Manga Village

The Manga Village reviewers have covered a lot of manga over the years, and Naoki Urasawa and his titles are no different. It is interesting to note which titles are reviewers chose to review for the site. You’ll notice a lot of 20th Century Boys and Pluto, and a strange absence of this first big title here in the US, Monster. It could just be a case of choosing the new and shiny over an older series. Let’s take a look at what our reviewers have said about Urasawa’s titles over the last 5 years. Charles Tan was one of the founding reviewers for the site. While some of his reviews have been lost over site moves, some of his feelings could still be dug up. He summed up Volume 1 of 20th Century Boys as: Complex and intricate but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Has the same vibe as Old Boy and Monster. For the 1st volume of Pluto he said: Revitalizing Astro Boy for an adult audience. Not all of his reviews were lost. In his review of Volume 2 of Pluto he tackled the sci-fi elements of the series: There’s an old school science fiction flavor…

Another year has wrapped up, and it’s time for the Manga Villagers to take a look back at all the manga that came out in 2012 and weed out the good, the bad, and the meh.

The Manga Movable Feast for this month is talking about the manga we’re thankful for, the people who got until reading manga, those guilty pleasures we read and enjoy despite knowing better, and the companies that feed our soul. So, here are the Manga Villagers with what manga they are thankful for.

San Diego Comic Con; the mecca of geek culture, where fans gather to find out about their favorite TV, movies and comics coming out in the next year. Manga publishers like to come as well, making licensing and other announcements. Viz Media, Yen Press, Kodansha, Vertical, and Jmanga were all there this year, appearing in panels and having space on the exhibitor floor. Of everything announced this year, here are the ones the Manga Villages found most exciting! Amy: On the digital front I’m excited that JManga will be getting Setona Mizushiro’s Dousei Ai later this month. As a fan of After School Nightmare I’ve been hoping for more of Mizushiro’s works to be released in English. But the digital release that perked my interest the most out of SDCC announcements was Viz adding Blue Exorcist to their Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. I’ve been on the virtual fence of trying out Shonen Jump Alpha this may be to tempting for me not to bite. The only disappointment for me is series like Reborn! and Gintama not getting a digital release, yet. Lori: I was thrilled by JManga’s announcements too! Not just an android app, but one for both phones and…

While we here at Manga Village do enjoy Takehiko Inoue, it seems his shonen title Slam Dunk has been our favorite. Starting with volume 1, Katherine Farmar had reservations at first, but had this to say about it: Slam Dunk pokes fun at Hanamichi relentlessly, but it is at its core a solid and very well-done example of the genre rather than a subversion of it. Hanamichi’s error is not in reaching for the top but in expecting to get there without working for it Justin Colussy-Estes read volume 4, and though he thought he didn’t like it at first, another reading and some thought brought him to this conclusion: But in Slam Dunk, Inoue turns that on its head: he puts manga in a basketball context. Understand this, Inoue isn’t interested in telling the same stories found in every shonen manga for the last thirty years. No, he’s interested in basketball Matthew Rozier is in agreement with Justin after reading volume 5, when he says it’s basketball that really sells the series, and the art really helps it: Despite being still images, they exude such a sense of vivacity that it almost feels like being at an actual game….

With 2011 in the rear view mirror, the Villagers look back at some of the titles, publishers and events that made the past year good (or bad). What was your favorite new title(s) of the year? Connie: There are a lot of different titles, so picking, say, Lychee Light Club over Sakura Hime is tough, since I like them both, but one ran in Ribon (for little girls) and the other in Manga Erotics F.  Lychee Light Club was probably my favorite one-shot this year, a great and very shocking book full of violence and objectionable content, but with amazing art and a manic, intense plot.  Sakura Hime was probably my favorite general audience title, if general audience can mean people who read magical girl series.  I’m a fan of Arina Tanemura, and while I’m not an instant convert on all her books, Sakura Hime was quite good, and I’m enjoying the setting and mythological ties so far. But my favorite title this year was probably Wandering Son.  I have a hard time talking about Wandering Son, because I feel anything I say won’t do the story enough justice.  It’s simply a nice, quiet book about pre-teen classmates exploring their…

The genre of horror isn’t as easy to pin down like sci-fi, fantasy or romance. It doesn’t have to be in a certain time or place, or have certain characters to work. Horror is an emotion. The creator of a horror story is trying to elicit specific feelings from the reader, mostly feelings of fear and/or dread. Horror manga is no different. For the Horror Manga Movable Feast, the Villagers will be looking at the elements of horror manga, and talking about what they think works, or doesn’t work, in many of the titles available. John: What I love about horror manga is what I love about manga in general: the ability to know no bounds. Great horror manga has to be rooted in reality, but then stretch itself to the edges of believable be truly scary. A couple of favorites that do this darn near perfectly are The Drifting Classroom and Uzumaki. The Drifting Classroom is set in a graspable reality (a typical elementary school) that is teleported suddenly to a barren, hellish netherworld. Uzumaki is set in a small town in Japan that is infected by a plague of spirals. On paper neither sounds particularly compelling, but in…

While we here at Manga Village love all the new manga coming out each week, there’s over 20 years of manga releases that we love and want to recommend too! So, in each column, we will look at a genre, or creator, or even publisher to come up with the best titles that we want to recommend to you! This Month: School Manga! September is traditionally the time kids go back to school, so this month we’re looking at titles that take place mainly at school. School is a big part of life and is often used promptly in teen manga titles. So here’s our some of our favorite manga that takes place at school! Alex Hoffman: There are a veritable ton of manga series that are set around a school – more shojo series than shonen, I would think, but there are quite a few of my favorite shojo series set in a school – Monkey High!, Kimi ni Todoke, and Otomen, just to name a few. If you are looking for specialized schools, well, there are plenty of those too! Mixed Vegetables is set in a cooking school, and Twin Spica is set at a school for astronauts….

Fumi Yoshinaga was first introduced to US audiences through her BL titles. But this versatile writer has also created stories for young adults and adult audiences that both men and women can enjoy. She is also the featured creator of this month’s Manga Movable Feast. So here are the Villagers talking up their favorite Yoshinaga titles.

Fumi Yoshinaga is a creator that often has her works recommended as essential reading material  Here at Manga Village we’re not much different! Nearly every reviewer has had something to say about her titles. Some have had a LOT to say.