Another weekend sick meant missing a week of news. Whatever is going around really sucks. My whole department at work was coughing and sneezing all week. Hopefully this post will make up for my absence. We’ve got new licenses, movie plans, the return of aggregators, “big” changes, more NYCC/NYAF, and some trick or treating from around the mangasphere.
Over the last year, One Piece has been burning up the book charts in Japan. Every succeeding volume has not only out sold the previous, they have been breaking sales records, and hitting print runs in millions for the first edition. This is pretty amazing for any book series, but it’s even more amazing since One Piece is a manga written for teenage boys. This means more than just the kids are buying these books. A recent discussion of shonen manga brought up influences, and of course, Dragon Ball was mentioned. First published in 1984, most of the creators working today would have read it, if not been influenced by it. Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto have stated that their popular titles, One Piece and Naruto were inspired by Dragon Ball’s protagonist, Son Goku, as well as series structure. So why is One Piece selling so much more than Naruto now? I think the key to One Piece‘s success can be found in the way Eiichiro Oda utilized his inspiration from Dragon Ball to create a series that similar in feel, but still very much stands on its own. First, look at the protagonists in both titles. Son Goku of…
I have mixed feelings about this. Dragon Ball is being reviewed for it’s content in a Maryland school district because a 9-year-old checked it out of a elementary and middle school library. I think people are oversensitive in general and especially towards manga. I’ll agree that Dragon Ball doesn’t really belong in the hands of a fourth grader, but I think it’s fine for a middle school student. The first Dragon Ball series is a comedy that does contain some sexual innuendo. The first volume does have a few questionable scenes, but I wouldn’t go so far and the Councilman from Wicomico did to describe them. I might be able to see the “sexual innuendo between an adult and child”, with Master Roshi wanting to seen Bulma’s panties, but there is in no way anything sexual between Goku and Bulma. Bulma is more like a big sister to Goku. And Goku is too dense to get any kind of innuendo. So I can see a parent getting upset at their 9-year-old bringing it home to read. So that doesn’t bother me so much. What does is the way it was presented. The mother of the offending 9-year-old didn’t go to…
Dragonball: Evolution Junior Novel Adapted by Stacia Deutsch & Rhody Cohon Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: All Ages (9-12) Genre: Action Price: $5.99 Rating: Goku thought he was a normal high school student until he found out he’s actually a martial-arts whiz with all kinds of powers. Now he and his fellow teen warriors are on a quest to find all the Dragon Balls before they fall into the wrong hands. But they may already have! Goku must battle the evil madman Piccolo with all he’s got to save the planet Earth! Taking the title and character names from a manga does not make it “based on”, as it says on the front cover of this book (in very small letters). Not even the description from the back cover has much to do with the story inside. This story takes only the barest of elements from Akira Toriyama’s original manga and weaves them into a generic and boring story that has none of the charm or fun of the source material.
I guess Viz has faith in their chapter books line. In the Naruto line, they already have 4 books out with more scheduled for release. And honestly, as reading material for young ages 5-8, the books haven’t been bad. They have stayed true to the manga, adding embellishments that are appropriate for young ages and uses panels from the manga for illustrations. I know this probably irks older readers who don’t like to see their favorite stories “dumbed down”, but with Naruto, and now this new series I’ve found, I don’t think it’s bad, especially as a parent. As I was searching Amazon for links for my previous post, I found this listing. Dragon Ball (the first, actually good, half of the series) is getting made into Chapter books. It’s not scheduled until August 2009, and there were at least 3 more set to follow this one. Those didn’t have any cover pictures though. While Dragon Ball Z got all the hype, Dragon Ball, the part of the series that made it popular in the first place hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves. The manga started here in the US when Viz was publishing floppy comics, before the graphic…
“On the Seventh Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Seven Dragon Balls,” Goku is a strange boy with a tail and super strength living by himself in the mountains. One day, a girl named Bulma finds him while she is searching for a legendary object: a dragon ball. If you collect all seven and call forth the dragon, he will grant you one wish. Goku has one of the balls, left to him by his Grandfather. He agrees to let Bulma borrow it, but wants to go along with her on her journey to make sure the dragon ball remains safe. The pair then embark on a strange and exciting journey to collect the rest of the dragon balls, but they seem to have some competition. Dragon Ball (the original series, not Z) has the distinction of being the first manga I ever bought, in English or Japanese. I was into Dragon Ball well before it became the phenomenon it did here. And I never like Z. I stopped picking up the manga when they started heading off into space. The first 16 volumes are all I need. Goku was cute and fun, with his clueless innocence. …