Archive for the English Manga Category


Yuri Manga: Read or Dream, Volume 3 (English)

March 19th, 2007

The fantastic and wacky happenings in Read or Dream, Volume 3 have not been altered from when I originally reviewed the Japanese edition, so please click that link for an overview of plot, character, and random references to Betty Davis…and now that I look at it, Kojak, as well. ^_^

So, as the story hasn’t changed, let’s focus on the reproduction to English. In this and this alone, the volume takes a pretty bad hit. The original has a dust jacket, underneath which is a short story on the cover of the book proper. As there is no dust jacket in this version, that story is reproduced in the book in black and white. Not deadly, but…the lack of color pages means, no cool Paper Sisters mini-poster page, which I very much like, and more importantly, the lovely color reproductions of the novel covers are turned into a totally skanky black and white page which is hard to see. It sort of killed the joke, too. I liked it better when we were allowed to make the connection ourselves between those shockingly shoujo novel covers and the ROD The TV anime series.

Let me try to explain why I feel so strongly about what is, in reality, one stupid color page.

In the anime, the one single thing that fills the entirely of the first 13 episodes is that Yomiko is NOT there. Her absence is a constant presence, if you will.

In the manga, in *this* volume particularly, there is also a person whose non-existence sort of fills up the empty spaces. That person is famous author Sumiregawa Nenene. In this volume, the fact that the beginning of the anime is reproduced almost exactly, but that the author is NOT Nenene pretty much shapes the whole story – and the story to come in the next volume.

So the color page with those novels by Nishizono Haruhi instantly brings to mind the fact that she was the author that debuted right after Nenene, won the same award as Nenene, and constantly pops up in the anime to be a thorn in Nenene’s grumpy side. Those covers also bring up memories of Haruhi’s irritating little sister pimping her sister’s books in Anita and Hisa’s class. In other words, those novel covers are memory markers. They provide a link to key moments and people in the anime. And those novel covers are reproduced in the *beginning* of this volume of manga, where they can ping those memories before you even start reading what will turn out to be a cool alternate universe reading of those very same situations and characters.

In the English edition, those novels are reduced to a comment that these are some novel covers drawn for the anime by the artist for this manga and placed in the back of the book. Thus losing every bit of tension, of anticipation, of memory that they stimulated.

I am just about 100% sure that no one but me cares, but I really think Viz blew it on that. That color page may not have been intended to be the stimulant it was…but I like to think that Japanese artists, writers and publishers *are* that intelligent. Sadly, Viz was not. Boo on them.

Ratings:
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Art – 8
Yuri – 4
Service – 7 (lots of ass shots…what’s with *that*? Maggie in a suit.)

Overall – 7 (one point off the original score for Viz missing a great opportunity to up the quality of their reproduction and get the point of that page.)

This and Volume 4 make great reading. I really enjoyed the direction the story takes here, and I don’t think it gets weaker in the next volume. Another enjoyable afternoon read.





Yuri Manga: Read or Dream, Volume 2 (English)

February 27th, 2007

I originally reviewed the Japanese edition of Read or Dream, Volume 2 in 2004 and found it, like all of the Read or Dream series, amusing, but not deep. This is rather meaningful, because the TV series had been so very deep, and the manga will, in future volumes, head in that direction as well.

But in the meantime, this volume remains fun, slightly silly, comedy action fare with a little dash of romance.

The stories are, of course, the same as they were in the Japanese volume, so none of my comments on those are any different. Please read the 2004 review (linked above) if you want a synopsis of the stories.

The reproduction quality is quite high, sans the color mini-poster included with the Japanese volume. The honorifics have not been added in, as I had hoped they might be, since the current trend in translated manga seems to be more on the side of keeping them.

Like the ROD The TV Anime, the heroine is Anita, a character who annoys me a lot less now than she did at the very beginning of both anime and manga. Since the character has not changed, it must be me. ^_^

Ratings:

Story – 8
Characters – 8
Art – 8
Yuri – 4

Overall – 8

For overall goofy fun, this is not the best of the Read or Dream/ROD series, but it’s still an afternoon’s solid entertainment.





Yuri Manga: Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 1 (English)

January 12th, 2007

I came to a conclusion today about yuri stories being “good” or “bad.” I was listening to the third Strawberry Panic Drama CD and I realized that, if Chikaru were a guy, most people would find him creepy and – in that particular scene – disgusting. And it dawned on me that that sort of defines what makes a story “good” or “bad”. If for instance, Chikane from Kannazuki no Miko had been a male character, would anyone *ever* attempt a rationalization of his behavior, much less openly declare it to be sexy? I think not.

So, going forward, when I comment that a series is “not good” you can take that to mean that, among other things, I think that if the characters were a hetero, rather than lesbian, couple the story would be boring, trite and/or vile. It’s a simpler criteria than trying to explain good writing all the time.

Ironically, none of that really applies to today’s review, as the character starts off as a boy. ^_^ I reviewed Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl, Volume 1 in Japanese back in May 2005. Because the story has not changed at all, I will not be re-reviewing the story itself. If you are not sure whether you want to read the story, by all means, please visit that first review. I rated the Volume an overall 7, if that helps.

What I do want to talk about today is the quality of the transition into English of this story. Which is, let me be honest, very, very good.

If you are a regular reader of Okazu, you know that I am constantly disappointed in English adaptations of manga and anime that remove honorifics and cultural references.

Based on that alone, it’s fair to say that this volume of Kashimashi may well be the single best adaptation of a manga into English that I have ever seen.

Every honorific – even the silly ones…especially the silly ones – are preserved. Notes are added that make sense of the puns and cultural relics, and the reading audience is assumed to have several functioning brain cells. It was the proverbial breath of fresh air to me, let me tell you. Overall, this may well be one of the best translation/adaptations I’ve ever seen. It was a seamless reading experience for this reader of the original version – my highest compliment for a translation.

The print quality is good, and although it did not bother me in any way, you should know that the sound effects are left completely untranslated. As I’ve mentioned many times, I don’t read s/fx, indeed I hardly notice them for myself (although I pay attention for review purposes.)

The story remains yuri, although with that edge of marginalization that exists in so many current Dengeki yuri series. It retains the service, the goofball plot complications, the sad wretch of a pervtastic father, and the “I’m a girl now, so I have to do abc…” and of course the aliens, that make it hard to judge this book harshly, since it’s so obviously ridiculous.

Still not my favorite example of “Yuri”, Kashimashi (which, btw, also means a loud or rambunctious sound) makes a decent enough entry into the Yuri market – and an exceptional showing for Seven Seas. Keep up the work, guys – and get some GOOD Yuri titles, please! Ask me, and I’ll be glad to offer some suggestions.

Ratings for the story:

Art – 8
Characters – 7
Story – 5
Yuri- 9

Overall – 7

Ratings for the adaptation:

Translation: 9
Print Quality: 8 (not at all easy to do…)

Overall: 9

I’ve never read a manga in English that I didn’t personally publish that felt more like reading the Japanese original. Kudos to Seven Seas.





High School Girls Manga, Volume 7

January 8th, 2007

First of all, thank you very much to everyone who sent their good wishes for our continued health. ^_^ I’m mostly okay, the wife is going to the doctor’s in about an hour.

Secondly, my deepest appreciation and thanks go out to everyone who sent me something from my Wish List. I will absolutely be reviewing everything you sent, but my sincere thanks to you all for your kindness and generosity. (Getting my mail today was a bit like Christmas morning. ^_^)

Now, on to today’s most excellent review, by our most excellent Guest reviewer, Sean Gaffney.

I received High School Girls, Volume 7 yesterday from Dr. Master’s online store, a mere year after Volume 6. HSG has ‘caught up’ with Japan, so I suspect we will start to see it as the traditional twice a year release that most caught up with Japan series get.

Content first: the series continues to be hilarious. There are tons of quotable lines, my favorite at the moment being “Teach me how dumb people study!”. The girls are as themselves as ever, though this volume does emphasize a subtle shift in the focus of the manga that we’ve seen since Volume 4.

When the manga began, Eriko, Yuma and Ayano were the stars, with Kouda, Himeji, and Ogawa as supporting players. The mere fact that the other three are *still* called by their last names emphasizes this. However, after a while it became clear that Kouda needed more air time, and needed to be paired with Eriko more. These were the most consistently funny situations.

So now you have the manga of Volumes 4-present, which stars Eriko and Kouda, with Yuma and Ayano dropping back to supporting. (Himeji and Ogawa have always had much smaller roles in the manga (they’re called ‘second string’), and the anime beefed up their presence a lot.)

In addition, when this shift takes place, the class itself, which had been fairly faceless, begins to get real people. Kouda divides them up into groups (A Girls, Sports, etc.) and they tend to stay there, but they do get personalities, especially the ‘Takarazuka pair’, our canonish lesbian couple. The manga has, to a certain degree, broadened its focus, and it’s made for a much better story.

This volume the stories involve the girls trying to figure out how to attract guys with the help of Yuma’s bitchy younger sister; Eriko suddenly finding it hard to concentrate and thinking that the others have turned her dumb (hands down the funniest story here); Himeji and Ogawa getting a focus story devoted to their friendship; and the school trip.

The trip is what would be called a ‘major arc’; it takes half of this volume and all of the following. Eriko and Kouda are naturally in charge of it, and find that the others have all agreed to hang out with other groups for a change. Himeji with the A-Girls, Ogawa with the Funky-Girls, Yuma with the Sports group, and Ayano with the Freaks. This leaves our heroines rooming with Nao and Sayaka (as Yuma notes, “Make sure you don’t get in their way…”) Eriko, thinking they’re all ‘divorcing’, then begins to freak out as only Eriko can do.

The volume ends with a nightmarish plane ride in which Kouda deals with air sickness and Eriko with her period, in the traditional unsubtle style of this book. The trip itself will be covered in Book 8.

So, I enjoyed the content, now what about the presentation? Well… they’re trying a lot harder, I’ll grant them that. We now have honorifics, complete with a guide at the back. The cover is handsome, and there are color pages at the start. I could do without the mature content label being in a voice bubble on the front cover, but hey. There are some culture notes, which are mostly… inadequate. Takarazuka is not described well at all, and some jokes are simply altered for the English volume, such as Yuma missing being the ‘tsukkomi’ of the group. But yes, it’s much better than Volumes 3-6 were.

There’s 4-komas interspersed throughout, and the end has a character poll that was done in Japan. The poll itself is very interesting, and tells you a lot about the Japanese audience for HSG; Ogawa’s #2 behind Eriko (loli loli loli get your adverbs here…), while Himeji is #11, behind some really minor characters. The art of Himeji sitting at a desk in deep depression is funny and rather touching. :)

The cover art style has changed, as the Japanese publishers redesigned 1-6 and re-released them before doing 7. Dr. Master are unlikely to re-release 1-6, so we just get a major style change. Yuma’s sister Momoko is on the cover.

Lastly, any yuri? There’s pretty much the usual. Nao and Sayaka are as gay as ever without actually saying they’re gay, holding hands on the plane and gazing adoringly at each other. Kouda, as Erica has noted in past reviews, has an unconscious crush on Eriko badly, and the scene where she poses in fairly outrageous bathing costumes for her would be Yuri if it weren’t so dumb.

This is likely hard to find at the moment (it was solicited late from Diamond, and Amazon has it in their ‘1-3 months’ category for shipping). I got it from the publisher’s store. But if you can get it, grab it. It’s the usual funny, vaguely gross, occasionally heartwarming High School Girls antics. Oh, and you get to see Kouda wearing a King Cobra as a bathing suit. And nothing else.

Ratings:

Art: 7. Mostly for the very amusing Kouda costumes.
Story: 8. Very funny, and more focused than before.
Characters: 7. Ditto.
Yuri: 4. Despite an ‘almost canon’ couple, there’s not much in this.
Service: 8. As always, there’s a high sleaze factor balanced with the practical discussions of life as a woman that would drive away many Fanboys. But any manga which has Kouda wearing a strap-on on her forehead will have a high service rating.

Overall: 7.

Once again, thanks so much, Sean! I’ve got so much floating around here, I’m not even sure where to start. (I know, you all feel my pain, I’m sure.) 

I’m back to work tomorrow, and quite possibly overwhelmed, so no promises for reviews, but I’ll do my best. ^_^

 





Yuri Manga: Tori Koro, Volume 2

December 1st, 2006

I am about to say something I have never said before about a fellow translated manga distribution company – DrMaster is really *very* bad at their job.

I’ve read over and over that they’ve “gotten better” but given that they are coming from a place where translations are awful to abysmal, honorifics wander in and out of a book like a bored 13-year old and the reproduction of the pages is so poor that I honestly have no idea what’s going on, I can only imagine that they *have* to get better…because there’s not that much further down to go. Frankly, I’d be ashamed to put something out of this poor technical quality. The color page was so blurry and vague that it would be virtually useless to use it as a character guide, unless you had an idea who the characters were already.

Storywise, Tori Koro, Volume 2 is similar to Volume 1. The story is told in 4-panel comics, full of mind-bogglingly bad puns, Tatami’s weird-ass brain function and a lot of stupid sillyness. It’s not “wackiness,” not hysterical, just silly.

Niwa-chan’s feelings for Yae continue in this book much as they did in the first, with an added degree of desire. She’s wangled a place in the household where she spends a lot of time holding Yae in her arms as they sit around, and few times she slips and says something a tad more explicit than usual. As Yae appears to be blissfully unaware (or she’s perfectly happy with it – whichever reading you prefer,) that leaves Makishi and Tatami to react comically. Nothing in this book is anything other than comic setup, so expect no romance. Niwa’s still gets to hold Yae in her arms, so I’ll call that a win for her. ^_&

I had a good laugh at the rating on Tori Koro, too. They’ve rated it at 13+, which is fine, since there’s very little that can be called objectionable (some teeny-weeny bits of Makishi fanservice, almost as an aside and, of course, Niwa’s professed desire for Yae) but I defy anyone to find a 14-year old who would read three chapters in this manga with any enjoyment. The punch lines are so often based on regional cultural knowledge and bad puns that frankly I cannot imagine the American teenager who could read it with pleasure. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 4 (Weird at best, but because of the bad reproduction often completely incomprehensible here)
Story – 5 (If you like puns)
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 4 (Also mostly lost because of the bad reproduction)

Overall – 6

So, technically this book is the single worst I’ve ever seen, and the story, such as it is, is impenetrable. But I’m still glad it’s available in translation, because impenetrable puns may be bad in English, but every month when I read my Dengeki Daioh I just KNOW I’m missing 70% of what’s going on. ^_^;

(Oh and how ’bout that…*three* translated manga in one week!)