Life is always about patterns. In the pharmacy world, we look at physician prescribing patterns, dispensing patterns by geographical location, and pricing patterns based on trending legal proceedings. In manga, we see patterns in various genres – the shonen fighting manga, the shojo school-girl manga, all have similar formats that we know sell well, and work well in the Japanese market. Some series attempt to subvert or modify these patterns, which is part of their appeal (or the reason we don’t like them). Even authors follow patterns based on what they are interested in, or what they like to discuss. By Naoki Urasawa Publisher: Viz Media – Viz Signature Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Thriller Price: $12.99 Naoki Urasawa has a pattern that manifests itself all too frequently in his suspense and thriller manga – when he gets stuck, or doesn’t know how to work his way out of a problem that he has written himself in, he introduces new characters to his stories. In 20th Century Boys, Volume 7, we see Urasawa flounder to produce a back story for the Bloody New Years, and so he introduces a student Koizumi who looks too closely at the history books, and…
When it comes to Fumi Yoshinaga, I’m fairly used to excellent manga. You could make a convincing argument that Ooku: the Hidden Chambers is one of the best titles, if not the best title in Viz Media’s Sig IKKI line (I might argue that Children of the Sea is better, but I digress). Likewise All My Darling Daughters and Antique Bakery offer a lot of great stories from one of the best mangaka currently in print in English. By: Fumi Yoshinaga Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Food Price: $10.99 Yoshinaga is also one of the few writers that is licensed by multiple publishers here in the US. Digital Manga Publishing was the first to pick up her work, while Viz followed shortly behind. Now, Yen Press has joined the crowd to bring us a one-shot volume of foodie manga titled Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy. Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy is part autobiography, part restaurant review.The main character, Y-naga (yes, really) is a mangaka who draws BL comics, and spends almost all the time she isn’t sleeping or working out eating food with friends. Her fellow mangaka, foodie friends, assistants, and previous roommates all…
While I can’t say that I have a love-hate relationship with shonen manga, I do tend to be a bit critical of it at times. In some instances (Fullmetal Alchemist, One Piece, and Cat Paradise come to mind) the genre can be breath-taking, hilarious, awesome, and heart-rending. I think this has a lot more to do with developing a great set of characters, and essentially allowing them to interact in natural ways. It doesn’t matter if the characters are shamans, alchemists, pirates, demon-fighters, or bakers – if the author can give me awesome characters, I’ll generally love the book. The plot has to go somewhere, but good characters are what make the best manga. The same is true for the opposite side of the coin. Books that have poorly developed characters get left at the bookstore, even if the setting and art are awesome. This seems to be the trend for some of the latest shonen offerings from a variety of publishers. Case in point? Nabari no Ou. By Yuhki Kamatani Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Action Price: $10.99 Nabari no Ou introduces us to Miharu, a young boy who has been born with the power…
I guess this shows my age, but I’m one of those kids that was part of the original Power Rangers generation. When I was little, I would wake up early to watch Power Rangers, chomping at a bowl of Cheerios and waiting to see what kind of cool, gigantic monster the Power Rangers would have to fight. I’m sure that this formative education is why I enjoy the mediocre Rosario + Vampire; I can’t get enough of the baddies Tsukune and his harem fight every week. By Mohiro Kitoh Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Drama/Mecha Price: $12.95 The giant robots genre is a staple in both Japanese and American pop culture. Voltron, the Autobots, and Power Rangers litter the kid’s television landscape. Most of these shows, with a few notable exceptions, are sugar sweet, sappy tales that don’t really challenge the viewer in an emotional fashion – and why should they? These shows are media intended to be consumed by kids around the age of 5. Some writers have challenged the status quo of the genre, but none have done it quite as effectively as Mohiro Kito, a writer with a knack for subverting seemingly incorruptible subject…
I’ll start by throwing this out there: I was a compulsive World of Warcraft player for a solid six months of my life in college. Eventually, despite having a blast playing with my friends, I quit the game, permanently deleted my character, and haven’t looked back since. Written by Richard A. Knapp; Illustrated by Jae-Hwan Kim Publisher: Tokyopop Age Rating: 13+ Genre: Fantasy Price: $12.99 I have a fairly good grasp of the WoW mythology up until the first expansion pack, which allowed players to travel through a portal to reach the realm of Outland. That’s where Shadow Wing picks up and instantly crushes the reader with page after page of narration explaining why the portal is significant and why the inhabitants of Azeroth are crossing over. This could have been a great hook, if not for two setbacks. First and foremost is the hideous, eye-straining font that the narration is printed in. It made me cringe every time it popped up in the story and it appears in nearly every panel for the entire first chapter. The second issue is that it spends a ton of time building the back-stories of the characters, which are both clearly established on…
Global warming, animal rights, organic foods, military conflict, school funding, balanced national budgets, urban development; all of these buzz word topics cause a lot of discussion and argument in political circles. I imagine that many others, like me, have said, “What would I do differently if I were in charge and could make decisions?” It’s a daydream that I visit constantly. The struggle for power is one that dominates people’s lives and fills their imaginations. As Tears for Fears so eloquently puts it, “Everybody wants to rule the world.” By Megumi Osuga Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen+ Genre: Mystery/Drama Price: $9.99 But what would you do to rule the world? What is right and wrong, and what sacrifices will you have to make to ensure your vision reaches completion? That question is the central theme that runs between the covers of Viz Media’s latest Shonen Sunday book, Maoh: Juvenile Remix. Longtime residents of Nekota City are troubled by rapid modernization. It threatens old ways, promises to destroy current businesses. Progress is correlated with corruption. Up until now, though, no one has stood against the strip-mall building, profits-checking businessmen who threaten to destroy the traditional Nekota City way of life….
There are some comics that defy example and expectation. Take for example, Chew, an American book written by John Layman with art by Rob Guillory. It has a fairly simple premise, but it manages to be a book of suspense, mystery, action, and sometimes a bit of horror. And it’s freaking hilarious. All these different traits make it a great comic book, but don’t necessarily make it easy to classify. In some sense, that’s the same way Sumomomo Momomo is, except, that where Chew manages to mix these ingredients up into a great comic, the result from Sumomomo Momomo is a bit more schizophrenic and pervy in its final presentation. By: Shinobu Ohtaka Publisher: Yen Press Age Rating: Older Teen Genre: Action/Comedy Price: $10.99 Sumomomo Momomo follows the lives of Koushi Inuzuka and Momoko Kuzuryuu, two children of the greatest martial artists in Japan, and heirs to martial arts techniques of great power. Momoko’s father, fearing her to be too weak to continue the bloodline of the Kuzuryuu clan, decrees that she should be married to the son of the Inuzuka clan. Koushi, unfortunately, is no martial arts fanatic. Having given up the ways of the fist, Koushi attempts to lead a “normal” life by…
It’s hard to not expect great things from Rumiko Takahashi. Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha are some of the most well-known manga series around, and her fame for these series doesn’t even touch how awesome some of her more romantically inclined work like One Pound Gospel, Mermaid Saga or more importantly, Maison Ikkoku is. So, when things weren’t automatically awesome in the first volume of Rin-Ne, I get a little fidgety. You might call it prejudice, or InuYasha syndrome, or whatever, but while Rin-Ne was interesting in the first volume, it didn’t sparkle like other Takahashi manga.
It’s been a bitter few weeks in the manga industry here in the USA. CMX and GoComi! were closed up, and Viz laid off 40% of its workforce. It’s a tough economy, and while some of this is definitely expected, it hits sort of hard. Likewise, Itazura na Kiss is something of a bittersweet story. DMP managed to get the rights to it and start publishing it after news of the author’s death was delivered to American fans. The series, at 23 volumes, is currently unfinished. Kaoru Tada had an unfortunate accident while moving in 1999, and died shortly after of cerebral hemorrhage. I use the phrase bittersweet because, while the series is unfinished and the author died at a young age, DMP is giving us the rare opportunity to experience this classic manga. I’m ready for my clouds to have some silver linings. By Kaoru Tada Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing Age Rating: Teen Genre: Romance Comdey Price: $16.95 Kotoko, the sweet, kinda dumb, and klutzy lead girl of Itazura na Kiss, starts out our series by confessing her feelings to the brilliant and icy Naoki, and after being roundly rejected by him in the first few pages, and I’m…
Getting a book in the mail that you didn’t order or didn’t think you wanted to have can end up being a mini-Christmas. I love Christmas. That is why, when Daniella Orihuela-Gruber threw out the idea of having a manga exchange, sort of like a pen-pal arrangement, I jumped right on it. Having someone decide what you’re getting is a thrilling experience. I sent Ed Sizemore the first volume of Aishiteruze Baby, and received the One Piece vol. 1-3 omnibus from Jammer of Jammer’s Animovie Blog. By Eiichiro Oda Publisher: Viz Media Age Rating: Teen Genre: Action Price: $14.99 I’ve heard stories about One Piece. I’ve seen the rave reviews. I’ve read how some of my favorite manga bloggers are in love with the book. Yet, up until Jammer sent me the first three volumes of the series, I had never thought of picking it up, or even borrowing it from the local library. Where One Piece should be a part of my “manga awareness,” instead there was a blank spot. With Jammer’s help and Daniella’s guidance, I’m getting a chance to finally see what the hype is about. One Piece starts by introducing the main character, a one Monkey…