Archive for the English Manga Category


MMF: Yotsuba&! the American Audience

September 1st, 2010

Yotsuba&!, Vol. 1When it comes to reviewing manga in English, I appear to be an anomaly. I read more manga in Japanese than in English and many of the series I most enjoy, I read as they are serialized in the magazines. I prefer to read my materials untranslated, even (especially) if it means it will take me three months to read a novel, instead of two days.

As a result, I have a hard time seeing past a series’ origin. I know the audience for which the series was originally intended, and I find it awkward to pretend that that does not affect the story.

Yotsuba&! was, as many other people have pointed out, a series that was serialized in Dengeki Daioh magazine. Unlike those many people, I actually read Dengeki Daioh for many years and now still read it from time to time. Which is why I cannot pretend that Yotsuba&! is a book for children. Dengeki Daioh is/was also the home to such heart-warming stories about adult men and the pre-pubescent girls they love as Blood Alone and Gunslinger Girl. Call it shounen or seinen, this is a magazine for otaku men, who think that LovePlus (or a soda can) is a viable alternative to a relationship with a real human and who like to imagine themselves with a little girl sitting on their lap. And look at her underwear from time to time.

It’s also been noted by many people that when manga comes to America, most of the gender/age lines blur or completely fade. Stories targeted to the college age set in Japan are inexplicably targeted to young teens here, then censored for being inappropriate. Stories for children, because of the obsession with underwear and nudity one encounters as part of the “humor”in manga, and because of the Puritanism of America, all of a sudden find themselves with Mature Content warnings.

So when it was announced that this month’s Manga Moveable Feast was being hosted by the Good Comics For Kids crowd, my head exploded. I do not, no matter what the good people of Yen Press and other manga bloggers say, consider Yotsuba&! a “Good Comic for Kids.” I get why people can say that. Yotsuba is a delightful child. The comic is light-hearted, it has characters of all ages and personalities, so there is likely to be *someone* any age group can identify with. It’s a fun story; you can see young Dads of young children laughing and smiling, think of their own kids when Yotsuba does something wacky. Mom next door represents Moms wondering what the neighbor’s kid is thinking. Asagi, Fuka, Ena, Yanda and Jumbo all provide masks for ourselves, whoever ourselves may be, so that we can smile and watch Yotsuba and laugh with her…or at her, whichever makes us happiest.

I love Yotsuba&!. I love it in Japanese and love it in English and hope everyone reads it. It’s something a kid *could* read, especially with an adult to share the amusement.  But I can’t call it “for kids,” because it’s not. Tora Dora! is not “for kids,” neither is To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, and this isn’t, anymore than Akikan was.

Manga reviewers have taken the girl from the farm and want to pretend that, while she’s standing on 42nd street looking at her options, none of them are less than savory. That’s cool. More power to them. I’ll stick to knowing who is reading it in Japan, and why. And that’s cool too.





Lucky Star Manga, Volume 5 (English)

August 31st, 2010

Lucky Star, Vol. 5 has something I’ve never seen before in the Lucky Star franchise…Yuri.

In the main, the formula remains the same; Konata is an otaku, and she is surrounded by an increasing number of characters who are identified by their hair in combination with their fetishes/gags. This is definitely not high art….

I’m finding, though, that the now strangely large cast (strange, because so few of them were actually introduced to us, but somehow just showed up in the story and we were supposed to know who they were or, if we didn’t, the interstitial character profiles were all we had to identify them by) actually works for me. With so many characters, the one- or two-joke per person works better with what is quickly approaching infinite possible combinations. It took a village to raise Lucky Star.

The first snatch of Yuri is, not surprisingly at all, in Hiyori’s head. (There’s an allegory in there, I’m sure of it!) Someone mentions Konata kissing Miyuki and it’s all fan delusion from there on. I really like Hiyori, because she’s very self-aware. She knows just how dangerous mentioning something like this to her is. ^_^

The next shot of Yuri comes from two of the teachers – the one who looks just so cute and little you can’t really believe she’s an adult and the school doctor. … Gee when I say it that way, it seem so fetishy and pandering, huh?

And lastly…wait. You know how a martini is made? You know how some people joke that the vermouth is pretty much waved over the cocktail? That’s kind of the way the final bit of Yuri is – we see Minami and Tsukasa standing next to one another and each thinks warm and fuzzy thoughts about the other. We whisper the word “Yuri” over the panels and lo and behold! a Yuri Manga is born.

Ratings:

Art – Color helps a little…
Story – Realistically dull slices of life
Characters – Color helps a little…
Yuri – Here and there
Service – If LovePlus seems like a perfectly acceptable replacement for a relationship with a human, then yes, an LF is you

Overall – 7

A mysterious, unnamed Okazu Hero sponsored today’s review! If you’d be so kind as to tell me who you are, I can credit and thank you properly!





Silent Mobius Manga, Volume 2 (English)

July 27th, 2010

Silent Mobius: Complete Edition Volume 2There will be no Yuri here today. I’m sorry…I wish there was. (Hoo boy do I wish there was…) but there isn’t.

What there is today is a group of women known as the AMP – women who kick ass, each in their own way; women who have been gathered together for the express purpose of kicking the ass out of otherworldly creatures known as the Lucifer Hawk.

In time honored tradition, in Volume 2 of Silent Mobius, we’re resolving backstory issues we didn’t know the characters had, because otherwise we might not care about them enough going forward. In Volume 1 we established Nami’s onmyoudo cred, which allows us to accept her place among the AMP. In the second back/current story, we get the exact opposite. Kiddy Phenil is the most visibly strong character. In her backstory resolution, we learn about her softer, more human side – even as we learn the truth behind her strength.

Then, finally, we turn our attention towards the protagonist of the series – Katsumi Liquer. The breadcrumbs of story that are dropped here in Volume 2 will lead us further and further along the trail in search of the story behind the story. We are introduced to Katsumi’s heirloom, the sword Grospeliner – a sapient weapon with a pretty silly sense of humor. Reading Grospeliner snarking at Katsumi I realized that I am inordinately fond of sapient/sentient weaponry. ^_^

But it’s a quick swipe at Katsumi’s story and we’re on to Yuki. Yuki, our youngest character (and who would be drawn today to look 4 years old, no doubt) is quite possible the most problematic character for the reading audience. She seems so weak, so sweet, so entirely out of place. And right away, her arc deals with her feelings about that very thing. Her story won’t be resolved until next volume, but do we really have any doubt that hyper-competent Rally Cheyenne would choose a weakling for her team?

Which bring us to the always fascinating Rally. For a second time we see that her power is greater than a mid-level Lucifer Hawk. I can’t speak for anyone else, but the panel of Rally standing in front of her team, not even a hair out of place after that Lucifer Hawk attack is still one of my favorite images of the series.

Udon has provided a nicely reproduced edition, with color art in the beginning (but not that undercover art I longed for.) The translation is once again excellent until those rare moments when it jars. In this case, the jarring was caused entirely by personal preference, so I don’t hold it against them.

As I said, there is no Yuri. Katsumi has Roy and Kiddy gets Ralph and they are exceedingly cute at one another. But the AMP is indubitably a team of strong, competent women fighting at the peak of their unique skills against a grotesque, yet oddly elegant, enemy.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 0

It’s definitely worth revisiting this series. It still holds together as a great action-occult-scifi masterpiece – with adult women who talk to each other about something other than romance.





Azumanga Daioh Omnibus (English – Yen Press Edition)

July 21st, 2010

It was only a few weeks ago that I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing ADV’s Azumanga Daioh Omnibus. Today, I have the pleasure of reviewing the Azumanga Daioh Omnibus by Yen Press! Reading this same collection twice in a short period of time has given me a completely different perspective on it.

Let’s take a few steps back before we start. Reading the ADV edition made me realize how far we’ve come with translation – and how far Azuma has come as an artist. The cleaned up art in this edition removes an obstacle to enjoyment. As a result, the story seems less rough this time around.

In this edition, Yen didn’t hesitate for a second – honorifics are in place, names remain unchanged. And you know what? It’s *still* not perfect! ^_^ I’ll get into why that is, in a moment.

Let’s first talk about the story itself. Like Azuma’s current hit, Yotsuba&!, Azumanga Daioh ran in Dengeki Daioh, a magazine for adult men. I mention that because as one reads this story of a group of girls moving through high school, it’s hard to avoid some really obvious issues that, when thought about a shade too long, make one feel creeped out. Chapters begin with alternating pictures of the main cast, some of them of a “pinup” sensibility. And there’s a character who represents the readership – an adult male who obsesses about young women inappropriately and who has no mental filter, so does not hesitate to say what he is thinking. This character, we are later told, is a nice man, but it’s hard to reconcile ourselves to that – unless you’re him. Which the original audience was. Nice guys – who just *happen* to be inappropriately obsessed with young girls = the original audience of Azumanga Daioh. I mention this in case you are not this audience and are reading this book thinking “who thinks this is funny?” The Kimura-senseis who were reading it, that’s who. ^_^;

Aside from this persistent creepiness, the story is pretty realistic. This group has a number of extreme characters, but Japanese comedy is largely made up of extremes. A good (legal, free!) example of this is the live-action Moyashimon, in which screaming and flailing make up a large part of the “comedy” every episode.)

Other people have noted that this is really the story of Chiyo-chan and the girls she befriends. Chiyo-chan is a genius at 10, and has been skipped up to high school. During her three years she meets and becomes friends with the rest of the cast, does school festivals and school trip and field days and other normal activities. Because she is an outsider, it makes sense that most of the people she gathers around her are also outsiders – quiet, serious Sakaki-san, loopy Osaka, hyper Tomo and her childhood friend, Yomi. So these normal, everyday activities are seen through the eyes of not-normal people and thus turned into comedy.

I said at the beginning that despite the skill of the translation it still wasn’t perfect. Here’s why. As you fix the really big things, it becomes easier for us to see the small things. ^_^ So, yes, we have honorifics and names and you did your best with the puns, but now we can see things like the problem with Osaka’s accent.

The problem with Osaka’s accent:

Osaka is a big city, with a lot of businesses and is well-known for being a “foodie” town. It’s not the political capital of Japan – it’s considered the business/finance capital of Japan. The people there speak very fast and very loud and are seen as being really wacky and money obsessed. If anything, Osaka sounds more like New York than anywhere else, IMHO. (And having been there for a total of like 2 hours, I’m obviously an expert. ^_^) I’d say that isn’t far off. I liked Osaka a great deal and I want to get back. So, the joke is that Ayumu, who comes from this crazy, energetic, loud, wacky, busy city is kinda loopy and slow and not at all like “an Osakan.” Got that?

When they brought Ayumu over to America, they translated the *wrong part of the joke.* Yes, Ayumu is slow and laconic. But her accent isn’t. The joke is not that she’s slow and loopy – it’s that she’s from *Osaka* and is slow and loopy. Imagine you’re a kid in Iowa and the teacher says, “Hey, we have a transfer student from New York City” and everyone panics because they’ll be CRAZY and probably pack heat and deal drugs and graffiti and gangs and OMG!!!! And then they walk in and they are like, “Hi….my…name…is….Terry.” and they sort of wander off in the middle of their sentence. That’s Osaka.

By giving Osaka a Southern accent Yen has blown that joke completely to hell, thanks. But, hey, we’re all still working on this translation thing, so I give them credit for trying. Just – get a comedian on staff, okay? You’re obviously all too literal. ^_^

Other than that one thing – I have no complaints at all. This book looks and feels good. It made me laugh and got me a little sniffly at the end, like it was supposed to. It has the one of two cats I can stand in manga (The cat in What’s Michael? is the other) and I still grin and say “heh” in my head upon breaking chopsticks evenly.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 4

Overall – 9

My sincere thanks to Yen Press for supplying this copy (and a copy of Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime, which I am now reading and really, really enjoying to my utter shock! I may manufacture a reason to review it, just because it is really original so far.)

And FYI – this books *totally* passes the Bechdel Test.

It’s a funny book, the new edition is solid and despite my little discussion of the accent issue, it’s still a very excellent read. I’ll be donating this copy to the AnimeNEXT traveling Manga Library, so if you can’t buy it or get it at a library near you, look for it at an anime show in your neighborhood! If your library has a Graphic Novel section, why not buy this read it and donate it? It’s a great book to share with others. Then they’ll laugh when they break chopsticks evenly, too.





Lucky Star Manga, Volume 4 (English)

July 8th, 2010

Lucky Star Manga, Volume 4 has what I consider to be the first glimpse of anything Yuri-like so far in the series. And it comes, not at all surprisingly, in the form of one of the resident otaku making it up in her head. I respect that. ^_^

It’s well established that the Lucky Star franchise is a series of self-referential gags and in-jokes for the folks who read Comtiq, CompAce, Mobile Newtype and who stroll the aisles of Gamers in Akihabara. This series is very much an “us and them” series, with “us” being Konata, her father, her teacher and Hiyori. Everyone else is there to provide straight lines, fantasy fodder and someone to whom we can ‘splain our rituals and behaviors. (You know about ‘splaining, right? It’s short for mansplaining but I see it in every “us/them” group and women are as likely to do it in their areas as men are. It’s that thing, when you say something like, “Oh I just bought a computer with a OCZ SATA SSD drive” and some 20-year old guy says something like, “well, you know, you have to be careful about the kind of computer you choose. Get a Mac, it’s safe from viruses.” And you think – or if you’re me, you say – “come closer, I need to slap you.” ^_^)

Konata ‘splains stuff to everyone who stands still for it in Volume 4. Why “we” buy multiples of certain books. Why “we” wait on line for rare items or signatures, why “we” do any of the things “we” do.

But, to be honest, I have long ago tired of Konata. In the same way that I cannot have a long, fruitful conversation with people I know who are obsessive about one thing, because they have no real interests outside that one thing, Konata is kind of boring. Kagami barely shows up in the manga at all, although when she does, the author helpfully reminds you *again* that she is tsundere, despite that fact that we have never really seen her dere-dere about anything. But we’re good little fans – the author says so, and it fits our delusions.

As I said, I am long past watching them at all. They are one-trick ponies and we’ve seen the trick already. So, in Volume 4, we take our perspective and wander off with it to another otaku-eye view. Hiyori, our resident doujinshi artist provides most of the fodder for this volume. The cover is a nice visual nutshell of the Yuri in Hiyori’s (and Konata’s, apparently,) head. And she even has the decency to wonder how much of it she’s making up. But, being good little fans, now that the author has seeded the idea, I have no doubt that most readers see Yutaka and Minami as a couple. (Hiyori pairs just about everyone up, another highly realistic fan behavior.)

Now that the translation is in the eminently able hands of Bill Flanagan, the humor – where it actually exists – is less difficult to grasp. I still take issue with the editing of the book; it’s clearly phoned in and seems even more so, now that the translation is so good. Mr. Editor – please do your job. Thanks. Love, The readers.

In all honestly, I wish the series had started with Volume 4. By pushing Konata and Kagami back and bring up everyone else all at once, the cast seems much more lively and the gags much less moribund.

If I were to wish this series upon someone, I’d definitely start with this volume.

Ratings:

Art – It is what it is
Story – In small chunks, gag comics can be fun
Characters – I far prefer Hiyori’s delusions to Konata’s
Yuri – Same as above
Service – 10, but not in a salacious manner. It’s just a book for “us” and only “us.”

Overall – 7

Sincere and great thanks to Okazu Hero Albert L. for his sponsorship of today’s review! Albert – please email me to receive your Okazu Hero badge!

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