MangaBlog

You know, if I worked for Tokyopop and I read this thread on the Anime on DVD forums, I’d be worried. It seems like a lot of people are saying the same thing: “I used to read a lot of Tokyopop, but the series I liked have ended and the new series don’t do much for me. I’m buying more than ever, but mostly from Viz.” That’s my summary, but here’s a real quote:

If Tokyopop continues this trend, in the next year or two I’ll have finished most of their titles I’m currently collecting and will be spending my money with other companies instead. It’s kind of sad, since I used to buy almost all of my manga from them.

This may reflect a certain anti-OEL manga bias at AoD, but the same commenter makes another point:

(There’s nothing wrong with the concept of MIC [a.k.a. OEL manga] but I don’t have money to spend on titles I know nothing about, when Viz and Del Ray are releasing so many more titles I know about.)

I think that comment speaks volumes. While Viz and Del Rey are releasing manga that have already built up a following in the scanlating and gaming and anime communities (all of which, I admit, are foreign to me), I think Viz has also done a great job of marketing their series via Shoujo Beat and Shonen Jump. In doing so, they basically mimicked what happens in Japan. Tokyopop’s Manga magazine is smaller and less frequent, although their online manga previews are a good marketing tool.

But there’s more to it than marketing; most commenters on the board seemed to see a quality issue, and it went beyond the question of OEL versus licensed manga.

Another complaint: the releases aren’t frequent enough, with lots of folks complaining about Fruits Basket in particular. This seems to hurt OEL manga among those who are willing to read it:

I’ve gotten some of them and liked them, but those series tend to come out at the rate of one per year. Even if I replace some of my ending manga series with those, that’s still fewer books overall.

On the plus side, no one is giving up on Fruits Basket, and the Blu line is generating some enthusiasm. But that’s not enough to put Tokyopop back on the throne.

For those who are interested in sampling manga but don’t know where to start, Johanna at Comics Worth Reading has reposted her suggestions, with which I heartily concur.

In fact, I’d say these series would form a good recommended-reading list for anyone interested in manga.

In her latest Buzzscope column, Tania del Rio sees girls reading more shonen than shoujo manga and wonders if cultural differences have something to do with it:

It makes me think about what girls in our society enjoy in terms of story and character, and I wonder if our own culture plays a part in this. I wonder if the messages in shoujo aren’t as strong to Western girls as they are to Japanese girls.

Tania notes that gender roles are still more rigid in Japan, and while Japanese shoujo heroines are often fixated on finding a boyfriend, that may still be a radical concept for the Japanese.

A female character finding love on her own is a liberating theme. Even today, many marriages in Japan are still arranged. And if the bride-to-be does have more of a say in whom she ends up with, chances are her parents are still very much involved in the process of selecting a husband. In shoujo, the girls always discover love on their own. To a Western reader, a shoujo character’s actions may come off as pining and starry-eyed, but they are truly acting independently – learning love and heartbreak on their own.

This column spawned two interesting discussions, one on Tania’s livejournal site and the other on Rivkah’s blog.

One point that Tania makes in her livejournal is that OEL creators are writing from their own experience rather than trying to be Japanese. In fact, OEL seem to be developing in a completely different direction from traditional manga. You don’t have to read a lot of Japanese manga before you notice the same storylines cropping up over and over again, such as the heroine who goes to great lengths to appear cool/brilliant/beautiful and then is blackmailed by someone who catches her in an unguarded moment. And the girls put up with all kinds of abuse from boys. Even the supposedly beloved Tohru Honda gets smacked around a few times by Kyo (and probably apologizes to him afterwards). The strong/weak woman is a major motif in Japanese manga, but OEL manga seems to be developing a different set of themes and archetypes, including girls with strong personalities.

Newsarama talks with Viz PR director Evelyn Dubocq about the company’s recent successes and their plans for 2006. Evelyn earns her salary by emitting a relentlessly positive attitude about her company and dropping a few tidbits of actual news into the interview, such as the fact that the April Shojo Beat will include an interview with manga pioneer Keiko Takemiya, whose works include the shonen-ai classic The Song of the Wind and the Trees. And then there are the books

No matter what a reader’s interest, there is a shôjo story to captivate their attention. Crimson Hero, for example, is the first shôjo sports series, which depicts the adventures and drama of a girl’s volleyball player, while Kaze Hikaru puts a female spin on popular samurai dramas. Both are available in stores nationwide now.

With plans to release 30 or more manga a month, what doesn’t Viz have? OEL manga, that’s what. Here’s Evelyn at her best:

VIZ Media is committed to bringing the best established manga and anime titles from Japan to North America. Our parent companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan Production Co., Ltd., give us access to some of the hottest titles available and while we might choose to explore other options in the future, for the present, we will continue to publish compelling titles that come from our parent companies vast library.

Right. Got it. No OEL because we own everything anyway BWA-HA-HAaa. And some good news for those of us who like something completely different:

Proven successful titles like Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist will always form the core of our product lines, but we are also committed to providing an avenue for more esoteric and critically acclaimed favorites as well.

I think that with volleyball manga, they are already on the on-ramp to the road not taken.

Publishing cartoons of Mohammed may be getting some people into trouble lately, but the lives of other religious figures have long been fair game.

Vertical Publishing, having completed its publication of Osamu Tezuka’s 8-volume Buddha, is looking next at publishing Tezuka’s Ode to Kirihito, according to Publisher’s Weekly. Kirihito is the Japanese word for Christ, but the manga, originally published as three volumes, is not a biography of Jesus but more of an allegory:

In the story, a young doctor searches for the cure to a disease that turns its victims into dog-like animals. Humanity, reflected by the qualities of compassion and nonviolent philosophy, is contrasted with a sense of beastliness, which Tezuka portrays through animal violence and the eating of raw meat. “There’s a very humanist message at the core of the book.” [Vertical director of marketing and publicity Anne] Ishii says.

I’m reading volume 1 of Tezuka’s Buddha right now, and I have to say that the combination of cuteness and graphic violence is disconcerting. In the opening sequence of the book, a Disneyesque rabbit throws himself onto a campfire to feed a holy man who is wandering through the mountains. The cuteness of the bunny made this a very disturbing scene. As the story progresses, I find the resemblance of many of the characters to the Timbertoes (of Highlights magazine fame) distracting. On the other hand, many pages and panels are beautifully drawn. Ishii says that the style of Kirihito will be different, so perhaps it will all mesh better.

For those who track these things, the PW article include sales figures for the hardbacks, which are modest to say the least: about 8,500 copies per volume, although volume 1 has sold over 20,000 copies. Perhaps sales will pick up when the paperback comes out, priced at $15 per volume as opposed to $25 for the hardbacks. The first two volumes are due out in May and July, respectively. Still, Vertical is to be applauded for bringing out the series first in a nicely designed hardback format.

Meanwhile, this article rehashes much of what we already know about Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra’s new Indian comics venture, but Deepak’s son Gotham Chopra has a bit of news I hadn’t heard before:

“My father is writing a novel on the life of Buddha. We’re doing the companion graphic novel.”

Stay tuned.

You know, I used to have this problem where I confused Warren Buffet with Jimmy Buffet. Now I have a way to tell the difference: Warren Buffet is the one someone wrote a manga about—in Japanese, although the link is to a translation. And now, like all good manga, he’s moving to anime, or at least, he’s getting his own animated cartoon.

I wonder if the real Warren carries one of these in his shirt pocket.

Meanwhile, the movie based on the manga Initial D has racked up 10 nominations for the Hong Kong Film Awards, although it’s up against some stiff competition, including a Jackie Chan movie. If the choice comes down to the flying fists of death versus long, lingering shots of cars sliding around mountain curves, I’m not sure there will be much of a contest.

Closer to home, the newspaper version of Peach Fuzz debuted in St. Paul, Minnesota, last weekend, with the Pioneer Press running the first three strips to bring readers up to date, accompanied by the obligatory article explaining manga and noting that they are hugely popular in Japan and also not just for boys. Unfortunately, the chopping and shrinking needed to bring this manga down to newspaper size make it almost unreadable, at least in the Boston Globe. I doubt it’s going to attract many new readers.