MangaBlog

Del Rey has posted a page-a-day preview of Kagetora, a licensed manga about a ninja who is sent to modern-day Tokyo, along with his pet monkey, to tutor a clumsy but cute girl who is destined to be the head of a martial arts family. Humorous complications ensue! The preview is up to page 7, which is about the point at which it becomes worthwhile to start reading them, IMHO.

Ageha Ohkawa of the manga collective CLAMP gave a rare public interview at the Taipei International Book Exhibition, and Anime News Network was there to write it all down. Ohkawa was appearing with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G., which produces the CLAMP anime, and much of the discussion revolved around the transition from manga to anime, but ANN reporter Chih-Chieh Chang got in a question about the unfinished manga series X. Ohkawa’s response:

Many people have died because of major earthquakes, plus there were several horrible murders committed by juveniles in Japan (note: Sakakibara Seito) – both are related to the story of X. Those reasons made it difficult to continue serializing in a shoujo manga magazine. Basically, we want to finish the work, but serializing it is difficult, so we are still looking for a suitable magazine to serialize it till the end.

She also explained how CLAMP divides up the workload:

Basically, CLAMP works like a small animation studio: I write all scripts; other three draw drafts and originals. They take turns for different jobs each time.

… and why they avoid publicity:

There are two reasons for shying away from media: 1) as a group of four, we were not sure how to present ourselves in front of media. 2) Hiding from media creates a “legendary” aura around the circle. There are many “urban legends”, like there are 20+ members in CLAMP, or there are eight “clones” of Nanase Ohkawa. Being afraid of too many baseless rumors and willing to interact with fans, we started to appear in front of media.

Reporters were instructed to avoid pointed or personal questions, but if only because of its rarity, the interview should be of interest to CLAMP fans.

(Via Manganews.)

ICv2 has a feature on Korean publisher Netcomics, which offers comics for web viewing (not download) and in printed form. The web version is the big money-maker in Korea, where print media sales in general took a nose dive after the government subsidized broadband connections. The manwha publishers seem to have turned it around by offering individual chapters very cheaply on the web. It’s sort of like iTunes for manwha. And here’s the man-bites-dog angle:

Netcomics’ Heewoon Chung told ICv2 that Web exposure helps sales of the printed volumes, rather than offering an alternative to purchasing books.

Maybe the scanlators were right all along!

Wai Wai looks at the relationship between Japanese politicians and manga. What, you didn’t think there was one? Apparently the hot rumor over there is that Foreign Minister Taro Aso learned how to be a diplomat from Golgo 13, which is why he’s doing so badly. After teasing us with this tidbit, Wai Wai assures us that it is “highly unlikely.”

But there’s more.

“Hyoden no Torakutaa (The Hyoden Tractor, but the name can also be read to mean the tractor that collects votes) tells the story of Gorin Kasai, a Diet member’s secretary. Gorin’s not the type that can be hated and it tells stories of what he does to get his boss votes,” political commentator Harumi Arima tells Spa! “It gets into things like what secretaries have to do to snare block votes, how they keep their rivals from getting them and uses stories to explain difficult topics, like the time Gorin is trying to get the support of a women’s organization and goes on a ribald hot spring trip with them.”

Gee, I wonder what CMX would do with that manga? Unsurprisingly, politicians also confect highly self-complimentary bio-manga that portray them as down-to-earth folks next door. Socialist Party member emphasized her proletarianness in her autibio-manga:

“It shows her being stopped at the Diet entrance because she’s carrying a rucksack (instead of a briefcase), and chowing down on a ‘lunchtime special’ in a cafeteria while she proudly boasts, ‘I’m one of the little people’s politicians. I know what the people feel like,'” Arima says.

And because the opposite is generally true (how much did that gallon of milk cost, President Bush?), politicians read manga to find out what makes “ordinary people” tick. Titles like “Jomu Kosaku Shima (Kosaku Shima – Managing Director)” provide insight into the travails of the salaryman as well as, apparently, a bracing dose of reality.

“Take the way he deals with Japanese companies going to China to do business and how often they end up getting done over. That’s what really happens. Look at the magazines and they only ever report about companies making a bundle in China. They’re the lucky ones. As far as I’m concerned, Hirogane really tells it like it is.”

Also, apparently there is a grittily realistic manga about banking and brokerage. I think I’ll wait for the anime on that one.

… so little time. Today seems to be a big manga day for some reason. Here are a few more links to worthwhile stories: Newsarama has a two-part State of the Union piece on Tokyopop (part one here, part two here.)

David at Love Manga has excerpts from Ed Chavez’s interview with Dallas Middaugh of Del Rey; you can listen to the whole thing on Manga Cast.

Manganews explains why Clamp’s X is on hiatus.

Seven Seas has posted a preview of Boogiepop Doesn’t Laugh.

At coffeeandink, Mely is disappointed in Viz’s handling of Godchild. (Via Precocious Curmudgeon.)

And at Manga Talk, apintrix gets all philosophical about Nausicaa.

The Dark Horse website has an interview with legendary manga creator Kazuo Koike, author of Lone Wolf and Cub and many other classic manga. The introduction by Carl Horn is an essay in itself on the tension between commerce and art. In the interview itself, Koike talks about the difference between American and Japanese characters:

Japanese characters are strong in a different way from traditional American comics heroes; they have the strength to fight, but at their core you find tenderness rather than righteousness. A manga hero is a person, and good or evil, their fight is with other people. Their weakness isn’t some trick, some element or color, it’s that they’re people.

And he offers some advice to budding manga-kas:

What I always try to do is persuade my students to create a strong character first. If you have a strong character, the storyline will develop naturally, on its own. The storyline then follows in the character’s wake, and swirls around the character, influencing the character further.

The interview is well worth reading both for Koike’s creative insights and for his take on the place of manga in the Japanese society and economy.