Manga Xanadu

This year, 2009, has been proclaimed the International Year of Astronomy.  Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei first put a telescope to the sky and made many discoveries, including four of the moons of Jupiter; Io Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.  Stars and the planets have held people’s fascination for eons, as they appear in songs, art and books.  Even manga has taken notice of the heavenly bodies.  Whether it’s the stars and the constellations, the planets, or just observing them, manga covers them all in fun and imaginative ways.

September 19 was International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Did you remember to say “Arrrr” a lot and read some pirate manga? Manga in the Classroom Patrick Macias, Japanese pop culture aficionado, has posted the audio for a lecture he gave at the California State University at Monterey Bay last week.  Called Theoretical Perspectives on Manga, Anime & Otaku, it includes some older material from a speech earlier this year at the Temple University Japan Campus as well as some new material about American fandom.  I love it when this kind of material is shared, especially the academic talks.  I’ve always been fascinated by the cultural aspects of fandom and I’ll take any opportunity to feed my hunger.

Nephylym Volume 1 By Rei Kusakabe Publisher: DR Masters Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Supernatural Price: $9.95 Rating: Shun has a unique power to electrically charge metal materials.  A mysterious winged being named Ale picks up on his powers and chooses him to be her partner.  Shun’s classmate and school crush, Sanari, finds out and reveals her winged partner, named Blissful.  She explains that the beings are called Nephylym, and their chosen partners are called Answerers.  Together with Sarari and Tsukasa (Shun’s rival in love and an Answerer as well), they battle along side their Nephylym against Noirs that possess human beings. I can’t remember the last time I read a volume that was so lackluster.  The story and characters are just cookie cutter cutouts of typical shonen action fare with some moe and moments of fanservice to draw in a audience that will hopefully be too enthralled by the cute little girls to notice the complete lack of a decent story.

I’m a loyal reader of Shonen Jump, and every once in a while I like to give my opinion of the current titles running.  I don’t really care for the articles in the magazine.  They are all aimed at teen boys, of which I am certainly not one.  The Bleach anime, Naruto video and card games, the Yu-gi-oh card game, not my thing.  But I still enjoy many of the SJ titles.  So I’m going to do this for Shonen Jump like every 3 months or so, or if anything major happens, such as a title getting switched out, or an exciting preview.

Back in 2003, an anime was made of the manga Fullmetal Alchemist.  Because the story was still ongoing, and Arakawa didn’t want to give away any of her story, this anime took a turn at about episode 29 into a completely different direction.  There’s nothing wrong with the remaining 20 episodes of the anime, but it doesn’t follow the manga.  With the publication of the 20th volume of FMA, Arakawa announced another anime series, this one reported to follow the story of the manga more closely.  Also called Fullmetal Alchemist, this anime is available in the US from Funimation, who is streaming it subtitled on their site.  But how close is this new series to the manga?  I’ve read most of the manga and have been following this new anime to see how well it stays on track, and I have to say, I’m impressed so far.

Viz’s second big foray into the online world of manga is Shonen Sunday.  It’s based on another manga magazine from Japan.  Several popular titles came from this magazine, such as most of Rumiko Takahashi’s works (Urusei Yatsura, Ramna 1/2, Inuyasha, Mermaid Saga), Detective Conan, Zatch Bell, and Yakitate!! Japan, just to name a few.  Now Viz has brought some titles from the magazine online.

Static writes: Is Taboo considered a genre that should be used as a general description for manga sites that contained taboo typed manga books? Also, could you give me a perfect but brief (short) definition of the “TABOO” that I cold use to describe the genre if it were to be used as a general – common – genre type. This isn’t  my area of expertise, but I thought I’d weigh in anyway.  A taboo is a strong social prohibition on activities or customs that are considered sacred or forbidden.  The term comes from Polynesia where it’s context was religious.  Most taboos have a religious connotations, they can affect dietary restrictions, sexual activities and/or relations, bodily functions, exposure of body parts or offensive language.  Taboos are not universal, but many cultures may share some, such as cannibalism and incest.  Taboos can change over time, as a society or culture changes.

It’s just another night on the prowl for vampires for Kyrian of Thrace when he meets the most frightening thing imaginable. And accountant. But Amanda Devereaux is much more than she seems. Hunted by one of the deadliest of vampires, Amanda is the key to our survival. If she goes down, so does he, and –no offense– he doesn’t want to die (hence the whole immortality thing). And he doesn’t want humanity dead either, which is a good thing for us since he and Amanda are all that stands between us and oblivion. Let’s hope they win.

  Manga for older readers has been few and far between, as teen manga dominates bookstores and sales.  But as manga readers grow up, there needs to be something to appeal to them and keep them interested in the medium.  Viz Media has been working in that direction with their Signature line, and now with a website that provides manga to read for free.  Working with Ikki Monthy magazine, they have brought out a diverse line of titles, many of which I liked, but not all will appeal to everyone.  But the beauty of doing this online, it doesn’t have to.

Next Tokyopop Webinar Announced Tokyopop has announced it’s next webinar, and this time far enough ahead of time for people to plan for it!  It’s in the evening this time, 7PM PST/10PM EST, on Tuesday, September 1 5PM PST/8PM EST on Wednesday September 2.  It’s a better time though I’m going to miss the beginning.  5:15 is the best I can do getting home.  East Coasters will have a better time of it.  There’s nothing on worth watching at 8PM on Wed is there?  Tivo it if you must!  Otherwise, there will hopefully be some more good recaps around the mangasphere.

New People Grand Opening Saturday marked the grand opening New People in San Francisco, CA.  Located in Japantown, it’s a three story shopping center that features Japanese cinema, retail and art all in one place.  Several SF peeps/tweets when there.  You can find most of the coverage under the topic #newpeople on Twitter.  Deb Aoki of About.com: Manga has a photo gallery of the event. AX Flashback AX Backstage has posted the Keynote from Anime Expo 2009, including the “Can Manga From the US Be Commercially Successful?”  panel (aka the OEL panel).  The actual video of the panel begins on Day 2, Part 2 at about 6:00 in. (link via @debaoki)

A few days ago on Twitter, @debaoki mentioned she liked Animal Academy, an all ages title from Tokyopop, and thought that kids would like it.  She mentioned she thought the books based on properties, like Disney were boring, but ended by saying, she didn’t know, since she wasn’t the target audience.  Well, I have a daughter that’s in the target audience range, and both Animal Academy and Disney’s Kilala Princess.  So, I gave both books to my youngest daughter Krissy and asked her to read them.  When she finished, I asked her questions about the books.