for hours on end.

There's a "Customizable Spirit Card Deck" ...don't worry, I don't think this is going to suck if you are familiar with the use of cards in certain games. Customize and manage decks of Power-Up cards covering Health, Attack, Defense and more. Also, you can earn cards during gameplay to further customization of your deck (to make it as individual as yourself and your particular fighting style).

Sounds interesting. Hope it reviews well once I get ahold of it in the coming months.

Recommendations: Probably just for Bleach fans, but it's too early to tell. Any other recommendations will have to wait until I review this at a later date.



Chrono Trigger DS

It's on my to-review list, but all I can say for now is that it's another port of a classic RPG to the DS (and since the DS is doing quite well with RPG ports this should be another one of those you should be playing). Hopefully I'll have a full review soon.

Recommendations: Doesn't matter if you are a fan of the original or not, from all I've seen of this game it looks like another great RPG for your DS (but stay tuned for my full review in the coming days to find out more)!


Disgaea DS

Much like the above Chrono Trigger DS I don't know much about this game, but unlike Chrono Trigger DS, I have a bit more experience with Disgaea (I played the PS2 Disgaea [original] before, and I gave that game quite a good score as I remember it) so I am so looking forward to reviewing this (as well as the PSP Disgaea and Disgaea 2 for the PS2).

Recommendations: If you haven't played any of the Disgaea games yet, now is about as good a time as any to jump right into the franchise and enjoy its quirky, innovative, intensely original strategy gaming with a twist!



Dragon Quest IV
The first of a trio of Dragon Quest ports to the DS (the latter two promising to be new to you never before released in America ports in DQV & VI), classic Dragon Quest of old is revived with new content, new gameplay and new animation from the ongoing alliance between Dragon Quest and Dragonball creator Akira Koriyama (so if you've found yourself hooked on his character stylings since DQVII on the GameCube or Monsters: Joker on the DS, then you should love this).

Recommendations: Believe it or not this is first and foremost a recommendation to NEWBIES to the series. Why? Well I heard that fans of the original release will find quite a bit has been changed on the title, and I don't just mean names and wording. Apparently the DS version is supposed to be easier than the original classic version (apparently appealing to fresh fan base than the fan base of old) but that doesn't remove its fun (even X-Play has this on their recommendations list for the year), so if you can, go and get this game! I have a review coming up soon of it and I'll let you know what I thought of it when I sat down and plunked down some serious review time on the title!



Final Fantasy III & IV

Two, two, two recommendations for the price of one notation. Of course if you were an avid RPG player on the recently past gen'd Nintendo Game Boy Advance then you know that they put out the entire Final Fantasy series pre Final Fantasy VII on the system. Soon after they began to put out the games (with spiffier new looks) on the DS, IV being the latest to make the transition.

The game is still the same solid game, but now it looks better and plays pretty well too. So far I've only played (and reviewed) Final Fantasy III but if I can I'm going to be throwing down my thoughts on IV in the future.

Now all we need is for Nintendo to wrap up with FFV & VI in the coming months. I wonder how long it'll be before those release...

Recommendations: Fans of a good RPG, fans of Square Enix, or fans of Final Fantasy? Lots of good reason to get these (so go out and try them today).



Naruto : Path of the Ninja

Well, it's about time! I knew I wasn't going crazy or making it up! Yes, at last the long incoming Naruto RPG style of gaming makes it to America and we can play something that isn't a Naruto Fighting game (for once). Me? I'm just hyped that it's a game that isn't a fighting game... cool!

First off, as you probably guessed, this game has a low playable-character count... which sucks, since I thought this was an RPG (and at least you could have had a larger staple of characters to rotate and train for the game). Still, 6 playable characters is better than nothing I suppose.

Yes, this game does have "all your favorite ninjas from the TV show", but it seems 90% of them are delegated to NPC status... that blows. On the bright side you can pick up and learn 90 jutsu techniques, which has to be far more than what you can use in the fighting Naruto games... right?

The game features a "unique" time-based" combat system emphasizing "tactics and strategy" ...I personally have no idea what that means other than this game might be played out in real-time combat. Maybe.

Another selling point is that this game is a fresh original release specifically for North America (whether this means this game was put together by an American game publisher ala the recent releases of Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Homecoming from its new American publisher remains to be seen) so that has to be good, right? Doesn't mean I still wouldn't like to see some of those Naruto RPG(s) from Japan, but this is nice... Right?

Touch-screen action mini-games... what that implies I'm not sure, again, it's for the review in the future.

Recommendations: Naruto fans only need apply? I guess that's the recommendation I'm making until I review this in the near future (knock on wood).


Pokemon Diamond or Pearl

Yeah, it's a bit old in the tooth now after so much time, but this latest incarnation of the over 100+ hour gameplay RPG style Pokemon game (that you've known since Blue/Red/Pikachu Yellow from the old Game Boy days) is available, and you might as well stick to the classics.

Recommendations: Over 100+ hours of gameplay and steady reliable gameplay? You can't beat that, no. Of course, if you've played all the incarnations of Pokemon from Red/Blue to the GBA versions, then maybe you're tired of it... don't see how, but maybe you're tired of it... nah. Can't see that happening.



The World Ends With You

Check out my thoughts on the game in last week's MangaLife update!




Next list: Nintendo Wii recommendations and observations.``xEkFElAyppufEmkMxms``x1231896004``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xFinal-Fantasy-IV-DS-21.jpg Manga Goes To Hollywood``xbarblien``xWhenever I talk to comic book fan boys, when they're not chiding me for reading manga, the conversation always seems to come around to Hollywood. As long as there are movie executive geeks, actors, and entertainment writers, they reason, comics will always be a viable entertainment media. I usually nod at that. But what I actually think to myself is that "dragons live forever, but not so little boys". By that I mean, all right currently the powers that be in entertainment are mostly twenty five to forty five year old guys, many of which grew up on comics. All very well and good for comics fandom at this moment. However, when I look to the future movers and shakers, the fifteen year old gifted kids with an interest in media, I don't see half as many comic book fans as I do manga fans. The best selling graphic novel of 2008? Naruto, clocking in with 80,000 copies for a single volume, not to mention all of the other volumes and the Shonen Jump readership. Follow me on this. It's ten, fifteen years down the road. These teenagers have now grown up. There are a lot of them, many of which will probably go into acting, media, writing, art, acting, and most importantly for my way of thinking, Hollywood movie executives. Think of it. Hollywood movie elite that are hardcore manga fans. Hardcore manga fans that will probably start thinking about what a good live action film Fullmetal Alchemist or what have you would make.

Hollywood may be saving comics in the short term, but in the long term, if manga continues to exist and sell to the American audience, in the long term will this already be so? Hollywood loves to cannibalize hits from other mediums. Already, we've seen great Asian horror and action adventure films turned into (mostly God awful) Hollywood films. There's no reason on God's green earth that manga and its moving picture cousin anime wouldn't be next for Hollywood cannibalization. After all, we did just get a Speed Racer film. A hint of the Shape of Things to Come?

All of which got me to thinking…always a dangerous thing in my case. What manga/anime classics might be ripest for Hollywood treatment? Here's a small sample list of what I'm talking about.

Like my good and wise Japanese to American translator friends Athena and Althea Nibley, I'm a Disney/Pixar fan. But I haven't really been into their films since Emperor's New Groove and Finding Nemo. The problem is that Disney has already adapted most of the great fairy tales. Or rather, most of the great ones of Western Civilization. Knowing that the good people at Pixar are even more into Hiyao Miyazaki's animated features than I am, it would make sense to me that Pixar try adapting a couple of manga titles into American feature films. My suggestion? Cowa, one of the best children's stories I've seen in a month of Sundays. Here's a link to show you a bit of the art: http://www.mangalife.com/reviews/images/COWA.jpg

Cowa is the story of a brave little vampire boy who saves his village from a mysterious disease that only affects monsters. It's a sweet story, as well as an exciting and suspenseful one. Of course, there might already be a Cowa anime. If so, I'd rent it in a second. But if there isn't, Pixar's uniquely warm and cute animation style might just be what the doctor ordered adaptation-wise.

Of course, Pixar doesn't do live action films. Picking manga to be Americanized into live action movies can be a challenge. Already there are some good to great live action films based on manga that have come out of Asia. The first two Death Note movies are the best example. But Dororo was just made into a super-fun live action film over there (rent it and you'll have a great time), as has been Nana, GTO, and Lupin the Third.

Ah, Lupin, that's the ticket. Castle of Cagliostro is one of the most imaginative caper films I've ever seen. One of Miyazaki's first films, too. Now, I'd hate to see my beloved Castle bastardized by Hollywood, Lupin the Third screams for some sort of live action blockbuster treatment. Lupin is the world greatest thief, as well as a would be womanizer. He's a clever, inventive, innovative type, a combo of James Bond and Ocean's 11. I'm thinking of a Lupin film as a perfect vehicle for Ben Affleck. He's a rather charming gent. And he's even got the right shaped head. Compare: http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/famecrawler/2008/06/16-22/ben_affleck_jennifer-violet.jpg

...and...

http://www.cartoon-secrets.com/Photos/Lupin-III-cartoon.jpg


Let's not forget TV, either. I keep on thinking of the brilliant manga/anime series Master Keaton. Keaton, an insurance investigator and a survival expert, has the makings of the next Fox TV hit series. Master Keaton, as I've said other places, is MacGyver for intellectuals. Or, in the alternative, a super-low-key Indiana Jones. If Bones ever peters out ratings wise, David Boreanaz might be a good Keaton.

Compare:

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/Image/bones/david-boreanaz-bones-tv.jpg

...and...

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Image:Master-Keaton-cover.jpg

Boreanaz is the right age for it, plus he has the warm personable voice for the role. Then again, I'd just be happy if some manga company would finally clear up the legal issues about the manga copyright and get the manga series over here.

Of course, the "localization" problems of making a manga into a live action movie or TV show might be a big challenge. Manga stories don't all translate well into American mindsets. But Hollywood is always looking for something familiar yet different. And manga is full of good ideas.

Now, honestly, I really don't want to see my beloved manga/anime series bastardized on the big or small American screens. Then again, I didn't want Watchman to become just another blockbuster either. It's not about what I want, but about industry trends. I'm just gazing into my crystal ball, trying to predict what will be. If manga stays popular, comics may have to rethink their "Hollywood will save us" philosophy. I'm almost willing to bet money that Hollywood's future blockbusters will come from the manga industry.``xEkFEkAEFZlfYDpLTzz``x1231291378``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xMaster_Keaton_cover.jpg Hunter X Hunter v24``xParkCooper``xWell, I’m giving this an A-. It’s still the storyline which I famously call The Bugs That Wouldn’t Stop It, but we’re not only making more progress than ever toward making them bugs stop it, but also:

--This volume is less silly than the last one, and,
--We’re actually getting back into interesting story and characterization instead of just fighting a lot of ya-know-who’s-probably-gonna-win battles.

Spoiler Warning: This review involves me talkin’ a bit about the content of this volume. End of Spoiler Warning.

This one features the Guy-Who-Can-Control-The-Smoke-From-His-Giant-Pipe fighting a lion-creature... but it doesn’t take too too long. The real story here is mostly the King of the Bugs vs. the idiot-savant blind girl who’s the world’s game-we-invented-that’s-something-like-chess master (mistress).

Basically, the King Bug felt like teaching himself and his super-genius mind strategy. So he tried chess, checkers, go, a couple of other strategy games, but stopped on this one, which I imagine to be a lot like a cross between chess, shogi, and maybe Stratego. He had the world’s best player, this idiot-savant blind girl, on hand, so he started playing her, figuring he’d kill her as soon as she’d taught him everything she knows (like he had with everyone else).

She’s so good, it’s taking days and days. But THAT’s not a huge big deal... although it certainly helps Team Good Guy Hunters as they work their way carefully into position for a multiple assassination attempt against the top of the Bug ranks before they eat everyone in the land...

No, what’s a big deal is that the King Bug is slowly learning something from this girl about honor and humility. Every time it looks like he’s gonna develop a soul, he decides that the lesson he should take away from an encounter from her is something evil like “Violence is the ultimate force in the world” etc. etc. And yet.

AND YET... The more he plays her, the closer he comes to being as good as her... the closer he seems like what he’s really fighting is something within himself that’s becoming aware of the value of concepts like Compassion or Murdering People For Fun Comes With An Opportunity Cost or even just caring about something other than his own badass self.

Like, to show the girl that he’s serious about playing, and about the stakes involved in his lessons... he rips his own arm off, as proof of good will to his promise that if he is unable to win, he’ll grant her any wish she wants—killing himself, if that’s what she asks for. And so his lieutenant badasses freak out and use their powers to sew his arm back on and heal it.

Are we about to try to kill the King Bug just as he breaks through his own Existential crisis and realizes that Evil is Wrong all by himself? Or is it the PERFECT time to kill him while he’s a little off his game? Or is something entirely else gonna happen?

Meanwhile, just the battle aura of King Bug’s lieutenant who so screwed up Gon’s friend Kite, scares a member of Team Good Guy so bad that he knows he can’t help Team Good Guy anymore. Will Gon be able to stand up to the face of such concentrated evil the likes of which the world hasn’t seen since Ralph Richardson pointed out the dangers of such stuff at the end of Time Bandits? Who knows?

Yoshihiro Togashi is askin’ the big questions this month here at Hunter X Hunter, folks, just in time for Viz Media to start pushin’ the anime series (more on that later, but I’ll say this now—I like it better with the audio in Japanese) upon North America.

Gosh!

By the way, thanks to that reader who wrote me to inform me... remember last volume or two ago when I mentioned that someone finally censored the extreme violence of the art in one of Killua’s battles? Well, a kindly reader mentioned to me that he or she had seen the original Japanese manga, and that those portions were censored there, too. So let us not blame Viz Media for being blood-and-guts-and-brains-and-Killua haters! They can’t run the art uncensored if it was censored in the first place!

By the way, noble reader, if you ever want to write some stuff for me here at MangaLife, please let me know...

--P``xEkFEkAEpyFcGMpnigi``x1231291063``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421522160``xYoshihiro Togashi``x``x``x``xAdventure``xAction``xSci-Fi``xLillian Olsen``xLillian Olsen``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA-``x7.99``x150``x225``xHunterxHunter v24.jpg``x``x``x``x Naruto: Ultimate Ninja``xrasmussen``xYear: 2002

OK, show of hands, who remembers that long ago bygone day when BANDAI was a serious company that put out some serious Anime…. Yeah… it's been that long hasn't it. These days BANDAI has lost their way, now teamed up with downtrodden video game company Namco (they who have a few bright spots in their arsenal like the Katamari Damacy series but not much to be proud of) and are putting out mostly substandard games with some exceptions here and there. This is, believe it or not, one of those exceptions.

Now now, this is indeed one of the early first gen Naruto games, but if you look at it in the right context this game actually has a place in your collection (believe it)!

One of the Naruto games that start off from the beginning of the series (I have no idea where the present games are set but I take it they're a bit of the way into the series story mode wise by now), and featuring the voice cast of the Anime series (so let's just say if you didn't like the early days of the voice acting you might not be a total fan of Ultimate Ninja) this game features several modes of gameplay which, actually, can bring some sort of fulfilling gameplay if only for the many many Naruto collectibles you can unlock in this game.

First off is story mode, and you are given a set of characters to complete (each with their own story and set of fights to go through). There are supposed to be unlockable characters but I haven't gotten far enough into the game to see if that includes story mode additions… I wonder. Anyway this is one of the twin meat and potatoes of the gameplay (if you are a solo gamer), where you'll be doing a lot of your gaming with this game. The fighting is alright, but with so few
options for fighting (a jump/quick move button, attack, throw (which is more for delaying or setting up button mashing moves) and the trigger for special attack (you have to nail an attack while you're glowing to initiate the special move of which there are three depending on how much energy you stored for the attack) you obviously don't have much options in combat. In fact you can basically boil down combat to mastering your timing of when you button mash and when you
throw (sometimes you can actually knock some health off an opponent by using your throwing weapon to knock them off the combat area in some of the battle arenas -- timing and knowing when to do what helps a lot-- though it's not much of a strategy just to know when to tap what).
Also while in some instances you do seem to land a good visually impressive move (or sometimes counter a move pulled against you or vice versa), these seems completely random (especially counters) since I don't seem to have the knack yet to figuring out how to counter one
of these little cinematic moves. Maybe I'm just a slow learner.

There are multiple levels to the battle fields, and two fields per level (sometimes you can move from field to field after the battle went on for so long) but even that can't stop this game from being a simple button tapper, especially when it comes to special moves. While they are most visually exciting and thrilling, they are also watered down to simply tapping the right sequence of buttons within a set amount of time (and doing it right at the same time without fail). Also, taking a page from DragonBall Z Budokai 3, if you can out button tap your opponent you can reduce the damage his/her attack can cause... oh, and these are usually 2-3 levels of button tapping, with the level of button tapping growing longer with each successive phase.

So the combat is fair but not overly deep, what else is there to do? There is Mission mode where you are given a set of missions (with a rising rank for the difficulty of the missions) to earn money for the "shop" (which you also do in story mode though in a greater amount than you can earn in story mode). These are fights, yes, but the twin goals set to complete the missions does give you a bit to chew on (which grow progressively harder to finish the higher in rank you go, and the more experience you earn).

Two modes exist to help you practice. One is Practice mode, of course (just like in DragonBall Z games which as I remember also come from BANDAI/Namco) and the other is Free Play
(which you can use to either play with another human or get in more practice against an AI controlled opponent).

Finally there's Naruto's room (where you can hear Naruto say endlessly BELIEVE IT while you admire all the many things you can unlock (or have unlocked) and the shop… which is, in fact, evil. Stealing a page from Ape Escape 2, the shop is nothing more than a wicked evil vending
machine that demands you put in your hard-earned money in order to earn your many bonuses (character figures, cards, audio and visual content, and so on)… now that in and of itself isn't the problem, it's that the more you spend per pull the better your odds are of getting stuff instead of the evil "BLANK" cards from the vending machine. I am presently dropping 500 a pull on the machine and only getting a 50% success ratio from the machine for my troubles-- man, what a ripoff!!

Thing is sure, while this game was new and cost a bit of money to get then I wouldn't have recommended it to you (too much for a game with only so much appeal). However now that you can pull this one off the better stocked bargain bin shelves of your local GameStop or so forth
now it's suddenly an investment I can believe in. Yes, believe it! I dropped 10 on this, and that is about a decent price for this game off the bargain bin if I do say so myself. The gameplay is tight, though not too intense as present day Next Gen games since it is a bit light on combat possibilities past well timed button tapping. Still with its massive amount of collectibles you can unlock through gameplay, and fair gameplay that can pass a few hours between playing of your better Naruto games (if only to quest for the perfect 100% unlocked collectibles list) it's not bad at its low low price… of course if you find it being sold for a higher than 20 tag then I wouldn't
recommend it again. This is a fair game for Naruto fans, but something you'd feel a lot better owning if you pulled it from the bargain bin. Believe it… oh no, now I'm saying BELIEVE IT over and over again!!

Sure, there are a lot more Naruto games out there. Much more, and when I find them I'll review them for you, believ-- I mean you can bet on it. Yeah. Until then this game isn't going to give any of the major fighting franchises a run for their corner of the fighting game market but it's the little fighter that could be fairly interesting if only on a Naruto fandom level. B-, though it drops to a D if you're expected to drop more than 20 or less dollars on it. It's a good bargain bin game, but it's just that... a bargain bin game. I wouldn't go anywhere past that with this.``xEkFEklAAVZxdAchqtK``x1231289957``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x``xMasashi Kishimoto``x``x``x``xAction``x``x``x``x``xBANDAI/Namco``xTeen``xB-``x?``x150``x225``xnaruto_ultimate_ninja_ps2_pack.jpg``x``x``x``x Video Games for the Otaku (Post-Christmas 2008 Edition)``xrasmussen``xWell, Christmas has come and gone, but you know what that means in a tanking economy-- sales! Here, ML staffer David Rasmussen discusses some Japanese-import games of import.

David speaks:

Of course, this list could go on for pages if I just tried to put down a list of what Manga and Anime series have video game adaptations out there you could (or should not) be wasting your precious money on. But since it's so close to Christmas we'll focus on what Blockbusters (the people who need to ease up on their restrictions so I can rent games to review from them again) think is good for the friendly neighborhood Otaku... oh, P.S., there isn't one Game Boy Advance game listed in this damn thing, Blockbusters, don't list what you didn't put in recommendations-wise (or sales wise since the GBA went past gen tech some time ago-- odd since you can still play GBA games on your DS)...

Animal Crossing : City Folk
Consoles : For the Nintendo Wii

Yeah, like you weren't going to pick up the 24/7/365 addiction if you hadn't already been won over by either the past GameCube version or the DS Wild World.

This is more a companion to Wild World, by the way, than the original (only Japan got the "upgrade" to the original Game Cube version in Animal Crossing 2). Taking a lot of its cues from Wild World, with new stuff (like the new City area, and new shops and the return of a few things (Chip returns to take the reins of the fishing tournaments for instance, though they used a new voice talent for his character -- in fact that voice talent replaces the one that did the voices of the grumpy characters like Octavian, Chow and so on).

Basically if you played Wild World, you know what you're getting into with City Folk since a lot of it is the same as before, since it's the same world (which was necessary to allow the interaction between the two games, though not to the great degree that it should have had ala The Sims : Bustin Out for the GameCube slash Game Boy Advance). Wiimote/nunchuk controls are easy to master (nunchuk covers movement, wiimote everything else) and once you get the hang of your new "life" you should have no problem forging ahead through the game and your many days, weeks and months you'll have to spend with your friends (both virtual and real as this game offers online gameplay and realtime communications with far away players using Nintendo peripheral gimmick #10751431 (aka the Wii Speak)). Mind you, you need to pass Friend Codes (and if you understood how much this game could be used for evil then you know why all the precautions were needed with the whole Friend Codes thing), otherwise once you make "friends" (which is once again odd since the game demands you make friends BEFORE you can visit them, which may sound like putting the carriage before the horse and all but again it's necessary) you'll be able to play with them in real time (and communicate in real time) with the Wii Speak (of course you could still just text the old-fashioned way, but that's so long!!)

Of course, if you are not into long-term-investment games then you probably won't be checking into your village any time soon. Too bad. For an all ages friendly game of "life" that lives by a real time clock (I can't think of any other game that is played in real time like Animal Crossing) this is worth having.

Recommendations: If you don't mind the all-ages fare, and want to just find something to play that lets you kick back and relax with your "pals"? This is a good recommendation. Try it.


Eternal Sonata
Consoles : Sony PlayStation 3

Well, the game is done up Anime style graphics-wise, so let's just say it's another game that has the Otaku as its main audience.

About to kick the big concert hall, legendary composer Chopin ends up going Anime when his spirit travels to the world of hot chicks with a bit larger than normal eyes. Yeah! Go Chopin! ...Anyway, from there, it's something about a story of good and evil, love and betrayal (and probably characters with amnesia, cute sidekick characters, and endless random battles).

Recommendations : ...Well, it's for the PS3, though there's more than enough great RPG style games for the PS3 (like Fallout 3 for instance)... but since this is the visually Otakuized RPG maybe, that'll mean something... maybe. Otherwise, go get Fallout 3 like everyone else already.


Naruto : Clash of Ninja Revolution 2
Consoles : Nintendo Wii

For those of us who own a Wii instead of a PS3, we have our own Naruto game. Probably nowhere near as spiffy as the PS3 version, this game boasts wiimote slash nunchuk control of your characters as you play through 1 to 4 multiplayer action... and not much else. Well, I guess I'll just go ahead and say it...

Recommendations : Naruto fans only need apply (BELIEVE I-- oh, wait, I've seen Naruto from time to time and it looks like they've almost completely weened Naruto off of the bad habit of shrieking "BELIEVE IT" ...so I'll stop teasing him about it then)... oh, wait, maybe you might still buy this game since MK vs. DCU didn't make the cut onto the Wii and you might want something to soften the blow of the neglect you are probably feeling... or not if you were jubilant when you heard the news that Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was the last game of the series (which obviously it was not). Anyway, I'm abit iffy about this Wiimote waving you'll probably have to do to play this game, so rent before buying.


Pokemon Diamond or Pearl
Handheld : Nintendo DS

Yeah, it's a bit old in the tooth now after so much time, but this latest incarnation of the over 100+ hour gameplay RPG style Pokemon game (that you've known since Blue slash Red slash Pikachu Yellow from the old Game Boy days) is available, and you might as well stick to the classics.

Recommendations : Over 100+ hours of gameplay and steady reliable gameplay? You can't beat that, no. Of course if you've played all the incarnations of Poke'mon from Red/Blue to the GBA versions then maybe you're tired of it... don't see how, but maybe you're tired of it... nah. Can't see that happening.


Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Consoles : For the Nintendo Wii

Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! Sure, you were burned pretty badly with Dragon Quest for the Wii when it came out, and the DS versions were so fun too (where the hell did the Wii version go so wrong when we were having so much fun with Monsters: Joker and later the re-release of DQIV!!)... But I heard on good authority this game will make you forget all about misgivings past about RPG franchises of so-so popularity making the journey to the Wii. Promising over 100 hours of gameplay to keep you questing all day and night long, you are promised a world that retains the same level of dramatic storytelling as the award winning original, endearing characters, and an action packed battle system along with game elements that are exclusive to the Wii (I.e. wiimote sensitive gaming)! And really, isn't that what we always wanted for the Wii, a RPG that didn't insult our intelligence or make us regret buying it?!? Yeah, I know you wanted that just as much as I did! Admit it!

Recommendations: Remember the GameCube version? I did (I played it and it was fine), now enjoy this new Wii version and remember what it is about this game you loved so much from before!


The World Ends With You
Publisher : Square Enix
Handheld : Nintendo DS

Yeah, like you are so not playing the many many games of Square Enix. You know you are, I know you are, let's not beat around the bush. RPGs are not RPGs if at least half if not more of your favorites aren't Square Soft/Enix games. So with that out of the way, let's look at one of Square Enix's most recent innovative original fares that have captured your attention, and gaming time, The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS.

You play as a headphone-wearing punk dude with a major chip on his shoulder as far as the world at large (which is a bit of an original thing since you usually end up playing as overtly socially conscious do-gooders out to save the world). Apparently people in general are not your strong suit, and you would rather if the whole world would just go away... so then you wake up in the middle of Shibuya district and suddenly the world just isn't paying attention to you anymore because apparently somebody went away and it wasn't the world at large.

It seems you have suddenly found yourself in a vicious cycle game called the Reaper Games, where strange humans called "Reapers" are making you and your new cute female companion (with her own backstory and troubles she's not too willing to share so quickly) have got to complete a daily task or be erased. You have seven days to play... then the game goes on and on and on (I heard someone say once they've went a few weeks worth of gameplay on this one though I have to admit I stopped before reaching the end of the first week review wise)... This is a physical RPG (using the stylus to hand out attacks and move yourself through the world) that is innovative in so many ways you can't believe how much this game brings you! It makes all past RPGs on the DS pale in comparison!

At first it seems like a typical hack and slash RPG set in the modern world, but once you start pounding down days you begin to open greater and greater depths of innovation that this game delivers (forget the fact the story is fresh and new, the writing is well done, the game is beautiful and the gameplay is solid).

First off, powers are handled not through magic but psyches unleashed through the use of strange little pins of many variations and powers. As you build power through use of your pins you can either max them out or cause them to evolve into new more powerful pins... and evolution doesn't always have to take place via gameplay (once you play enough of the game you gain an ability to gain PP in the pins you're presently using through the amount of time you DON'T play this game! The longer you are not playing the more PP you earn [so if you are planning to not play for a long time put in all the pins that need to be upgraded and you'll get them all upgraded when you go back to playing however long later you go back to it]).

The whole setting offers a ton of innovation! Creatures are no longer random encounters, the monsters (nicknamed "Noise") now must be sought out by yourself (though you still have some staged fights from time to time) using your first pin to seek them out (which also allows you to tap the thoughts of people around you that you can no longer interact with except sometimes through a
specific power of suggestion which you learn during gameplay). This is good since it means you can pick fights for yourself and not have it thrust on you anymore.

Upgrades are no longer simple armor and weapons. Pins of varying types have a great deal of offensive/defensive/healing or restorative powers (and sometimes pins serve a dual offensive/defensive ability, like this shield pin which inflicts damage on enemies trying to physically attack you, or a pin that allows you to manipulate physical objects as weapons against the Noise). You do have clothes to buy, and mixing and matching is important as style is as important as functionality in what you wear.

Food can be "eaten" or "drunk" to upgrade you, but you can only consume so much nutrition (or junk food in many cases) to upgrade, so you have to play abit of mix and match on that as well as you try to get the most use out of your food intake a day.

As I said above, style is important in this game (apparently you won't be let slid on just slapping on any old thing like you might have in past RPGs). Certain upgrade clothes (several types) have advantages in certain areas while others have disadvantages, this is all through a "brand" system where such and such brands of clothes are in style and others are not (which dictate the advantages and disadvantages said clothes imbues in you).

Darn, and I'm such a fashion disaster, no sense of style at all.

Then there's pin slammer, the multiplayer game that should bring back fond (or not so fond in some cases) memories of that Anime where everyone used spinning discs to battle... remember that one? I wish I didn't. This is actually fun, though I have only played practice with an AI opponent as I never really found real people playing this game to play against.. And considering how much time has passed since this game's release, I wonder if anyone can really find any real human opponents to play against. Darn.

Add a shop you can open up to service other players, the game itself (and its involving intense story with shocking twists and turns that'll keep you riveted throughout the game) and all the bells and whistles of fresh new original gameplay that is something you've never seen before (either on the DS or other handhelds like the PSP) and you got yourself Square Enix's best handheld game to date (of course now you have a ton of new RPGs to sink your teeth into these days, but this is one of those special games you should go out of your way to check out if you haven't done so already).

Going on a long trip (or stuck in long delays waiting to get somewhere over the holidays)? Here's a game that will be a great constant companion with you for the long haul. Something you'll find yourself going back to again and again throughout your trip, and well worth a spot in your traveling case when you take your next trip (and take your DS with you). An A for the fun enjoyable innovative RPG that smells of something fresh.




Next time: more video game stuff from David``xEkFEkluEZVPCntNVMa``x1231284175``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xthe world ends with you.jpg Black Jack v1-2: Special Spotlight Review``xParkCooper``xOkay, it’s been some time since I got Black Jack volume 1 from Vertical. So long that I also got volume 2. So long that I decided I liked Osamu Tezuka’s work so much I would even get Astro Boy out from my local library and try reading that too. So long that I’m on like volume 18 of Astro Boy.

Suffice to say, I like Black Jack.

I shall give it an A.

But let me tell you about it.

Do you like House?

Well if you’ve been hiding in a cave under the Gobi desert for the last 10 months in order to get away from the election coverage, then let me tell you (that Obama won, and also) something you should have known last year anyway—the magic has officially gone out of House, but you might like this Black Jack fellow.

My first exposure to Black Jack was in anime form.

I didn’t like it at all. Black Jack just didn’t work as a slow-moving medical drama. Black Jack demands to be experienced just as fast as you can read it.

Here is Black Jack: As a youth, he was in a terrible accident, and a genius doctor stitched him back together. And I mean stitched—his hair is partially white, presumably from shock, but also his skin doesn’t quite match—he had a little school friend who was part Japanese and part of African heritage (I know, what are the odds, how much did that happen 50 years ago, but what the heck, go with it), so that Black Jack’s skin on his FACE doesn’t even quite match itself. And there was lots of hard physical therapy after that.

But the young man who was destined to become Black Jack did it, and went on to study medicine. Now he is Black Jack, the black-hearted OUTLAW DOCTOR (please stop laughing) who charges insanely high fees... and also does a little pro bono work now and then that he tries not to let anyone know about. Because although he is scary-looking to many, he actually has a heart of gold. No one knows the hurtin’ inside that Black Jack feels...

None, that is, except for his little... assistant, let’s call her... Pinoko... a growth that was inside a woman that turned out to be the woman’s incorrectly-grown twin-sister... with a brain, eyes, heart, and nerves... So Black Jack got some prosthetic parts and made her a little girl body. So chronologically, his assistant is 18... but in every other way... physically, emotionally... she’s more like 5.

At least now those of you who read volume 3 of Dark Horse’s MAIL understand what the HECK that creator was thinking as far as the little-girl-assistant in THAT book...

Anyway, not unlike Will Eisner’s The Spirit (Fie! Fie on you, Frank Miller!), Black Jack is your basic tell-any-kind-of-story-you-want genre. Tezuka can use it to make you laugh, he can make you cry, he can rail against the injustices of the world, he can tug at your heartstrings in a bittersweet way—as he does with Astro Boy, incidentally.

Some highlights of Volume 1:
--The secret origin of Dr. Honma, Black Jack’s mentor—how he made a terrible mistake during Black Jack’s original operation that taught them both the folly of thinking that any human can gain power over death—or over life
--Why Black Jack can never be with the woman he once loved—even though she’s technically still alive... and practicing medicine
--The story of a painter whom Black Jack helps to live... long enough to finish the painting of a nuclear test he was witness to in the Pacific

Some highlights of Volume 2:
--The origin of Black Jack’s facial scarring and what became of the friend who left him a skin graft
--The president of a small country needs Black Jack to save him—but political enemies want him to let the president die, and they’ve kidnapped his assistant Pinoko! Can Black Jack save Pinoko AND the president?
--Terrorists seize a hospital and make all operations stop for an hour—then, when their demands aren’t met, they cut the power AND destroy the hospital’s back-up generator! How can even Black Jack finish his operation in total darkness?

Exciting stuff, eh kids? Vertical’s done a nice job with these—I say the volumes are arguably worth the 16.95 each they’re asking—they’re not only larger than average for your non-squinting convenience, but they’re also LONGER than average—an average of 296 pages per book.

Well, I just went to the mailbox and got volume 3, so please look forward to next time.``xEkFpylEpZVjaVyaWxR``x1230681075``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x193428727X``xOsamu Tezuka``x``x``x``xDrama``xThriller``x``xCamellia Nieh``x``xVertical, Inc.``xTeen``xA``x16.95``x150``x225``xBlack Jack v1.jpg``x``x``x``x MangaLife RoundTable: End-of-2008-Wrap-Up``xParkCooper``xTo: ML staffers
From: Park Cooper, EIC

Okay, Joy has made new suggestion:

Everyone name and discuss at least 1 manga/anime/imported-game that you liked best that came out this year of 2008.

Feel free to plug stuff you actually worked on, if that applies to you.

Then I edit it all into one Best of 2008 list.

Go for it please

—P



Joy Kim:

My favorite manga series in 2008:

1. Mushishi by Yuki Urushibara - I am always so impressed by the sheer consistency of Urushibara's work in this series. Each volume is as strong as the one that came before, full of memorable images, and they are often haunting and sometimes heart-breaking. I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading stories about Ginko and his travels. (Vols. 3-6 released in 2008.)

2. Wild Adapter by Kazuya Minekura - We didn't get much Saiyuki from Minekura this year, but three volumes of Wild Adapter were a pretty good consolation prize. I love the noir atmosphere, the gorgeous art, and the fascinating relationship between the two lead characters, Kubota and Tokitoh. (Vols. 4-6 released in 2008.)

3. After School Nightmare by Setona Mizushiro - The dream sequences in this series continue to be evocative and unsettling, and the story is full of unexpected twists and turns for all the characters, not just the lead. (Vols. 6-9 released in 2008.) [Editor's Note: This is the visual I went with for this article, so enjoy the prettiness etc.]

4 and 5. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic by CLAMP - The crossover connections between these two series just get more and more important. In this year's releases, Tsubasa provided some very shocking plot twists and heartbreak character moments, while xxxHolic offered quieter, but no less compelling, stories. (Vols. 16-19 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and vols. 11-12 of xxxHolic released in 2008.)

Other series I continued to enjoy from previous years include Ouran High School Host Club; NANA; Fruits Basket; Fullmetal Alchemist; and Saiyuki Reload.

And honorable mentions to the following series that were new in 2008: Honey and Clover; Sand Chronicles; and Silver Diamond. I think they are all excellent, but perhaps still in the process of hitting their strides.

My favorite anime releases of 2008:

1. Ouran High School Host Club - The anime adaptation of Bisco Hatori's manga has tons of screwball energy, and the work by the voice actors (especially Mamoru Miyano as Tamaki) is fantastic. And let's have a cheer for the industry's move toward releasing box sets right off the bat, rather than pricey individual discs (though it would be even nicer if those box sets included the whole season, rather than half of it). Part 2 of this series will come out in 2009.

2. Mushi-Shi - The final individual volumes and the series boxset were both released in 2008. My comments about the manga version also apply here, plus the anime has a lovely score and makes great use of color.

3. 5 Centimeters Per Second - Makoto Shinkai's third film somehow manages to be even more gorgeous than his earlier work, which is a pretty significant feat. The story could have been a little stronger, but the visuals--especially the use of light and detail--are just stunning and make up for a lot.




Ysabet MacFarlane:

Picking just one favorite anything is usually hard for me, but I can at least narrow things down to manga easily enough--I don't play video games, and didn't watch much anime in 2008 (although I'm really happy that the first Ouran DVD set came out).

My favorite manga that started coming out this year was probably Sand Chronicles, although I also loved High School Debut. Since VIZ is kind enough to send me review copies of a lot of their shoujo titles, I've already talked quite a bit about both of those here on Manga Life (and I have vol. 4 of Sand Chronicles on my shelf, and can't wait to read it).

Since Joy mentioned her favorite continuing series, I will too: Fruits Basket is still my very favorite manga, possibly followed by NANA, and we got a few new volumes of each of them this year. ^_^

As for manga I actually adapted, my favorites are probably Shinobi Life and Phantom Dream. Volume 1 of Shinobi Life came out last month, and it has all kinds of good stuff: time travel, ninjas, a modern-day rich girl who actually thinks for herself...it's fun! ^_^ And Phantom Dream, which is just coming out now, is Natsuki Takaya's debut series. You can tell that this is an earlier work, but I really like it--it's a supernatural fantasy with some romance and some dark undercurrents, and it touches on a few themes that she came back to later in Fruits Basket. It's interesting to see how her style develops. (TOKYOPOP is also releasing her other pre-Fruits Basket series, Tsubasa: Those With Wings, next year.)



Athena and Alethea Nibley:

Oh, at least one! That's good, because it's so hard to narrow it down sometimes. In our case, it's especially difficult because I [Editor's Note: Alethea is the one who types] feel like we're either working on something that's not coming out for another year, or reading/watching/playing something that came out two or three years ago. We're never in the now.

The one thing we worked on that came out this year that we really want to bring everyone's attention to is the Phoenix Wright manga. We became huge fans of the games working on it, and we hope that all the fans of the game approve of our adaptation. At any rate, we were really pleased with how the script turned out, so we hope all you Phoenix Wright fans will read the manga and see if you agree with us.

I talked about Hoshi wa Utau in the column last week, so I don't think I need to say any more about that, but volume one came out in Japan in January, so I wanted to add it to the list.

Also, we're going to be fangirls and point out that this has been a big year for Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time. First they had the stage show in January (which we bought on DVD and were then saddened that we didn't make the effort to go see it live), then the anime started being released in North America in April. The premise is just about exactly the same as Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play, but we've always been of the opinion that it's not the story so much as the telling, and they're different enough that you certainly can't call them twins. I'm sure most people would agree that if Fushigi Yuugi had different characters, the story would have turned out much differently, and you can see for yourself by watching Haruka. It has beautiful artwork, and it's set in Heian Japan, so you can learn a little about Japanese history.

Then the fourth game in the series came out in Japan, and then they released a DS game that throws all the characters from the first three games together. That may or may not make sense to anyone reading this, but to fans of the series, it's like a dream come true. Especially since it means all our favorite voice actors are playing three roles each! Swoon!



Park (and Barb):

This year, Barb started adapting (with a tiny bit of collaboration from me here and there) Tokyopop’s title V.B.Rose, starting with volume 6 onwards. Although technically we’ve been adapting Viz’s title Nora for slightly longer than 2007, it’s been an entertaining ride all this year, and we’ve especially been happy when we found out, halfway through the year, that the first volume of Nora sold so well. I’ve enjoyed editing a variety of things for Del Rey this year like the second and final Mao-chan omnibus, Samurai 7, Kamichama Karin chu with the Nibleys, finishing up Minima! (also with the Nibleys), and a new title that I don’t even know if I should mention yet. Therefore I shan’t, but what fun...

I will say that this year we have especially loved COWA!, as you could tell from MangaLife’s Halloween installment; I’ve enjoyed the work of Osama Tezuka, I’ve enjoyed reading Dragonball Z; I enjoyed the first 1 or 2 discs of the XXXholic anime; and I enjoyed getting into Hunter X Hunter.

Oh yeah, and THE HIDDEN started running over at Tokyopop, that was a pretty unique opportunity (at the time—although certainly I believe that the number of digital manga will increase in the future)...

Oh right... and I wasn’t editor-in-chief of MangaLife at all before this year. So that’s a heck of a thing... we’re coming up on the anniversary of that. Golly. Seems like it’s been so long, that I forgot I only started in 2008. Thank you, reviewers of 2008, especially those of you who are still with us.

So it was a pretty good year for manga and anime... Please look forward to next year...``xEkFpyZAAFlyQbJusJJ``x1230679938``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xAfterSchoolNightmare01.jpg Words of Truth and Wisdom: Happy New Year!``xNibley``xWe hope everyone's enjoying the holiday season! We had so much going on that I woke up after the weekend and realized, “Oh yeah, I have a column to write!” Not only that, but I then realized I had no idea what to write it on. It probably doesn't help that we've been taking time off for the holidays, so we haven't had much opportunity to have any manga/translation-related epiphanies. So I was thinking maybe I'd just sit down to write it and see what randomly popped into my head, because that can turn into some pretty interesting stuff sometimes.

The end of the year is upon us, and that's usually a pretty good time to look back at the previous year. I thought maybe I'd write about things we've learned, but when I thought about it more, I couldn't remember anything specific. But there were a few milestones for us this last year as far as manga is concerned. For example, we translated the last volume of Fruits Basket this year. Of course, it won't be hitting bookstores until next year, but it was a milestone for us. Fruits Basket wasn't only the first manga we translated professionally, it was also the longest series we translated from start to finish. This won't be the first time we've spent our translating life without Fruits Basket (because of changing schedules, there was an entire year when we were so far ahead of schedule that there was no Fruits Basket for us at all), but we are a little sad to see it go. We'll just have to read it again, I guess.

There is one thing we definitely learned this year, and that's that translating novels really is much harder than translating manga. We first got into translating by working on novels, but that was when we were young and inexperienced and didn't really know anything (it was mostly a way to learn Japanese, rather than an actual attempt at creating coherent translations), so the translations were probably terrible. I think we still have them in notebooks hidden away in boxes somewhere around here. But anyway, this year we translated novels professionally for the first time. You can see if we did a good job by checking out volume two of Kieli, which has a preview of the novel that's coming out this summer. After years of translating manga instead of novels, we knew it would be difficult going back, but we didn't realize how difficult. Though actually, Athena points out, we were actually going forward--bad novel translations to good manga translations to good novel translations (we hope). Anyway, it's good to do hard things, so we're definitely glad to be translating novels. But it's also very very time consuming, and we like translating manga too much to try to do too many novels (too many being more than one) at once.

Another milestone for us would be this column! Yay! I try to be informative, but I'm not sure how successful I am. A lot of the time, I think we end up refuting bad reviews we've read. For example, the other day we read a review of the Atelier Marie & Elie manga, which said that it doesn't make any sense to anyone who hasn't played the games. I would like to contest that we didn't get to play the games until after we had already turned in the translation to volume one, and while there are things that make a little more sense after playing the games, we were able to follow the story very well regardless. The main thing we needed the games for was to help with the details. Of course, there are a few jokes you don't get unless you've played the games, but I would hardly say not understanding those would render the series incomprehensible. This then leads into a rant about how reviewers don't seem to like anything that's not Bleach and/or CLAMP, but I think I'll leave that out.

I think I mentioned in a column several weeks ago that we turned in our two hundredth translation this year. We did the math, and we've turned in an average of approximately one manga translation a week for the past two years. That's kind of intense.

I also thought we could make manga resolutions to write about in the column. I can't really think of any, though. We never were good at coming up with New Year's resolutions. I was thinking about it, and I was like, “We could resolve to make better translations!” but that can be taken in the wrong way. Like we weren't even bothering before. But then again, no matter how good something is, there's almost always room for improvement. Still, we're always trying to make our translations the best they can be, so I think a resolution like this would be a bit redundant.

I want to finish this column by writing something very profound. Unfortunately, it's very hard to come up with profound things on demand. Maybe if we had actually gotten around to watching our shiny new Batman Begins Blu-ray with its shiny Japanese audio track, we would have been able to come up with something profound and translation related! But alas, we have not done that yet.

Anyway, we hope everyone's had a great manga year, and we wish everyone lots of happy manga to come!``xEkFpyZpyVplJykzmGq``x1230670650``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Ghost Talker's Daydream v2``xbarblien``xMy husband got a review copy of Ghost Talker's Daydream from Dark Horse recently. He read it, seemed interested in the work, but seemed uncharacteristically taciturn when I asked what it was about and whether I'd like it. Finally he said, "Uh, I think you'd like it…but you really should read it for yourself." I read it, seemed interested (and stayed interested) in the work, but had the same sort of reaction as he did, "Yeah, I think adults would like it, but they'd really have to check it out for themselves." We sort of hemmed and hawed about who'd do the review/article about it, but I decided that I'd do the honors because Park has about five reviews he needs to do and I only have one.

Still, what do you say about a mature title manga about an albino (!) female psychic who just can't seem to make a decent living as a medium so she has to work part-time as a dom?

I've joked to my husband that Ghost Talker's Daydream is for those who liked Dark Horse's Mail manga but thought to themselves, "The only thing missing from it was that there just wasn't enough BDSM." Yet that's also the honest truth. If you did like a smartly written manga like Mail but it didn't quite appeal to the mature reader part of your psyche, Ghost Talker's Daydream may be just what the love doctor ordered. The title is erotic, skirting the thin line between overt and explicit by just enough, as well as having smart enough stories, to make one feel that one hasn't just picked up an excuse for soft-core porn. There are real stories here, honestly folks. The author's skillful ability to weave the sexual part of main character Saiki Misaki's career with the spiritual medium part of her career is what takes this manga out of the exploitive pile and puts it into the "wow, this is kind of different…and kind of cool" category.

Minor complaints: I don't like seeing a child drawn in even a slightly sexually suggestive way, and the cover, while rather innocent by some mature manga standards, just didn't appeal to me because I could see a bit more of a young (as in a child's) rear end than made me comfortable... Someone's skirt is a'blowin' in the wind. Of course, Japan has different community standards than we do (there's a tough but fascinating Comic Book Legal Defense Fund controversy about that very subject) and I'm all for freedom of expression in a free society. But I'd prefer not to see…well, you get the picture. I also felt that a scene played for humor in a transsexual bar wasn't funny…or necessary to the story. And the rape subject matter in the second story (although not exploitive or over the top) could have had a touch more sympathy for the ghosts of the victims.

But, as I say, minor complaints.

When a book takes the time to have a parental advisory on it, says that it's a mature title with overt sexual content, and takes the time to actually integrate the sex with the stories, as well as takes the time to make the lead character interesting and pretty likeable/sympathetic, I can't really call it exploitive per se. I also can't be against a book that has so honestly proclaimed that it's for mature readers and treats those readers as if they're intelligent adults---and not just hairy-palmed pervs. There has to be a place in this world for erotic works that treat their audience with respect, right?

I've also said to my husband that the standard one should use concerning whether to read this book or not is what I call the "Savage Love" test. If you find the sex advice column "Savage Love" in the satiric newspaper The Onion to be interesting, entertaining, and sometimes educational, then you will probably think the same thing about Ghost Talker's Daydream. If you find any frank discussion of sexual matters in fairly mainstream media to be against your belief systems or if it's just too rich for your blood, then maybe this isn't the manga for you.

I'm in the former category, so I'll be interested in what happens in the next volume.``xEkFpyykFEAnMRCEctL``x1230662319``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1595821864``xOkuse Saki``xMeguro Sankichi``x``x``xHorror``xSupernatural``xFan Service``xMatthew Johnson``x``xDark Horse``xMature``xB``x10.95``x150``x225``xGhost Talker Daydream.jpg``x``x``x``x What I'm Reading - December 2008 ``xYsabet``xI love getting review copies, but I've gotten a bit backlogged lately, what with work and the holidays. Since my current stack of unread manga includes the newest volumes from several series I've read and reviewed recently, I'm going to write a round-up review so the poor books don't go neglected any longer. Read on for quick looks at seven of VIZ Media's recent and upcoming shoujo offerings: vol. 3 (the series finale) of Time Stranger Kyoko and vol. 8 of The Gentlemen's Alliance † (both by Arina Tanemura), vol. 14 of Tail of the Moon (Rinko Ueda), vol. 3 of Haruka - Beyond the Stream of Time (Tohko Mizuno), vol. 5 of Wild Ones (Kiyo Fujiwara), vol. 12 of Kaze Hikaru (Taeko Watanabe), and vol. 4 of B.O.D.Y. (Ao Mimori).

**********

Time Stranger Kyoko vol. 3 (SERIES FINALE)

Arina Tanemura

Translated by Mary Kennard and adapted by Heidi Vivolo

I've expressed my concern about the pacing in this series before, and the author's notes in this volume confirm that Tanemura herself chose to end the series suddenly and without proper development. Given those constraints, I think she actually wrapped things up pretty well: she chose to bypass the search for most of the remaining Strangers (by page 5 Kyoko's figured out a quick way to ID them and has summoned them to help awaken Princess Ui) and devoted most of the final volume to Kyoko's relationships with her two bodyguards and the mystery of Ui's lifelong sleep. The ending wasn't at all what I expected, and I think the series ends much more strongly than it began.

**********

The Gentlemen's Alliance † vol. 8

Arina Tanemura

Translated and adapted by Tetsuichiro Miyaki

I'm not generally a huge fan of Tanemura's work; for whatever reason, it just doesn't do much for me. However, The Gentlemen's Alliance † is the most interesting title of hers that I've tried; I don't have the clearest idea of what's going on, since this is only the second volume I've read, but it seems to have a darker undercurrent than her other work, which offsets the fluffy-shoujo feel that her stories often have. There are some specific things that bother me here: first, the twins so identical that no one realizes there are actually two of them (even though their hair is completely different in color--usually I suspend my disbelief over anime/manga hair, but come on), and second, the sporadically-skeevy gender dynamics, although since at least one character seems to have been driven insane by them, I guess we can't say they've gone unnoticed/unpunished. But despite those things, if someone were to ask me to recommend a Tanemura series, this is probably the one I'd choose.

**********

Tail of the Moon vol. 14

Rinko Ueda

Translated and adapted by Tetsuichiro Miyaki

Tail of the Moon is winding down, and it continues to be a good read. (Someday I'll have a chance to go back and read it from the beginning, as opposed to only being familiar with vol. 11-14.) I don't have much to say about it that I haven't before, though: it's enjoyable and remarkably accessible, and the manga-ka seems very respectful of the historical events that intersect with the story.

**********

Haruka - Beyond the Stream of Time vol. 3

Tohko Mizuno

Translated by Stanley Floyd, HC Language Solutions

Volume 3 was a vast improvement on volume 2 (which was made up almost entirely of side stories and flashbacks--a strange choice for a second volume). Haruka is based on a video game, but that's not readily obvious from the manga. The story is far from groundbreaking ("modern girl gets sucked back in time/to a fantasy world to fulfill some kind of Destiny" has been done many times, and this isn't the best example), but it's not a bad way to spend half an hour.

**********

Wild Ones vol. 5

Kiyo Fujiwara

Translated and adapted by Mai Ihara

This is the second volume of Wild Ones that I've read, and it's still not making much of an impression on me. There're some fun moments, like the yakuza gang trying desperately to look like a normal household when Sachie's class arrives for a Christmas party, but far too much of the volume is devoted to Sachie and Rakuto trying to figure out and/or suppress their feelings for each other, which seems a bit like backsliding after volume 4.

**********

Kaze Hikaru vol. 12

Taeko Watanabe

Translated and adapted by Mai Ihara

I continue to really like Kaze Hikaru, a historical series about the Shinsengumi. It has one of the most believable cross-dressing protagonists I've come across (Sei, a girl disguising herself as a young male warrior), and smoothly mixes lightheartedness with very serious events. This volume includes the material that came out as the series was switching publishers in Japan, and the story was reworked with that in mind, so it's a good place for newcomers to jump in if they feel like giving the series a try.

**********

B.O.D.Y. vol. 4

Ao Mimori

Translated by Joe Yamazaki and adapted by Kelly Sue DeConnick

B.O.D.Y. continues to be just a bit more palatable with each new volume. Ryunosuke's history as a host is still coming back to bite him (and Ryoko) in this volume, in the form of another teenage host following him around and trying to find out what makes him tick, but vol. 4 doesn't have any insanely over-the-top moments that make me set the book down and roll my eyes, so that's an improvement. Honestly, if Ryoko would stop with the constant stream of "but I can't tell [Ryunosuke/best friend/whoever]" whenever something happens or she has a revelation, most of what frustrates me about this series might disappear. But then, it'd probably take the drama with it.
``xEkFppZllEEfHEENiiY``x1230078811``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xKaze_Hikaru_12_cover.jpg Love*Com v9-10``xYsabet``xLove*Com is almost entirely built on the premise of "wouldn't it be funny if the tallest girl and the shortest boy in class were a couple?" For Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Ôtani, that's been the story of their high school lives: what began as their classmates treating them as a snarky comedy duo/prospective couple slowly changed from an annoyance to a reluctant friendship to the beginnings of actual interest in each other. Both characters are deeply sensitive about their heights, although they try not to let it interfere with their lives (Ôtani, who's an excellent basketball player in spite of his height, is rather a lot better at this than Risa, whose belief that she's awkward tends to make her act accordingly).

These two volumes are the beginning of a new phase for Risa and Ôtani, who have finally started an official romantic relationship and now get to have the dubious fun of figuring out how to behave together--not the easiest task for two emotionally oblivious people who started out bickering all the time. We get most of this from Risa's point of view, as she tries to figure out just how she wants Ôtani to treat her. Lovey-dovey isn't either of their styles, but that's the example all of their happily paired-off friends are setting (and are perfectly willing to enforce. No one can accuse the supporting cast of minding their own business, but if they did, our heroes would never get anywhere).

There are other challenges ahead, too: potential romantic rivals don't disappear entirely just because two people have established a relationship, and on top of that, the last year of high school may not be the best time to pair off if you've never even discussed your plans for the future.

I wasn't familiar with Love*Com before, but was able to go back and read the series from the beginning, and I'm pleasantly surprised by what a fun read it is--from the premise, I wasn't at all sure I'd enjoy it. The plot isn't the most original, but the characters are endearing and the dialogue is snappy. Thumbs up!

Review copies provided by VIZ Media.
``xEkFppZlypAcBFIorSs``x1230078609``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421517434``xAya Nakahara``x``x``x``xRomance``x``x``xPookie Rolf``xPookie Rolf``xViz``xTeen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xLove-Com_10_cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Support the Industry!``xNibley``xI've been thinking about angry fans a lot lately, because there seems to be so many of them right now. Not that I have any right to say anything about that--we've been known to get plenty angry as fans, and it's not uncommon for us to stay up late ranting and raving about one infuriating thing or another. I guess sometimes fans just thrive on anger. We're trying to get over that (sort of), because when I sit down and think about it, I realize that being a happy fan is much more fun than being an angry one.

The other day, someone told us something that I thought should be addressed, because we have a very sad volume of Nosatsu Junkie on our shelf, waiting for the day it will be translated into English--a day that may never come. I wasn't sure it would make a good column, but in light of the recent further downsizing of TokyoPop, I decided it's appropriate after all. But first! because learning new things is fun, let's explain a common(?) idiom!

Our mom tends to use the phrase “preaching to the choir” a lot. We didn't know what that meant, so we asked her, and she explained. Apparently it refers to a story or something where a preacher was having problems because no one would attend his sermons, except for the choir, because they were there to sing every week. He wanted to teach his congregation about the importance of coming to church every week, but because no one ever came to church, when he gave that sermon, he only preached it to the choir--the people who already heeded the lessons.

That's what I think I might be doing with this column, because everyone we talk to who reads the column is already aware of what I'm going to say, and quite possibly so does everyone we don't talk to who reads the column. But we could at least spread the word? So here goes.

A friend of ours told us that sometimes angry fans will declare that they shall never buy a new series from TokyoPop again, because they can't know if it will be dropped and they'll never get to see the end of it. First and foremost, we would like to point out that there's no guarantee you'll get to see the end of a series anyway, as we're sure any X/1999 fan can tell you. And second of all, if there's a way to guarantee never seeing the end of a series, it's to not buy it. In other words, if you refuse to buy a series, that's a sure-fire way to make sure it gets dropped if a publishing company needs to cut back on expenses.

It's very logical, really. It costs a lot of money to license a series, have somebody translate it into English, have somebody make sure the English makes sense, edit it, put all the sentences in the right places so they match the pictures, edit it, edit it, and send it to print. (I'm guessing on all the steps involved, but we're pretty sure it's something like that.) If nobody buys the book, they don't make the money to do all that stuff, and so the series becomes nothing but a burden. On the other hand, if everybody buys the book, then they make all that money and more, and they're happy to publish the next volume, because it means big money for them. I mean, when the big TokyoPop restructure was announced, was anybody really worried that Fruits Basket would be cancelled? Seriously.

So that brings us to our next point. What if my favorite series has already been cancelled, and I'm a sad, lonely fan, with no more (for example) Nosatsu Junkie to fill the void of my empty heart? Well, chances are, I've already bought that series. But if I only checked it out from the library, I can buy it! (Actually, everybody's having money problems these days, huh? So make sure you can afford it first!) And I can tell all my friends to buy it! (Hear that, everybody? Go buy Nosatsu Junkie!!) And I can buy it for them as a gift! ('Tis the season, after all!) Or maybe I can't afford it, but if I check it out from the library and get all my friends to check it out from the library, then the library will know it's popular, and the library can buy some copies! (It's not much, but it's something, right?)

And then, like with... those titles that TokyoPop cancelled but I hear they picked up again (like I can't go look it up, oy), maybe, eventually, somewhere down the line, TokyoPop will get enough money that they can pick up (for example) Nosatsu Junkie again. And then instead of being a sad fan or an angry fan, staying up late ranting and raving about the latest outrage, I can stay up late fangirling over the latest development in (for example) Nosatsu Junkie and speculating what will happen next, and be a happy fan. And being a happy fan, by definition, is much, much happier. There's no guarantee of course, but there's always hope.

In the meantime, we wish all the best for those at TokyoPop who have been laid off, and for TokyoPop in rebuilding. Gambatte ne!``xEkkAuZFyZkviFWOksc``x1229473672``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg We Were There v2``xYsabet``xIn its second volume, We Were There continues to build a romance between two teenagers who have more than the usual high school worries to deal with. Nanami, the female lead, is a very normal girl trying to make sense of her feelings for Yano, a classmate whose last girlfriend died in an accident the year before. As for Yano, his attitude makes it difficult to know what he's thinking--about Nanami or anything else--but a fear of betrayal has already become a recurring theme in their conversations.

After confessing her love to Yano in volume 1, Nanami still isn't entirely sure what to make of him. Despite having no way to know whether he'll react harshly or thoughtfully to what's going on around him, she's determined to be supportive, and does her best to keep him on track during the play their class puts on for the school festival--no easy task when he simply doesn't show up for rehearsals. While their classmates are resigned to Yano's behavior and distance, Nanami defends him and continues trying to reach out to him, with mixed success.

We start to see more from Yano's perspective in this volume, particularly when he dreams about his dead girlfriend and their relationship. At this point we know more details about his past than Nanami does, but Yano's thoughts and feelings still aren't on display in the way hers are, so he remains something of a mystery.

The characters' relationship is tentative but believable in the way it grows, and it's easy to see why Yano both intrigues and frustrates Nanami. I really like the way this series is unfolding, and I'm very interested in seeing how it develops from here.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkkAuZFkAVwNTtOPgs``x1229473295``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421520192``xYuki Obata``x``x``x``xDrama``xRomance``x``xTetsuichiro Miyaki``xNancy Thistlethwaite``xViz``xOlder Teen``xA-``x8.99``x150``x225``xWe Were There 02 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Heaven's Will``xYsabet``xHeaven's Will: A Poem of Atonement is a single-volume "teen goth romance" (according to the back cover copy) about Mikuzu, a girl who sees ghosts (and ghouls and fairies, among other things) and is, unfortunately, scared witless by them. Enter Seto, a cross-dressing exorcist who makes a deal with her: he'll protect Mikuzu from the things that go bump in the night (and the day) if she'll make cake for him every day. Mikuzu takes him up on the offer and begins spending time with him and his pet vampire, Kagari. At first she's nearly as frightened of them as she is of the supernatural things she sees, but she begins to be intrigued by Seto's secrets.

After the first quarter of the book, which introduces the main characters to each other and the readers, the remainder of the volume is devoted to a single story in which Seto is hired to exorcise a haunted piano. The case reminds Seto of his past, which only increases Mikuzu's curiosity about him. That particular plot wraps up tidily, but things are left open enough that Takamiya could conceivably revisit the characters if she felt so inclined.

VIZ seems to be in the habit of releasing standalone volumes of shoujo recently (I think this is the third I've reviewed within the last few months), although I'm not sure whether that holds true with their other imprints. I'm starting to wonder if such short stories just don't work well for me in manga format; I can't think of any one-shot titles that have particularly impressed me. Heaven's Will does wind up having an interesting plot point, late enough in the book that I won't discuss it here, but I didn't get attached enough to the characters to feel invested in it. It might have worked better for me if it had more time to percolate. That might not be true for everyone, so give it a shot if it sounds like your kind of story.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkkAuZFpupiOcLEjCt``x1229473040``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421522586``xSatoru Takamiya``x``x``x``xDrama``xRomance``xSupernatural``xLindsey Akashi``xLindsey Akashi``xViz``xTeen``xC+``x8.99``x150``x225``xHeavens Will cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Real v2``xParkCooper``xOkay, next up is volume two of REAL, the wheelchair-basketball series from the creator of the super-big-deal non-wheelchair-type basketball manga series SLAM DUNK.

Here’s my previous review of volume 1:
http://www.mangalife.com/reviews/Realv1.htm

Okay, so what’s happening in volume 2?

--Togawa’s working hard to master his poor working-with-a-team skills so that he can keep playing basketball, because he’s fired up by the goal of beating Nagano, the guy who beat him so badly in volume 1.
--Nomiya is having trouble holding down a job—he’s got that restless, vaguely existential anxiety that everyone had in Viz’s recent epic Solanin.
--In the hospital, Takahashi is starting to face his paralysis... not come to TERMS with it yet, just to FACE it... and boy, is THAT a world of emotional hurt.

But most of all, we get the story of the rare disease that caused Togawa to end up in a wheelchair, and it’s arguably the most touching and memorable part of this volume. This is a kid who loved to RUN.

What else is there to say? The art is good. It’s really not beautiful, but it’s good. That’s key for the realistic, often-painful world of this series. The characterization is good. The plot is good, though slow. Sure, you manage to feel some of Nomiya’s pain as he, hidden by having the hood up on his hoodie, watches his old school basketball team blow it without him. It’s painful. But let’s not dwell on the fact from the side of YOU managing to feel his pain. Focus on how the MANGA is able to MAKE you feel his pain somewhat. And yet, there’s also the flavor of bitter rejection mixed in, of sour grapes, of “maybe they deserved this if they thought they could do without me...” Except that said bitterness just makes the whole emotional situation worse, not better.

I dunno. It’s good. It’s hard to talk about it without spoiling it.

--Plot: involving, but more to the point, not overdone.
--Setting: Well, you know, I think it’s Tokyo, but will we ever really get tired of Tokyo as a setting?
--Theme: Life sucks, and you have to be strong and determined not to let it beat you, especially since you live in Japan, where life sucking and being unsatisfying is just sort of unsurprising in the 21st century. The author will show you how much it sucks and how unfair it is, and will therefore proceed to show you how hard you must try in order to keep life from winning and making you the loser.
--Conflict: life in Japan in the 21st century, whether you have your health, or, particularly, not.

And yet, don’t think that it’s just depressing. It’s just...

...I’m trying to find a way to say this other than “Real” and I’m failing. Maybe that’s the point.

I give this a Mangalife grade of A-.``xEkkllZkZVVRnEmiaQB``x1228872755``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519909``xTakehiko Inoue``x``x``x``xDrama``xSports``x``xJohn Werry``x``xViz Signature``xOlder Teen``xA-``x12.99``x150``x225``xreal v2.jpg``x``x``x``x Fairy Cube v3``xYsabet``xVolume 3 wraps up Kaori Yuki's Fairy Cube, and after reading it, letting it sit while I tried to figure it out, and reading other people's thoughts about it, I have to admit I'm still not entirely sure how to talk about it coherently.

Apparently I'm not the only one who has this problem. Here's the volume-specific back cover copy in its entirety:

THE LAST WING

Will Ian save Rin? Can he stop Tokage? Ian has only one chance left to get his life back!

Those questions are central to the story, and do get answered, but they give no hint whatsoever about the quantities of sheer insanity Yuki has squeezed into a single volume. (If you're already a fan of her work, I can only assume this will make you happy rather than scare you off. As someone who enjoys her stories in a very surface-level, along-for-the-ride kind of way, I find myself carefully not trying to figure out exactly how all the threads of the story come together. It hurts my head less that way.)

Given that, I'm not going to try to provide a more detailed summary, but it's an interesting read. Yuki does a remarkably good job of keeping all her balls in the air once she's tossed them up: the complexities of the fairies' alliances and goals are a bit dizzying, but Ian is still clearly at the heart of the story, and he and his family get their resolution.

If you enjoyed the first two volumes of the series, you should find this a satisfying conclusion. If you read and disliked the first two volumes, you probably weren't thinking of picking this up anyway. And if you haven't read any of Kaori Yuki's work before, do yourself a huge favor: start with volume 1, suspend your disbelief, and let yourself go on the ride. There's really no other way to figure out if she's for you or not.

Volume 3 of Fairy Cube includes a standalone follow-up story and a gallery of bonus illustrations, featuring the front-piece art from the individual chapters.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkkllZkklpxklvGxBQ``x1228872280``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421516705``xKaori Yuki``x``x``x``xRomance``xSupernatural``x``xGemma Collinge``xKristina Blachere``xViz``xOlder Teen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xFairy Cube 03 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Skip Beat! v15``xYsabet``xSho decides to take the high road rather than confront Vie Ghoul about their theft of his song. But VG frontman Reino doesn't take kindly to being ignored and devises a devious plan to get Sho's attention--he's going after Kyoko! Normally, Kyoko's not the type of girl that needs rescuing. But for some reason, Reino's presence petrifies her. Will Reino's evil scheme work better than anyone imagined?!

The last review I wrote for Skip Beat! covered vol. 2-3, and when I was sent a review copy of vol. 15, I remembered the series fondly enough to make sure I caught up on all the intervening volumes. I'm very glad I did, because the series has really grown on me. Our heroine, Kyoko, is still in full possession of her...let's call it her unusually powerful vibes, which generally translate into her anger or hatred being strong enough that the target can practically see them. (Or be stabbed by them, or buffeted around the room...)

She's also become a force to be reckoned with in several arenas: she's come to love acting for its own sake, rather than its potential as a vehicle for revenge, and her talent has won her a significant role in a new drama (opposite Ren, her main love interest, although she still consciously sees him primarily as a mentor). On the vengeance front, Sho, the former childhood friend she dreams of overshadowing, has started seeing her for what she's become, rather than as the quiet girl who once sacrificed everything for him.

In practice, her relationship with Sho is becoming quite interesting. Kyoko still overflows with hatred at the mention of his name, but when it recently became obvious that an up-and-coming band is not only copying Sho's style but blatantly stealing from him, she zeroed in on the weakness in the way he's handling the situation and warned him. As for Sho, he's seeing Kyoko in a new light, even if it's still overtly antagonistic.

Ren, the ostensible male lead, doesn't get a lot to do this time around; vol. 15 is heavily focused on Vie Ghoul's competition with Sho, and how badly Kyoko is being caught in the middle. The upstart band isn't terribly interesting in its own right, but they're doing a good job of forcing Kyoko and Sho to interact more than they have in a long time. Rumors about their relationship are flying among the other showbiz people, and it seems like only a matter of time before the public starts having the same suspicions, especially since the specter of reputation-damaging gossip looms large in this volume.

All in all, Skip Beat! is remarkably engaging, and a lot more fun than I gave its premise credit for when I started reading.

Vol. 15 of Skip Beat! includes a page of cultural and translation notes.

Review copy provided by VIZ Media.``xEkkllZEyyZaDUdGXZp``x1228871667``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421519526``xYoshiki Nakamura``x``x``x``xDrama``x``x``xTomo Kimura``xTomo Kimura``xViz/Shojo Beat``xTeen``xB+``x8.99``x150``x225``xSkip Beat 15 cover.jpg``x``x``x``x Words of Truth and Wisdom: Christmas Wish List``xNibley``xHappy Thanksgiving everyone! Okay, so it's about a week late, but I wanted to say it anyway. Thanksgiving is a very important holiday, after all. In light of that, we were thinking of doing a little featurette on manga we're thankful for, but then we realized that that would end up being a list of comments on everything in our resume and then some, and that would get pretty long. So for now, suffice it to say, that we're very thankful to have been able to work on all the titles we've been able to work on, and for a bunch of other titles we haven't been able to work on (yet?).

So our next idea was to write up a wishlist of titles we'd like to work on in the future. Actually, Park had suggested we do something like this before, and we thought it was a really good idea, but when we started thinking of what we'd put on that list, it ended up being very short. We had been very busy, so we hadn't had any time to read any manga that wasn't work-related. And if it's work-related, that means it's already licensed, because we're working on it. Of course, there are some titles that have been licensed that we wish we were working on. Some of those will probably show up on this list too.

In no particular order, here are some titles that we would really like to translate:

Himegimi no Tsukurikata: How to Make a Princess, by Asuka Izumi, published by Hakusensha. This is the title that reminded us of the wishlist idea. From the title, you can probably figure out that it's about a girl who suddenly finds out she's a princess, and has to undergo training in order to be more princesslike. It's kind of cliche, yes, but it's a kind of cliche we like. There's also a strong focus on families, which is something we have a weakness for. And, from a translator's point of view, it would be an awesome challenge to work on, because there are two butlers who use honorific language like crazy when talking to the princess, but use regular plain language when they're talking to each other. So it would be neat to try to express that in English.

Speaking of family--The Akiyoshi Family Series, by Banri Hidaka, published by Hakusensha. We really love translating I Hate You More Than Anyone (vol.1-6, on sale now! from CMX!), and we've become huuuuuge Banri Hidaka fans. We're reading Tears of a Lamb and VB Rose, too, and those go on our list of “things that are licensed but we want to translate anyway.” (Incidentally, Manga Life's own Barb Lien Cooper is doing the English adaptation on VB Rose these days.) Anyway, the other installments of the Akiyoshi Family Series are about the siblings of the main character of I Hate You, and they're at least as good. We especially love Chizuru's story.

Hoshi wa Utau: Twinkle Stars Like Singing A Song, by Natsuki Takaya, published by Hakusensha. I'm noticing a lot of Hakusensha titles. We've been kind of obsessed with Hana to Yume Comics lately. Anyway, this is the current series by the creator of Fruits Basket. When I first started reading it, I had heard a few Fruits Basket fans say it was alright, but it just didn't grab them as much as Fruits Basket did, so I was determined to like it more than them and thus be a better Takaya-sensei fan. Because I'm a brat. It wasn't hard, though, because Chihiro is exactly the kind of mysterious character that tends to get me hooked. Plus this series just has an aura about it that makes me happy just to be reading it.

Hare + Guu, by Renjuro Kindaichi, published by Square-Enix. Actually this one is kind of scary. We saw the anime and we loved it to itty bitty bits, but we haven't read the manga, and we're a little afraid because manga can be even crazier than animated versions sometimes. It would get complicated trying to explain what it's about, so instead we'll just recommend watching the anime, because it is in fact made of awesome.

The Violinist of Hameln, by Michiaki Watanabe, published by Enix (now Square-Enix). A series about a hero who saves towns from destruction by monsters with his double-bass-sized magical violin, then charges them exorbitant prices for his service. Actually, there's some crude humor in this one, which we're not big fans of, so we're not sure we want to be the ones to translate it, but at the same time, we'd have a hard time giving it up (it's not all crude humor, after all). I don't remember the details, but I remember at one point deciding that listening to all the classical music he bases the manga on must have made Watanabe-sensei some kind of genius, because there's some kind of really intricate story in there that really takes you by surprise when it shows up through all the insanity.

Kero Kero Chime, by Maguro Fujita, published by Shueisha. This is another one we saw the anime of but haven't read the manga of. It's about a boy who runs into a random wizard who casts a spell on him so he turns into a frog whenever he gets wet, then the wizard throws him through a portal where he meets the princess of the land, who's supposed to help him find the cure to his magical ailment. If the manga is anything like the anime, I'd say it's got a humor that's kind of like a mix of Gakuen Alice and The Emperor's New Groove...? Anyway, it's cute and funny and we like it a lot. And even if the manga doesn't have all the gags of the anime, we have read some other manga by Fujita-sensei, and we liked it a lot.

Well, those are the ones we came up with off the top of our heads. Of course, we have a habit of wanting to translate everything. ...Okay, not everything. We don't like to work with titles that are too “adult,” for example. It's kind of funny, because whenever we go to a manga publisher's panel at a convention, unless they're talking about something we translate, our reaction is usually, “Why can't we translate that? Whine whine whine!”

But in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we really are thankful to be able to translate everything we do, and if we did actually translate every single series we wanted to, we wouldn't have time for anything else. So we just take everything in stride, and enjoy what we have, while looking forward to future possibilities. ...Was that too cheesy? Oh well. Now you can go get yourselves some crackers.``xEkklFElZAuagHEOiLr``x1228318794``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xtwins.jpg Context Is Good: The Gerard Jones Interview``xParkCooper``xWhat neither his Wikipedia page nor his website tells you is that Gerard Jones is an adapter of manga, such as Dragon Ball Z, a lot of Rumiko Takahashi work, and more: Basara, Boys Over Flowers, Crying Freeman, Inuyasha, Maison Ikkoku, One-Pound Gospel, RahXephon, Ranma ½, Rumic Theater, Rurouni Kenshin, Urusei Yatsura... these are just some highlights, not a complete list...

When I was first courting my wife Barbara, back when I was a comics geek and knew far less about manga and even anime aside from Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and a few things like Speed Racer, back at the start of a long-distance geek relationship, one thing I mailed her was Epic’s (an offset of Marvel Comics) The Trouble with Girls, by Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs. I had also found, totally by coincidence, a book at a used bookstore called The Beaver Papers, which was purportedly writers from the 1950s and earlier coming out of retirement to guest-write new episodes of Leave it to Beaver so as to try to prevent its cancellation (and new takes on the theme song, too, by luminaries such as Sinatra)—ALSO by Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs. But since I wasn’t so dumb as to not realize that the guy named Gerard Jones who wrote one comic I liked was probably the same guy who wrote other comics, which, if I tried them, I might like, I started finding more and more of his work, particularly since, in the 1990s, I was not only buying comics from the 1990s, I was doing a lot of going back and finding what was good from the 1980s. I read his work on Green Lantern, Green Lantern Mosaic, Freex. Justice League (JLA, JLI... and JLE I think), Prime, El Diablo, Wonder Man, Elongated Man, The Shadow, and more... He won the Eisner Award for his non-fiction, though. He wrote Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004); Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (2002), and more, including writing, again with Will Jacobs, The Comic Book Heroes (1985, 1996), and the comic book The Trouble with Girls (1987-1993).

I met him at San Diego Con a few years ago, talked to him and told him how I loved Green Lantern Mosaic so much that I worked a little analysis of it into one of my essay-test final exams in one of my literature classes at Texas Tech, but it was barely a 5-minute conversation. Recently, though (after I read through the entire run of Dragon Ball Z), it hit me that I’d never interviewed him, and so I moved to correct that immediately—as soon as the election was over, because he was volunteering all his free time for making calls.

Here’s my interview with him. Enjoy.




Park Cooper: Hello! Sorry I'm late! I hope you forgot too and haven't been (aware that you've been) waiting long

Gerard Jones: No sweat! I've got my computer open anyway. Just got into a fun argument with a conservative gal about Sarah Palin.

PC: Here, you'll understand this-- got into writing my novel

GJ: Good for you. I wish I forgot the rest of my life while writing my book more often...and forgot my book while dealing with the rest of my life LESS often.

PC: Wife Barbara: "I don't mean to be a geek or anything, but wow, you're gonna talk to Gerard Jones"

GJ: Wife Barbara is good.

PC Dictating For Barb: Well you can tell him from me that I'm a female and I don't understand Sarah Palin for nothin’. In fact I'm from Minnesota so the folksy quasi-Minnesotaesque accent really grates on me.

GJ: That's what I was arguing with this other woman about. Did Palin's rhetoric actually increase the likelihood of violence against Obama?

PC: Unfortunately Barbara is now out of earshot so I cannot ask her. What was your answer?

GJ: At first I said "yes." Then she got me to concede that there is no demonstrable cause and effect. But I still think SP's demagoguery hurt our national dialogue.

PC: Yeah... So... how comfortable or not are you with having politics in the actual public interview...? Because on one hand it has clearly played a very large role in your life recently

GJ: I'm fine with politics being in here.

PC: Check. Well, so, how do you feel now? Relieved? Like relief is denied due to Prop 8? Stunned? Barb and I were discussing earlier how we feel like everyone sort of "still can't believe it" (about Obama)

GJ: I'm thrilled about Obama's victory. I have real hope for this to be a turning point in American history at the level of 1932. Or 1980, which was a turning point, although not the direction I liked.

PC: I wrote a short column encouraging people to vote which I posted on Nov. 3rd. And I was a little cagey in that. But at the end I discussed Geek Values. Which means that I feel that diehard geeks have the values they get from sci-fi and fantasy... good over evil (which is easy), good over fascism (except maybe Heinlein), a good bit of Green Party aesthetics mixed in... and on and on...

PC: Do you believe in Geek Values? And if so do you believe, as I do, that it pushes young minds to the left more than the alternative? Or does all that go out the window when you hear the dumb things people say in the audiences of panels at cons sometimes

GJ: I would advocate a more process-based, rather than idea-based, sense of Geek Values.

PC: Do tell

GJ: There's a book, "The Coming Democratic Majority," published in 2002 I think, that laid out the political shift we're seeing now in largely demographic and generational terms. It used the word "Ideopolis" to describe the new type of American city and suburb based largely on the information and tech industries, although often with academia thrown in. Coastal California from Eureka south is becoming one big
"ideopolis." Parts of North Carolina and Virginia are too, enough to tip those states "blue."

GJ: Centers of media and culture would go in there too--New York, Chicago, even parts of Florida. And areas with huge numbers of government bureaucrats too, as I.T. takes over our bureaucracies.

PC: Hm. I'm having a thought about works of yours in the past that touch on the political...

GJ: Anyway...I’m overexplaining...

PC: No, no, you're fine

GJ: Short version is, people who have been shaped by computers, media, info tech have a different world view from the older generations.

PC: Yesssss

GJ: Which INCLUDES a greater interest in fantasy, science fiction, other geek interests.
Includes a more complete and passionate engagement in media in general.

GJ: So geek entertainment is a living and valid part of that whole. Many ways that shows up, but here are two:
1. The Star-Trek style model of different kinds of people getting along, people being educated out of old oppositions and suppositions.
You can toss X-Men in there too. Buffy. A whole bunch of stuff.
2. A channeling of our fantasies of combat and power into fantastical arenas, a la superheroes.

PC: right, like in Killing Monsters...

GJ: So we still have those visceral, My Symbol Will Beat Your Symbol fantasies, but no longer in any racial, nationalistic, religious context. And usually what you find is that bad guys are shown as forces that set people against each other, destroy the new web of cooperation. Joker in the Dark Knight movie, for instance. Or they're selfish and exclusionary. So...to loop us back around... The life-philosophy of the new generations, the social models of geek entertainment, the economic logic of the information age, all become part of the same pattern. *whew*

PC: Let's shiftjump over to El Diablo. And Green Lantern. A certain incident where J.S. stacks cars in South Africa comes to my mind... Gerard Jones past comics works and politics intersecting... and I also mentioned J.S. stacking the cars (limos perhaps I think) in South Africa

GJ: It all kind of comes from the same place. Plus my book about sitcoms, Honey I'm Home, etc. I keep thinking the same thoughts, they just show up in different places. All my John Stewart stuff was working on those thoughts. Still kind of inchoate at that point.

PC: Yeah wheee, back to the past. I already thanked you, the one time I met you, for The Beaver Papers and The Trouble With Girls...Which was one of the first comics I sent to Barbara early in our (initially long-distance) relationship. Talk about setting a tone...

GJ: That makes me so happy! I love writing humor with Will Jacobs. We're working on two humor books that we're posting on-line. And glad to know Barbara didn't immediately dump you.

PC: That is very interesting to me because I am working on the research for how to make a novel Barbara has written work that way... so will you make money from doing so, and if so, how

GJ: No, this is just to get reader reaction, get some comments that might help us with the revision... Build interest for when we finally try to get them published...

PC: Ahhh. Okay. Do you have an agent these days? Er, for fiction?

GJ: My agent is always open to reading fiction. Right now she's saying that neither of the new Jacobs and Jones projects are ready for the big publishers. Which is part of why we're revising. But she never says, "No fiction please." Fiction's just really hard to sell right now.

PC: Why is fiction hard to sell right now?

GJ: Because millions of people are doing it. Kind of the hip new thing to write a novel.
And non-fiction sells better, so it's hard for publishers to increase their fiction lists enough to keep up with the increased product available. Fiction's actually selling pretty steadily, but...it's a buyers' market. The stuff that seems easiest to place now is genre stuff that can be easily niched. So agents know exactly which editors to hit, marketing departments know exactly which other books to link it to... It's a hard time for oddball stuff.

PC: Hence one reason why I'm gearing up to get a readership excited about mine, online, first. But let's shift this subtly away from me... how did you feel about winning your first Eisner for a work of prose?

GJ: That was really gratifying. Writing that book made me feel very close to the comic book community, made me realize how much that community had meant to me for 20 years--and how much the medium had meant to me since I was 13 years old-- So hearing from the comics community that they thought my book was a valuable contribution meant a lot to me. It was bittersweet, though, as that was the first Eisner Awards held after Will died. Anne Eisner was sitting front and center at the awards. I found myself directing my comments mainly to her. It was quite powerful to see her smiling back when I talked about Will's help on the book. It was also fun to be there with Michael Chabon, who won for The Escapist. He and I knew each other before Men of Tomorrow, but that book really kind of kicked our friendship into gear.

PC: And now a question that to some may sound odd on my part: So do you read many comics these days?

GJ: I was afraid you were going to ask that... No, I'm sorry that I don't. I kind of stopped reading comics during the years I was writing too many of them. My comics-writing burnout spread to the enjoyment of reading them too. And although the writing burnout is long past, I just never seemed to get the comics-reading rhythm back. I'll still go through flurries of reading really old stuff. Usually right after San Diego Con, when I've picked up some new things.

PC: Ah, yeah, old stuff. I'm a fan of that.

GJ: I recently read Wimbledon Green. Otherwise, I have a stack of recent comics that have been recommended to me that I'm sure I'll get to one of these days. Will Jacobs keeps telling me I MUST read Alan Moore's Supreme. Which is "recent" in my world...

PC: Mm. I feel that Supreme is Alan gearing up to do A.B.C. and Tom Strong and Promethea... "If only D.C. was out of the way, one could do this... hm and this... la la la, wouldn't this be entertaining"

GJ: So I'll add ABC and all to my list.

PC: Okay, so let us now speak of manga. And not just because I recently read the entire run of Dragon Ball Z

GJ: Yes, manga. I've been doing stuff on and off for Viz for something like 19 years.
Did you like DBZ?

PC: I did like DBZ. It was amazing to see the author deliberately challenge himself with increasing difficulties of topping himself as far as the insanely god-like amounts of power the heroes and the threats possessed/gained each time... and without cheating by, you know, solving any problem with anything other than sheer brute force. And he managed it every time...

GJ: DBZ was fun to adapt to the American market. Although my favorite manga rewrites have mostly been of Takahashi's work. Ranma 1/2 and Maison Ikkoku were the top.

PC: Barb wants to know: "How much would you say you ADAPT and how much do you REWRITE?" In which adaptation is tinkering with sentence structure and rewriting is more like adding a whole new gag in (lawn chairs? veritable smorgasbord?)

GJ: Barb asks a good question. My official title is "rewriter." But...I try to be more of an adapter. My ideal is to convey the original author's intent and style. I want to contribute that and get out of the way. But: there are times that I just couldn't do that without leaving the original incomprehensible. Or adding explanatory footnotes, which Viz very much tries to avoid. It depends more on the specific reference or gag in question.

Barb: Yeah, a joke you really appreciate, but you know the audience won't get it the way it is at the moment...

PC: Well it also depends on the manga in question...

GJ: Puns are almost never possible just to "adapt," not if the original humor is to continue. And Takahashi liked puns, at least in her more overtly comedic work.
So one story might be 95% adaptation, trying to stay as close to Rumiko Takahashi's intent as possible...but then there'd be some gag based on a double meaning that just wouldn't work in English. So I'd usually make up a whole new gag.

Barb: Oh yeah the kanji-puns are a pain...

PC: Stuff like "You see, the symbol for 'mango' is made up the strokes for 'monkey', 'brain,' and 'explosion...'” and so forth...

GJ: I always felt that NOT including a joke there, just sticking to the literal information, would be a failure to follow the author's intent. Rumiko meant this as a laugh-beat, so I'll come up with another laugh.

Barb: Yes.

PC: Yes.

GJ: I guess that still qualifies as "adapting." Just choosing the overall narrative intent over the literal content.

Barb: Yes, it does. And then there are rich cultural references that you want in there, but you just don't know how to explain them to the causal reader who isn't an otaku...

PC: Yes, our tradition doesn't even understand that horniness makes your nose bleed

GJ: Yeah, there's often a tough choice to be made between otaku-sense and general-reader sense. I'm glad that Viz, in recent years, has trusted more in the manga-awareness of its readership. Early on we were all asked to err too much on the side of the hypothetical reader-who-knows-nothing-about-manga-or-Japan. Which made sense when the manga market was still being tested and there was no huge otaku population in the US.

Barb: Yeah that's always the 7-10 split... each should be respected... but they're in the minority, really...

GJ: The one that still makes me squirm is the "Kyoko" issue in Maison Ikkoku......

PC: Is this the kitten named Kyoko?

GJ: Yup. My stomach still clenches at the thought of it.

PC: I still remember that... I think about it whenever I hear the name Kyoko... and since we just watched two Asian Horror movies in as many nights, I have heard it recently... So how would you have fixed the Kitten Story if you could?

GJ: The thing was...when we started Maison Ikkoku, my editor and I agreed that it would feel weird to an American reader to hear the characters calling their building manager "Manager." Or "Ms. Manager." Or however one might translate it. We went for the American style, which is first names. So everyone called her "Kyoko."

Barb: I’ve had a similar problem with my Korean manhwa assignments sometimes...

GJ: Unfortunately NO ONE involved had read ahead to see that there would be actual story points based on the fact that using a first name in Japan is a big deal, with all kinds of status and role implications. Toren Smith warned me there was trouble coming, but that was only after some issues had been published and we didn't know how to turn back.

PC: Yes, Del Rey always makes a big deal out of what a big deal no suffix means...

GJ: It's good to think this stuff through. Sometimes it IS a big deal. In this case, there was a story in which one of the guys brought in a kitten named Kyoko. And the kitten gets lost, so the characters are going around yelling "Kyoko! Kyoko!" And the human Kyoko gets insulted because they're supposed to be calling her "Manager." She takes this as an offensive intimacy. With sexual implications. So I had to figure out how to give the kitten a name based on "Kyoko" that she would find insulting. The results were...highly unsatisfying to everyone involved.

PC: Oh yes... I just was thinking "it's probably exactly that sort of experience that led to them putting that boilerplate explanation in the front of every one of their manga."

GJ: Yes, introductions can be helpful. Context is good.

PC: Even Barb remembers that story now. All of us adapters and even translators are terrified that doing something one way will come back around to bite us later... since we can't read ahead, and no one else ever seems to do so for us

GJ: I argued hard for it to be changed in the most recent reprint. But the budget didn't have room. So it will sit there humiliating me forever.

PC: So I feel like, in the factory that has a huge sign on the wall that says "NO OPEN-TOED SHOES!!!", you're the guy who got a forklift on his toe back in the day, which led to the sign... it's the Gerard Jones Memorial Boilerplate Explanation of Japanese Relationship Suffixes. We salute you.

GJ: Except with credited work it's like, "No Open-Toed Shoes Because Gerard Jones Got His Stupid Foot Broken."

PC: Soooo... One time Barb interviewed Grant Morrison, who, talking about the growing dominance of video games in the entertainment industry, closed the interview with something like, "In 5 years everything will be games. Everything."

PC: Setting aside whether everything is now video games or not...Where would you say we're headed? Us comic-manga-anime-novel-entertainment type folks? In your opinion...

GJ: I think Grant's overestimating the power of games. I just went to a video game conference in England and everybody was complaining about how the game market is so subservient to movies and TV. Too many games based on characters from other media. I think it's natural for die-hards in every medium to fear and resent every other medium. This "synergy" business makes everyone adjust to everyone else. Also...people will always like to play games, but they'll also always like to surrender to a storyteller's control. There will always be non-interactive media where you don't GET to take matters into your own hands. That's most of the fun.

PC: Yeah, well, but setting that part aside...

GJ: I think the "graphic novel" as a form has carved out a turf that isn't going away anytime soon. But it also may become less hip. Don't know if we'll keep seeing things that get the attention of Persepolis, for instance. But it's more than a fad: it will survive. And there will still be superheroes in some graphic, readable form. But...will the 32 page monthly comic survive? There I'll pull an "I don't know."

PC: Ooh not that we're quite closing yet-- barb wants to talk about Killing Monsters a bit more because we really respect them prose things you did...

Barb: The two things I got out of Killing Monsters are: one, that fascinating kind of connection to 9-11 about how comics and pop culture helped some kids through that trauma...which shows that comics can be more than just escapist fare... and two, how he said that both the male and female audience identify with the active character, not the passive one, which has been the industry's problem when writing female characters.

GJ: I like Barb's comments. And yeah, that's been a problem with female characters. The reader must IDENTIFY. Male readers will objective a female character to an extent, but they also have to be willing to become her. I think I mentioned the 8th grade boy who said he liked Buffy because "Sarah Michelle Gellar is hot." But in further conversation it became clear that he was really fused with the character, too. If you take that "she's hot" too literally and think that's all you need to give male readers...they lose interest fast.
And girls certainly have no interest in reading a female character who is hard to inhabit imaginatively.

Barb: Exactly, amen.

PC: Who is your favorite female character you've ever written?

GJ: No immediate answer jumps to mind. I liked Margo Lane in The Shadow Strikes.

PC: That's a good answer

GJ: But, as bizarre as they were, I think my favorites were a couple of the women in The Trouble with Girls. Especially Brett Ashley, the nice simple girl from Lester's home town who turns out to be a CIA agent. But Maxi Scoops was fun too, after she evolved out of the usual pesky-female-reporter shtick.

PC: We liked Willy and Gerry and their cutting-through-the-crap ways...

GJ: Yeah, the boys were great characters.

PC: Barb liked Maxi.

GJ: Yay! Maxi actually came to life for us after a few issues. Her impatience with Lester was very heartfelt. A lot us in there.

PC: For a second I thought you meant came to life like how Alan claims he actually met John Constantine in a bar one time

GJ: I'm afraid I don't have Alan's imagination. ...I wish...

PC: Now, to get back to what you were saying about the way we're all heading... I have some thoughts

GJ: Please share. I'll comment as we go.

PC: 1. I used to say "comics will never die, because too many of us want to make them." but that was because I thought that all such people would keep reading comics. Lots of creators I could name these days actually don't read any comics any more.

GJ: I guess that's where the internet can come in. Comics as blogs. They'll never die because people want to make them...but who reads other people's blogs?

PC: 2. Marvel's earnings recently were higher than they predicted, because, they say, because of the Iron Man movie (you notice no one mentions the latest Hulk movie). But that Marvel expects that their next quarter will dive more than one might think... because there's no new Marvel movie coming out in that time. Sony is hurting now that it's been a while since Spider-Man 3, too, I hear. And I feel like... wow, I knew the flimsies (single-issues) weren't enough, but even the underwear and t-shirts and toys and things aren't enough...?

PC: And yeah, well, most people don't read most other people's blogs, to answer your question. So...it feels like we're coming to a huge change-or-die moment in comics.

GJ: I think superheroes are good for several more years as movie fodder. Maybe longer. But...will people necessarily want comics about the same characters?

PC: Right.

GJ: There were no Titanic comics or Forrest Gump comics. Superhero movies can exist in the absence of the medium that created the genre. So how do comics change? ...I wonder if the sense of "comics" as a unified whole has to go away.

PC: Ooooh

GJ: There's the superhero biz, which may struggle on as an aspect of movie-licensing. And there's the whole arty-graphic-novel niche. And manga, which most comics people even now see as something other.

PC: Other? Oh, you mean they see it as Not Comics. Yeah.

GJ: And of course comic STRIPS, which few people in comic books have laid claim to for a long time. So...the medium, the use of sequential drawings, usually with words injected into them, probably isn't going anywhere. But the subcultural definition...this increasingly tenuous definition of Persepolis and Spider-Man as somehow part of the same world... Why keep that going? It will be interesting to see what bookstores do with comics in the future. It makes sense to me that Persepolis would be in Literature or Memoir... Road to Perdition would be in Mystery... And then there'd be a separate section for Superheroes. Or maybe that's what the Comics and Graphic Novel sections would become.

PC: Yes, certain people I could name complain that their works have not done well recently because bookstores "didn't know where to put them"

GJ: You could add me to that list. Borders and B&N put Men of Tomorrow in Graphic Novels. But people in that section are usually not looking for books that are 400 pages of text with hardly any pictures. And people who might have been intrigued had they found it in Media Studies, American History, General Non-Fiction, whatever...never saw it.

PC: Yeah.

GJ: I have to say, though...I don't yet see any desire to rethink this on the part of bookstore managers.

PC: Yeah again

GJ: But it would be an interesting change.

PC: You notice we aren't talking about comic shop retailers at all. Which I think speaks for itself...

GJ: Would comics flourish as "another way to tell that kind of story"? Or would they fade quickly because they'd lost that core "I'm into Comics so I'm going to the Graphic Novel section" audience? I'll just say that I HOPE comics find a way to survive. They've been a huge part of my life and I think there's still a vital community centered on them. Maybe the secret is to find what we really like about them and keep THAT alive...and be willing to let go of much of what we've meant by "comics" for the last few decades.
``xEkklkVuEFuxWaDtmIB``x1228254134``xfeatures``x``x``x45611116047418``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x``x150``x225``x``x``x``x``xgerard jones DBZ5.jpg Whistle! v20``xParkCooper``xWell, it’s about time that I reviewed volume 20 of Whistle, since I’ve had it for maybe I don’t know almost a month now? And especially since, when the Viz PR person with whom I communicate queried what titles I might especially be interested in, Whistle! was one of the ones I was most interested in. This sports manga doesn’t really have any elements of the supernatural as such, it’s just a well-crafted story of a boy and his teammates who love soccer for the Love Of The Game... as indeed all characters in sports manga must.

Recently, Sho and his teammates travelled to Korea for a match, which was quite a big intense deal when considered in light of the relationships, past and present, between those two countries... and the manga DID consider it, and indeed used it as quite a point of suspense, which was quite exciting.

So I was, in a way, a bit sad to come back down to earth and for the plot to just go back to regular old practice and trying to improve our skills and beat other Japanese teams. But I got over it well enough, as there’s certainly enough suspense, skill, and strategy evinced here in volume 20 as ever, and that’s saying a lot.

On one hand, I just told you everything you might need to know in that last paragraph. But ah, the devil’s in the details, and it all makes for a fine read. The pretty female coach whose youth and looks make other coaches totally underestimate her keen mind... Sho’s small size and the way he uses it to his advantage (you see, when you’re on the soccer field, you have to stay very visually focused on the area in front of you, usually a few feet in front of you and so on, and Sho, with his smaller size, has a trick where he can get right in front of you and then suddenly duck down out of the field of where you’re used to looking, so it’s like he [and the ball] vanish out from under you while you’re still figuring out that you should have tilted your head down a bit), the important aspect that the team’s morale level has on play, the way that the team’s physical energy levels and stamina play a completely different role... it’s all good.

On the other hand, you can get these elements of goodness in ANY volume of Whistle! these days, so let’s get a bit more specific. As I mentioned the other day with interest to my wife, this volume is notable in part because it introduces a black character... another team has what is apparently an African-Japanese character on a rival team... quite a rarity. When some other kids mention (in a way that seems both racist and also totally unsurprising) that he has a natural advantage in sports, being of African descent, he demonstrates his pure finesse in handling game equipment with no hands—NOT with a ball, but shogi (Japanese chess) pieces, which just blows their minds because it seems not like a feat of physical prowess, but nigh-on impossible—and that’s before he finally used his foot to launch them into the air and hit each of the two boys in the forehead with the pieces (with one movement, not two)... “I _am_ Japanese,” says Kotaro Abe, the young man in question.

Oh yeah. They got served.

And then he goes on to play Sho’s team. Can the team’s morale stand up to a team with a guy who can pull acrobatic moves that would impress even professional players?

Well, we’ll find out in volume 21. But it was quite a ride thus far, as usual. A-.
``xEkklkVkFlFKLyAscck``x1228252383``xreviews``x``x``x33481114656321``x1421511118``xDaisuke Higuchi``x``x``x``xSports``x``x``xNaomi Kokubo``xHeidi Alayne``xViz``xAll Ages``xA-``x7.99``x150``x225``xwhistle v20.jpg``x``x``x``x Movie Review: Dororo``xParkCooper``xOkay, now I’m going to review the movie based on the manga also known as Dororo. And there are going to be some spoilers in here, not SO much for the movie, but for reading Dororo the series. So if you don’t want a surprise in the manga ruined for you, don’t read this review of the movie, okay? But just as a non-spoilery preview: I liked it a lot. So go see the movie if you want... before or after you read Dororo the manga... but I’m about to do a manga-spoiler here, though it won’t ruin the movie for you at all really. Okay?

Okay, let’s hope that that’s enough to make it so that spoilers don’t show up on MangaLife’s front page.

In the meantime, here’s the basics—I’m going to draw on the summary I just wrote for Dororo, the manga, volume 3, here: A warlord, losing badly these days, makes a monk let him into a sealed-up room with 48 statues of demons that another monk carved, which drove him mad. The warlord considers it a fitting place to dwell on his next move, because he’s extremely bummed-out about his bleak prospects for taking over the world. He offers the demons whatever they want in exchange for success in winning the war. The demons respond that they want the body of his unborn son. Okay, says the warlord, take it and split it up between you. And so a deal was made...

And so, once upon a time, a baby was born who was missing almost all of his parts. He had a mouth-hole, and a head, and a torso, and, like, skin covering everything, but that’s about it. How did he live nonetheless? That’s how you know the supernatural is involved, baby. They sent him in a basket down the river (y’know, like you do) and he was found (what are the odds? Insane. That’s how you know it’s FATE) by a guy who was the best prosthetic-parts maker in the world, who made him all his 48 parts, although of course they don’t work quite the same as real eyes and ears and so on. On the other hand, if you get poked with a sword in your fake leg, you don’t feel anything or bleed, if you get my drift. Little Hyakkimaru grew up to be a badass swordsman, and every time he kills one of the 48 demons scattered around Japan, one of the parts he’s missing grows in for real.

Now, in the MANGA, his sidekick is Dororo, a little kid who purports to be the world’s greatest thief (Since Dororo gets into trouble constantly, you can’t help but think that there must be someone SOMEWHERE who’s a better thief, but Dororo isn’t bad at the pure thieving, really).

In the MOVIE, a few things are done differently. In the manga (here’s the big spoiler!), Dororo, near the very end, is shown to be: a little girl! And you thought he was a smart-ass boy all this time! In the movie, though, well, they didn’t want to screw around with actual child actors, so they got a very cute, slightly-androgynous-considering-most-Japanese-actresses-are-insanely-hot actress to play Dororo, about 20 years old or so, acting more like a tough tomboy 15 year old. She does a great job!

The actor portraying the main character Hyakkimaru also does an excellent job, which is harder, since he’s sort of the badass samurai Helen Keller, having neither real eyes nor ears at first, and so he’s not really supposed to have a very wide range of body/facial/vocal expression from the start of the movie, having never EXACTLY seen or heard how people normally express themselves. Okay, acting like a stiff isn’t that hard, but loosening it up gradually as the movie proceeds is a pretty good acting challenge in my opinion. He is, of course, about as physically attractive as your average guy from a shoujo, too... I jokingly started calling him “Deppo Johnnymaru.”

So, yeah, the plot is good, the special effects are either very good or kind of rubber-suity... at one point there was an armless giant lizard one could swear was on Power Rangers... not that I watched Power Rangers... but somehow that added to the fun/riffed on the tradition of rubber monsters in Japanese films...

Barbara, my wife, did not like this movie quite as well as I did. I am giving it an A-. She would give it a B+. The reason for this is that sometimes, you do wish that the story would kind of get on with it and walk and talk a tiny bit less. It’s not a mixed-bag of pacing... it’s not inconsistently-paced... you just wish, in general, that we could get on with things and tighten it all up JUST a bit more. I would use the fast-forward-but-not-so-fast-that-I-couldn’t-still-read-the-subtitles button in short bursts sometimes.

Still. My jaw was just standing open at the beginning... the acting was good... the endgame was different and more exciting/susp