I’ve never written a “Best of ” list since I never thought I knew enough to make such choices, but I’ve decided to make the attempt this year. All of the titles on the list are books I’ve read at least one volume of, and most started this year. The few exceptions should be obvious.
Heaven’s Will By Satoru Takmiya Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Supernatural/Romance Price: $8.99 Rating: Sudou Mikuzu has a very special talent – she can see ghosts. And because of this predisposition, she’ become a magnet for all sorts of unwelcome monsters. Luckily for her she’s just met Seto, a friendly, cross-dressing young exorcist. Sudou needs protection from all the creepy phantoms bugging her, and Seto needs to practice his exorcism skills. consequently, the pair decides to team up and help each other. In return, Sudou promises to back a cake every time a ghost gets zapped! At first glance, Heaven’s Will appears to be a typical supernatural romance title with a cross-dressing twist. Once you start reading though, you’ll find that it’s actually the start of an interesting that should have been given more of a chance to develop. The characters really grown on you, and the story, which has some sad twists to set it up, could have gone on to do so much more.
BakéGyamon Volume 3 By Mitsuhisa Tamura Publisher: Viz Media/Vizkids Age Rating: All Ages (8+) Genre: Game Price: $7.99 Rating: The battle begins in earnest as the final 32 contestants are paired up tournament-style. With the playing field a mock Tokyo Tower, there’s only one way to go…up! Sanshiro will now have to use his battle skills against the very people he wants to befriend! This volume falls into the tournament style of fighting that most shonen titles eventually get to. But unlike those shonen titles that become tired and uninteresting in their constant need to power up, this volume doesn’t fall into that trap. Sanshiro remains true to himself, and while his goal is now to win the game, he won’t sacrifice his monsters or having fun to do it.
Eagle: The Making Of An American President Volume 5 By Kaiji Kawaguchi Publisher: Viz Media Genre: Political Drama Age Rating: Older Teen (16+) Price: $22.95 Rating: The final volume of this series starts out with Yamaoka and his team trying to find a way to turn the leaders of the World Machinists and Aerospace Union into his supporters. The President of the Union, Michael Kozlov, has a chip on his shoulder about Yamaoka, and any other immigrant who had it “easy”, and is determined to back the Republican Grant. By playing Kozlov against the Union Secretary Zamal, both men break the other with secrets they had been keeping, and in the end, Yamaoka is able to win another supporter in Kozlov and in turn, the Union. Then, the series finally turns to the great white elephant in the room. Racism. With Yamaoka winning so much support, the question starts to turn if a non-white can really become president. All the kooks come out, such as neo-nazis, rallying against Yamaoka, and violence breaks out in the south, which culminates in not one, but two assassination attempts on Yamaoka, neither of which succeed, and ends with Yamaoka winning more widespread support.
I learned about this title from a review on a podcast of the live action j-drama tv series. My husband and I watched the j-drama and enjoyed it a lot. It’s 11 episodes and was filled with great action and dramatic scenes, and lots of unexpected twists to keep the story moving. Having enjoyed the j-drama, I had to find out about the manga. The manga, complete at 11 volumes, is about Fujimaru Takagi, a second year high school student and member of the Newspaper Club. Unknown to everyone but his father, the PSIA (Public Security Intelligence Agency) and the newspaper club, Fujimaru is also known as Falcon, a prodigy hacker who exposes corrupt people’s crimes to make them pay. The series starts with Fujimaru being recruited by the PSIA to help them decode a memory stick that may have information on an incident in Russia where a segment of the population was killed off by a possible poison gas. And that gas may be now in Japan. The story follows Fujimaru as he gets pulled further into the investigation and conspiracy. His father is accused of murdering his superior. A teacher at his school is trying to stop him…
Inside Scanlation ComiPress, one of the first manga new reporting sites is hanging up it’s news hat and has moved over to a more timely topic: Scanlations. There has been a lot of talk about scanlations, especially since the economy took a dive, but do you really understand what scanlations are or how they came to be? Inside Scanlation seeks to answers these questions and more. The site looks at the history of scanlations, interviews scanlators and publishers for their takes and even explains some of the nuances of the community. I think this is an interesting project. And while people don’t agree with what the scanlators do, I think it’s worth the time to find out why they do it. It’s the anthropologist in me.
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.
Recently, Amazon quietly announced a price drop for it’s Kindle 2 e-reader. Slashing $60 from the price to $299, the Kindle is now coming closer to the price of other ebook readers. If Amazon wants the Kindle to be competitive in any way, it had too. Sony, not to be out done, not only slashed prices, but also came out with two new devices. The E-Reader Pocket for $199 and the E-Reader Touch for $299 and will be out by the end of August. The older Sony E-Reader 505 is $279, and can be found at Staples stores now. Bebook, another competitor is also $279. Cooler Books has it’s own e-reader now, the Cool Reader, which looks a lot like an iPod and comes in different colors, and is only $249.
Yamaoka and his father Kaibara Yuzan, have never enjoyed an ideal father-son relationship. In fact, it’s about as far from ideal as possible, and when they start arguing about food–which they inevitably do–the sparks really fly. In this volume of Oishinbo, the subject of dispute is fish, starting with the question of whether mackerel can ever be truly good sashimi. Later, things come to a head during the “Salmon Match” which pits father against son in an epic contest to develop the best dish before a panel of judges. Will Yamaoka finally defeat Kaibara? Or will he once again be left in his father’s shadow? Story by Tetsu Kariya; Art by Akira Hanasaki Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Food Price: $12.99 Rating: The overall premise of Oishinbo is that Yamaoka and his partner Kurita are compiling the “Ultimate Menu” of Japanese cuisine for the 100th anniversary of the publishers of Tozai News. Each volume of Viz’s compilation of this long running series is centered around a type of food. This volume is all about fish. The stories are episodic, and can be broken down into two types; Yamaoka helping someone out or putting someone in their place about…
July 20, 1969: The day mankind first walked on the moon. Just as with the assassination of JFK, and 9-11, you can ask someone (old enough to remember) what they were doing when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, and they could tell you. With the 40th Anniversary of this event coming up, I thought I would look at some manga that takes a more realistic approach to mankind’s reach into space.
I’m sure everyone’s heard by now about Viz’s insane idea to catch up One Piece with the Japanese releases. They announced at Anime Expo that they will release 30 volumes in six months starting in January 2010. That’s 5 volumes a month! Back in May, when it was first announced that current One Piece chapters would start showing up in Shonen Jump, I wrote what I thought of that decision. Viz was nuts. I thought they would try to do it in the span before the chapters came out. I was wrong about that. But their response is no better.
Eagle: The Making of an Asian American President Volume 4 By: Kaiji Kawaguchi Publisher: Viz Media Genre: Drama/Politics Age Rating: Teen+ (16+) Price: $22.95 Rating: I know it’s been a while, but I’ve only go 2 volumes left of this series, and I’m determined to finish it! Okay, so this volume ends the cliffhanger from the last about Yamaoka possibly having an affair, and that Rachel was the result. Takashi helps clear that up, as he had a personal stake in the possibility. Then it’s on to the National Convention in Chicago. Here we see Bill Clinton step in, trying to get his wife “Ellery” the vice-president nomination. He goes to Noah first, who turns him down outright, so it’s off to Yamaoka, who seems more receptive. With the political weight of the Clintons behind him, Yamaoka takes the nomination, but instead nominates Noah for VP. With the Democratic players in place, the campaign can move to the national front, and we finally meet the Republican Candidate Richard Grant. He’s a Lt. General in the Air Force Reserve, former Astronaut and Senator from Colorado. He is also very much a flag-waving republican and supporter of the military complex. Yamaoka starts…