This week I check out the ranking from Bookscan for May, the Vizmanga top 10 and other happenings, the new manga streaming site Manga Reborn and do some short reviews of three manga titles; Until Death Do Us Part vol 2, Rurouni Kenshin Restoration vol 1, and Kingdom Hearts Final Remix vol 1-2.

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Shownotes:

• Bookscan Top 20 Graphic Novels for May 2013
• Vizmanga.com
• Law of Ueki
• Manga Reborn
• MangaNovel
• Until Death Do Us Part Volume 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • Buy the Book
• Rurouni Kenshin Restoration Volume 1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • Buy the Book
• Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix Volume 1-2 Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Buy Volume 1
  • Buy Volume 2

Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech

This week I check out some licensing news, the Vizmanga top 10 digital manga, and review the Vertical title Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Volume 1: Activation.

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Show Notes:

• E-manga Astro Boy Weekly Magazine
• Seven Seas Entertainment Zero’s Familiar Chevalier
• Vizmanga.com
• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Volume 1 Activation
• Buy Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Volume 1: Activation
• Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech

By Tatsunari Sakuraba
Publisher: Jmanga
Age Rating: Teen
Genre: Shonen
Price: $4.99
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Koetama was another impulse buy from Jmanga. I’ve always been intrigued with voice acting, and after reading the scenes in Bakuman, I wanted to read more. Then Jmanga licensed this series. The characters are fun, and the premise isn’t bad, even though the whole thing comes off as feeling very generic. But being only the first volume where all the set up takes place, this is to be expected.

Wakaba Sakimoto is a high school junior who doesn’t know what to do about her future goals. Her two best friends, Tomo and Serina already have goals that they are working for; Tomo is practicing karate and Serina wants to be an author. But Wakaba doesn’t have anything she feels passionate about. When Tomo, Serina and Wakaba go to an amusement park, Wakaba finds a lost girl and tries to help her by reading a book the girl is carrying. She starts to reach the girl, but then gets nervous. She is rescued by well-known voice actress Touko Hosaka, and then Wakaba knows what she wants to do; be a voice actress. She has a bit of a rocky start, but then she meets Kuu Sonozaki, another aspiring voice actress, and the two apply to Voice Connect voice acting school.

I had a hard time getting into this title at first. I started reading it three times before I finally got through the first chapter. It wasn’t that the story was bad, it was just so generic. The girl with an untapped special talent, supported by her two best friends, gets dropped into a situation where her talent is needed and noticed by someone important. Even after I finally got through the first chapter, things didn’t really change. The rival, the country bumpkin with dreams in the big city, and the stuck up snob who looks down everyone all make their appearance in this first volume.

Despite all the tropes, I actually liked Koetama. Wakaba, the main protagonist of the series was quite likable. Once she decided she wanted to be a voice actress, she didn’t hesitate getting down to work. She bought books about voice acting and breathing, and practiced on the roof of her school everyday. I liked that his was a decision she made on her own, and didn’t have to be told and pushed by friends into doing it. Even when she seems to have a change of heart, her friends, Tomo and Serina never pressure her, but just support her from the background. Throughout the volume there are hints that Wakaba has a special talent for voice acting, the “soul of the voice”, and a flashback with Tomo shows the idea of voice acting was planted in her at a young age.

I liked all of the supporting characters as well. Tomo is the male childhood friend who seems to have a crush on Wakaba, but never comes out and says anything. Serina is the best friend that has no problem with beating up on Tomo. She is constantly running him over with her bike. Kuu is the spunky girl from eastern Japan and an accent. She has her quirks, such as speaking her mind and getting lost, but her accent was kept in check, so she wasn’t as annoying as she could have been. Amane is the spoiled rich girl who goes into the audition expecting the wow the judges, and does. She is of course prejudice against Kuu just because of her accent and tries to woo Wakaba away from her. I’m sure she’d be won over by Wakabe by the second or third volume. Runa is the seasoned pro who is tough on others but really means well. She is the one the other girls will be chasing to become a star voice actress. She is more talked about than really seen but she doesn’t appear to be haughty star.

Koetama, had a lot of potential. The character conceptualizations were down by four seiyuu: Nakahara Mai, Ueda Kana, Hayami Saori and Yahagi Sayuri, all of whom are credited in the title. We’ve been getting titles about the inside workings of manga lately, so it’s not a stretch for voice acting, since these actors will not only work on anime, but also drama cds. I’m disappointed that I won’t be able to read more of this title. I was starting to look forward to see what happened with these girls next. I don’t hold out hope for Jmanga titles to be rescued, since they were rescuing titles from defunct publishers themselves. I can only hope someone will see the worth of this series and license it on its merits.

By Riho Sachimi
Publisher: Jmanga
Age Rating: Teen
Genre: Historical
Price: $5.99
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Well, what do you know, another historical title. What a surprise. Yes, I do love my historical titles. The last one I reviewed, King’s Moon, dealt with Japan just before the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This title, Hanagatari Tenshion Atsuhime, deals with the last years of the Shogunate, as told though the eyes of Atsuhime, the wife of the 13th Shogun.

Hanagatari Tenshion Atsuhime begins with the girl Okatsu playing in the fields behind her home in Satsuma. It is decided that she is to become the next wife of the Shogun, Iesada. After a few years and several name changes, she arrives as Atsuhime. She makes a not-so-good impression with the palace staff when she arrives and worse with Iesada himself when she slaps him and basically tells him off. This leads to a real relationship between Atsuhime and Iesada to the point that she turns against the Satsuma Clan in support of her husband, which seems to turn the Satsuma against the Tokugawa, leading into the Bakumatsu. Atsuhime, who becomes Tenshion sees two more Shoguns before the final fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

I really like Atsuhime. When she is first introduced, she seems to be a more timid woman, there to do as her clan wishes. That all changed when she faced Iesada, who sounded more like a whiny child. Her outburst breaks him out of his apathy, and she truly challenges him to rise up beyond his physical problems. She shows a strength that not only did no one truly see, but then gives some of that strength to Iesada, who despite his health problems becomes more active in living. She becomes the strength of the Tokugawa as she becomes mother to the next shogun, finds a way to relate to her daughter-in-law, the younger sister of the emperor, holds the palace together through a rebellion led by her own former clan, the Satsuma, and sees the last Shogun to his surrender, and then end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

There is a bit of introspection toward the end as Atsuhime thinks about the decisions she made  and if things could have gone differently. In the end though, she stands by her choices, being as resolute as the mountain her mother told her would always watch over her from her home in Satsume. Even after the Tokugawa fell, and she is given the option to return to Satsume, she chooses to remain with the family she created with the Tokugawa. She may be sad at the path her life took, but she never regretted it.

Hanagatari Tenshion Atsuhime was presented in the way I like my historical manga. It just tells the story without having to resort to long narrations to bridge scenes or time changes. It did have a few narration bridges, but they were brief, and the story carried the narrative most of the time. It made it feel more like a story and less like a documentary. I really enjoyed this title and am glad I got to read it before Jmanga closed.

This week I look at the news from Anime Boston and Fanime, some new license announcements from Seven Seas Entertainment, the Vizmanga.com top 10, and bid a final farewell to Jmanga.

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Show Notes:

Anime Boston: Kodansha Panel
Fanime: Digital Manga Panel
Fanime: Viz/Shonen Jump Panel
Seven Seas Entertainment New Licenses:

• Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky
• Makai Oji: Devils and Realist
• Dragonar Academy

Vizmanga.com
Jmanga.com

Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech

By Fumiyo Kouno
Publisher: Jmanga
Age Rating: Teen
Genre: Slice of Life
Price: $4.99
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This isn’t the first time The Town of Evening Calm, The Country of Cherry Blossoms has been published in English. Last Gasp first published it in print in 2007. Jmanga then got a hold of it and used it as one of its launch titles. It was well received originally, but it took me until the last days to get it and read it. It is a story that deserves every once of praise it received.

The Town of Evening Calm, The Country of Cherry Blossoms, is essentially the story of one family over 3 generations. It follows the Hirano family, starting 10 years after the bombs fell with older sister Minami. She and her mother are survivors of the bomb, and live in a shanty town in Hiroshima. Minami works and takes care of her mother. Uchikoshi is a boy who works in the same office and comes to check on her when she doesn’t come in one day. He likes Minami, but she chases him away. Minami has memories of that day the bomb were dropped, and they haunt her. Survivor’s guilt gnaws at her, and just as she seems to ask forgiveness for living, she succumbs to radiation sickness.

This first chapter, The Town of Evening Calm, was incredibly powerful. Minami seems okay as she goes to her job and helps out her mother at home. But the memories that haunt her, of the burnt bodies everywhere, the desperation to find family members, it was all burned into her mind, making her think the world after, the one where she lived wasn’t the one where she belonged. But more powerful than that was her slow death from radiation poisoning. Much of it is shown from Minami’s perspective, as she loses her energy, coughs up black blood and then loses her sight. All of her observations from this point are heart-wrenching, and it gave me a cold feeling in my stomach when she asked if the people who had dropped the bomb were glad she was dying. If there was ever needed a short story about why atomic bombs should never be used again, this is it.

The Country of Cherry Blossoms follows Minami’s younger brother Asahi, who wasn’t in Hiroshima at the time and was spared the devastation. It starts 30 years later, with Asahi’s children, Nanami and Nagio, and their next door neighbor Toko. Nagio is in the hospital with asthma and Nanami and Toko bring cherry blossoms to cheer him up. The second chapter is another 20 years after the first with Nanami and Toko following Nanami’s father as he visits people around Hiroshima, and how he and Nanami’s mother met.

This second half of the volume didn’t have the punch the first half did. The memory of the bomb is faint now for Nanami and Nagio. But the stigma of being a survivor or related to a survivor remains. Asahi, who after being adopted by his Aunt and Uncle, returns to help his mother, and meets Kyo, a girl who lives nearby and helps out his mother. Asahi watches Kyo grow up and eventually falls in love with her. Kyo, as a survivor, suffers some prejudice at school as her slow learning is blamed on it. His mother, a survivor herself, is against Asahi marrying her at first, because she doesn’t want to see anymore loved ones taken because of the bomb. Later in a letter to Toko from Nagio, Nagio implies that his asthma might be because his mother was an atomic bomb victim, and gives it as a reason why they can’t be together. Nanami has a good answer to that.

Taken as a whole, The Town of Evening Calm, The Country of Cherry Blossoms is a wonderful generational story of a very dark moment in human history. Toko’s reaction to seeing the Peace Museum for the first time is a very real and visceral feeling, even 60 years later. Kouno’s art is simple and cute, contrasting against the darker, heavier story. Minami’s story is a reason why it should never happen again, and Nanami and Toko’s story reminds us why we should never forget.  I highly recommend it.

This week I check out the going-ons at Vizmanga.com and review the Yen Press title Spice and Wolf.

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Show Notes:

• Vizmanga.com
• Spice and Wolf Manga
• Spice and Wolf Light Novels

• Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech

By Hiroki Kusumoto
Publisher: Jmanga
Age Rating: Older Teen
Genre: Historical Drama
Price: $4.99
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I love historical dramas, so when Jmanga announced this title, that not only took place in the Warring States Era, but also featured bishonen historical figures in a historical setting without any fantasy elements, I bought it sight unseen. While I enjoyed the title in general, it didn’t really fulfill the “full of intensity” part promised in the description.

King’s Moon details the life of Akechi Mitsuhide, a loyal retainer to the famous warlord Oda Nobunaga. The story begins with Mitsuhide already a retainer to Asakura Yoshikage. The retainer to Ashikaga, Hosokawa Fuijtaka, has come to Asakura to ask him to champion Ashikaga in his bid to be Shogun, but Asakura waivers. Mitsuhide, who had spent many years on reconnaissance, believes another man would be a better champion; Oda Nobunaga. Being a cousin to Nobunaga’s wife, Mitsuhide gets an audience with him. Nobunaga agrees to the request, and with Mitsuhide as his retainer begins his quest to conquer Japan.

King’s Moon is described as a historical drama, but it felt more like a docudrama. The drama was interspersed with historical facts. Nobunaga will be talking about a strategy, and then there will be a couple of pages of “And then this battle happened, these people were killed/committed suicide, and Nobunaga took over this area.” Now, I don’t think this is a bad thing necessarily, but it did reduce the “intensity.” The dramatic scenes themselves weren’t all that “intense” either. They were mostly of Nobunaga and Mitsuhide, or Mitsuhide and Fujitaka talking. There were nearly no battle scenes shown. While I do enjoy documentaries like this, even I found this title to be rather dry.

There isn’t any character development to speak of. You are expected to know who most of the people are, but since it was written for a Japanese audience about historical Japanese figures, I really can’t fault the title for that assumption. While the title is “The Life of Akechi Mitsuhide”, it really only covers his time with Nobunaga. The two men are compared as the sun and the moon, hence the title. Nobunage is fiery and direct with his ambitions. Mitsuhide is more subtle, using Asakura, Ashikaga and even Nobunaga to see his ambitions. It’s here that the story seems to drift into the realm of speculation. Kusumoto portrays Mitsuhide as a man looking for someone to bring peace to Japan, and he believes Nobunaga is that man. But the more Nobunaga expands, the more he is shown to be someone who enjoys the killing. Mitsuhide calls him the “God of Death” at one point in the story. It’s at this point that Mitsuhide starts to have his doubts about Nobunaga bringing peace, but what tips him over into betrayal is when Nobunaga gives his castle, Sakamoto to another retainer. There is a definite disconnect between what Mitsuhide expected from Nobunaga and visa versa.

The art is very well done. All the men, and it is all men shown in volume, are bishonen. Nobunaga has a devilish look to him with his wispy mustache and goatee and piercing eyes. Mitsuhide is much more the hero-type, with the long hair and rounder, more reflective eyes. I must admit, all the pretty boys is one of the reasons I chose to check this title out.

King’s Moon is an interesting title if you’re a history buff like me. It gives a quick run through of the Nobunaga years leading up to the beginning of the Tokugawa period. It is all military victories and defeats broken up by bits of personal reflection. For the historical information, this title was great. As entertainment, not so much. There was drama, mostly with Mitsuhide, as he struggles with his choices and following Nobunaga, and the chapters had some nice closing, but overall it was too dry to really be called intense. The history geek in me loved it.

This week I review the digital-only Jmanga title Japan Sinks Volumes 1-4.

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Show Notes:

Japan Sinks: The Novel
Japan Sinks Manga: Anime News Network
Takao Saito
Other Earthquake Manga

• I got the publishing date from the Jmanga credits page which stated 2006, but a search of the web could not provide me with reliable information, so I can’t say for sure when it was originally printed. I just went with what I had at the time.

Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech

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Show Notes:

Kodansha Tumblr
Kodansha Twitter
Anime New Network blurb
13th Boy at Yen Press
13th Boy Volume 1 Review

Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech