Well, Kai-Ming Cha got everyone talking—on two continents, apparently—with her list of the top ten manga and top five manwha of 2006.
Tangognat finds the PW list “a bit odd” and shares a few of her favorites. At PopCultureShock, Katherine Dacey-Tsuei gives her top 20, plus a few that didn’t make her list, and then, in case it seems like she likes every manga (what’s wrong with that?) she talks about a few she didn’t care for. At Precocious Curmudgeon, David Welsh lists the books he enjoyed the most. As my taste and David’s coincide almost perfectly, I’m using it for suggestions on what to read once the current stack is whittled down.
Heidi weighs in at The Beat. Regarding the reclusive #1 choice, The Building Opposite, Heidi notes,
Come to think of it, we’ve never seen a copy of a Ponent Mon book, either. Apparently all the office copies get snatched up. Guess they are THAT good.
That would explain it. And she adds,
Personally speaking, Kai-Ming knows a heck of a lot more about manga than we do, and any list that gets people talking is a good thing.
Hear, hear! The Building Opposite is a French manga, and ActuaBD has a news brief on Kai-Ming’s choice and the news that volume 2 is on the way. (Via Journalista.) Creator Vanyda puts up a manga smile on her blog.
At Anime on DVD, Ed Chavez continues his year-end report cards with a look at Bandai Entertainment.
One reason why Ponent Mon books may not be so visible to manga readers is that, due to their not being in “typical” manga format (i.e., not the same exact height, width, shape, thickness, and texture of your typical Viz or Tokyopop books), many comics and books dealers will just shelve them with the other graphic novels, typically on the “indie shelf” with the “Love & Rockets” and “American Splendor” books. This, and NOT the manga floor, is where I always see the D&Q Tatsumi books, for example.
I’ve looked at a couple Ponent Mon books, and I find them for the most part to be right up my alley – beautifully drawn with subtle and moody stories, mysterious and intriguing without being pointlessly vague. My only complaint is that there is a lot of white space for their larger format (though this does also add to the moody and dreamy feel of the stories that I’ve seen). I haven’t seen “The Building Opposite” yet but the description sounds interesting.
It seems to me that people are just a little shocked that Building Opposite got picked when there hasn’t been any coverage at all about the title at PW. I was more expecting them to pick Nananan’s BLUE from PonentMon (which will be in my Top 10), as that had more traction and coverage at their site. And to be fair, it did make Honorable Mention in the critic’s poll on their site.
Kind of Blue: The Josei Manga of Nananan
by Kai-Ming Cha
Nouvelle Manga Comes to the US
by Kai-Ming Cha
Building Opposite just sort of jumped out of nowhere, not that it’s not good as I haven’t read it either, it was just a shock.
Jarred, I thought for sure that Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators would be the nouvelle manga of choice, if any showed up on best-of lists, just because of its scope and variety. And since it actually has showed up in brick-and-mortar and internet shops, well…
And Mike, I tend to scour the whole graphic novel section when I’m looking, and I think I’ve only ever seen a copy of an F/PM book at a Borders or B&N twice. I haven’t seen them that often in comic shops either, even at some otherwise great ones. I definitely agree with you on F/PM’s quality, though. Kinderbook, Japan, and Walking Man are some of my favorite books ever. I like Blue a lot, too, but I think I prefer Nananan’s short in Secret Comics Japan.
I agree. I visit my local Borders pretty often and the only F/PM books I have seen there are Blue, which was shelved with manga, and Walking Man, which was shelved with other graphic novels. I don’t think I have ever seen a Fanfare/Ponent Mon book in my local Barnes and Noble, but I’m heading there now, and they just doubled the size of their manga section, so I’ll look again.
David, you’re right. Japan was one I was expecting as well. But hey, I love surprises!! ^_^
Brigid, I picked up all my PonentMon books a while back from Borders (back when they were more in the giving mood with their 30%off coupons), with the exception of Times of Botchan, which they have never gotten in. But I still see most of them, although I still need to find Patch of Dreams.