Archives for September 2008

Shaenon Garrity starts the weekend off right with some art and commentary on a gorgeous and bizarre vintage manga, Kasei Tanken, which was published in 1940, a few years before Tezuka hit the scene. It’s a good example of a really different style of manga, something most of us are not used to seeing. (Art shamelessly lifted from Shaenon’s page because really, everyone should look at this.)

David Welsh picks the best of this week’s new manga at Precocious Curmudgeon, and the MangaCast team presents their choices for this week and last week, in case you need more.

News from Japan: ANN reports on lots of new projects. Hades Project Zeorymer Omega, based on a similarly-titled series from the 1980s, will begin serialization in the November issue of Monthly Comic Ryu. Monthly Comic Rush has announced it will carry the third iteration of the Chaos:HEAd manga. The November issue of Monthly Shonen Magazine (on sale Oct. 6) will feature an original Beck side story. And due to popular demand, or something, a new Hell Girl manga will start running in the next issue of Nakayoshi magazine.

Reviews: Sabrina Fritz reviews Bizenghast: The Novel over at Good Comics For Kids. Katherine Farmar has finally finished Death Note and she discusses whether it has lived up to the hype at the Forbidden Planet blog. Casey Brienza reviews the much-acclaimed one-shot 12 Days for ANN. Dan Polley reads vol. 30 of Naruto at Comics Village. Phil Guie checks out vol. 1 of Knights at PopCultureShock’s Manga Recon blog. Connie reads vol. 11 of Nana and vol. 17 of Tenjho Tenge at Slightly Biased Manga. Oyceter enjoys vol. 1 of Sugar Princess: Skating to Win at Sakura of DOOM. Redzie reviews vol. 1 of Kasumi for Japanator and doesn’t realize until after reading it that it’s a global manga. Tangognat samples vol. 1 of Mixed Vegetables. Emily looks at Aitte Yatsu wo Utatte Miyouka at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. New reviews up at Active Anime: Scott Campbell on vol. 11 of Path of the Assassin, Davey C. Jones on vol. 2 of Gun Blaze West, and Holly Ellingwood on Just Around the Corner. Julie checks out vol. 1 of Mixed Vegetables at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 4 of Kamen Tantei, the final volume in the series, at Kuriousity. Guest reviewer Sean Gaffney reads Gatcha Gacha at Okazu. At Prospero’s Manga, Ferdinand has the same reaction I did to Bratz: Super Bratz: It’s really not that bad, but why don’t they have any noses?

Slam Dunk, vol. 1
By Takehiko Inoue
Rated T for Teen
Viz, $7.99

Real, vol. 1
By Takehiko Inoue
Rated OT, for Older Teens
Viz, $12.99

Slam Dunk and Real are nominally about basketball, but both manga have larger themes. Slam Dunk is a high-energy in which the hero’s tribulations are mainly played for laughs. Real is an understated drama in which all the main characters seem painfully aware and alive. Slam Dunk is for kids, Real is for older teens. Slam Dunk is hot, Real is cool. I preferred Real, but each books is good in its own way.

Warning: Spoilers after the jump.

I had expected Slam Dunk to be a typical shonen battle manga, in which at some point the hero shakes his fist and vows to be the greatest basketball player ever. Actually, it’s a lighthearted, almost frantic story of a big goof who takes up the game solely because of a crush on a girl. Perhaps there will be some fist-shaking later in the series, but the main use of fists in this first volume is to bloody other people’s noses.

The hero is Hanamichi Sakuragi, a guy whose chief characteristics seem to be his height, his red hair, and his bad luck with girls. Hanamichi is just starting high school as the book opens, and it looks like his romantic life might be improving a bit when the lovely Haruko shows up and asks if he plays basketball. As a matter of fact, Hanamichi hates basketball, because the last time he was rejected it was for a basketball player. Still, he melts when he sees Haruko and soon winds up on the basketball court, where he attempts a slam dunk and succeeds only in clocking himself.

Despite this bad start, Hanamichi eventually gets on the basketball team, although his chief motivation is his crush on Haruko, not his love of the game. Never having played before, he is completely ignorant of the basics of the game and is sent off for remedial coaching by the bossy female manager, Ayako. At some point it clicks that in addition to his size and speed, Hanamichi does have a natural talent for basketball, but one of the enjoyable things about this book is that he doesn’t get a free pass because of it; the captain, who hates him anyway, is determined to make him slog through the basics before he can hit the court.

The basketball action is entertaining, and it’s fun to watch Hanamichi turn all shades of red whenever Haruko shows up. What doesn’t work is the apparently pointless battle between Hanamichi and his fellow first-year students and the third-year students who rule their portion of the school. This results in a lot of fistfights that don’t really move the story along; more basketball and romantic tomfoolery would have made this volume even better.

Inoue’s art is clean and expressive. His figures have a pleasing massiveness to them, and the action is easy to follow. One of the best parts is the way he uses Hanamichi’s gang of friends as a sort of demented Greek chorus, exaggerating his every move with cheers, confetti, and other sight gags.

Viz packs this first volume with extras, including full-color and two-color pages, and a special basketball section in the back. Japanese text in the panels is translated in the gutters, which is helpful if somewhat distracting.

Real is rated for older teens and that higher age rating reflects not only some “mature” content (if you consider taking a dump on the school steps mature) but also a much more serious approach.

We meet Tomomi Nomiya, the lead character, on the day he decides to drop out of school. He has just returned to high school after a motorcycle accident in which the girl who was riding with him, a stranger he had picked up, was paralyzed from the waist down. Nomiya emerged from the wreck with minor injuries, but he was suspended and kicked off the basketball team. This first scene, in which Nomiya says his farewells and settles a few scores, is a small masterpiece of storytelling. Where Slam Dunk is raucous and exaggerated, Real is quiet and understated; Inoue sets up the framework of this story with just a few terse comments and meaningful gestures.

Without school or, more importantly, basketball to keep him anchored, Nomiya is lost. He tries to make amends for the accident by visiting the injured girl, but she never speaks or smiles, and he really seems to be more of a nuisance than a help. Taking her for a walk one day, he chances on a gym where he sees a young man playing basketball with startling intensity. Kiyoharu Togawa, we learn, lost a leg to bone cancer and quit his wheelchair basketball team in disgust at their lack of fire. “What do you expect?” one of them says to him after they lose a game. “We’re disabled.”

Nomiya and Togawa form one of those guy friendships where they somehow come to an understanding by glaring at each other, without much small talk. The book gets really entertaining when they team up and start turning the tables on unsuspecting opponents who underestimate Togawa because he’s in a wheelchair. They earn some quick cash and settle a few scores, but they also realize this is only going to take them so far; as part of their strategy, Nomiya wins the right to use the school gym to play basketball, and we start to see the seeds of something bigger.

Nomiya is a genuinely sympathetic character. He’s obviously good-hearted but can’t quite seem to make things work, and it’s painful to watch him being taunted by his former teammates. The most satisfying part of this book was seeing him begin to set things right. Togawa is more of a stock character, the resentful, intense, quiet guy. He’s harder to like, but his intensity makes him a good foil for the shambling, big-hearted Nomiya.

The third character of the story is Hisanobu Takahashi, who takes over from Nomiya as captain of his school’s basketball team. Hisanobu is a bully who picks a victim and freezes him out of the games, a tactic he used on Nomiya and then on Nomiya’s friend. It’s a startlingly accurate metaphor for the social bullying that goes on in high school, and Inoue does a good job of depicting its effects. Toward the end of the volume, Hisanobu is hit by a bus and winds up in the hospital, paralyzed from the waist down. Inoue’s depiction of Hisanobu’s physical and mental pain is unsparing, and his portrayal of Hisanobu’s mother, who worries and watches but isn’t quite taken seriously, is dead on.

Inoue’s art is more solid and less exaggerated in Real than in Slam Dunk. Each of his characters has a clearly defined personality that is telegraphed through their looks and their clothes. There is more basketball action and it is more convincing; when Togawa barrels right up to someone and screeches to a sudden stop, you can practically smell the rubber. Viz has opted for a slightly larger trim size and heavy, cream-colored paper, which shows off the art to its best advantage and gives this volume a deluxe feel.

Much is made of Inoue’s artistic talents, but his writing is what lifts both these books, particularly Real, above the manga mainstream. Slam Dunk is just plain fun; Real zeroes in on the feelings of alienation, inadequacy, and insecurity that haunt almost everyone in their teen years. Both books are worth reading in different ways, for different moods, but of the two, Real is the one that has the potential to transcend the manga milieu and appeal to a wider circle of readers.

(This review is based on a complimentary copy of Slam Dunk, but I paid my own money for Real. Also, as an occasional freelancer for Shojo Beat I technically have a business relationship with the Viz folks. Just so you know.)

Start off with this one: Matt Thorn dissects the 1970 issue of Margaret that he was showing off the other day, and he finds some odd juxtapositions. Fascinating reading! (Image of vintage ad taken from Matt’s site.)

ICv2 has BookScan’s top 20 graphic novels for August, and there are surprisingly few manga in the top ten: the latest volumes of Naruto, Rosario + Vampire, and Fruits Basket The second half is pretty well populated with manga, but this chart looks more like something from Diamond than BookScan.

I was hesitant to link to this because the name is so condescending, but the Chicks on Anime roundtable is actually pretty good, mainly because the women involved are smart and perceptive and know a lot about the subject. So just ignore the title, and the obnoxious animated samurai girl ad that pops up to interrupt your reading, and check it out. This week’s topic: Harem anime and manga.

Is there too much Viz? Danielle Leigh looks at that prodigious publisher’s output for this week alone in her latest Manga Before Flowers column.

For those who like to plan ahead, Lissa Pattillo posts the October release list at Kuriousity.

Looking backward, Matt Blind charts the August new releases, online pre-orders for the last week of August, and the newest of the new titles at Rocket Bomber.

The Japan Times has an article on the Foreign Minstry’s international manga competition.

Erica Friedman offers her opinion on a variety of (mostly) yuri-related topics at Okazu.

At Mecha Mecha Media, John Thomas continues his summer round-up of worthwhile reading and shares a few photos from Kumoricon.

Does any Tezuka manga really need defending? Kristy Valenti takes up the cudgels in favor of MW at comiXology.

News from Japan: Aria/Aqua creator Kozue Amano will start a new manga series in Comic Blade magazine’s January issue. Two manga magazines are folding, Magazine Z and Comi Di Gi+. And Square Enix is launching an online magazine in October.

Reviews: Ed Sizemore has a thoughtful review of Disappearance Diary up at Comics Worth Reading. Clive Owen takes a look at vol. 9 of Enchanter at Animanga Nation. John Thomas reviews vol. 1 of Real and Lori Henderson reads vol. 3 of High School Debut at Comics Village. Jonathan reviews vol. 1 of Speed Grapher at Manly Manga and More. Eric Turner checks out Solanin at Manga Jouhou. The Manga Recon reviewers take a look at three otaku-friendly novels at PopCultureShock. Connie thoroughly enjoys Strawberry-chan 2: The Super-Cool Life of Strawberry-chan at Slightly Biased Manga. Jason Van Horn reads vol. 1 of Read Or Die (R.O.D.) and vol. 6 of Love Hina at The Hachiko. Emily’s latest find is Nanako Robin at Emily’s Random Shoujo Manga Page. Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 2 of Fairy Cube and Delivery Cupid at Kuriousity. Julie checks out Maid in Heaven and Wanted at the Manga Maniac Cafe. At Manga Life, David Rasmussen reviews two one-shots, Times 2 (X2) and All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, and Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane enjoys vol. 3 of Sand Chronicles. Davey C. Jones reviews Samurai Champloo Complete Collection, Holly Ellingwood checks out vol. 1 of Tokko, and Rachel Bentham reads Love + Alpha at Active Anime.

Gia reports on the Dark Horse panel at Kumoricon, where she picks up some interesting tidbits but no big stories. John Thomas was there as well.

Speaking of JT, here’s his first round of summer recommendations at Mecha Mecha Media.

The Anime Today folks talk to Yen Press director Kurt Hassler and senior editor JuYounLee in their latest podcast at the RightStuf site.

Is Go!Comi preparing to jump into the light novel pool? They just put up a fiction forum on their site, and were spotted by sharp-eyed Lissa Pattillo.

Ed Chavez shares a page from Clamp’s mahjong manga at the MangaCast. Also: Japanese manga rankings from Taioysha.

At Animanga Nation, editor Edward Zacharias becomes a character in a manga—and he’s thrilled.

Canned Dogs scans a few pages of Saint Young Men, a manga I’d love to be able to read (but for obvious reasons it’s unlikely to be licensed here). It’s a comedy about Jesus and Buddha taking a break from their deity duties and sharing an apartment in Tokyo. Check it out for the art and the gags.

Speaking of manga we can’t read just yet, Anna at Manga not Anime is still not impressed with Bakuman, the newest manga by Death Note creators Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba. After three chapters, she’s still not sure what’s going on and the sexism is starting to grate.

The September issue of Japanese manga magazine Bessatsu Margaret includes a stand-alone booklet with a Cat Street side story by Boys Over Flowers creator Yoko Kamio, ANN reports.

New blog alert: MangaBlog reader Alexander Hoffman has started his own site, Manga Widget, and he has some thoughtful reviews up already, of vol. 1 of Kiichi and the Magic Books and vol. 1 of S.S. Astro, as well as some thoughts on 4-koma manga in the American market.

Reviews: Hey! Katherine Farmar, one of my favorite writers, is doing reviews for Comics Village! Check out her review of the BL title Lover’s Flat. Bill Randall feels that Eddie Campbell’s review of Red Colored Elegy is the one to read, so go to it! Be sure to check out the Manga Minis at PopCultureShock, where the team gives their take on a variety of recent releses. Andrew Wheeler reviews vol. 1 of Nightmares for Sale, vol. 1 of Sola, and vol. 1 of S.S. Astro at ComicMix. D.M. Evans reads vol. 1 of Kaze no Hana at Manga Jouhou. Connie checks out vol. 2 of Aria and vol. 1 of Nui at Slightly Biased Manga. Oyceter likes vol. 1 of Mixed Vegetables way more than she should at Sakura of Doom, and she also posts a brief and spoilery review of vol. 2 of Forest of Gray City. Sesho reviews vol. 10 of Hikaru no Go and vol. 9 of GTO. At The Star of Malaysia, Kitty Sensei looks at vol. 1 of Me and the Devil Blues and Kurogane reviews vol. 3 of Full Metal Panic. Lori Henderson reviews the first issue of Yen+ magazine in two parts: Japanese and Korean/OEL stories, at Manga Xanadu. Michelle is not too taken with vol. 2 of Azumanga Daioh at Soliloquy in Blue. Julie reads vol. 12 of Nana and vol. 8 of Love*Com at the Manga Maniac Cafe. Erica Friedman reads Last Friends, in Malika Magazine, at Okazu. Tangognat checks out vol. 1 of Minima! Lissa Pattillo reviews A Strange and Mystifying Story, Red, and vol. 5 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service at Kuri-ousity. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell reviews vol. 1 of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and Holly Ellingwood reads vol. 1 of Jyu-Oh-Sei and vol. 7 of Kurohime.