MangaBlog

Dark Horse announced a new title today: Translucent, a shojo title by Kazuhiro Okamoto. Carl Horn himself showed me the Japanese edition of this at MangaNEXT, and it looked really cool. The heroine slowly becomes invisible, a perfect metaphor for how many of us felt in high school.

To see or not to see—shojo girls risk losing their image in Translucent

Shizuka has problems. Not only is she an introverted girl, dealing with schoolwork and boys, but she feels invisible. In reality, she is victim to a disease that is making her literally translucent!

Shizuka finds support with Mamoru, a boy who is falling for her despite her appearance, or lack thereof. Another friend, Keiko, suffers from the same illness and has turned completely invisible.

The strange disease becomes a metaphor in the ordinary lives of the students in their classes, as they work their way through romance and friendships.

Teen-centric, quirky, and romantic, Translucent will appeal to shojo fans who like a little twist with their gakuen mono. Translucent’s shifting variables—between what people see and wish to see—create an emotionally sensitive manga, peppered with moments of surprising humor, heartbreak, and drama.

Translucent features story and art by Kazuhiro Okamoto and arrives on sale July 18.

Kurt Hassler and editorial assistant Tania Biswas just gave me the story on the newest Yen Press title, and it’s something completely different from the usual run of manga: the Japanese title is Hikari to Tomo ni …, and they are translating it into English as With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child. The author is Keiko Tobe. “It is a fictionalized account of a family and what they go through in these circumstances, but it is something that is realy designed for parents living through a similar experience,” Hassler said. “The Japanese publisher had been receiving numerous requests from English-speaking parents of autistic children asking if this is available in an English language edition. It is something the publisher had no luck finding a home for and we immediately jumped at it.”

The story, which is up to 10 volumes in Japan, runs in Akita Shoten’s Mrs. magazine. It won an excellence prize at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival and was adapted into an award-winning drama.

Hassler said that the book would be marketed to parents and professionals, and he expected to see this manga in the child development sections of bookstores, not the manga section. Yen Press plans to publish it unflipped in a slightly larger format than most manga. Each volume of the English edition will contain two volumes of the Japanese edition and will run about 500 pages for $14.99.

Update: I forgot to mention that the book is due out in September 2007.

It’s a strange news day in the mangasphere.

First item: Artist Go Nagai does not, despite the headline on this article, come right out and say that brains are more interesting than boobs, but he is suprisingly articulate about what he draws and why he draws it that way.

“My heroines were types who would hide themselves behind the idea of masculine sexuality. That’s why I drew them as incredibly strong characters,” he says. “What I drew was not eroticism. It was all about Japan’s culture of shame. The characters want to show what they’ve got, but they’re too embarrassed to do so. It’s all about the tug of war between men and women. I wanted that embarrassment to be the eroticism of the stories.”

So: Considered social commentary. With BOOBS!! And he sees himself performing a public service in these politically correct times:

“Times have changed with society getting strict on things like sexual harassment. With men not allowed to do whatever they want anymore, I’ve made the main character, Hige Godzilla, more of a hero type,” Nagai tells Weekly Playboy. “I’d like this comic to serve as a brake for all those university professors struggling to keep control over themselves so they can read it and be satisfied instead of taking matters into their own hands. It’s not much fun if you show everything, or if you give too much information. I prefer to let loose with a little bit and let the imagination do the rest.”

I thought taking matters into their own hands was the whole point of a comic like that.

Also, check out Xavier Guilbert’s review of a truly bizarre-sounding manga, Kokumin Quiz, a 900-page tome about a game show on steroids. It doesn’t look like it’s out in English, but Google will lead you to a scanlation pretty quick.

More to follow…

Dirk Deppey dissents from the general consensus on the Libre/CPM dispute. And he refers us to the comments on Precocious Curmudgeon, where a lively discussion ensues.

At MangaCast, Readilbert posts about manga magazines in Indonesia.

Comicsnob’s Matt Blind explains how Osamu Tezuka got picked to be the father of modern manga.

Takeshi Miyazawa has a meeting with the folks at Comic GUM. This is interesting:

I asked whether the success of titles in the States and Europe are making them cater to different audiences. The answer was, quite frankly, no. Japan is such a big local market, they are the first readers they aim to please. In the end, foreign volumes don’t actually make them much money anyway after rights and costs, etc. so it’s considered a small bonus on top of regular J-sales.

Tak is the artist for Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, and he’s in Japan looking for work in the manga industry, so he has an interesting conversation with the Comic GUM people about foreign artists as well.

Andre trawls the Amazon listings and comes up with a handful of possible new titles.

Got a Koge-Donbo jones? Good news: Kon Kon Kokon is coming.

Elae links to some previews of German manga.

Wow, this is low: Someone broke into the office of Captain Tsubasa manga-ka Yoichi Takahashi and stole 500,000 yen. I like ComiPress’s take: “Fortunately no manga-related materials have been touched.”

Reviews: At Prospero’s Manga, Miranda figures out… the problem… with… vols. 2-5 of Kamui, and Ferdinand detects an unrealistic storyline in DJ Milky’s latest opus, Kung Fu Klutz and Karate Cool. Shocking! Active Anime’s Holly Ellingwood has been busy, posting reviews of Midaresomenishi: A Legend of Samurai Love, vol. 7 of Aishiteruze Baby, vol. 4 of The Cain Saga, and vol. 6 of Eden: It’s an Endless World, and Christopher Seaman checks out vol. 2 of Hayate the Combat Butler and vol. 8 of Nodame Cantabile. Tangognat enjoys vol. 1 of Mushishi. At Slightly Biased Manga, Connie reviews vols. 1 and 2 of Dokebi Bride and vols. 10 and 11 of One Piece.

I almost missed this: Comic Book Resources reports that a company called Aurora has signed a distribution deal with Diamond. Aurora is owned by the Japanese publishing company Ohzora, and its titles include the Project X series and the Harlequin manga, according to Simon Jones, who, as always, has the background. (Link is NSFW, although a little tamer than usual this week.)

I’m posting late tonight because I had a busy day, but I couldn’t let this go by: Manga Jouhou’s Floating_Sakura contacted Libre and asked what was going on with CPM. (Background here, if you’re coming to the party late.) Amazingly, they answered. Their explanation was that when the Japanese publisher Biblos went bankrupt last year, all the licensing contracts were terminated, but CPM has been going forward anyway. Everyone goes over to Icarus (NSFW!) to comment, and Simon muses about some hypothetical cases.

Naruto slips to number 48 on the USA Today Booklist, which is, inexplicably, dated 12/24/1899. Fullmetal Alchemist slips one notch, to 131.

The shopping news: David Welsh looks over the revamped Borders Rewards program, which doesn’t seem to be as good as the old un-revamped Rewards program. As always, lots of folks show up in comments to compare notes. John Jakala wonders if he could do better.

Mely looks over the week’s comics and has good news about the latest volume of Bleach. The MangaCast gang pick their favorites as well.

At Comics Worth Reading Johanna rounds up reviews of To Terra.

New titles watch: Lillian DP confirms the new Tokyopop titles spotted by MangaCast a couple of days ago. DrMaster announces Chinese Hero and the shipping of Eternal Alice Key Rondo #2—I’m not sure why that would be a big deal, but I’m sure someone will clue me in. Meanwhile, Adam Arnold reveals that Seven Seas’ light novels will be delayed.

Reviews: Jack Tse does a podcast review of vol. 1 of Mushishi and vol. 7 of Beck at MangaCast. Manganews has a bouquet of reviews for us: Floating_Sakura on vol. 2 of 9 Faces of Love, anitra on vol. 1 of Yakitate!! Japan and vol. 1 of Saver, and YoJoey on Digimon Zero Two. Manga Maniac Julie checks out vol. 4 of Yakitate!! Japan and vol. 16 of Boys Over Flowers. Blogcritics’ Bill Sherman reviews vol. 1 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.